The Dirtiest Show in Town

Last updated
The Dirtiest Show in Town
The Dirtiest Show in Town program.png
Original Off-Broadway program
Music Jeff Barry
Lyrics Tom Eyen
Book Tom Eyen
Productions1970 Off-Broadway
1971 West End
1971 Los Angeles
1980 film

The Dirtiest Show in Town is a musical revue with a book and lyrics by Tom Eyen and music by Jeff Barry.

Contents

Overview

An attack on air pollution, the Vietnam War, urban blight and computerized conformity, the show is filled with sex, nudity, and strong lesbian and gay male characters. The show culminates in a massive orgy, with the entire naked cast writhing on the floor. The Dirtiest Show in Town is distinguished from a raunchy sex show by Eyen's clever dialogue and witty observations, which impressed even mainstream critics when the show was first staged near the end of the sexual revolution of the 1960s.[ citation needed ]

Productions

Directed by Eyen, The Dirtiest Show in Town was initially produced Off-Off Broadway at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in spring, 1970. [1] It then opened Off-Broadway on June 27, 1970, at the Astor Place Theatre, and closed on September 19, 1971 after 509 performances. [2] The cast featured R. A. Dow, Paul Matthew Eckhart, and Ellen Gurin. [3] [4]

It subsequently toured and was then staged at the Duchess Theatre in London's West End in May 1971, [5] where it ran to March 1973 for nearly 800 performances. [6]

Another production opened at the Ivar Theater in Los Angeles in 1971, starring Michael Kearns and Eyen's muse Sharon Barr. In 1975, Eyen and Henry Krieger created a version of the show called The Dirtiest Musical in Town, starring Nell Carter. [7]

Film

In 1980, Eyen directed a film version of the show for Showtime, making it the first made-for-TV movie ever produced for cable. The updated storyline for the film version begins with members of a New York City gym obsessing about their life situations, eventually leading up to the gay and straight characters writhing together in an orgy. It stars Sharon Barr and a young John Wesley Shipp. [8]

Related Research Articles

<i>Hello, Dolly!</i> (musical) 1964 Broadway musical

Hello, Dolly! is a 1964 musical with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, based on Thornton Wilder's 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1955. The musical follows the story of Dolly Gallagher Levi, a strong-willed matchmaker, as she travels to Yonkers, New York, to find a match for the miserly "well-known unmarried half-a-millionaire" Horace Vandergelder.

<i>Chicago</i> (musical) 1975 musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb

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".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Schwartz</span> American musical theatre lyricist and composer (born 1948)

Stephen Lawrence Schwartz is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over five decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as Godspell (1971), Pippin (1972), and Wicked (2003). He has contributed lyrics to a number of successful films, including Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), The Prince of Egypt, and Enchanted (2007).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Finn</span> Musical artist

William Alan Finn is an American composer and lyricist. He is best known for his musicals, which include Falsettos, for which he won the 1992 Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical, A New Brain (1998), and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2005).

<i>Finians Rainbow</i> 1947 musical with book by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg, and music by Burton Lane

Finian's Rainbow is a musical with a book by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg, and music by Burton Lane, produced by Lee Sabinson. The original 1947 Broadway production ran for 725 performances, while a film version was released in 1968 and several revivals have followed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katie Finneran</span> American actress (born 1971)

Katie Finneran is an American actress best known for her Tony Award–winning performances in the Broadway play Noises Off in 2002, and the musical Promises, Promises in 2010.

<i>The Fantasticks</i> Musical by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones

The Fantasticks is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and book and lyrics by Tom Jones. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the 1894 play The Romancers by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neighboring fathers who trick their children, Luisa and Matt, into falling in love by pretending to feud.

<i>Dreamgirls</i> 1981 Broadway musical

Dreamgirls is a Broadway musical, with music by Henry Krieger and lyrics and book by Tom Eyen. Based on the show business aspirations and successes of R&B acts such as The Shirelles, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, and others, but closely follows the story of The Supremes as the musical follows the story of a young Black female singing trio from Chicago, Illinois called "The Dreams", who become music superstars.

<i>Dames at Sea</i> 1966 American musical parody

Dames at Sea is a 1966 musical with book and lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller and music by Jim Wise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duchess Theatre</span> Theatre in London, England

The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street near Aldwych.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Eyen</span> American playwright, TV writer, and director

Tom Eyen was an American playwright, lyricist, television writer and director. He received a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Dreamgirls in 1981.

Women Behind Bars is a camp black comedy play by Tom Eyen, parodying the prison exploitation films produced by Universal, Warner Bros. and Republic Pictures during the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astor Place Theatre</span> Off-Broadway theatre in New York City

The Astor Place Theatre is an off-Broadway house located at 434 Lafayette Street in the NoHo section of Manhattan. The theater is located in the historic Colonnade Row, originally constructed in 1831 as a series of nine connected buildings, of which only four remain. Though it bears the same name, it was not the site of the Astor Place Riot of 1849.

Henry Krieger is an American musical theatre composer. He most notably wrote the music for the Broadway shows Dreamgirls, The Tap Dance Kid (1983), and Side Show (1997).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erin Davie</span> American actress and singer

Erin Davie is an American actress and singer, best known for her performance as the young Edith Bouvier Beale in the musical Grey Gardens, taking the part on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre in 2006, after its initial run Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clark Gesner</span> Musical artist

Clark Gesner was an American composer, songwriter, author, and actor. He is best known for composing the musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, based on the Charles M. Schulz comic strip Peanuts.

Alan Eichler is an American theatrical producer, talent manager and press agent who has represented several stage productions, produced Grammy-winning record albums and managed singers including Anita O'Day, Hadda Brooks, Nellie Lutcher, Ruth Brown, Johnnie Ray and Yma Sumac. He is a cousin of California architect Joseph Eichler and nephew of writer Lillian Eichler Watson and advertising executive/novelist Alfred Eichler.

<i>Hadestown</i> 2006 musical by Anaïs Mitchell

Hadestown is a sung-through musical with music, lyrics, and book by Anaïs Mitchell. It tells a version of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Eurydice, a young girl looking for something to eat, goes to work in a hellish industrial version of the Greek underworld to escape poverty and the cold, and her poor singer-songwriter lover Orpheus comes to attempt to rescue her.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Levenson</span> American playwright and television writer

Steven Levenson is an American playwright and television writer. He won the 2017 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Dear Evan Hansen.

<i>The View UpStairs</i> Musical with music, lyrics and book by Max Vernon

The View UpStairs is a musical with music, lyrics and book by Max Vernon based on the real-life events of the 1973 arson attack at the UpStairs Lounge, a gay bar in New Orleans. This attack resulted in the deaths of 32 people, the deadliest attack on a gay club in U.S. history before the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting. The show is inspired by and pays tributes to many of the patrons who frequented the venue.

References

  1. "Eyen, Tom 1941-1991" encyclopedia.com, retrieved July 15, 2018
  2. The Dirtiest Show in Town broadwayworld.com, retrieved July 15, 2018
  3. " The Dirtiest Show in Town Cast" broadwayworld.com, retrieved July 15, 2018
  4. Kerr, Walter. "Kerr on ‘The Dirtiest Show in Town’" The New York Times, July 5, 1970
  5. Tinker, Jon. "Theatre. The Dirtiest Show in Town" New Scientist. p. 416, SSN 0262-4079, May 13, 1971
  6. "Duchess Theatre" thisistheatre.com, retrieved July 15, 2018
  7. "Oscar dreaming". TheVillager.com.
  8. Eyen, Tom (April 1980), The Dirtiest Show in Town , retrieved 2018-03-20.