Kiss Me, Kate: Oct. 16-25

Is it real or is it Shakespeare—or is it both? High-spirited singing, dancing and a classic Broadway-sized orchestra take you back to a 1948 theatre stage, where couples behave badly but love conquers all in Cole Porter’s most applauded musical comedy, Kiss Me, Kate. 

The HSU production of  Kiss Me, Kate is performed in the Van Duzer Theatre on Friday and Saturday October 16 and 17 at 7:30 p.m., and Thursday through Saturday Oct. 22-24 at 7:30 with one matinee on Sunday Oct. 25 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15, $10 seniors, students and children from the HSU Box Office (826-3928.) Kiss Me, Kate is a co-production of the HSU Music department and the HSU Theatre, Film & Dance department. More information in the posts below, and at HSU Stage & Screen.

Advance Media: Mad River Union (photo & story), Humboldt State Now (photo& story), Lumberjack (photo & story), Times-Standard Urge (photo & calendar), North Coast Journal (calendar.)

“It’s a big musical the way big musicals used to be,” said director Susan Abbey. “It’s not the spectacle-based musical of today—it’s driven by a great story that’s fun and funny, celebrating the magic of theatre and the power of love.”

Adding excitement for audiences is an orchestra of 20 community and HSU musicians, playing the original arrangements as they were performed on Broadway—an increasingly rare event. Though this music was meant for a full orchestra, “often it’s watered down to a combo or a few synthesizers and a drum machine,” said Paul Cummings, musical co-director and conductor of the orchestra.

Lilli (played by Anna Duchi) is a fading and angry movie star, Fred (Gino Bloomberg) is her recent ex-husband, an egotistical actor-producer with a roving eye. 

From Shakespeae's sunny Padua to the Baltimore backstage of a 1948 production of The Taming of the Shrew (Modernized), they are fuming and fighting-- as are the characters they play (Kate and Petruchio)-- and it gets harder for everybody to tell the difference.

Plot twists involve Shrew actors Lois (Tossa Hayward) and Bill (Christopher Moreno), Lilli's new beau General Howell (Matthew Atkins), and a couple of sometimes comic gangsters (Ivan Gamboa and Mickey Thompson.) Many songs and dances ensue while lessons are learned so that true love can triumph.

The original Kiss Me, Kate opened in 1948 and won multiple Tony Awards including Best Musical while setting box office records. It is generally considered to be the best musical of Cole Porter’s long and legendary career.

 “People know these Cole Porter tunes,” said musical director Elisabeth Harrington, “even if they don’t know they are from this show.”

Kiss Me, Kate: Our Cast and Production

Our Cast

Lilli/Kate: Anna Duchi
Fred/Petriuchio: Gino Bloomberg
Lois/Bianca: Tossa Hayward
 Bill/Lucentio: Christopher Moreno
 General Harrison Howell: Matthew Atkins
 Gangsters: Ivan Gamboa, Mickey Thompson
Harry/Baptista: Bob Service
Sadie/Priest: Janet Waddell

 The following members of the cast play multiple roles and/or are members of the Company: Makenna Baker, Joshua Banuelos, Justine Bivans, Camille Borrowdale, Ambar Cuevas, Tyler Ewell, William English III, Ethan Frank, Erin Henry, Christopher Joe, Stephanie Lemon, Magdelinda Leyra-Garcia, Luz Meja, John Pettion, Fuafiva Pulu, Carolina Rios, Elio Robles, Samantha Kolby, Noah Sims, Ayanna Wilson, Jonathan Wisan, Britney Wright.

Our Production

 Director: Susan Abbey
Musical Directors: Elisabeth Harrington, Paul Cummings
 Choreographer and Dance Director: Sharon Butcher
Scenographer/Scenic Designer: Derek Lane
Lighting Designer: Santiago Menjiver
 Costume Design: Alexander Sterns, Izzy Ceja, Veronica Brooks
 Props Designer: Brynn Allen
 Stage Manager: Heidi Voelker
Asst. Director: Chelly Purnell
Asst. Music Director: Jessie Rawson
 Asst. Orchestra: Starsong Brittain
 Asst. Scenic Designer: Maggie Luc
Asst. Stage Manager: Sarina Rodriguez

Publicity photos by Kellie Brown
Publicity/site text & design by Bill Kowinski

Kiss Me, Kate: The Voices

Anna Duchi as Lilli Vanessi

Kiss Me, Kate is often called a classic musical comedy. It’s from the American musical’s golden age, and it has stood the test of time in entertaining audiences and thrilling them with its songs. But in terms of the music itself, it also means a closer relationship to classical forms.

 “This is classic musical theatre,” said Elisabeth Harrington, musical co-director of the HSU production. “Voices are used in their full range—vocally and emotionally. There’s a lot of sustained singing and high singing. There are classical demands that today’s students may not be used to, so it’s a continuing challenge.”

 “At the same time, our students are totally digging the upbeat quality of the music, the jazz chords, the sexiness of songs like ‘Too Darn Hot.’ They love the comedy. They’re enjoying all the colors in Cole Porter that make his songs so unique. It helps them understand and embrace the difficulty of the vocal techniques involved, and that’s really neat to see.”

 The two leads—Anna Duchi as Lilli and Shakespeare’s Kate, Gino Bloomberg as Fred and Petruchio—are experienced singers as well as actors. “Anna Duchi has sung in the Mad River Transit jazz choir. She comes from a musical theatre family—her mother owns and operates a musical theatre in the Bay Area, so she has grown up with all kinds of music. Gino Bloomberg has been in tons of musical theatre locally. He’s studied voice for a long time, he’s grown up doing that.”

 But the show also features a fair amount of ensemble singing, which includes those who are primarily actors or dancers. “When I saw the scope of this—it’s a ton of music and it’s hard—I decided to approach this in a different way than I had before. I started with the whole group together learning the ensemble songs, rather than with the leads. Sometimes it’s a stretch for them but they’re really embracing it.”

 For some this includes joining voice classes. Nine members of the cast took private lessons from Harrington.

 Apart from operatic high notes, there are tempo changes, “tricky harmonies that are very tight, with syncopated rhythms,” and those famous Cole Porter lyrics, which include words and phrases in German and Italian.

 But experiencing the artistry of it is part of the excitement, for singers and the audience. “The songs are expertly crafted, and that shows through, regardless of the singers’ level of experience. That will be great for audiences, too, because they’re going to recognize the skill of the material itself.”

 “People know these tunes—even if they don’t know they are from this show. They’re going to love the production—the students are coming at it with such energy and enthusiasm.”

 “I’ve never actually been involved in a production of Kiss Me, Kate before," Harrington said. "I’ve sung songs from it and taught songs from it, but never got to go through every bar of music. It’s a real joy to be able to do it. It’s a beautiful score.”

Kiss Me, Kate: The Orchestra

Two nights before the first ever public performance of Kiss Me, Kate, the company had a complete run-through of the show, including songs and dances, but without costumes, scenery or the orchestra. The music was played by a rehearsal pianist.

 The show’s producers had several notables observing from the darkened auditorium, in order to get their reactions. Eminent playwright and director Moss Hart thought it was a disaster. So did eminent choreographer Agnes de Mille. So did others.  The cast knew nothing of this, but nevertheless some also had their doubts about the show.

 The first performances were in Philadelphia, a tryout before Broadway. From the first night, the show was a major hit with critics and audiences. After being held over for three weeks in Philadelphia, the same response was repeated on Broadway: immediate success, and eventually one of the longest running shows in Broadway history to that point.

 What was the difference? Writes Cole Porter biographer William McBrien, quoting the female lead of the show, “Pat Morison recalled that only in Philadelphia, when the cast heard the orchestrations of Robert Russell Bennett for the first time, did they realize what a brilliant show Kate was.”

Robert Russell Bennett

 “We’re going to fill up that pit in the Van Duzer Theatre with players,” said Paul Cummings, Kiss Me Kate musical co-director for the HSU production, and its orchestra conductor. “We’re using the original full Broadway orchestration. The show was revised in 1999 and it’s difficult to know just what changes were made. But by and large I think we’re dealing with the 1948 orchestration by Robert Russell Bennett.”

 “Bennett did most of the major Broadway orchestrations from 1945 to 1965. He was the go-to guy, an absolutely brilliant orchestrator.”

 “ Bennett often doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his creative contribution because he’s listed as an arranger or orchestrator. But a Broadway orchestrator was more than a guy who transcribed notes to instruments—he actually did some composing. In fact he is responsible more than anyone else for the sounds that live in our memory from many famous Broadway shows in that 20 year period, including Kiss Me, Kate.”

 “It’s very difficult music. There are many uptempo dance numbers with the notes just flying across the page. There’s lots of great lyricism in this score, lots of great tunes. The ballads are beautiful, lovely vehicles for the lead singers.”

 Twenty community and HSU student players will be in the pit, but the range of instruments will be even greater than that number. “Not only is the music freakishly difficult, many will be playing it on five or six different instruments. So as soon as you’ve finished 25 measures on tenor sax, you switch to an English horn, then to an oboe, and then to a soprano saxophone.”

“So it’s very challenging, but we’re happy to be doing the original orchestration. Often these shows are watered down to a combo or a few synthesizers and a drum machine. If you go to a New York show now you’re likely to see four or five instruments in the pit, two of which are synthesizers, one a drum machine and maybe a bass and guitar. You’re not likely to see any woodwind or brass instruments.”

 “That probably is an economic issue more than anything, but in a university setting we do try to do things as the original calls for. It’s especially rewarding to be doing Bennett’s original orchestration because it’s great writing. It fits the instruments, and players can tell.”

 “So nobody whines or complains, or says why am I switching to oboe when this could have been done on clarinet. The music fits the instrument it is written for. That’s true in his own compositions as well. He has total command of what each instrument is capable of. That’s the genius of Robert Russell Bennett.”

Kiss Me, Kate: The Composer

“In a way no other songs of the period quite did,” wrote journalist Walter Clemons, “Porter’s created a world.”

 But the man who personified continental elegance and Manhattan sophistication grew up in a small Indiana town on the banks of the Wabash River. Its only distinguishing feature was as the winter home for a circus, and it was watching circus acts rehearse for the next season that young Cole got his first taste of show business.

 His maternal grandfather made a fortune, starting with a dry goods business supplying miners during the California Gold Rush. His mother, Katie Cole, was born in Brandy City in Sierra County, now a ghost town.

His grandfather was determined that Cole would be a businessman, but his mother supported his artistic expressions. Cole went to Yale where he wrote over 100 songs and was the center of most musical and theatrical activity. His grandfather insisted he go on to law school, but after Porter’s disastrous first semester, the Dean of the Harvard law school himself suggested Cole pursue songwriting, and sent him over to the Harvard School of Music.

 He continued his musical studies in Paris, where he met and married another American, Linda Lee (a descendant of Robert E. Lee.) Though Cole Porter was actively gay and this marriage was in part a cover in an intolerant time, he and Linda remained devoted to each other until her death. He relied on her judgment for every song. Said Saint Subber, producer of Kiss Me, Kate, “Linda was the air that made his sails move.”

 They were in Paris in the 1920s, among notable American expatriates in the unique artistic ferment of this time and place. One summer the Porters rented a seaside chateau at Cap d’Antibes, an unheard of place to spend the hot months.

 They invited Porter’s Yale friend Gerald Murphy and his wife to join them for two weeks. The Murphys loved the area, and returned for many summers afterwards, bringing with them such friends as Picasso, Stravinsky, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and Eric Satie. The Murphys (celebrated in Calvin Tomkins’ book, Living Well Is The Best Revenge) essentially created the Riviera. But Cole Porter had discovered it.

 In 1923 Murphy and Porter collaborated on an American ballet to be performed as a curtain-raiser for La Creation du Monde, a ballet by French composer Darius Milhaud. Porter wrote the score, a “witty parody of the piano music played in silent-movie theaters” (according to Calvin Tomkins) while Murphy wrote the story and painted “a striking backdrop, which was a parody of the Hearst newspapers of the day.”

 Murphy also helped Porter’s musical education. He arranged with Jimmy Durante’s drummer to send him the latest American jazz records every month, and he knew and sang still obscure American folk songs and spirituals.

Murphys and Coles Venice 1923

 Throughout his life Porter loved to travel around the world. He absorbed the local music wherever he went, and made use of it in his songs. In this era, if you wanted the world’s music, you mostly had to go and find it.

 Porter’s ballet score and his songs for various theatrical events won the enthusiasm of the artistic community and wealthy sophisticates in Paris and New York, but they were not mainstream enough for Broadway in the 1920s.

 Then popular tastes caught up to him in a big way in the 30s. He got his first Broadway revues thanks to recommendations by Irving Berlin, and a string of hit shows followed, notably the enduring classic Anything Goes.

 He transitioned to Hollywood with the star of one of his Broadway shows, Fred Astaire. Porter alternated between Broadway and Hollywood, often doing one show and one movie a year. His movie work continued into the 1950s.

A performer friend described him as “kind, gentle, very elegant.” A journalist called him “The Indiana lad with the Buddha gaze.” He lived in luxury in a huge apartment in Manhattan’s Waldorf Towers with his two cats, Anything and Goes.

 But in the mid 1940s he’d hit a dry spell. Though it had been nearly 10 years since a riding accident crushed his legs, he was still in near constant pain. He saw that musical theatre was changing, and he wondered if he could change with it.

 Then he was presented with an idea for a Broadway musical based on, of all things, a play by Shakespeare. Kiss Me, Kate became his biggest hit and as a complete show, his most enduring success.

Kiss Me, Kate: The Songs

“People know these Cole Porter tunes,” said Elisabeth Harrington, music director of the HSU production of Kiss Me, Kate, “even if they don’t know they are from this show.”

 Songs from this show like “Another Op’nin', Another Show,” “From This Moment On,” “Too Darn Hot” and others have had lives of their own, but one notable feature of Cole Porter tunes is that they nearly all were introduced in Broadway shows or Hollywood movies, sung by Fred Astaire, Ethel Merman, Jimmy Durante, Mary Martin, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly, among others.

 But these tunes (including “Don’t Fence Me In,” “I Love Paris,” “Night and Day,” “My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and “True Love” as well as “Night and Day,” “Begin the Beguine,” “Let’s Do It,” “Anything Goes” and “You’re the Top”) were kept alive through recording and reinterpretations by several generations of singers: from Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald through Elvis Presley, George Harrison, Natalie Cole, Elton John, Carly Simon and Celine Dion to U2, Annie Lennox, Elvis Costello, K.D. Laing, Alanis Morisette, Sheryl Crow and Diana Krall. Lady Gaga has recorded several Porter songs, and calls him one of her favorite composers.

 Another notable feature of Cole Porter’s songs was that he wrote both lyrics and music. Along with Irving Berlin (Porter’s lifelong friend and supporter, who got him his first Broadway assignments), Cole Porter is exceptional among songwriters of his era in this regard.

 So while his lyrics are legendary, his music is strong enough to be recorded on its own, by big bands and jazz instrumentalists including Artie Shaw (who plucked “Begin the Beguine” out of a forgotten show and made it famous), Benny Goodman, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley and Charlie Parker.

 Though Porter wrote songs or parts of songs and kept them “in the drawer” for possible future use, he tended to write pretty much to order for specific shows. This was especially true for Kiss Me, Kate, since it was his first show to integrate the songs so completely with the story.

He could write quickly, as the four day weekend when he wrote three of the songs in this show, including “Another Op’nin’, Another Show.” But there was some trial and error involved.

 When the choreographer complained about one particular song, he dropped it and substituted “Too Darn Hot,” which the choreographer immediately loved because he could see it as a dance. Harold Lang, who played Bill/Lucentio in the original production, complained that his part wasn’t big enough and he didn’t even have a song. Porter wrote “Bianca” for him, pretty much on the spot, with cast members shouting out rhymes for "Bianca."

 Cole Porter wrote 23 to 25 songs for the show. Some were cut in rehearsals, but 17 remained. Kiss Me, Kate was so successful in its Philadelphia tryouts that no further songs were cut. In fact, a couple of choruses of “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” that had been dropped were added back.

Ann Miller in 1953 movie version

It was common for songwriters to lift songs from other shows (especially those that didn’t do so well) but Kiss Me, Kate had a unique variation of this. The play itself had finished its run after two years, and a Hollywood film version was being prepared. At the same time, Porter had written songs for another Broadway show that had personnel problems, with the director being replaced. The new director threw out one of Porter’s songs, so it was never heard.

 But when the Kiss Me, Kate film producers asked Porter for another song, he gave them this rejected one. It was “From This Moment On,” now one of Porter’s all-time classics. This song was then included in the 1999 Broadway stage revival, and it’s been in Kiss Me, Kate ever since.

 Cole Porter and Shakespeare

Two of the songs in Kiss Me, Kate include lyrics by Shakespeare as well as Cole Porter: "I’ve Come to Wive It Wealthily in Padua” and “I Am Ashamed Women Are So Simple.” And despite the show’s title—Kiss Me, Kate—sounding like a snappy modernization, Petruchio actually speaks those words several times in The Taming of the Shrew.

 Even though Porter had his doubts that a musical built around a Shakespeare play would attract Broadway theatregoers (something that potential backers also doubted), he seems to have found a kindred spirit in one aspect of the Bard’s comic writing: his use of wordplay, especially double entendres with sexual innuendo.

 Cole Porter was a past master of this himself, and it’s evident in this show in “Too Darn Hot” and “Always True to You in My Fashion,” for example. But Porter made the connection explicit in “Brush Up Your Shakespeare,” when he playfully turned titles of Shakespeare’s plays into sexual banter.

 More Lore 

There are stories about many of the songs, and they may even be true.

 “Wunderbar”: When Kiss Me, Kate was in early stages of preparation, the leading candidate to play the lead role of Lilli/Kate was opera star Jarmila Novotna. She was a social friend of Porter’s and one evening she brought a pianist with her to his apartment, who specialized in playing Viennese waltzes. When he finished she kept crying “Wunderbar! Wunderbar!” (“Wonderful!") The song by that title in the show is also a waltz.

“I Hate Men”: Several cast members told Patricia Morison, who ended up playing Lilli/Kate (see Kiss Me, Kate Meets Cinderella) that this song would embarrass her. It wasn’t going over in rehearsals. She mentioned her own misgivings to Porter, who remembered an operetta he’d seen in which the singer had emphasized a line by pounding his fist on a table. He suggested that she slam the metal tankard she was carrying. The effect worked so well that it was further emphasized by having her bang the tankard down on a couple of metal trays to make more noise. The song became a show-stopper.

 “Always True to You in My Fashion:” Cole Porter had that phrase of the title in his head but he couldn’t remember the source. The show’s writers, Bella and Sam Spewack, told him it was from a poem by Ernest Dowson, a late 19th century English poet who also contributed the phrase, “the days of wine and roses.” Porter’s song doesn’t bear much resemblance to this poem except for that repeated line of the title.

 “Brush Up Your Shakespeare:” Bella and Sam Spewack, who had worked with Porter before, were writing the script (“the book”) of Kiss Me, Kate. But at some point in creating this story about a couple having conflicts that bleed into the conflicts of the couple they are playing on stage, Bella and Sam themselves split up when Sam ran off with a ballerina.

 They’d split before, and would get back together again this time as well, but for awhile, Bella didn’t want to have anything to do with Sam. Sam’s major contribution to the story was the gangster subplot, and Bella was determined that it remain a small subplot, without a song involved.

 Unfortunately, Cole Porter came up with “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” for the two comic gangsters. When Bella recognized its quality—and guessed correctly that it would also be a show-stopper—she dropped her objections.

 “So In Love:” A song that Cole Porter said he’d intended for a movie musical, but was persuaded to use in Kiss Me, Kate. It was subsequently became a top 20 hit for Patti Page, Gordon McRae, Dinah Shore and Bing Crosby—all in the same year of 1949. More recently it’s been recorded by K.D. Laing.

 “We Shall Never Be Younger:” This song was one of those cut from Kiss Me, Kate (because, according to Porter biographer William McBrien, “it reduced the audience to tears,” presumably at the wrong time.) It never made it into another show, nor was it published in Porter’s lifetime. But it, too, has had a life since, included in Porter songbooks and recorded by Bobby Short.

Kiss Me, Kate Meets Cinderella

What would a hit musical be without a Cinderella story? In this case it wasn’t in the plot but in the original production.

Cole Porter often wrote songs with the vocal range of the actor/singer in mind. But he started writing for Kiss Me, Kate before all the roles were cast, especially the female lead, the characters of  Lilli and Kate.  In the early stages, opera star Jarmilla Novotna was the likely choice.  But eventually she couldn't commit to the show.

Cole Porter offered the role to another operatic singer and actor, Lily Pons, and considered yet another opera singer, Dorothy Kirsten.  Pons couldn't do it, and Kirsten wasn't interested.  So Porter found himself without a leading lady.

The show’s director suggested an unknown: Patricia Morison, not an opera singer or a professional singer of any kind.  She was a working movie actress in supporting roles, from B pictures (Queen of the Amazons) to a cut above that. She has the distinction of performing in the last film of three popular series: the Thin Man, the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan and the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes.

 Though she sang for soldiers on USO tours and at the Hollywood Canteen during World War II, she hadn’t sung a note in the movies. Cole Porter invited her to sing for him at his house in Hollywood. Her agent told her it wasn’t for any particular role, and she did it just for the contact and the experience. But according to Porter, as soon as she walked in he knew she was the one—if she could sing.

He accompanied her on piano, and discovered, yes, she could.

 After she’d taken lessons to strengthen her voice, worked on some of the show's songs and brushed up her Shakespeare, Porter was even more convinced. He believed that overnight she might become “a great new star.”

 But the producers were still considering other possibilities, and the writers had to be consulted. Unfortunately they were all in New York, and Patricia couldn’t afford the plane fare to go meet them. Then out of the blue she was invited to sing at a Bob Hope USO reunion concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The producers and writer Bella Sprewack were in the audience, and they all were enthusiastic.

Patricia Morison got the role as Lilli Vanessi. She was an immediate success. At the opening night party, after the rave reviews came in, she told everyone that she felt Cole Porter “has just lifted me out of my pumpkin coach.”

It was a Cinderella story for real. After 1,077 performances on Broadway, Patricia Morison starred in the London production for another 400 performances.

In the backstory she created for Lilli, Morison used her own life--disillusioned with Hollywood, seeking redemption through a hit stage play.

 Morison had another success in the original production of The King and I, both on Broadway and on its national tour. She subsequently sang in many touring musicals, and performed her starring role in Kiss Me, Kate many times, including in a television movie in 1964, onstage in Seattle in 1965 and for the last time, in Birmingham, England in 1978—30 years after her Broadway opening.

Patricia Morison turned 100 earlier this year, and is the last surviving member of the original cast of Kiss Me, Kate. She lives in southern California.

It's A Scream!  Young Frankenstein at HSU!

It’s alive! And it dances! Get ready for Halloween with the scary, sexy and very silly HSU production of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein: The Musical in Gist Hall Theatre Thursdays-Saturdays Oct. 17-19 and Oct. 24-26 at 7:30 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. (Oct. 19 & 20, 26 & 27.)

 Tickets are $15/$10 students and seniors, from HSU Ticket Office (707-826-3928.) Parental advisory for sexual humor and situations. A co-production of HSU Theatre, Film & Dance and HSU Music departments. Stage director: Rae Robison. Music director: Elisabeth Harrington.

Anna Duchi, Erik Standifird and Ashley Adams

It’s a man, his monster and the women who loved them—what could go wrong?

Based on the classic film comedy Young Frankenstein (but with more singing and dancing), it has all the movie characters: Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (“that’s Fronk-un-steen”) who is the original monster-maker's American grandson (played by Erik Standifird), his strange servant  Igor (Christopher Moreno), his teasing intended Elizabeth (Anna Duchi), lovely lab assistant Inga (Ashley Adams), the mysterious Frau Blucher (Sasha Shay), and the mechanically enhanced Inspector Kemp (Keith Brown.)  A chorus of Transylvania townspeople and other singers and dancers complete the ensemble.

  And of course there's the Monster, whose appearance and identity will be revealed only to the audience.  (Hint: it's a well-known local actor.)  WARNING: Contains visual and verbal juvenile adult humor.  It is by Mel Brooks, after all.

Because it's in Gist Hall Theatre, two Saturday matinees have been added to the usual schedule, to avoid the horror of not getting a seat.  There's more on the play and the movie at HSU Stage & Screen.  

Young Frankenstein Music by...Mel Brooks?

Mel Brooks, who directed and co-wrote the 1974 Young Frankenstein film, also co-wrote the book for this 2007 musical version, as well as the lyrics to the songs. No surprise there. But he also wrote the music.

 Even though Mel Brooks became famous as a comedian, comedy writer, film director and actor, he started his show business career as a musician. Taught to play drums by jazz drummer and band leader Buddy Rich, he began playing for money at the age of 14.

 After high school, some college and a stint in the Army in World War II, he played piano and drums for his first professional jobs in nightclubs and resorts in the Catskills. Then one night the regular comedian was too sick to perform, and Mel Brooks’ comedy career was born.

After years as a Catskills stand-up comic he became a writer for the classic Sid Caesar television shows, then paired with Carl Reiner in the famous 2000 Year Old Man routines, and began writing television situation comedies, like the spy spoof Get Smart. He also wrote the book for a Broadway musical.

 The first feature film he wrote and directed was The Producers, about Broadway producers scheming to make money on a musical guaranteed to fail. The movie was only a modest financial success in 1968. Brooks didn’t have a real hit until Blazing Saddles in 1974. He co-wrote the music for that film with John Morris, including a lavish Busby Berkeley-style musical number.

 Throughout his career Brooks wrote songs for many of his movies and television shows (including “Springtime for Hitler” in The Producers.) One notable exception was Young Frankenstein—with music by John Morris, and the only real song by Irving Berlin—“Puttin’ on the Ritz.”  (And yes--it's in the musical, too.)

 Then in 2001 the musical version of The Producers arrived on Broadway, with music composed by Mel Brooks. Brooks had reputedly approached composer Jerry Herman to write the music, but Herman told him to do it himself because he was a good songwriter. As composer, Brooks won one of the record-breaking 12 Tony awards given to The Producers.  His next project became the musical version of Young Frankenstein.

In explaining his musical approach to this stage play, Brooks recalled the first Broadway musical he saw. He was 9 years old when an uncle got free tickets to Cole Porter’s Anything Goes in 1934, starring Ethel Merman.

 Cole Porter and the team of Rodgers and Hart, he explained to an interviewer, wrote musical comedy. But when Rodgers teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein, they wrote what he called “musical drama.” “ Carousel, Oklahoma, South Pacific, and so on—they were musical drama, not musical comedy.”

 Brooks said his approach was to return to the musical comedy era for The Producers musical, which was a huge hit on Broadway and beyond. “There was obviously a hunger for old-fashioned musical comedy. I went back to Anything Goes.” He said he took the same approach with Young Frankenstein. (Coincidentally, Eric Standifird, who plays Frankenstein in the HSU production, had his first lead role in last year’s North Coast Repertory Theatre production of Anything Goes.)

 Brooks approach in The Producers also included quoting and parodying the styles and even actual songs of earlier Broadway musicals. This tendency continues in the music for Young Frankenstein.

Young Frankenstein's Musical Challenge

Young Frankenstein will be accompanied by a live band conducted by HSU Music professor Paul Cummings. He notes that the challenges are a little different than in recent musicals at HSU.

 “This musical has apparently not been done very much since its Broadway run, so we don’t have a lot to go on,” Cummings said, after the first band rehearsal. “There is the Broadway cast recording, but it’s with a full orchestra, and we’re doing a band version.”

 The band that will play in Gist Hall Theatre consists of piano, drums, a violin and bass, and wind instruments for a total of 10. “One challenge will be to not overpower the singers, since wind instruments are so much louder than strings.”

 Cummings describes the music as “upbeat and lively, with some lyrical passages. There’s some 1920s, 1930s style, a little ragtime and early jazz feel.”

 Mel Brooks’ music for The Producers included parodies and sly references of songs and arrangements from well-known musicals, and Cummings agrees there’s some of that in Young Frankenstein. “It’s got a lot of familiar musical mannerisms, which seem intentional. It’s definitely a retro style.”

Find the magic in Brigadoon, Lerner & Loewe's musical romance: Final Weekend Thursday through Saturday, October 20-22 at 7: 30 p.m., Sundays Oct. 23 at 2 p.m. in the Van Duzer Theatre on HSU campus in Arcata.  Why, it's almost like being in love!  $17/$12 general, $12/$10 students & seniors from HSU Box Office (826-3928.) Produced by HSU Departments of Music and Theatre, Film & Dance.

Media Previews: Humboldt State Now, The Lumberjack, Tri-City Weekly, Arcata Eye, North Coast Journal, Humboldt Beacon, Stage Matters.

Leaving the cynical city (and its cynical musicals) behind, two men from New York drift out of cell phone range into the Scottish highlands, where they discover an enchanted village that lives only for a day every 100 years, called Brigadoon. There they find new love and a different way to live. But can the magic last, and if it’s lost, can it be found again?

Brigadoon was the first big hit for the legendary team of lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe, a partnership that later produced My Fair Lady and Camelot.

The music is classic, and the details of the story has been updated to better reflect the original contrast between the values of modern life and an alternative and perhaps better life and community. “We want to show how it connects to young people today, with the pressures they feel,” said co-director Bernadette Cheyne. “We want the audience to feel that this is about them.”

Brigadoon at HSU is co-directed by Bernadette Cheyne and Richard Woods, with musical direction by Elisabeth Harrington. It features a full orchestra playing the lush score that captures the spirit of Scotland, conducted by Paul Cummings. Jeff O’Connor is the choreographer.

The cast features Miles Raymer as Tommy Albright, a troubled young man from 2011 Manhattan, and Brandy Rose as Fiona MacLaren, the woman who wins his heart in Brigadoon. Philip de Roulet plays Charlie, and Jessi Shieman plays Jean, the Brigadoon couple about to be married as the play begins. Camille Morgan plays the playful Meg, Michael Thomas is Jeff, and Fran Wittman is Lundie. (The complete cast and other details of the production can be found at HSU Stage & Screen.)

BRIGADOON: The Golden Age

Every two years the HSU Department of Theatre, Film & Dance and the HSU Department of Music collaborate on a big stage musical. Brigadoon is something of a departure from recent productions that were more contemporary in theme and style. A Broadway hit in 1947 and revived many times since, Brigadoon is considered a classic of the Golden Age of American musical theatre, usually designated as the 1940s to the 1960s—with Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot among the last of the Golden Age shows.

The Golden Age musical presented differently crafted songs in a different way than more recent musicals. The songs are tuneful and self-contained, designed to helplessly stay in the heads of hearers. This show has many, such as “From This Day On,” “Heather on the Hill,” “There But For You Go I,” “Come to Me, Bend to Me,” “Waiting for My Dearie,” the comic “The Love of My Life,” and the classic “Almost Like Being in Love.”

But these songs still embodied dramatic meaning in the play itself. That includes Brigadoon’s best known song. Solo artists from Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland and Nat King Cole to Natalie Cole and James Taylor have recorded “Almost Like Being in Love.” But in the play it is a duet between Tommy (the contemporary New Yorker) and Fiona (the Brigadoon woman.)  It not only advances the dramatic plot--it is a drama in itself.

The song begins with each of them alternating lines. Musical director Elisabeth Harrington describes what’s going on: "Tommy begins with a modern upbeat tempo: ‘What a day this has been/What a rare mood I’m in/ why, it’s almost like being in love,’ and then Fiona slows it down with her Scottish accent, and they trade lines back and forth until they’re singing in harmony. So these two styles of two cultures are blending together, as well as expressing two people falling in love.”

Brigadoon today is one of the lesser known and most highly rated of the Golden Age musicals. Even at the time, Brigadoon was praised (by the New York Drama Critics Circle) for its “altogether original and inventive blending of words, music and dance,” its “thoughtful beauty” that is “the lyric theatre at its best.”

But Brigadoon is not a musical comedy, its original director insists. “This was a play with music,” said Robert Lewis. “It was a play with beautiful music and an interesting story and interesting characters.”

“From forty years hindsight,” said scholar Miles Kreuger in 1992, “this is a show that very classically represents the transition in the development of the musical comedy into the era of the musical play.”

Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner

top photo: Miles Raymer as Tommy, Brandy Rose as Fiona

BRIGADOON: The Music

“The music is beautiful, and so well crafted," said Elisabeth Harrington, Music Director for Brigadoon at HSU. "The vocal music is rich with upbeat Scottish-sounding themes evoking jigs and reels, as well as flowing ballads expressing effusive sentiments of love. There are a lot of references to place, like fragrant heather and the mist. There are so many catchy tunes and memorable songs, including the most famous, “Almost Like Being in Love.”

”The music itself is a major character because it’s used as an emotional anchor throughout the show. Songs become repeated themes for emotions and settings. One of the most memorable themes is that of the title, "Brigadoon," which begins with a simple 1-3-5 progression. This is heard multiple times throughout the score, and sung three times with the full choral ensemble. The tune is hauntingly beautiful, and will most likely remain in the audience’s ears as they leave the show.”

BRIGADOON: Ensemble Singing

Frederick Loewe was not only a composer—he was also a skillful vocal arranger. So it isn’t surprising that Brigadoon is full of intricate ensemble singing as well as famous solos and duets. For the HSU production, Elisabeth Harrington is not only the musical director but the vocal coach. She comments here on that aspect of the show.

“The vocal style is incredibly rangy—there's everything from unison to six and seven part harmonies. It was written at a time when voices were expected to cover a really solid two octave range, and to sing in close, tight harmony and be really precise. The singing demands are big. But the music is gorgeous.”

“The vocal ensemble music is quite extensive, and often the unison singing and lush harmonies are heard in the same song, such as in "Down on MacConnachy Square," and "Jeannie's Packin' Up." In general, the style of singing can be described as "classical" music theater, implying beautifully shaped phrases and a clear, open vocal tone throughout an extensive range for each voice type. One challenge for the singers has been trying to maintain that open tone while bringing in elements of the Scottish dialect, which features some more closed-mouth vowel shapes.”

The mix of available singers required some additional adjustments. “The score assumes you have an even number of male and female singers for the chorus, but we have more female than male. So we’ve had to move some of the women down to tenor who would have been singing alto, at least in certain places. It gets tricky in the more intricate harmonies, when the women are in two parts and the men in four parts.”

 “I’ve singled out a small ensemble of twelve singers who are able to do these tricky things, particularly the a cappella harmonies. But the richness of this music gives all the participants the opportunity to be part of a group that sings in beautiful harmony, and that’s been a joy to watch and see blossom.”


top photo: Camille Morgan as Meg