CAN-CAN Headed Back to Broadway in Spring 2014

[Borstalboy]

Oh, why not?

Shape up the book--may the word 'reboot' never leave your lips--, cast Patti, and you could have a success like ANYTHING GOES.

EDIT: That Patti clip is amazing. Simple Broadway tune given a kind of stunning gravitas. Lovely.

[RaisedOnMusicals]

"CAN CAN you you name name one one that that would would be be good good??"

BeBe?

[devonian.t]

I saw Donna McKechnie at the Strand Theatre in London a million years ago (well about 25 actually) and it was a fun show. I'd love to see it again.

[Gothampc]

There's a reason why Cole Porter didn't seek out Ethel Merman for Can-Can. He didn't want a belt voice singing the role. It should be done by someone more like Piaf.

[PalJoey]

Piaf's dead.

[Gothampc]

L-I-K-E Piaf

[GavestonPS]

Lilo didn't belt? Nor Piaf? What do you call it then?

Nobody sounds like Merman except impressionists. That doesn't mean the other ladies aren't belting.

[PalJoey]

She's still dead.

[GavestonPS]

And still belting. At my house, anyway.

[goldenboy]

Okay here is an unbiased opinion

I watched the You tube clip of Patti.
I am neither a Patti mega fan or a Patti Mega-hater.
Like all actors she does some extraordinary work (Gypsy, Evita,) and some well
not so great work (I mean who could have saved Women on the Verge-not her best performance.)

But after watching the I love Paris--You Tube Clip.... Patti was perfection in this number. Wistful, yearning, Melancholy and interesting. Wonderful rendition. Perfection. I never heard it sung better.

If I was the casting God, I say give this part to Patti!!

[frontrowcentre2]

Years ago I saw a touring edition headed by Chita Rivera and the Rockettes, with a much rewritten book and song line-up. Later I saw a regional production that used the original book. Neither really worked, mainly because the "scandalous" nature of teh Can-can dance is muted.

The dance was considered risque because the can-can girls would remove their underwear and were "flashing" the mostly male audience. Obviously they could not do that in a 1953 Broadway musical (and in the movie they are all wearing very frilly panties.) Without it being made clear what the scandal is all about, the show will not work. They could have cheated and had the girls downstage dancing facing upstage where the shocked/titillated reactions of the onlookers would have communicated what they saw.

I don't understand those who complain about teh score... at lest 5 songs became standards and the rest are just as entertaining.

The Broadway cast album was originally a Capitol Records issue, most recently on CD from Broadway Angel and still in print but barely.
CAN-CAN (1953 original Broadway cast)

[GavestonPS]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can-can

"It is a myth that the cancan was ever frequently danced without drawers."

Displaying one's bloomers was shocking enough in Victorian Europe.

[Gothampc]

"Patti was perfection in this number. Wistful, yearning, Melancholy and interesting."

And loud. People in Paris could hear her and called City Center and asked if she could tone it down as they were trying to get their children to sleep.