Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is 19 years old(?!) The score has aged remarkably well. In that time LGBTQIA+ politics have made great strides and the show has grown from cult classic to Broadway smash. The story takes place at a rock concert by The Angry Inch. Hedwig has decided to confess all sins through cutting humor and brash songs. Hedwig wants to be seen as both victim and survivor. The truth is uglier as Hedwig has gone from being abused by a father and first spouse to the abuser of a young lover and second spouse. 

Tommy Speck was 17 when Hedwig seduced him. The Broadway production cast actors ranging from their late 20's to early 50's in the title role. An older Hedwig seems sadder (and creepier) chasing after the man that got away. 

Is Hedwig's story a redemption arc? The ending is ambiguous but I'd like to think so. Hedwig may feel like a failure but Hedwig is deservedly a hit.

Spring Awakening

Last month I covered several musicals that centered on youthful rebellions. This week I'll add two more to that list starting with the teen angst rock musical Spring Awakening.

Frank Wedekind's groundbreaking 1906 play follows three teens who suffer the consequences of abstinence only education. Steven Sater's 2006 libretto is faithful to the plot but not the tone. Melchior and Wendla's relationship becomes kinder while Hänschen and Ernt's relationship becomes crueler. Wedekind provides Moritz with a deus ex machina at the end. Sater's Moritz must cope with his grief alone.

Deaf West Theatre's 2014-15 revival cast the show with a mix of deaf and hearing actors. They expanded the adult cast from two to four and emphasized the communication gap between the parents and children.

Composer Duncan Sheik's score is angry and exciting in the first act. Things turn ballad heavy, with one exception, in the gloomier act two. Sheik would return to Broadway that same season with the less successful American Psycho. As a fan of the score I'm hoping another company revives it some day to a more receptive audience.

Bye Bye Birdie

In 2014 I wrote a post on Bring Back Birdie, the dreadful sequel to Bye Bye Birdie. The sequel had the same writers, star and structure but lightning didn't strike twice.

As I attempted to summarize Bye Bye Birdie I was reminded of what a bizarre show it truly is. The libretto juggles 5 principal characters, 2 key supporting roles, 2 romances and the teens vs. parents conflict. The hip rock star, Conrad Birdie, gets the title but the old-fashioned heart of the story is carried by Rosie and her desire to settle down with Albert.

If Dick Van Dyke wasn't playing him Albert would be a very unpleasant character. That's one reason revivals keep flopping. It was made clear in the sequel when he dumps Rosie for a "newer model." It's better to ignore the sequel and let their story end with Bye Bye Birdie's charming finale.

Next to Normal

Yorkey and Kitt’s “Next to Normal” has a fantastic first act. The characters and stakes are quickly established and the plot has several surprises. Act two runs out of steam. The writers seem to shrug their shoulders and say “Sheesh. Doctors. Amirite?” The show went through extensive rewrites and the final version feels like a compromise. Still it’s exciting to see this subject matter treated with a modicum of respect. Diana’s treatment is as complex as her disorder and the limits of America’s mental health care system are laid bare.

I love the big numbers for Natalie and Gabe but wish Diana had a proper 11 o’clock number. Her angrier songs are constantly undercut by her husband’s counter melodies. It speaks to the dynamic of their marriage but denies her a proper "Rose's Turn" moment. The catharsis instead goes to her husband Dan. His (plot spoiling) reprise of I Am the One reduces me to a sobbing puddle every time I hear it.

EDIT: August 28, 2016

Here's a revised version that gets the leading man into the third frame.

Evita

When the money keeps rollin in
what's a girl to do?
Cream a little off the top
for expenses wouldn't you?
...
Never been accounts in
the name of Eva Peron
~ Evita

Don't recognize that lyric? Well it isn't in the movie version. I wondered why Antonio Banderas was so angry at Madonna. Her Eva Peron didn't seem to accomplish much of anything, good or bad. Turns out the film cut several references to the Peron's crimes, settling for ambiguous montages. The film doesn't even bother to tell us what she's dying of.

The stage musical presented Eva as a ruthless opportunist. The New York Times has described it thus:

Some of the musical detractors have objected to ''Evita's'' glamorization of a fascinating, albeit Fascist, figure. The show has even been compared with ''Springtime for Hitler,'' the parody in the film ''The Producers.'' This is sheer nonsense. ''Evita'' is about media manipulation, the power of ''hype,'' the gullibility of the masses and, perhaps most of all, the arbitrariness of stardom.

However Madonna's turn seems to present her as a feminist icon. In an interview with Roger Ebert she said:

And then there were the people who thought she was a saint. They thought only Mother Teresa could portray her in a movie. Then there were other people who thought she was a sinner, and they didn't want a tribute being made to her. So it got very confusing.... The stage version of the musical portrays a very one-dimensional version of her. It doesn't show her in a very humane way; it doesn't show any vulnerability, it doesn't explain her past. Alan Parker had the chance to do that in a movie

Madonna took some flak for lowering Webber's keys, but even Patti LuPone admits the original score is a bear to sing:

"I was always in danger, from the first D, which was at 20 minutes into the show," says LuPone.

The dependence on a star with a range of E3-G5 makes Evita challenging to revive. Elena Roger won praise in London but when she transferred to Broadway in 2012 she drew mixed reviews. Some suggested the role had simply overtaxed her voice after years of performing. Despite the song, Eva is a role that will make a singer cry.

Chess

Who wins the chess tournament?
What happens to Florence's father?
Who sings "One Night in Bangkok?"
Well... it depends.

The book of Chess has been rewritten for each major production. While the 2008 concert at Royal Albert Hall has been declared canon by Tim Rice, the site TV tropes lays out five possible endings for the show.

Still the big songs and the political themes remain. At the end of the day we're all pawns.

Rent

Rent was a big deal. Like Hamilton big deal. I hope Hollywood gives Hamilton a better movie in 10+ years.

Now Rent is considered silly by some:

            WE'RE NOT GOING TO GROW UP

            AND GET JOBS AND PAY OUR DAMN RENT

            EVEN THOUGH EVERYBODY DOES IT,

            AND SOMEHOW THIS MAKES US

            SYMPATHETIC CHARACTERS! ~ Broadway Abridged

And profound by others:

Perhaps the people who hate Rent see their younger selves in these characters and they don't like that. After all, most of us are whiny and selfish when you're young (and we artsies can be the worst); we still have growing up left to do. Though to be honest, a lot of people in their forties still have growing up to do. It’s not hard to see a parallel to American politics today. ~ Scott Miller

The Apple

Part Rocky Horror, part biblical allegory and part acid trip. The Apple gets weird fast. Legends say that the premiere audience was given free copies of the soundtrack. Shortly into the film the audience began to boo furiously and throw the records at the screen. Few walked away from this with careers intact. 

As TV Guide wrote: "Making a cult hit is harder than it looks."

Shock Treatment

In 1981 the team behind the cult smash The Rocky Horror Show gathered as much of the original cast as they could for a sequel. Tim Curry was unwilling or unavailable to reprise Dr. Frank-N-Furter so a new set of villains were invented to torment Brad and Janet in Shock Treatment. A Screen Actors Guild Strike, limited distribution and mixed reviews plagued the film and it disappeared from memory.

In 2015 Richard O'Brien finally allowed a stage adaptation which premiered at the King’s Head Theatre in Islington, London. This version kept the songs, cut some of the extraneous characters and added more nudity. Reviews were enthusiastic.

American Idiot

Rolling Stone: The Nineties' irrepressible punk brats grew up with a bang, proving they could take on the kind of gargantuan old-school concept album that nobody else seemed to have the guts to try anymore. Billie Joe Armstrong raged against the political complacency of Bush-era America with ferocity and a Who-size sense of grandeur.

New York Times: Pop on Broadway, sure. But punk? Yes, indeed, and served straight up, with each sneering lyric and snarling riff in place.

Peter Filichia: “If we didn’t have so ugly a society, we wouldn’t have shows as ugly as American Idiot. In the post-9/11 world, everything seemed to be breaking down- including perfect rhymes in lyrics.”

Broadway Abridged:
DIRECTOR MICHAEL MAYER: So what do you think the... Rock opera would be about?
BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG: Maybe things don't work out the way you think they'll work out, or maybe that girl you feel like drunk dialing once in awhile... (trails off, smiles weirdly)

Tony Awards clip here.
Chicago premiere clip here.

Grind

Let's kick October off with some horror musicals! Anthony Rapp, Pasha Pellosie and Eric Michael Krop star in the short musical film Grind now screening on Out.com. The songs are catchy and the mystery is skillfully unveiled.

Not to be confused with Ben Vereen's Grind.

The Protomen

And now for something completely different.

I recently watched the documentary “Gaming in Color” which explores the intersections between the gaming and LGBTQ communities.

I saw parallels between the growing pains of the gaming industry and those of commercial musical theater. Both industries have found that quickly rising production costs and producers pushing for escapist entertainment have left creators fighting for art.

I’ve loved theater and video games for most of my life but rarely have the two worlds intersected. My small pile of video game design ideas includes an adventure game where you play a stage manager rushing to solve the technical and emotional problems backstage at a show before opening night.

I’ve decided to draw some comics this week that look at cultural intersections between musical theatre and gaming, from game characters portrayed on stage to in-game villains performing fabulous musical numbers. First up, THE PROTOMEN! A rock opera inspired by the Megaman games. The games started on the NES and followed a series of battling candy colored robots and their human creators. The rock opera reimagines the backstory for the anti-hero supporting character Protoman.

I’m not sure if there’s an audience for this topic beyond me. If you find these interesting, let me know in the comments.

Brooklyn

Whoa, alas, I'm a poor person living in the streets, and can belt high H. ~ Broadway Abridged.

Regrettably, "Brooklyn" feels less like the next "Rent" than a soot-and-sugar revue bound for Vegas, where it might fit comfortably amid the simulated big-city authenticity of the New York-New York Hotel. ~ Ben Brantley, New York Times.

Camp Horror Musicals

I'm trying something new this week. Musical mad-libs to explore the similarities and differences in genre-specific shows. First up Reefer Madness, Little Shop of Horrors, Bat Boy: The Musical and the patterns in Camp Horror musicals.

Via Galactica

The authors of Hair had a success with Two Gentlemen of Verona but couldn’t repeat it with their next projects. While Gerome Ragni’s Dude collapsed in 16 performances, Galt MacDermot’s Via Galactica lasted 7. Pixar’s Wall-E has since taught us that an intergalactic trash collector’s story can be interesting but the libretto of Via Galactica was dismissed as incoherent. Eventually a plot synopsis that was inserted in the program.

Fun facts: 

• Via Galactica was originally titled Up. Then the producers saw that the Marquee at the Uris Theater would read “Up Uris.”
• When Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark was having trouble in previews Jennifer George wrote a retrospective about her parents flop.

Song clip

Dude

Gerome Ragni’s life changed when the musical Hair became a hit. Some say his follow up musical, Dude (aka The Highway Life), was an incomprehensible mess. Others say it was his attempt to write about his struggles with his new found success. The New York Times wrote a fascinating article on the collapse of Dude. Reviews and other behind the scenes articles are archived here. A full song list is here. Dude closed after 16 performances.

Some fun facts I learned from the articles include:

• Dude was played by a white adult who couldn't sing. He was replaced by a black child who could sing, who later shared the role with a black adult who sang the “mature” songs as “Big Dude.”
• At one point the set was covered in dirt which kicked up dust into the audience. The set was later “watered down” leaving the actors covered in mud.
• Gerome Ragni had played Berger in the original cast of Hair and had wanted to play the role of God, (aka “#33”), in Dude. Since the role of Dude was based on himself he would have been pardoning himself on stage for his youthful indiscretions. Producers wouldn't let him play the role as he still needed to write a second act.
• Gerome Ragni asked to release 100 butterflies into the audience at the top of each performance.
• Nell Carter was in the original cast. Here's a clip of her song "So Long Dude."

Taboo (Broadway Version)

Rosie O'Donnell loved Taboo in London and financed the transfer to Broadway. She hired Charles Busch to write a new libretto.

Charles removed the audience surrogate Billy, his girlfriend Kim and his squabbling parents. Boy George was promoted from supporting character to leading man for a Funny Girl style rise and fall. Critics agreed this was a good idea.

However by this point the real Boy George was playing the flashy supporting role of Leigh Bowery. The Broadway libretto beefed up Leigh's  role and gave him a love triangle of his own. Critics felt this was a bad idea. Boy George was once again being upstaged in his own musical, this time by Boy George.

When Taboo was revived in London in 2013 they brought back the old book, with Billy the ingenue, but stuffed in some of the Broadway songs. Read more about that production here.

Taboo (London version)

Boy George composed a musical in which he played performance artist Leigh Bowery while another actor played a young Boy George. Things got meta.

Taboo showcases the real-life personalities of London's 80's club scene through the eyes of a fictional couple, Billy and Kim. Critics loved the party atmosphere but many felt the ingenues sucked a lot of fun out of things. This was despite a charismatic performance from Luke Evans, now widely known for the Hobbit films. When Taboo transferred to Broadway Billy and Kim were excised and Boy George was promoted from support to leading role. More about that in my next post.

Read more about Taboo here.