Grand Hotel (musical)

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Broadway show
Grand Hotel

Music	Robert Wright George Forrest Maury Yeston
Lyrics	Robert Wright George Forrest Maury Yeston
Book	Luther Davis
Theatre	Martin Beck Theatre George Gershwin Theatre
Opened	November 12, 1989
Closed	April 25, 1992
Director	Tommy Tune
Choreographer	Tommy Tune
Scenic designer	Tony Walton
Costume designer	Santo Loquasto
Lighting designer	Jules Fisher
IBDB profile

Grand Hotel is a musical with a book by Luther Davis and music and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest, with additional lyrics and music by Maury Yeston.

Based on the 1929 Vicki Baum novel Menschen im Hotel and the subsequent 1932 MGM feature film, it focuses on events taking place over the course of a weekend in an elegant hotel in 1928 Berlin. Among the primary characters are fading prima ballerina Elizaveta Grushinskaya; fatally ill Jewish bookkeeper Otto Kringelein, who wants to spend his final days living in the lap of luxury; Baron Felix Von Gaigern, young, good-looking, and destitute; Hermann Preysing, the general manager of a failing textile mill on the verge of a merger with a Boston company that will save it from financial ruin; cynical Doctor Otternschlag, a morphine addict still suffering from World War I wounds; assistant concierge Erik, who is about to become a father; and Flaemmchen, a typist dreaming of Hollywood success who fears she might be pregnant.

1 Background
2 Song list
3 Awards and nominations
4 Reference
5 External link

[edit] Background

Davis, Wright, and Forrest first adapted Baum's story in 1958 under the title At the Grand, changing the setting from 1928 Berlin to contemporary Rome and transforming the ballerina into an opera singer closely resembling Maria Callas to accommodate Joan Diener, who was scheduled to star under the direction of her husband Albert Marre. All of them had collaborated on the earlier Kismet and anticipated another success, but Davis' book strayed too far from the story familiar to fans of the film. When Paul Muni agreed to portray Kringelein, the role was changed and expanded, with the character becoming a lowly hotel employee whose stay in a hotel suite is kept secret from the management. Flaemmchen became a dancing soubrette and Preysing and his dramatic story line were eliminated completely, and two deported American gangsters were added for comic relief.

At the Grand opened to mixed reviews and good business in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but when an unhappy Muni refused to extend his preliminary contract and left the production, producer Edwin Lester decided to cancel the Broadway opening scheduled for September 25, 1958 at the 46th Street Theatre, and everyone moved on to other projects.

More than three decades later, Davis, Wright, and Forrest decided to dust off their original material and give the show another try. This time it was placed in the hands of director/choreographer Tommy Tune, who envisioned it as a two-hour, non-stop production comprised of dialogue scenes, musical numbers, and dance routines overlapping and at times competing with each other, thereby capturing the mood of a bustling hotel where something is happening at all times. Seven songs from At the Grand were incorporated into what was now called Grand Hotel, although two were dropped during the Boston tryout.

Original poster

The creative team proved to be too attached to the original material and resisted every change Tune proposed. "Bluntly stated, the show didn’t work. With the exception of the choreography and the physical trappings, the show was deadly," Tune recalled in his memoir Footnotes. Frustrated, he finally fired Wright and Forrest and brought in Maury Yeston to compose new songs and revise others, and hired Peter Stone to doctor Davis' book, although Stone refused official credit for his work. Tune later commented, "I hate it when it gets ugly on a show. It always does though, and you've gotta be hearty to survive. If it's not the writers, then it's the producers or the cast. There is always turmoil, but if you're lucky some good can come of it all. I have always tried to be kind to everyone, but please don’t mistake my kindness for weakness."

After thirty-one previews, Grand Hotel opened on November 12, 1989 at the Martin Beck Theatre, and later transferred to the George Gershwin to complete its total run of 1017 performances. The original cast included Liliane Montevecchi as Elizaveta Grushinskaya, Michael Jeter as Otto Kringelein, David Carroll as the Baron, Timothy Jerome as Preysing, John Wylie as Otternschlag, Bob Stillman as Erik, and Jane Krakowski as Flaemmchen. Replacements later in the run included Cyd Charisse and Zina Bethune as Elizaveta, Austin Pendleton and Chip Zien as Otto, and John Schneider and Rex Smith as the Baron.

The release of the much in-demand original cast recording was delayed nearly two years due to legal disputes with Wright and Forrest. By the time the situation was resolved, Carroll was seriously ill with AIDS, and died in the bathroom of the recording studio early in the session. Brent Barrett, who had appeared as the Baron both on Broadway and in the national tour, sung the role for the cast album, which was released by RCA Victor.

The first West End production opened on July 6, 1992 at the Dominion Theatre, where it ran for slightly less than four months. In 2004, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio starred as Elizaveta in a small-scale production directed by Michael Grandage at the Donmar Warehouse.

[edit] Song list

The Grand Parade (Yeston)
Some Have, Some Have Not (Wright/Forrest)
As It Should Be (Wright/Forrest)
At the Grand Hotel (Yeston)/Table With a View (Wright/Forrest)
Maybe My Baby Loves Me (Wright/Forrest)
Fire and Ice (Wright/Forrest)
Twenty Two Years (Yeston)/Villa On a Hill (Wright/Forrest)
I Want To Go To Hollywood (Yeston)
Everybody's Doing It (Yeston)
As It Could Be (Wright/Forrest)
The Crooked Path (Wright/Forrest)
Who Couldn't Dance With You? (Wright/Forrest)
No Encore (Wright/Forrest)
Fire and Ice (Wright/Forrest)
Love Can't Happen (Yeston)
What You Need (Wright/Forrest)
Bonjour Amour (Yeston)
H-A-P-P-Y (Wright/Forrest)
We'll Take A Glass Together (Wright/Forrest)
I Waltz Alone (Wright/Forrest)
H-A-P-P-Y (Reprise)
Roses at the Station (Yeston)
What You Need (Wright/Forrest)
How Can I Tell Her? (Wright/Forrest)
At the Grand Hotel (Reprise)
As It Should Be (Wright/Forrest)
The Grand Parade/Some Have, Some Have Not (Reprise)
The Grand Waltz (Wright/Forrest)

[edit] Awards and nominations

Tony Award for Best Musical (nominee)
Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (nominee)
Tony Award for Best Original Score (nominee)
Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical (Carroll, nominee)
Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical (Montevecchi, nominee)
Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Jeter, winner)
Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Krakowski, nominee)
Tony Award for Best Scenic Design (nominee)
Tony Award for Best Costume Design (winner)
Tony Award for Best Lighting Design (winner)
Tony Award for Best Choreography (winner)
Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical (winner)
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical (nominee)
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical (Carroll, nominee)
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical (Jeter, winner)
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Krakowski, nominee)
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography (winner)
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical (winner)
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestration (nominee)
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics (nominee)
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music (nominee)
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design (winner)
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design (winner)
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design (nominee)

[edit] Reference

Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops by Ken Mandelbaum, published by St. Martin's Press (1991), pages 213-216 (ISBN 0-312-06428-4)