"Upon the Acrop'lis they're bottomless and topless" is but one of the lyrical gems in the title song of this weird flop. Tonight I saw the 90 minute revival The Unsung Musical Company is putting on, and found it amusing, if slightly unfulfilling.
The book has been cut to shreds and the characters have no development. The talk show/game show framing device is barely there; the plot is all but jettisoned in favor of brief dialogue to string the score together.
I couldn't stop thinking about both I Love My Wife and Company while watching Fig Leaves. It wanted to say similar things but couldn't decide if it was a satire or sex comedy or drama.
The score does have some bright spots though. I loved All the Laughter and Harry's Song, the latter of which Anita Gillette beautifully performs in her cabaret act.
Sadly they cut the part I was most looking forward to tonight: the auctioning of the chicken!
Crazy that Loudon walked away with a Tony nom after only running 4 performances. I know Melissa Hart and Dilys Watling were also nominated for a 4 performance flop and Dolores Gray won for a 6 performance flop. Any other examples of people nominated for single digit performances of musicals?
Wow, that's amazing that you saw the original! I'm jealous.
I have an audio that's of fairly good quality. The orchestrations are fun and brassy, but the show really is hopeless and goes nowhere! (Guess Loudon had Nowhere To Go But Up!- Sorry I couldn't help myself.)
I'd never heard of The Lieutenant and had to look it up. Did you see it, After Eight? In addition to Mekka it was nominated for Best Musical, Book and Score. With all those nominations I wonder why it wasn't recorded...plus Mandelbaum didn't select it for Not Since Carrie. I wonder if MUFTI has even done this.
I like a lot of the score of Fig Leaves, and as you say, the orchestrations are perfect. SO much so, that I cringe at the thought of a hacked up concert version accompanied by one piano bar piano. The show was written to be heard with those great 60's orchestrations - if you can't use them, do something else.
That unfortunate "hippie" number, though ("Light One Candle") - it seems everyone had to have one back then (remember the awful "Weary Near to Dyin" from Henry, Sweet Henry?).
And if you're dedicated to showing us what the old flops were like, don't try, in your youthful hubris and inexperience, to "fix" it, please. Just show us what the authors wrote.
Two reasons why I plan to avoid Unsung Musical Company projects for now.
Sadly or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, Light One Candle was cut. Give Me a Cause and For Our Sake were also cut. In fact the characters of Billy and Cecelia were eliminated altogether.
I agree with you about wishing they would just present the shows as written. Anyone interested enough in attending a show like Fig Leaves probably wants to see the whole thing anyway, knowing full well that this will be a rare opportunity to witness a production.
I think Unsung Musical Company wants to try to turn these flops (How Now, Platinum, etc) into commercially viable properties. Of course they never will be, so all the tinkering is wasted effort.
Still, I'm glad to be able to hear most of the score sung live and finally put some more context around the songs.
Do you know anything about the song, Westchester Wildcat? It's not on my audio of the original production, but was performed last night by Lillian in the second act when she had a change of heart and decided to be a vamp. I assume Loudon would have had fun with it; maybe it was cut during previews?
I've never heard of "Westchester Wildcat," but the Playbill article linked below refers to as a song cut from the original Broadway show.
I find it hard to imagine the same character singing the uber-plaintive "For The Rest of My Life" as well as a vampy comic song in the same act of the same show. Sounds like such an abrupt gear shift, the transmission would fall out... Playbill.com article
I was a Partridge Family fan back in the day and at ten years old got Tiger Beat and the Official PF Magazine and 16 which all had monthly rehashed bios of the cast. I think I remember this show from those articles. Wasn't David Cassidy in this with his mother (who is NOT Shirley Jones, that's his stepmom)?
Geraldine Brooks in Brightower - 1 perf I think Marian Seldes was nominated for Father's Day - 1 perf Maya Angelou in Look Away - 1 perf. Zoe Caldwell won for Slapstick Tragedy - 7 perfs Mercedes McCambridge - The Love Suicide at Schofield Barracks - maybe 5 perfs Frances Sternhagen - the revival of The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window - 5 perfs and Angel - 5 perfs
There are a bunch of these single digit run nominees from the late 60s, 70s and 80s especially.
I don't think Evelyn Ward (David Cassidy's mom) was in FIG LEAVES with him at least not according to ibdb.
And I agree with newintown, if these companies are going to "revive" these shows do it as is or don't do it at all. it sounds like such a waste of time.
I totally get the purist mentality. Just doing a show as is to get a sense of exactly what it was. In theory, I might agree with you. Then I had to sit through this revival of The Figs Leaves are Falling.
Don't get me wrong The production had merit. A winning. cast, cute costumes, charming choreorgraphy. The score was on the cute side. But oh my god what a dull dull book.
If the show (as presented at Unsung Musicals) was even one minute longer, I may have screamed. The book is just god awful why am I sitting here listening to this. . They had to auction off a chicken in act two in the original to get people to stay.
Fig leaves is just a really bad musical because of its book. . Getting a taste of the nice score and idea of the book was certainly enough. That was an hour and a half I will never get back. I'm just thankful it wasn't 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
Your right, I seriously considered seeing this until I heard it was not the original script as seen in the 60's. I don't see the point now. Thanks BW, though, for cluing me in so no money wasted.
I saw the matinee today and enjoyed it. Running time was a bit over an hour, which was perfect. Performances were excellent, and I thought the variety show framework worked. It's certainly worth seeing.
I saw yesterday's matinee and enjoyed many of the songs and the performances, but its slight length made me wonder what had been eliminated. Was the TV show framework originally a part of the show? Then CATCH ME IF YOU CAN's similar setup was not so original as I'd thought. I got a kick out of all the'60s references such as Desmond Morris THE NAKED APE, Marshall McLuan and the influence of the miniskirt! Fun stuff. What struck me, though, was the perception of a 44-year-old as a stuffy, graying, middle-aged man. I don't think too many 44-year-olds today see themselves in that light.
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Posted: 1/10/13 at 10:13pm