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.

Four musicals have been nominated for the Tony Award, Best Musical: Come From Far Away, Dear Evan Hansen, Groundhog Day, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. Two of them we have seen; the others opened since we were last in New York. All four seem stronger and more interesting musicals than has been true in some past years.
 
DEAR EVAN HANSEN

Music, lyrics, Benji Pasek, Justin Paul; book, Steven Levenson; scenery, David Kirins; costumes, Emily Rebholz; lights, Japhy Weidman; sound, Nevin Steinberg; projections, Peter Nigrini; choreography, Danny Mefford; direction, Michael Greif

Cast: Ben Platt, Laura Dreyfuss, Rachel Bay Jones, Jennifer Laura Thompson, Mike Faist, Michael Park, Will Roland, Kristolyn Lloyd. Currently playing at the Music Box Theatre

The musical was first produced in Washington, D.C. and then off-Broadway before officially opening on Broadway in December 2016. It received highly positive notices from the critics. Especially high praise was given to Ben Platt, playing the title character. He still seems to be the favorite for a Tony for Leading Male in a Musical. Dear Evan Hansen also differs from where a majority of musicals begin-- it is not based on, adapted from, inspired by…. It is a totally original story.

The scenery is a series of sliding panels and hanging scrims changing constantly with  projections that remind you of tablets and phones with postings on Facebook or some other social media. Social Media (collective) becomes a character in itself. Our first view of insecure, shy, lonely Evan Hansen is seeing him lying on his bed with his tablet. He is composing his daily pep letter to himself that his therapist has recommended that he write. While in the school computer room where Evan is printing out the letter, it is snatched from him by the school bully Connor Murphy who stuffs it into his pocket. That night with no explanation Connor commits suicide. In his pocket his parents find the letter. It is immediately assumed that Evan must have befriended Connor, and this was a letter of gratitude. Evan cannot reveal the truth to the parents who are desperate to find some good in their son. Evan is also attracted to Connor’s sister Zoe, and his growing relationship with her parents only brings him closer to her. Evan’s nerd friends pick up on the story and send it out to the world. One friend establishes a fund in Connor’s name, and Evan is persuaded to give a speech to honor Connor and raise funds. Evan becomes a hero. He is seduced by the fame and attention even as he knows that Mephisto is taking his soul. The story swirls bigger and bigger and out of control. Even as it all comes crashing down, the ending makes clear that while consequences must be paid, all will make it through, be healed and be stronger.

Evan Hansen is entertaining, often funny, engaging, fast moving and never boring. As you are leaving the theatre, you begin to realize insights into the seemingly uncontrollable problems of a world more and more dominated by “social media.”

TIME (March 20, 2017) published an Essay: The Pursuit of Happy-ish by Susanna Schrobsdorff. The headline read: “Dear Evan Hansen, thanks for finding us. We’ve been waiting for a musical like you.” The opening paragraph reads: Dear Evan Hansen is a heart-scorching musical, about a teen boy so bound up by anxiety and loneliness that he makes mistakes he can’t fix and gets stuck in the quicksand of social-media adulation. But eventually, he finds a way to leave self-loathing behind. It’s also about parents reaching for their kids as they disappear into their phones and laptops. And it’s about the struggle to connect in an era when it seems as if we’re all awash in emotional hyperbole online and off.” She concludes the essay with what theatre is all about: “…[T]he intensity of Evan Hansen is in an old-school interactive experience in which you show up in person and sit very close to whomever you came with. If you’re there with your child, you can sense the way he or she is reacting to what’s happening on stage. Your kid will know when you hold your breath, or let a sob slip out. It’s a visceral exchange, one that feels primal and rare.”

If only every child in American could have a similar experience, and one so meaningful as that of attending Dear Evan Hansen.

[Addendum: On June 11, 2017, Dear Evan Hansen won the Broadway Tony Award for Best Musical.]
 
BARBARA COOKLast week Adam LeGrant, son of Barbara Cook, singer nonpareil, announced his mother was retiring. After all she is 89, and not in good health. Everyone knew it was coming sometime shortly, but it was with greatest regret that we now heard that the news was real. To hear her in person was an extraordinary experience. We never saw her during her Broadway ingénue days (Cunegonde, Candide; Marian the Librarian, The Music Man;  Amalia, She Loves Me, plus others).

By the late1960s she crashed and burned suffering from depression, alcoholism, and obesity. She had become unemployable and was known as being a drunk. Wally Harper, composer, music arranger, pianist/accompanist, met her in the early70s and convinced her that she had another career as a solo performer. A Carnegie Hall concert came in 1975, and her new career was launched. Wally Harper remained her artistic partner until his death in 2004. As extraordinary and acclaimed as that concert was, the everyday grind is another story. During those early years she made a number of appearances at Reno Sweeney on 13th Street, a bar with a small showroom, maybe seating 50 people. It was a shock to see this large woman appear and to realize that this was Barbara Cook. Weight was to be a problem that she has never overcome and one source of her immobility. She has said that she has not had a drink since 1977.

Lou and I have taken every chance to hear her from her days at Reno Sweeney to our last time when she was at Feinstein’s at the Regency, Christmas 2011. By some miracle all that abuse she gave her body did little to affect the voice. It darken some and a few top notes were gone, but the lyric purity and silvery sound were still there. Her interpretative powers have only increased. Every word, every note, every phrase has been filled with meaning, intent and emotion. She takes you on a journey with the arc of every song. You may think you know a song, but she will give you an insight that had not occurred to you earlier.

Once at Reno Sweeney in her patter with the audience, she mentioned “Glitter and Be Gay” (Candide). The audience burst into applause. She said, “Oh, no. Never again.” She kept in her repertory, “Ice Cream” (She Loves Me). She considers it to be the “perfect” Broadway musical song. (That would be the “strong book” musical. The song tells you about the character Amalia and explores and moves the storyline along. The audience has learned something about the character, and the storyline has been developed.) Although she originated none of the musicals of Sondheim, she became known as one of the greatest interpreters of his complex and technically demanding songs.

By 2011 at Feinstein’s she had become more guarded about some of those top notes, but every song was still a jewel. To be in the same room with her was a rapturous experience. The audience was in rapt attention and breathed with her. At the end of the performance the room darkened, then the lights came back up. She was still standing on stage. She announced that usually this was the time when the performer would go off stage and then come scurry back to give an encore. She said: “Let’s just pretend all that has happened. Now I’ll do the encores.” As I remember, she did two. As far as the audience was concerned, she could have done twenty. At the conclusion she was helped down the three steps to floor level and through the audience to the “backstage.” Her frailties only made the experience more precious. The audience stood, applauded, cheered, and whatever other approbation might be appropriate.

For all that constitutes facts on Cook, see www.barbaracook.com/bio. For all that is personal (open and frank) with marvelous insights into performing and singing, see her autobiography Then & Now: a Memoir, published in 2016.

Her discography is long--how fortunate we are. Three DVDs that show her performing are: The New York Philharmonic Concert of Sondheim’s Follies; Sondheim on Sondheim, a revue that brought her back to the Broadway stage for the first time in 23 years; Barbara Cook, Mostly Sondheim, a videorecording of the concert she gave at the Kennedy Center (2002). It includes as a bonus a master class that she gave during that time.

You Tube includes many examples

The Robber Bridegroom opens at Springfield Contemporary Theatre this week. It has book and lyrics by Alfred Uhry with music by Donald Waldman, based on the novella of the same name by Eudora Welty (1942).
Alfred Uhry was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1936, graduated from Brown University and moved to New York to write plays. He attended a lyrics writing workshop and came to the attention of Frank Loesser who granted him a stipend to work on developing musicals. After a number of unsuccessful musicals, he adapted Welty’s novella and wrote the lyrics. He asked Donald Waldman, with whom he had earlier worked on an unsuccessful musical, to write the music. It was given a workshop production where it was seen by John Houseman at that time the head and founder of the Drama Division at Julliard.

(We will return to Alfred Uhry again as he is the author of Driving Miss Daisy to be presented at SCT in November.)

In 1972 John Houseman had formed a non-profit touring company The Acting Company made up of the graduates of the first class to graduate from Julliard. The company mounted two to three productions a year and presented them in repertory touring the United State. The Acting Company became a permanent organization consisting of new graduates from Julliard and other leading theatre schools touring across the United States.

After securing the rights for The Robber Bridegroom, the Acting Company presented it in summer 1975 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York, and then at the Ravinia Festival in  Chicago. The Acting Company performed it at the Harkness Theatre in New York for 15 performances in October 1975, before going out on tour. The major roles in that production were Kevin Kline (Jamie), Patti LuPone (Rosamund), Mary Lou Rosatto (Salome). The limited run was so successful that Houseman secured investors to mount a new Broadway production that opened in October 1976 at the Biltmore Theatre. The leading roles were played by Barry Bostwick (Jamie), Rhonda Coullet (Rosamond), Barbara Lang (Salome). Bostwick had become a Broadway leading man being Danny Zuko in the original production of Grease; then Brad Majors in The Rocky Horror Show. (He later repeated the Majors role in the film version.) For The Robber Bridgroom he won the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical in 1977. It ran 145 performances and then went on a national tour. The director was Gerald Freedman and choreographer Donald Saddler.

In 2016 the Roundabout Theatre Company mounted a production of The Robber Bradegroom in its off-Broadway theatre, the Laura Pels. The leading roles were played by Steven Pasquale (Jamie), Ahna O’Reilly (Rosamund), Leslie Kritzer (Salome). The director was Alex Timbers and choreographer Connor Gallagher. Of this production Ben Brantley in the New York Times wrote, [It] “suggests a classic European folk story reimagined by Charles Addams and staged by the Grand Ole Opry.”

In Springfield, Missouri State University’s Tent Theatre has produced The Robber Bridegroom twice: 1994 directed by Jack Parkhurst, and 1978 directed by Dennis Warning.

Dennis Warning graduated from the SMS (MSU) theatre program in 1972. The previous summer in Tent Theatre (the first summer in repertory staging) he played the Narrator in The Apple Tree and in HMS Pinafore he was Sir Joseph Porter—he of “his sisters, and his cousins and his aunts.” By the way Tess Harper was also in that production as one the sisters, cousin, aunts.”

Dennis’s first Broadway production was the 1976 The Robber Bridegroom in which he was cast in the chorus/townspeople. In 1978 Dennis proposed that he return to Tent to direct and choreograph a production of The Robber Bridegroom. On the national tour he had been the male swing, thus knowing all the male choreography. He would meet with the individual who was the female swing, and she would teach him all that choreography. Also, he would speak to Mr. Saddler about the project. In the program we gave credit: “Based on the original choreography of Donald Saddler.”

While Dennis was in rehearsal, I used to slip in the back of the rehearsal space to watch. When he would realize that the cast was not going to get the intricacies of the choreography in the time scheduled for rehearsals, he would figure out how to simplify but keep the essence of a step or move. In those last rehearsals before opening, he would proudly tell me that he had been able to slip that step or move back into the dance. The cast had worked to a level that they were now able to handle it. Discipline with the younger cast members frustrated him. “Why are they just sitting out there, talking? They could be working on their lyrics or dance movements.”  He was patient with but set high acting expectations. He explained clearly the acting choices, but let the individuals explore what was happening. The cast obviously “loved” him.  A few of the individuals, but unfortunately not most, had little inkling what an experience they were being given. Dennis had a wonderful summer, and friends from New York and former classmates came in to see the production.

Of the 53 seasons of Tent Theatre, I’ve missed seeing only eight productions. Of all those productions, including the 32 I directed, the 1978 The Robber Bridegroom is in my Tent’s all-time top ten favorites
Dennis died in the mid-80s—far too young.

Jamie Lockhart in that Tent production was played by Michael Quinn. He completed both the BA and MA programs in theatre with us. He was admitted to the Ph.D. program at Stanford University. Upon completing it, he took a teaching position at the University of Washington. In the mid-1990s he was diagnosed with a rare and incurable disease. He died leaving a wife and two young children.
​
Dennis and Michael, gone, but still remembered.


Addenda
May 20, 2017

1. Correction: The Robber Bridegroom (1976) opened for eight weeks at the Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, before moving to Broadway. No tour followed after the Broadway production closed.
2. The 1976 cast went into the recording studio and a vinyl LP original cast album was released. Barry Bostwick was the producer. When the CD of the LP album was released, it had six bonus tracks. It seems that a “story theatre” version of the musical was discussed and additional songs were written. It never was developed., but the songs were recorded at the time of the original cast album. Two of the tracks are solos performances by Dennis Warning.
3. The largest role performed by Warning on Broadway was Herman in a revival production of The Most Happy Fella (1979 with Giorgio Tozzi). Herman sings “Standing on the Corner” as part of the quartet, and “Big D” opposite Cleo. Unfortunately the production did not last long on Broadway--59 performances. It was videorecorded by PBS on the out-of-town tour on the way to Broadway. It was shown at least twice in 1980. A commercial release was never made, but DVD copies exist. If you hunt around, you might find one. 

Springfield Little Theatre at the Landers opens a production of Jesus Christ Superstar this week. The original productions in New York and London were vastly different from each other.

JCS was actually the first produced musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. The two had in the mid-1960s written some songs and one musical that was not produced. Then they received a commission to write a cantata for London’s Colet Court School. They chose as the subject Joseph and his cloak of many colors. They wrote enough songs to fill 20 minutes and then kept adding to them. They decided to make a concept record album, and it became a best seller. The basic sound was late 60s British rock with calypso, country, pop and few others thrown in for good measure.  On the basis of the success of that album, they wrote a single song “Superstar” that was released and became highly successful. The recording company asked that they develop a concept album that became Jesus Christ Superstar and was released in 1969.

The concept album was a dud in England but was a great seller in the US. For that reason Robert Stigwood in 1971 decided to produce Jesus Christ Superstar in New York first. The original director was Frank Corsaro, but he became injured in a automobile accident and had to withdraw. The hottest director in New York at that time was Tim O’Horgan. He had been the director for the Broadway production of Hair that he turned into sensation with the critics and public and a box office smash. He then created Lenny, a multimedia production about the comedian Lenny Bruce--another smash.

O’Horgan’s approach to JCS was similar to what he had done with Hair. He saw the work as a phantasmagoria, much like Hair. His direction and the work of the visual artists carried that approach through.  It would be an over-the-top production. As the music started to play, the entire up stage wall began to slide down to the floor and cover it. It now revealed a huge cross hanging on the permanent up stage wall. The staging was hyperkinetic, and the sound was loud. It was one of the early Broadway musicals to use body mics, and the cast made a business of tossing the microphones around to each other. The crucifixion went beyond all boundaries. After Jesus was placed on the cross, it slowly began to be propelled on a forward thrust straight downstage toward the audience until it nearly reached the edge of the stage. The production was electric, exciting, excessive and vulgar (in the original meaning). It became a box office sensation but only for a few months. It did not manage to make it to its second anniversary.

When a production is a hit in either London or New York, the usual custom is that it is then replicated with the original director in the other city. The cast may or may not make the move. Both Lloyd Webber and Rice hated the New York production. They made sure that it would be a different production with a different director in London.

The London mounting was much simpler with platforms and curtains (and maybe projections). My first impression was that it was a staged oratorio. While the chorus had costumes, they were staged more like an oratorio chorus. They did enter and exit, but did not have much interaction with the characters. All the characters’ songs were fully staged. The production became a sensation in England and ran for more than eight years. It became the longest running musical in London’s history until it was surpassed by another the musical that Lloyd Webber wrote when he became king of the poperetta.

In 1969 The Who wrote and performed a concert work Tommy that they called a “rock opera.” With the success of JCS the way opened for more rock-operas, works that eschewed dialogue in favor of more songs.
There is an irony here. The original production of Hair, produced at the Public Theatre by Joseph Papp, was directed by Frank Corsaro. After the limited run concluded, Papp made a mistake that he never made again. He sold the rights for Hair, and it made history when it moved to Broadway transformed by Tim O’Horgan. The intended original director for JCS was Corsaro, but he had to withdraw. He was replaced by O’Horgan who then transformed JCS.  Corsaro was a noted director for both plays and operas. He probably would have been a better director for the work that Lloyd Webber and Rice envisioned.

For interesting material on and an excellent analysis of Jesus Christ, Superstar, see the chapter on it in Scott Miller’s From Assassins To West Side Story; the Director’s Guide to Musical Theatre. In fact, for anyone interested in musical theatre all the books by Scott Miller are fascinating reading.

After the successful reception for Jesus Christ Superstar, it was decided Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat could be given a fully mounted stage production. The Young Vic in London did so first, and then in 1973 with additional songs it was given in London’s West End and on Broadway in 1982.
This is the third time that Springfield Little Theatre has mounted a production of Jesus Christ Superstar. A touring company with Ted Neeley (Jesus in the film version) in his farewell appearance in the role was presented at Juanita K. Hammons Hall.

“Some secrets should be leaked” was the headline in a recent opinion article by Gabriel Schoenfeld, a Gannett columnist. “Some secrets are plainly necessary…. But if there are necessary secrets, is there also something we can call necessary leaks?”

Secrets have been much in the news recently, political, military, business, social. In the case of Other Desert Cities, they are familial. During the course of the play much discussion ensues about who owns family secrets? What if one member of the family breaks the family trust? What if the family member does not know the depth of the betrayal? What if other family members do not tell all, but only ask that the trust not be broken? Is there retribution if the trust is broken? Baitz has said, “I strive to find the exact point in a narrative where the personal and the political intersect perfectly, because I find the two things completely inseparable.”
Jon Robin Baitz was born in Los Angeles. Because of his father’s occupation, he spent parts of his childhood years in South Africa and Brazil. The time abroad has greatly influenced his work. He has said, “South Africa made me who I am. Being party to, not mere witness to, pure and simple state-run racism…is the genesis for my interests in how systems operate. I write about that as much as I do parents and children; they’re exactly the same thing.”

The genesis for Other Desert Cities came from his writing and producing television’s "Brother & Sisters" series. He created the series and wrote most of the episodes of the first year. During that year occurred the writers’ strike that allowed the networks to abrogate the writers’ contracts. As the network and Baitz had already had conflicts in the direction that the series was to take, the network fired him and continued the series for another four seasons. He was deeply wounded and vented in public, in blog postings. He withdrew to eastern Long Island to write a play. “I couldn’t have written this play without the 'Brothers & Sisters' experience, and the rants and the rage.”

Family drama has long been the staple, heart and glory of the American theatre. Being strongly influenced by Henrik Ibsen  and August Strindberg, Eugene O’Neill developed the American version followed by among others Elmer Rice, Clifford Odets, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, William Inge, Lorraine Hansberry, Lanford Wilson, Sam Shepard, Tracey Letts, and to be added to that list, Jon Robin Baitz. The family drama continues to flourish on today’s television with such series as “This Is Us,” “Nashville,” “The Americans” and, in a baser version all daytime soap operas.

One great difference between what is written for the stage and for television is language. Television requires language to be simple, direct, short and to move the action along. In the theatre language can be longer, more eloquent, even poetic. The language in Other Desert Cities is some of the strongest to be found in recent plays. Each character has at least one or more long speech in which to be eloquent. Many of the characters’ lines border on the poetic. Within the opening lines the tone is set.
 
     “Polly: …in that little village of yours there on the edge of the sea….”
 
     “Polly: The story of your brother. It’s drugs. Your whole generation, awash in drugs. The provocations, the absurd beard, the refusal to shower, to bathe, to adhere to the basic civilities of family life. He was stoned from the age of fifteen on, it made him dumb and it triggered his depression. Three generations, three generations of escapism. Lost. Drugs. Drugs actually destroyed the American century. Up the hill there, up the hill in Indio, the meth addicts, and you see them coming into town, wrecks”
 
     “Trip: And we’re all getting older and if this is heading towards desolation, which I can see it is, and you will all regret it, so give your daughter a pass and your sister, too, both of you, stop fighting like weasels in a pit because on your last day on this planet, you’ll be scared and it won’t matter as you take your last breath—all what will have mattered is how you loved.”
 
     “Lyman: Look, despite your abhorrent and repugnant lefty politics, we want you to know we’re damn proud of you.”

     “Lyman: If you understood what you were doing, you would hang your head in shame. I feel sick. I feel like this is a dream. I’m losing another child here! But I will never be able to…I will never be able to love you again. I only had a little bit of my heart intact after we lost Henry, and what’s left is breaking, we’d be done as a family.”
 
     “Silda: God, I love that smell, that vapor, if I could just live in that scent, I’d be happy. I’d never need to take a drink again, I’d just breathe it in.”
 
These are only a few examples of many that could have been chosen. In the context of the play, and as these word are heard on stage, they all ring natural and true. As must happen in a play, all the language must be appropriate for the situations, characters and tone. In this play we find/hear no “cool,” “awesome,” “amazing,” or other examples of the paltry vocabulary prevalent in these times.  We have here a playwright who loves, respects, and knows how to use the English language.
 
The premiere production of Other Desert Cities was at Lincoln Center Theatre, the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre , New York City, January, 2011, directed by Joe Mantello and with cast: Elizabeth Marvel (Brooke), Stockard Channing (Polly), Stacey Keach (Lyman), Linda Lavin (Silda), Thomas Sadoski (Trip). After a limited run, it closed and reopened in a Broadway Theatre in November, 2011, with three original cast members and replacements, Rachel Griffiths (Brooke) and Judith Light (Silda). This production received five nominations for 2012 Tony Awards: Best Play, Best Actress in a Play (Channing), Best Featured Actress in a Play (Light), Best Scenic Design (John Lee Beatty), and Best Lighting Design (Kenneth Posner). Judith Light won for Best Featured Actress in a Play.  It was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

In the following years productions have been given by many of the major regional theatres and smaller professional theatres across the country. Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City and St. Louis Repertory Theatre presented the play. In December, 2010, Lou and I saw a preview performance of Other Desert Cities in New York. Here is what I wrote in the journal about that production. (After many hours of study and weeks of rehearsals, some of my thoughts may have changed about the play.):

“This is a new play being presented by Lincoln Center Theatre at the Mitzi Newhouse. It continues that line plays about the dysfunctional American family with secret(s) to hide, the rebellious children, the distant uncommunicative parents, alcoholism that runs in the family, and, of course, the secrets that are not discussed. To make this play au courant the parents are highly visible conservative Republicans, now living in a kind of exile in the California desert with the mother’s sister (she’s straight out of Albee’s A Delicate Balance) as a permanent house guest.  Lyman is the former national chairman of the Republican Party. The daughter returns for a Christmas visit with her own bomb. She is a novelist and has now written a memoir about the family with emphasis on the time period of her brother’s death. Baitz can write dialogue, crisp and listenable. It sounds the way people used to sound on stage, literate, witty and in the show-down scenes go for the jugular. The characters have depth and dimension. They are charming, loving, compassionate, cruel, and sometimes irritating. The plot is well structured although somewhat predictable—maybe he’s done too much writing for television. At some point I heard the line that told me where the resolution would go. It did. The bulk of the play takes place at Christmas 2004 then the coda jumps to March 2010. The coda was unexpected and took a turn that I had not foreseen.

“I did cringe once. It came at the obligatory moment when some character must say, “we can’t keep these secrets any longer.” In this play Lyman is the one who gets the line. As this was only the sixth preview performance, maybe the writer, or the director, or the actor will revise the moment into something more subtle.

“What a pleasure to watch talented, skilful actors at their top-notch best. Stockard Channing was stunning, always the right inflection, timing, gesture, move. Stacy Keach and Linda Lavin were not far behind. Elizabeth Marvel started out on one-note and took some time to move on, but she never failed to keep attention.  This may have been the writing, not the actor.

“A side note: we saw the sixth preview performance; it doesn’t officially open until mid-January. About 10 minutes into the performance, some stage lights went out to be followed shortly by all the lights. Instantly the house lights came up with an announcement from the stage manager that the light board had gone down and the performance would resume in a moment. The board was rebooted, the stage lights came up, the house went dark, Stacy Keach went back to the beginning of the speech he had been saying and without missing a beat continued the scene. I thought we were at the Vandivort [Center Theatre]. If only we could handle it as smoothly as it was there.”