A Grand Night for Singing
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Category: Producing Theater
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URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2525
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Topic: A Grand Night for Singing
Posted By: Scott B
Subject: A Grand Night for Singing
Date Posted: 7/11/07 at 3:54pm
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I just received the librettos for Grand Night for Singing and Some Enchanted Evening. I tried to find a cast CD for Some Enchanted, but the CDs I'm finding under that name is more a compilation of songs with full orchestration as opposed to being from the stage show. GN looks to me to be MUCH better than SEE. SE looks like it has mostly solos (which can be good), but very dumbed down ... short and choppy. Grand Night's arrangements look just awsome. So ... can anyone tell me the approx. running time of the show? Also ... did you utilize a lot of dance? Other than Shall We Dance I don't believe that I saw any actual dance breaks written into the show. I know that it's going to need "some" and that there will be a lot of choreographed movement, etc., but while I can find really good vocalists ... our area is not known for great dancers.  How about the orchestra needs? I've got a good accompanist, can probably get a bass and percussion. I "might" even be able to get a lady that plays the harp. But ... could I get by with just piano and bass if I had to? If you've done this show and can help with those questions it will be greatly appreciated. Thanks ... |
Replies:
Posted By: tristanrobin
Date Posted: 7/12/07 at 7:45am
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Scott, try PBS's store. They showed a taped version of "Some Enchanted Evening" several years ago (I don't remember everybody, but I know Julie Andrews was in it). They often sell dvd's (or videos) of their taped stage shows.
Just a thought. oh - if you're interested - here is the NYTimes review of the original production: http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?_r=1&res=9E0CEEDD123BF93AA15752C1A964958260&oref=slogin |
Posted By: Linda S
Date Posted: 7/12/07 at 10:12am
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Hi Scott, I'm directing "A Grand Night For Singing" for the second time, as we speak. I'm three weeks into rehearsal with an amazing cast of five. I believe that the running time is just over two hours with the intermission. I think you are correct about the assessment of the two shows "Grand night" is a much better ensemble show. The five part harmonies are tight and brilliant to listen too. At last night's rehearsal they all agreed that they could sing close harmonies like that everyday. It is magically beautiful. I found there to be a fair amount of dancing in the show. I have choreographed 7 numbers from the show. I suppose you could cut some of them. I do have a dancer in the show; her numbers are more choreographed. For the rest of them, they are simple, but add so much to the overall balance of the show. These are the notes I gave the the choreographer. (The numbers refer to the the tracks on the CD)
Dance Numbers 1. It’s A Grand Night for Singing: Short / Full Cast 7. Honey Bun: Jazzy / Full Cast 10. I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair : Andrew’s Sisters / Women 12. Shall We Dance: Mix styles comic / Stephen & Lorelie * The Man I Use To Be: Short / Mixed styles/ Stephen, Kelsey&Lorelie, 16. Kansas City: Jazzy / Stephen, Kelsey, Lorelie, Lynn 18. It’s Me: Lorelie (show girl style) 20. A Lovely Night: Kelsey & Bob/ Stephen & Lorelie (Waltz) *Not on the CD. My first pit consisted of piano, reeds and drums/percussion. There are lots of triangle, and fun sound effects if you can get someone to do that. For my current pit we have piano, reeds, drums/ percussion, cello & harp. I really wouldn't want to do the show without the reeds. There is so much flute in the arrangements, but if all you had was piano and bass I'm sure you could make it work.Good luck with the show. I hope you have as fun with it as we are. It is wonderful.
Linda
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Posted By: Scott B
Date Posted: 7/12/07 at 5:15pm
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Linda .... Thank you so much! This is excellent information and just what I needed. If all I need are 7 songs to be choreographed then that's Heaven! I think I can live with that. I knew it wasn't going to be just a "stand there and sing" type of atmosphere. We're in a very small community and have limited resources whether it's the venue, musicians or actors. Luckily I have a great accompanist, locked in, two of my actors, someone to help me with the music, and a lead on two harpists. (I can't get a drummer but I can a harp?) If this ends up being too much for one or two of the actors I might be able to fill in with a couple of extras to pick up a few of the vocals. I can sing, but dancing would be out of the question. However ... my goal is to find five people that really click together. Anyway ... thanks again for the information. I'm going to save it to Word and then print it out! Please ... feel free to keep me up to date on your progress along with the results of your efforts. We won't be doing ours till October. Thanks ... Scott |
Posted By: trcg
Date Posted: 7/20/07 at 2:31pm
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We just finished producing Some Enchanted Evening. The music is beautiful. The script is not much so our director made a story. She also increased the cast size to 13 instead of the 5 it called for. Our director has performed in Grand Night as well. Difference is Some Enchanted Evening is more classic where Grand Night updates a bit. This is the best way I can describe this. The audience loved Some Enchanted Evening. Just a note the vocal score is really hard to read. It is hand written and some parts are very faint and hard to read all together so you need to use the liberatto to double check some of the words. SEE calls for two piano players and we only used one. Also you said SEE looked like it solo's and choppy with our cast expanded it was not. For example Puzzlement was sung by 5 men set in today's world. Our second act of the show was a Garden party as the show-as I said the director made more of a story from the songs. At one point the men all left their jackets and other items laying around and the women came in shaking their heads at the mess and then went into Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair. We had 3 men singing the son about My Boy Bill each and different solos and then sung together as well. One of the men sang about he may be President of the United States...on the other side of the stage we had a young man being this boy Bill. It worked very well. There is no CD or video of SEE available. Renee |
Posted By: Scott B
Date Posted: 7/20/07 at 3:25pm
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Renee ... Thanks for the information on SEE. One of my actors went to see it last fall (did not know this when I first wrote) and they assessed the show much the same as I without seeing it. They felt that it didn't stand up musically quite as well as Grand Night ... said it was just ... ok. It sounds as though you had a great director for your show. Unfortunately we're not that lucky ... they just have me.  It'll only be my second show that I directed ... the first one being Forever Plaid ... and I'm not near as creative as most on this board.We haven't officially received the rights for the show yet, but we've never been turned down before ... but SEE would be an alternative should that happen. |