La Strada (musical) - Productions and Background

Productions and Background

The musical had its out of town tryouts at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit, Michigan starting on October 27, 1969. La Strada opened on December 14, 1969 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway after 14 previews. The show was directed by Alan Schneider, with choreography by Alvin Ailey and Joyce Trisler. It closed the same night, losing $650,000.

There was a studio cast "concept album" produced in 1967 by Lionel Bart and Chris Curtis, with Madeline Bell in the Gelsomina role. In 1994, Bayview Records re-released this recording. Only two or three songs remained in the final play as produced on Broadway. In discussing La Strada's problems, Steven Suskin wrote that Lionel Bart apparently did not go to the United States to assist during rehearsals, and neither the director (Alan Schneider) nor the choreographer (Alvin Ailey) had previously done a Broadway musical. Peters confirms that Bart never worked on the show in New York in this interview: "The script really wasn't ready, and Lionel Bart was never coming over. Marty Charnin and his partner at the time rewrote it."

Ken Mandelbaum wrote about La Strada in his book, Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Flops. During try-outs, the original strongman, Vincent Beck as Zampano, was replaced. He discusses that all but three of the original songs were replaced. Furthermore, "...it followed a relentlessly bleak, tragic screenplay, it emerged as one of the most depressing musicals ever... Bernadette Peters, in her first Broadway lead, did not let the show down...The score was not bad, particularly Peters haunting opening "Seagull, Starfish, Pebble" written by Lawrence and Charnin..."

Although bootleg live recordings of the score are known to exist, no original cast album was ever commercially released. Two songs from the show were later included on an obscure EP entitled Martin Charnin's Mini Album: 5 Great Songs from Not-So-Great Shows, which was released in 1976 by Take Home Tunes (later to become Original Cast records). One of these songs, "Sooner or Later" was performed by Larry Kert, who had been an original cast member. A recording of "Starfish", as performed by Judy Kuhn, was included on the anthology Unsung Musicals, released by Varèse Sarabande in 1994.