Henson loved the theater and considered doing a Broadway show that featured the Muppets. In 1971 he had developed several pieces that were performed live in a Las Vegas show hosted by Nancy Sinatra. He also toured with Jimmy Dean, which gave him a taste for live performance. The following year, Henson made a formal proposal to a group of theatrical producers to create a live revue to be performed at New York's Lincoln Center. Made of brightly colored cutout collage and marker drawngs, this proposal had a more polished look than some of his earlier proposals. It contained images of earlier ideas, including Sclrap Flyapp and Big Boss Man, as well as concepts for new pieces, including The Clodhoppers, which were full-bodied, rod-operated puppets, and Gawky Bird, a colossal fifteen-foot rod puppet. In pieces that required special puppetry techniques, Jim indicated how a puppeteer would perform that particular puppet. The black forms seen in the backgrounds of Big Boss Man, Gawky Bird, and The Clodhoppers are puppeteers. The puppeteers had to wear black so they would be invisible to the audience during the performance. From the shadows, they operated the puppets with long rods connected to their bodies by a harness. These colossal puppets seemed to sing and dance by themselves, and actors and actresses could dance among them as well. The Muppets never made it to Broadway, but Jim always kept this idea in the back of his mind. As Jerry Juhl recalled, "Every couple of years, when Jim would take a week off, he would come in and say, 'We gotta do that Broadway show.'" Even today, the idea for a live show comes up for discussion in company production meetings. Perhaps the Muppets will "Take Manhattan" after all.
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Sam and Friends Book
Jim Henson Idea Man
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