| Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? | |
|---|---|
 Broadway Playbill | |
| Music | James Quinn Alaric Jans |
| Lyrics | James Quinn Alaric Jans |
| Book | John R. Powers |
| Basis | Powers' novel Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? |
| Productions | 1979 Chicago 1982 Broadway |
Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? is a novel published in 1975 by author John R. Powers. It was subsequently adapted into a Broadway musical and a screenplay.
Director and author Ken Kwapis ( Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and He's Just Not That Into You ), drafted a screenplay for a non-musical film version of the book in late 2005.
The show has become a highly popular choice of regional and community theatres. The original 1979 Chicago production ran for over three years at the Forum Theater, and featured Megan Mullally, Anthony Crivello and Chloe Webb among many others. "Shoes" broke house records during its two runs in Philadelphia. However, the show did not duplicate its success on Broadway. Opening on May 27, 1982 at the Alvin Theatre, it closed on May 30 after five performances. It was directed by Mike Nussbaum (Chicago and Broadway) and choreographed by Thommie Walsh (Broadway). In addition to Russ Thacker as Eddie and Maureen Moore as Becky, the cast included Don Stitt, Vicki Lewis and Jason Graae.
The 1950s era story from the original books by John R. Powers was also turned into a musical with music and lyrics by James Quinn and Alaric 'Rokko' Jans in 1979. Produced by Libby Adler Mages and Daniel Golman of Mavin Productions. The original coming of age musical involves the 1950s Catholic education of eight Chicago children, following them from the start of elementary school through the senior prom and beyond. Along the way it touches on such topics as first confessions, puppy love, patron saints, teacher's pets, sex education classes, and the importance of not wearing patent leather shoes as they could reflect up under the school uniform's plaid pleated skirts. One of the central plot elements running through the musical is that Eddie Ryan is infatuated with a chubby girl, Becky Bakowski. She becomes his best friend, and he later falls in love with her when she matures into a beautiful young woman. Unfortunately, she has decided to become a nun. Many years later Eddie returns to his old elementary school to inquire about Becky only to find she has left the order and is teaching in a small school in Indiana. At the end of the musical they are reunited.
An original cast recording was released by Bay Cities Records.
The licensing agent for all performances is Samuel French, Inc., which calculates over 250 performances are given each year in North America.
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Funny Girl is a musical with score by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill, and book by Isobel Lennart, that first opened on Broadway in 1964. The semi-biographical plot is based on the life and career of comedian and Broadway star Fanny Brice, featuring her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein.
Grease is a musical with music, lyrics, and a book by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Named after the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as greasers, the musical is set in 1959 at the fictional Rydell High School in Northwest Chicago. This fictional high school was based on Taft High School in Chicago, Illinois, and named after rock singer Bobby Rydell. The musical follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of peer pressure, politics, personal core values, and love.
Chicago is a 1975 American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Chicago in the jazz age, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same title by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, about actual criminals and crimes on which she reported. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal".
Blood Brothers is a musical with book, lyrics, and music by Willy Russell. The story is a contemporary nature versus nurture plot, revolving around fraternal twins Mickey and Eddie, who were separated at birth, one subsequently being raised in a wealthy family, the other in a poor family. The different environments take the twins to opposite ends of the social spectrum, one becoming a councillor, and the other unemployed and in prison. They both fall in love with the same girl, causing a rift in their friendship and leading to the tragic death of both brothers. Russell says that his work was based on a one-act play that he read as a child "about two babies switched at birth ... it became the seed for Blood Brothers."
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City of Angels is a satirical musical comedy with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by David Zippel, and a book by Larry Gelbart. The show takes a humorous and critical look at Hollywood through the eyes of Stine, a successful writer who is adapting his latest novel into a film. The musical explores two parallel storylines: one following Stine's struggles to adapt his novel, and the other taking place within the world of the film he is creating. The musical is also an ode to the classic film noir genre of the 1940s.
Vicki Lewis is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Beth in the NBC sitcom NewsRadio. She is also well known for her roles as Deb and Flo in Finding Nemo and Finding Dory, April Smuntz in Mouse Hunt, and Dr. Elsie Chapman in Godzilla. Additionally, she starred as Headmistress Knightslinger in Upside-Down Magic on Disney Channel.
Barbara Densmoor Harris was an American Tony Award-winning Broadway stage star and Academy Award-nominated motion picture actress.
Anthony Crivello is an American actor, known for his vast range and experience in stage and screen performance. He appeared in the original cast of several Broadway shows, including playing Grantaire and Inspector Javert in Les Misérables, Valentin in Kiss of the Spider Woman, Eddie Fuseli in Golden Boy, Dante Keyes in Marie Christine, and the Killer in The News. He also originated the title role in The Phantom of the Opera: The Las Vegas Spectacular and stayed with the cast through its closing six years later. He played the Mysterious Man in the star-studded production of Into the Woods at the Hollywood Bowl and starred as Che in the closing cast of the original Broadway production of Evita. In 1993, he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance as Valentin in Kiss of the Spider Woman.
John R. Powers was an American novelist and playwright.
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Thomas Joseph "Thommie" Walsh III was an American dancer, choreographer, director, and author.
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Jason Graae is an American musical theater actor, best known for his musical theater performances but with a varied career spanning Broadway, opera, television and film. He has won four Bistro Awards, two Ovation Awards, two New York Nightlife Awards, the Theatre Bay Area Award for Best Actor in a Musical and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Joel Hirschhorn Award for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theatre.
Maureen Moore is an American actress. She attended Carnegie Mellon University, majoring in theater and worked at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival.
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Don Stitt is an American actor and playwright who has been featured in four Broadway musicals, appeared 20 times on the Late Show with David Letterman, and starred in countless commercials.
Hans Rudolph Bachmann, Jr. is an American theatre and film actor, director, singer and editor of Swiss-German descent. He is best known for his lead roles as Harold Brickman in Beyond the Rising Moon and as Frank McCall in Invader.
Alaric "Rokko" Jans is an American film and theater composer.
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