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Six Plot Lines In Search of a Librettist (and lyricist and director!) (LONG with SPOILERS)
Jul 14 2011, 02:00:11 PM
" I don't want to turn this into an argument. I do get the impression that unless they made a 6 hour musical, you wouldn't even be partially pleased, and maybe that's unfair."
Yes, a bit unfair. I would be happy with an adaptation that traded in sitcom values for an emotionally engaging piece with good lyrics.And I would love to know how much "Mary Ann" advances the plot- she decides to stay in San Francisco and tells her mother she knows a homosexual. 5 lines of dialogue and done. Not
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Six Plot Lines In Search of a Librettist (and lyricist and director!) (LONG with SPOILERS)
Jul 11 2011, 11:33:02 PM
SPOILERS ABOUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As to some of the major differences between the original TALES columns and published books, read on. It’s been a while since I read them as they are faded and almost 40! years old but these are the ones I can remember….
In “Book One” Connie Bradshaw was killed by the “Tinkerbell” killer and Brian was a suspect. The Tinkerbell stangled people with Panty Hose- the Adorable line. He also sprinkled their corpses with glitter.
(Maupin had some kind of weird interactions in real life with a reporter- Dave Toschi who was investigating the Zodiac killer- it got VERY weird.. touched on briefly here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_Killer)
Vincent from the Crisis Switchboard was also killed by the Tinkerbell killer and did not commit suicide as in the published book.
Mary Ann and Mouse had sex on New Year’s Eve at the conclusion of book one.
The Tinkerbell killer was an investigator named Hank Tandy (I think…it’s been a while since I read them). Mary Ann had dated him as she would Norman in the published book.
As for “Book Two”:
Mrs. Madrigal was left Edgar’s diary- she read of a woman he once loved. When she tracks the woman down it turns out the woman and Edgar had had a son: Lionel- the delivery boy father of DeDe’s twins (yes, incest)
While recovering from his illness, Mouse gets a massage from Dave Kopay, famous NFL player who came out
Mouse and Jon almost had a threeway prompting Jon to think Michael wasn’t “the one” which is why they broke up
It was implied Frannie Halcyon had had sex with her dog
It was implied but never followed through that Beauchamp survived the crash and was involved with “The Sharing”- the cult that in book 2 was at Grace Cathedral. DeDe and D’Or joined it and Dede gave birth there- she was told the girl twin died at birth but it was implied she was given to Beauchamp/eaten. The cannibalism happened (I think) in a geodesic dome in the woods.
Mary Ann started at the tv station because the creative director at Halcyon’s wife worked there and hired her after Beauchamp’s “Death”. Both of them belonged to the cannibalistic “Sharing” which DeDe and D’Or had joined. After hottubbing with them, Mary Ann was fed something “special” by them.
D’Or went undercover to investigate the doings of “The Sharing” and was killed- her body was found off a cliff. She and DeDe did not leave together for Jonestown at the end of book two.
Burke was kidnapped by The Sharing…Mary Ann found him in Grace Cathedral and sent home- she did not break the story to put herself on the map.
Connie miraculously came back from the dead…to die of Toxic Shock Syndrome from Tampons Mary Ann gave her from a Halcyon ad campaign at beginning of what would be book three- only to come back to life again and die in child birth in “Babycakes”- I always wanted a tee shirt that said “Armistead killed Connie- you bastard!” (A SOUTH PARK Kenny reference given her multiple deaths)
in response to Gaveston2:
I did not mention Pam Myers because I am a fan of hers. Her work in this is horrifyingly embarrassing- imagine Cheri Oteri doing something by Jane Austen and you will get the picture. I do not blame HER- her mugging and poor choices must be laid at the feet of Jason Moore as I can't imagine her having been this bad in anything else in her distinguished career.
"In many ways, your account reminds me of the musical version of "Gone With the Wind." This doesn't sound like a disaster of the same level, but there is a problem with adapting beloved, epic novels, given the time restraints of musical theater."- GWTW had no chance as it is arguably the greatest film ever made with iconic performances. While the TOTC mini-series was genius, it is not something that almost everyone has seen- and Rome did write some quite good material. LES MIS- love it or hate it- found a way to involve people emotionally while hurtling through thousands of pages. But the team for TOTC is certainly not on a par with Trevor Nunn, John Caird and Company. And at least the horsesh*t onstage in GWTW came from an actual horse and not people who should know better.
"Cut too much and the faithful don't recognize the story they paid to see. Cut too little and you end up with a "Headline" show, i.e., one that keeps announcing what you should feel along with what is happening, because it doesn't have time to move you honestly."- there are many places where the audience should be genuinely moved if the adaptation were good- or even adequate. I will reiterate what I feel is the biggest problem- the "creatives" don't trust the material, don't understand what it is about at the heart (hint: it's NOT about orgasms and drugged out sex from soulless sexual vampires) and as such go for banal, pandering and cheap laughs and by doing so rob the characters or their dignity and universality.
And don't get me started on the BRADY BUNCH costumes of bad wigs....poor Judy Kaye looks like a truck driver in drag trying to do Tyne Daly in GYPSY. I love her but she has been done no favors here....would love to know why Betty Buckley jumped ship. Kaye misses the sly, devilish glint in the eye that Dukakis had and which made Anna so loveable. She was older than her "children" but her spirit was open and loving.
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Six Plot Lines In Search of a Librettist (and lyricist and director!) (LONG with SPOILERS)
Jul 10 2011, 03:37:14 PM
There are eight words to describe the multitude of problems of TALES OF THE CITY: THE MUSICAL. And those words are: Jeff Whitty, Scissor Sisters, Jason Moore, Armistead Maupin.
Spoilers abound so read at your own peril.
I will confess I am a TALES junkie- going all the way back to having read the original columns (which I still have Xeroxes of) when I lived on Telegraph Hill as they originally appeared. I was very nervous about the first TALES mini-series- I worried it would n
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