'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
#1'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/4/10 at 12:59am
Just came across this and thought it was amusing. Who knew Julie Newmar was slated to be in Via Galactica?
Julie Newmar zings costar
Bought my Pee-wee Herman Show tickets! Yahoooo!
romgitsean
Broadway Star Joined: 4/7/08
#2'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/4/10 at 5:18amThat is one hell of a story. Oh, Via Galactica. What a show you were...
Recent Broadway and Off-Broadway:: Carrie, Merrily, Ionescopade
Next On The List :: Clybourne Park, Once, Streetcar, BOM
Next On The List :: Clybourne Park, Once, Streetcar, BOM
#2'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/4/10 at 10:58am
My favorite story connected to this show is ....
Originally the show was titled UP! - the planet has low gravity, and the trampolined stage allowed the cast to bounce around. This was the inaugural production at the brand-new Uris Theater (now the Gershwin). When the theater owners saw the sign that went up on the 50th St side of the building, they immediately demanded the name of the show be changed, since people walking by were in effect seeing:
UP!
URIS
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Updated On: 1/4/10 at 10:58 AM
#3'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/4/10 at 11:56amSo, what was Via Galactica about? If that's even possible to answer.
#4'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/4/10 at 1:39pm
After conversing with the composer, Mr. MacDermot, I was able to arrive at roughly this:
"Its story took place in the future, about a thousand years from 1972. The earth is perfect, humans are beautiful and all the same color, and making love is easier than making friends."
Interesting concept, but from what I gather, there was never much of a plot after they talked style.
"There is no problem so big that it cannot be run away from."
~ Charles M. Schulz
#5'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/4/10 at 2:02pmVery interesting concept. I'm curious about hearing music from the show, but I'm assuming all that stuff is long gone.
#6'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/4/10 at 2:06pm
The story is completely untrue. That line is a very famous Judy Garland punchline.
Judy told the story on one of her legendary Jack Paar appearances--same basic setup but different diva.
A horny drunken Munchkin was bothering the 16-year-old Judy, telling her all the things he wanted to do to her sexually and she shook a finger at him and said, Well, if you do--and if I ever find out about it--!"
#7'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/4/10 at 3:18pm
I would definitely believe that, PalJoey. I've been researching the Broadway flops of the 60s and 70s, and this was just something I thought was amusing but took it with a grain of salt its basis in truth.
I wonder if Julie Newmar was actually connected with VG, tho?
I love the Up! Uris trivia as well. I've talked about that when discussing marketing tactics because those scenarios pop up somewhat frequently.
tellybox: There was a 2002 concert revival at Cooper Union with Galt in attendance. If you sniff around on the ol interwebs I'd bet you'd find a dl. It's an interesting catastrophe for sure, and far superior to the limp 'Dude' that opened and closed a month before. Via Galactica is close in sound to Galt's The Human Comedy, one of my favorite scores.
Bought my Pee-wee Herman Show tickets! Yahoooo!
Scott Briefer
Broadway Star Joined: 5/3/04
#8'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/4/10 at 3:40pm
I saw Via Galactica. It was a very interesting theatrical experience to type the least. Basically, it was about a group of rebels who escape Earth's repressive government on a garbage spacecraft. Earthlings are controlled by these absolutely ridiculous dunce caps with a spiral painted on them so that when they spin they sort of look like a barbershop sign. (Who came up with this costume should have been put out of their misery.) When spinning they control the wearer.
Anyway... these rebels escape Earth and remove their dunce caps. They're on their way to a distant planet rumored to exist where people are free. They arrive and things are going fine until it becomes known that the rulers of Earth have sent their military to destroy this planet.
It was very silly to type the least and I'm surprised that as I type this, I can remember so much about it. It's true that the stage when on the rebels planet was a series of trampolines allowing for some very creative dancing and acrobatics.
If anyone has any questions, or is interested in any more information, please ask. I'll do my best to answer you questions.
Scott Briefer
Broadway Star Joined: 5/3/04
#9'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/4/10 at 3:42pmI also saw Dude, Got Tu Go Disco and Carrie to name some other famous flops.
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#10'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/4/10 at 6:02pm
There is a demo of some songs from Via & an instrumetal LP by Billy Butler on galt's kilmarnock label . The LP is long out of print.I may still have it & with my little lp /tape to CD gizmo I just got, I can finally put both on CD. Not the whole score but better than nothing.
It was indeed an experience to see.
Poster Emeritus
#11'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/4/10 at 9:22pm
Gavin: Thanks for the heads up! I'll look into it more :)
Scott: Got Tu Go Disco? What in the heck is that? I'm going to assume a late seventies flop, but what was it about? The title is a hoot!
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#12'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/4/10 at 9:27pm
I saw it & if I recall correctly Irene Cara played a character called cassette. This speaks for itself. A monumental bomb. I also think Phillip Michael Thomas of TV's Miami Vice was in it
By the way, I just hit the motherlode. In looking at tapes I am going to burn to cd,I found Via Galactica.Years ago I put both the demo & album on 1 tape of 15 numbers as follows- V for Vocal & I for intrument .
1. I Believe In Butterflies - I
2. Via Galactica - V
3. All My Good Mornings - V
4. Dance The Dark Away - V
5. Home - V
6. 400 Girls Ago - I
7. Hush - I
8. Life Wins - I
9. New Jerusalem - V
10.Children Of The Sun - V
11.Take Your Hat Off - V
12.Shall We Friend - V
13.Helen Of Troy - I
14.Other Side Of The Sky - I
15.Up - I
Poster Emeritus
Updated On: 1/4/10 at 09:27 PM
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#13'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/4/10 at 10:08pmBump for new info added to last post.
Poster Emeritus
amoni2
Featured Actor Joined: 3/4/06
#14'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/4/10 at 10:12pmGot my love of Broadway from my parents and we would just walk around the theater district just to see the theaters. I was just a kid and we were on such trip and my older brother suddenly turned down 51st street and my Mother asked where he was going to which he proudly shouted, "I want to see the big new theater down here, The Uterus!". My Mother said she kinda knew that name wouldn't last too long.
#15'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/4/10 at 10:31pm
Mr. Roxy, that is quite a find!
Will you be kind enough to share some of that wealth when you get the chance to transfer the music to MP3? :)
#16'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/5/10 at 9:46amDitto to what tellybox said, mr roxy!! I have the Cooper Union recording and I'm using "All My Good Mornings" for the next compatible audition :)
"There are only two worthwhile things to leave behind when we depart this world of ours: children and art."
-Sunday In The Park With George
temms
Broadway Star Joined: 7/21/04
#17'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/5/10 at 10:35am
"Dude" and "Via Galactica" are my "Drowsy Chaperone" - shows that I never saw but can imagine vividly that I dearly love and cheer me up and no one else seems to know. I've pulled a John McGlinn and reconstructed the scripts and scores to both and managed to pull them together and see what was there. It took me about ten years of looking to put all the pieces together. I found stuff at the Library of Congress, the NYU Library, the Lincoln Center library, former cast members of the shows, friends of the authors, Galt MacDermot's basement in Staten Island, the Samuel French warehouse, etc. My longterm plans involve eventually doing something with what I've found.
So if you will allow me to be a nerd for a moment:
The instrumental recording sounds nothing like the songs in the show. You can sort of make out the melodies, but it's interesting only as a Galt MacDermot instrumental album with odd arrangements. The demo is a little better, but the version of the title song is a different melody from what was eventually in the show. The arrangements are very low-key compared to what they evolved into.
The Cooper Union concert didn't really reflect the Broadway version, either. Here's the history - Christopher Gore wrote the original version, which was an intermissionless book musical about a band of rebel ships fighting the evil conformist earth, led by Gabriel Finn, the son of ancient galactic war heroes. There was a lot of dialogue, and it was fairly dull. About half of the songs from that original version did not make it into the Broadway version. (The Cooper Union concert was Galt just using all the songs he liked whether or not they were in the show ultimately, and it didn't even attempt to recreate the plot of the Broadway version. Not a bad choice, and it was a fun concert.)
When the director Peter Hall came along, he wanted to do something totally different - he suggested the idea of the story starting on earth and going into space, and Gabriel Finn became an intergalactic garbageman who is "spacejacked" into helping the rebels. It was one of the producers who suggested that maybe it should be an opera and there shouldn't be any dialogue. Gore didn't like the idea, so the producer's wife wrote all the recitative sections and Galt set them to music in a way that even he admits was not terribly interesting. That's why the book is technically credited to "Judith Ross and Christopher Gore", even though there technically is no book. It's also why you've never seen the name "Judith Ross" before or since.
The rest you can read about in the history books - the trampolines, the plot synopsis inserted into the program, the title change ("Via Galactica" was indeed the original title before it was briefly changed to "Up" and retracted for the reasons stated above), Keene Curtis playing a scientist whose organs had failed so he had his head transplanted onto a machine, the spinning hats, etc.
Musically, it's pretty inconsistent. "All My Good Mornings" is a terrific song, as are "Up", "Life Wins", "Children Of The Sun", "Dance The Dark Away", "400 Girls Ago", and some others. But "Oysters" is about the worst thing you'll ever hear in a show, and even MacDermot admits that the recitative sections are extremely tedious and the lyrics are awful. Here is a sample (text by Judith Ross, not Christopher Gore):
ISAACS:
POSSIBLE THE PROPER HELIX WAS ALWAYS THERE
WHY DID YOU PROCRASTINATE?
ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS MATE AND PROCREATE
OMAHA:
AND PRODUCE THE PERFECT HEIR?
ISAACS:
PRECISELY
OMAHA:
MATE AND PROCREATE, DON'T PROCRASTINATE
WITHOUT LOVE IT MIGHT BE EARTH
SPERM BANKS, BOTTLED BABIES, PLASTIC BEANIES
IS THAT ALDEBARAN?
ISAACS:
YOU NEED A CHILD
YOU WANT A CHILD
A CHILD IS A CHILD IS A CHILD
WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BRING LOVE INTO IT?
OMAHA:
ISAACS, YOU'RE JEALOUS
ISAACS:
JEALOUS, ME?
OMAHA:
OF WHAT MIGHT BE
YOU HAVE A HUNDRED YEARS TO MULL IT
IN THE MEANTIME LET ME TELL YOU
I CAN LOVE YOU
AND GABRIEL TOO
AND THERE'S STILL ROOM FOR MORE
FOR A BABY AND A LLAMA AND A PEACOCK
AND A PENGUIN
WHATEVER LIFE HAS IN STORE
AND IF WE DON'T PACK THAT LIFE
WE'LL NEVER GET IT ALL ABOARD
It's ridiculous but oddly kind of fun. The end of Act One where he finally takes off his hat is genuinely musically exciting, if you can believe it. "Up" is one of the catchiest damn songs I've ever heard.
One day I'll see that the whole score gets out there, and "Dude" too. MacDermot is too good and too important a composer to let these score just evaporate into the ether, regardless of how unfortunate the books are.
#18'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/5/10 at 6:39pm
The Cooper Union concert version brings out the Human Comedy sound of Via Galactica's finer moments. When I first started listening to the first song I thought it sounded terrible, especially in contrast to the full Broadway sound from the live tape I have. After a while it really grew on me and now I freaking love the Cooper version. Some of the female singers are amazing. Plus, it's nice to hear Galt talk during the introduction and the break. He should write another theater score and eschew his pure jazz fixation for a bit.
Thanks for all the info, Temms! Via Galactica is completely nonsensical but listening to that score for the first time, about 10 years ago, left me forever transfixed. I also appreciate Christopher Gore's work on Nefertiti, so that added to my fascination. Plus, 70s Broadway was crazy and that someone tried to make a sci-fi musical (in earnest) tickles me beyond words. I'm a nerd. =P
I think I've been tuning out the recitative when I listen to the Broadway version. Hmm, I'll have to pay better attention next time.
"I sing/for a man/on the VIIIIAAAA GALACTICAAA!" gets stuck in my head and won't leave.
Bought my Pee-wee Herman Show tickets! Yahoooo!
Scott Briefer
Broadway Star Joined: 5/3/04
#19'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/6/10 at 1:47am
Wow! It's very late and I don't have the time right now to offer a proper reply. I promise tomorrow. Mr. Roxy, I would offer my first born for a copy of that tape...
Updated On: 1/6/10 at 01:47 AM
Scott Briefer
Broadway Star Joined: 5/3/04
#20'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/6/10 at 3:31pm
Okay... back.
I used to own the record of the instrumental version of Via Galactica. As earlier stated, it is nothing like what was heard in the theater. For those who have other recording, please consider sharing them. I would be forever in debt.
As for Got Tu Go Disco... It was basically a contemporary telling of the Cinderella story where Cinderella / Cassette is desperate to get to the hot disco Studio 45 (yes, it was that obvious). She works as a sales clerk in a clothing store below the famed disco. (This provided an amazing opening number where the cast literally dresses themselves in these day-glo strips of fabric by throwing themselves at each other in a wild and rather cool dance.
The big thing about GTGD was the stage deck which was supposed to lift while swirling a ton of colored liquid pumped up from a pool that was installed under the stage. The effect never really worked, but what I saw was sort of interesting. The script was ridiculous - embarrassing. I remember the dancing - by George Faison - was superb and the music very mixed to pretty dreadful.
Irene Cara was the lead, but rarely performed. (She was too embarrassed to show up was the rumor.) GTGD closed immediately.
#21'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/6/10 at 3:33pmGOT TU = teh funny
With Irma you gotta do something!
Scott Briefer
Broadway Star Joined: 5/3/04
#22'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/6/10 at 3:36pm
As for Via Galactica... most of the comments are true. I'd love to see your research, temms. If you have any questions, I'd love to answer them, as well. Via Galactica had some interesting things about it, like the trampolines and Keene Curtis being just this head over a small box which could elevate and move on tracks between the trampolines. There was also an amazing entrance over the audiences' head on a series of stairs that opened sort of like a fireman's ladder. Irene Cara was also in this one, too, (poor girl) as was Ralph Carter. Oh and this was also choreographed by George Faison. Anyway...
Updated On: 1/6/10 at 03:36 PM
#23'Via Galactica' anecdote with Julie Newmar
Posted: 1/6/10 at 3:49pm
Classic times! It could never happen on Broadway now- more's the pity!
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