'Silk Stockings' a swell remake

By Chris Ledermuller, Staff writer Article Launched: 11/11/2008 03:07:12 PM PST

With a head-spinning election season just behind us and the worst effects of a baleful economic climate yet to come, it helps to remind ourselves of a time when America was just gosh-darn great.

Our factories were producing stuff, our infrastructure had yet to decay, our civil liberties had not been unofficially nullified by signing statements and - well, even for many Americans who could only look at this "good life" through plate glass from the inclement outdoors, we did have one saving grace: a compelling villain.  Click HERE to read more...

SILK STOCKINGS-Cole Porter Music/Lyrics & George S Kaufman/Abe Burrows Book Updated:Silk Stockings

By: Joseph Sirota

The entire creative team that birthed the 1955 Broadway Musical “SILK STOCKINGS” consisted of American-musical comedy all-stars, or legends (Cole Porter-Music/Lyrics, George S Kaufman/Abe Burrows-Book). Even the underlying story (lighthearted Russian tale Ninotchka by Melchior Lengyel) was a charmingly popular “reader-pleaser” that sparked the classic 1939 warm comedy film version with beloved Ernst Lubitsch directing screen icons Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas and Bela Lugosi to 4-Oscar Nominations with his “Lubitsch Touch”. With such noble roots the musical adaptation, “SILK STOCKINGS” ran for a solid near 500 performances on Broadway and spawned its own admirable film musical version in 1957 starring Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Janis Paige and Peter Lorre (2 Golden Globe nominations).  Click HERE to read more...

Silk Stockings' has smooth, assured touch

Review: Musical Theatre West's production marks the world premiere of the newly revised 1955 musical.

Tracing the lineage of the recently revised version of Cole Porter's 1955 Broadway musical "Silk Stockings" is likely for most to be as vexing as having a run in your stockings.

To its credit, Musical Theatre West gives it a shot in its program for an original production, at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach, that's an all-new version of the show courtesy its director, Stuart Ross.  Click HERE to read more...

Silk Stockings was songwriter Cole Porter’s last Broadway musical. The 1955 production ran for over a year, but unlike Porter’s biggest smash, the twice Broadway-revived Kiss Me Kate, Silk Stockings has pretty much vanished from view and memory. Thus, Musical Theatre West’s revisal of the Cold War comedy comes as something of an event, especially with a much rewritten book by Stuart Ross of Forever Plaid fame, who also directs.

Though MTW’s production is still rough around the edges (Executive Director/Producer Paul Garman says to consider it a work in progress), it has such ingratiating and often show-stopping performances (plus Ross’s cleverly tweaked book) that it is a definite crowd-pleaser, and no more so than when some of Porter’s most memorable hits are sung. (In addition to the romantic ballads “All Of You” and “Paris Loves Lovers,” this revival adds a bilingual English/Russian “What Is This Thing Called Love” (originally from 1929’s Wake Up And Sing), “Taking The Steps To Russia” (from 1938’s Leave It To Me) and “Paree, What Did You Do To Me?” from 1929’s Fifty Million Frenchmen) but subtracts “Without Love”.) Click HERE to read more...

MTW’s ‘Silk Stockings’

by Marchelle Hammack

While So Cal is burning, MTW’s sultry “Silk Stockings,” at CSULB’s the Carpenter Center, is smoldering but cool. Musical Theatre West has re-envisioned “Silk Stockings,” last produced in the Sixties and significant as Cole Porter’s last musical theatre contribution (book is by George Kaufman).

The story takes place in the City of Lights and Amour, Paris, with the commingling of Cold War adversaries America and Russia coming together to make a film that promotes peace and bridges the two cultural and political divides. Click HERE to read more...

"Silk Stockings" is a Risk That Paid Off for MTW

by Larry Blake

The cost of producing musicals has risen so greatly that theatre groups are unlikely to take risks on lesser known musicals.  We are often given productions of musicals like “Hello, Dolly!” or “Fiddler on the Roof” because they reduce risk.  So it was with anticipation that I went to the Musical Theatre West production of the rarely produced “Silk Stockings”.  I am happy to report that it is a delightful evening that will put a smile on your face and have you walking out of the theatre in a happy mood.  Click HERE to read more...