24 replies to this topic

[Alexandra]

This was too good to leave languishing in Links, so I've copied dirac's blurb from there:

Atlanta Ballet to stage full length production of "Gone With the Wind". As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up....: http://www.sun-senti...06507,00.html  

Choreographed by John McFall with a cast of dozens.  I'm not familiar with the current roster of the company so I can't cast it, but I thought we might be able to come up with some dramatic suggestions.  They're not going to try to redo the movie.  It doesn't sound as though McFall is going to do a distillation or abstraction, but The Real Thing.

Any reactions?

[Mel Johnson]

Perhaps it would run over several nights, like Nicholas Nickleby or the Ring Cycle?

[salzberg]

I find it unlikely that Gone With the Wind will be done as a ballet.

After all, the lead character is a woman who goes to extraordinary lengths to appear unnaturally thin; wherever would anyone find a dancer like that?


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Jeffrey E. Salzberg, Lighting Designer
portfolio: www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg
email: salzberg@suncoast.quik.com

[dirac]

Actually, Mammy had a terrible time trying to keep Scarlett from stuffing her face at the Wilkes' barbecue, as loyal readers (and viewers) will recall. Scarlett was also quite proud of what Gelsey Kirkland would call her "fulsome breasts"; it was her seventeen-inch waistline which she was determined not to see expand. (As you might deduce, in early adolescence I studied this book with a fervor that only be described as Talmudic.)   Can't wait to see girls trying to dance in those Walter Plunkett crinolines.

[Nanatchka]

They should get Peter Boal for Ashley.

[Alexandra]

Leigh, I'm seeing a trend here.  Maybe you should do "Citizen Kane, the Ballet!" next year?

Back to "Gone with the Wind," the steal-the-show role is Prissy.  First runners up, the Tarleton Twins (dirac, I, too, read that book until it was nearly memorized.  Many great lessons of life in there, none of which will translate to the ballet stage   )

[Andrei]

I think this is a perfect idea, but crucial for surviving of this ballet will be the music. Why they didn't say anything about a composer?

Andrei.

[Alexandra]

The article only said that they would NOT use the Max Steiner score -- meaning the movie soundtrack.  (Having had the piano score and played it incessantly as a child  -- lots of loud crashy chords -- like many movie scores, it's pretty much that one lovely melody over and over and over and over and over and.....

[dirac]

Steiner was like that.  He had a few themes, recycled incessantly.  I once heard a story about Bette Davis during the filming of "Dark Victory".  She was so rattled by Steiner's score that she stopped in the middle of one take and demanded, "Just who is going up these stairs to die? Me or Max Steiner?"

[Juliet]

Well, we HAVE to have the crinolines.....

We might also have to have the Maryinsky stage....or at Pinewoods Studio in London (indoor shots) and that studio in Calif. where they filmed Star Wars (Tara and outdoors....)....

And how are they going to translate the Rhett Line?  *This* is going to tax the mine artists to the utmost!

Casting? You tell me how we are gonna do Mammy on pointe?  

Oh my.....

[salzberg]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by alexandra:
[B]Leigh, I'm seeing a trend here.  Maybe you should do "Citizen Kane, the Ballet!" next year?

I'm looking forward to the "Rosebud" Pas de Deux.



------------------
Jeffrey E. Salzberg, Lighting Designer
portfolio: [url="http://"http://www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg"]www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg[/url]
email: salzberg@suncoast.quik.com

[James Wilkie]

Gone with the Wind as a ballet I don't think that it really could work. It is a great story and I am big fan of the film but as a ballet it would be too complicated to portray to the audience. Also perhaps a minor detail how would you get the big dresses tat Vivien Leigh wears on a ballerina if she has to through her leg around and forget pas de deux. All being said I would be very interested in seeing this as a ballet- it would be very interesting!

[cargill]

A number of years ago, there was a VERY short lived musical based on Gone With the Wind, which I didn't see.  I just remember reading a review which said there were real live horses, and during the scene where Scarlett is singing I WILL GO TO TARA, the horse went.

[Lillian]

I'm I the only one picturing Miranda Weese as Scarlett?

[This message has been edited by Lillian (edited October 07, 2000).]

[pdance]

Well, being from Atlanta, and knowing how Atlanta ballet is, I don't find it very hard to believe that they will do this.  I must admit that I haven't heard about this, but it doesn't surprise me.  Atlanta Ballet is always doing stuff like that.  To be honest, I'm not a big fan of Atlanta Ballet, because they are not as good as you might expect a regional company like them to be.  It's dissapointing.  I will try to find out more info on this, as people from my studio have several links to the company and its students and apprentices.  I will let you know what I find out!  
~Christa~

[This message has been edited by pdance (edited October 07, 2000).]