| re: Gypsy was a musical fable (just temporarily) | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 01:26 am EST 11/26/24 | |
| In reply to: Gypsy is a musical fable. - dramedy 10:39 am EST 11/25/24 | |
|
|
|
| When Gypsy opened in Philadelphia, the playbill and the advertising and the sheet music all said, "a musical fable." It was gone from the playbill and the souvenir program by the time the show opened on Broadway. Under the title, it said, "a new musical," not "a musical fable." “A musical fable" was on the cast recording since the jacket was almost certainly printed while the show was in Philadelphia, and it was on the sheet music (I think it's still there) because that was probably printed even before the first performance in Philly. In addition to it not being in the playbill or the souvenir program when the show opened on Broadway, when the script was published, it just said, "A musical." When TCG published a slightly revised version in 1994, again it was just “A musical.” If the authors wanted "a musical fable," it would have been there. On the first national tour, it was “a new musical.” For some reason, on the second national tour (which seems to have been a bit shabby) it was “The Musical Fable.” That tour was not produced by Merrick and Hayward. The Lansbury production did use the description “A Musical Fable,” but none of the Broadway revivals since has done so, unless the current one is. Concord has that description on the site. But I am as sure as I can reasonably be that the authors didn’t want it. I think the folks at Concord are just ignorant. I am pretty sure that the only reason “a musical fable” was there in the beginning was because June Havoc was refusing to give permission to be portrayed onstage. The producers, who should have known better, had neglected to get a release from her. She was making various demands. So Merrick, who was a lawyer (and therefore he should have gotten a release from Havoc in the first place), said that Havoc couldn’t cause any trouble if they changed the name of the character. So when the show opened in Philly, June was Claire. I think this is also why they described it as “a musical fable.” This was said in one of the obituaries for Havoc, and Louise’s son, Erik Lee Preminger, said the same. Then Merrick, Hayward and the authors came to an agreement with Havoc (Sondheim thought she just wanted more money), and “a musical fable” was gone, but still there on the cast recording and sheet music for the reasons given above. Sorry to have written such a long post. I just wanted to lay out the history and the reasons rather than just saying that the authors do not seem to have intended for Gypsy to be described as "a musical fable." |
|
| reply | |
|
|
|
| Previous: | Gypsy is a musical fable. - dramedy 10:39 am EST 11/25/24 |
| Next: | re: Gypsy is a musical fable. - Billhaven 10:49 am EST 11/25/24 |
| Thread: | |
Time to render: 0.011570 seconds.