Triumph of Love

“They came in a whirl of wanton words,

Those feckless and false young men.

They tore at my heart like hungry birds

and never came back again.

Serenity. Serenity. I never knew any then.”

Princess Leonide was a ruthless figure in 1732. The playwright, Pierre Marivaux, liked to tweak the commedia conventions. He’d place his lovers in farcial situations only to break their hearts. The 1997 musical softened Leonide with a song of remorse, and upstaged her by casting Betty Buckley as Hesione. Leonide’s seduction of the prince and his uncle were played for broad comedy while Hesione got songs of awakening love, self-discovery and heartbreak. Critics praised Buckley, panned the show, and left it to college campuses. A film in 2001 awakened some regional interest in the play but the story remains an acquired taste.  

Marilyn: An American Fable

The Smash producers are gauging interest for a full production of Bombshell. The Marilyn Monroe bio-musical has no book but some terrific power ballads. This has encouraged the theater blogs to re-examine past Marilyn Monroe musicals including the campy Marilyn: An American Fable.

Frank Rich, New York Times: "If you read all the fine print in the Playbill for ''Marilyn: An American Fable,'' you'll discover that the new musical at the Minskoff has 16 producers and 10 songwriters. If you mistakenly look up from the Playbill to watch the show itself, you may wonder whether those 26 persons were ever in the same rehearsal room - or even the same city - at the same time."

Ken Mandelbaum, Not Since Carrie: "More than ten numbers and forty-five minutes were dropped before opening night... The show seemed to be the work of eight-year-olds assigned to write a musical about Monroe, so dumb it was almost inspired."

Clips from the original production reveal some terrible songs, but the soaring ballad "You Are So Beyond" has been a breakout hit for earnest tenors.

Less footage remains of London's Marilyn! The Musical which opened the same year. Preliminary research suggests it was a sungthrough popera inspired by Evita. 

Pippin

Bob Fosse mocks Pippin's rehearsal process in the movie All ThatJazz. The perky composer has written a cheerful show that Fosse’s surrogate keeps twisting with erotic choreography. Pippin is often the least interesting person Pippin. It’s easy for Fosse's style and the flashy supporting roles to overshadow the Everyman plot. 

Scott Miller argues that there’s more to Pippin’s story than many realize see: “The show deals with the coming of age, the rites of passage, the lack of role models and guidelines for the young adults of today's society, and the hopelessness that has become more and more prevalent among young people. Because of its 1970's pop style score and a somewhat emasculated licensed version which is very different from the original Broadway production, the show has a reputation for being merely cute and harmlessly naughty; but if done the way director Bob Fosse envisioned it, the show is surreal and disturbing."

Mack and Mabel

As with Fanny Brice, Gypsy Rose Lee and Maria Von Trapp, Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand have been preserved for future generations in a historically dubious musical. Legends say Mack and Mabel's glorious score was undercut by a gloomy book. There's a little more to it.

Mack and Mabel tells two competing stories. Mabel’s playing the tragic romance. She gets the best songs but most of her character growth happens off stage. Mack’s telling the story of his movie career. He gets 4-5 songs about his movies that start to sound alike. When people say glorious score they're right, but they're usually thinking more Time Heals Everything and less Hit 'Em On the Head.

There’s a large supporting cast with nothing to do because the book was cut to shreds during the out-of-town tryout. Gower Champion thought the key to the show were the re-enactments of Mack Sennet’s films but what’s lasted is Jerry Herman’s score. 

Funny Girl

Funny Girl has been dismissed by several critics as a rickety vehicle for a star turn. Without Barbra Streisand is there reason to revive it? People love the big songs but how many are longing to hear "Henry Street" or "Rat-tat-tat-tat" again?

I mentioned earlier this week that the show has similarities to the often revived Gypsy. Let's compare two key moments in the musicals Funny Girl and Gypsy. 

The awkward young performer makes her big debut:

Louise's Let Me Entertain You strip is full of tension. She's terrified to be on that stage but once she stops listening to her mother and starts talking to the audience her confidence grows. We segue into a fabulous montage as Louise Hovick transforms herself into Gypsy Rose Lee. We are late into act two and building towards the shows climax.

Meanwhile Fanny Brice is desperate to be on stage. She surprises her boss by leaping out of the chorus to belt the solo Cornet Man. Fanny can't keep up with the dancers but the crowd loves her voice. There's no consequence for sabotaging the number and Fanny is quickly hired for the Ziegfeld Follies. She repeats her tactics for the Ziegfeld debut, making an ensemble number all about her by wearing a fake pregnancy pad. We're only halfway through act one and Fanny has achieved stardom.

The long suffering leading man says goodbye:

Rose broke Herbie's trust when she forced her daughter to strip. Rose has shown Herbie the ugliness of her ambitions and proven she'll never be a "wife" to him. We've seen his arc resolve through two acts. He leaves her alone to sing a sad reprise.

Fanny broke Nick's trust when she offered him a job through her connections... huh? Instead he sells illegal bonds, goes to prison, then asks for a divorce. Most of his arc leading to this was off stage. He leaves her alone to sing a sad reprise.

In conclusion

Roses' showbiz ambitions in Gypsy propel the show destroying family and romantic relationships in their path. Stakes are high. Fanny's showbiz ambitions in Funny Girl are quickly achieved learning her to pine for her cipher of a leading man for the rest of the night. Stakes are low.

In Ethan Mordden's book Open A New Window he points out two reasons for Nicky's lack of character. First the real Arnstein was "alive and litigious." Second the role was cut down during the shows disastrous out of town tryout. Streisand was the only part audiences liked so replacement director Jerome Robbins focused the show on her. This is even more apparent in the movie where nearly everyone elses songs are cut.

If you bring Funny Girl back to Broadway you're bringing back the songs for Eddie Ryan, Mama Brice, Ms. Strakosh and the blander than bland Nicky Arnstein. You better have a Fanny who can distract you from them.

How To Succeed Clones

"The sad thing about a poor musical is that as much effort goes into it as goes into a good musical - probably more." ~ Clive Barnes. New York Times. 1967 review of How Now Dow Jones.

When a new idea is a hit it looks easy. Oh sure. Let’s take a satirical novel about corrupt businessmen and make it a musical!

I Can Get it for You Wholesale and What Makes Sammy Run went for grit; focusing on the victims of the con men. How Now Dow Jones went for breezy and jokey but gasped and wheezed instead. Both Sammy and How Now have been revived regionally with revised books but none have captured the lightning in the bottle of the frequently revived How to Succeed.

Modern Musical Tropes : Women's Roles

A friend is programming a season at her student camp and asked for musicals with "progressive gender politics." The conversation went in many interesting directions. I took a look at a list of contemporary musicals produced between 2000 and 2015 and began to categories the types of roles and relationships currently being written for our leading ladies. Here are some trends I found.

The Girlfriend

When the plot hinges on the man's ambition the leading lady is often reduced to the love interest. She may have hopes and dreams of her own outside the relationship, but they are rarely pursued within the plotline. Ulla in The Producers wants a show business career but she's primarily written as a love interest and foil for the leading men as they plan their caper.

• Aladdin (2014)
• Big Fish (2013)
• Catch Me If You Can (2011)
• Elf: The Musical (2010)
• The Producers (2001) 

Spunky Ingenues

When the focus shifts from the leading man to the leading lady, but her goal still revolves around landing a man, we get this. What's a catchier term for it?

• The Little Mermaid (2008) *** In which Ariel gets the stage time but Ursula steals the show.
• Marguerite (2008)
• Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002)

Mother and Daughter 

Gypsy set the gold standard but mother/daughter relationships can still serve as a focus or subplot of a musical. In several of these examples the daughter wants a boyfriend or career path that the mother doesn't approve of.

• The Addams Family (2010)
• Bat Boy (2001)
• Curtains (2007) (in which the ingenue is "The Girlfriend" but Carmen and Bambi's feud gets significant focus. As an added bonus everyone is a murder suspect.)
• Grey Gardens (2006)
• The Light in the Piazza (2005)

Good Girl / Bad Girl

Ado Annie and Laurie. Adelaide and Sarah. Roxie and Velma.

When two leading ladies are in orbit their personalities are often polar opposites. If they have separate love interests you get the comic/dramatic couple split. If they're both interested in the same man (or job) you can get a good girl/bad girl rivalry. If the focus is on one woman the second is usually an antagonist to be overcome. Other times the women join forces towards a common goal.

• Avenue Q (2003)
• A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder (2013)
• Jane Eyre (2000)
• Legally Blonde (2007)
• Love Never Dies (2010)
• Wicked (2003)
• Both Wild Parties (2000)

Teacher and Students

Some interesting variations here. The teachers will often clash with parents or authority figures who disapprove of their methods. Caroline doesn't quite fit this category. She keeps refusing the mentor role thrust upon her by her employers son as she's got children of her own to raise. 

• Billy Elliot (2008)
• Caroline or Change (2003)
• Mary Poppins (2006)
• Matilda (2012)
• Sister Act (2011)

Friendship Trio

Three women band together against a male adversary. The musicals in this mini-genre are all based on films. How many more films are left to adapt in this vein?

• Nine to Five (2009)
• The First Wives Club (2009)
• The Witches of Eastwick (2000)

Outliers

Here are some new musicals that didn't immediately fit into any of these categories.

• The Drowsy Chaperone (2006) - Janet and Mrs. Tottendale want husbands. Kitty wants a career. Trix is a deus ex machina. The Chaperone wants a drink. 
• Fun Home (2015) - the focus is a father/daughter relationship
• The Color Purple (2005) - The many women in Miss Celie's life help her with her journey towards independence. 
• See What I Wanna See (2005) - Three short stories in which the featured women play vamps, killers, fortune tellers and a dying mentor figure. 
• Spelling Bee, The 25th Annual Putnam County (2005) - The three women competing in the Bee have parental and peer pressures to wrestle with. 
• Title of Show (2008) - Heidi and Susan clash with their gay BFF's as they put together a show for a festival.
• Women on the Verge (2011) - they all want revenge against the man who abandoned them, but it doesnt' seem to fit the Friendship Trio template.

What are some tropes for women I've missed? What are some tropes for men?

What is your definition of "progressive gender politics?"

The Happy Time

Good Idea: Let's turn Samuel Taylor's coming-of-age comedy into a chamber musical!

Bad Idea: Let's shift the focus from the naive nephew to the roguish uncle! And put the show in a giant theater!

Good Idea: Let's cast hearthrob Robert Goulet as the uncle!

Bad Idea: Let's rewrite the uncle so he's a big success instead of a failure who lies about his success to his family!

The result? A book with no stakes, a short run, and a Tony for Robert Goulet.

Steel Pier

In 1997 Kander and Ebb were put in the unusual position of competing with themselves on Broadway. Their sincere new musical Steel Pier was overshadowed by the hit revival of their cynical musical Chicago. 

Karen Ziemba's heroine is a con-artist but she's no Roxie Hart. She's being dragged into crime by her sleazy boyfriend. Her spectral dance partner quickly reforms her, drawing some to compare the book to Touched by an Angel or Quantum Leap. A far cry from the nastiness of the dance marathon film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

The fun is relegated to a thin subplot with Debra Monk and Kristin Chenoweth as competing divas in the marathon's talent show. The book doesn't give them much but Debra got her signature song, "Everybodies Girl", and Kristin's next show launched her to stardom.

Sunday in the Park with George

Sunday in the Park with George sits precariously on the edge between traditional plot-driven musicals and the concept musicals developed mostly by Stephen Sondheim and director Hal Prince. Like concept musicals, Sunday explores an idea more than telling a story, and yet it does still tell a story. The difference is that the exposition and conflicts are established in the 1880s but the resolution comes a hundred years later to a protagonist who is a different man and yet the same. ~ Scott Miller

Seurat, the authors remind us, never sold a painting; it's anyone's guess whether the public will be shocked or delighted by ''Sunday in the Park.'' What I do know is that Mr. Sondheim and Mr. Lapine have created an audacious, haunting and, in its own intensely personal way, touching work. Even when it fails - as it does on occasion - ''Sunday in the Park'' is setting the stage for even more sustained theatrical innovations yet to come.' ~ Frank Rich, New York Times, 1984.

Do Re Mi

The recent Peter Pan Live included several new songs, two of which took set melody's from Do Re Mi to new lyrics.

• Hubie's "Ambition" became Captain Hook's "Vengeance" and
• the record producer's "I Know About Love" became Wendy's "(Is It) Only Pretend?"

The original show won't miss them as it's not likely to be revived any time soon. It was written as a star vehicle for Phil Silvers and seen briefly at Encores with Nathan Lane in 1999, but neither production had much praise for the slight book. It was mainly a launching pad for a star turn.

"Hubert Cram, the bluntly drawn schlemiel of a hero in the musical ''Do Re Mi,'' is not a character to be served without sauce. He needs the twists, fizz and flourishes that only an outsize comic presence can provide, the sort of performer to whom shtick is an intricate and highly evolved art. In 1960, when the show first opened, Phil Silvers was on hand to come up with the necessary embellishments. Baroque shtick was Silvers's specialty, as it was to a whole galaxy of funny men whose style was descended from vaudeville, from Bert Lahr to Zero Mostel." ~ New York Times

Mrs. Santa Claus

I'm Mrs. Santa Claus, the invisible wife.
And Mrs. Santa Claus needs a change in her life.

I saw this special when it first aired, then promptly forgot it. Something recently reminded me of its existence and the earworm title song popped back into my head. Terrance Mann's campy villain makes an impression as well.

"The CBS movie, billed as the first original musical for television since Rodgers and Hammerstein's ''Cinderella'' in 1957, turns out to be, of all things, a feisty feminist and unionist tract set in 1910." ~ New York Times.

The Pajama Game - Quick Sketch

Music and Lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross

Book by George Abbott and Richard Bissell

based on the novel 7½ Cents by Richard Bissell.

1954 Broadway

Adler and Ross amazed audiences and critics with two Tony winning musicals back to back. Then Jerry Ross had the misfortune to die at the age of 29 of bronchiectasis. While we'll never know what they could have written their two hits, Damn Yankees and The Pajama Game were captured in faithful films and successful in revivals.

Damn Yankees

I love Damn Yankees but I’ll admit it’s oddly structured. Who is it about? Joe and Meg are technically the protagonists as their marriage is at stake, but Applegate (The Devil) and Lola drive the plot and get the best songs.  The baseball team gets the dances while their quest to beat the Yankees and win the pennant is kept offstage. The 1994 revisal adjusted this by focusing on “the big game” in the finale.

Gwen Verdon’s Lola was unquestionably the heart and… soul… of the original production. You can play Lola as a comical vamp and get laughs but Verdon did more.  She’d grown tired of the vamp act. Joe’s initial resistance made it fun for her again but his sincerity made her drop the mask. She never forgot that she  was “the ugliest woman in Providence, Rhode Island” wearing a supernatural disguise. It gave the breezy musical comedy some pathos.

Of course modern directors can also play up the homoeroticism. That’s okay too.

Drat! The Cat!

"Take it from one who saw it, Drat! The Cat!, which ran a week at the Martin Beck in 1965, was a very funny (if very silly) show. It was full of inventive Joe Layton staging, and its leads, Lesley Ann Warren and Elliott Gould, gave performances so wonderful that one could only assume that one would be seeing them in show after show." ~ Kevin Mandelbaum

"Yes, Drat! The Cat! a musical comedy about a cat burglar plundering 1890's New York society, opened on October 10, 1965 -- and closed on its first weekend. And that's a bigger crime than ever The Cat ever pulled." ~ Peter Filichia

"With its bizarre plotting and outlandish resolution, Drat! the Cat! wins no prizes for logic or depth, but it may well have been the breeziest musical comedy of 1965." ~ Marc Miller

Scandalous

Broadway jackals suspicious of Ms. Gifford’s bona fides were surely hoping for an epoch-making turkey in time for Thanksgiving. Sorry, guys. “Scandalous” isn’t so much scandalously bad as it is generic and dull. ~ Charles Isherwood. New York Times. 

Pioneer Romance Musicals

While Annie Get your Gun has been successfully revived several times, Wildcat has vanished and The Unsinkable Molly Brown is only now seeing a resurgence. Ethel Merman's Annie threw a shooting match to heal the wounded ego of her suitor. Bernadette Peters did the same in 1999 but her suitor caught on and threw his own shot as well. Will the upcoming revisal of Molly Brown put her on equal footing with her spouse? Time will tell.

Woman of the Year

Oh the grass is always greener
when some other tenant pays rent.
Oh the teeth are always cleaner
in somebody elses Polydent.
~ Woman of the Year

 Although the 1942 film was considered enlightened at the time, for instance, the women's movement has rendered many of its conceits passe. ''In the movie, the implication at the end is that she's going to settle down and be Mrs. Housewife,'' says Mr. Kasha. ''We're not doing that. No one gives up their career; they make room for each other in their lives.''
~ New York Times

 The people who concocted this musical know what their show is really about. Miss Bacall is on hand virtually the whole time, and she's vibrant whether no-nonsense or tipsy, domineering or moony, dry or wet. If ''Woman of the Year'' is tired around the edges, it is always smart enough to keep its live wire center stage.
~ Frank Rich. New York Times.

Applause

Welcome to the theatre, to the magic, to the fun
Where painted trees and flowers grow, and laughter rings fortissimo
And treachery's neatly done. 
~ Applause

Seriously, Miss Bacall is a sensation. She sings with all the misty beauty of an on-tune foghorn. She never misses a note- she is not one of your all-talking musical dramatics- and although her voice is not pretty, it does have the true beauty of unforgettablility.
~ Clive Barnes (New York Times Review)

The Sound of Music

... What?