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MUSICAL THEATRE OFF-BROADWAY

MUSICAL THEATRE OFF-BROADWAY. Chapter 14 Leve, American Musical Theatre. The off-broadway scene. Heyday was the late 1950s to the early 80’s. the threepenny opera. 1957 – Theatre de Lys First major success of an off-Broadway musical was

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MUSICAL THEATRE OFF-BROADWAY

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  1. MUSICAL THEATREOFF-BROADWAY Chapter 14 Leve, American Musical Theatre

  2. The off-broadway scene Heyday was the late 1950s to the early 80’s.

  3. the threepenny opera 1957 – Theatre de Lys First major success of an off-Broadway musical was this revival in 1956. It ran a record-breaking 2,707 performances. With an English translation by Marc Blitzstein, it thrust the production into the American spotlight. Similar no-frills revivals of classic Broadway as Anything Goes at the Orpheum Theatre in 1962 would follow. Theatre de Lys at 121 Christopher Street would later be renamed the Lucille Lortel Theatre where it remainsto this day.

  4. DIVERSITY OF OFF BROADWAY Four distinct categories emerge from 1950-80 • Revivals of old Broadway musicals • Spoofs of musical comedy, operetta and movie musicals • Musicals based on classic literature • Unconventional or experimental musicals David Christmas and Bernadette Peters in the original production of Dames at Sea.

  5. REVIVALS Jerome Kern’s LEAVE IT TO JANE (1917)

  6. Musicals based on classic literature My Fair Lady provided an example. Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest became Ernest in Love

  7. SPOOFS AND SATIRES LITTLE MARY SUNSHINE (1959) spoofed operettas like Rose Marie (1924) DAMES AT SEA (1966) spoofed Hollywood musicals of the 1930s A year after 42nd STREET opened on Broadway, Gerald Alessandrini opened FORBIDDEN BROADWAY, a campy revue that ran for 27 years and was revived in 2012.

  8. INNOVATIVE MUSICALS MORNING SUN (1963) YOU’RE A GOOD MAN CHARLIE BROWN (1967) GODSPELL (1971) GOBLIN MARKET (1985)

  9. TOM JONES AND HARVEY SCHMIDT

  10. THE FANTASTICKSBACKGROUND Tom Jones studied with B. Iden Payne (pictured) at the University of Texas who insisted in his teaching that theatre need not be realistic…one needs only “golden words” to make theatre come alive. Jones (1928 - ) began to collaborate with Harvey Schmidt (1929 - ), an art student who also composed music. They wrote songs for a campus revue called Hipsy-Boo! It was directed by their friend Word Baker (1923-1995) who would later direct The Fantasticks. Jones selected Rostand’s Les Romanesques to adapt as a musical after working on it in Payne’s Directing class at UT. His initial collaborator was John Donald Robb, a composer and Dean of the School of Fine Arts at University of New Mexico

  11. THE FANTASTICKSBACKGROUND Rostand’s play is similar to Romeo and Juliet but gives the plot a comic twist. The plot springs from the desire of two neighboring fathers to see their children marry each other. Because they assume that their children will do the opposite of what they are told, they fabricate a family feud and forbid their children to talk to one another. As predicted, the boy and girl fall in love. To end the façade, the father’s hire a “ruffian” who stages an abduction of the girl. The boy impulsively saves her and provides a reason for the families to reconcile. The remainder of the play explores what happens after the first blush of falling in love wears off. The young couple becomes disheartened and she is tricked into running off with the “ruffian.” The play ends with the reunion of the older and wiser boy and girl.

  12. THE FANTASTICKSBACKGROUND Rostand specifies neither time nor place in his play. Jones and Robb set it in the American Southwest and opened it as JOY COMES TO DEAD HORSE at the University of New Mexico in 1956. Unsatisfied with the results, the two went their separate ways. Jones went to New York and convinced Schmidt and Baker (pictured)to work on a new version. They made no changes in the story or setting, but wrote new songs. Reaction from friends and backers was mixed.In 1959, while working on another project, Baker convinced Jones to resurrect the work as a one-act.

  13. THE FANTASTICKSBACKGROUND They retitled the work THE FANTASTICKS based upon an English translation of the original French Les Romanesques. Jones recalled that Payne had taught him about the presentational style of the theatre of Shakespeare…so they decided to “do all the things we always wanted to do, celebrating the restrictions of the theatre and its artificiality, rather than trying to disguise it in any way.” Lore Noto, a young producer saw the one-act version and offered to produce it off-Broadway. He gave the writers an advance of $250 and purchased the rights for $500 plus 6% of the gross and began the task of raising a production budet of $16,500

  14. THE FANTASTICKSBACKGROUND Venues were hard to come by and Noto felt lucky to land the Sullivan Street Playhouse, a small, grimy and stale-smelling theatre. Within a few months, THE FANTASTICKS reopened in an expanded 2-act version. Reviews were mixed, and it took “several months, a bit of luck, and some clever marketing before positive word-of-mouth about the show spread.” (307)

  15. PLOT of THE FANTASTICKS

  16. THE FANTASTICKSSTYLE AND SUBSTANCE Meta-theatricality is enhanced by the play’s structure as a ritualistic play within a play: …the members of the company arrive and prepare to do the play. They take down the lettered drape, set out the Wooden Bench, and put on the finishing touches on their costumes.” EL GALLO (the ruffian) steps out of the frame of the story and sings “Try to Remember” directly to the audience, after which he explains: “Let me tell you a few things you may want to knowBefore we begin the play.First the characters: A Boy. A Girl. Two Fathers. And—a Wall.” Photo by Martha Swope. Property of the Museum of the City of New York.

  17. THE FANTASTICKSSTYLE AND SUBSTANCE The staging draws from “primitive presentational stage devices from around the world.” The open stage of Shakespeare Contrast of day and night Verse Rhyming couplets The commedia dell’arte makeshift platforms slapstick comedy Thornton Wilder’s OUR TOWN Japanese theatre Robert Tennenhouse as The Girl's Father, Phil Killian as Matt, Sharon Werner as Luisa and Lore Noto as Hucklebee. Photo by Martha Swope compliments of the Museum of the City of New York.

  18. THE FANTASTICKSSTYLE AND SUBSTANCE In staging the abduction, extra actor are required, so El Gallo summons two “mummers” to assist him: Henry, an old classical actor with crisp diction and Mortimer, a Cockney who specializes in death scenes. Photo by Martha Swope, compliments of the Museum of the City of New York.

  19. THE FANTASTICKSSTYLE AND SUBSTANCE At the climax of the abduction, there is a fight involving long wooden sticks as makeshift sabers and Henry dies “in so grand a manner” that even Mortimer is impressed, and El Gallo dies “like a diva in the opera, rising again and again from the floor to give one last dramatic, agonized, twitch.” Sal Provenza as The Narrator, Virginia Gregory as Luisa and Howard Lawrence as Matt.Photo by Martha Swope. Property of the New York Public Library.

  20. THE FANTASTICKSTHE SCORE Marked by a strong influence from the bebop of the 60s with dissonant harmonies and jagged, percussive rhythms. It is pianistic and performed by a pianist and harpist. Only two of the eleven songs (“Soon Its Gonna Rain” and “They Were You”) conform to the standard 32-bar AABA format. ACT ONE Overture The company Try to Remember El Gallo Much More The Girl Metaphor The Boy and the Girl Never Say No The Fathers It Depends on What You Pay (The Rape Song) Fathers and El Gallo (Later changed to THE ABDUCTION) Soon It’s Gonna Rain The Boy and the Girl Rape Ballet The company Happy Ending The company

  21. THE FANTASTICKSTHE SCORE ACT TWO This Plum is Too Ripe Boy, Girl and Fathers I Can See It The Boy and El Gallo Plant a Radish The Fathers Round and Round El Gallo, The Girl and Company They Were You The Boy and The Girl Try to Remember (Reprise) El Gallo The father’s two numbers (“Never Say No” and “Plant a Radish”) have a simplicity befitting characters of the older generation. They are presentational vaudeville-like numbers that add to the theatrical nature of the musical.

  22. Jones and schmidt’s legacy After THE FANTASTICKS, David Merrick tapped them for a musical adaptation of N. Richard Nash’s THE RAINMAKER which became 110 IN THE SHADE. The show ran less than a year. Merrick then produced I DO, I DO…a musical adaptation of a play called THE FOURPOSTER (1951) with the celebrated ballad “My Cup Runneth Over”

  23. Jones and schmidt’s legacy They developed a theatre workshop on West 47th Street in the late 60s and produced the Broadway musical CELEBRATION (1969) that Clive Barnes described as “an unpretentiously pretentious fairy tale for adults.” COLETTE (1970) ran for 101 performances PHILEMON (1976) about the Christian leader Philemon had a brief run Also wrote a musical adaptation of OUR TOWN that never made it to Broadway ROAD SIDE (2001) based on the play by Lynn Riggs

  24. Tom Jones, Harvey Schmidt, Word Baker, Lore Noto Tom Jones, Lore Noto, Harvey Schmidt

  25. Other off-broadway feats Man of LaManchawas devised and developed off-Broadway at the ANTA Washington Square Theatre Oh! Calcutta! brought erotica to mainstream

  26. NEW COMPANYS SPRANG UP Roundabout Theatre Company (1965) New York Shakespeare Festival (1967) Manhattan Theatre Club (1970) Playwrights Horizons (1971)

  27. AL CARMINES Al Carmines (1936-2005) stand out for his interest in esoteric social and political satire. An ordained minister and composer, he worked as a pastor at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village. He founded the Judson Poet’s Theatre in 1961 and presented several original musicals there. Carmines won a total of 5 Obies (the Off Broadway equivalent of the Tony Award) for Best Musical including In Circles, Promenade and The Faggot.

  28. Little Shop of horrors After THE FANTASTICKS, Off-Broadway’s most successful production, opened in 1982 at the Orpheum Theatre on the lower east side. It ran for 2,209 performances. The show was developed by Alan Menken (1949 - ) and Howard Ashman (1950-1991) at the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop and was the source of the popular 1986 film (ironic since the stage show was based upon a B-movie starring a very young Jack Nicholson.

  29. A testing ground It may not be as vibrant and experimental as in its hey day, but Off-Broadway remains an important crucible for new plays. Several new Broadway musicals have originated off-Broadway. Some, like Lysistrata Jones probably should not have made the move…others like In the Heights, Spring Awakening and Hamilton give producers the hope that they might have good luck moving their show from downtown to uptown. And increasingly producers are saving money by trying out new works downtown rather than out of town. Time will tell if this is a good partnership or not.

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