Skip to main content

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).
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Host a Baby

-You have assumed responsibility for a mewling, puking ball of life, a yellow-lab pup. He will spit his half-digested kibble all over your shoes, all over your hard-cover edition of Jennifer Haigh's novel  Faith . He will eat your tables, your chairs, your "I {Heart] Montessori" magnet, placed too low on the fridge. When you try to watch Bette Davis in  Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte , on your TV, your dog will bark through the murder-prologue, for no apparent reason. He will whimper through Lena Dunham's  Girls , such that you have to rewind several times to catch every nuance of Andrew Rannells's ad-libbing--and, still, you'll have a nagging suspicion you've missed something. Your dog will poop on the kitchen floor, in the hallway, between the tiny bars of his crate. He'll announce his wakefulness at 5 AM, 2 AM, or while you and another human are mid-coitus. All this, and you get outside, and it's: "Don't let him pee on my tulips!" When...
3 comments
Read more

Joshie

  When I was growing up, a class birthday involved Hostess cupcakes. Often, the cupcakes would come in a shoebox, so you could taste a leathery residue (during the party). Times change. You can't bring a treat into a public school, in 2024, because heaven knows what kind of allergies might lurk, in unseen corners, in the classroom. But Joshua's teacher will allow: a dance party, a pajama day, or a guest reader. I chose to bring a story for Joshua's birthday (observed), but I didn't think through the role that anxiety might play in this interaction. We talk, in this house, quite a bit about anxiety; one game-changer, for J, has been a daily list of activities, so that he knows exactly what to expect. He gets a look of profound satisfaction when he sees the agenda; it doesn't really matter what the specific events happen to be. It's just about knowing, "I can anticipate X, Y, and Z." Joshua struggled with his celebration. He wore his nervousness on his f...
2 comments
Read more

Josh at Five

 Joshie's project is "flexibility"; the goal is to see that a plan is just an idea, not a gospel, not a guarantee. This is difficult. Yesterday, we went to a restaurant--billed as "open," with unlocked doors--and the owner informed us of an "error in advertising." But Joshie couldn't accept the word "closed." He threw himself on the floor, then climbed on the furniture. I felt for the owner, until he nervously made a reference to "the glass windows." He imagined that my child might toss himself through a sealed window, like Mary Katherine Gallagher, or like Bruce Willis, in "Die Hard." Then--thank the Lord!--I was able to laugh. The thing that really has therapeutic value for Joshie is: a firetruck. If we are out in public, and he spots a parked truck, he wants to climb on each surface. He breathlessly alludes to the wheels, the door, the windows. If an actual fire station ("fire ocean," in Joshie's parla...
Post a Comment
Read more