What were Broadway musicals and theater in general like in the 70s?

OMG I would kill to have seen Ben Vereen in "Pippin".

Too young to see any shows in the 1960s but I loved Annie and the revival of Oklahoma! (London). Sweeney Todd is as vivid a memory as it is possible to have after 40 years. I still know about 95% of the lyrics.

Audiences were more sophisticated in those days, OP.

People dressed up to go to the theater and didn't eat during performances.

LuPone and Patinkin in "Evita" must have been pretty fucken amazing.

My stepmother was really into this. She sort of dragged meand my Dad to the L.A. Music Center a few times. We saw Evita with Patti Lupone and Mandy Pantinkin, before it went to Broadway. We also saw The Wiz but after it had been on Broadway. We saw Pal Joey '78 with Lena Horne. I think we saw The Producers and maybe a couple more. This was all in the 1970s and I was forced to wear a leisure suit. In the 1970s, it seemed, stage musicals were all about the big production numbers. The stories were minimal and perfunctory. Just basically one song after another, some big, some small. I don't recall going to see any plays with them.

Here you go, r1.

[quote]This was all in the 1970s and I was forced to wear a leisure suit.

LOL

My high school class play went to see Pippin. For most of us, it was the first real professional show. We were fucking enthralled, ecstatic, and so happy. We had shit seats, but it was fantastic. I remember it over 40 years later.

WOW! That is such a great clip and song. Isn't it rare to capture a stage musical on film so well? - sorry, I mean the Pippin clip.

You're adorable, R6.

Thanks R7, I love that number. The chorus boy who appears first at about1:58 is HAF and must have been a great lay -- you can tell by the way he moves.

[quote]I think we saw The Producers and maybe a couple more. This was all in the 1970s

"The Producers" didn't exist until 2001.

Theater was dying in the 70s before A Chorus Line revived it, and even then it wasn't an across the board resurrection. The city was nearly bankrupt and tourism was at an alltime low because of how dirty, disgusting and outright dangerous the streets were.

Godspell, Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar were all early 70s. I think they were all imports from London...or was Godspell American?

I saw Pussy Hair.

Godspell was a good show, a LOT of good numbers it in.

Godspell was American. Started Off-Broadway.

[quote] Godspell, Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar were all early 70s. I think they were all imports from London...or was Godspell American?

Joseph didn't hit Broadway until 1983. They had a short, unsuccessful production of it at BAM (I think) in 76, but it did not play NYC before then. Godspell was Off-Broadway and finally transferred to Bway for a short run (also in 76), and Jesus Christ Superstar ran 18 months.

In musical theater, the 70s were the decade of genius directors and choreographers: Bob Fosse, Hal Prince, Michael Bennett, Tommy Tune.

And, of course, writers like Sondheim and Kander and Ebb.

Incomparable, uncompromising talent. Where is today's Michael Bennett?

[quote] Where is today's Michael Bennett?

Yoo-hoo! Right here.

R7's PIPPIN clip doesn't capture the whole opening number as it was done on Broadway. It was actually better. As part of the magic tricks, the Leading Player pulls a scarf from the floor of the stage. He continues pulling it - higher and higher - until at the end of the scarf is the entire rope set for the first act, all rising out of the floor. Magic indeed!

I love when Fran Lebowitz talks about the gay audiences of this era.

"Someone would move a finger a little bit this way....NO!"

*****F*O*L*L*I*E*S*****

^ spoken like a true DLer

I saw Ben Vereen and the adorable William Katt in Pippin. Also Imogene Coca in On the Twentieth Century and others. The two I just mentioned were mediocre. (William Katt, however....)

On the other hand, the 1970s were a brilliant period for Sondheim. (Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd). 1981's Merrily We Roll Along was panned, but it's done well in revival.

So sorry you missed Pippin. It was glorious. I saw it with the original cast, including John Rubinstein and Ben Vereen. Another gem from the 70s is Joe Papp's Two Gentlemen of Verona, with the incomparable (and dreamy) Raul Julia.

I did manage to find the DVD for Pippin with William Katt. He's very good; not much of a drop off from Rubinstein.

[quote]So sorry you missed Pippin.

Me too.

[quote]Another gem from the 70s is Joe Papp's Two Gentlemen of Verona, with the incomparable (and dreamy) Raul Julia.

Actually, I saw that in London. Though I can't remember a thing.

Also "Gypsy".

[quote]Godspell, Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar were all early 70s. I think they were all imports from London...or was Godspell American?

Jesus Christ Superstar started out as a concept album recorded in London in 1970, but it was first staged on Broadway in'71; it transferred to the West End the following year.

There were a lot of fantastic shows in that decade, but it didn't seem to be groundbreaking as far as costume design is concerned. There are a few standouts, but I find much of it to be underwhelming, for whatever reason.

I saw SJP as ANNIE, Glenn Close in BARNUM, Debbie Allen in WEST SIDE STORY, Katherine Hepburn in WESTSIDE WALTZ, Sandy Duncan in PETER PAN, Gwen/Chita/Jerry in CHICAGO, Ann Reinking/Sandahl Bergman in DANCIN’....the big difference, back then, people got dressed up to go to the theater, music was rarely pre-recorded and buying tickets was a crapshoot..unless you were at the box office, mail order basically got you whatever section was available.....When TKTS first started, it was a big deal.

I remember being transfixed by The Wiz. Yes, there had been 'black' shows before (like Pearl Bailey's Dolly), but Geoffrey Holder's vision, design and choreography was remarkable. He took a story and characters that everyone new, and provided a novel approach. It's too bad that the film version of The Wiz sucked donkey balls.

He tried the magic again with transforming Kismet into Timbuktu!, but it lacked the magic of The Wiz.

Very clever. Not old Broadway but timely

"But I'm the bride..."

A Chorus Line sucked. The characters were one predictable stereotype after another.

Of course, the characters and dialogue of A Chorus Line were taken directly from the stories of the real Broadway performers, sometimes verbatim. So, then Broadway chorus people must be stereotypes, which then make them not stereotypes, but reality.

I saw some non-musical theater back then, most memorably "Dracula" with Frank Langella and "The Elephant Man" with David Bowie.

[quote]music was rarely pre-recorded

In all fairness, technically speaking, it's rarely pre-recorded now. Some of the vocals in Phantom aside.

But I get your point; all the layers and samples and loops in the orchestra make for an artificial, pre-recorded sound.

When did performers being using mics?

I think A Chorus Line was as good as they said - I was 13 when I saw it on B'way, way too young.

Fran Lebowitz said there was a level of connoisseurship among NYC gays back in the 70s that is unsurpassed to this day, and that the ones who died of AIDS were truly the most brilliant and talented because they received the most sexual attention. The ones who survived are the ‘B’ level, I’m paraphrasing but that’s basically what she said on the record.

anyway, Sunday matinees used to be the day to see TRUE NYC theater goers. It wasn’t a dressy day and most of the tourists weren’t going on Sundays, so the NYC connoisseurs would go. You’d recognize them because they’d be the ones reading a folded section of The Times in the audience before the show started. It wasn’t an ‘event’ like going to the theater (pre pandemic) wound up, it wasn’t $400 tickets and an expensive dinner, and cocktails in sippy cups and tacky merchandise.

I believe the baths even had Sunday specials where you could actually leave the building for a few hours during matinee time, and return.

a different time. All gone.

R40 a civilization gone with the wind!

Fran Leibowitz looks back on the era and wistfully bemoans her lost youth. It's common when you reach her age.

^^ Lebowitz

The 1970s gave us Company, Applause, Seesaw, Mack and Mabel, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Ballroom.

As enjoyable as that number is, r7, the 2013 revival’s is a completely different animal. The original is intriguing, while the revival’s is exhilarating (not to mention the chorus is certainly hotter).

R45 Is that because of the '70s hideous styles? I have never seen a more ugly decade.

^^ 80s were uglier.

At least in the '80s men cut their hair and did not look like women/girls.

^^ Mike Pence

[quote]^^ 80s were uglier.

The 2000s were the ugliest.

I mean...talk about "gurl, puhlease!"

R6, I might have seen you there. But my parents also brought me to the Shubert in Century City where I saw Follies, Gypsy with Angela Lansbury, ALNM with Jean Simmons and gasp, Margaret Hamilton and others. The Wiz was so much better in LA than Brooadway with Ren Woods infinitely better than Stephanie Mills and Dee Dee Bridgewater playing both Aunt Em and Glinda.

Here is William Katt singing Corner of the Sky from Pippin in 1981.

They were FLAMBOYANT and DRAMATIQUE.

Why are you cheap bitches watching short Pippin clips on Youtube? Amazon Prime has a full Ben Vereen production with William Katt

David Sheehan produced the Pippin production. He was the entertainment reporter for CBS LA and just died this week. Fosse hated the Pippin production.

My parents stated taking us to Broadway once a year in as a Christmas gift around 75 and more often once I was in high school. We saw mostly the more conventional / popular productions; and usually sat waaaay back in the balcony;, but i clearly remember going to all these shows 40 odd years later.

The Magic Show; The Wiz; Annie with McArdle & SJP; Duncan in Peter Pan; Pirates of Penzance with Ronstadt, Kline & Estelle Parsons; Langella in Dracula (the sets made me seek out Gorey’s books); Kline & Coca in On the 20th Century (I was again enthralled by the stagecraft) and LuPone & Patinkin in Evita; twice. Also Gemini; A Chorus Line; A Day In Hollywood A Night in The Ukraine; & Lucie Arnaz in They’re Playing Our Song.

Shows were expensive, but not crazy expensive - my dad was a teacher so the cheap seats were in reach. There was more of a pared down aesthetic to many of the productions - Evita / Wiz/ Magic Show. But the use of the double conveyor belt in Annie, the flying in Peter Pan, the revolving stage in Dracula, the Victorian storybook look of Penzance and all of 20th Century was very impressive to me at the time.

I saw a lot of those shows too r56.

You were luckier than me. We went to matinees so Lupone, Patinkin, and Kline and Parsons in Pirates were all out the day I went.

I hated it that we saw understudies.

Well R57 Madeline Kahn and Doug Henning had both left their productions before we got to see then. .

I remember how audiences would collectively groan if they made any kind of pre-show announcement; assuming they were about to announce an understudy even if it was just the “no flash photography” injunction. It must suck to be an understudy and hear that before you get to go on.

I give my parents a lot of credit for going out of their way to expose us to things in the city - that wasn’t the norm in our neighborhood.

R58 Where was your neighborhood?

Yeah they stopped doing that announcement thing and started the flyers in the program to prevent the groaning.

Now they are pretty good if a major star is out they often will put notes on the door.

I saw Annie with SJP in the chorus (she later took over the role and really must have been a disappointment for people used to the album and McCardle's belt. There's a youtube video with them all the Annies and she is a strangely weak singer. Not sure how she got the job.)

It was a big thrill to see Alice Ghostley from Bewitched though. She was the first star I ever saw. Then Arnaz and Robert Klein in They're Playing....

My biggest regret was that we saw Sugar Babies instead of Sweeney Todd with Louden and Hearn. I forget why really. I think my father thought it sounded too outlandish for a musical.

[quote]David Sheehan produced the Pippin production. He was the entertainment reporter for CBS LA and just died this week. Fosse hated the Pippin production.

Why'd Fosse hate it? Isn't it pretty much his production?

I saw Joanne Worley and Dick Gautier in "Evita" at The Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre in Jupiter, FL- 1979.

Dick Gautier was an object of my youthful lust for his game show appearances.

Lucky you r62!!!

R62 I saw Ruth Buzzi there in EVITA circa 1988.

R60 she was considered the “actress” and most winning personality of the bunch, with which I have to agree. She’s the first to admit she didn’t get the part because of her voice.

She was also 14 and was TINY — the size of most 9 year olds, and there was ALWAYS an issue of Annie’s growing out of the part way too fast. So that certainly helped. Eventually they just started casting much younger Annie’s.

and now she works in a shoe store r65

poor SJP

Right next to the landfill R69.

[quote]Eventually they just started casting much younger Annie’s.

Allison Smith from Kate and Allie was they young one they hired from a talent search that was televised (she wasn't exactly plucked out of nowhere like the show made it seem...she was in the chorus of Evita.)

Anyway she did it for years. A long time. Most of the end of the run. There was one more who only did the last few months.

^^^Excuse me - R59. Those shows were all pre reading glasses.

R68 yeah that’s exactly what I meant. I think she was 10 when they cast her, so she stayed for 2-3 years I think.

I know she technically had a much stronger voice than someone like SJP, but I couldn’t stand it. So fucking nasal and shrill imo.

Great era for performers, great era for choreography and stagecraft. Great era for Sondheim. Great era if you wanted to see musicals based on the Bible (there were too many of them).

Not so great an era for lyrics and music, other than by Sondheim. Let's be honest.

I've always loved SOndheim's lyrics, but never been much of a fan of his music, TBH.