Frank J. Oteri at New Music Box, asks “Can Ordinary People Burst into Song?” Over the last six weeks he has been interviewing John Kander:
Kander's first blockbuster, Cabaret (1966), happened after the ascent of rock, but in that score and in his subsequent output he has remained firmly rooted in earlier traditions. It works because the plots of his shows typically take place in other eras and locales, so it doesn't seem in any way unnatural for the characters to sing in earlier styles. But it is in no way an artistic volte-face from the present. According to him, rather, a convincing musical theatre work or opera needs to be at some kind of geographical or generational remove from the audience because, as he correctly points out, "Ordinary people during their ordinary day do not suddenly burst into song."
Last weekend my sister and I went to the The Black Rep to see the first production of their 32nd season, Tell Me Something Good. It was a fun night that took us through the history of R&B in the form of a musical review. A ten member cast of six women and four men sang and danced and sweated their way through more than 60 songs, starting with the doo wop and ending in the present day.
The cast was very good, four of the women and all four men doing most of the singing and the two other women leading the dancing and soloing through many of the numbers. I wish I had saved the program so that I could give everyone credit by name.
The women all had wonderful voices. But if it was a contest we gave the night to the men. The women were singers. The men were also singers but two of the men were also actors and that made the difference. They created roles within the songs they sang and that gave us humor and pathos to watch. J. Samuel Davis, who has been with The Black Rep for years was one of the men and I always enjoy his performances. I always forget that he can sing because I've seen him in so many dramatic productions.
I used to have season tickets to The Black Rep with a friend but, as will happen, she had a few kids and found it difficult to get away so we let the tickets lapse. I'm thinking about picking up a subscription again; this performance reminded me how much I always enjoy their productions. Over the years they've done all of the August Wilson repertoire and other very good dramatic and comedic plays, sprinkled with well-done musicals.
Unfortunately for those reading this now, the production of Tell me Something Good ended last weekend so you can't catch it. The next production, opening February 18, is A Song for Coretta, a relatively new play by Pearl Cleage that premiered in 2007.
Inspired by the long line of mourners who came by Ebenezer Baptist Church to pay their respects to Mrs. Coretta Scott King, the play introduces five fictional African-American women, aged 17 to 57, waiting in the rain to say their good-byes.
The theme for the 32nd season is The Year of the Woman and each of the three dramatic plays in the middle of the five-play season has a cast of all women. The third production of the year will be another relatively new play by Cori Thomas, The Secret Language of Wishes:
The play touches on the meaning of unconditional love without distinctions such as black or white, rich or poor, gay or straight. Jo, a lawyer and the play's main character, learns the meaning of love without boundaries as she engages in a legal dispute between two women- a young white and a black business woman - over the custody of a disabled black teenager.
The fourth play, In the Continuum, explores the problem of HIV/AIDS. They finish up with another musical, Blues in the Night, a "dynamite 'dramatic revue' of twenty-six hot and steamy numbers that tell of the sweet, sexy and sorrowful experiences three delicious women have with one very lonely, lying, cheating snake of a man who does them wrong! "
When I went to look for a youtube with a clip of something that The Black Rep has done I found this extended piece that Public Television did five years ago before the start of the 28th season and, amazingly enough, they were rehearsing that year's production of "Tell Me Something Good", the SAME show that I saw last weekend. The costumes were different and the choreography was different but the songs are the same - so it will give you a good idea of what I saw. Also, part of the clip is an interview with the actor J. Samuel Davis who was also in that production.
I’m not sure what I had against the idea of a musical version of Jane Austen’s classic novel Emma, but it seemed like a really bad idea to me. It isn’t that I think costume drama and musical theater shouldn’t mix (Phantom of the Opera puts that idea to rest, not to mention Kiss Me Kate), it is just that Jane Austen’s story is small and quiet and subtle and the musical theatre genre tends to be big and loud and, well, not subtle.
But what do I know? Paul Gordon had previously converted Jane Eyre to the musical stage and at the time it seemed like a decent idea to me. The Bronte novel is melodramatic in the same way that Phantom of the Opera is melodramatic. It seemed perfect for adaptation in an age of big, dramatic, operatic musicals. But, in the end, I didn’t like Jane Eyre and found myself wishing Gordon had left it where it belonged – on the shelf. Maybe that’s why I was doubtful when I heard he had pulled Emma off the shelf and placed her in the spotlight. I had a chance to judge for myself when it appeared in my subscription series at the Repertory Theater of St. Louis last week.
I like Emma although it is not my favorite Austen novel. Some people complain that Austen always writes about the same thing – women and marriage. But I think they miss the point. Yes, I think Austen always writes about the same relationship, but I think the relationship that interested her was the relationship between women and money. And how a woman's relationship with money affected her view of life and her choices, including choices about marriage. And while some of her novels focus on one woman, she usually ends up exploring multiple women in multiple circumstances.
In Pride and Prejudice she explores the viewpoints of women currently living a life with access to money but with the knowledge hanging over their heads that they will lose it all once the man of the house dies - a sword of Damocles if you will. In Sense and Sensibility she explores the viewpoints of women born with money who have lost it because the man of the house dies. In Mansfield Park she explores the viewpoint of a woman born without money because her mother, from a wealthy family, made an ill-suited marriage out of love and without regard to money. In Persuasion she explores the views of a woman who earlier in life was persuaded to forego a love relationship with a poor man. (I leave out Northanger Abbey because I honestly don’t remember it very well.)
In Emma, Austen creates a heroine who has no financial concerns. This offers Emma a freedom that other Austin characters can only dream of. Unlike the other Austen heroines, Emma has no need to at least consider marriage as a means of keeping a roof over her head and food on her table. In other ways, Emma's financial independence puts limits on her life. She is expected to set an example and to act charitably. Perhaps because of boredom with the usual projects engaged in by wealthy young women Emma makes a project of her friend Harriet Smith and determines to find her a suitable husband.
In contrast to Emma, Austen creates two other characters: Jane Fairfax, an attractive, educated and talented woman who has no money and is facing a future as a governess, and Mrs. Weston who was, in fact, Emma's former governess and but who is now happily married. Jane Fairfax and Mrs. Weston combine as two sides of a typical Austen heroine. Jane Fairfax, a woman with all the talents necessary to be a woman of leisure but who has no money and is facing a bleak future unless she can marry well. Mrs. Weston, now living the life of relative leisure after a lifetime of work, all because of a good (and, fortunately, loving) marriage. It is in fact Emma who has brought this blissful married state to Mrs. Weston by introducing her to the man who became her husband, a man of greater means and higher station than Mrs. Weston could have expected to marry. And it is Emma who, it turns out, could deny Jane Fairfax this blissful married state to Frank Churchill, a man of greater means and higher station than Jane Fairfax could expect to marry, if he were to fall in love with Emma.
In even greater contrast, Austen creates Mrs. and Miss Bates, relatives of Jane Fairfax who are living in what used to be called genteel poverty, a poverty that is growing each year. Although fairly ridiculous in some ways, they are mostly objects of sympathy in the novel. A turning point in Emma's personal development is when Emma humiliates Miss Bates by making an offhand critical comment about her only to be taken to task for this by Mr. Knightley who points out to Emma their poverty and their need for her charity and her friendship.
I see Emma in some ways as part cautionary tale. Although not as wealthy as Lady Catherine DuBourg from Pride and Prejudice, Emma's desire to direct others in their life choices is similar to Lady Catherine's. And when Emma is rude to Miss Bates, it is possible to see where she could go down the wrong path and end up like the rude and interfering Lady Catherine. Fortunately, Mr. Knightley was created in the role not only of love interest but of conscience for Emma and brings Emma to a realization of her faults.
As a subject for a musical, the story turned out to be surprisingly well suited. Its pace never dragged although the show clocked in at about two and a half hours. I don't think they dropped any of the major plot points out of the story and each of the characters was well developed. It is a show that is a dream for women actresses - seven principal roles for women. The actress who played Emma's protege, Harriet Smith, stole the show.
It is not, however, a great piece of musical theatre and that is because the music is melodic but completely forgettable. I heard no one humming on the way out. I'll close with a sample. This is the song sung by Mr. Knightley as he realizes his love for Emma (he is thinking aloud, so she can't hear him):
