November 09, 2007

Guns n' Roses refuses 'Rock 'N' Roll' on Broadway

The "Rock 'N' Roll" that opened on Broadway this week is almost identical to the version of the play when it premiered in London.

But in New York, there is no Guns 'n' Roses. Specifically, the song "Don't Cry."

"We weren't allowed to use it," playwright Tom Stoppard told a TimesTalks audience gathered to see him while the play was still in previews in New York.

He said he liked the song and was still hoping Guns n' Roses would grant permission to use it here. But when opening night arrived, the song was missing, replaced instead with The Cure's "Boys Don't Cry."

The drama -- which is in part about how listening to your favorite rock 'n' roll records was an act of defiance in Communist Czechoslovakia, but that giving it up, even a little bit, could lead to the slippery slope of totalitarian capitulation -- is punctuated with loud snippets of music important to the defiant Czech music scene. The Rolling Stones "It's Only Rock 'n" Roll," John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance," The Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting for the Man," and Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" are among the songs featured -- along with songs from Prague's oft-imprisoned The Plastic People of the Universe.

The Rolling Stones first concert in Czechoslovakia actually factors into the drama of the play. When the Stones played Prague on August 18, 1990, it was in the massive Strahov Stadium, the largest (or second largest,) sports stadium in the world, which until then was famous as the place that hosted the Communists' mass calesthenics exercise spectacles. (As in thousands of people doing jumping jacks in unison.) So it was rather remarkable when the freshly-minted democracy got a presidentially-requested visit from the Stones. (Read the New York Times concert review.)

The second band to play Strahov was Guns 'n' Roses -- with Faith No More and Soundgarden -- on May 20, 1992.

Earlier: Havel in residence and Plastic People of the Universe
Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden for ... fried cheese

November 9, 2007 01:53 PM in Broadway

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