Productions
Flora the Red Menace opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre on May 11, 1965 and closed on July 24, 1965, after 87 performances. The cast featured Liza Minnelli as Flora, Bob Dishy as Harry Toukarian and Cathryn Damon as Comrade Charlotte. Direction was by George Abbott, choreography by Lee Theodore, with scenic design by William and Jean Eckart, costume design by Donald Brooks and lighting design by Tharon Musser. Minnelli won the Tony Award, the youngest person to do so at age 19, until Frankie Michaels won in 1966 at age 11.
Flora was not written for Minnelli, as is sometimes said; Robert Russell was rumored to have written the show as a vehicle for Barbra Streisand. George Abbott became involved and thought it would be a vehicle for Eydie Gormé. Receiving promising out-of-town reviews in New Haven and Boston, the show was recorded two days before its Broadway opening. However, the New York critics were not enthusiastic, and when it closed it had lost almost all of its $400,000 investment.
The New York Times reviewer wrote: "The voice is not yet distinctive... She is going to be a popular singer, all right. It has the appearance of being pasted together with bits and pieces. A promising idea has not been enlivened by a creative spark."
The musical was revived at the Off-Broadway Vineyard Theatre in December 1987 with a new book by David Thompson. Directed by Scott Ellis with choreography by Susan Stroman, Flora was played by Veanne Cox with Peter Frechette as Harry.
Other notable productions include:
Brighton Little Theatre, UK, 1998, directed by Simon Cross and musically directed by Gary Nock.
Dundee Repertory Theatre, Scotland, autumn 2003.
42nd Street Moon (San Francisco, California) presented the musical in concert in November - December 2006.
"Reprise! Broadway's Best" production, Freud Theatre (Los Angeles, California) - May 6 through May 18, 2008, with Eden Espinosa as Flora.
Oberlin College, 2011, notable for John Kander returning to his alma mater to consult on the production.
All Star Productions at Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre Pub in Walthamstow, East London - 15th May to 1st June 2012.
1st Stage Theatre of McLean, Virginia - May 18 to June 17, 2012.
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Famous quotes containing the word productions:
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—Thomas Brackett Reed (1839–1902)
“It is well known, that the best productions of the best human intellects, are generally regarded by those intellects as mere immature freshman exercises, wholly worthless in themselves, except as initiatives for entering the great University of God after death.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“If in many of my productions terror has been the thesis, I maintain that terror is not of Germany, but of the soul.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)