THE VISIT
2015 Original Broadway Production
Lyceum Theatre, New York, NY
Lyceum Theatre, New York, NY
First Preview
Opening Date Closing Date |
March 8, 2015
April 23, 2015 tba |
TOM KIRDAHY TOM SMEDES HUGH HAYES PETER STERN
JUDITH ANN ABRAMS HUNTER ARNOLD CARL DAIKELER
KEN DAVENPORT RICH AFFANATO GEBRIELLE PALITZ
in association with
WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL
present
CHITA RIVERA ROGER REES
in
Book by
TERRENCE McNALLY
Music by
JOHN KANDER |
Lyrics by
FRED EBB |
Based on the play by FRIEDRICH DÜRRENMATT
as adapted by MAURICE VALENCY
with
JASON DANIELEY MATTHEW DEMING DIANA DiMARZIO
DAVID GARRISON RICK HOLMES TOM NELIS AARON RAMEY
TIMOTHY SHEW MICHELLE VEINTIMILLA
Scenic Design by
SCOTT PASK |
Costume Design by
ANN HOULD-WARD |
Lighting Design by
JAPHY WEIDEMAN |
Sound Design by
DAN MOSES SCHREIER |
Hair & Wig Design by
PAUL HUNTLEY |
Music Direction & Arrangements by
DAVID LOUD |
Orchestrations by
LARRY HOCHMAN |
Music Coordinator
JOHN MONACO |
Production Stage Manager
LORI M. DOYLE |
Casting
CALLERI CASTING |
Choreographed by
GRACIELA DANIELE
Directed by
JOHN DOYLE
Synopsis
The legendary CHITA RIVERA is back on Broadway in her juiciest role
yet. She’s Claire Zachanassian, the world’s wealthiest woman, who
returns home to the man (ROGER REES) who captured her heart then
shattered her dreams. What she does next shocks the town, and makes for
the most thrilling new musical in years.
With a sizzling and soaring score by the Tony and Academy Award-winning songwriters JOHN KANDER and FRED EBB (Chicago, Cabaret), an edge-of-your-seat book by Tony Award® winner TERRENCE McNALLY (It’s Only a Play, Ragtime, Kiss of the Spider Woman), and brought to gripping life by the visionary Tony Award®-winning director JOHN DOYLE (Sweeney Todd, Company), this tale of the lengths one woman goes to win back lost love proves that revenge is the best revenge.
With a sizzling and soaring score by the Tony and Academy Award-winning songwriters JOHN KANDER and FRED EBB (Chicago, Cabaret), an edge-of-your-seat book by Tony Award® winner TERRENCE McNALLY (It’s Only a Play, Ragtime, Kiss of the Spider Woman), and brought to gripping life by the visionary Tony Award®-winning director JOHN DOYLE (Sweeney Todd, Company), this tale of the lengths one woman goes to win back lost love proves that revenge is the best revenge.
Cast
in order of appearance
Jacques
Bibi Schoolboys Ensemble Suzanne Philippe Louis Felice Grandpère Laurie |
MICHAEL MINARIK
JACE CASEY WILLIAM BEACH RAFAEL HERNANDEZ-ROULET JORDAN MORAL MATTHEW NEE JORDAN SILVER KATE ARNOLD EMILY LEVEY LAUREN WILLIAMS RACHEL ZAMPELLI TRACY LYNN OLIVERA GEORGE DVORSKI ROB McQUAY AMY McWILLIAMS DAVID MARGULIES CARRIE A. JOHNSON |
Understudies
Understudy for Jacques
Understudy for Laurie Understudy for Louis and Philippe Understudy for Felice Understudy for Bibi Understudies for Schoolboys Female Swing |
THOMAS HUNTER
EMILY LEVEY PATRICK McMAHAN KATIEMcMANUS JORDAN SILVER ALISTAIR FAGHANI KEVIN FRASER ADIN WALKER SEAN WATKINSON KATHRYN T. KEYSER |
Musical Numbers
ACT I
PROLOGUE Orchestra OUT OF THE DARKNESS Townspeople, Family AT LAST Townspeople, Family I WALK AWAY Claire and Entourage I KNOW CLAIRE Anton A HAPPY ENDING Family, Townspeople YOU, YOU, YOU Anton and Claire I MUST HAVE BEEN SOMETHING Anton LOOK AT ME Full Company A MASQUE Family, Townspeople EUNUCH'S TESTIMONY Eunuchs, Rudi WINTER Claire YELLOW SHOES Towsnpeople, Family |
ACT II
A CONFESSION Claire and Entourage I WOULD NEVER LEAVE YOU Claire and Entourage BACK AND FORTH Matilde, Ottilie, Karl THE ONLY ONE Schoolmaster FEAR Anton A CAR RIDE Anton and Family LOVE AND LOVE ALONE Claire and Young Claire IN THE FOREST AGAIN Anton and Claire FINALE Townspeople |
* not featured in the Original Broadway Production
The Music
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Cut songs
and additional musical numbers
Kander & Ebb wrote a number of songs for THE ACT that were either cut from the show or not used at all. Most of these songs can be found on the Composers' Demo Recording of the show performed by Kander & Ebb themselves (see Recordings).
Two songs that were originally used in other projects - namely "Isn't This Better?" (from the movie FUNNY LADY) and "There Goes The Ball Game" (from the movie NEW YORK, NEW YORK) - were at one point considered to be part of the score for THE ACT but then cut again prior to opening.
Another song, "Hollywood, California", was still part of the score when the show opened on Broadway but then got cut after opening night and is thus also omitted from the Original Broadway Cast Recording.
Two songs that were originally used in other projects - namely "Isn't This Better?" (from the movie FUNNY LADY) and "There Goes The Ball Game" (from the movie NEW YORK, NEW YORK) - were at one point considered to be part of the score for THE ACT but then cut again prior to opening.
Another song, "Hollywood, California", was still part of the score when the show opened on Broadway but then got cut after opening night and is thus also omitted from the Original Broadway Cast Recording.
ALLEZ-OOP
(cut)
BEING ALIVE
(dropped after opening)
GETTING YOUNGER EVERY DAY / YEAR
(cut)
2. Studio Demo, Ampco Music AM-101 (unidentified singer)
THE HAPPY TIME (Reprise)
1. Composer Demo, Dick Charles 8267 (John Kander and Fred Ebb)
2. Studio Demo, Ampco Music AM-101 (unidentified singer)
3. John Gary On Broadway, RCA Victor (S) LSP-3928 (John Gary with orchestra conducted by Dick Grove)
IF YOU LEAVE ME NOW
(unused)
1. Composer Demo, Dick Charles 8267 (John Kander and Fred Ebb)
2. Something Special, RCA (S) LSP-3870 (Kate Smith)
3. Lost In Boston, CD/Varese Sarabande VSD-5475 (Michael Rupert with musical direction by James Stenborg)
IN HIS OWN GOOD TIME
(cut; reinstated in 1975 Burt Wheeler Theatre and 1980 Goodspeed Opera House revivals)
BALLET *
I WON'T GO *
(cut; reinstated in 1975 Burt Wheeler Theatre and 1980 Goodspeed Opera House revivals)
I'M SORRY *
(cut; reinstated in 1975 Burt Wheeler Theatre and 1980 Goodspeed Opera House revivals)
JEANNE-MARIE *
(cut; reinstated in 1975 Burt Wheeler Theatre and 1980 Goodspeed Opera House revivals)
RUNNING *
(cut; reinstated in 1975 Burt Wheeler Theatre and 1980 Goodspeed Opera House revivals)
* unrecorded songs
(cut)
BEING ALIVE
(dropped after opening)
GETTING YOUNGER EVERY DAY / YEAR
(cut)
2. Studio Demo, Ampco Music AM-101 (unidentified singer)
THE HAPPY TIME (Reprise)
1. Composer Demo, Dick Charles 8267 (John Kander and Fred Ebb)
2. Studio Demo, Ampco Music AM-101 (unidentified singer)
3. John Gary On Broadway, RCA Victor (S) LSP-3928 (John Gary with orchestra conducted by Dick Grove)
IF YOU LEAVE ME NOW
(unused)
1. Composer Demo, Dick Charles 8267 (John Kander and Fred Ebb)
2. Something Special, RCA (S) LSP-3870 (Kate Smith)
3. Lost In Boston, CD/Varese Sarabande VSD-5475 (Michael Rupert with musical direction by James Stenborg)
IN HIS OWN GOOD TIME
(cut; reinstated in 1975 Burt Wheeler Theatre and 1980 Goodspeed Opera House revivals)
BALLET *
I WON'T GO *
(cut; reinstated in 1975 Burt Wheeler Theatre and 1980 Goodspeed Opera House revivals)
I'M SORRY *
(cut; reinstated in 1975 Burt Wheeler Theatre and 1980 Goodspeed Opera House revivals)
JEANNE-MARIE *
(cut; reinstated in 1975 Burt Wheeler Theatre and 1980 Goodspeed Opera House revivals)
RUNNING *
(cut; reinstated in 1975 Burt Wheeler Theatre and 1980 Goodspeed Opera House revivals)
* unrecorded songs
Recordings
An original cast album was released by RCA Victor Broadway in 1968. The LP includes all of the songs from the score (with the exception of "The Happy Time (Reprise)", the second Act "Ballet" and "Being Alive" which was cut after opening) performed by the original Broadway cast.
THE ACT
Original Broadway Cast Recording 01. Shine It On (performed by Liza Minnelli & the ensemble) 02. It's The Strangest Thing (performed by Liza Minnelli) 03. Bobo's (performed by Liza Minnelli) 04. Turning (performed by Liza Minnelli & the ensemble) 05. Little Do They Know (performed by Liza Minnelli & the ensemble) 06. Arthur In The Afternoon (performed by Liza Minnelli & the ensemble) 07. The Money Tree (performed by Liza Minnelli) 08. City Lights 09. There When I Need Him 10. Hot Enough For You? 11. Little Do They Know (Reprise) 12. My Own Space 13. Walking Papers |
Some songs were slightly edited for the recording, eliminating all dialogue and being trimmed down to a more classical song form.
Also, the song order was slightly different from the performance where "My Own Space" was performed as a kind of faux encore, following the finale ("Walking Papers").
The Original Broadway cast recording was released by RCA Victor Broadway in January 1968 and the CD was released on March 10, 1992.
John Kander himself is featured on the recording, playing the piano in "My Own Space".
Also, the song order was slightly different from the performance where "My Own Space" was performed as a kind of faux encore, following the finale ("Walking Papers").
The Original Broadway cast recording was released by RCA Victor Broadway in January 1968 and the CD was released on March 10, 1992.
John Kander himself is featured on the recording, playing the piano in "My Own Space".
For detailed information on the cast album click here
Photos
Director Michael Unger with members of the cast, composer John Kander and special guests
Photos: Michael Unger © 2008
Photos: Michael Unger © 2008
Additional Recordings
As with most of their shows, Kander & Ebb recorded demo versions of the score before the show went into production. This Demo Recording includes most of the numbers that were later cut from or not used in the show. All songs on this recording are performed by Fred Ebb (vocals) and John Kander (piano and additional vocals).
THE HAPPY TIME
Composer Demo (1967) 01. The Happy Time 02. He's Back 03. Allez-Oop * 04. Tomorrow Morning 05. Please Stay 06. I Don't Remember You / St. Pierre 07. Without Me 08. In His Own Good Time * 09. End of Act I 10. Among My Yesterdays 11. Getting Younger Every Year * 12. If You Leave Me Now * 13. A Certain Girl 14. Being Alive/Finale * cut or unused songs |
About the show
Excerpt from "Kander & Ebb", written by James Leve
© 2009 Yale University Press
© 2009 Yale University Press
Immediately after CABARET, Kander and Ebb were in high demand. In 1967 they wrote industrials musicals for General Electric and Ford Motor Company, and in 1968 they provided the scores for two Broadway musicals, THE HAPPY TIME and ZORBÁ. Neither show, one a comedy of self-discovery, the other a dark story of personal awakening, was a definitive hit. THE HAPPY TIME had everything going for it, a charming and beloved source, Robert L. Fontaine’s novel of the same name; Broadway’s hottest super- director, Gower Champion; the shrewdest and most powerful producer in the business, David Merrick; and a star-studded cast including Robert Goulet and David Wayne. Merrick nearly closed THE HAPPY TIME out of town and lost interest in it entirely once it became clear that he would never recoup his investment. ZORBÁ, too, showed a lot of promise, but Hal Prince, who produced and directed it, cut short the initial Broadway run before it had broken even.
Kander and Ebb’s score for THE HAPPY TIME is a colorful mixture of pastiche, musical comedy, musical play, and opera. However, the critics, who still had CABARET ringing in their ears, were caught off guard by its conventionality and offered little more than passing judgment. Walter Kerr’s comments are typical: “John Kander and Fred Ebb, lacking that first twist of mind that led them into composing the brittle, sneaky score for CABARET, are working at half-staff.” By most accounts, Gower Champion’s concept for the show robbed the score of its charm, stripped key parts of the script, and ruined the musical’s chances of success.
Fontaine’s novel "The Happy Time" is a coming-of-age story set in the 1920s told from the point of view of a boy named Bibi, the youngest member of an idiosyncratic French Canadian family. The novel consists of several loosely connected episodes in Bibi’s life, all taking place during the year leading up to his first discovery of love. Filling out the novel are the antics of Bibi’s eccentric family, including his debonair and permissive grandfather; his father, a vaudeville musician and armchair philosopher who can turn a request to pass the sugar into an ethics lesson; his mother of Scottish descent (Maman), beneath whose occasional stern demeanor lies a profound maternal love; his alcoholic ne’er-do-well but irresistible uncle; and his budding female cousin. We also get to know an array of other local characters, most notably, a fanatical moralist of a schoolmaster who inflicts corporal punishment on Bibi for allegedly lying until the boy’s father and uncles give the educator a taste of his own medicine. Although not monumental, the ordinary events detailed in the novel shape the boy’s view of the world as he emerges from childhood and discovers his first true love, a redheaded American who lives next door.
The positive reception of Fontaine’s book led to a stage play of the novel by Samuel Taylor, which in turn generated discussion of a possible musical adaptation. Rodgers and Hammerstein, who turned to producing in the mid forties, produced Taylor’s play. It was a hit, running for 614 performances, and was turned into a film starring Charles Boyer and Louis Jourdan. Rodgers and Hammerstein had no interest themselves in writing the musical adaptation, and David Merrick eventually acquired the musical rights. By the time Merrick got around to producing it, a new generation of musical theater writers had arrived. He hired Kander and Ebb only after his first choice, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields, turned him down. Merrick apparently never considered hiring Taylor to write the book, perhaps because his play was not a workable model for the musical. In any case, the playwright was occupied at the time with his comedy AVANTI!, which opened on Broadway just days before THE HAPPY TIME. Merrick approached N. Richard Nash, who felt that Fontaine’s novel was “too sentimental” and ordinary. According to William Goldman, Nash was more interested in developing an idea of his own “about a small-town Mid-western photographer who comes home every four or five years and wrecks the family. And finally his father makes him tell the truth about the ‘glamorous’ life he’s been leading—that he’s a liar and a failure and has never found himself and is always living on the edge of dishonesty.” Merrick, eager to exercise his option, allowed Nash to map his prodigal son and homecoming story onto Fontaine’s breezy coming-of-age novel.
In effect, Nash transformed Fontaine’s story into an adult-oriented story of self-exploration. By centering the story on a new protagonist, a photographer named Jacques, the playwright relegated Bibi to a secondary role, the agent through which Jacques learns to see the truth about himself. Jacques is a traveling photographer and the black sheep of the family, “an artist who could go either way, towards art or commercialism.” At sixteen years of age, Jacques left St. Pierre for a life of adventure. For years he has been passing himself off as an international success and bon vivant. Jacques seldom visits home, but chaos usually ensues when he does. Bibi worships him. The musical portrays the visit that changes Jacques’s life. He attempts to rekindle a relationship with Laurie, his childhood sweetheart and Bibi’s schoolteacher. She still loves him, even though they see the world differently, he with his head in the clouds, she with her feet on the ground (as Kander might say, poetry versus prose). During Jacques’s first night in town, Bibi follows his uncle to see “The Six Angels” at the theater where his father works. They stay out all night, and Bibi, drunk with the love he feels for his uncle—and from his first taste of brandy—asks Jacques if he can accompany him on his world travels. Bibi’s request gives rise to the dramatic conflict of the story. Jacques asks his brother, Philippe, to let Bibi leave school temporarily, and Philippe refuses, more in defiance of his brother than for reasons regarding Bibi’s education. Philippe’s decision, however, drives Bibi further into Jacques’s arms. Jacques decides to take matters into his own hands and declares that he will take Bibi with him. Grandpère, with the insight that only a parent can have, intervenes and forces Jacques to confess the truth about his life. In one of the most powerful, soul-searching scenes in musical theater, Jacques, no longer able to hide, admits to Bibi that he is a fake, as his father looks on.
Still without a director, Merrick approached Gower Champion, with whom he had worked on several occasions. Champion agreed to direct the musical because it fit in with another projected he wanted to do: Elliot Martin, director of Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, had approached Champion to direct a dance musical for the opening of the new Ahmanson Theatre. Champion thought that THE HAPPY TIME was a good project for the purpose.
Nash’s script and Kander and Ebb’s score suggested an intimate musical with a small orchestra and no chorus, but Champion wanted to give the piece a sophisticated look and fluid rhythm. He decided to present the story as a memory play, which he would convey with the IMAX system, invented by Chris Chapman and Barry Gordon. The result was a show that, in Kander’s words, “smothered the intimate subject matter with too enormous a production.” Champion pressured Nash to alter his script in order to facilitate his grand vision for the musical. At Champion’s request, Nash wrote a prologue and epilogue. In the former, Jacques addresses the audience directly, entreating them to return with him to St. Pierre. Champion spent considerable time and money on creating slides of Jacques’s photographs to project against a cyclorama. Champion photographed a series of rose images at Griffith Park Botanical Gardens in Los Angeles, planning to use them as examples of Jacques’s work. Since the IMAX system required a large fixed-rear-projection screen, the rest of the set had to be minimal. A revolving platform was devised, and the orchestra sat onstage (although they were back in the pit by the time the musical reached New York). Merrick was forced to book one of the largest Broadway theaters in order to accommodate the projections. The effect was stunning, but Nash’s intimate story suffered from the excesses of the production. To use John Kander’s words, “The heart of the piece just vanished.” […]
Champion hoped to end the musical with a seven-minute film montage following the death of Grandpère while Jacques sings a song called “Being Alive” to Bibi. The film montage would reveal the next three years of Bibi’s life and end with a frozen image of Bibi in midair, which dissolves to the glorious strains of “St. Pierre.” The live actors would then appear at Bibi’s high school graduation. The film turned out to be too technically difficult to pull off and, although stunning to look at, “dwarfed the stage action, render- ing it dull and colorless by comparison.” The Los Angeles critics responded with unflattering reviews.
In the wake of the negative press, Champion made several drastic changes, mostly to the consternation of Nash, who by this time was rather unhappy. The sets had to be completely revamped. Champion was convinced that audiences did not want to see Robert Goulet in the part of a cad, so he sweetened his role. As Ebb noted, Champion’s Hollywood crowd “thought we should change him into a fellow who was simply a misunderstood desperate person who kept up this pretense, not because he was a liar and a sham, but because he wanted his nephew to love him.” Nash and Champion clashed over this change, and the director secretly solicited help from the writer Michael Stewart. The version of THE HAPPY TIME that opened in New York ended with an anticlimactic epilogue in which Jacques informs the audience that he became a success and is happily married. This ending cuts against the grain of Nash’s original concept of “a man who has lost his chances and to whom the nephew means everything.” For Nash the theme was “reality versus romance,” but for Champion it was about facing the truth before it is too late. According to William Goldman, “what Champion tried with HAPPY TIME was to re[-]create the Dolly! experience. The projections - the razzmatazz part of the show - stayed, because that was the part of the show that was working. The part that wasn’t working - the part involving characters - Champion tried to brighten up,” and, as result, the show got “soft, gooey, marshmallow-cored.”
Champion also took a lot of liberties with Kander and Ebb’s score, cutting songs because, in his estimation, they either slowed the momentum or were nonessential to the story. “Jeanne Marie” is a spirited, hu-morous folk song that Jacques sings first with Bibi and then with the entire family when he returns home. It helped to establish the bond between Bibi and his uncle, but Champion felt that it sapped energy from the first scene. “Allez-oop” is a cancan for the “Six Angels,” but at Champion’s request Kander and Ebb came up with the more risqué “Catch My Garter.” “In His Own Good Time” depicts an argument between Philippe and Suzanne over Bibi’s upbringing. “I Won’t Go,” the most contrapuntal piece in the score, is an ensemble number in which each member of the Bonnard family threatens to boycott Grandpère’s birthday party. At the party Grandpère sings “I’m Getting Younger Ev’ry Year,” which was later substituted with “The Life of the Party.” “Being Alive” (which predates Sondheim’s song of the same name by two years) represents Jacques’s emotional breakthrough. Kander and Ebb wrote the ballad “If You Leave Me Now” for Laurie, but it was never incorporated into the show.
The New York critics had many of the same concerns as the Los Angeles critics. They complained about the weak script and placed the blame at Champion’s feet. In response to the oversized production, Kerr wrote, “the [IMAX] technique creates a vast cavern, accenting the hole at the heart of things: it [the cyclorama] makes the stage inside it seem dark and gloomy.” For Kerr, bloated shows like THE HAPPY TIME were the source of Broadway’s ills at the time.
Ironically, THE HAPPY TIME was one of the most commercially successful musicals to open on Broadway during the 1967–68 season, and Champion won Tony Awards for best director and best choreographer, which helped to keep the show afloat. Most of the other shows nominated for a Tony Award in the best musical category - HOW NOW, DOW JONES and ILLYA DARLING - did poorly by comparison. THE HAPPY TIME ran for 286 performances, only 7 less than HALLELUJAH, BABY!, that year’s Tony Award winner for best musical.
THE HAPPY TIME is rarely performed today, and it is hardly ever mentioned in the literature, even though Nash, Kander, and Ebb made considerable improvements to the musical for a revival at Goodspeed Opera House in 1980. Nash restored some aspects of his original script that Champion had eliminated, intensified the drama, and fleshed out the characters. The revised script contains more intense interactions between Jacques and his brother Philippe, his father, and Laurie Mannon. From the beginning Grandpère senses that Jacques is concealing his unhappiness. Laurie is more mature, has two sons, and is more of a match for Jacques. She and Jacques sing “I Don’t Remember You” not as a nostalgic ballad, as in the Broadway version, but as a willful song of denial about their true feelings for each other. Nash also brought Laurie’s opinion to bear on the fraternal battle between Jacques and Philippe over Bibi’s upbringing. She takes Philippe’s side when Jacques objects to his insistence that Bibi make a public apology for hanging up naked pictures at his school. Jacques exclaims, “a child has a right to be a fool,” but Laurie turns the tables on him, responding, “nobody has a right to be a child - not forever.” One must eventually live up to the responsibility of being an adult, she insists. This exchange leads to “Seeing Things,” in which they express their different philosophies of life. (In the Broadway version, “Seeing Things” occurred after Bibi’s public apology.)
Nash’s new script gave Kander and Ebb an opportunity to reconsider some of the songs that Champion expunged. They reinstated “Jeanne Marie,” “In His Own Good Time,” and “I’m Sorry,” and they wrote one new song, “Running,” which fills the musical void at the dramatic climax of the story, created when Champion cut “Being Alive.” In “Running,” Jacques forces Bibi to see him for what he really is. He acknowledges the mistake he made by leaving home and urges Bibi not to commit the same error. Jacques thereby saves his nephew from what would have been a lot of anguish. It is his moment of redemption.
In his review of the Goodspeed production Frank Rich praised the revised score but attacked the book for being clunky and underdeveloped. He admonished the lack of “esthetic unity” and felt that the best musical moments did little to illuminate character or story, a sentiment first articu- lated by Martin Gottfried in 1968. In the final analysis, the problems with THE HAPPY TIME might be a case of too many cooks spoiling the soup. By the time Fontaine’s novel was filtered through Taylor’s play, Nash’s conflation, and Champion’s intervention, it had lost its charm and identity. The opposite can be said for Kander and Ebb’s next musical, ZORBÁ, which adhered perhaps too closely to a story that had little charm in the first place.
Kander and Ebb’s score for THE HAPPY TIME is a colorful mixture of pastiche, musical comedy, musical play, and opera. However, the critics, who still had CABARET ringing in their ears, were caught off guard by its conventionality and offered little more than passing judgment. Walter Kerr’s comments are typical: “John Kander and Fred Ebb, lacking that first twist of mind that led them into composing the brittle, sneaky score for CABARET, are working at half-staff.” By most accounts, Gower Champion’s concept for the show robbed the score of its charm, stripped key parts of the script, and ruined the musical’s chances of success.
Fontaine’s novel "The Happy Time" is a coming-of-age story set in the 1920s told from the point of view of a boy named Bibi, the youngest member of an idiosyncratic French Canadian family. The novel consists of several loosely connected episodes in Bibi’s life, all taking place during the year leading up to his first discovery of love. Filling out the novel are the antics of Bibi’s eccentric family, including his debonair and permissive grandfather; his father, a vaudeville musician and armchair philosopher who can turn a request to pass the sugar into an ethics lesson; his mother of Scottish descent (Maman), beneath whose occasional stern demeanor lies a profound maternal love; his alcoholic ne’er-do-well but irresistible uncle; and his budding female cousin. We also get to know an array of other local characters, most notably, a fanatical moralist of a schoolmaster who inflicts corporal punishment on Bibi for allegedly lying until the boy’s father and uncles give the educator a taste of his own medicine. Although not monumental, the ordinary events detailed in the novel shape the boy’s view of the world as he emerges from childhood and discovers his first true love, a redheaded American who lives next door.
The positive reception of Fontaine’s book led to a stage play of the novel by Samuel Taylor, which in turn generated discussion of a possible musical adaptation. Rodgers and Hammerstein, who turned to producing in the mid forties, produced Taylor’s play. It was a hit, running for 614 performances, and was turned into a film starring Charles Boyer and Louis Jourdan. Rodgers and Hammerstein had no interest themselves in writing the musical adaptation, and David Merrick eventually acquired the musical rights. By the time Merrick got around to producing it, a new generation of musical theater writers had arrived. He hired Kander and Ebb only after his first choice, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields, turned him down. Merrick apparently never considered hiring Taylor to write the book, perhaps because his play was not a workable model for the musical. In any case, the playwright was occupied at the time with his comedy AVANTI!, which opened on Broadway just days before THE HAPPY TIME. Merrick approached N. Richard Nash, who felt that Fontaine’s novel was “too sentimental” and ordinary. According to William Goldman, Nash was more interested in developing an idea of his own “about a small-town Mid-western photographer who comes home every four or five years and wrecks the family. And finally his father makes him tell the truth about the ‘glamorous’ life he’s been leading—that he’s a liar and a failure and has never found himself and is always living on the edge of dishonesty.” Merrick, eager to exercise his option, allowed Nash to map his prodigal son and homecoming story onto Fontaine’s breezy coming-of-age novel.
In effect, Nash transformed Fontaine’s story into an adult-oriented story of self-exploration. By centering the story on a new protagonist, a photographer named Jacques, the playwright relegated Bibi to a secondary role, the agent through which Jacques learns to see the truth about himself. Jacques is a traveling photographer and the black sheep of the family, “an artist who could go either way, towards art or commercialism.” At sixteen years of age, Jacques left St. Pierre for a life of adventure. For years he has been passing himself off as an international success and bon vivant. Jacques seldom visits home, but chaos usually ensues when he does. Bibi worships him. The musical portrays the visit that changes Jacques’s life. He attempts to rekindle a relationship with Laurie, his childhood sweetheart and Bibi’s schoolteacher. She still loves him, even though they see the world differently, he with his head in the clouds, she with her feet on the ground (as Kander might say, poetry versus prose). During Jacques’s first night in town, Bibi follows his uncle to see “The Six Angels” at the theater where his father works. They stay out all night, and Bibi, drunk with the love he feels for his uncle—and from his first taste of brandy—asks Jacques if he can accompany him on his world travels. Bibi’s request gives rise to the dramatic conflict of the story. Jacques asks his brother, Philippe, to let Bibi leave school temporarily, and Philippe refuses, more in defiance of his brother than for reasons regarding Bibi’s education. Philippe’s decision, however, drives Bibi further into Jacques’s arms. Jacques decides to take matters into his own hands and declares that he will take Bibi with him. Grandpère, with the insight that only a parent can have, intervenes and forces Jacques to confess the truth about his life. In one of the most powerful, soul-searching scenes in musical theater, Jacques, no longer able to hide, admits to Bibi that he is a fake, as his father looks on.
Still without a director, Merrick approached Gower Champion, with whom he had worked on several occasions. Champion agreed to direct the musical because it fit in with another projected he wanted to do: Elliot Martin, director of Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, had approached Champion to direct a dance musical for the opening of the new Ahmanson Theatre. Champion thought that THE HAPPY TIME was a good project for the purpose.
Nash’s script and Kander and Ebb’s score suggested an intimate musical with a small orchestra and no chorus, but Champion wanted to give the piece a sophisticated look and fluid rhythm. He decided to present the story as a memory play, which he would convey with the IMAX system, invented by Chris Chapman and Barry Gordon. The result was a show that, in Kander’s words, “smothered the intimate subject matter with too enormous a production.” Champion pressured Nash to alter his script in order to facilitate his grand vision for the musical. At Champion’s request, Nash wrote a prologue and epilogue. In the former, Jacques addresses the audience directly, entreating them to return with him to St. Pierre. Champion spent considerable time and money on creating slides of Jacques’s photographs to project against a cyclorama. Champion photographed a series of rose images at Griffith Park Botanical Gardens in Los Angeles, planning to use them as examples of Jacques’s work. Since the IMAX system required a large fixed-rear-projection screen, the rest of the set had to be minimal. A revolving platform was devised, and the orchestra sat onstage (although they were back in the pit by the time the musical reached New York). Merrick was forced to book one of the largest Broadway theaters in order to accommodate the projections. The effect was stunning, but Nash’s intimate story suffered from the excesses of the production. To use John Kander’s words, “The heart of the piece just vanished.” […]
Champion hoped to end the musical with a seven-minute film montage following the death of Grandpère while Jacques sings a song called “Being Alive” to Bibi. The film montage would reveal the next three years of Bibi’s life and end with a frozen image of Bibi in midair, which dissolves to the glorious strains of “St. Pierre.” The live actors would then appear at Bibi’s high school graduation. The film turned out to be too technically difficult to pull off and, although stunning to look at, “dwarfed the stage action, render- ing it dull and colorless by comparison.” The Los Angeles critics responded with unflattering reviews.
In the wake of the negative press, Champion made several drastic changes, mostly to the consternation of Nash, who by this time was rather unhappy. The sets had to be completely revamped. Champion was convinced that audiences did not want to see Robert Goulet in the part of a cad, so he sweetened his role. As Ebb noted, Champion’s Hollywood crowd “thought we should change him into a fellow who was simply a misunderstood desperate person who kept up this pretense, not because he was a liar and a sham, but because he wanted his nephew to love him.” Nash and Champion clashed over this change, and the director secretly solicited help from the writer Michael Stewart. The version of THE HAPPY TIME that opened in New York ended with an anticlimactic epilogue in which Jacques informs the audience that he became a success and is happily married. This ending cuts against the grain of Nash’s original concept of “a man who has lost his chances and to whom the nephew means everything.” For Nash the theme was “reality versus romance,” but for Champion it was about facing the truth before it is too late. According to William Goldman, “what Champion tried with HAPPY TIME was to re[-]create the Dolly! experience. The projections - the razzmatazz part of the show - stayed, because that was the part of the show that was working. The part that wasn’t working - the part involving characters - Champion tried to brighten up,” and, as result, the show got “soft, gooey, marshmallow-cored.”
Champion also took a lot of liberties with Kander and Ebb’s score, cutting songs because, in his estimation, they either slowed the momentum or were nonessential to the story. “Jeanne Marie” is a spirited, hu-morous folk song that Jacques sings first with Bibi and then with the entire family when he returns home. It helped to establish the bond between Bibi and his uncle, but Champion felt that it sapped energy from the first scene. “Allez-oop” is a cancan for the “Six Angels,” but at Champion’s request Kander and Ebb came up with the more risqué “Catch My Garter.” “In His Own Good Time” depicts an argument between Philippe and Suzanne over Bibi’s upbringing. “I Won’t Go,” the most contrapuntal piece in the score, is an ensemble number in which each member of the Bonnard family threatens to boycott Grandpère’s birthday party. At the party Grandpère sings “I’m Getting Younger Ev’ry Year,” which was later substituted with “The Life of the Party.” “Being Alive” (which predates Sondheim’s song of the same name by two years) represents Jacques’s emotional breakthrough. Kander and Ebb wrote the ballad “If You Leave Me Now” for Laurie, but it was never incorporated into the show.
The New York critics had many of the same concerns as the Los Angeles critics. They complained about the weak script and placed the blame at Champion’s feet. In response to the oversized production, Kerr wrote, “the [IMAX] technique creates a vast cavern, accenting the hole at the heart of things: it [the cyclorama] makes the stage inside it seem dark and gloomy.” For Kerr, bloated shows like THE HAPPY TIME were the source of Broadway’s ills at the time.
Ironically, THE HAPPY TIME was one of the most commercially successful musicals to open on Broadway during the 1967–68 season, and Champion won Tony Awards for best director and best choreographer, which helped to keep the show afloat. Most of the other shows nominated for a Tony Award in the best musical category - HOW NOW, DOW JONES and ILLYA DARLING - did poorly by comparison. THE HAPPY TIME ran for 286 performances, only 7 less than HALLELUJAH, BABY!, that year’s Tony Award winner for best musical.
THE HAPPY TIME is rarely performed today, and it is hardly ever mentioned in the literature, even though Nash, Kander, and Ebb made considerable improvements to the musical for a revival at Goodspeed Opera House in 1980. Nash restored some aspects of his original script that Champion had eliminated, intensified the drama, and fleshed out the characters. The revised script contains more intense interactions between Jacques and his brother Philippe, his father, and Laurie Mannon. From the beginning Grandpère senses that Jacques is concealing his unhappiness. Laurie is more mature, has two sons, and is more of a match for Jacques. She and Jacques sing “I Don’t Remember You” not as a nostalgic ballad, as in the Broadway version, but as a willful song of denial about their true feelings for each other. Nash also brought Laurie’s opinion to bear on the fraternal battle between Jacques and Philippe over Bibi’s upbringing. She takes Philippe’s side when Jacques objects to his insistence that Bibi make a public apology for hanging up naked pictures at his school. Jacques exclaims, “a child has a right to be a fool,” but Laurie turns the tables on him, responding, “nobody has a right to be a child - not forever.” One must eventually live up to the responsibility of being an adult, she insists. This exchange leads to “Seeing Things,” in which they express their different philosophies of life. (In the Broadway version, “Seeing Things” occurred after Bibi’s public apology.)
Nash’s new script gave Kander and Ebb an opportunity to reconsider some of the songs that Champion expunged. They reinstated “Jeanne Marie,” “In His Own Good Time,” and “I’m Sorry,” and they wrote one new song, “Running,” which fills the musical void at the dramatic climax of the story, created when Champion cut “Being Alive.” In “Running,” Jacques forces Bibi to see him for what he really is. He acknowledges the mistake he made by leaving home and urges Bibi not to commit the same error. Jacques thereby saves his nephew from what would have been a lot of anguish. It is his moment of redemption.
In his review of the Goodspeed production Frank Rich praised the revised score but attacked the book for being clunky and underdeveloped. He admonished the lack of “esthetic unity” and felt that the best musical moments did little to illuminate character or story, a sentiment first articu- lated by Martin Gottfried in 1968. In the final analysis, the problems with THE HAPPY TIME might be a case of too many cooks spoiling the soup. By the time Fontaine’s novel was filtered through Taylor’s play, Nash’s conflation, and Champion’s intervention, it had lost its charm and identity. The opposite can be said for Kander and Ebb’s next musical, ZORBÁ, which adhered perhaps too closely to a story that had little charm in the first place.
Programme
Programme for THE HAPPY TIME at Signature Theatre, April 2008
You can flip through the pages by clicking on the numbers
Copyright © Signature Theatre
You can flip through the pages by clicking on the numbers
Copyright © Signature Theatre
Press & Reviews
"… a little charmer… effervescent"
Washington Post
Washington Post
"THE HAPPY TIME became the first Broadway show to lose a million dollars. Watching this charming and modest production, you’d never guess that such a fiscal debacle was possible...
This rare revival necessarily boils the musical down to its eccentric story: a coming-of-age tale about Bibi, a small-town French Canadian boy, and Jacques, the sophisticated bachelor uncle he adores. What's at Signature is a collection of fine theatrical songs celebrating the joys and disappointments of life as Jacques, an international photojournalist, goes home, inspires Bibi beyond all reason and eventually considers growing up himself. It's nostalgic but ultimately bittersweet, with tunes that rev up the fun but also tally regrets. The music goes 'round, the cast fills the stage and it's hard not to tap along."
This rare revival necessarily boils the musical down to its eccentric story: a coming-of-age tale about Bibi, a small-town French Canadian boy, and Jacques, the sophisticated bachelor uncle he adores. What's at Signature is a collection of fine theatrical songs celebrating the joys and disappointments of life as Jacques, an international photojournalist, goes home, inspires Bibi beyond all reason and eventually considers growing up himself. It's nostalgic but ultimately bittersweet, with tunes that rev up the fun but also tally regrets. The music goes 'round, the cast fills the stage and it's hard not to tap along."
"... a fresh and earnest revival, staged by Michael Unger with ultimate intimacy…"
Variety
Variety
"K&E were riding high on the success of CABARET when Merrick tapped the composing team to pen the score to accompany N. Richard Nash’s book about a globe-trotting French-Canadian photographer (Robert Goulet in the Broadway production) who reflects on a visit to his childhood village circa 1920. Backed by a three-person combo, the sepia-toned perspective is presented here on a bare stage in front of projection screens displaying a continuing collage of the artist’s photos.
A swaggering Michael Minarik plays the cocky interloper, who gleefully upsets the family dynamics with his strong views about how his timid nephew should be raised. Youngster Jace Casey makes the most of his opportunity as the impressionable tyke eager to follow his uncle’s every suggestion. Others in the mostly even cast include David Margulies as the sensible grandfather and voice of reason. […]
Unger keeps the kid-filled cast in perpetual motion as the tale unfolds in the schoolyard, a nightclub and the family homestead. Choreographer Karma Camp mixes it up with ensemble dancing and even some soft-shoe. She has plenty to work with, since Signature reinserted four numbers that had been cut following the Broadway production. […]
The songs are performed with sincerity by a cadre of sturdy voices led by Minarik and Johnson. Margulies’ wise old gentleman adds a notable touch of class in his musical numbers and his steadying influence on the warring family members."
A swaggering Michael Minarik plays the cocky interloper, who gleefully upsets the family dynamics with his strong views about how his timid nephew should be raised. Youngster Jace Casey makes the most of his opportunity as the impressionable tyke eager to follow his uncle’s every suggestion. Others in the mostly even cast include David Margulies as the sensible grandfather and voice of reason. […]
Unger keeps the kid-filled cast in perpetual motion as the tale unfolds in the schoolyard, a nightclub and the family homestead. Choreographer Karma Camp mixes it up with ensemble dancing and even some soft-shoe. She has plenty to work with, since Signature reinserted four numbers that had been cut following the Broadway production. […]
The songs are performed with sincerity by a cadre of sturdy voices led by Minarik and Johnson. Margulies’ wise old gentleman adds a notable touch of class in his musical numbers and his steadying influence on the warring family members."
"Wondrous staging and technical craft… one of the most dazzling jewels of the season.”
BroadwayWorld.com
BroadwayWorld.com
"THE HAPPY TIME is definitely a fresh look at an overlooked jewel of a show. Featuring a spectacular cast, production values evocative of simpler times and fresh, tight direction, THE HAPPY TIME will certainly cause (and rightly so) historians to re-evaluate what is a deeply heartfelt and charming show. Mr. Unger has masterfully utilized the tiny space with a simple concept and beautifully paced staging..."
“A picture-perfect production”
Washingtonian
Washingtonian
"Michael Minarik is stunning in the Signature Theatre's powerful revival of Kander & Ebb's rarely staged 1968 musical…"
TheatreMania.com
TheatreMania.com
"Signature Theatre's illustrious KANDER & EBB CELEBRATION might end up being most remembered for reviving THE HAPPY TIME - since 40 years after failing on Broadway, this rarely staged show (with a book by N. Richard Nash) may finally be able to claim its rightful place in the duo's rich legacy. Like a lost family photograph that is re-discovered while rummaging through an old trunk, the show generates quietly powerful sentiment with the fleeting moment it captures. Director Michael Unger, aided by composer John Kander, has stripped away the Broadway trappings to reveal a quaint but emotionally intense chamber musical.
Their effort is aided by the stunning performance of Michael Minarik in the lead role of Jacques, a 'world-renowned photographer' who returns to his French Canadian family in 1928. Minarik's Jacques is a rake, but without slickness or guile. He may act like he's just breezing in for a visit, but the burning intensity in Minarik's eyes tell a different story. […]
Minarik underplays the big moments, drawing the audience closer to him as he gently sings. He slowly dissolves Jacques' façade until the man's emotional core is revealed in the searing second act, where Kander has revived 'Running', a song cut from the show before the Broadway opening. […]
The orchestra has been pared down to piano, bass and drums, which serves the pair's eclectic score (which includes four previously cut songs). It ranges from the waltzy lightness of the title tune to the unusually staccato rhythms of 'He's Back' and the music-hall fun of 'Catch My Garter'. There are several ballads, including the poignant 'I Don't Remember You'. […]
Indeed, THE HAPPY TIME reminds us all over again why we will always love John Kander and Fred Ebb."
Their effort is aided by the stunning performance of Michael Minarik in the lead role of Jacques, a 'world-renowned photographer' who returns to his French Canadian family in 1928. Minarik's Jacques is a rake, but without slickness or guile. He may act like he's just breezing in for a visit, but the burning intensity in Minarik's eyes tell a different story. […]
Minarik underplays the big moments, drawing the audience closer to him as he gently sings. He slowly dissolves Jacques' façade until the man's emotional core is revealed in the searing second act, where Kander has revived 'Running', a song cut from the show before the Broadway opening. […]
The orchestra has been pared down to piano, bass and drums, which serves the pair's eclectic score (which includes four previously cut songs). It ranges from the waltzy lightness of the title tune to the unusually staccato rhythms of 'He's Back' and the music-hall fun of 'Catch My Garter'. There are several ballads, including the poignant 'I Don't Remember You'. […]
Indeed, THE HAPPY TIME reminds us all over again why we will always love John Kander and Fred Ebb."
Photos
Robert Goulet (with wife Carol Lawrence) and recipient Mike Rupert at the 1968 Theatre World Awards
Photos © Theatre World Awards
Photos © Theatre World Awards
Revivals
Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam, CT
Opening Night: May 7, 1980
Opening Night: May 7, 1980
THE HAPPY TIME was revived at the Goodspeed Opera House in 1980. The production was directed by Sue Lawless with choreography by Dan Siretta. Kander & Ebb and author Nash thoroughly revised the book and score in an attempt to return to their original vision of the show. Three cut songs were reinstated (“Jeanne Marie,” “In His Own Good Time,” and “I’m Sorry”) and one new song, “Running”, was written to replace the cut "Being Alive".
For a full cast / creative team list and an overview of the new version of the score, click here.
For a full cast / creative team list and an overview of the new version of the score, click here.
Signature Theatre, Arlington, VA
Opening Night: April 1, 2008
Opening Night: April 1, 2008
THE HAPPY TIME was revived at the Signature Theatre in 2008 und the direction of Michael Unger.
For a full cast / creative team list and an overview of the new version of the score, click here.
For a full cast / creative team list and an overview of the new version of the score, click here.