Royal Wedding

I've seen this movie but I can't remember the love interests at all. They don't get much to do. The Astaire/Powell duets are delightful but the fact that they are playing siblings is... distracting. What exactly happens every night at seven?

The movie's not great, but Astaire gets to dance on the ceiling. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times put it best when he said "Mr. Astaire has fared better in his lifetime-and he has also fared much worse."

Rise

Stop me if you've heard this before. Inspirational teacher puts a hot jock and some minorities in a show where they learn to live and love and... oh you have? Well how about we give half the kids abusive families... and make the teacher a monster? No, not a funny monster. Just extremely unpleasant. Unpleasant enough to inspire hostile reviews and scare audiences away.

Ted Sutherland brings charm to his coming out storyline, though it gets about 5 minutes of screen time per episode. Stephanie Block brings gravitas to the potentially campy role of his loving conservative mother.

The choice of Spring Awakening was an interesting one. It's still considered edgy. Will age give it the same respect that West Side Story, Grease and even Rent have gained from most school boards? Skip to episode 9 and 10 if you want to see the talent young cast performing the songs. Hopefully there will be better shows in their futures.

Easter Parade

"Someday, we’re going to write a treatise on the crazy hats women wear in musicals. We propose that because there was so much sexual repression in these films, the outrageous hats are supposed to represent vaginas on top of their heads. It’s why so many of the men had walking sticks too.
Think about it." ~ Tom and Lorenzo

This one's not about the plot. It's about the showcase numbers. Here are some highlights:

Steppin' Out with My Baby - Fred Astaire and chorus
Shakin' The Blues Away - Ann Miller
A Couple of Swells - Fred Astaire and Judy Garland

The Fan

Lauren Bacall started a new chapter of her career by starring in the musical Applause. She followed this up with two less successful musical projects. The Fan opened a few months after the opening of Lauren's next musical, Woman of the Year. Unfortunately it also opened after the murder of John Lennon. The grim ending was quickly re-written and re-filmed. A happy ending and an award bait song weren't enough. The film was a box office bomb.

Lauren Bacall's musicals cast her as fairly passive figures. Margo Channing, Tess Harding and Sally Ross start off with thriving careers. The active supporting characters harm that success and leave them reeling. We watch them cope with the loss rather than strive to recover.

A similar plot would have more success in the 1992 film The Bodyguard... which has just been made into another terrible musical.

Smash

"Fade in on a girl with a hunger for fame."

Smash suffered from an identity crisis. Theresa Rebeck wanted a drama about the struggles of balancing her personal and creative life. NBC wanted a soap opera about the sex lives of Broadway artists. I wanted a show about the development of a new Broadway musical. It soon became clear that Bombshell, the fictional musical about Marilyn Monroe, was incomprehensible. I gave up on full episodes once Uma Thurman's smoothies became a plot point. I kept watching the songs from Bombshell. Here are some of my favorites:

Let Me Be Your Star
The 20th Century Fox Mambo
Public Relations
They Just Keep Moving the Line
Don't Forget Me

Oh, and I'm Team Ivy all the way.

Shuffle Along

This is not a revival of the 1921 musical Shuffle Along. Rather it's a story about the rise and fall of Shuffle Along's creators. Critics praised the dances but criticized the libretto for an over-reliance on first person narration.  

"The dramaturgical tactic is vaguely Jersey Boys meets 42nd Street." ~ Time Out

As with Hamilton we are left with a question of who remembers you and who tells your story.

Nominated for 10 Tony Awards.

The Producers

As Hamilton gets ready to sweep the Tony's it's worth looking back at a previous cultural phenomena. The Producers was the right production at the right time and conquered Broadway in the 2001-2002 season. Replacement cast troubles and an unlucky film have tarnished the shows image. I had the good fortune to see the original Broadway cast. Last night I saw a terrific small scale production and learned two important things:

1. The material doesn't play itself. Mel Brooks' one joke songs require charm, personality and a healthy dose of shtick. 
2. The cast must be balanced. Max can carry the show. Roger can steal the show. But they need an honest Leo and Carmen to play off of. I've since learned that Leo can carry the show too. The parts have enough Roxy/Velma equality that "Till Him" can be the emotional climax if "Betrayed" underwhelms.

I think Hamilton will have a longer cultural footprint than The Producers but it's nice to see that the show can still dazzle in the right hands.

Murder Mysteries: Curtains

New York Times 2007: The long road to Broadway for “Curtains” has been nearly as fraught as that of “Robbin’ Hood,” the show-within-the-show that keeps losing cast and crew members to untimely ends during an out-of-town tryout in Boston. Its original book writer, Peter Stone, died in 2003, and Mr. Ebb, the lyricist, died in 2004. Enter Rupert Holmes, the writer and composer of the Tony-winning “Mystery of Edwin Drood,” who is now credited with the script and (along with Mr. Kander) additional lyrics for “Curtains.”

New York Times 2011: “Curtains” is not A-list Kander and Ebb. These are the men who wrote “Cabaret” and “Chicago,” after all. Even with its affectionate parodies of musical theater and its endearing hero, who turns out to be as good a play doctor as a crime investigator, the show never completely catches fire. But (Curtains)… is a very pleasant evening of musical theater…. At its core, “Curtains” is not a detective story. It’s a declaration of love, passionate love, for the theater.

Here’s the optimistic number they sang on the Tony’s: Show People

And here’s the cynical number they probably should have sung: It’s a Business

Murder Mysteries: Drood

Last fall I led up to Halloween with a series of horror themed musicals. This fall I'll be looking at murder mysteries.

In 1976 Walter Kerr of the New York Times dismissed the genre saying:  "It's never worked. Reason: the music totally relaxes the suspense, and the suspense makes the music seem intrusive."

The successful musical mysteries, like Drood, tend to forgo suspense for comedy. Charles Dickens died before completing The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The suspects are introduced, Drood vanishes, a disguised detective appears and the story ends. Several authors and screenwriters have supplied answers over the years, though the one Dickens foreshadows isn't very interesting. Rupert Holmes shakes things up by letting the audience vote for the identity of the killer and the detective. The audience can then pair off two of the survivors as lovers.

Few of the 8 suspects have actual motives for killing Drood and Holmes acknowledges this. He's set us in the framing device of a music hall. Many of the actors admit they simply want to sing another song.

[title of show]

Me: How do we draw a comic about [title of show]?
Me: Well the show is meta. Maybe a meta comic where the characters complain about how they're drawn?
Me: That could be insufferable.
Me: No more time! That's what we're going with.
Me: We need a writing partner.

[title of show] is a deceptive creature. It starts as a Forbidden Broadway type spoof of musical conventions then morphs into a heartfelt look at the pains of being an artist when you fear no one wants your art. The creators left their characters thinly sketched allowing other artists to step into the roles in future productions. In 2012 they wrote a prequel of sorts, titled Now. Here. This. where they shared some stories from their personal backgrounds that led to the creation of nine people's favorite thing.

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.

Gypsy

I've tried to avoid the classics on this blog unless I could find an interesting take on them. In this case I've decided to compare Gypsy and Funny Girl.

Arthur Laurent's libretto for Gypsy has been heavily analysed and highly praised. The show lived past Ethel Merman's original star turn for three revivals, two films and counting. Funny Girl's book was dismissed as weak. The film was heavily edited to focus on it's star Barbra Streisand and subsequent attempts at revivals have yet to secure backing.

Some similarities: Both musicals have backstage rise-to-fame plots, VERY LOOSELY based on real-life stars and scores by Jule Styne. Fanny and Louise both clash with their mothers. Nicky and Herbie both abandon their leading ladies after a dressing room confrontation. Both shows end act one with a rousing song of unhealthy determination.

Later this week I'll look at how the shows differ, and why a Funny Girl revival may be better in our imaginations than in reality.

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)

Me and Juliet

Me and Juliet was Rodgers and Hammerstein's sixth collaboration and their second commercial failure. Allegro had been Hammerstein's passion project, and Me and Juliet was Rodgers' baby. Juliet ran 10 months beating Allegro's nine.

The libretto uses a show within a show framework similar to 1948's Kiss Me Kate as a Chorus Girl juggles the affections of an Assistant Stage Manager and the Jud Fry-esque spotlight operator. 

Leading Lady Isabel Bigley had originated the role of Sarah Brown in 1950's Guys and Dolls. After the closing of Me and Juliet she left Broadway for television.

Read more about Me and Juliet here. 

Smile

Smile has many subplots but I focused on the two leads. Read a full synopsis here.

Jodi Benson sang a song in Smile about wanting to live at Disneyland. Three years later she voiced Ariel in The Little Mermaid and has played the role in every commercial, sequel, prequel and video game tie-in since.

Smile is licensed by Samuel French Inc.

On Your Toes

My first request! I wasn't familiar with this show so I had to do some digging. The show is licensed by Rodgers and Hammerstein Co. Learn more here.