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City of Angels

A smart and stylish film noir musical, Tony Award winner City of Angels captures the gritty sights and sounds of Hollywood’s classic detective movies, all set to a brilliant, bluesy jazz score.

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Description

  • Full Length Musical
  • Dramatic Comedy
  • 120 minutes

  • Time Period: 1940s / WWII
  • Target Audience: Teen (Age 14 - 18), Adult
  • Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings
  • Cautions: Gun Shots, Mild Adult Themes
  • Orchestra Size: Large

  • Performance Group:
  • High School/Secondary, College Theatre / Student, Community Theatre, Professional Theatre

  • Accolades:
  • Winner! Six Tony Awards including Best Musical (1990)
    Winner! Nine Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Musical (1990)
    Winner! Three Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding Broadway Musical (1990)
    Winner! New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical (1990)
In the late 1940s, Stine, a bookish writer of detective stories, struggles to adapt his crime novel into a workable screenplay. As Stine tries to maintain some integrity in the backstabbing world of Hollywood, his protagonist, a hardboiled private eye named Stone, fights for survival in a city full of criminals and opportunists. In a clever design choice, the stories are told on a split stage: Stine’s world is in full color, while Stone’s appears in black and white.

With wit, humor, and a fantastic Cy Coleman score, City of Angels captures the snappy dialogue of a Raymond Chandler novel and the glitzy showmanship of classic Hollywood; the result is a crowd-pleasing musical unlike any other.
REVIEWS:

"One of my favorite musicals of the 1980s...for its sexy David Zippel and Cy Coleman score of siren-fueled ballads...[and] the plethora of droll lines in its potboiler of a book."

Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune

"One of the wittiest books ever written... [and] an effervescent score by Cy Coleman."

Michael Billington, The Guardian

"Has the epitome of an old-school book by Larry Gelbart and lines that don't go for easy laughs but more the slow burn of actual comedic sophistication."

Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune

"Energetic songs, beautiful design, and clever storytelling... one of the rare shows that entertains fans of both traditional musicals and more abstract dramas, a perfect combination for the commercial theatre."

Tom Williams, Chicago Critic

"One would have to travel back to the 1960's – to Bye Bye Birdie, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Little Me – to find a musical as flat-out funny as City of Angels."

Frank Rich, The New York Times

"A snappy, stylish film noir musical...a swan song to film noir and its backstage action, a gem of a show."

Jill Kyle-Keith, DC Theatre Scene


Premiere Production: City of Angels opened on Broadway at the Virginia Theatre on December 11, 1989, starring Gregg Edelman, James Naughton, Kay McClelland and Randy Graff. The show won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and played for 879 performances.

Characters

  • Casting: 8M, 8F
  • Casting Attributes: Strong Role for Leading Man (Star Vehicle), Expandable casting
  • Chorus Size: Large

  • HOLLYWOOD CAST (doubling roles) MOVIE CAST


    • *Singing Roles (15)

  • *STINE, a writer of fiction… (himself)
    (himself)… *STONE, Stine’s creation, Private Eye
    *GABBY, Stine’s wife / *BOBBI, Stone’s ex-wife
    *DONNA, Buddy’s secretary / *OOLIE, Stone’s secretary
    *BUDDY FIDLER, movie director/producer / IRWIN S. IRVING, a movie mogul
    CARLA HAYWOOD, Buddy’s wife / *ALAURA KINGSLEY, a femme fatale
    WERNER KRIEGLER, an actor / LUTHER KINGSLEY, Alaura’s husband
    GERALD PIERCE, an actor / PETER KINGSLEY, Alaura’s stepson
    AVRIL RAINES, a starlet / *MALLORY KINGSLEY, Alaura’s Stepdaughter
    PANCHO VARGAS, an actor / *LIEUTENANT MUNOZ, a police detective
    GENE, an assistant director / *OFFICER PASCO, a policeman/ORDERLY / L.A. County Hospital employee
    STAND-IN, a studio employee / MARGARET, a maid at the Kingsleys
    GILBERT, a barber / DR. MANDRIL, a religious leader
    JIMMY POWERS, a movie crooner / JIMMY POWERS, a movie crooner
    STUDIO COP, a studio employee / BIG SIX, a thug
    STUDIO COP, a studio employee / SONNY, a smaller thug
    DEL DACOSTA, a songwriter / *MAHONEY, a reporter/ORDERLY, L.A. Country Hospital employee
    CINEMATOGRAPHER (JACK), a studio employee / *HARLAN YAMATO, county coroner
    SHOESHINE, a studio employee / COMMISSIONER GAINES, police commissioner
    HAIRDRESSER, a studio employee / ANNA, a masseuse / MARGIE, a brothel keeper
    *ANGEL CITY FOUR, vocal quartet / *ANGEL CITY FOUR, vocal quartet

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Perusal Material Shipped immediately. This is optional. Order Now

    1 x Prompt Book & Vocal-Chorus Part

    		$24.00
    Rehearsal Material Shipped a minimum of 3 months before the last performance. This must be hired as a condition of the License to produce this show.

    26 x Prompt Book & Chorus-Vocal Parts

    		$550.00 +$135.00/pm
    Orchestral Material Shipped a minimum of 1 month before the last performance. This is optional.

    2 Violin I (optional)
    1 Violin II (optional)
    1 Viola (optional)
    1 Cello (optional)
    1 Bass: acoustic and electric. 

    1 Reed I: Piccolo, Flute, Clarinet & Alto Sax
    1 Reed II: Piccolo, Flute, Clarinet & Alto Sax
    1 Reed III: Clarinet & Tenor Sax
    1 Reed IV: Clarinet, Bass Clarinet & Baritone Sax

    1 Trumpets I & II (both double on Flugelhorn)
    1 Trumpets III (doubles on Flugelhorn)
    1 Trombone I (tenor)
    1 Trombone II (bass)

    1 Drums (trap set):

    Bass Drum
    Snare Drum (brushes/sticks/mallets)
    Tom-Toms (4)
    Mark Tree
    Triangles (2 sizes)
    Gong
    Wood Block
    Cymbals:
    Suspended
    Ride
    Sizzle/Crash
    Hi_Hat (Sock)

    1 Percussion (mallet instruments):

    Gran Cassa
    Timpani (2 pedal drums)
    Conga Drums
    Glockenspiel (hard & soft mallets)
    Tubular Chimes
    Vibraphone
    Xylophone
    Marimba
    Castanets
    Maracas
    Tube Shaker
    Suspended Cymbal (w/ mallets)
    Tam Tam
    Triangle(s)
    Mark Tree
    Glass Wind Chimes
    Wooded Wind Chimes
    Cow Bell
    Sandpaper Blocks
    Temple Blocks (w/ clave)
    Typewriter (or Hotel) Bell

    1 Keyboard I - Piano
    1 Keyboard II - Synthesizer
    1 Guitar - acoustic and electric (optional)

    Piano-Conductor's Score sent with rehearsal material.


    		 $350.00 +$135.00/pm

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