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They should do a tribute to the British Musical theater(Lloyd Webber)


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I think that they should do a tribute the London's musical theater scene(Andrew Lloyd Webber in particular) during the opening or closing ceremony. I think when the cauldron is extinguish they could bring in one the stars from "Cats" to sing "Memory". Would be a very approiate song for that segment.

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Sorry but no they shouldnt. I hate musicals and so do a majority of people

Well, funny. LES MIZ just did a grand 25th anniversary production. There were like 3 companies playing it in London; and they just finished filming the $95 million movie version for release in December!

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA has been playing 16 years on Broadway (since 1988).

The London company of CHICAGO will close September 1, running for 15 years.

THe awful SPIDERMAN musical on Broadway has survived the worst reviews, NO TONY nominations, a lawsuit, and yet is running strong for possibly another 2 years!!

WICKED is still the most sold out show on Broadway after 8 years!!

Companies of MAMMA MIA, LES MIZ, LION KING are all playing, long healthy return engagements at ll the major cities of the world....all at TOP TICKET PRICES, in a global recession!! And you say, people do NOT like musical theatre?

Are we living on the same planet? :blink:

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Either people love musicals or they hate them. There's not a lot in between. I would argue that London is the world's greatest theater town -- but that's more for the quality of their straight plays than musicals. The best way to showcase that high-quality theatrical tradition is to make the Opening Ceremony a work of art in it's own right. I really don't think a retrospective of British musical theater will serve them well.

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There are a LOT of people who worked with musical theatre involved with the show. My God, the co-artistic Director, Stephen Daldry, is a renowned musical theatre director (uhmmm....BILLY ELLIOTT? (maybe not my favorite show, but that's beside the point).

The point is you need some bkgd in musical theatre in order to be able to tell a narrative in song and dance...and Olympic ceremonies have long moved in that direction.

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Stephen Daldry is actually far better known as a director of straight plays -- most notably his dramatic reinterpretation of "An Inspector Calls." He also directed the Oscar-nominated films "Billy Elliott", "The Hours" and "The Reader." He was nominated as best director for all three. The reason he directed "Billy Elliott The Musical" was because he had directed the film. Musical theater was actually a significant departure for him.

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/\/\ Whatever. The point is a good number of the key staffers have theatre/musical theatre/ performing arts credentials to their resumes...and I think musical theatre experience is the best because that field forces its practitioners to know how to tell a story theatrically...which is what the Ceremonies are all about.

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/\/\ Whatever.

Typical, Baron. Somebody disproves your point with facts and you dissmiss them with a casual "whatever." Then you argue that you were making a different point all along.

The fact is that the big names involved in the OC are known more for film than anything else -- with some theater experience (mainly in straight plays) thrown in. We're not getting Cameron Mackintosh, Trevor Nunn and Andrew Lloyd Webber. If we were, then you'd have a point.

The OC is not musical theater. It's a one-of-a-kind spectacular that can't be easily likened to any other form because of it's scale, diverse components and ritual aspect. Plus, it has to work in person and on tv. One could argue that it has more in common with a major parade than a musical theater show -- I won't though. I think it's most accurate to say its a very strange and unusual beast that will most likely be free of West End song and dance.

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There are a LOT of people who worked with musical theatre involved with the show. My God, the co-artistic Director, Stephen Daldry, is a renowned musical theatre director (uhmmm....BILLY ELLIOTT? (maybe not my favorite show, but that's beside the point).

The point is you need some bkgd in musical theatre in order to be able to tell a narrative in song and dance...and Olympic ceremonies have long moved in that direction.

Preaching to the choir?

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Contrary to multiple posts youve written for this thread, the reality is that you do not need West End/Broadway musical theater practitioners to stage great a great OC (think Beijing, Athens). In fact, I can't think of a single prominent musical theater director who has been involved with an OC. Hal Prince? Susan Stroman? Jack O'Brien? Bart Sher? Julie Taymor? Trevor Nunn? -- no to all of the above. The closest you get is Papaioannou who is an avant garde impresario and visual artist -- certainly not traditional musical theater. He has no involvement with B'way or the West End.

To the contrary, film directors are a more common choice -- and that is the case with London too. Can you name any big musical theater producer or director involved with London's OC? Daldry's single foray into adapting his film of Billy Elliot doesn't count in my opinion, his career is built on straight plays and Oscar nominated films and it's that experience that got him the nod.

As the self-proclaimed ceremony expert, you don't do yourself any favors with your baseless proclamations or condescension.

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Uhmmm... I DIDN'T say they had to have that pedigree. This is just like your comparing Denver's 1976 self-inflicted debacle to the Holocaust.

I said was that, TO MY MIND, they were the MOST QUALIFIED to stage Ceremonies, For your info...LA 1984 had Ron Feld, Dee Dee Wood and Joe Layton as their choreographers. Nagano had Keito Asari who (and I am rushing out so no time to check further...but you have all the time in the owrld to do so, so kindly do...) was a theatrical impresario, I believe.

These Organizing Committees tend to pick film directors who then back themselves up with people w/ theatrical bkgds. I would pick people w/ spectacle/musical theatre bkgds and then ADD on people who do rock concerts and other sorts of big event experience. That's WHAT I'm trying to say.

Now off to the movies...

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Uhmmm... I DIDN'T say they had to have that pedigree.

Really?

The point is you need some bkgd in musical theatre in order to be able to tell a narrative in song and dance...and Olympic ceremonies have long moved in that direction.

(Emphasis mine.)

This is just like your comparing Denver's 1976 self-inflicted debacle to the Holocaust.

The whole point is that there IS NO COMPARISON. The IOC went back to Germany a mere 30 years after the Holocaust. You're arguing they won't be willing to go to Denver 50 years after the referendum. Seems silly to me too.

For your info...LA 1984 had Ron Feld, Dee Dee Wood and Joe Layton as their choreographers. Nagano had Keito Asari who (and I am rushing out so no time to check further...but you have all the time in the owrld to do so, so kindly do...) was a theatrical impresario, I believe.

Choreographers work in many fields -- not just musical theater. Employing some as part of a creative team is not evidence that the OC needs the input of B'way and West End practitioners. Choreographers are not generally the visionaries behind the OC's conception (except in the case of Athens, but he was so multi-talented that it's a different matter). Referring to LA to justify your point, doesn't reveal a whole lot since the Olympics have moved AWAY from the style of LA's daytime OC and towards a much different aesthetic. David Wolper (tv producer) was the mind behind LA's OC anyway. A Japanese impresario is a pretty far cry from the Great White Way as well....

These Organizing Committees tend to pick film directors who then back themselves up with people w/ theatrical bkgds. I would pick people w/ spectacle/musical theatre bkgds and then ADD on people who do rock concerts and other sorts of big event experience. That's WHAT I'm trying to say.

Except that isn't what you said. You talked about Daldry as a director of musical theater and (although he won the Tony) he really isn't. Of course the ceremonies need a massive crew of people with experience with live events. No one is contesting that. This thread started off explicitly suggesting the incorporation of musical theater into the OC -- an idea which you heartily applauded. You then said London had many people with musical theater backgrounds involved with the show. Can you name a single one?

There are a LOT of people who worked with musical theatre involved with the show.

Who?

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/\/\ The point is a good number of the key staffers have theatre/musical theatre/ performing arts credentials to their resumes...and I think musical theatre experience is the best because that field forces its practitioners to know how to tell a story theatrically...which is what the Ceremonies are all about.

Here you're starting to twist your argument by adding "performing arts credentials" -- but that's clearly a different matter. OF COURSE they have performing arts credentials.

If musical theater experience really is the best for developing an OC, why haven't we seen Prince, O'Brien, Stroman, Taymor, Nunn get involved with Olympic OCs? Why do you have to reach back to LA's outdated model to find even the thinnest support if the Olympics are moving this direction?

Baron, the truth is that the role of musical theater in the OC is really not of the utmost importance to me. I've engaged you in this conversation as a way of pointing out your tendency to fabricate information with an air of authority and then cavalierly dismiss factual objections to your arguments. Hey, if NYC lands the Games I can totally see them enlisting Julie Taymor's support. I don't think musical theater input is a bad thing, but I don't think it's as necessary as you argued initially.

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