|
Post by xpt626 on Jan 24, 2005 15:27:54 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Doc on Mar 6, 2005 4:55:11 GMT -5
I've been checkin the sites for updates. I missed the Q&A and they haven't posted all that info yet, so there's a gap of info coming soon to be filled....
Well, I reckon they'll have to just skip over most of 1966 in the script. Narration:"Folks, you wouldn't believe the crap the went down in 1966. I'd like to turn you on. But, instead, we'll just pick up our story in early 1967. So, anyway, we were hard at work on Sgt. Pepper's........"
|
|
DoctorRobert1
Hard Day's Night
I don't want to appear to be too obscure, BUT........
Posts: 9
|
Post by DoctorRobert1 on May 9, 2005 3:04:02 GMT -5
It's my story. Now, WHO is going to be able to tell it correctly?
I'll be watching from above. I already KNOW the kinds of things that they'll edit out; and dear Yoko will do her best to make it all a flattering picture.
But, it shouldn't ALL be so flattering. I made some big mistakesl I did some beastly things that I am surely answering to now, BUT, I also learned some very great lessons through all of it, and THAT'S precisely the tenor of the show that they should mount.
I mean, I WAS the Beatles. I started it, I pushed it, I did everything I could under and over the table to get us out there and making our mark. George and Ringo were different; they were, at the time, quieter, amiable, going along with whatever crazy scheme I dictated.
But Paul was ever the sweet, gentle soul. Paul made it all gel together. We were all a bit wild, of course--but, 'ya know, Paul was the one with the conscience, the gracious attitude toward everyone we came into contact with in those early years. I wish I had learned more from him early on, instead of getting the "slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune" pressed upon me later.
'Cause, I thought, I've got complete control over everything, my life, my career, the others.......everything was mine at my beckoning until the unforeseeable catastrophe of someone's running through a bloody intersection on a red light.
I realised later that it only took a few slivers cut through the hull of the Titanic to sink her. I heard that the designers of it said that even God couldn't sink that ship.
One thing I did learn was never dare think that there isn't SOME power beyond your control. And toward the end there, for me, believe it or not, that very idea gave me great solace. For you see, for the first time in my life, I could accept things as they happened. I didn't have to fight with circumstance any more. And whoever it is, whether it is God, or a Supreme Being of whatever sort he turns out to be, this Being wouldn't mock me as long as I didn't mock Him.
It turns out, in my current way of thinking, that in that one regard I do understand this Creator, whoever He is: He doesn't like pretense and neither did I! But, He must be more patient and understanding than I am!
"All You Need is Love" turned out to be truer than I realised when I wrote it. (I am supposed to be resting over here, but I can't resist the urge to uncap my pen every now and then and say it in my own write.
But I wasn't perfect in my life. Yoko, bless her heart, did her very best. I didn't need her to be perfect, I just needed for her to love me. Her support was the greatest thing I knew in those later years, and, in spite of the reports of our problems, infidelities, and her seeming duplicities, we were always much much more devoted to each other than any of you will ever know.
Love remembers the good things, the best things, from people. Love recalls the very best about Harri, Ritchie, Paulie, Yoko, George Martin, Neil, Mick and the boys, Mal, my mixed up family, and yes, even Faul, William. Truth is, I deeply appreciated what he did, we all did, and never mistake this: I realised what a sacrifice he made for Paul and all of us. I never lost sight of that. In many ways we all loved him, too, there was a lot of good feelings right at the start of that whole episode, you know. It's just that, as time wore on, I couldn't be the actor anymore. I couldn't play any kind of a part, and I agonised over why it would continue to be necessary. I thought the whole thing should have just been put out in the open, and accepted. And I told them so, but the top blokes just didn't agree with me! So, what could I ever say? Nothing. Though I continued sneaking in all the little clues, litle bits, little things all along because it was the perfect release valve for me, and for all of us. I wasn't alone in that. We ALL did it, and, really, face to face on a daily basis, the lot of us thought is was a very fine thing to do indeed! We never saw it as a breach. It was just a way to ease the pressure on the situation. The only one who left as many tell-tale pointers as I did, I tell you, was Willie himself! I mean, he could go on tangents that scared even me! But, I was always the one that seemed to get into a spot of trouble.
|
|
|
Post by pennylane on May 9, 2005 3:32:43 GMT -5
wow.. they have computers in the after life?
|
|
DoctorRobert1
Hard Day's Night
I don't want to appear to be too obscure, BUT........
Posts: 9
|
Post by DoctorRobert1 on May 9, 2005 4:22:10 GMT -5
We have an ethernet connectivity that you could simply never imagine. ;D And it's wireless! Lately, I've stayed busy with all the files the Dick Nixon kept about me. Rubbish! [He brought them along as an attempt to get some kind of mercy. Ah, Tricky Dick! Always the wheeler-dealer!] Really, the fun part is pressing "delete", "delete", "delete" over and over again. But, it's rather frustrating when you're an astral, because your fingers just go right through the mouse and the keyes---try to see that in your mind----one pecks at the delete key all day long! It works better to just "think" delete and it happens. And, you know really, up here, the general policy is to simply save everything you can. Save, save, save. Save everybody and everything--for now. Interesting--They don't use "Apple" products too much up here, because, frankly, that word has some very bad memories for some people. You'd have to have pieced together that God uses Microsoft from when Christ told them on the mount "the Windows of heaven shall be opened unto you." HOW could you also forget: "Blessed, are the PC makers?"
|
|
|
Post by pennylane on May 9, 2005 6:49:41 GMT -5
ok.. the little white van will be there shortly. Don't worry, they will take wonderful care of you!
|
|
DoctorRobert1
Hard Day's Night
I don't want to appear to be too obscure, BUT........
Posts: 9
|
Post by DoctorRobert1 on May 9, 2005 21:57:14 GMT -5
I'm sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come. AGAIN!
|
|
|
Post by TotalInformation on May 9, 2005 23:27:24 GMT -5
This play is Yoko's version of history.
They had to cancel the Boston run to retool it for New York.
|
|
DoctorRobert1
Hard Day's Night
I don't want to appear to be too obscure, BUT........
Posts: 9
|
Post by DoctorRobert1 on May 10, 2005 0:17:38 GMT -5
The point that probably will not get made, is that Lennon had certain reasons to feel disillusioned that would explain a lot of his resigned langour, and drug usage, and certain eccentricities.
Fourteen years of learning to live with life on life's terms.
I think he got it right just before the end.
I guess poor crazy Chapman didn't think he should talk peace and yet have all of that money. He said, what, to the effect that that was an hypocracy of sorts, or that it made him a phony, spiritually.
And so he thought murder was a good idea?
I'll never understand it. What a senseless tragedy.
Yoko wants to venerate his memory now. The best way to do that IMO is the frankest way; but, probably, they're just gonna settle for doing it the Broadway.
At least, the public will hear a lot of his solo material, and in some partial context with his personality and ideas. They'll undoubtably have to trim out the crucial shadows cast by his original best friend.
And IMO, those are some shadows too long to ignore. Without knowing the lifelong impact of James Paul upon Lennon's psyche, Lennon's self-destructive shadow boxing looks to an outsider like that of a self-obsessed, petulant child. Some of it may have been that, of course.
But, as long as the revisionisms continue, he'll never be seen in the empathetic light that the full truth would bring.
|
|
|
Post by xpt626 on Jul 21, 2005 4:47:55 GMT -5
'Lennon,' the Yoko Musical, Needs 'Help!'
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
By Roger Friedman
"Lennon," the Broadway musical that's supposed to be about or inspired by John Lennon, is a horrid wreck of a thing that needs major overhauling before it opens on Aug. 4.
Yesterday afternoon I let curiosity get the better of me. On a whim, I called up May Pang, Lennon's girlfriend for a big chunk of the 1970s, and suggested we go take a look at what Yoko Ono and friends had whipped up for Broadway audiences.
This is not a review, since "Lennon" has not officially opened yet, and should not be quoted as such. These are just observations, from a Beatles fan and from a woman who knew John and Yoko better than most. We're very protective of the Beatles legacy, you know, those of us in our later years!
"Lennon," you should know, is a biographical musical that almost completely avoids the Beatles. There is mention of the group, and scant reference to its other members. A heavyset black actor plays Paul McCartney. Ringo Starr and George Harrison are mere blips in the script.
The show boasts not one actual Beatles song, with the exception of "The Ballad of John and Yoko," which was written and recorded by Lennon and McCartney together. (That point is not made, however, because McCartney is meritless in Yoko's universe.)
Otherwise, no "In My Life," "Come Together," "Help!," "A Day in the Life," "I Feel Fine," or any of the other Lennon standards from the Beatles catalog. At one point the opening guitar chord from "A Hard Day's Night" is heard, and then dropped. Indeed, from his own repertoire, Lennon's "Jealous Guy," "No. 9 Dream" and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" are noticeably absent as well.
That's because Ono, no matter how much you may think she's either a widow still in pain or a performance artist genius, has made "Lennon" all about her. I've no doubt that Cynthia Lennon, John's first wife, and Julian, his eldest son, will skip the show entirely. Ditto McCartney, Starr and Olivia Harrison.
They would all cringe as the show quickly dismisses the entire Beatles era so it can get to Lennon proclaiming his love and adoration for Yoko. She's his "Ono and only."
The whole experience was bizarre, and made more so by the fact that May Pang was my companion for the afternoon.
After all, May went to work for the Lennons in 1970 and had a nearly two-year-long affair with John in 1973-74. She was there for the recording of his "Rock & Roll" and "Shaved Fish" albums. She lived with him in Los Angeles during his infamous "Lost Weekend."
So imagine her reaction when "Lennon" just skips by any reference to her. It's like being airbrushed out of a picture.
"I sent John to Los Angeles," Ono — played by talented, attractive Julie Danao-Salkin — declares at that point. Pang almost did a spit take at that point.
"No," she informed me, "I took John to Los Angeles."
And though the Lennons are reunited on stage during a romantic song, Pang points out: "Yoko summoned John home. She told him she could cure his smoking through hypnosis." She rolled her eyes. "When I saw him again, it was as if he was a different person altogether."
Also not mentioned is that Pang — who tried to reunite Lennon with McCartney — continued to have a friendship with Lennon until a year before he died.
But that's the problem with "Lennon." Ono and pals have so rewritten or unwritten history that you have no idea who John Lennon was. You get no sense of his humor, of how he wrote songs or of his actual friendships with the other Beatles.
How could a man who helped compose dozens of catchy melodies with McCartney be rendered on stage as a cipher? Where is the magic of writing "Michelle" or the satisfaction of producing the "Sgt. Pepper" album? It's like none of it happened.
Imagine, if you will, a McCartney musical that only focused on his participation in Wings.
Instead, "Lennon" throws in a lot of unimportant songs, mixes them with events to which they had no attachment, jumps back and forth in time until it's almost too confusing to figure out what the heck is going on.
Does an audience paying $100 a ticket really want to hear "Mother," "Mind Games," "Steppin' Out," and a torch song version — performed off-key — of "Woman Is the Nigger of the World"? I think not. And we did not need a screechy — that's the only way to describe most of the female voices in this cast — rendering of "How Do You Sleep?"
The show does boast two unrecorded Lennon songs, "India India" and "I Don't Want to Lose You." The former is pretty; the latter is a bit pretentious and not Lennon's best work.
Neither one of them is presented very well, with "India India" used really to mock the Beatles' famous trip to that country. Another "lost" Lennon song, called "Cookin' (in the Kitchen of Love)," promised in press materials long ago, is not included.
"Lennon" has already been cited by my colleague Michael Riedel, in the New York Post, for being in trouble. But really, this is the kind of trouble the creative team could only have brought on themselves.
The show reminded me of the god-awful TNT "Tribute to John Lennon" Ono produced four years ago. That was another show that omitted the Beatles, and promoted the latter part of Lennon's career.
For the record, the show seems to still be in flux. Two songs — "New York City" and "Oh My Love" — were in the printed program but didn't make the cut. The orchestrations, by the usually more level-headed Harold Wheeler, are almost all wrong for the songs. Lennon must be turning in his grave. (So too must Jerry Rubin, who really gets a raw deal portrayed as a buffoon.)
What can director Don Scardino do? Postpone the opening for two more weeks. No one really cares at this point.
Re-title the show "In My Life." Tell the story in proper chronology, not jumping all over the place. (There is much that should have been fact-checked.) Add "Across the Universe" and maybe a half-dozen Beatles songs (Michael Jackson needs the money, after all).
Try some laughs. Even putting in the rollicking blues number "Oh Yoko!" would do more to explain Lennon's interest in his mysterious wife than presenting her as a misunderstood martyr.
Lose the all female rock band with big hair from the '80s, the ones who inexplicably shriek the Motown hits "Twist and Shout" and "Money." Lose the multiple Lennons, keeping only the very talented Will Chase.
Terrence Mann, who looks more like Boz Scaggs, could be recast as an older McCartney. Ease up on the "I told you so" speeches by Yoko. Really, otherwise call the show "Ono."
Finally, at least for now, I can't get over the irony of Clear Channel Entertainment producing a John Lennon musical. Clear Channel, destroyer of radio, masticator of the concert business, would have been Lennon's archenemy had he lived.
Clear Channel certainly has the money and power to have a place on Broadway. But you almost feel that this show, of all shows, is haunted by inappropriate corporate sponsorship. It's a little icky.
|
|
|
Post by Doc on Jul 24, 2005 22:46:10 GMT -5
Word thru the grapevine I get my grapes from, is that the show is, in terms of narrative and cohesion, a terrific mess.
The songs are well arranged, fantastically sung, and the first class band gives world class support to the songs.
Hearing the show is thrilling. It's a splendidly produced concert.
The dramatic aspect is another matter. Thru-line, factuality, and credibility are worse than shaky. The New York critics will likely rake it over the coals for those reasons, notwithstanding the high quality of the musical presentation.
Lennon fans and Beatle fans who are uninterested in any kind of depth as a theatre piece will love it. They will be unconcerned with the poorly developed script.
If they presented what some of us suspect is true, here at NIR, in this musical version of Lennon's life, it could become the most controversial, intriguing work in decades. And, if they did it well, it could become the biggest draw in Broadway history.
And it stands, it'll open to big crowds, recieve mixed to poor reviews, including a vicious "pan" or two, run 8 and 1/2 months, and close quietly next spring. The associated Cast Album will go sell 80,000 copies, and beloved in the mainstream and hated by Rolling Stone magazine. The "Dakota" condominium will seek a "cease and desist" order, restraining any mention of their name in the production. I hope they don't switch it to the "Minnesota", or worse, the "Wyoming." I think "West Parkside Arms" might work in a lyric. lol
The new arrangements of the songs will show up at theater auditions, sung by talented 19 year old Broadway wannabes with loud clear voices--only to be told to avoid rock operas and sing more standard show tunes.
Yoko will later write a book about the experience of putting it all together, wherein she defends her narrative choices and contexts in the show from chapter to chapter, replete with pictures of the cast rehearsing in danceskins and leg warmers.
One song will will gain renewed popularity and recieve radio play---in a studio version done by Bono but not U2.
Coldplay will attend the show and recieve press for doing so in the New York Times the following morning. One of the band members will talk about how important the show is in raising the conciousness toward world peace. They'll write their own tribute to Lennon and peace. Won't sell; but will have a terrific video made for it.
Paul McCartney will be asked how he felt about seeing it, and his reply will run along these lines: "Well, I don't think John would have understood what they were trying to say or interpret his music to be exactly; they meant well, I suppose, but the only person who ever captured John's enigma was John himself....", and which point, Heather will appear on camera to grab Macca's arm and say, "Honey, we've got to go---we've got reservations at the Russian Tea Room and we're late.....", at which point they'll dash off quickly with Paul turning around saying back, "You should be talking to Yoko, not me, really....."
"It's probably more interesting than a show called "Ringo!", I fear, so I suppose it's fine. Yoko's needed something to day of late...." is how Richard Starkey will respond to it.....
George Martin will say that it missed some vital points, and that nobody today understands the 60's properly, and he enjoys Eugene O'Neill better, anyways.
Yoko will call for rewrites and more rehearsals after the official opening. This will start a bru-ha-ha with Actor's Equity. Yoko will fire somebody (probably me) and write one more song to, you know, tie it all together and bring it full circle.
They'll doctor the text, they'll tweak the script, they'll cut one really stupid scene and write another new one. Costumes will get an overhaul and somebody in the casting office will suggest they get a name like Beyoncé to come in and play McCartney..........a couple of sponsers will quit and so they'll get new ones.
Poor J. Carnahan in the casting office will have apoplexy keeping up with replacements. A couple of the leads will quit to join the cast of the new hot show on the block, "Billy Elliott." Apple will stay out of involving itself.
Still, some people will eat it up with a spoon, and a cult following will grow out of it.
|
|
|
Post by JoJo on Aug 15, 2005 23:26:00 GMT -5
A review, and as Doc anticipated, not too flattering. Four women playing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan?? Yeah I'm reminded of the Nagra rolls, where Yoko's bright idea was to play a concert to an audience of empty seats.. (this is when the idea of a real live concert was still on the table) Here's the review: BROADWAY REVIEW Will Yoko's filter give this piece a chance?
Linda Winer on Broadway in the summertime
On the Web
See Newsday's Guide to Broadway
BY LINDA WINER STAFF WRITER
August 15, 2005
Imagine there's no Beatles, imagine no iconic movies, no White Album, no poetry books, no drawings. Then imagine there's no son before Sean, no mistress named May Pang, no deep depression, nothing really serious with drugs.
In other words, imagine "Lennon," the biographical jukebox- musical that opened at the Broadhurst Theatre last night after a troubled tryout in San Francisco and the burden of bad-buzz postponements. This is John Lennon, the legend, as filtered through the protective, selective, up-with-people, later-life self-interest of Yoko Ono Lennon. Although the hype promises "His Words. His Music. His Story," it is their story - perhaps even her story - that shapes the show.
As a concert, Don Scardino's production is sensitive to the parody that curdles most recreations of the '60s and '70s. The director, who wrote the book "with special thanks" to Ono, avoids that wax-museum Beatlemania quality (remember "not the Beatles, but an incredible simulation!") by dividing Lennon's character among nine first-rate singers. This amusing, sometimes startling mix of races, genders and ages remind us that "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together." Sticky issues of copyright and cost are apparently sidestepped by using only songs written by John and owned by Yoko.
But "Lennon" is meant to be larger than a portrait of his American years, the influential but hardly inclusive period after he met the much-maligned avant-garde Japanese artist at her gallery show. Those pesky pre-Yoko years, including the first marriage and the first son, are given a once-over-slightly, a travelogue from his baby pictures in Liverpool to the process of creating "She was just 17, you know what I mean ..." in his bathroom with that guy named Paul McCartney.
The entire rise and breakup of the Beatles - whose Shea Stadium concert was 40 years ago today - is dismissed in the first half hour. This leaves plenty of time for the house lights to go up so the cast can toss daisies at the audience while singing "Give Peace a Chance." At least the flowers are real.
Technically, this is a low - no? - concept show. The band is onstage. The stage is a plain circle backed by three screens for John Arnone's often poignant projections. A few are drawings by John, though nothing is made of this complicated, wonderful artist's multiple gifts. Joseph Malone's choreography is elementary but unobtrusive, while Jane Greenwood's sly costumes have the easygoing feel of thrift-shop fashion.
The cast sings its lungs out in the joyously arranged, often stylistically updated songs. The actors share the narration with the same grace with which they share embodiments of the man himself. Will Chase is the most persuasive John. Marcy Harriell delivers a powerhouse "Woman Is the Nigger of the World." Julia Murney is especially touching as Lennon's mother, whose death is given early importance in the lament, "Mother."
A black actor plays a Klan cracker and Ed Sullivan. Four women play the Beatles on the historic Sullivan show. Jerry Rubin is made to be foolish, but so is J. Edgar Hoover in his red high-heel pumps.
Lennon's assassination is handled with restraint, with Cooper as the cop who remembers where he was when it happened. John's dark side is passed off as a "long weekend" that turned into a year. We believe that his gushy praise of Yoko is verbatim. We have never been among the Yoko bashers, but these valentines to herself feel unseemly.
LENNON. Music and lyrics by John Lennon, book and direction by Don Scardino. Broadhurst Theatre, 235 W. 44th St. Tickets: $101.25-46.25. Phone: 212-239-6200. Seen at Saturday evening preview. tinyurl.com/7kdjn
|
|
|
Post by Spanky on Sept 3, 2005 11:36:16 GMT -5
insider information....
the show has been put on hold for now as they try to rework the ending and try to make Yoko realize she isn't a broadway producer.
a few company's have been approached (mine included) to contribute to the music and direction. I'm hoping that we can pick this one up and run with it. will let everyone know as soon as i have more news
|
|
|
Post by Doc on Sept 3, 2005 17:25:04 GMT -5
insider information.... the show has been put on hold for now as they try to rework the ending and try to make Yoko realize she isn't a broadway producer. a few company's have been approached (mine included) to contribute to the music and direction. I'm hoping that we can pick this one up and run with it. will let everyone know as soon as i have more news I hope so, because the band, and the cast, are first rate and powerful. It's a project I hope lasts a long time, for the sake of Lennon's memory. Though its impossible to get biographical or too revealing----at least awareness of this man can be sustained for people to look into his life. His music deserves play and preservation. Yoko tried, God bless her. Writing Broadway shows---that really work---is far more difficult than lay people think. Even experts struggle with the form. It takes sustained effort, trial and error, visions, patience, money, and sometimes an inspiration from out of the blue to make a show "soar" and also attract an audience to sustain its life. It's elusive; it's perplexing; it's a great challenge. Yoko did what she was able to do. Maybe now its time to "doctor" the show, as its reffered to in the business. Many shows have been "operated on" and saved in this way. Let's hope the patient lives.
|
|
|
Post by Spanky on Sept 3, 2005 18:59:46 GMT -5
from what i've seen of the show you are right Doc, it is magical. Yoko did a hell of a job but she isn't a producer and is lacking in the insight that is needed to really make that show what it will be. Its far from being shelfed but a lot of money will have to be put into it to get it to where it needs to be. The talent on that show have also worked for our company and other productions. The truth is that if they get the right ending it will be up for a Tony.
|
|
|
Post by TotalInformation on Sept 3, 2005 21:10:00 GMT -5
Spanky, I demand you insert a PID clue!
Maybe the line "I've seen religion from Jesus to Paul"
put that in one of the medleys.
COnsider this sage songwriting advice from me donated gratis.
|
|
|
Post by Doc on Sept 3, 2005 21:51:08 GMT -5
from what i've seen of the show you are right Doc, it is magical. Yoko did a hell of a job but she isn't a producer and is lacking in the insight that is needed to really make that show what it will be. Its far from being shelfed but a lot of money will have to be put into it to get it to where it needs to be. The talent on that show have also worked for our company and other productions. The truth is that if they get the right ending it will be up for a Tony. That is good to hear. I want to it run and be a hit---and I hope to get up to NYC to see it, and several other things (Billy Elliot, Light at the Piaza, and, hopefully The Color Purple, which I worked on as a rehearsal pianist when it workshopped here in Atlanta.) Anyway, thanks for the up date. I know that Yoko put her best vision into it; its just that making a show have real impact, and leap out of the proscenium so to speak, and be a memorable, supercharging experience on the Broadway stage is a niche art. You have to seize people's focus pleasurably, or art least compellingly, for 2 to 2 and 1/2 hours and spellbind them. You have to maintain tension, excitement, interest, and emotional involvement. You have to have builds and climaxes, and a satisfying close----heck you know all this and more---and most people have these expectations. Creating these things is the monster! Keeping things plausible, not succumbing to mundane dialogue; on and on I'll cease but the hot directors of musicals today know what is required of them, and how to fulfill these points-----it interferes with their tasks with too many cheifs (but, God love their sincerity) have to have their contributions. I think sometimes the authors, or co-creators, for instance Ms. Ono, have to "let the baby go", and let the expert creative team steer all production values. Hard to do; requires a scary kind of hands-off trust. That production team will deliver if they can make wise changes in content and flow. What I have heard is exciting; it musically delivers. I understand that "Dylan" is coming to Broadway in a while. There is a huge audience in America for both. Not typical Broadway book shows---some purists resist these forays into the pop radio songbook. I think its valid, but they must meet Broadway on Broadway's terms. "Movin' Out", with its killer band and Michael ?the singer, whathisname....anyway, the arrangements, the dance interpolations, the choreography by Twyla Tharpe----wins. It's exciting, fun, stirring, compelling. There IS a way to make "Lennon" be just as powerful. Funny. I can hear a surprised John's voice in my head saying, "So, I see they've put me songs up on the Broadway stage, have they? Who'd ever have thought it? Right up there with the old shows! What kind of story will it tell on old John? Well, I hope they enjoy it, the silly public, Godlove'em. I feel as if I'm "gettin' away with it" again---the notion that I'm some kind of a grrrreat compos'ah, rubbin' elbows with Cole Port'uh. Can't believe it. How do I ever thank Yoko? She did this for me all these years late'uh---so, she does still care about me! Bless you, child! Love, John......" No apologies.
|
|
|
Post by Doc on Sept 3, 2005 22:08:03 GMT -5
from what i've seen of the show you are right Doc, it is magical. Yoko did a hell of a job but she isn't a producer and is lacking in the insight that is needed to really make that show what it will be. Its far from being shelfed but a lot of money will have to be put into it to get it to where it needs to be. The talent on that show have also worked for our company and other productions. The truth is that if they get the right ending it will be up for a Tony. Put Lennon into the show! Put some flesh and blood on the man! Get a actor who resembles, who can sound something like, and who can BE the essence of John Winston Lennon. Make him live, that's what EVERYBODY wants! Let the terrific ensemble cast do 85% of the show, and in the denoument of ACT II, "reveal" Lennon big as life in granny glasses and a tank top and have him talk, sing, monologue, eulogize, love, rant, exude, release, revert to his typical giggly comic innuendo! Let people see how funny he was, how warm and human he was. Let the cast surround him for the finale and sing him off into the wings. As if they all had a lapse, a momentary "delusion", like, "did that really happen"--or did they psyche themselves into it. There can even be a joke from a male chubby cast member about this must have a been a some "flashback" from some microdot his dad took in 69. Or maybe not. Anyway, I think if there is a way to get a tour-de-force, virtouso performer who can really BE John, for a 15 minute segment that takes the "show by surprise", and the audience--well, I'D love to see that.........this way, you have a second act "deux-a-machina" ---one who's explanation is as acceptable as the clouds of pot smoke at a 1972 lost weekend, which of course we are only reliving thru narrative, not actually depicting or encouraging..... Also, a confrontation about May Pang between show "Yoko" and show "John" might heat up act one, if there was a good song to go with it.....and, where is "Cookin' in the Kitchen of Love"? ...no, he doesn't need to talk about "certain" subjects. Not what THIS show's about. That's another show. That will never get produced...... But, I already have the perfect title: "Yesterday." Anyway, just babbling, spanky, I know unsolicited advice is just that. They'll fix it in time.
|
|
|
Post by Doc on Sept 3, 2005 22:09:58 GMT -5
Spanky, I demand you insert a PID clue! Maybe the line "I've seen religion from Jesus to Paul" put that in one of the medleys. Consider this sage songwriting advice from me donated gratis. Actually---it might fit inside a big soliliquy for John himself to do--I like your lyric, Total. It actually compromises nothing, and yet says everything.
|
|
|
Post by TotalInformation on Sept 4, 2005 2:45:08 GMT -5
It's Lennon's lyric.
As I understand it, all the lyrics in the show outside a few 50s songs are Lennon lyrics.
|
|
|
Post by Spanky on Sept 4, 2005 10:00:41 GMT -5
Spanky, I demand you insert a PID clue! Maybe the line "I've seen religion from Jesus to Paul" put that in one of the medleys. COnsider this sage songwriting advice from me donated gratis. LOL thats not a bad idea. wouldn't that be worth seeing? only i'm sure most people still wouldn't get it. Wish i was in a possition to actually make suggestions on that LOL ;D
|
|
|
Post by pennylane on Sept 11, 2005 1:13:56 GMT -5
*EDIT*
John is super cool ;D
|
|
|
Post by Spanky on Sept 12, 2005 19:51:29 GMT -5
hhahaha i agree 'john was super cool'
i'm fighting with all i have to try to make my boss see how much of an impact this show will make if we can get it. i don't think he's a beatles fan but you don't have to be to realize that its a huge opportunity.
i must admit that i'm kind of selfish in that i'm hoping that if we get it i get the chance to meet yoko to sign the contracts. Most people don't like her but i do admire her
|
|
|
Post by pennylane on Sept 13, 2005 7:30:05 GMT -5
From what I've heard it sounds pretty crappy.
I am so unsure about ms ono.. sometimes I like her.. but then I look again and she's whoring around the Lennon legacy on diapers and it makes my stomach churn! poor john!
|
|