GONE WITH THE WIND Original London Cast Album

A musical of Gone With The Wind? that audiences were so familiar with the That was not quite the end of the story Sounds crazy, no? But in the occasion - 1939 classic film that they would fill in – there was one other production of the ally crazy world of musical theater, that’s the blanks. show in Dallas, directed by Lucia Victor, exactly what happened. Even crazier that then had a little three-city tour. And was the fact that its first production did That London production, starring June after that, the musical of Gone With The not take place in Atlanta or anywhere Ritchie as Scarlett O’Hara and Harve Wind was gone with the wind. else in the United States. No, its first pro - Presnell as , opened in 1972 duction took place in Tokyo. Yes, you at the Drury Lane Theater. Reviews Thankfully, EMI made a cast album of heard that right, Tokyo, where, in 1970, were, in some cases, surprisingly good, the show, preserving the delightful and Scarlett (as it was then called) opened. and the show ran a year. The Evening tuneful score. This CD With a book by Kazuo Kikuta and a Standard raved, “Choreography and was mastered from the original album score by the wonderful Broadway com - music are brilliantly blended in a story - masters housed at EMI in the UK. poser Harold Rome, and direction and telling exercise that never stops for choreography by the great Joe Layton, breath. There are no artificially set num - But just to show you that crazy ideas Scarlett , the four-hour musical in two bers to halt the momentum of the tale sometimes never die, there was, hard as parts, opened and was very popular, so and every precise dance number pro - it is to believe, another musical version popular in fact that producer Harold pels the action forward.” “What a musi - of Gone With The Wind that opened and Fielding decided to mount a production cal! Singing Scarlett is here to stay,” said closed quickly in the UK in 2008, di - not on Broadway , but in London, where the Daily Express. rected by Trevor Nunn. The reviews for costs were cheaper and where the show that version would probably make the could be honed before heading to the Producer Fielding was encouraged Harold Rome / Horton Foote version Great White Way. If you’ve ever heard enough by the London production to seem like a masterpiece. And you know that original Japanese cast album, you schedule the show for a Broadway what – in its crazy, old-fashioned way, know just how surreal it is to hear the opening on April 7, 1974. Prior to that, listening to this wonderful London cast supremely Southern Scarlett and Rhett the show would have a tryout with the album, you might just become a be - singing in Japanese. West Coast Civic Light Opera, opening liever. in Los Angeles at the Dorothy Chandler For the London production (now re- Pavilion in August of 1973. This revised But I’ll think about that tomorrow. christened Gone With The Wind) , Hor - version of the London production ton Foote (the playwright, and Academy starred Lesley Ann Warren as Scarlett, — Bruce Kimmel Award-winning screenwriter of To Kill A Pernell Roberts as Rhett, and Udana Mockingbird) was brought in to adapt Power as Melanie. The reviews were the book. Instead of a two-part four-hour horrible, and director/choreographer musical, it was streamlined down to two- Layton made many changes during the and-a-half hours, and since at least an LA and then San Francisco run. At that hour of that was music, it didn’t really point, Fielding decided to cut his losses leave a whole lot of time for character and cancel the Broadway run. development – the hope, of course, was