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Broadway Gossip

Some thoughts on "Making It Big," Isenberg's "diary" on the doomed BIG adaptation that lived very briefly on-stage:

Why would you not want to adapt the movie BIG for Broadway? For a few reasons. 

If you don't have Tom Hanks, you are lacking a major resource. 

Also, the story involves a passive hero--a guy who actually wants very little and mostly just reacts--and a musical really needs a hungry protagonist. ("And so I'll stand there with the Wizard...." "I look once more just around the riverbend...." "I want much more than this provincial life....") 

Finally, you might want to stay away from the movie-as-material because certain tween "sex elements" are icky, and they become especially icky when they are shown onstage.

No matter. A new version of BIG chugs toward Broadway. As it approaches, RENT happens. Savion Glover (BRING IN DA NOISE) happens. The star of BIG injures himself. The Tony Awards give BIG--along with VICTOR/VICTORIA--the shaft. No one at BIG wants to concede the inevitable. But BIG closes.

Read this book if you enjoy theater gossip. (I especially like the moment when bitchy Julie Andrews rejects her Tony nomination, because she feels her show wasn't adequately honored. And when a respected writer begins to hatch a conspiracy theory regarding Tony committee voting. And when theater demi-goddess Barbara Walsh makes a stink about certain script cuts. I could read this material day and night, without interruption.)

Isenberg--the journalist responsible for "Making It Big"--knows how to trim a story so that things move along briskly. She knows how to select details, e.g. the moment when the tween cast members gather with their backstage tutor for an English lesson and list their wishes. ("I wish to win the lottery." "I wish the show runs so long that I can one day play one of the adults.") It's great fun to see Harold Prince in the audience ("This show has moments, and it has major problems. Like so many other shows.") And it's fun to consider commercialism. Is it always a sin to have product tie-ins? Is there something inherently wrong with wanting a big audience? Can a show be both family-friendly and elegant/smart? (Would BEAUTY AND THE BEAST count as an example?)

Like other fine behind-the-scenes stories ("The Big Goodbye," "The Devil's Candy"), "Making It Big" makes me think in new ways about the kinds of choices that occur before the curtain goes up. Though it describes a mediocre musical, it makes me appreciate Broadway "on a new level." If you're a Broadway nerd, then you know what you ought to read next (when you find the time).
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