rec.arts.theatre.musicals

"Jon Alan Conrad" wrote in message
news: @ ...
> On Aug 22, 9:11 am, Harlett O'Dowd < ...@ >
> wrote:
>
>> It was always my understanding that Rodgers really loved Overtures but
>> was frequently frustrated by latecomers disturbing the mood he was
>> trying to set. s a result, CAROUSEL started with the pantomome waltz
>> suite and saved the Overture to start the second act. Ditto SoM with
>> it's nun's prelude and nothing instrumental until the Entr'Acte.
>
> Hm. I hadn't heard that about Rodgers in your first sentence. But if
> that's the case, wouldn't latecomers disturb things still more,
> arriving during an unpreluded first scene? I've tended to assume that
> one function of overtures in the Golden Age was to provide time for
> the slightly-late-comers to get seated (what is now accomplished by
> the 8-minutes-late-actual-start that most Broadway shows do). My
> unsubstantiated conclusion was that the CAROUSEL opening was a break
> with procedure, necessitated by the structure of that story, and not
> repeated until SOUND OF MUSIC (by which point, times were changing in
> musicals -- NO STRINGS would have basically no prelude at all).
>
> Incidentally, have you ever heard the CAROUSEL Entr'acte performed? I
> still haven't, many productions of the show as I've seen, and it
> remains unrecorded.
>
>> So, let'ws make sure I fully understand this. What's on the Mauceri CD
>> is the actual "Overture" to the show and what's on the LP is the "play-
>> within-the-play" Overture in Scne 4 or whatever it is in the script?
>
> You got it. That's it exactly.
>
> Don Walker (I'm assuming he's responsible for the routining, maybe I'm
> wrong) differentiated the two by making the overture-within-the-story
> short and rather fragmentary in construction -- the "conductor"
> character played by George S. Irving had to pretend-conduct it in a
> spotlight, and I imagine there was lots of byplay with his signaling
> of transitions, fermatas, etc. By contrast, the top-of-the-whole-show
> overture does full-length versions of the songs, including even the
> Verse before "Keep It Gay." (And by an odd coincidence it restricts
> itself to songs from the show-within-the-show, even though it doesn't
> logically need to.)

I love this thread. I actually learn something. By the way, a new release
of the OBC of ME AND JULIET is going to be available at Amazon in
mid-September. No list yet as to what is included, though.
--
Moni (fmomoon)
War does not determine who is right,
war determines who is left.--Bertrand Russell
>