Productions
The pre-Broadway tryout opened at the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia on March 21, 1977. The Broadway production opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on April 17, 1977 and closed on May 20, 1979, after 857 performances and seven previews. Directed by Gene Saks and choreographed by Onna White, the cast included James Naughton as Wally, Joanna Gleason as Monica, Lenny Baker, as Alvin, Ilene Graff as Cleo, Michael Mark (Guitar) as Stanley, Joseph Saulter (Drummer) as Quenton, John Miller (bass) as Harvey, and Ken Bichel (Piano) as Norman. During the show's run, cast replacements include Tom and Dick Smothers, Tom Wopat, Janie Sell and, in an African American version, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs and Hattie Winston. Don Farrar RPT tuned the piano for the Tom & Dick Smothers Broadway production.
Original director and choreographer Joe Layton was replaced due to injuries sustained in a fall.
The West End production opened on October 6, 1977 at the Prince of Wales Theatre, where it ran for 401 performances. It was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Musical of the Year. The show originally starred Porridge and Rising Damp star Richard Beckinsale, who was replaced as the lead mid-run by Confessions of a Window Cleaner actor Robin Askwith.
The band consisted of four on-stage musicians who were among the friends and acted in the opening scene. The show was filled with their shenanigans in the background during the songs. They sang along with some of the numbers and sometimes one of them took a solo and sang alone.
The Helen Hayes Theatre in Nyack, New York presented the musical in April 2004.
A production was staged by the Reprise Theatre Company, Brentwood Theatre, Brentwood, California, in December 2008. The musical starred Jason Alexander (Alvin), Vicki Lewis (Cleo), Patrick Cassidy (Wally), and Lea Thompson (Monica).
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Famous quotes containing the word productions:
“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)
“If you think it will only add one sprig to the wreath the country twines to bind the brows of my hero, I will run the risk of being sneered at by those who criticize female productions of all kinds. ...Though a female, I was born a patriot.”
—Annie Boudinot Stockton (1736–1801)