Liars and Saints

  Joshua Henry contributed a terrific mini-essay to the NYTimes. In that essay, Henry argues that the key to all musical theater is Victoria Clark's "Fable." This is, of course, correct. Adam Guettel has limitations--but one thing he can do is write an outstanding 11:00 number. He did this with "How Glory Goes," and he did this again with "Fable." (The producers of "Chess" might learn from this. One problem with "Someone Else's Story" is that it doesn't belong at the end of "Chess." There is literally no reason why Florence would sing these words at this moment in the show. By contrast, "Fable" is like an eruption. It has to happen when it happens. Context is everything.) "Fable" has a simple premise. A woman has been damaged by love; she still has to accept that her unusually vulnerable daughter is going to attempt her *own* love story. Victoria Clark's character is now permanently cynical:...

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB5hafiKjtA The 1990s gave birth to the American "true crime" musical. Strange, strange musicals that made song-and-dance occasions of appalling events from U.S. history. "Titanic" had the venal financier Ismay trying to blame others for his own unethical decisions. (Blaming in rhythm with an orchestral accompaniment!) "Parade" grafted syrupy ballads onto a horrifying story of a miscarriage of justice--an antisemitic lynching in the South. "Ragtime" showed the robber baron J.P. Morgan flaunting his wealth while others suffered. By contrast, "Floyd Collins" staged an event that may not have been technically criminal--but still registered as "spiritually" criminal. This was the Deathwatch Carnival. It actually happened in American history. A man, Floyd Collins, was trapped in a cave and slowly dying; Americans made a social event of this interlude. People came from far and wide to enjoy a picnic...

 "The Light in the Piazza" sputters and loses its way and drags its heels--but you have to admire the concept. Who would think to make a musical about this particular story? It's not a story about an ingenue. It's not particularly happy. It concerns a repressed woman in her forties, who has turned her own daughter into a kind of crutch. When that daughter falls in love, the possibility of change becomes overwhelming for our protagonist. She must try to put an end to this affair. Weddings tend to have ripple effects. Guests at a wedding might find themselves "pairing off." Or extant couples might play "the comparison game"; separations and divorces might ensue. One thrilling scene in "Piazza" is the moment when the protagonist, Margaret, finally examines her own marriage. She understands that her daughter has found "the real thing." Margaret imagines writing a letter to her own husband; the letter is something she'd never sen...

  Adam Guettel is in the news because his dead mother, Mary Rodgers, has released a memoir. Also, Guettel's "Light in the Piazza" will come back to New York City in a few months; this will be a big deal. Guettel has written two classic "show closers." Both occur in shows that don't really work. The first is the end of "Floyd Collins" -- a song called "How Glory Goes." A man is trapped in a cave; he knows he is going to die. He tries to imagine the afterlife: Will my mama be there, waiting for me? Smiling like the way she does, and holding out her arms? As she calls my name.....? He wonders if life's irritations will follow him into heaven: Will I want, will I wish for all the things I should have done-- Longing to finish what I've only just begun? Nothing is resolved, and in the song's final moments, Floyd does something startling. He begins to yodel; we have known, all evening, that he enjoys yodeling. He used to do this with...