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Observations Along The Road - Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome / Im Cabaret, au Cabaret, to Cabaret

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(Roadkill along the Information Superhighway) 06:59 pm February 1st, 2009

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Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome / Im Cabaret, au Cabaret, to Cabaret

cahwyguy

Name: Daniel the California Highway Guy Website: California Highways About this Journal This Journal is a place for me to capture the ramblings in my life. You'll find out what is happening with me, as well as observations in my areas of interest, such as musicals, the news, the highways, books, and other such things. Feel free to share your observations with me.

cahwyguy

This afternoon, I gave into workplace pressure. You see, there were all these signs around the office about how the employee drama club was doing “Cabaret”. Add to that the fact that “Cabaret” was one of those Kander/Ebb I’d listened to for years, but had never actually seen. Yes, I knew it was community theatre.... and where community theatre fit in the hierarchy of theatre (e.g., the level of theatre raises particular expectations, and

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run the range from school performances (which can be downright painful), to community theatre (which can range from 100% non-actors to a mix of

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non-actors and training actors, as we had with The Aerospace Players), to

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non- or partial-Equity professional theatre (which can be excellent), to full-Equity professional productions). So, I went in with community theatre

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expectations... and for a community theatre, they didn’t do all that bad (only

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a few grimaces, and no urges to leave early). It wasn’t the caliber of acting, singing, and dancing I would see at Cabrillo or one of the Equity-waiver

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professional theatres. It was good community theatre.

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Now, let’s get into the specifics. Cabaret was Kander and Ebb’s second

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musical, and featured a book by Joe Masteroff based on John Van Druten’s

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play, “I Am A Camera”, which itself was adapted from the novel “Goodbye to Berlin” by Christopher Isherwood. The musical tells two intertwined

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stories taking place in 1931, just as the Nazis are rising in power: the first is a revue centered on the decadence of the seedy Kit Kat Club, the second is a

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story set in the real world in which the club existed. The basic plot concerns

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American writer Clifford Bradshaw and his visit to Berlin. After making a few friends and finding housing, Clifford visits the sleazy Kit Kat Club and meets an English singer, Sally Bowles. The writer and singer soon fall in

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love. Meanwhile, Clifford's elderly landlord, Fraulein Schneider, gets

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engaged to a Jewish greengrocer, Herr Schultz – not an easy decision given the increasing influence of the Nazis. Soon, Clifford discovers that he has

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German friend of his, Ernst Ludwig. Clifford ends up deciding to return to the United States but Sally, after aborting their baby, decides to remain in Berlin. As noted before, this story is told by intertwining scenes taking place in the Caberet that often echo what is happening in the real world, but in a more decadent or exaggerated sense. Thus, the “The Money Song” song echoes

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Cliff and Sally’s need for money; the title song “Cabaret” echoes how Sally views life. No where is this better seen than in the controversial song “If You Could See Here Through My Eyes” in the second act, where the MC dances with a gorilla that he purports to love, ending with the “If you could see her through my eyes/she wouldn’t look Jewish at all.”. In the original 1966

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version, that was too strong for the audience, so a song was added for the Jewish grocer to sing in the first act (“Meeskite”), and the lyric was changed to “she isn’t a meeskite at all”. The Aerospace Players wisely chose to go with

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the stronger version.

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So, how did The Aerospace Players do on this production? It was good

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community theatre. There were some outstanding performances (you can

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see some pictures of the cast here and here). I was very impressed by the excellent Meredith M. Sweeney (Sally Bowles). She’s an upcoming

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professional with a BFA in acting and good experience -- she sang well, she

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moved well, she acted well. I was also impressed with the Emcee, Drew Fitzsimmons, who has also done a lot of community theatre. Again, strong

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singing and dancing. As for the other major leads: I thought that Dave Fulton (Clifford Bradshaw) was OK with his acting, but his main singing

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number (“Don't Go”*) was weak. Jeri Snoke (Fraulein Schneider) was also

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OK in the acting department, but needed some more projection, especially when singing (this was really apparent in “So What” and “What Would You

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Do”)... although according to a co-worker who saw the production Friday

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night, she was much better, so this could have been an off performance.** Michael-Anthony Nozzi (Herr Schultz) was channeling Jack Gilford for a bit

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(which is a good thing), but there were times where it was overplayed... and

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again, his singing (“Married”) could be better.

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*

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: I originally had this as “Why Should I Wake Up?”, but the director noted to me that “Why Should I Wake Up:” was from the original 1966 score, but they removed that and added "Don't Go" in the 1987 revival, which was the primary source that they used for this production (although they took some pieces from both the 66 original and the 97 revival as well...). They didn't use "Why Should I Wake Up" at all.

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**

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: It was confirmed by the director that she was having vocal problems that performance. As for the rest of the ensemble (you can find a full cast list here): The Kit-Kat Girls (Jen James, Kerry Riccio, Mandy Juarez, Laura Hecht, Christina Rossi, Lauren Swanson) and boys (Steven Flowers, Roy Okida) could have been doing an excellent job portraying weak dancers in a seedy cabaret... but what came across to me (at least for the Kit Kat Club girls) is that they were focusing more on getting the moves right than enjoying the dance and being in the role. No gaffes, but no enthusiasm either. This was especially apparent in the “Two Ladies” number with James and Riccio:

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what should have come off as erotic (and could have easily, as those ladies

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had curves you don’t oft see these days) came off more mechanical. The secondary roles of Fraulein Kost (Jeannine Barba) and Ernst Ludwig (Bob

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Borich) were acted well; these roles don’t have significant songs of their own

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and did OK with “Tomorrow Belongs To Me”. The remainder of the small ensemble roles didn’t particularly stand out in either a strongly good nor

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strongly bad way.

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The production was directed by Bob Minnichelli, assisted by Flora Morin. It

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was produced by J.C. Kern (a boardgamer) assisted by Susan Tabak. The sets designed by Bob Minnichelli were adequate to the task. The lighting design by Edgar Calderon seemed to be from the Cabrillo school of lighting:

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if one follow spot is good; two must be better. The follow spots were actually fine for the Kit-Kat scenes, but they should have gone with a more natural lighting approach for the real-life scenes in order to distinguish the two

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better. Sound engineering was by Tim Edmondson and mostly worked well, although there were some disconcerting times where the microphones cut out. The costumes by Jennifer James, Kerry Riccio, Mary Ellen Vojtek,

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Jeannine Barba were OK, although I felt the Kit-Kat costumes could have

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been seedier and/or more revealing, but then again, they were already scared (evidence by "Mature Audience" warnings) that this show was too

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risque for their audience (which, when we saw the show, was about 90%

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people from the Red Hat Society--and as ellipticcurve noted, they didn’t look like Linux lovers). Hair and makeup by Carol Hitchcock, Karen

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Hill, Flora Morin was fine. You can find a full crew list here.

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Musically, the production was both good and weak. You can find the

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orchestra list at the bottom of this page. Someone seemed out of tune, or something seemed off, because there were just occasional flat notes. Again,

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that would be fine for the Kit-Kat band (which is supposed to be unprofessional), but where it was off in the realistic songs. The pit orchestra

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was enhanced by an on-stage quartet of Sandy Nitchman, Hugo Vazquez,

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Andy Meyer, Dave Champagne, who actually seemed to be pretty good (and whose male members seemed to enjoy dressing up as women).

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Cabaret continues at the James Armstrong Theatre through February 7th. Half-price tickets ($9) are available through Goldstar Events.

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As for us? As for us, next Sunday takes us back to the Ahmanson Theatre to see “Minsky’s” at 1:00pm. Valentine’s weekendtakes us to Burbank and

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“Candida” at the Colony Theatre on 2/15 @ 2pm. The following weekend is

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Pasadena , where on 2/21 @ 8pm we have “Stormy Weather” at the Pasadena Playhouse. March will also bring “Little Shop of Horrors” at Van

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Nuys HS (it is running March 12, 13, 14 and 19, 20, 21 -- let me or nsshere know if you want tickets). That’s all I have booked so far (other

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than season tickets, such as “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” at Rep East 3/13 through 4/11), but there a number of “shows of interest” I plan to

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ticket, including “big” at West Coast Ensemble (5/9-6/28); “The Green

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Room at Hermosa Beach Playhouse (5/19-5/31); “Is He Dead? at ICT Long Beach; and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at Theatre League Thousand Oaks

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(4/28-5/3).

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Tags: other-theatres, reviews, reviews-2009, theatre, theatre-2009

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How I'm Feeling: headachy What I'm Listening To: The Civil War (Studio Cast): Northbound Train

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Comments

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Thread started by Daniel the California Highway Guy

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From:

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cahwyguy

Date: February 4th, 2009 03:19 pm (UTC)

(Link To This)

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For the record, I received the following email from the director at work:

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Daniel,

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I checked out your theater review today. I think it was pretty candid and accurate -- I would agree

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with about 90% of it.

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Since critics don't normally get a direct link to the production staff, but you know that I am

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listening, I am curious -- what single "adjustment" might you recommend between opening and

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closing weekends to further improve the show? (Obviously, casting and/or orchestra staff changes are out of the question...)

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Bob

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P.S. I'll also confirm your speculation that Jeri (Fra Schneider) was having an "off performance" on Sunday. In fact, on Saturday, it was even worse, as she had no voice at all about 2 hours before curtain. Somehow, our vocal folks got her functional even for Saturday, and she pulled it off remarkably well. By Sunday, she was back to about 50%. So.... good guess.

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To be honest with you, I was surprised that you weren't tougher on the sound engineering -- the one consistent complaint I got this weekend was folks having trouble hearing the dialogue over the stage band in a couple of scenes. (Reply) (Thread)

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From:

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cahwyguy Date: February 4th, 2009 05:13 pm (UTC)

(Link To This)

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My reply to him: I checked out your theater review today. I think it was pretty candid and accurate -- I would agree with about 90% of it. Thanks. As with those in your group, it's not my day job, and I've been trying to get better at it

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over time. We see a lot of theatre (this weekend is Minsky's), and since 2004, I've been

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reviewing what I see. I think you did a good job with what you had.

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Since critics don't normally get a direct link to the production staff, but you know that I am

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listening, I am curious -- what single "adjustment" might you recommend between opening and closing weekends to further improve

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the show? (Obviously, casting and/or orchestra staff changes are out of the question...)

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Two things. One, I might try to figure out what instrument had the off note, and see if you can

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get it tuned. If I recall correctly, it was likely one of the horns, but I'm not an expert. You might also tweak the lighting for some of the scenes in Cliff's flat to bring up the realistic light (my daughter, who is studying lighting design at Van Nuys HS could

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give you the technical terms, and I'll ask her tonight), and tone down the two follow spots. Basically, you want to distinguish the realistics from the cabaret a bit more. Lastly, although I didn't explicitly note it, you might add a sound effect when the MC throws the brick through the window (on Sunday afternooon, it went through a bounced, which sorta spoiled the impact).

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P.S. I'll also confirm your speculation that Jeri (Fra Schneider) was having an "off

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performance" on Sunday. In fact, on Saturday, it was even worse, as she had no voice at all about 2 hours before curtain. Somehow, our vocal folks got her functional even for

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Saturday, and she pulled it off

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remarkably well. By Sunday, she was back to about 50%. So.... good guess.

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I'm glad to hear that. The person I had spoken with was (name redacted) in our department, who liked Jeri's performance when she saw the show Friday night.

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To be honest with you, I was surprised that you weren't tougher on the sound engineering -the one consistent complaint I got this weekend was folks having trouble hearing the

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dialogue over the stage band in a couple of scenes.

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I didn't have that problem, although there were one or two scenes where the mics seem to

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have gone out, but that was fixed. As I've seen that happen both at Cabrillo and the Ahmanson, it seems to be a part of life.

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By the way, if you want to see a good show in a small theatre, check out "A Streetcar Named Desire" being done at Rep East in Saugus (yes, we're valley folks). It is one of our favorite

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equity waiver theatres. For what's down this way, you might listen to and check out the

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music to "The Green Room". The CD is out, and it is getting its world premiere at Hermosa Beach Playhouse in May.

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(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

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From:

cahwyguy Date: February 4th, 2009 05:14 pm (UTC)

To

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His reply back to me: My wife and I are also going to see Minsky's this weekend, too, on Sunday. Should be interesting.

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And I've been wanting to see "Streetcar" for years, so we'll look into that, although the

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calendar's pretty full right now, and Saugus is a bit of a trek (since we're still in our "babysitter needed" years for adult entertainment, which was a real pain with both of us

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involved in "Cabaret"...)

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We did have a sound effect for the window crash, which worked just fine on Friday and

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Saturday -- our sound guy just missed his cue on Sunday.... Way back when, the

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Armstrong used to let us do a lot more of our own tech, including sound board and spot lights, which actually seemed to work better. Now that we have to use (and pay) their

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"professionals" for that, it's actually not as reliable. We do still build our own sets and run our own scene changes, etc.

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I like the idea of softening the spots on the realistic scenes some -- we'll check that out. I think any flatness you might have heard in the brass section may just be where we stand in terms of orchestra quality at this point -- I'm guessing in the French horns. Although

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we did have a sub for the 2nd trombone on Sunday, but he is a very good player, so I'm guessing it wasn't him. I'll mention your note to the conductor and see if he's noticed anything similar. A few flat notes aside, though, I think we probably still have the best

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volunteer pit orchestra in the region....

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Thanks for the feedback.

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Bob

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P.S. Just for accuracy's sake, the song that you meant to pan Cliff for is actually "Don't Go". "Why Should I Wake Up" was from the original 1966 score, but they removed that

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and added "Don't Go" in the 87 revival, which is the primary source that we used for this

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production (although we took some pieces from both the 66 original and the 97 revival as well...); we didn't use "Why Should I Wake Up" at all.

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(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

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