"I Wish I May"/Finale Act One, from the world premiere production of "The Witches of Eastwick," London 2000-Original cast, starring Lucie Arnaz, Maria Friedman, Joanna Riding, Ian McShane.
I saw this original version in London and it was fantastic…. the flying moment was breathtaking. The night was even more memorable as Victoria Wood was sat in front of me ❤️
saw this in London...pretty good first act finale, they flew from the stage over the entire audience....I saw a lot of flying in the theatre (including the original pre-doctored Spiderman turn off the dark)...but I was very impressed by this show
Me too! I was treated to tickets in the box no less for my birthday. Very impressive to see them flying across the audience, and back again. I loved this show, and the soundtrack still gets played from time to time. I got to see it in Eastbourne a few years later, with Marti Pellow of Wet Wet Wet fame playing Darryl. He was a horny little devil, no doubt!
Thank you for sharing this. It was such a fantastic production. Would you ever consider sharing “Evil” and “Another Night at Darryl’s” from this same performance? Thanks again for your generosity.
That looks like it was a thrilling moment. I wonder if the Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark producers consulted them on their fly system. It’s funny that even though the Spiderman fly system was probably ten-times more complex than this one, I found watching this moment on video on my iPhone to be a much more magical than anything in Spiderman, which I saw live, mid-orchestra, with Spiderman taking off right in front of me.
The Witches one was not entirely dissimilar to the chandelier in Phantom in many ways - cable down from the flies and anchored out in the auditorium on a motor that can reel it in or out for tension but with one additional temp. anchor above stage to enable them to get rigged. There are also side-cables that move their main cables at set points to change their paths - if you can find the WoE documentary you can kind of see what I mean. During this scene the hooks for their harnesses came vertically down from the flies (via the second temp. anchor on proscenium arch so it came down vertical) disguised as 6 downstage lanterns and land in a gap in the floor of the house behind the sofa (which has no real back just cushions) and vanish from sight and 3 stage crew hiding in the floor took off the lantern cloth sleeve and attached them all to the harnesses under their dresses (slit at each hip for access) whilst they hid them with scatter cushions and their shawls - it’s a long scene with Felicia being tortured in the middle so they had ages. Once they rise up during Darryl’s lines the temp. anchor on the arch drops the cable so it’s now only on 2 anchors like the chandelier in Phantom. Cable was already taking their weight so they don’t move but you can sometimes see that cable flicker in the lights as it drops from vertical to horizontal (and the witches move their arms in so it doesn’t catch) then the motors take over and their harnesses slide down the cables (top of flies and a lower anchor out in auditorium so they slide downwards at first) and those cables are in then pulled on by side-cables that give them a flight path up and down and left and right (identical every show - Jane went v high and then low with the cable springing her up at a set point so she could make a joke about someone in the audience looking up her skirt given she wasn’t meant to be wearing underwear; Sukie basically “could fly properly” as Maria didn’t like heights and Alex was kind of mid-height and could interact with the circle and the boxes on her side). They had trackers on whcih was v modern back then - Jane’s is in her flower in her hair, think the others have them in hair accessories or collars - so the crew could track them and the lights could follow them without lighting the cable behind them to much. It was a really truly magical scene at Drury Lane but when it moved to a smaller venue the cables would be too visible in such a small space with the lights up out in the auditorium per Drury Lane, so they took all the lights down except for pinspots on the witches and Darryl and the star drop at the back and it WAS magical - at Drury Lane you could see the cables but it was still an amazing effect but in the second venue it was done with a better lighting plot and it really helped elevate it and everyone could see them close-up too. V different to the “rig that itself flies around the auditorium” used in Spider-Man - this was a v simple system a little bit like a “death slide” cable thing you get at assault courses but pulled on from the sides to change the path they took.
Is this Lucille Ball's daughter?? If so, I knew her daughter was an actress but did not know she could sing and was still acting at least back then. I don't get to see stage and theater shows.
