The Light in the Piazza

Critics described this show as a delicate romance. I found it to be overwrought camp. I was in the minority when I saw it live and had to stifle my guffaws. Then I saw the Forbidden Broadway parody and learned I wasn't alone. Your mileage may vary.

Fellow Travelers

There's a familiar tale in gay fiction. Two men find each other. One is ready to embrace his sexuality. The other burrows deeper into the closet, harming those around him. If they are lucky they both make it out alive. 

Fellow Travelers sets these tropes against the backdrop of Senator Joseph McCarthy's "Lavender Scare." McCarthy was determined to kick all homosexuals out of government jobs. Did McCarthy fear homosexuals would sell state secrets or was he just looking for a scapegoat? McCarthy makes an appearance in Fellow Travelers to defend his gay attorney Roy Cohn. The contradictions aren't deeply examined. They're simply there for the audience to interpret.

The focus of Fellow Travelers is the doomed affair between Timothy Laughlin and Hawkins Fuller. They live under the watchful eye of their co-workers in the Washington, D.C. of the 1950's. Spears's score provides distinctive arias for both men. Timothy's joyous "Last Night" is filled with the liberation of first love. Hawk's guarded "Our Very Own Home" laments the double life he's built. It's not a happy story but there are moments of humor and hope along the way. With luck Timothy's newfound pride will carry him safely to better times.

A Letter to Harvey Milk

"May 22 was Harvey Milk's birthday."
"Who was Harvey Milk?" a friend asked.
I gave the short version. "He was a gay rights activist in the 70's. He became a San Francisco city supervisor. The first openly gay politician. He was assassinated in City Hall along with the mayor by a colleague they'd fired. He'd been getting death threats and had already recorded his will. One of his more famous quotes was 'If a bullet should ever enter my brain, let that bullet shatter every closet door.'"
For a longer version have a look here.

Harvey Milk's life has been recounted by a musical, two operas, a documentary and an Oscar winning film. The 2016 musical, A Letter to Harvey Milk, is less about the man than his legacy. Two strangers, a Jewish widower and a lesbian teacher, meet in a writing class and discuss the way Harvey influenced their lives.

Some detractors are upset by the homophobic comments the teacher must endure. I'm of the mindset that a show set in the early 80's would be more offensive if it ignored the homophobia that our community has had to overcome. There's room for the Love, Simon fantasias in 2018 but we must never forget our history.

A Letter to Harvey Milk is currently running Off-Broadway at the Acorn Theatre.

Carmen Jones

A piece of gossip begat Mérimée's novella, which begat Bizet's Opera, which begat Hammerstein's adaptation Carmen Jones. Hammerstein remained faithful to Bizet's plot while moving the setting to WWII and filling the lyrics with 40's colloquialisms. The film is dated and heavily dubbed but it preserves the work of some extremely talented artists including Pearl Bailey and the Oscar nominated Dorothy Dandridge.

Clips:
Pearl Bailey performing Rhythm on a Drum in the 1954 film.
Diahann Carroll discussing her audition for Carmen Jones.
The delightful short All The Great Operas in Ten Minutes

Porgy and Bess

When Porgy and Bess returned to Broadway in 2011 it caused controversy. Director/adapter Diane Paulus had overseen multiple revisions to the libretto. Stephen Sondheim wrote the New York Times to express his disapproval.

"She fails to recognize that Porgy, Bess, Crown, Sportin’ Life and the rest are archetypes and intended to be larger than life and that filling in “realistic” details is likely to reduce them to line drawings.... let it not be called “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess,” nor even “The Gershwin-Heyward Porgy and Bess.” Advertise it honestly as “Diane Paulus’s Porgy and Bess.” And the hell with the real one."

In Paulus's defense the work had already undergone major revisions within the Gershwin's lifetime. Any producer seeing the "real one" has many versions to choose from. The three act opera from 1935, the two act musical from 1942, the two act opera from 1952, and various attempts to dial up or down the characters dialects. None of these versions diminish the power or importance of the work... though I wouldn't recommend doing it with an all white cast like they tried in Switzerland.

Here's Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis performing a medley at the 2012 Tony Awards.

Candide

Why doesn't Candide work on stage? Some said Lillian Hellman's grim book clashed with Bernstein's bouncy score. However the score has it's share of pathos and Wheeler's jokey new book robs the characters of depth. The 90 minute version does not earn it's meditative ending and the extended opera house version can be a chore to sit through. Perhaps it's simply that Voltaire's philosophical novella doesn't belong in a literal setting.

The Broadway premiere ran 73 performances but two revivals outran it and opera companies have made it a staple. While the title role is a cipher the supporting roles provide showcases for divas and clowns. Cundegonde's "Glitter and Be Gay" deserves all the praise it musters and the Old Lady frequently walks away with the show.

Angels in America: The Opera

How do you adapt a 7 hour play cycle into a 2.5 hour opera? Focus on one character’s story and cut the others down ruthlessly. Where the stage play follows five principal characters 6 principals the opera zeroes in on Prior Walter the dying prophet. The other five are there but primarily serve as support to Prior’s story.

Kusner’s play was subtitled A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. The opera minimizes the political themes and emphasizes the spiritual. Prior’s debate with the Angels is the centerpiece of the second act as Louis, Harper, Joe and Roy fall to the sides. Poor Belize is barely a cameo. I couldn’t say how the opera functions as a stand-alone work but I found it fascinating as a companion piece to the play.

The Pirates of Penzance

W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan wrote 14 comic operas together within a period of 25 years. Sadly their works were hijacked by “pirates.” Unauthorized American productions could not be halted by British copyright laws. The pair attempted to route this by holding the world premiere of Pirates in New York on December 31, 1879. The show was a hit though “pirated” showings continued.

The Pirates of Penzance remains one of their most produced works alongside H.M.S. Pinafore and The Mikado. “A Modern Major General” is one of their most referenced and parodied songs. The story and score are accessible to fans of opera and musical theater.

Joseph Papp's musical theater-y Pirates managed to introduce a modern zaniness to the work while remaining (mostly) faithful to the libretto. Some felt it bastardized the source material but it gave me an appreciation for G+S I hadn't held before. If you want to see a bad modernization of G+S watch The Pirate Movie... Actually don't. Don't watch The Pirate Movie. 

The Most Happy Fella

“You ain’t young no more, and you ain’t good-lookin’, and you ain’t smart.”

Thus says Marie to her brother, the unconventional protagonist of The Most Happy Fella. He has proposed to a young woman by letter and sent a photo of his handsome foreman in his stead. This Cyrano set-up could have carried a musical comedy but writer Frank Loesser was more ambitious. He resolves things quickly to focus on Tony’s rocky marriage to his wary new bride.

Loesser is best remembered for the brassy scores of Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed. The Most Happy Fella is something different. The brass is mixed with complex arias, quartets and chorales. The title role was originated by operatic baritone Robert Weede though Loesser denied the work was an opera. When asked he said “It’s a musical with a lot of music.”

Nixon in China

In 1972 U.S. President Richard Nixon flew to China to meet with Chairman Mao Zedong.

RealClearPolitics writes: "The trip would begin a new period of Chinese-American relations. Nixon's visit was a strategic maneuver made after relations between the West and the Communist East were gradually changing. China had publicly disagreed and split from the Soviet Union. Nixon used this confrontation, which was peaking in the early 1970s, to make a visit that would stun the world."

Director Peter Sellars proposed the subject of the opera to composer John Adams. Adams described the work as "part epic, part satire, part a parody of political posturing, and part serious examination of historical, philosophical, and even gender issues."

The libretto seeks to humanize the controversial leaders. The historical conversation is touched upon but the opera is more concerned with the characters inner thoughts and doubts throughout the visit. While National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger is presented as a boorish clown the Nixon's and the Mao's are treated with more kindness than general audiences may have expected.

Presidential Songs

1600 Pennsylvania Ave covers 100 years of U.S. Presidents but only a handful have songs. The best numbers go to the First Ladies. I decided to look through the list of U.S. Presidents and see how many have sung a song on stage.

Songs Sung By Presidents on Stage

1 George Washington - Hamilton (2015) - various including "One Last Time". 1600 Pennsylvania Ave (1969) - On Ten Square Miles by the Potomac River

2 John Adams - 1776 (1969) - various including "Is Anybody There?"

3 Thomas Jefferson 1776 (1969) - various including "The Egg." 1600 Pennsylvania Ave (1969) - "The President Jefferson Sunday Luncheon Party March." Hamilton (2015) - various including "What did I Miss?"

4 James Madison Hamilton (2015) - various including "Washington On Your Side."

5 James Monroe        1600 Pennsylvania Ave (1969) - The Little White Lie

6 John Quincy Adams Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (2010) - The Corrupt Bargain

7 Andrew Jackson Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (2010) - various including "I'm Not That Guy"

15 James Buchanan 1600 Pennsylvania Ave (1969) - We Must Have a Ball

16 Abraham Lincoln Our American Cousin (2008 Opera)

26 Theodore Roosevelt Teddy & Alice (1987) - various including Can I Let Her Go?

32 Franklin D. Roosevelt Annie (1977) - A New Deal for Christmas, Annie Warbucks (1993) - Somebody's Gotta Do Somethin'

34 Dwight D. Eisenhower First Lady Suite (1993) - Where's Mamie?

35 John F. Kennedy Smash S2 - 2013 - Our Little Secret

37 Richard Nixon     Nixon in China (1987 Opera)

Some Notable Songs Sung About Presidents on Stage

25 William McKinley Assassins (1990) - The Head of the Line

30 Calvin Coolidge Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949) - Keeping Cool with Coolidge

31 Herbert Hoover Annie (1977) - We'd Like To Thank you Herbert Hoover

34 Dwight D. Eisenhower Call Me Madam (1950) - They Like Ike. 

36 Lyndon B. Johnson Hair (1967) - L.B.J.

Who did I miss?

Street Scene

[Producer Theron Bamberger] opened the fly leave and looked at the cast of characters. “Twenty-two characters,” he said. “Too many.” And the play was returned forthwith to Mr. Rice. ~ New York Times, Adele Nathan, 2/2/1947

The play would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize and be adapted into a Tony Award winning Opera. The family tragedy at the center branches off into subplots and vignettes for the neighbors and vendors that visit the central brownstone, expanding the cast from 22 to 30. 

On a side note, I'm realizing that the slice of life structure, and the brownstone set, had an influence on 2004's Avenue Q. 

The Fly

At one point in Act II, Mr. Okulitch, his skin now covered in hideous scales, is suspended by wires. He enters his studio upside down, crawling along a ceiling crossbeam and then slithering head-first down a metal column, singing all the while. This is something voice students are not prepared for in conservatory training. ~ New York Times.

Just about any subject is ripe for opera. The film world and lyric stage have been influencing and stealing from each other since the days of silents. Brundlefly is no less reasonable a character for musical amplification than Rigoletto. ~ L.A. Times

The Turn of the Screw

Are the ghosts of randy servants possessing the children to tryst with each other?

Are the children simply rebelling against their strict upbringing?

Is the boy's infatuation with the male servant a sign of possession or merely budding homosexuality?

Is the Governesses' infatuation with the master causing her to see ghostly men everywhere she turns?

One of my favorite ghost stories has been adapted and interpreted in many ways. Putting the ghosts on stage, and letting them sing, is a rsik. You reduce the ambiguity of the story. The opera still has great fun playing with who exactly can and can't see them.