In the last “Music That Makes Me Dance” column, we explored movie musicals that did not successfully transfer to the stage. From Meet Me in St. Louis to The Little Mermaid, there have been more than a few titles that failed to ignite when they ventured a life upon the wicked stage. We surmised that the art of looking at a musical through the lens of a camera is not the same beast as the art of filling a theatre auditorium with the same story, songs and characters. No, the stage requires a different recipe for success altogether.
Movie Musicals On the Stage: What Is the Recipe for Success? – Part One
Those classic Hollywood musicals of the old studio system (particularly Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) were, for many of us, our glorious introduction to the musical form. Our affection for the iconic moments and memorable songs in these cinematic masterpieces makes them ripe for the picking to transplant to the Broadway stage. Whether-or-not doing so does them any justice is another question altogether. We are often disappointed by the result; how do you effectively take what was artfully and intimately captured through a camera’s lens and reimagine it in the wider, more distant picture of the stage?
Hair at 50 and The Women’s Marches
This year, the musical Hair turns 50. Radical for its day with its unyielding assessment of 1960s America: civil rights, the Vietnam War, government corruption, its inclusion of LGB characters (the Q & T are inferred, I suppose), its embrace of rock & roll for the musical stage, it is interesting that its anniversary coincides so closely with the inauguration of “President” Donald Trump, and far more importantly, the historic Women’s marches that breathe a new hope into our hearts and resolve for change. Are we really, fifty-years-later, having to refight the battles of the 60s that are so represented as a powerful collage in the musical Hair?
How We As Theatre Artists Can Combat a Trump Presidency
The inauguration of President Donald Trump is at hand and for many of us in the world of theatre (and the arts in general) we are already feeling the storm of oppression that will most certainly engulf us. The announcement of Trump’s plan to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts has already given us a mighty blow. There is an uncertainty that sits in our hearts with the weight of a lump of steel as we wait to see how his policies and his parade of unqualified cronies continue to infiltrate our lives and affect how we live, love, and create. We, however, as theatre people shall remain undaunted, because we are the hopers, the dreamers, the visionaries, the voices that speak with confidence against oppression, the greatest optimists in the world. Theatre has taught us, through its challenges and against-all-odds circumstances, an optimism and drive to succeed that should frighten the powers that be. Theatre people are not afraid to use their voice, and I think our time has come to show this country both our resolve and our inherent value.