Oklahoma!

Though there were stirrings beforehand, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! is widely acknowledged as the granddaddy of the integrated American Musical Theater Libretto. As a life-long fan of musical theater I find the R&H classics surprisingly difficult to sit through. It’s mostly the gender politics with their abusive, occasionally homicidal, alpha males and their sad, passive-aggressive leading ladies. The New York Times’ Clive Barnes called the leads in Sondheim’s Company “worthless and horrid.” I say take a good look at Billy Bigelow or Emile De Becque.

There is one R&H character I really like. More on that tomorrow.

I drew a series on R&H’s flops in May starting with Allegro.

A New Brain

William Finn’s 1998 semi-autobiographical musical has been called shapeless and “spliced-together.” It wasn’t till late in rehearsal for a production that I drew a structural connection to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. 

Gordon hates his life and is haunted by visions of his spiteful employer (a Jacob Marley-esque cautionary tale). In the hospital he is visited by his complicated mother (Christmas Past) and his almost-perfect partner (Christmas Present). Gordon rails against his loved ones and throws his lover out of his hospital room (Scrooge’s break-up with Belle). When surgery puts him in a coma he sees them grieving his death (Christmas Future).

At first I thought Gordon’s recovery was the climax of the show. The scenes afterwards felt unnecessary. The Christmas Carol lens makes Gordon’s post-surgery reconciliations and the syrupy “I Feel So Much Spring” important steps towards rebuilding the life he almost lost. 

Passion

Now that my Elaine Stritch series is complete I'll be catching up on some requests. First up Passion. 

Stephen Sondheim: "'Passion' is about how the force of somebody's feelings for you can crack you open and how it is the life force in a deadened world."

David Richards (NYT): In "Passion," however, Mr. Sondheim has dropped his defenses. With the playwright and director James Lapine, he has written an unalloyed love story, one that wants to penetrate the heart's deepest mysteries. Ironically, he has come up with his most somber musical since "Sweeney Todd."

Charles Isherwood (NYT): Indeed, arguments surrounding "Passion" have often focused on whether Giorgio is redeemed or destroyed by Fosca's love. Look for the answer in Mr. Sondheim's music, and you'll find only more questions. The musical's final trio has a soaring, rhapsodic sound, but the very last note reverberates with doom.

Company

Larry Kert: Who do you have to f**k to get out of Company?  

Stephen Sondheim: The same people you f**ked to get in it. Happy birthday, Larry.

Dean Jones: I went out there in Boston and sang this song ‘Happily Ever After’ and I could feel the audience asking me, ‘Why are you doing this to us?’ I saw their eyes widen as they asked, ‘Why do you hate us?’”

Company gave Elaine Stritch her signature song, frightened off its first leading man, and kicked off Sondheim’s most prolific decade.

Ethan Mordden: No show was as misunderstood as Company. This is odd, because its theme is very clearly stated: the absolute intimacy of marriage is very difficult but very necessary…. Sondheim spend the 1970s producing five consecutive masterpieces… yet was, at that time but not after, the most contested major talent in the musical’s history…. Rodger’s and Hammerstein were accepted masters at that time and after- taken, even, for granted. Sondheim was argued.

*** Update 7/18/2016

A recent production of Company inspired me to revise this comic slightly. The original was in pencil and marker. The revised was drawn with digital pen, keeping the same models but cleaning them up and giving Elaine Stritch more prominence (never a bad thing!).

Sail Away

To be a professional pepper upper/ isn’t everyone’s cuppa tea.

But I've wit and guile / and a big false smile

And the tourists rely on me

Noel Coward was impressed by Elaine Stritch’s performance in Goldilocks and offered her a supporting role in his new musical Sail Away. Stritch’s cruise ship hostess would supply the comedy while Jean Fenn’s tourist would engage in a bittersweet romance.

Ethan Mordden (Open a New Window): “Stritch confronted Coward with the rumor that one of the woman leads was going to have her name listed last and set off in a box with the word “and” in front of it. The exasperated Coward replied ‘she shall have her name listed last and set off in a box with the word ‘but’ in front of it.”

Out of town audiences were bored so Fenn’s role was cut and Stritch’s role built up to get the love interest and the jokes. She was a smash. The show wasn’t.

Howard Taubman (New York Times – 1961 review) “As Mimi, the brash, energetic, implacably vivacious cruise hostess, Elaine Stritch gives what must be the performance of her career. She reads lines like an unerring marksman.” Ben Brantley (New York Times – 1999 concert) “Critics fell to their knees in adoration in 1961.That adoration did not extend to Sail Away itself. ''The general feeling was that in 1936 it would have been the best musical of the year,'' wrote the actor Graham Payn, Coward's companion. ''In 1961 it ran for five months.'' The reasons are still apparent.” Ken Mandelbaum (Not Since Carrie): “The failure of both her star vehicles, Goldilocks and Sail Away, did irreparable damage to Stritch’s career.”

It would take eight years for Stritch to appear in another musical on Broadway.

Goldilocks

Who’s been sitting in my chair? Just me. Just me.

By 1958 Elaine Stritch had sung a solo in the revue Angel in the Wings,  played featured roles in revivals of Pal Joey and On Your Toes, and understudied Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam. Goldilocks was to be her breakout starring role. There were some fun songs and a comic supporting role for Margaret Hamilton, but the book was a third-rate Kiss Me Kate. The show closed in 5 months.

Brooks Atkinson – New York Times - 1958

The book undoes what the actors and collaborating artists accomplish, which is a pity…

Miss Stritch can destroy life throughout the country with the twist she gives to the dialogue. She takes a wicked stance, purses her mouth thoughtfully and waits long enough to devastate the landscape.

Elaine Stritch on the dancing bear: “I think he was more or less the funniest guy I worked with - well, certainly in that show. I didn’t like any of the directors. I didn’t like - what else didn’t I like? The whole production.”

Noel Coward was impressed by her performance and offered her a role in his new musical. More on that tomorrow. 

Miss Saigon

Frank Rich – New York Times - 1991

For all that seems galling about "Miss Saigon" -- and for all that is indeed simplistic, derivative and, at odd instances, laughable about it -- this musical is a gripping entertainment of the old school…

Michael Billington - Guardian – 2014

So how does Boublil and Schonberg’s musical stand up 25 years after its premiere? In this new production by Laurence Connor, it survives very well as a piece of musical storytelling and as a public spectacle. It's not a show one loves, in the way one does Guys and Dolls or Sweeney Todd, but I found myself watching it with a professional admiration.

And for the shows liveliest moment here's Jonathan Pryce as Thernandier... The Engineer singing the 11 o'clock number.