Don’t panic. I haven’t lost my senses. No connection exists between the two except in the same local time frame.

Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo opens at Springfield Contemporary Theatre this week. Dario Fo “was an Italian actor–playwright, comedian, singer, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, painter, political campaigner for the Italian left-wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature…. Much of his dramatic work depends on improvisation and comprises the recovery of ‘illegitimate’ forms of theatre, such as those performed by giullari (medieval strolling players) and, more famously, the ancient Italian style of commedia dell'arte,” so starts the entry on him in Wikopedia.

Tony Mitchell in his study of Fo wrote, “[He was] arguably the most widely performed contemporary playwright in world theatre.” In a later place that statement is amended to exclude the United States. Except in university theatres and some daring regional theatres in the United States, Fo is an unknown name. When produced on Broadway in 1984 with Jonathan Price and Patti LuPone, even his most widely produced play Accidental Death of an Anarchist lasted less than two months.

Jim Assad, founding artistic director of Kansas City’s Crown Center American Heartland Theatre (now closed), opened the theatre in 1987 with Fo’s We Won’t Pay, We Won’t Pay, his second most often produced play. Assad later ruefully remarked that perhaps it was not the most opportune choice.

What was the problem? Maybe it was the mixture of commedia style and satire on Italian politics. Maybe Broadway theatre was not ready for that in the 1980s. Close in style to Fo, but not is satire, would be One Man, Two Guvnors (Broadway 2012) with James Comden, an adaptation of an 18th century commedia dell’arte play by Carlo Goldoni. Fo is certainly a descendant of Goldoni. Maybe it is time to revive Dario Fo.
Fo comes from a country where for years politics has been scandalous and outrageous; maybe satire on the situation comes naturally. We are getting a taste of such politics now in this country. Maybe time for Fo’s style has come for us. Can our playwrights pick up where Fo leaves off and be specific to our situation? Can our contemporary playwrights follow in the steps of Barbara Garson’s 1967 play MacBird that twisted the Kennedy assassination and Johnson ascension to the presidency onto the plot of Macbeth? Can our contemporary playwrights manage to equal or surpass what the nightly talk-show hosts are already doing on a nightly basis?
 
SHE LOVES ME
 
Music, Jerry Bock; lyrics, Sheldon Harnick; book, Joe Masteroff

This was the first production of MSU’s Summer Tent Theatre in its 55th season.

She Loves Me is based on a Hungarian play known in English as Parfumerie (1937) by Miklos Laszlo who fled the Nazis in 1938 to come to the United States. The play was adapted into the 1940 film The Shop Around the Corner with Jimmy Stewart, Margaret Sullivan and Frank Morgan. In 1949 it became a film with songs In the Good Old Summertime with Judy Garland, Van Johnson and S. Z, Sakall. (That film is famous for its scene with Garland and Johnson walking with a young child who was Liza Minelli.)  In 1963 it became a Broadway musical but ran less than a year. It was produced and directed by Harold Prince with choreography by Carol Haney. In its cast were Barbara Cook, Daniel Massey, Barbara Baxley and Jack Cassidy.

This production might be seen as a launching pad for its creative team. Within the year Bock and Harnick wrote Fiddler on the Roof; by 1966 Joe Masteroff wrote the book for Cabaret that was produced and directed by Harold Prince.

For a musical that was mildly successful in its original Broadway production, it became a favorite for theatres all across the country. It has also received two Broadway revivals, 1993 and 2016. Part of that early success is due to the original Broadway cast record album that became a cult favorite.

It is a well-constructed strong book musical with distinct characters. It is not a big musical with really only one splashy production number that can be tailored to the abilities of the theatre company.  It’s a bit sweet and sentimental that can be kept in check by the director. The songs are strong and melodic with one outstanding number in “Vanilla Ice Cream” that led to a nickname of “The Ice Cream Musical.”

When Barbara Cook started her cabaret career (see an earlier blog), she often included “Vanilla Ice Cream” in her list of songs for the evening. She would introduce it by calling it “the perfect theatre song.” It is an excellent example of what a song should do in a strong-book musical. The character begins in one place, and during the course of the song she discovers truths about herself that lead her to new decisions. Also, the story is at Point A and by the end of the song it has progressed to Point B.

Tent Theatre first presented She Love Me in 1970. SCT did a production in 1998. Drury University produced it three-four years ago. It has been a welcomed visitor on the Springfield scene.

She Loves Me holds up well and remains an audience favorite.

Beehive the ‘60’s Musical , a revue of the songs made famous by the female singers of the 1960s. is the current production at Springfield Contemporary Theatre. It includes such songs as “I’m Sorry,” “To Sir with Love,” “Where the Boys Are” and many others. In a broad sense a revue is a collection of songs, dances, sketches, usually comic, staged for an evening of entertaining. Most revues have little to no narration.

The Minstrel show, America’s first original, native-born theatrical entertainment was a revue. It started in the 1830s-1840s, evolved into a formal structure, and remained popular throughout the 19th century. It was replaced by vaudeville, but continued in various forms until the 1960s. I remember Silas Green from New Orleans coming to my hometown in Tennessee in the mid-1950s. The boat come up the Mississippi, turned into the Cumberland River and played towns along the way. The boat landed, unloaded its equipment, paraded through town to the location where the tent was erected.  It was not a true minstrel show in that it had stock characters and a slight story line, but it included minstrelsy elements in the performance. The Kiwanis Civic Club in Springfield presented an annual production of a minstrel show until the mid-1960s.
Most of the productions in Branson are a form of a musical revue.

The great heyday of Broadway revues was from the late 19th century until the 1930s. They were called such names as Follies, Scandals, Gaities or just Revue, such as Music Box Revue. These were usually in editions, newly created every year or two. Most of them were highly extravagant with hundreds of costumes, many sets and top talent. The material was created afresh for the particular edition. Many of the musical composers of the early half of the 20th century received their start writing songs for one of these revues. The top comedians from vaudeville and other circuit shows made their way into one of these Broadway revues, then musicals; eventually to radio, Hollywood films and early television. The depression finished off these kinds of theatrical productions.

Non-narrative musical productions continue to be popular down to the present. These days they are usually organized around some kind of a theme, the songs of a particular composer or the musical of a particular era. One of the more unusual revues was Jerome Robbins’ Broadway (1989), consisting of productions numbers from musicals that Robbins had either directed and/or choreographed.  It won the Tony that year as the Best Musical.

In the past 22 seasons Springfield Contemporary Theatre has presented the following revues:
2016 Jerry’s Girls (Songs of Jerry Herman)
2015 The Marvelous Wonderettes (Songs from Girl Groups of the 1950s-60s)
2014 Ain’t Misbehaving (Songs of Fats Waller)
2013 Rodgers & Hart, A Celebration
         Holiday Carol (Christmas music)
2008 Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
         Tintypes (Songs and sketches from the turn of the 19th-20th century)
2006 Swing Time Canteen (Songs from the World War II era)
2005 I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (Sketches and songs about marital relationships; original material and lyrics, Joe DiPietro; music, Jimmy Roberts)
2004 Showtunes (Songs of Jerry Herman)
2003 From Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill
         Stephen Sondheim’s Putting It Together
2002 All Night Strut (blues, bebop, jazz music from 1930s-40s)
1999 Starting Here, Starting Now (Songs of Richard Maltby and David Shire)
1998 The World Goes Round (Songs of Kander and Ebb)
1997 Broadway Montage (Songs from the golden age of musical comedy)
1996 A Grand Night for Singing (Songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein)
           
​ A later blog will deal with jukebox musicals and what is the difference.