[linus2004]

Just wondering if anyone here made any adjustments to Bye Bye Birdie for a production. For example, did anyone add a song (eg. "Bye Bye Birdie", "What Did I Ever See in Her?", if so, where in the show?), delete scenes (eg. the short incidental scenes going to and from the municipal building for "Honestly Sincere"), etc.
Just wondering. thanks.

[aktor28]

When I was is Bye Bye Birdie last year, the orchestra played "Bye Bye Birdie" for the overture. It worked quite well. I know that if I ever direct this show, I will add some lines or a short scene celebrating Albert's birthday with a cake and all. He mentions it once at the beginning of the show, and then it is never metioned again.

[music4me3111]

We cut the Shriner Ballet because it was a middle school production. I think that's all we ended up cutting. We changed some things around because a couple of lines didn't meet our school principal's standards.

[aktor28]

Can I guess that one of them was: Let's have an orgy!

[music4me3111]

Yes, that's correct.

There's something that tells me it wouldn't be appreciated.

[aktor28]

Really! I would have never guessed. Haha, we took it out of the grade school production that I was in, but the high school and community theater ones that I was in kept it.

[aquamarine fishnets girl]

When I did the show, they took out the orgy line, as well as a bit of Kim's dialogue earlier in the Ice House scene. We took out the 100 ways ballet and the shriners' ballet too... mostly because we didn't have enough guys. Other than that we kept everything in...

I saw one show that some of my friends were in that took out both ballets,
"Put on a Happy Face", changed two of the lines in "What Did I Ever See in Him?", and replaced the Ice House scene with a scene in which all of the girls of Sweet Apple cornered Conrad and made him watch them perform talents (i.e. trombone playing, pogo sticking, roller skating). And yet the police still came to arrest him. That was weird.

[music4me3111]

[linus2004]

Strange and yet enlightening..thanks to everyone who replied! Keep 'em coming!

[Sean]

when I did it about 3 years ago...We added 3 songs: Let's Settle Down(song by rosie instead of rosie's version of One Boy), A Mother Doesn't Matter Anymore(sung by mrs. peterson) and then Let's Settle Down Reprise. We had Spanish Rose sung, in the Bar, right before Baby Talk to Me and I think thats all.

[aktor28]

[aquamarine fishnets girl]

The director cut "Put on a Happy Face" because... I'm not sure why, really. I heard he really just didn't like that song at all.

And as for the Ice House... it was a junior high production, and I guess the director was just really worried about offending parents with sex references. I'm not sure. That still puzzles me.

[music4me3111]

[aquamarine fishnets girl]

It was weird. Everyone got really confused; those who had seen the show before were like, "Where's the Ice House?" and those who hadn't were like, "Why did the police arrest Conrad for watching those girls put on a talent show?"

[bandguy]

As a director, I try to stay as close to the original script as possible. However, we did cut the 100 Ways Ballet. Ironically, in the Stage Manager's Guide you rent from Tams-Witmark, it recommends cutting the 100 Ways Ballet!

There are 3 optional songs you can add in and someone mentioned them on this thread already. They are nice but we didn't use them. Our Mae Peterson preferred to do the scripted monologue as opposed to singing.

It is understandable for middle school productions to have to make some editations for content.

We also cut half of "Baby, Talk to Me" because I couldn't cast a male quartet to sing it. That worked out fine and the audience didn't even notice. You can't cut the song entirely though or it disrupts the entire scene.

No matter what your director does, it's a fun show. Enjoy it and break a leg!

[BroadwayBud]

My production is adding "Bye Bye Birdie", but at the moment, I do not know where. In my opinion, "Bye Bye Birdie" is the best song asociated with this show! It's great!

[bandcampgirl183]

Yeah, I don't remember exactly how, but I'm sure the ice house scene was editted... there were just a bunch of girls sitting around with Conrad, and suddenly Kim says "I even know all the words.... jail bait..." and then Conrad gets uneasy. Yet there was nothing remotely sexual going on. Not even holdig hands.
Some mother complained to the head of the entire camp that she was offended by Conrad's "pelvic thrusts." That was pretty funny.

Was there supposed to be a Mayor's Wife, or was that our own little invention?
When I was in 2nd grade, I saw a production where Kim's brother was actually a little sister, and there was a whole thing about how she was jealous of all the attention Kim was getting... so when I was 15 and they asked us what parts we could see ourselves playing, I said "the little sister" and everyone looked at me strangely.

~rachel~

[BroadwayBud]

[quote="BroadwayBud"]My production is adding "Bye Bye Birdie", but at the moment, I do not know where. In my opinion, "Bye Bye Birdie" is the best song asociated with this show! It's great![/quote]


We are now singing Bye Bye Birdie as part of the overture, as well as for bows. I wanted to add it IN the show, but at least we get to sing it!

[what_the_heck013]

[BroadwayBud]

In the midst of our rehearsals, my school's production of BBB has had some more alterations.

1) We are singing Bye Bye Birdie as the overture and bows.
2) We have eliminated all drug/alcohol/sexual references.
- cutting part of Kim's opening line at the ice house
- changing Ursula's "orgy" line to, "Let's make-out!"
- changing Kim's cigarette line in scene 3 to, "Doris, can you
make me some coffee. I take it black."
3) We have moved "Spanish Rose" to directly after "Baby, Talk to Me"
-the "Shriner Ballet" orchestra arrangment was awful, so Rosie
begins "Spanish Rose" in the bar w/Talk to Me guys, then
moves into the Shriner meeting for some table dancing and
trust falls! (For more dancing opportunities, the pit band
repeats a part of the song w/o Rosie singing)
-this change works really well! "Spanish Rose" makes more
sense in the location we re-located it too, and the song is much
more fun for Rosie to sing it to the men.
4) We have completely changed the Ed Sullivan scene. Instead of using the revolutionary war theme and the quartet, the scene is much simpler and is set in front of a shimmer curtain with an Ed Sullivan sign.

I think these are all of our alterations so far. If there are more, I will post again.

[what_the_heck013]

[BroadwayBud]

Being the student director, I have tried countless time to get our directors to create a bigger ending! Their response: "That's why we're singing Bye Bye Birdie after the bows !" Clearly that is not what I meant...at least, I thought I was being obvious...

On a side note, at rehearsal yesterday, the parents learned the 'Kids Reprise" and I couldn't stop laughing the entire time! All of the adults come on stage and they do jazz squares, and sway back and forth, and grapevines and even a kick line! It is really awesome! It's hilarious to see all of the parents unite and perform this Broadway-showstopper like number! It's going to steal the show! I'm working on getting added into it...I learned it with them yesterday. We'll see...

[what_the_heck013]

[BroadwayBud]

[quote="what_the_heck013"]
I think it should end with a "Telephone Hour" reprise. They would start out sad because Conrad has left, but as it gets closer to the end, they would be happy because Kim and Hugo are together. And then the adults would be in there somewhere.
I also think that the show should start with "The Telephone Hour"... but "that's another story, anyways..."[/quote]

That is a really cool idea! I understand completely, however, i don't think the whole point is Hugo and Kim. Otherwise, that ending would be totally fitting. The main relationship is albert and Rosie - their relationship is what's really in trouble...but you're ending is so much better than the real one! That was a great idea

[what_the_heck013]

[BroadwayRedHead]

We changed quite a bit. I don't remember what exactly, as it was my Freshman year of high school, but I just remember changing quite a bit.

We did cut "All American..." or whatever it is called (I don't know since it wasn't in it!). We also changed tons of scenes, because our director was crazy and just felt like changing huge portions of it.

[what_the_heck013]

[musicallover09]

[Robinflamingo]

We added in Mae's song from the TV version as well. Hey, if it's good enough for Tyne Daly...

[InaraSanguine]

We added "Bye, Bye Birdie" from the TV version before "Put on a Happy Face", "Let's Settle Down" before Honestly Sincere, and "A Mother Doesn't Matter Anymore" after the whole bar sequence ("Spanish Rose", "Talk to Me", "Shriner's Ballet")

And out "Hundred Ways Ballet" was a video montage of Rosie killing Albert in as many ways as we could possibly think of (to give time for massive costume changes)

[disneybeauty]

We added Let's Settle Down instead of Rosie's One Guy verse. Then the Director's wife reworked the end of the whole show to be a quartet with Al, Rosie, Kim, and Hugo, and then the rest of the cast came on to siing Bye Bye Birdie with different lyrics (written by the director's wife). We also cut the Shriner's Ballet.
As for the orgy line, they had Ursula pronounce it or-gee(hard G sound) . It got a huge laugh every night.

[disneybeauty]

We added Let's Settle Down instead of Rosie's One Guy verse. Then the Director's wife reworked the end of the whole show to be a quartet with Al, Rosie, Kim, and Hugo, and then the rest of the cast came on to siing Bye Bye Birdie with different lyrics (written by the director's wife). We also cut the Shriner's Ballet.
As for the orgy line, they had Ursula pronounce it or-gee(hard G sound) . It got a huge laugh every night.

[DefyinGravity]

I'm in the show now (see siggy) and we've modernized it. For example, in the scene after "Telephone Hour" (my favorite dance routine, btw) when Kim and Ursula are talking on the phone, Kim's original line is: "...Of course, I'll still play his records..." which we have changed to "CD's". Also, in the beginning of "Telephone Hour," all of the kids, except poor Harvey, are talking into cell phones, and a mysterious hand hands Penelope Ann a cord phone (Harvey overhears the conversation she's having on her cell phone. The lines "Is it true about Kim?...etc. are supposedly in that conversation, 'til she says "I can't talk to you now!") We also completely removed Mr. Macafee from the scene about calling parents by their fisrt names, because his only line in there had been "I'm not old, I was eighteen...once," and then he walks back out. It didn't make sense, so we cut it. And, Randolph hands his dad a NERF gun, which his dad shoots Conrad with in the Ice House Scene. And, Gloria taps to Mae and Albert singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."
Also, since we're performing it at a Christian university and most of our audience is old people, we've changed quite a few things:
-Kim doesn't ask her parents for a cig, nor does Albert take a cig out of a girl's mouth.
-Albert doesn't yell at the girls to "stay out of the bar"
-Lou was hit, not by a loaded beer truck, but a loaded TAB Cola truck (Which Mrs. Peterson has in her hand everytime she's seen)
-The scene when Mr. Macafee does his "Nero's back in town," monologue, Conrad grabs a warm 7Up. (Note- Ursula's mom was standing in front of the cabinet to be out of the way, and Conrad gets to harass her)
- Ursula suggest that we have a party instead of an orgy.
-Maude's Roadside Retreat is now Maude's Mocha Madness. Hugo still asks for an alchoholic beverage, but when he asks Rose to go back in and get him something, he asks for a Starbucks-type drink, really fast, and Rosie says "No more caffeine for you."
-The Ice House is sorta' like Starbucks, so Kim's monologue there is changed to refer to coffe drinks.

I think that's it.
Wow, that was long. Oh, we cut the 100 Ways and Shriner's ballets. We replaced 100 Ways with Rosie sort of pantomiming ways to kill Al while Hugo does his lines. One night, she did a karate kick, and then pantomimed tie-ing a noose, putting it around her neck, and pulling it. That part always gets a good laugh.
Sorry it was so long.

[jazzygirlsings]

^Did you get those changes approved by the licensing company? Because there are a few too many liberties with that...it sounds like some pretty awful choices to me! Especially because the show is specifically set up to be a throw-back to the 1950's...NOT to be modernized...

[DefyinGravity]

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I asked our director, and he said he did get it approved by the liscensing company.
The main reason we modernized was because the play is set 50 years ago. Alot of the pop culture references in the original script wouldn't be understood by modern audiences (except the really old folks).
Another couple reasons for the changes:
Very low budget. Like, when the script says that the kids in Telephone Hour are in a jungle gym-kinda thing, we don't have the $ or resources to do that kinda thing. So, because of that, we choreographed it a bit differently, and cell phones would have made more sense then walking all over the stage with cord phones.
It didn't make sense for certain lines to be there. Mr. Macafees line: I'm not old, I was 18 in WWII, for example. The audience would have thought that the play was taking place now, so being 18 in WW2 makes you very old. We had to change his line, but, since Ursula started the scene on her cell in the chair in Kim's house, he would have hadto come in later. He ended up going in, saying his line, and going right back out. That was just stupid.
The last reason:
We did the play at a christian college. Things like "orgy" can't be said at christian colleges. Also, some of the mostly old audience would have probably died of heart attackes if we'd kept that original line.
That's all I'm gonna say about why we made those changes.

[MsDivaKate]

It just gets to me when people make so many changes.

Especially with the modernizing of the show, I can't believe Tams actually approved making all those changes, as the show is licensed to death. So either your director had to PAY to do "his vision" or he's telling you false things to save face.

As for the orgy line, she doesn't actually pronounce it as you are supposed to. But says Or-Gee with the hard g sound, and the script tells you to do so. I never really considered it that offensive, and I go to a Jesuit run university, because she doesn't really understand what she's suggesting. She's heard the word before, probably not all that sure what it means, and mispronounces it.

As for all these other references people are having issues with, I think people could have far better things to focus on. Its a musical comedy for god's sakes.

[*BroadwayLights*]

[MsDivaKate]

[ajkowalkowski]

I'm currently directing it. We're adding "A Mother Doesn't Matter Anymore" and "Let's Settle Down" available from Tams-Witmark. We're also adding the song "Bye Bye Birdie" to the beginning as an opening number. I also did a little editing to combine the revisions available from Tams-Witmark and some stuff I wrote, so that "Spanish Rose" is used in place of "Shiner's Ballet". We're also cutting "100 Ways Ballet"

[rcs]

At my high school, we cut the 100 Ways Ballet (almost everyone does, these days), the filmstrips in the overture and entr'acte, and the middle section of "One Last Kiss" (with the bit about going off to war). We changed/cut a few lines that our director didn't think were politically correct (mostly in Mae's bit about Rosie coming up from Mexico). Other than that, it mostly stayed the same. The Ice House was left alone, "orgy" and all (we pronounced it with a hard "g," the way the script says to). Shriners stayed in as well. We did keep the Male Quartet in "Baby, Talk to Me" (I sang the baritone). "Spanish Rose" stayed where it was in the original script (I agree it fits better in the bar scene, but we did it the way it was in the script). I think that's all.