Scenes from the past focus on Michelle’s marriage to Dan, which collapses because of Michelle’s overdependence on him. The action also shifts between the past and present. An explanatory note in the published script reads: “Whereas in most musical comedies the procedure is to break from the book into musical numbers, in this production the procedure will be to break from the night club act into the book.” George Furth came up with a concept of a nightclub act that opens up into book scenes, an inversion of the backstage musical formula. In lieu of marquee billing, the published script for THE ACT is “lovingly and gratefully dedicated to Gower Champion." Feuer eventually convinced Gower Champion to intervene but only on the condition that he not get directorial credit. When Feuer decided to replace Scorsese, he first approached Michael Bennett about taking over, but the director was either unavailable or unwilling to do so. He couldn’t figure out how to bring actors on and off, how to set up a scene.” To make matters worse, Scorsese and Minnelli were getting high after rehearsals, which began to affect the company’s morale. According to Cy Feuer, “The biggest problem was that he didn’t understand staging. Scorsese’s experience in film did not prepare him to direct a Broadway musical, and, by all accounts, he was uninterested in learning. The most drastic change, however, was the unpublicized replacement of Scorsese with Gower Champion. Stanley Donen was going to write the script, but George Furth took over. The title was not the only thing that changed. THE ACT went through a shaky four-month out-of-town period, playing Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, in each city under a different title, respectively, IN PERSON, SHINE IT ON, and THE ACT. ![]() The idea seemed ideal for Minnelli, who insisted that Scorsese direct, despite the producers’ reservations. Film offers have dried up, so she has decided to do a Las Vegas nightclub act. Supposedly based on the life of Shirley MacLaine, THE ACT is about the comeback of a once in-demand movie star named Michelle Craig (originally Mayer). Kander and Ebb were uninterested in such an arrangement, but they liked the idea enough to write the entire musical themselves. THE ACT (1977) was conceived by Marvin Hamlisch, who wanted to split the music with Kander and use Ebb as their mutual lyricist. Nor does the showbiz venue serve as an effective metaphor for the heroine’s life. Unfortunately, in the case of THE ACT the show-within-a-show framework did not transcend itself enough to appear to be more than a venue for Minnelli to sing and dance and emote. We have seen similar structures in CABARET, CHICAGO, and 70, GIRLS, 70. The score, some of it excellent, consists mainly of the songs she performs during her act. It is a story about the survival of an actress down on her luck and told in the form of a Las Vegas nightclub act. THE ACT contains all of the hallmarks of a Kander and Ebb musical. ![]() Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. ![]() Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.
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