Boston's Colonial Theatre, Where Broadway History Was Written, and Rewritten
By: Michael Dale Sep. 04, 2015
In these days when new musicals come to Broadway after years of readings, workshops and regional productions, then spend a month playing previews before opening, it's hard to believe that the standard procedure was once to schedule an opening night on Broadway, then spend a couple of weeks giving performances in Boston, Philadelphia or New Haven while rewriting the script, dropping and adding songs (or sometimes actors), before heading directly to New York for one or two previews prior to all the major critics attending your opening night performance.
It was a time when geniuses worked without a net, analyzing out-of-town reviews and reading the reactions of out-of-town audiences in a mad rush to make art that made money.
It was announced this week that Boston's 115-year-old Colonial Theatre, where so many notable (and not so notable) Broadway-bound productions worked out their kinks and licked their wounds, will be closing in October for at least a year. The future of the gorgeous space, now owned by Emerson College, has not been determined.
It would be a shame to lose a theatre where the chaos of creation flourished for decades.
1935: PORGY AND BESS: After spending the first half of the 1930s breaking new ground with a series of madcap political satire operettas, Pulitzer-winner OF THEE I SING being the most successful, George and Ira Gershwin teamed up with DuBose Heyward for something really surprising; a full-length American folk opera set in the slums of Charleston, South Carolina, with a nearly all African-American company. It was at the Colonial where audiences first heard musical treasures like "Summertime" and "It Ain't Necessarily So." This silent footage was shot during rehearsals. You can see director Rouben Mamoulian giving notes and a bit of the great vaudevillian John W. Bubbles' turn as Sportin' Life.
1936: RED, HOT AND BLUE: The Cole Porter musical that came in the next year was considerably lighter fare, with a plot concerning Ethel Merman's character having an unusual mark on her posterior from having sat on a waffle iron as a child. The biggest problem to resolve was that of the billing. Merman and Jimmy Durante were both promised the top spot. A compromise was created by having their names crisscross. In the silent footage below, taken at Broadway's Alvin Theatre, you can see Merman and Bob Hope in front of the curtain introducing the show's biggest hit, "It's De-Lovely!"
1943: AWAY WE GO!: At least that was the name of the show when it loaded into the Colonial. The reviews from the previous tryout in New Haven weren't promising but Rodgers and Hammerstein, and again, director Rouben Mamoulian, thought they had something special, despite producer Mike Todd's infamous assessment: "No legs, no jokes, no chance." Perhaps all it took was to write a catchy new song for the end of act two and to change the name of the show to that song's title. They were giving away free seats for OKLAHOMA!'s Broadway opening night. The next morning people were lining up around the block for tickets after reading the New York Times review.
1971: FOLLIES: Stop me if you've heard this one. FOLLIES is trying out at the Colonial. Yvonne De Carlo has a fun number about a boy who sure can f-f-f-f-f-foxtrot, but really, something meatier is needed. One day Stephen Sondheim comes into the theatre and hands Ted Chapin a new lyric to type up. This is the lyric.
Other shows that made stops at the Colonial on their way to Broadway: ANYTHING GOES, CAROUSEL, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, PROMISES, PROMISES, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES and GRAND HOTEL.
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