WIKI TIKI WEDNESDAY - SONDHEIM & THE MIZNER BROTHERS

'FRASIER'
"DESPERATELY SEEKING CLOSURE"

SAMANTHA PIERCE:
We are taking the Concorde to London
for a party at Alec Guinness' place.
DR. FRASIER CRANE:
Well, I'm not so sure -#
SIR Alec Guinness? 
SAMANTHA PIERCE:  
I know it's a long way to go, 
but Stephen is going to be there 
and he'll play some songs from the new one.
DR. FRASIER CRANE:  
I don't know if -#
Stephen Sondheim? 
SAMANTHA PIERCE:  
Guess who's singing with him.
DR. FRASIER CRANE:  
No, please, don't tell me. 

This episode was first televised December 9, 1997, 22 years ago already.  (Hard to believe!)  So “the new one” by Stephen Sondheim was a project in development by then and apparently due to open sometime after 1998 was underway.

But if Toobworld followed the Trueniverse with this bit o’ History, things didn’t go as planned…..

From Wikipedia (combined articles):
During the late 1990s, Sondheim and Weidman reunited with Hal Prince for “Wise Guys”, a musical comedy following brothers Addison and Wilson Mizner. 

Wilson Mizner (May 19, 1876 – April 3, 1933) was an American playwright, raconteur, and entrepreneur. His best-known plays are “The Deep Purple”, produced in 1910, and “The Greyhound”, produced in 1912. He was manager and co-owner of The Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles, California, and was part of the failed project of his older brother, Addison, to create a new resort in Boca Raton, Florida.  

Addison Cairns Mizner (December 12, 1872 – February 5, 1933) was an American resort architect whose Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival style interpretations left an indelible stamp on South Florida, where it continues to inspire architects and land developers. In the 1920s Mizner was the best-known and most-discussed living American architect.  Palm Beach, Florida, which he "transformed", was his home, and most of his houses are there. He believed that architecture should also include interior and garden design, and set up Mizner Industries to have a reliable source of components. He was "an architect with a philosophy and a dream."  Boca Raton, Florida, began as Mizner's project.  

From the Sondheim website:
Following his 1919 arrest for running a gambling joint on Long Island, Wilson joined Addison in Palm Beach just before the 1920s land boom got underway. After the land boom burst, Wilson left Mizner in Florida and went back to California. Settling in Hollywood, Wilson managed and co-owned the Brown Derby Restaurant. He also wrote screenplays for several early talkies.

Curtain down for both brothers came in 1933. The 62-year-old Addison died in February. Three months later Wilson - only 57 and unrepentant - also died, a quipster even at the very end.
- Jerry Floyd

Back to Wikipedia:
Taking considerable liberties with their lives, William and Addison are the protagonists of Stephen Sondheim's musical Road Show (alternately known as “Wise Guys”, “Gold!”, and “Bounce”).   

A Broadway production, starring Nathan Lane and Victor Garber, directed by Sam Mendes and planned for the spring of 2000, was delayed.  

Renamed “Bounce” in 2003, it was produced at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Although after poor reviews “Bounce” never reached Broadway, a revised version opened off-Broadway as “Road Show” at the Public Theater on October 28, 2008. Directed by John Doyle, it closed on December 28, 2008.

Maybe things might have gone differently – at least in Toobworld – if Frasier had gone to that party at Sir Alec Guiness’ place.  A word from Frasier in the wrong ear…..

BCnU!