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The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!) (review)

2004; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 56; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/tj.2004.0156

1086-332X

James M. Cherry,

Theater, Performance, and Music History

Reviewed by: The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!) James M. Cherry The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!). Music by Eric Rockwell. Lyrics by Joanne Bogart. Book by Rockwell and Bogart. Directed and Choreographed by Pamela Hunt. The York Theatre Company. The York Theatre at Saint Peter’s in the Citigroup Center, New York City. 1206 2004. Upon entering the lobby of St. Peter's Theatre, a space tucked beneath the Citigroup Center in Manhattan, one finds the walls plastered with dozens of songbook covers. Each is placed next to the other, snaking along the walls of the lobby like the squares on a board game. And with a little closer observation, it is revealed that it is more of a parlor game. Dubbed "From Mollyto Follies," its point is to find the personal connection between each musical and its neighbor: i.e., The Cradle will Rock(directed by Orson Welles) sits next to Around the World(adapted by Welles from the Jules Verne novel; music and lyrics by Cole Porter), which is adjacent to Seven Lively Arts(music and lyrics by Porter), and on and on. This meandering history of American musical theatre links every play to every other play; as such, the display acts as both a prelude to and a metaphor for the production in the theatre itself. It is a performance that connects the works of the great makers of musical theatre by re-imagining them side-by-side. The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!)hustles the great artists together, cheek by jowl, holding them up to be mocked, to be criticized, and inevitably, to be loved. The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!)is composed of five versions of the same basic story in the styles of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Jerry Herman, Kander and Ebb, Stephen Sondheim, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. The most basic of dramaturgical templates is used, and thus the plot elements are always the same: the helpless ingénue, the villainous landlord, the handsome hero, the wise matron, and the unpaid rent. The four actors (who include the play's composer Eric Rockwell and lyrist Joanne Bogart) play the same stock characters throughout, with their names changing to catch the mood of the piece (i.e., the villain's name gains an umlaut in the Kander and Ebb portion). The theatre's proscenium arch is ringed with the famous words: "You can't pay the rent!" You must pay the rent!," etc., serving as both a dramaturgical and a literal framing device. This attenuation of the standard melodramatic plot becomes the common wall upon which the different sequences are hung. The success of any parody lies in how the parodist boils down the pre-text into an instantly recognizable yet still artistically gripping form. In this sense, The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!)is highly successful. Eric Rockwell's music and Joanne Bogart's lyrics layer referent upon referent, creating an atmosphere in which the broadest puns and the most obscure allusions coalesce into a largely successful channeling of the spirits of the great composer/lyrists. The music and the lyrics are written and performed in such "the style of" that we, as audience members, are almost overcome with rapid-fire referentiality. The Rodgers and Hammerstein parody, Corn!, pillories Oklahoma!and Carousel. Set in Kansas, it comes complete with a nearly pornographic dream ballet and a little accidental spousal abuse. In the Sondheim-inspired section, A Little Complex, a group of disengaged, neurotic New Yorkerslive in an apartment complex called "The Woods" and are terrorized by a murderous landlord who seeks revenge on a world that loathes his art. Dear Abby!takes on Jerry Herman's obsession with theatrical divas. The landlord, inspired by Aunt Abby's fabulousness, enters in the end in drag and forgives the [End Page 705]unpaid rent. Aspects of Junitarevels in Andrew Lloyd Webber's difficulties with the courts ("It might sound just a teeny / Like something by Puccini") and his bloated, overly-technological sets. ("The Set changes to her boyfriend Bill's apartment. The audience applauds the set change.") Speakeasy, perhaps the most successful of the five, takes place in a Chicago cabaret in the...