Candide - Lillian Hellman's original book

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 11/5/11 at 10:57pm

Was Hellman's original libretto ever published? i've long wanted to read it. While I know the history of Candide's revivals well (and personally I still think Caird's revised libretto first done for the awesome 1999 National Theatre production works the best), but the common wisdom has *always* been that Hellman's book was at odds with the rest of the show (too literary is one thing I heard),s omething I believe she came to say herself.

Yet, just recently I came across two books on American theatre--focusing primarily on non musicals--published in 1960 and 1963 respectively, and while both aknowledge that the show was a huge flop, both books call the musical one of the greatest artistic successes in American theatre--with much emphasis on how well the libretto qand score worked together (one of the authors calls it, and to a lesser extent West Side Story, the only musicals that mattered of the 50s). So it's got me curious again to try to track down the original book, or at least a synopsis of how it was different.

[sondhead]

Posted: 11/5/11 at 11:01pm

Yes it was. You should be able to interlibrary loan it.

ETA: Available at a library near you (hopefully) http://www.worldcat.org/title/candide-a-comic-operetta-based-on-voltaires-satire/oclc/597776 Updated On: 11/5/11 at 11:01 PM

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 11/5/11 at 11:23pm

Or just do this. The link says "excerpts," but it appears to be a pretty full version to me.
Candide / The 1956 Libretto (sondheimguide.com/candide)

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 12:52am

Thanks everyone!

I did find this commentary on it (I hadn'treally realized how the show was entirely Hellman's idea):

The show opened to mixed reviews and was soon a legendary flop. Hellman was almost single-handedly blamed for its failure. Saturday Review noted, "One suspects she sides with [the] statement that we live in the worst of all possible worlds." Another critic called it "a spectacular disaster." When it moved to London, Hellman reluctantly rewrote the script again. But it got even worse reviews. A London critic carped that the book had been written "as though its author's sole acquaintance with civilisation had been gained from the subtitles of second-feature French films."

Over the years, in various revivals, the project kept changing hands. Half a dozen new versions were developed. Hellman's contribution was whittled down until there was nothing left of her own work. By the time Hal Prince revived the show in the '70s with a circus-like theme, in a small Brooklyn theater, Hellman was fed up with Candide. She officially okayed the project but insisted that her name be removed from it entirely and blocked any future use of her original script. Hugh Wheeler wrote an entirely new script that was more comedic and alluded to Watergate, rather than McCarthy. Offstage, Hellman barked obscenities, accused Bernstein of selling her down the river, and made homophobic accusations that did little to endear her to the parties involved. When New York City Opera revived Candide in the early 1980s, Hellman threatened to yank the show off the stage, says Bernstein's executor, Harry Kraut. But cooler heads prevailed. It was only her fondness for Bernstein's wife, Felicia, writes Hellman biographer Joan Mellen, that kept her from filing a lawsuit. In the end, Hellman's contribution to her brainchild was completely obscured and overlooked. When she died in 1984, Candide was virtually ignored in her obituaries, which was just the way she wanted it.

[When I get low...]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 10:23am

Which brings me to another "Candide" book question which is not an attempt to high jack the thread. Was Wheeler's book ever published and is it accessible? It won the '74 Tony for Best Book but I can't get my hands on a copy. 

[sondhead]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 10:39am

The vocal score for the 70's version, which is out of print, contains the entire book, much like the Sweeney Todd vocal score, if you've seen that.

In addition, the in-print cast recording of this production does preserve the entire show, including the complete book and score.

The vocal score: http://www.worldcat.org/title/candide/oclc/2306205

There's also an earlier draft version readable here: http://sondheimguide.com/Candide/73libretto2nd.html
Updated On: 11/6/11 at 10:39 AM

[elmore3003]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 12:22pm

Hellman's book was never really whittled down till there was little left of hers. I suspect she simply got tired of the tampering, the revovling door of new adaptors, and continual allusion to her work being no good. In 1957, when the Broadway production folded. Michael Stewart was brought onto the project to help Hellman with the book. Their correspondence and drafts are in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection. The production went on tour as a concert presentation, with G&S actor Martyn Green as Pangloss/Martin and Mary Costa, the voice for Walt Disney's Seeping Beauty as Cunegonde. The 1958 London book was redone from the concert libretto. Harold Clurman raved about the London production, and Denis ndby, Quilley wh played Candide told me that Hellman never showed up until the week the show opened in Cambridge. According to Quilley's bok, Sandy Wilson and the cast of VALMOUTH, angry that their show closed for CANDIDE to open, jeered the booed the show from the balcony on opening night.

After the show folded in London, Hellan's agent Gilbert Parker sent Michael Stewart a letter thanking him and telling him his work on CANDIDE was over, although Stewart did petition for the libretto to be available.The London libretto is the best CANDIDE I've read: faithful to Hellman, but a bit lighter.

Then Gordon Davidson did the show in LA and redid the Hellman book. In 1968 for Bernstein's 50th birthday, the Philharmonic produced a concert with Irra Petina again as the Old Lady and Madeline Kahn as Cunegonde. Sheldon Patinkin redid the Hellman book and directed it. He then in 1971 dircted his version for the LA and San Francisco Civic Light Opera and then the show headed east to the Kennedy Center on its way to Broadway, where I saw it. Rae Allen was a wonderful Old Lady, Frank Poretta was a good Candide and Mary Costa, the Cunegonde, was pretty much over the hill. Michael Stewart sued Patinkin for not just using Hellman's book but Stewart's ideas and receiving no credit or compensation. The case was settled out of court, I believe. By that point, Hellman was out of the piece. Her lyrics to "Eldorado" were sung, but it was the one number in the Kennedy Center program with no lyricist credit.

I saw the 1999 National Theatre CANDIDE with awful new tarted up orchestrations having none of the Hershy Kay-Leonard Bernstein elegance or allusions to the classical pieces Bernstein was referencing. At the performance I saw, which was brilliantly staged, I wanted to yell, "It's also an opera parody!" because it was so porly sung. Onr does not sit through "Glitter and Be Gay" to wonder if she has a high E-flat and will land on it or wonder if the a cappella cadenza in "You Were dead, You Know" will keep the singers in the same tonality as the orchestra.

Bernstein did not like any of the Prince versions: he hated that the musical parodies were no longer connected to the countries in Hellman's plot sequence, a major reason for his agreeing to the Scottish Opera version, in which the music is back in his alluded territories.The Governor's Waltz in the City Opera version, originally the Paris Waltz, should be in Paris since it's a rather blatant parody of Ravel's "La Valse."

[sondhead]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 3:55pm

"I saw the 1999 National Theatre CANDIDE with awful new tarted up orchestrations having none of the Hershy Kay-Leonard Bernstein elegance or allusions to the classical pieces Bernstein was referencing. At the performance I saw, which was brilliantly staged, I wanted to yell, "It's also an opera parody!" because it was so porly sung.

Read more: https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1038619&dt=6&boardid=1#ixzz1cxaWpqQ9"

I think the problem there is they weren't intending it to sound poorly sung or sparsly orchestrated. This is as opposed to the Prince Broadway Revival (the first) which used a reduced orchestration, but one artfully orchestrated to sound like a rag-tag traveling band. He also cast young singers many of whom could barely sing (Cunegonde...) with the effect being (to me at least) that the ridiculousness of the tribulations the characters go through is partially expressed (and made more ridiculous) by giving decidedly non-operatic singers operatic material.

It works for me and I love that version, but you can't ignore the beauty of that score, be it operatic parody or not. It sounds lovely being sung by trained singers and full orchestras as well, and of course the parody element is still there. Some people only like it one way, which is why I think Candide is one of those works that never really found its "official" version. I've actually read a quote of Bernstein's before that said something to the effect of the 70's Prince production having the tone and final effect of what they were trying to do originally, so I don't know if he always hated it as much as you say. After all, Bernstein could have taken the Prince version off the table when the Scottish Opera version was finalized or refused to let it be licensed from the get go, but he didn't. I think he realized that Candide is a multifaceted work, capable of being performed different ways.

[elmore3003]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 9:42pm

"I've actually read a quote of Bernstein's before that said something to the effect of the 70's Prince production having the tone and final effect of what they were trying to do originally, so I don't know if he always hated it as much as you say. After all, Bernstein could have taken the Prince version off the table when the Scottish Opera version was finalized or refused to let it be licensed from the get go, but he didn't. I think he realized that Candide is a multifaceted work, capable of being performed different ways."

Don't believe all you read. Bernstein's personal assistant to his death is a good friend, and CANDIDE is my favorite score. As for your comment about poor singing being okay, that was never the intention of the composer. Hellman would have preferred actors.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 11/6/11 at 9:56pm

The Hellman book was published by Random House, though it's been years since I've seen a copy. But do I remember correctly that a big problem in the 1950s was that it required long delays for set changes?

elmore and others who know it better, would it work today when sets are mechanized and can be changed quickly or place can simply be indicated with lighting cues?

[daredevil]

Posted: 11/8/11 at 2:07pm

I saw the original, I was 13, and it was kind of sophistocated for me, but I remember that Hellman's book often seemed clumsy. However,it had a really good arc of Candide's journey, you got a sense that it tried to make the story of Candide's original optimism and his discovery of the cruelty in the real world, believable. But even in the final scene where the much traveled Candide and Cunegonde are reunited, there was the following exchange:
Cunegonde: "I am not good at anything."
Candide: "There you go boasting again." Some of the audience laughed, I felt kind of embarassed for the actors. But I will say this: The final song, "Make Our Garden Grow", seemed to come organically out of the story. It reflected the pain and understanding that Candide and Cunegonde had lived through. In the 75 Prince version at the Broadway, and later a City Opera version, this great song just seemed tacked on. It seemed out of place with the frivolity of the rest of the piece. I don't think Prince ever resolved that in his productions, though the 75 version had a freedom and energy the original did not have.
Also, in the original, there is no narrator. Dr. Pangloss opens the musical, he remains with Candide throughout most of Act I, then is tossed overboard on a raft by a shark (no kidding!) and Martin, his alter ego, the pessimist, is washed up. Martin remains with Candide until right after Bon Voyage, when the shark reappears, throws him off and restores Pangloss to the raft. Tyrone Guthrie, the director just had this actor in a shark suit appear in those scenes. It was a little outrageous, but like everything else in the musical, a little heavy handed. Even at 13, I realized that it was flawed; still it was a fascinating afternoon for me. The audience loved Barbara Cook's rendition of "Glitter and be Gay".

[Almira]

Posted: 11/8/11 at 3:51pm

Just to add to the crazy history of the book.

Gordon Davidson produced ANOTHER production of CANDIDE to inaugurate the re-opening of the Ahmanson Theatre in the mid-90s. He had CTG literary mangager at the time, Frank Dwyer, I think, re-tool the book ONCE AGAIN.


....

I have an ex-library edition of the the original Hellman book. I rather like it. Oddly enough.. there was a mass market paperback edition of the book to Candide in the 70s/80s? Hellman was listed as the author, but I understand the text differed from the original edition published in the 50s.

Updated On: 11/8/11 at 03:51 PM

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 11/8/11 at 4:24pm

I saw Davidson's second CANDIDE. Well, I saw half of it. The man really has no business anywhere near musical theater. (His A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC a few years earlier was just as bad.)

To wit, he directed "Glitter and Be Gay" so that it seemed as if Cunegonde was taking her cues from the orchestra, rather than the other way around. It was (1) orchestra changes tempo; (2) that reminds Cunegonde of her jewels; (3) she picks up a jewel and sings about it until the next tempo change reminds her to be sad. It was as if Davidson had never even SEEN a musical!

But Nancy Dussault was terrific as the Old Woman.