Thursday, September 15, 2011
New Layers for Broadway-Bound Musical Revivals
NYTimes.com: THE theater director Michael Mayer faced deep skepticism in 1997 when he first proposed a radical plan to the literary executors for “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,” a 1965 musical admired for its lush score but undercut by loopy story lines about ESP and reincarnation. Mr. Mayer wanted to rewrite the book and to transform its muddled romantic subplot into a love triangle full of dramatic and comic tension. His boldest idea: turning one of the central characters, a flighty woman named Daisy, into a gay florist named David. The gender switch was meant to throw impediments into the main narrative, about a male psychiatrist who hypnotizes Daisy/David and then falls in love with her/his past self, a woman named Melinda Wells.
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2 comments:
I'm not sure why people are up in arms about changes to Porgy or Clear Day. People are quick to make changes to classic plays, e.g., we here about modern adaptations of Hamlet all the time, and those productions still call themselves Hamlet.
The creators of both shows believe that they've found a way to bring this theatre to today's audiences in a socially relevant manner, and the people who own the rights have signed off on it. Theatre purists shouldn't be upset by that, because that's what the commercial theatre has been for some time. If audiences like these productions, they'll run; otherwise, they'll close. 'Nuff said.
Daniel's got a good point - commercial theatre's more about connecting with the audience on their level and making the show accessible in order to generate buzz and keep the show alive. A show like Clear Day is unlikely to catch the eye of the average Broadway theatregoer unless it seems relevant and accessible (or a star is in it, which in its own way relates to relevance and accessibility). Where creators can go astray is that the average theatregoer is not blind to the updating process - in fact, changing dialogue or characters often puts those changes up to the strictest scrutiny. An audience is discerning enough to rip apart the tiniest issue with your production of Romeo and Julian simply because you chose to add the hot-button gay issue into the story, as justified or not it may be to you. I feel the "uproars" can be justified if a reviewer finds the fault and points it out first, since that can impact the audience's decision to buy tickets or not, thus fueling the competitive market aspect of commercial theatre.
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