Jrand - Congrats on your opening.
And I preach a little here, but I hope others (not on HHW) who complain about movies being adapted to musicals will consider that very goodwill factor (much of the audience WANTING to love the stage show when it's a staging of something they're familiar with and love) before complaining. Putting on theatre is such a big risk at all levels, as much on the local level as in L.A. and Chicago and London and NYC, that a show should have the benefit of goodwill of the audience whenever it can get it - and IMHO producers should not be chastised for wanting the chance of that audience goodwill when they can get it.
And speaking of audience goodwill, our local community theater reviewer headlined today's review:
"ManeStage Didn't Choose Wisely for Third Production"
When I saw that, I wondered what horrible misstep that ManeStage had made to incur the warth of this "gentleman." Here, then, is the second paragraph of his review:
"Unfortunately, in their third production of their first season, I’m afraid they chose a silly musical that is not well written and is filled with lightweight music of the type often referred to as bubblegum. The play is “Bye Bye Birdie,” a 1960 Broadway musical with book by Michael Stewart, music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams that was made into a movie starring Janet Leigh, Dick Van Dyke and Ann-Margret in 1963."
Excuse me! BYE BYE BIRDIE may not be everyone's cup of theater, but the show has survived for almost 50 years because audiences love it.
