Sammy Stops the World is terrible. Haven't seen the Peter Scolari one. Here's the thing about Stop the World - I believe the folks who don't respond to it didn't see it on B'way or the road (with Joel Grey and Julie Newmar). There had never really been anything like it - it was fresh, weird, the songs were memorable, and it was a very different world - Littlechap was somehow lovable despite being a serial cheater and wise-ass. He realizes all this at the end of the show. When he's reborn at the end and the circle goes on, one hopes he'll be better. I can tell you that Lehman Engel thought it was one of the worst musicals ever written.
He said that to me personally during one of the workshop classes in 1969.
The movie is foul, Tony Tanner has no charm and boy did that prove to be the case when he did one of our Kritzerland shows, and the new, string-heavy orchestrations were awful. The original orchestrations were unique for their time and brilliant. When I heard Larry Blank's orchestrations for The Drowsy Chaperone, when we were recording the overture to make it sound like an old 78, the minute it began I turned to Larry and said, "Sto the World, baby" and he laughed and said, "Exactly."
