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Theatre Lover's Journal for December 1998:
Easter Parade
by John Kenrick
The dish on the long-discussed stage production of Easter
Parade is getting scarier by the day. Now it seems that Tommy Tune has had second
thoughts about the project. He has just signed-up to star in the endless Las Vegas
run of EFX, forcing Easter Parade to postpone indefinitely. This is the
latest calamity to befall this project, which has changed writers and producers in the
past few years of planning and re-planning. By this point it is clear that Easter
Parade is in major trouble – so why don’t the latest team of producers do
themselves a favor and let it go?
Well, at first glance, the show sounds like a great idea.
After all, Hollywood built a number of hit screen musicals by raiding Irving Berlin’s
song trunk – Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Holiday Inn and
There’s No Business Like Show Business were all successful, but the best of the
lot was MGM’s Easter Parade. With Fred Astaire, Judy Garland and Ann Miller
heading the cast, and a plot about a vaudeville dance team (which made it almost too easy
to fit in songs), Easter Parade is still a delightful film.
Which is part of the problem. Why ask people to pay $75 a
seat to see a stage version of a film they can rent for $3.99? The proposed casting of
Tommy Tune and Sandy Duncan is tempting, but can anyone honestly expect them to equal (let
alone outshine) the legendary Astaire and Garland? Perfectly serviceable stage versions of
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Gigi and Singing In The Rain did
poorly on Broadway for the same reason – despite added songs and good casts, there
was no justification for staging something that was already a sensational film.
I wish the producers of Easter Parade luck –
something every show needs, but something this show has had very little of so far. As for
the beloved Tommy Tune, one hopes that after the disastrous ends met by his last two
original musicals (Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public and Busker Alley) that
his next project, whatever it is, will re-establish his once-sterling reputation.
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