Enchanted Evenings:The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber Block, Geoffrey (large ebook reader .txt) 📖

of Bernstein’s seventieth birthday, Sondheim composed the parody “The Saga of Lenny,” which, according to a particularly helpful anonymous reader of this book (later revealed as Wayne Shirley), “shows a good understanding and sympathy with the original ‘Saga of Jenny.’” See also Steve Swayne, How Sondheim Found His Sound, 272n110.

83. Prior to Follies, Simon had written the books for Little Me (1962), Sweet Charity (1966), and Promises, Promises (1968) (the latter choreographed by Bennett). After Follies, Simon would contribute uncredited one-liners in Bennett’s Seesaw (1973) and A Chorus Line (e.g., Sheila’s “Sometimes I’m aggressive”), and the libretto for the adaptation for his The Goodbye Girl, like Chorus Line with music by Marvin Hamlisch. Bennett also played an important role in Simon’s work. He assisted (without credit) the direction of The Good Doctor (1973) and directed God’s Favorite (1974). See Mandelbaum, “‘A Chorus Line,’” 74, 78, 85–86, 124, 146–47.

84. Ibid., 74.

85. Zadan, Sondheim & Co., 150.

86. Ibid., 148, 150.

87. Ibid. Although he acknowledged that “many critics felt that Goldman’s book was the weak link in Follies, and that it contained unpleasant characters difficult to care about and action that was hard to follow,” Sondheim concluded that “these critics were only echoing Bennett’s sentiments throughout the tryout” (Mandelbaum, “‘A Chorus Line,’” 73–74). For a thoughtful defense of the book, see Mordden, One More Kiss, 34–47.

88. Zadan, Sondheim & Co., 322.

89. Ibid., 151–52.

90. Ilson also notes that “ironically, when the show was revived in London in 1987, Goldman has them [Ben and Phyllis] stay together” (Ilson, Harold Prince, 196).

91. A folly song (in Follies) is a song in which each of the principals sings an honest diegetic “number” that reveals their deeper nature and conflicts. All the follies take place in the imaginary Loveland in the last part of the musical. After “The Folly of Love” (an ensemble number) and “The Folly of Youth” (separate and then combined duets by the principal married couples), Buddy, Sally, Phyllis, and Ben sing their solo follies in succession.

92. The first movement of Grieg’s concerto had also been featured prominently in Song of Norway (loosely based on the life of Grieg) and more briefly in the song “Rosemary” from Loesser’s How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying.

93. When I asked to study a copy of the 1987 Follies libretto, Goldman “turned the matter over to his attorney” and “notified the Library of Congress that no permission is to be given for an examination copy” (letter to the author from Barbara Deren, President, Barbara Deren Associates, July 5, 1994). From this letter I have inferred that the librettist came to favor the 1971 libretto, but I could be mistaken.

94. Horowitz, Sondheim on Music, 123.

95. The lyrics to all four songs, “Marry Me a Little,” “Multitudes of Amys,” “Happily Ever After,” and “Being Alive,” are printed and discussed in Sondheim, “Theater Lyrics,” 92–97. See also Banfield, 166–73.

96. Prince, Contradictions, 143–57; quotations on 156–57.

97. Ibid., 183.

98. Gottfried, Sondheim, 189, and Banfield, Sondheim’s Broadway Musicals, 382.

99. Gottfried, Sondheim, 151. Banfield considers the critical problems generated by Merrily’s autobiographical subject matter: “But it would be difficult to fix the audience’s sympathy—and regrets—on Franklin Shepard, for the simple reason that the musical is about the compromise of his talent and we can only measure that talent by transferring it to Sondheim” (Banfield, Sondheim’s Broadway Musicals, 312).

100. Banfield would call this technique “reflexivity,” that is, “the words describing what the music is doing.” Ibid., 42.

101. The populist Sondheim composed two songs for Madonna to sing in the movie Dick Tracy (1990), including the Academy Award–winning Best Song of 1991, “Sooner or Later.” Sondheim gained major recognition with the popular and critically acclaimed 2007 film release of Sweeney Todd featuring box-office sensation Johnny Depp discussed earlier in this chapter.

102. Block, Review of Assassins, American Music 11 (Winter 1993): 507–9.

Chapter 16: The Phantom of the Opera

1. Alexandra Wilson, The Puccini Problem, 6.

2. Of these shows only Aspects of Love (closed too soon) and Sunset Boulevard (too expensive) lost money in their New York runs. It should be noted that Lloyd Webber musicals almost invariably enjoyed longer, usually far longer London runs. Here are the comparisons:

Joseph

New York, 747 performances; London, 243

Jesus Chris Superstar

New York, 711 performances; London, 3,358

Evita

New York, 1,568 performances; London, 2,900

Cats

New York, 7,485 performances; London, 8,949

Starlight Express

New York, 761 performances; London, 7,406

Phantom

New York, 8,771 (as of 2/2/09); London, 9,568 (as of 10/9/08)

Aspects of Love

New York, 377 performances; London, 1,325

Sunset Boulevard

New York, 977 performances; Los Angeles, 369; London, 1,529

Despite the apparent reversal of the norm in the case of Joseph, according to Michael Patrick Kennedy and John Muir in Musicals, “the 1980 production became a provincial phenomenon in Britain, setting up a record as the longest-lived touring show of the postwar era, and making periodic appearances in London en route” (Michael Patrick Kennedy and John Muir, Musicals, 187). As of this writing, after Les Misérables (Boublil and Schönberg), the second, third, and fifth longest running shows in the West End (Phantom, Cats, and Starlight Express, respectively) are Lloyd Webber shows. Jesus Christ Superstar ran for eight years, Evita nearly seven. Evita was also the longest running foreign musical import up to that time, to be eventually surpassed by Cats.

3. Paul Prece and William A. Everett, “The Megamusical,” 255.

4. Jesus Christ Superstar was the only Lloyd Webber-nominated show before Evita was nominated for the 1972 Best Score Tony Award (awarded to Sondheim’s Follies); by the time Evita won for Best Musical and Best Score in 1980, Sondheim had already obtained this prize for four shows (Company, Follies, Night Music, and Sweeney Todd).

5. Rent (5,124 performances) lost its bid to overtake Cats when it closed on September 7, 2008.

6. John Snelson, Andrew Lloyd Webber, 2. Everett notes that during the 2000–01 season West End audiences could see as many as five Lloyd Webber shows (Prece and Everett, “The Megamusical,” 254).

7. Michael Walsh, Andrew Lloyd Webber.

8. Joseph P. Swain, The Broadway Musical, 315–32.

9. Steven Suskin, Show Tunes, rev. and expanded 3rd ed., xii.

10. Ibid., 378.

11. Raymond