John Guare Brigadoon

[AHTC]

Posted: 9/2/12 at 12:22pm

I know that John Guare revised Brigadoon for the proposed Rob Ashford directed revival of that piece. Does anyone know what the changes were that he instituted? I'd be fascinated to know....

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/2/12 at 12:43pm

A drastically altered “revisal” of the show, with a book rewritten by John Guare, turned Brigadoon into a pacifist town that disappeared in 1939 because its inhabitants didn’t want to live in a world torn apart by war. Although this was enthusiastically heralded in 2008 with the lately prolific Rob Ashford at the helm, nothing came to fruition.


So says this blog ...

[temms]

Posted: 9/2/12 at 6:40pm

That report about the town disappearing in 1939 was dead wrong. I'm not sure where they got the information. I believe it was set in 1943, the year of the show's premiere, with the disappearance of the town 200 years prior in 1743.

I did a little bit of work on the project, and got to see a little of the script. The big change was that the town of Brigadoon was at war in the 1700's when they prayed to be protected from their enemies, and hence vanished and slept 100 years and awoke when the fighting was over. Charlie was a soldier and a bit of a blowhard, and Harry Beaton was the poetic guy who stayed behind with the women and began an affair with Jean while Charlie was away at war. Thus that conflict. Jeff was to be a Hollywood star on a vacation with his friend, Tommy.

David Chase, the prolific dance/vocal arranger, was rearranging the score to have more of a traditional Celtic feel. Some of it was quite lovely; "Heather On The Hill" took on a sort of a "Fields of Gold" kind of feel, things like that. Chase is very, very good and has mostly impeccable taste, and the work of his that I heard was some of his best.

The opening was to be a choreographic depiction of the town waking up from its hundred-year sleep, bodies tired and sore but slowly adjusting to the new day. Some of it was really quite lovely. And a lot of the score was rightly left alone ("From This Day On" was exactly as we know it to be, as was "Come To Me, Bend To Me" and many others.)

Who knows how it would have turned out? I've always personally found "Brigadoon" to be the stuffiest of all the Lerner & Loewes; some gorgeous music, but I've never felt terribly involved with the characters or the show. It's lovely, yes, but I've never felt all that deeply.

I have no doubt it would have inspired strong feelings on both sides. It would have been less a revival of "Brigadoon" then a production of a new musical called "Brigadoon" using some of the plot points and the songs of the old show.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/2/12 at 7:05pm

That's really interesting, temms. Thank you. I am shocked whenever I see it again at how little dramatic action there is. Gorgeous score but the people of Brigadoon don't do much except sleep (and dance, of course).

On the other hand, when Vivien Matalon turned the soubrette (Meg Brockie) into the town bag lady in his 1980s revival, I felt the seams of the piece come apart a little. I wasn't sure how much realism the play could stand without unraveling altogether; maybe BRIGADOON is better off as a pageant or a sort of pop ballet.

I'd certainly like to see the Guare version performed.

[darquegk]

Posted: 9/2/12 at 8:27pm

What about the new arrangement of "Almost Like Being In Love?" Did it remain a quasi-operatic duet ballad, or did it become an uptempo swing, like almost every recording of the song other than the ones in Brigadoon?

Posted: 9/3/12 at 5:39am

I am always flabbergasted when people are cool to Brigadoon. It's totally an "Audience show." I've never not seen it just completely and totally enrapture the viewers. My first experience was working backstage on a summer theater production 30 years ago and would always make a point of slipping into the back of the house to see the final scene and listen to the sniffles of the crowd.

[temms]

Posted: 9/3/12 at 7:44am

I don't recall exactly the "Almost Like Being In Love" arrangement - but as the time period was early/mid 1940s, it definitely was not a Sinatra-style Big Band swing. I think it was very close to the original version. As I said, David Chase is a smart man with a great deal of musical integrity (unless you're a purist who thinks that scores should never be touched, then he's a monster with a cleaving knife.)

They weren't looking for a true legit soprano for Fiona, they were looking for someone with a bit folkier sound and several of the keys were lowered. Tommy was still a legit musical theatre tenor.

And I do know plenty of people who love "Brigadoon" as it is and find it utterly enchanting. For me, personally, Lerner & Loewe are the classic team that excites me the least. I appreciate "My Fair Lady" more than I love it, and I find "Camelot" the single most tedious show in the "classics" canon. I know the idea of this "Brigadoon" was to bring more of an earthy "Braveheart" Scottish feel to the piece; whether that would have made for a good "Brigadoon" we'll never know (unless the project springs to life again, though usually when things peter out the way this one did they stay dormant.)

That said, I'd very possibly be interested if a good opera company did a full-out traditional "Brigadoon" with beautiful sets and a full orchestra, singing chorus and dancing chorus. The set for the Ashford version was to be very sparse.

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/3/12 at 10:28am

Brigadoon is easily my favorite Lerner and Loewe musical. I think it's their most passionate and melodic, too.

But it's also the hardest to pull off successfully. Most people have seen or been in a "competent" production of it, at best. The deception lies in its simplicity. If you have really good actors/singers in the principal roles who can embrace the sentimentality and simple message, and truly understand the material, the show can be pure magic on stage.

It doesn't need a rewrite. It needs seriously talented people (of a caliber not seen often enough today) to rise to the occasion.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/3/12 at 6:51pm

best12, I saw Marin Mazzie and her husband, Jason Danieley, do it for Reprise-LA, with Sean McDermott as Charlie. It was indeed transcendent. Even though it lacked the extensive ballet of fully staged productions, I really can't imagine BRIGADOON could be sung any better.

But it was still a glorious pageant (for the ear) more than a play. The most interesting character is Harry Beaton and we barely know who he is before he "accidentally" dies. The character of Jeff has as many lines as anyone and yet nothing to do. Etc. and so forth.

I too am wary of "fixing" it, because it seems to survive on magic as fragile as that of Brigadoon itself. But I would like to see what Guare would have done with it.

***

temms, the early/mid 1940s was the height of the Big Band Era and Frank Sinatra was the hottest young singer on the planet, topping the polls of BILLBOARD and DOWN BEAT magazines in 1941. So swinging "Almost Like Being in Love" isn't anachronistic for Tommy, though one often wonders what Fiona thinks of the "new" style.

[AHTC]

Posted: 9/3/12 at 7:03pm

It's my favorite Lerner and Loewe also.

I agree opera companies may give it the best rendering. Other than Candide and CERTAIN roles in Most Happy Fella, I think every MT piece needs actors first (I include all of the R&H couples in this as well), but this score needs SIZE in the voice, and other than women like Kelli O'Hara, Elena Shaddow, Laura Benanti and Sarah Berry), I don't see any of the current crop of women (Laura Osnes, Jill Paice, Erin Davie), wonderful as they are, giving the score what it needs. A bit better landscape with the men, but not much.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/3/12 at 7:38pm

I'd love to see a revival with all of Agnes DeMille's original dances--I believe they survive and have been used at least as recently as the 80s. Most critics seem to think it was her best musical theatre work--which is saying something.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/3/12 at 8:43pm

The Vivien Matalon Broadway revival in the 1980s was supervised by Agnes De Mille and used her original dances. It was beautiful to watch, although the book remained dramatically inert.

I stage managed the auditions and got to work with Miss De Mille. As a human being, she was a great choreographer.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 9/4/12 at 7:49am

Harry Connick, Jr. could just tear into Tommy's songs.....

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 9/4/12 at 1:40pm

I agree that the book doesn't need a rewrite, just a polish. When I did it we had to change/cut a couple of outdated jokes, but other than that, it works well as an old-fashioned musical that audiences go into knowing they're seeing something from the 1940's. A modern book wouldn't gel with the score or the overall story.

Posted: 9/4/12 at 2:32pm

Connick would be a perfect Tommy. He's got that earnest quality that Tommy has to have.

Harry doesn't have many lines- but he's a great part. You have to have someone very young and intense so the audience thinks about his situation. In high school we all feel like we're trapped and have no choice- but Harry really is. No college, no chance of meeting anyone new, no happiness ever- just an eventual crappy marriage and kids he doesn't want. I always wondered if Hollywood ever thought about having him and Tommy "trade places" somehow. Give them both a happy ending.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/4/12 at 7:32pm

That is an interesting idea, Joe. Too bad Lerner didn't think of it (or discarded it, if he did). Because Harry isn't developed enough in the score to be that important in the plot. Of course, neither is Jeff and they could have written some new material for Harry.

But I suspect he would have completely overshadowed Tommy and Fiona on stage, being the mere ciphers they are.

***

Was Connick Jr. really so wonderful in PAJAMA GAME? Because while I see that he is right for Tommy, his voice--no matter how amplified--strikes me as too lightweight for roles sung by men like Raitt and Cullum. He's a terrific pop crooner, no argument. But that's not the same thing as a "legit" Broadway singer.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/4/12 at 7:33pm

BTW, just to be clear: I am discussing what I see as BRIGADOON's deficiencies because doing so interests me; but the truth is I have never been bored even hearing an amateur production. The score really is that good.

[darquegk]

Posted: 9/4/12 at 9:18pm

I think it's a question of is Tommy (and much more specifically, "Almost Like Being In Love") played as an operetta ballad-singer, or a ballad-singer of the show's era?

As Gaveston pointed out, a bit of a swing and a jazz inflection versus an operatic sound is entirely appropriate to Tommy's character and the musical time he lives in, as well as stationing the song "Almost" in its pop-cultural context. However, it does so at the cost of Brigadoon's status as "more of an operetta" or "Broadway opera" as several others on this thread again have pointed out.

Posted: 9/4/12 at 9:38pm

I no longer have a Brigadoon script, but Harry does indeed have lines that explain his situation. He loved Jean and she threw him over for Charlie. He was to go to school in Edinburgh but now with "the miracle" he can never go. I recall a line about his bitterness that Mr. Lundy postponed the miracle for Charlie to come home from school- and now Charlie has everything and he has nothing.

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/4/12 at 9:45pm

Joe, I love that part. It somehow makes "the miracle" very human.

And I agree, there is enough there for Harry. It's not a large role, but it can make a huge impact.

Originally played by James Mitchell.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/4/12 at 10:08pm

Joe, I wasn't clear. I said Harry isn't developed enough "in the score" for the importance he would be given with your "switch" ending. With very few exceptions, musical theater characters tend to take stage or not depending on how much they sing. Of course, Harry could be given more to sing if his part were to be enlarged. (And in the last production I saw, he was a major dancer.)

But I never meant to imply that his situation in the plot isn't clearly explained. It is.

However, IMO, the score as written spends very little time on Harry's emotional (i.e., musical) conflict, even though he is arguably the character with the strongest feelings in Act I.

***

Best12, I think Harry is developed just fine for a character who dies at the Act I curtain. But Joe was talking about a hypothetical BRIGADOON where Harry doesn't die, but changes places with Tommy at the climax of the show. This was Joe's idea and it is an intriguing one to me.

My point was only that Harry--as currently written--wouldn't hold his own with Tommy and Fiona in such a rewrite. But of course Harry--as currently written--isn't even alive in Act II, so some major rewrites would be required.

If such a change to the miracle (swapping allowed!) were considered, I suspect it was quickly discarded by Lerner and Loewe. After OKLAHOMA!, "musical plays" almost had to have at least one major character die to be included in the newly "serious" musical genre.

Joe's swap would have rendered BRIGADOON a "mere" musical comedy. (Note: I'm referring to the conventions of the age, not expressing my personal value judgments as to the relative merit of comedy and tragedy.)

Updated On: 9/4/12 at 10:08 PM

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 9/4/12 at 10:18pm

The DeMille dances are breathtaking...don't mess with 'em! But the book has serious problems, including some unintentional humor. I seem to remember this was going to be revived and then dropped largely because of the economy collapsing gave producers jitters.

Guare did some nice (uncredited) tightening on the last revival of KISS ME KATE, I'd love to see what he could do with this.