Noted DREAMGIRLS composer Henry Krieger was generous enough to take a comprehensive look back at his many accomplishments onstage and onscreen earlier this week with me, as well as discuss aspects of his new musical opening next week, LUCKY DUCK, and over the course of that compelling conversation - which will be available in a complete InDepth InterView next week - he revealed new details about the forthcoming 2014 production of SIDE SHOW, to be directed by DREAMGIRLS film director and TWILIGHT: BREAKING DAWN helmer Bill Condon, to premiere first at the La Jolla Playhouse and then at the Kennedy Center, as it makes its way towards Broadway. Comments from that portion of our conversation follow below.
Tickets to Henry Krieger’s newest musical, LUCKY DUCK, as well as further information about the show, is available here. I Will Never Leave You
PC: The score of SIDE SHOW is a true masterpiece. I know you recently workshopped a completely revised version of the show with Bill Condon. What’s the future for the show? HK: Yeah, we did - and I thank you very much for my part of the masterpiece! We are going to be workshopping it in La Jolla [in 2013] with
Bill Condon and then it is going to the Kennedy Center [in 2014].
PC: The Eisenhower? What a great space.HK: Yes - the Eisenhower. So, yes, that is definitely happening and we are very, very, very, very looking forward to that. SIDE SHOW is something I am so grateful to have been a part of, and still am. That is real - it’s really happening. [Pause.] I definitely know that SIDE SHOW is a real happening thing.
PC: What is the time-frame for the upcoming reworked SIDE SHOW, then?HK: 2014.
PC: Bill is probably a little pre-occupied with TWILIGHT now. Have you seen the first BREAKING DAWN film yet?HK: Oh, we had a great time! Yeah. Bill and I are very close - deeply close. I really love him.
PC: Would you like to do a movie musical in the future - particularly one with Bill?HK: Well, I don’t know yet, but if we can do everything the right way, SIDE SHOW would make a great film after it has been revived. That is something we would talk to Mr. Condon about, but right now it would be premature to discuss.
PC: What is different about this new version of the show? I assume it is vastly different from Robert Longbottom’s?
HK: Well, I don’t feel qualified to reveal all the details yet. If you were speaking to
Bill Condon, it might be more elucidating. There are things he is changing - things he is taking out; things he is putting in; characters he is making part of the story that were in it before; stuff like that.
PC: Is “Tunnel Of Love” staying in the show? That seemed to be the most controversial moment in the show at the time. HK: Well, at this point it is hard to say - we don’t know yet.
PC: “I Will Never Leave You” has been used in a few films and TV shows since - it was used in Rosie’s HBO documentary, among others. Are you happy to see the score getting known?
HK: Heck yeah! [Laughs.]
PC: That score is so impressive and you are a famous rewriter - from DREAMGIRLS to SIDE SHOW and beyond. I assume there will be some significant changes?HK: Yeah, I am a rewriter - I like to rewrite. I don’t mind throwing a song out and putting a new song in. I don’t have a craziness about all of that - I want the show to be the absolute best it can be and if that means losing a song, I don’t care. I’ll just write something better and more appropriate.
PC: What about a SIDE SHOW song on GLEE in the future? Your songs “Listen” and “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from DREAMGIRLS have both appeared on GLEE, of course.
HK: Well, I have spoken to
Ryan Murphy about that and he said he would look into it, but that is the last I have heard. If you talk to him soon, tell him, “Don’t forget about SIDE SHOW!” [Laughs.]
