wasn’t. George Balanchine used a dream ballet in 1936 in
On Your Toes
. There was one in the 1937
Babes in Arms
and in 1938 in
I Married an Angel
, whose title ran afoul of censors objecting to the idea of fornication with a heavenly being.
Pal Joey
(1940) and
Lady in the Dark
(1941) also featured dream ballets, but thanks to
Oklahoma!
’s impact they became a staple into the 1960s. (Their waning popularity paralleled Freud’s.)
As realism crept in, as exemplified by shows like
Pal Joey
and
Cabaret
, audiences were less willing to accept different actors playing the same characters, i.e., Laurey and Curly and a Dream Laurey and Dream Curly.
Q : Which musical conventions are now extinct?
A : Besides dream ballets, the scene “in one”: a scene played in front of a traveler curtain while behind it the scenery is changed. Technology obviated the need, and today’s audiences are used to watching a set change or move before their eyes. Also, musicals feature less dancing today. Television has shortened attention spans, but also, the more realistic the musical, the less dance fits in. Dancing in contemporary musicals typically requires an aggressive and/or erotic edge, else it seems hopelessly old-fashioned.
Q : Don’t good reviews help a theatrical career?
A : Theatrical success is more dependent on good notices than is success in the movies. But consistently good reviews can indicate boredom or being taken for granted. Peggy Wood, best remembered as Mother Abbess in the film version of
The Sound of Music
(she “sang”—dubbed—“Climb Every Mountain”), enjoyed “a wonderful career on the stage,” working with the greats and doing important plays. She noted, “I was very lucky and even renowned for my good reviews. I never really got a terrible one.” But Wood never became a stage star. Sometimes controversy, or at least variety, helps.
Q : Do all theatrical producers yearn for hits and hope to avoid flops?
A : In today’s more complicated fiscal arena, it’s not so simple. Mega-musical producer Cameron Mackintosh—openly gay yet Britain’s highest-paid subject—admits that during a premiere’s intermission, “I retreat to the bar and pray that it will be a mega-disaster so I can pull it off straight away. The worst thing to have in the theater is a near success.” Macintosh produced
Cats, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera
, and
Miss Saigon
, but also, for example,
Moby Dick
, which sank almost without a trace.
Q : Has an actress ever beaten up a producer?
A : The aptly named June Havoc, the former Dainty June and Mama Rose’s real-life daughter, did when the 1944 musical
Sadie Thompson
closed prematurely. The closing notice went up on New Year’s Eve. She recalled: “[A.P. Waxman] was a little man; everyone loathed him. On closing night, he called the cast out onto the stage. I did not come out of my dressing room. Then the little man made the mistake of coming to my room.
“I don’t know what it triggered in me, but he started toward me and I closed the door, locked it, and let him have it. I beat him unmercifully. I was taken to the hospital.… They gave me a sedative, and when I came to, people from the company were sitting there waiting—they were taking shifts. They had
all
wanted to beat him up.”
Q : What was the most scandalous thing Tallulah Bankhead ever did?
A : The “Alabama Foghorn” was outrageous, outspoken, exhibitionistic (a flasher even in her sixties), and almost-openly bisexual in
those
days. Her biographies read like glamorous soap opera. Probably Tallulah’s most then-shocking public gesture was deciding not to wear stockings on stage in 1919 during a particularly hot New York summer night. Producer Lee Shubert begged her not to so affront “public decency,” but she did, receiving hisses, mostly from women.
Through the 1920s Bankhead was an ongoing hit in London. When stage veteran Mrs. Patrick Campbell (her actual billing) was asked the source of
On Your Toes
. There was one in the 1937
Babes in Arms
and in 1938 in
I Married an Angel
, whose title ran afoul of censors objecting to the idea of fornication with a heavenly being.
Pal Joey
(1940) and
Lady in the Dark
(1941) also featured dream ballets, but thanks to
Oklahoma!
’s impact they became a staple into the 1960s. (Their waning popularity paralleled Freud’s.)
As realism crept in, as exemplified by shows like
Pal Joey
and
Cabaret
, audiences were less willing to accept different actors playing the same characters, i.e., Laurey and Curly and a Dream Laurey and Dream Curly.
Q : Which musical conventions are now extinct?
A : Besides dream ballets, the scene “in one”: a scene played in front of a traveler curtain while behind it the scenery is changed. Technology obviated the need, and today’s audiences are used to watching a set change or move before their eyes. Also, musicals feature less dancing today. Television has shortened attention spans, but also, the more realistic the musical, the less dance fits in. Dancing in contemporary musicals typically requires an aggressive and/or erotic edge, else it seems hopelessly old-fashioned.
Q : Don’t good reviews help a theatrical career?
A : Theatrical success is more dependent on good notices than is success in the movies. But consistently good reviews can indicate boredom or being taken for granted. Peggy Wood, best remembered as Mother Abbess in the film version of
The Sound of Music
(she “sang”—dubbed—“Climb Every Mountain”), enjoyed “a wonderful career on the stage,” working with the greats and doing important plays. She noted, “I was very lucky and even renowned for my good reviews. I never really got a terrible one.” But Wood never became a stage star. Sometimes controversy, or at least variety, helps.
Q : Do all theatrical producers yearn for hits and hope to avoid flops?
A : In today’s more complicated fiscal arena, it’s not so simple. Mega-musical producer Cameron Mackintosh—openly gay yet Britain’s highest-paid subject—admits that during a premiere’s intermission, “I retreat to the bar and pray that it will be a mega-disaster so I can pull it off straight away. The worst thing to have in the theater is a near success.” Macintosh produced
Cats, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera
, and
Miss Saigon
, but also, for example,
Moby Dick
, which sank almost without a trace.
Q : Has an actress ever beaten up a producer?
A : The aptly named June Havoc, the former Dainty June and Mama Rose’s real-life daughter, did when the 1944 musical
Sadie Thompson
closed prematurely. The closing notice went up on New Year’s Eve. She recalled: “[A.P. Waxman] was a little man; everyone loathed him. On closing night, he called the cast out onto the stage. I did not come out of my dressing room. Then the little man made the mistake of coming to my room.
“I don’t know what it triggered in me, but he started toward me and I closed the door, locked it, and let him have it. I beat him unmercifully. I was taken to the hospital.… They gave me a sedative, and when I came to, people from the company were sitting there waiting—they were taking shifts. They had
all
wanted to beat him up.”
Q : What was the most scandalous thing Tallulah Bankhead ever did?
A : The “Alabama Foghorn” was outrageous, outspoken, exhibitionistic (a flasher even in her sixties), and almost-openly bisexual in
those
days. Her biographies read like glamorous soap opera. Probably Tallulah’s most then-shocking public gesture was deciding not to wear stockings on stage in 1919 during a particularly hot New York summer night. Producer Lee Shubert begged her not to so affront “public decency,” but she did, receiving hisses, mostly from women.
Through the 1920s Bankhead was an ongoing hit in London. When stage veteran Mrs. Patrick Campbell (her actual billing) was asked the source of
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