Show History – Alhambra Theatre & Dining

From Book to Stage

Nick Leonard — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 23:13:46 +0000

It’s often surprising how often we see our favorite stage shows multiple times and never realize they started life as a book. Take Fiddler on the Roof for example. Fiddler was based on a series of short stories by Sholem Aleichem featuring Tevye the Dairyman. The stories were written in Yiddish and are based in the real village of Boyberik. Altogether there are eight stories in the collection.

Legally Blonde is another example. Though we’ve seen the movie (and its sequel) and have, hopefully, already made reservations for the musical coming this year, very few realize it was a book first. Written in 2001, the novel, by Amanda Brown, was based on her own experiences at Stanford Law School.

Goodbye to Berlin, written in 1939, describes the real-life experiences of its author, Christopher Isherwood. It focuses on his adventures in the slums and nightclubs of Berlin, and introduces a teenage cabaret singer called Sally Bowles. The book later became the musical, Cabaret.

Even your most classic musical comedies started off as short form literature. Guys and Dolls, the beloved show written by Frank Loesser and Jo Swerling started its journey as short stories by Damon Runyon. One, The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown, talked about an unlikely pairing of a problematic gambler and the Missionary woman he falls in love with. The second, Blood Pressure, introduces us to the likes of Nathan Detroit, Harry the Horse and Rusty Charlie and their illegal crap game.

So next time you are sitting in the theater, happily enjoying the spectacle before you, consider that every story starts with inspiration. Finding that may lead you to a tale you hadn’t expected to find.

42nd Street Celebrates its 42nd Anniversary

Mark Berman — Tue, 03 May 2022 17:20:23 +0000

Though 42nd Street feels like a Broadway staple since the 1930s, this show, based on a 1932 novel by Bradford Ropes and its 1933 film adaptation, was actually created in 1980. The original cast included Jerry Orbach as Julian, Tammy Grimes as Dorothy, and Wanda Richert as Peggy. It does include songs written for the 1933 film (by songwriting legends Al Dubin, Johnny Mercer, and Harry Warren) along with some songs from other films like Gold Diggers of 1933, Dames, and Roman Scandals. The show book was written by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble.

Tragically, Champion died only ten hours before the opening-night performance. They kept the news from the cast and the press until just after the standing ovation of that evening.

The musical opened on Broadway, on August 25, 1980, at the Winter Garden Theatre, directed and choreographed by Gower Champion. Tragically, Champion died only ten hours before the opening-night performance. They kept the news from the cast and the press until just after the standing ovation of that evening.

The show had its Broadway Revival in May of 2001 At the Foxwoods Theater, running for 1,524 performances, and ran with a revised book by Mark Bramble. In true Broadway fashion, the understudy for the role of Peggy, Meredith Patterson, took over the role in August 2001. This year marks 42nd Street's 42 Anniversary. It is believed that backstage musicals like Kiss Me, Kate, The Bandwagon, and A Chorus Line were all influenced by 42nd Street’s book, film, or show. There is something about seeing the inner workings of the performing arts that make you appreciate live theater even more. And maybe even realize that no matter how tough it gets out there... there is always a "sunny side to every situation."

A Strange Journey

Mark Berman — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 18:35:43 +0000

As in a Science Fiction Double Feature, The Rocky Horror Show was written as a tribute to the science fiction and horror "B movies" of the 1930s through 1960s. Richard O'Brien, an out of work actor at the time, wrote The Rocky Horror Show, originally called They Came From Denton High, to keep himself busy; something I think we can all relate to thanks to a year of quarantine.

O’Brien describes the show. “The plot and dialogue for The Rocky Horror Show are raids on populist things: from advertising, from comics, from B movies, from sci-fi. It’s a complete and utter raid upon all those elements; a joyous raid.”

“It’s a complete and utter raid upon all those elements; a joyous raid.”

It opened in London on June 19, 1973 at the Royal Court Theatre. The show ran through September of 1980 (moving to several locations during its time). It debuted in the US in Los Angeles in 1974 and had a nine month run, but its Broadway debut wasn’t as successful, lasing only 45 full performances.

It was adapted into the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show in 1975 with Tim Curry reprising the role of Frank-N-Furter, which he originated on stage. The film still runs today, making it longest-running release in film history.

Richard O'Brien has described the lead character, Frank, as a combination of Vlad the Impaler and Cruella De Vil. Curry added to the mix hints of Elizabeth II and his own mother.

When asked it he preferred doing the play or doing the film, Tim Curry had this to say: “I found making the film more..uh.. annoying in that way than doing the play; because if you do the play, it’s just two hours a day and.. that you’re actually in it doing it, and the rest of the day you’re, you know, you’re yourself. And doing the film, part because I’ve never made one before, and so um, the work for me is total, uh, I found it for the first time actually beginning to be a bit schizophrenic and that if you spend the whole day in a pound and a half of Max Factor, uh, at the end of the day when you wipe it off, there’s always a little bit left in the cracks.”

"The movie is a very surreal, almost dreamlike journey, the live show is far more rock and roll.”

In an interview with Richard O’Brien to On Magazine UK, he compared the live play to the film version, saying:

“The live show has an energy that the movie doesn’t have – it wasn’t intentional, but the film was very slow. Once some fans came up to me and said: ‘Did you leave the gaps between the lines so that we the audience could say our lines?’ I said, ‘Well, ok yes.’ But no we didn’t. The movie is a very surreal, almost dreamlike journey, the live show is far more rock and roll.”

At the more than capable hands of the multi-talented Shain Stroff, our production of The Rocky Horror Show should prove to be everything the original creators imagined it to be. And as the narrator suggests, we would like, if we may, to take you on a strange journey.

A Wonderful History

Mark Berman — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 19:24:50 +0000

Although It’s A Wonderful Life has long been thought to be an American classic, it was not a hit with original audiences. It wasn’t until the copyright (accidentally) lapsed in 1974, which made it available royalty-free, that it gained a new audience. It became a holiday staple during that time, and though the free ride ended around 1994, the die was cast and it became a Christmas staple.

The story of It’s A Wonderful Life started off as a short story, written by Phillip Van Doren Stern and titled The Greatest Gift. He attempted for years to get his story published, to no avail. Finally, he decided to gift his tale to 200 of his friends in the form of a 21-page Christmas card, and eventually, that card found its way to RKO Pictures producer David Hempstead. In 1944, RKO bought the story as a vehicle for Cary Grant, but as the script was written and re-written, Grant went on to make a different Christmas film, The Bishop's Wife.

Carl Switzer, also known as Alfalfa in The Little Rascals, was cast in the film as the prankster who opens the pool in the dance scene.

RKO convinced Frank Capra to read the short story, and Capra bought the rights to the story for his new production company, Liberty Films. Notables like Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett and Dorothy Parker were brought in to “polish” the film leading to several drafts of the screenplay.

Casting George was easy. As Capra recalled in his autobiography, “Of all actors’ roles I believe the most difficult is the role of a Good Sam who doesn’t know that he is a Good Sam. I knew one man who could play it… James Stewart.”

It’s A Wonderful Life – The Musical was written in 2000 and has been performed by hundreds of theaters, churches and even schools. This show has taken a timeless story and enriched it with music that warms the heart. It honors family and community, and reminds us that when all is taken into account, it truly is a wonderful life.