djlivliv:

musicaltheatredramaturgy:

• Start with what’s on the page
• Eliminate the “Cringe Factor”- things that might offend now but weren’t considered unduly incorrect a the time that the show was written
• Set it correctly, then get it out of the way and run with it
• Emphasize the element of audience participation
• The “show within the show” concept
• The structure of classic musicals has always been to invite audience participation
• Research

“Yes, we do have to dust it off and give it a lift…but let’s not throw away what was gold to begin with.”- Kathleen Marshall

Hm… so why did she retain the Plum Blossom subplot in Anything Goes?!

I guess I’d like to see some of Ms Marshall’s actual wording before being too critical.  But this doesn’t seem like a very useful list of rules (even assuming all the things on the were rules, which they are not). What “show within a show” concept?  What audience participation?  In reality, the rules to a Kathleen Marshall revival are:

1) Take a show that everyone agrees is good but really old.

2) Make sure #1 is a show hasn’t been revived in a looong time (or is Anything Goes)

3) Hope that everyone assumes that, because the show is old, the book scenes will be flimsy and vapid.  Rely on #2 to profligate the myths of #3.  (Never mind that #1 actually negates #3…shhhh).  Let them think you are a genius when it turns out the books scenes play well (because that’s how they were written).