[ChingLing]

A friend and I are preparing this song to sing at a coffeehouse, and we're looking at simple ways to stage it. It'll be out of context, so we're pretty free to play with it, but I'm curious as to how it's done on stage. I've read the synopsi for the Broadway and London versions... In the Broadway version, they're speaking with each other before the song, and in the London version they're not in the same reality, right? Could anyone elaborate on that for me?

Much appreciated.

[UACTheatre]

....

[Timmy_Wishes he was Quast]

When you say they aren't in the same reality. They are just not in the same location. Elaine Paige (Playing the character Florence in the OLC) is in a Hotel Room in Bangkok with the Russian, with whom she is having an affair. Svetlana (Played by Barbara Dickson in the OLC) is the Russians wife arriving in Bangkok to see him. Florence is alone (the Russian having just left her) watching Svetlana's arrival unfold on TV!

The two of them are actually singing about the same man (obviously neither woman knows the other) in the same time period but differnt locations.

The staging depends on how much of the original idea you wish to capture. A friend of mine did it with the two of them begining in freze and then moving on their lines, ending face to face, as if they had just relaised what each other were saying!

Having no idea about the American version i cannot comment.

[Bex]

hmm...its a fantastic song with so much potentail! Timmy...interesting idea! i did it as a duet with a friend once, but we did it male/ female which was quite interesting! really changes the song around too! was good fun!