@@elliottbronstein1214 Hi Elliott I'm afraid the soundtrack was never made I was told that the cost overruns from mounting the show didn't leave enough money to do a cast recording. I was told at the time (1983) that this was the most expensive Broadway show to date not much has survived since then a couple of bootleg copies floating around but they are of bad quality
I saw this on Broadway, and totally loved it! The score is Phenomenal! I wish the the song "HE, WHO KNOWS THE WAY" was on this! Awesome song for baritone!
Yeah and I had illusion drawings in magic book I gave freely to a missionary who does close up ideas joe Noro rimes with zorro he says :) inChrist always chubby billpage illusionist magician in fun
I loved this when I saw it on the 1983 Tony Awards, and so did my father. Doug Henning really seemed to enjoy himself. Though a tad too much like "Pippin" and "Cats," the magic was amazing, the song was tuneful and well constructed, and it sounds even better today, in contrast to the third-rate fare Broadway serves us now (or doesn't, in the wake of COVID-19). Thanks for posting. Rest in peace, Doug and Lena.
But is was also a terrible musical. Doug Henning was a wonderful magician, but not an actor, singer, or dancer. So the show had a young Nathan Lane and Chita Rivera playing his mother, an evil queen. IIRC, one of Chita's songs was "Satan Rules" and at the end of the show she was turned into stone. The guys who wrote the show's book created the TV series Mannix, Columbo, and Murder She Wrote.
@@njatty Thanks for the information. Yes, I heard it was a poor show; all I saw of it was this one sequence, which stood well on its own. But what a shame for Elmer Bernstein, composer of such great film scores as "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape," as well as a classical concerto for guitarist Christopher Parkening, to get involved in something like this. Oh well, that's show biz, and money talks!
@@teletubetodd Here's another song from MERLIN: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QCCm-4DJoTw.html Elmer Bernstein took an earlier stab at Broadway with HOW NOW DOW JONES. I'm not sure it was any more successful than MERLIN, but it did produce a cast album. One of the songs from the show, "Step to the Rear," got play outside of the show and is a/k/a the South Carolina Fight Song. Carolyn Leigh was the lyricist.
Whatever your feelings are towards this show, can we at least take a moment to appreciate how George Lee Andrews (the guy playing Old Merlin) looks like he's having the time of his fucking life on that stage. No matter how cheesecake-y this thing turned out, he's still giving it 100% to make this shit work. Now that's a dedicated actor.
Yes, Christian Slater appeared as Youngest Merlin in this show. He actually had a few Broadway credits as a child, including playing Winthrop in the revival of THE MUSIC MAN with Dick Van Dyke.
The show may have "had its heart in the right place," but it doesn't work. The whole show is basically a magician's act, placed into a musical with third-rate lyrics. The only people who'd like it are the kind who go to magic shows. Thanks to the dancers it'll cost three times as much. Doug Hemmings is terrible in the role.
I truly wish I could have had input into the creation of this show as it could have been amazing so many talented people involved but I was Copperfield's Illusion and EFX guy at the time. I was able to see the show via video a few years after and I think the biggest problem is the show was written around the illusions rather than create a great story and world to draw you in then create the effects to fit the show. Years later I was lucky enough to create all new illusions for the reboot of Ghost the musical and where the story was already in place, I had to make the EFX blend into the story, and it was so great to have that opportunity and it looked more like special efx than magic tricks
If this sample is in any way indicative of how this show looked, it is little wonder why it did not succeed. A poorly executed technical illusion of a jerky levitation followed by flat performances of nothing more than dressed up versions of simple illusions one might see a magician perform at a child's birthday party (no big Broadway flash or sparkle?) mixed in with a crowd of ridiculously over the top dancing animal costumes and a leading man who obviously cannot act and whose performance is not at all in sync with that of the actor portraying the older, energetic, version of his character make the production look like it was a confused, unimpressive sleeper. Henning really looks like he is just being himself (as he would for one of his regular magic acts) rather than even trying to be the young Merlin. Could Lena Horne's lifeless introduction have been her commentary on the show?
I know how they were done, and you couldn't be more incorrect. Because of the magic, it was one of the most technically complex Broadway shows ever produced. I'll grant you that Henning's acting was lacking, however.
@@michaeleasler5249, I own all but one of those illusions. They are very simple to perform. Granted, mine are not as large and stylized as the ones in this clip, but they are the same illusions. My children performed many of them for their school. I will trust your word that there was more in the rest of the show.
