Peter Allen’s short-lived 1988 gangster musical Legs Diamond will live again in a special 30th anniversary concert revival December 3 starring original cast members, including Brenda Braxton, Christine Andreas, and Bob Stillman, at Feinstein’s/54 Below in New York.
Other original cast members scheduled to take part: Adrian Bailey, Randall Edwards, Jim Fyfe, and Ruth Gottschall, plus Mark Manley. This concert will be produced and directed by yet another original cast member, Jonathan Cerullo.
The show was based on the real-life story of Prohibition-era mobster John Diamond, who earned his nickname for both his dancing skills and his ability to sidestep his enemies. The score, with music and lyrics by pop singer Allen (1944–1992), included “When I Get My Name in Lights,” “The Music Went Out of My Life,” “Only Steal From Thieves,” “Sure Thing Baby,” “Only an Older Woman,” “The Man Nobody Could Love,” “All I Wanted Was the Dream,” and “Say it Isn’t So.”
Legs Diamond opened December 26, 1988, after an unusual 72-performance preview period, and ran through February 19, 1989, garnering three Tony Award nominations (for choreography, costumes, and featured actress). The show underwent extensive rewriting and trimming during previews. Braxton (Tony nominee for Smokey Joe's Café) and Cerullo (Band in Berlin) made it to opening night, but the roles for Andreas (Tony nominee for On Your Toes) and Stillman (Tony nominee for Urban Cowboy and Dirty Blonde) were cut before the opening.
Legs Diamond was the last show presented at Broadway’s venerable Mark Hellinger Theatre before it was sold and turned into a church. The show’s book was written by Harvey Fierstein and Charles Suppon. Allen himself was the subject of a biographical musical, The Boy From Oz.
The Feinstein’s/54 Below production will get two performances at 7 and 9:30 PM in the supper club at 254 West 54th Street, beneath Studio 54, in Manhattan. Tickets, which cost $35 to $75 (plus a $25 food/drink minimum), can be ordered here.
Braxton has been a special guest performer on Playbill’s Broadway on the High Seas cruises. Cabins are available for Broadway on the Danube River with Michael Feinstein for November 3–13, 2017, also featuring Rachel Bay Jones, Julia Murney, Christopher Fitzgerald, Marc Kudisch, Christopher Sieber, Brandon Uranowitz, and Seth Rudetsky.
Tickets are also now on sale for Playbill’s Broadway on the High Seas July 2018 cruise to Iceland, accompanied by Judy Kuhn, Christine Ebersole, Rob McClure, Jarrod Spector, Carmen Cusack, and Sierra Boggess. Visit PlaybillTravel.com for booking and information.
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