Pal Joey is now African American! And a gay character added to the plot....- Page 2

[SNAFU]

Posted: 8/9/13 at 10:41pm

Now that you have gone black, will you ever come back PJ?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/9/13 at 10:44pm

This is from the first Pal Joey story that John O'Hara published in the New Yorker. All the stories are epistolary: written as letters from (Pal) Joey to his friend Ted and many of them close with my BWW signature. This one ends with a variation

===

Dear Pal Ted:

Well at last I am getting around to knocking off a line or two to let you know how much I apprisiate it you sending me that wire on opening nite. Dont think because I didnt answer before I didnt apprisiate it because that is far from the case. But I guess you know that because if you knew when I was opening you surely must be aware how busy Ive been ever since opening nite. I figure you read in Variety what date I was opening in which case I figure you have seen the write ups since then telling how busy Ive been and believe me its no exagerton....

I am a little sore at one of the papers because the local Winchell links my name constantly with the name of a very sweet kid that I go to the club and play golf with. Not that it isnt true. We see each other all the time and she comes to the hotel practically every nite with a party and when Im through for the nite we usely take a ride out to a late spot out in the country. Her father is president of the second largest bank. It is the oldest. The biggest bank was formally two banks but they merged. Her name is Jean Spencer and a sweeter kid never lived. I really go for her....

Just to show you I dont forget I inclose $30. Ill let you have the rest as soon as possible. Any time I can help you out the same way just let me know and you can count on me. I guess you kissed that fifty goodbye but that isnt the way I do things. But I guess you know that, hey pal?

All the best from
Pal Joey

===

The typos are, of course, deliberate on the part of O'Hara. They drove the legendarily fastidious New Yorker copy editors absolutely crazy.

The letters would make spectacular lead-ins and transitions to the book scenes and the Rodgers & Hart songs (even the less-than-spectacular ones. All they would need is a spotlight downstage left or right.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/9/13 at 10:51pm

The New Yorker has just that one story online, in its entirety:



THE NEW YORKER: FICTION: PAL JOEY BY JOHN O'HARA, OCTOBER 22, 1938

[jv92]

Posted: 8/9/13 at 11:26pm

I thought the recent "revisal" at the Roundabout was bad enough. Turns out I was wrong. I'm not saying that the original book to PAL JOEY is a work of art, but it's perfectly fine. Let it be.

I'm happy to live with my recordings of Lang and Leigh, and LuPone and Gallagher and never see another production of this show again if they keep "fixing" it. And the score absolutely needs NO "fixing."

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 8/9/13 at 11:33pm

I'll stack the resumes and track records of Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and John O'Hara against any of the "creatives" working today.





Updated On: 8/9/13 at 11:33 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 8/9/13 at 11:46pm

I hear Elaine Stritch will sing Zip. She will be lowered to the stage on a huge Zippo lighter, on her back, legs splayed. Her costume will be made entirely of balloons which she will poke with a pin each time she sings the word "zip." At the final performance, she will announce who will play Dolly in the upcoming Broadway revival of "Hello Dolly."

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/10/13 at 12:26am

"Wicked will now be darker, but will also include Corner of the Sky for Elphaba to sing. Madame Morrible will tackle No Time At All, and they will add Over the Rainbow for Dorothy to sing, right before the end of the show."

That sounds pretty good to me.

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 8/10/13 at 1:03am

Here's a novel concept: instead of forcing gay and interracial themes onto a show that doesn't have them, how about you just do a show with gay and interracial themes? I mean, if you feel Pal Joey needs so many changes, why bother doing it in the first place?

[losttheatre12]

Posted: 8/10/13 at 9:48am

Hi everyone, I seldom comment on here...but longtime "lurker" so to speak. Anyway, I live in Little Rock, AR where The Rep will be producing this new version of "Pal Joey" next month. And I have been a long time patron of the theatre and have seen pretty much every show there over the past 8 years. Now, with that being said, I know how well their subscriber base and regular patrons react to their shows...and this theatre plays it SAFE for the most part due to this. Granted, they did do "Avenue Q" as their season ender last year and it brought in- I believe- a lot of new, young patrons that they really needed.

But still, I'd say that most of their subscriber base is of the 55+ white, uber conservative crowd. And based on the reaction to JUST a gay kiss when they did "The Full Monty" a few years ago, I really fear that this re-envisioned production of "Pal Joey" will not go over well at all. I wish it nothing but the best and plan on seeing it. However, The Rep is in the deep south and I just don't feel that this is the right theatre to experiment with the book of a beloved musical such as this one.



Updated On: 8/10/13 at 09:48 AM

[Joviedamian]

Posted: 8/10/13 at 11:02am

Maybe that's it losttheatre12...maybe they are trying to think outside their box. Most know when a subscriber base is 55+ most will start to die (with all due respect) and so now maybe the Board of Directors are saying we need to start thinking about the future..who's our audience going to be...who is it that we have not catered to here?

Now I am not saying by adding an African-American Actor and or a gay character to an old play will bring in the masses, but it is giving the opportunity to start building new relations with theater people outside their area.

I was part of a theater company once that started to do that...and they are still the most longest running community base theater West of the Mississippi! The Board of Directors are smart to challenge themselves even if not everyone will agree...because no every person in that theater will agree on everything!!!

[losttheatre12]

Posted: 8/10/13 at 11:29am

I will give them credit, they have started introducing newer works or pieces that are not as known in this region as of late...albeit most of it is incredibly safe material. I'm all for them trying new things...trust me...we have so few options here in Little Rock, so I'll take what I can get in regards to theatre. They're doing a world premiere musical version of "Because of Winn Dixie" in December and while the movie and subject matter bore me to tears, the only thing that is making me want to see it is that Duncan Sheik is writing the music for it and John Tartaglia will be directing it. So they are advancing up the ladder, so to speak. Just hopeful they don't regress because of the current subscriber base.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/10/13 at 8:10pm

Setting changes to the score aside, as I admit that's largely a matter of taste, the switch to black and gay characters isn't so much a matter of "fixing" what was flawed as it is inserting what was arbitrarily omitted because of the prejudices at the time of the original.

[darquegk]

Posted: 8/10/13 at 10:21pm

Are there black characters or gay characters or acts in the Pal Joey short stories? Is he a swinger? (I'm thinking of Jackie the ambisextrous playboy in Moncure March's "The Wild Party.")

[justoldbill]

Posted: 8/11/13 at 8:38pm

I'm waiting for a revival of THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE showcasing a White Antipholus with a Black Dromio, a Black Antipholus with a White Dromio, and the three female leads cast with Asian performers doing "Sing For Your Supper" in the manner of "Three Little Maids From School Are We".

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/11/13 at 8:55pm

This'll probably be the next Pal Joey adaptation:

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 8/12/13 at 11:51am

I saw the workshop production of this at "The Barn Theatre" in Augusta, MI. I posted about this last summer. The adding of songs to shows and revising scripts is nothing new and is rather in vogue now. I think "revisals" are fine. I do think they took on too much (or overlooked too much), by making Joey bisexual as well as black. The racial issue was enough of issue to deal with in the show's time period. His bisexuality is treated as an aside that the audience is let in on, but doesn't become an issue in the show.