The show that went on to win 2014 Tony Awards for best musical and best director is a bit of a blur as it approaches Pittsburgh on its national tour, which began Sept. 19. “Gentleman’s Guide” gives its regards to Broadway in January but soon sets sail for foreign shores in addition to the North American tour.
4 comments:
I really like that when they were casting the tour they didn’t want people to just imitate the cast they already had. Partially because I don’t think its possible to perfectly recreate the performance of another person. But mainly because that would defeat the point of casting new people. If they wanted the tour to be identical to the Broadway show they would just try to reuse the same actors. Since they’re already casting new people it makes sense that they want to see those people try to bring something new to the show. Given how adamant the director is about not giving people a “hand-me-down version” I think it would be really fun to see the tour version of the show and see how noticeable the changes are. Some of them sounded like they would be fairly obvious (the changes to the set) but I don’t know how clear some of the others would be.
It's really interesting to read this article after our meetings/ round table discussion with the tour ASM and the Assistant Company manager yesterday. I guess I knew that the set for touring shows had to revamped in one way or another, but I didn't think that it was to this scale. Maybe it's this set in particular, but I was always under the impression that the set changed slightly between the Broadway house and touring, an inch here, an inch there or what have you. In terms of designer fees though, I wonder what the contact looks like. Does this constitute an entirely new design fee? Or does it fall under extensions. I've never thought about mounting a tour with an entirely new cast. I wonder if they shadowed or just mounted the show through understudy rehearsals. I really appreciate the director's take on editing the show for touring instead of using a carbon copy of Broadway. Theater is a living being and should be treated as such.
I am pretty amazed that they essentially started from scratch for the tour, but I guess it does not surprise me. In order to make the show unique and wonderful in its own special way, you would have to view it as its own entity in its own time and place, especially given the amount of time that had passed between the Broadway opening and when the show went on tour. From re-designing the set to re-casting to a fresh set of actors with new looks and ideas about the characters, it really does seem as though the director started with a clean slate, viewing it as a new production of the same show. I wonder how often this happens with touring production of Broadway shows. Are they often re-vamped from the existing shows? Or do directors usually come in to create new shows more fitting of the new needs of the show?
The process of creating a tour of a show is tricky, and for the most part, it doesn't work. All of the choices and conceits and the exact circumstances that led to the original concoction of theatrical brilliance (or not) are being attempted to be replicated, and more often than not only succeed to create a mere shadow of the show's original intentions. I read an article once that said that a show that word for word and idea for idea copies an original show is less true to the original than a show that makes different choices with the same artistic intentions. Attempts by tours to to exactly recreate works only make a cheap substitute, and often those who see tours don't know the difference. It would be better for everyone involved if tours were not only cast from scratch, but also conceived from scratch. Let's not try to replicate a broadway performance. Let's make good performances that are made to tour, like circuses of old. Artists want to make good theatre. Audiences want to see good theatre. Seems like a win-win.
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