| Why More Than You Deserve And Not The Dream Engine? | |
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Posted by: |
steven_stuart 03:37 am UTC 08/26/13 |
| In reply to: | Off Broadway Musicals, 1910-2007 by Dan Dietz - rockfenris2005 06:36 am UTC 08/24/13 |
| Gosh. There are some parts of the More Than You Deserve plot that I really don't like but still it is an important part of Jim history, so thanks for posting this. It's interesting. It seems that Jim is much more proud of The Dream Engine 1969 than he is of More Than You Deserve and I think TDE was probably a better show. So why didn't Papp produce it at The Public Theatre? Was it simply because of the nudity? Papp liked TDE so much that he signed Jim up during intermission, as you know. I see that you included a write up about The Confidence Man. I didn't realise that the novel is one of the darkest and most cynical in the history of American literature. We had quite an interesting board discussion about this last year (I think - I'll check). > MORE THAN YOU DESERVE (1973) > > NOTES – With almost depressing regularity, Joseph Papp > produced musical after musical diatribe from his perch at > the Public Theatre. These all seemed to be angry, > unstructured rock musicals with anti-establishment views > which espoused the fashionable causes of the day > (feminist, Black, environmental, anti-war). One wonders > the point, because almost all were failures, with short > runs and little in the way of critical or general audience > acclaim. Virtually all these special-interest musicals > disappeared after their brief runs at the Public (even > Hair [see entry], the one successful musical in this > group, quickly became a period piece; today, its strength > lies in Galt MacDermot’s melodic score and not in the > musical’s now quaint anti-establishment message). More > Than You Deserve is a perfect case in point. It was > another anti-war rock musical, this one superimposing the > form of the traditional military-themed play or musical > (here, South Pacific [1949], with specific references to > Nellie Forbush, Bloody Mary, and Liat) against an actual > historical event (the My-Lai massacre, which occurred in > South Vietnam on March 16, 1968). The critics noted the > musical also borrowed attitudes from the novel Catch-22 > (1962) and the 1970 film MASH. Further, the unstructured, > free-wheeling plot emphasized the sexual obsessions of the > characters (for example, “Nellie Forbush,” here a > reporter, is gang-raped by a group of American soldiers, > enjoys the experience, and becomes a nymphomaniac; and > “Bloody Mary” sells “Liat” to the platoon). > > Richard Watts in the New York Post “hated” the musical and > said it lacked an “excuse for its existence.” Further, > Martin Gottfried in Women’s Wear Daily called it “trash.” > But Kevin Sanders on WABC-TV7 found the evening “audacious > and challenging” and made the improbable suggestion that > if a musical like More Than You Deserve had opened five > years earlier, the Vietnam War might have ended sooner. > > Michael Weller, the musical’s librettist and co-lyricist, > had written the vastly overpraised Moonchildren (1970), > the first of a number of drearily introspective plays and > films which centered around naval-gazing baby boomers. > > More Than You Deserve wasn’t the last musical to deal with > the My-Lai massacre. In 1975, the Broadway “rock opera” > The Lieutenant explored the event (but only for nine > performances). > > The first performance of More Than You Deserve was given > on November 21, 1973, the official press performance was > on January 3, 1974, and the musical closed on January 13 > (the total number of performances was sixty-three). > > > THE CONFIDENCE MAN (1977) > > NOTES – Perhaps the darkest and most cynical novel in > American literature, Herman Melville’s The Confidence-Man > is not only his greatest work; it may be the greatest of > all American novels. The story takes place on April Fool’s > Day, when a satanic master of disguises passes the day on > a Mississippi River steamboat where he cons everyone he > meets, first stripping his victims of their money, then > later of their faith. Jim Steinman’s musical version (also > known as Songs from “The Confidence Man”) briefly appeared > Off Off Broadway on April 6, 1977, and was later produced > at New York’s Queen’s College in 1986. In 2003, a studio > cast recording was released by Original Cast Records (CD # > OC-6058) with a cast which included Norbert Leo Butz, > Chuck Cooper, LaChanze, Julia Murney, Andre De Shields, > Andrea Marcovicci, and KT Sullivan. > > | |
| URL: | Revisiting The Confidence Man |
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