Wise Guys/Gold!/Bounce/Road Show

November 27, 2021 2:32 AM

Stephen Sondheim was struggling with his newest show. Working with John Weidman to adapt another story from American History, the show went through three (or four) iterations across a decade before failing to open on Broadway. These separate and distinct shows all telling the same story began with the workshop production of Wise Guys in 1999. Here are Nathan Lane and Victor Garber (and a lot of tape hiss), directed by Sam Mendes in a "cast recording" of the show. [YouTube playlist, CastAlbums brings you a listing of this recording with actual song titles.]

Wise Guys actually got its start much earlier ['Wise Guys': Work In Progress For 47 Years, NYT archive link], and was HUGELY anticipated. New York Theater Workshop hosted the show, but really it had been worked on for years before [Sondheim Talks About Wise Guys at Algonquin, Playbill, 1996], with updates coming in [The Latest on Sondheim & Weidman's Wise Guys, Playbill 1998] across the years. Everyone was utterly slavering for a New Show From Sondheim, up until they weren't 'Wise Guys' Is Going Bust, NYPost, November 1999].

The show had a short existence (perhaps just a rumor caused by legal entanglements, really) named Gold! [New Version of Sondheim's Gold! Near Complete for Goodman Run, Playbill 2002] but that quickly morphed into Bounce, which opened in Chicago [Complete Cast of Sondheim-Weidman Musical Bounce Announced, Playbill 2003]. Starring Richard Kind, Howard McGillin, we have an Original Cast Album of this new show [YouTube Playlist]. Bounce dropped the vaudeville framing of Wise Guys, it introduced a love interest/corrupting influence for Wilson Mizner and refocussed the show in a lot of ways. We have a few hints of the production. For instance, we have Gavin Creel as Hollis performing "Talent" [2m39s]. And Richard Kind and Howard McGillin doing the opening song, "Bounce" [4m9s], from after the show went to the Kennedy Center later in 2003.

Bounce did not get great reviews, in Chicago [Sondheim doesn't 'Bounce' High Enough, Chicago Tribune 2003] or in New York [THEATER REVIEW; Sondheim Guides Two Brothers On a Tour of Life, NYT 2003, archive link]. The Harold Prince directed show never made it to Broadway, and the show went back into revision.

Five years later, Road Show [Wikipedia] came into production. Exclusive! Sondheim Explains Evolution from Bounce to Road Show [Playbill, 2008] explains some of the rewrites. Again, running off-Broadway, we have an Original Cast Album [YouTube playlist]. We also, again, have some performances: Clayborn Elder as Hollis singing "Talent" [3m12s], Alexander Gemignani doing "The Best Thing..." [3m10s], and Gemignani and Michael Cerveris performing the Finale [8m21s].

The transition to this new show wasn't entirely popular. Bounce and Road Show: A Comparative Analysis is a pretty good lengthy blog analysis of the two shows.

The new show itself also wasn't that popular [Brothers in Flimflammery on a Continental Sojourn, NYT Nov 2008 Archive link]. Cutting the show back to a single act and streaming the plot and deeply revising the characters didn't really improve its fare much, and it also did not transfer to Broadway.

Road Show continues to be produced. The most recent production was at City Center in 2019 [trailer, 2m10s], formatted as a staged radio play. Here are Sondheim and Weidman and director Will Davis being interviewed immediately after a performance [25m, Part 2 7m]. Unfortunately, the reviews continued to not be favorable [Review: Sondheim’s Bumpy ‘Road Show,’ Now at the End of the Line, NYT archive link]

If all this has been confusing, here's a WaPo review of a 2016 production which rounds up all the previous incarnations of the show to that point. And The Sondheim Guide lists all the casts and recordings and songs of all productions up through 2011.

the road ahead: Pacific Overtures, Assassins, Road Show and the american dream [page 2] is a little think piece for The Sondheim Review from 2008, reflecting on Sondheim and Weidman's work together.

Ultimately, this is only the second Sondheim show not to have a Broadway production. It is the last musical he wrote that was completed during his lifetime.

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Now, I'm going to do the hard work for you. This is an unusual chance to watch Sondheim work at evolving his songs across time to fit different versions of a narrative, so I'll break down the progressions.

Wise Guys: Wise Guys (vaguely related to), Bounce: Bounce (rewritten as), Road Show: Waste

Wise Guys: It's In Your Hands Now (replaced by), Bounce: Opportunity (replaced by rewritten), Road Show: It's In Your Hands Now

Wise Guys: Gold! (reworked as), Bounce: Gold! and Gold! Part 2 (reworked as), Road Show: Gold! [This song remains pretty consistent across the decade.]

Wise Guys: The Game (reworked as), Bounce: The Game (reworked as), Road Show: The Game

Wise Guys: Wise Guys Reprise/Next To You (reworked as), Bounce: Next To You

Wise Guys: Addison's Trip (really quite reworked for), Bounce: Addison's Trip (further revised, and a bit reverted for), Road Show: Addison's Trip [These all have the same general shape, but the misfortunes and travels are changed.]

Bounce: The Best Thing That Has Ever Happened (rewritten and repurposed for), Road Show: The Best Thing That Has Ever Happened

Wise Guys: Isn't He Something! (survives basically intact for), Bounce: Isn't He Something! (and still mostly intact for), Road Show: Isn't He Something! [One song that remained the same! Sondheim was mostly fascinated with Willy for the story, really.]

Wise Guys: Talent (survives intact for), Bounce: Talent (survives intact for), Road Show: Talent [A completely unrewritten song! Amazing!]

Wise Guys: Where Have You Been All My Life? (revised for), Bounce: You (revised/reverted for), Road Show: You

Bounce: Addison's City, Road Show: Addison's City

Wise Guys: Florida Land Boom/Call It Home (revised for), Bounce: Boca Raton/Boca Raton Aftermath (further revised for), Road Show: Boca Raton

Wise Guys: Get Out Of My Life (revised a bit more angrily for), Bounce: Get Out Of My Life (reverted/revised for), Road Show: Get Out/Go

Wise Guys: Finale, Bounce: Bounce (Part 3), Road Show: Finale

And a special mention for Wise Guys: A Little House For Mama which was rewritten for and recorded by the cast of but not included in Bounce: A Little House For Mama.

There are crossing elements in snippets I haven't gotten into, but this is an interesting enough study in a show's development.

posted by hippybear (6 comments total)

Hippybear, this is astounding. I’m especially looking forward to digging into the evolution of various songs.

I saw a production in London in early 2016 at the Union Theater, a small venue nearish to the Southwark Playhouse. It wasn’t the first time it had been staged in London and this production was a bit under the radar and the casting a bit uneven. I remember thinking that the score had vamps and accompaniment figures that were familiar from Assassins and Into the Woods.

Strangely, though the performance wasn’t a solid success, I found it reassuring. Even an artist at Sondheim’s level had to start from the beginning each time. That made it okay for all the rest of us — you just move forward and do the work as best you can, each time.
posted by profreader at 4:44 AM on November 27, 2021

It says so much that even this late work, never really successful even by Sondheim's own standards, can teach us so much about art and creativity. Hippybear, thank you for what you've been doing week after week -- a worthy tribute for an extraordinary human being, who even in his tenth decade seems to have been taken too soon.
posted by How the runs scored at 5:49 AM on November 27, 2021

Hippybear, you're the first person I thought of when I saw news of his passing. Thank you for everything you've been doing here.
posted by kimberussell at 7:17 AM on November 27, 2021 [9 favorites]

Same here, thank you for these amazing posts.
posted by sammyo at 8:40 AM on November 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

What? You wouldn't want to know someone like Addison Mizner, who 'kept as pets a series of monkeys, which often rode on his shoulder; his favorite had a headstone at his grave, identifying him as "Johnnie Brown, The Human Monkey, Died April 30, 1927." '
Seriously though, I also thought of your posts when I heard Sondheim had died. The posts are great and this was fascinating and entertaining as always.
posted by Arctan at 1:51 AM on November 29, 2021

This post is a tour de force.
posted by fedward at 7:53 AM on November 29, 2021 [1 favorite]