All tagged Tony Walton

The Grandest of Hotels: Pondering a Revival of Grand Hotel

The Grandest of Hotels: Pondering a Revival of Grand Hotel

Mark Robinson
Music That Makes Me Dance

With the announcement by Encores! that Grand Hotel will be a part of their 2018 season, it has the wheels of my brain turning about a possible Broadway revival of this magnificent, but challenging, piece of musical theatre. It has been almost three decades since Grand Hotel premiered on Broadway. That production was, in itself a reimagining of a failed attempt to musicalize Vicki Baum’s 1928 novel (and subsequent 1932 film) called At the Grand (1958). That version of the show featured a score by Robert Wright and George Forrest, with a book by Luther David. Many of those songs and parts of the book made it into the 1989 Broadway production of Grand Hotel which would garner many Tony Awards and run for 1,017 performances.

Broadway Poster Art - The Top-Ten Most Successful Designs

Broadway Poster Art - The Top-Ten Most Successful Designs

Mark Robinson
Top Ten

I have always been particularly intrigued by the poster art of Broadway musicals and how a simple image can tell so much while simultaneously enticing the throngs to enter into the theatre and buy a ticket. In my college theatre management class we examined poster art and how the slightest misstep can be fatal. The original poster for Damn Yankees was simply the title of the show with some pennants and other baseball imagery around it. Ticket sales, despite good reviews, were sluggish. The solution: slap a scantily clad picture of star Gwen Verdon over the title and WAMMO! - a home run. Tickets sales went through the roof. 

 

A few years ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to chat with poster designer David Byrd who, among many other achievements in rock poster design, created some of the most iconic theatre posters including those for the original Godspell, Hair, Jesus Christ, Superstar, Little Shop of Horrors and Follies. Mr. Byrd shared the essentials of great poster: they need to first catch the eye, second establish mood, and third impart a quick message.