How would you direct a production?

[jamiekennywicked]

Posted: 5/20/11 at 3:00pm

May sound kind of strange, if you could direct any play/musical what would it be, and how would you direct it.

I would choose Fiddler On The Roof and stage it in an open air theatre.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 5/20/11 at 3:01pm

That's saying where you'd direct it.

[Musicaldudepeter]

Posted: 5/20/11 at 5:04pm

I would direct 'Guys and Dolls' in 21st Century Manhattan. The relationship between men and women hasn't changed a bit at all since when the show was written, so I would love to do it.

I would darken the show and utilize modern design.

[sondheimfan2]

Posted: 5/20/11 at 5:07pm

I would direct a production of ANNIE where, at the end, Annie wakes up to realize the whole show was a dream, and she is still in the orphanage.....oh..wait..that's been done already.

[jv92]

Posted: 5/20/11 at 5:07pm

But your concept for Guys and Dolls ruins the whole point of the show. It's a MUSICAL FABLE!

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 5/20/11 at 5:16pm

Oh God, this is easy, especially after the recent revival directed by our dear departed Mr. Laurents showed us most of what not to do. I would do West Side Story. Be warned... I'm gonna get long-winded here. From an early age, West Side Story has been one of my all-time favorite musicals. I believe the revival in my head would benefit from my fresh take on the material, while all the time being respectful of the original source material and production team's intentions. Indeed, the idea of reviving the show struck me (and still strikes me) as such a great idea because to me, it means something about the show has to reappear in a new way, because it has been performed so often in its original form.

STORY STRUCTURE
People can say what they will about the 1961 film's lack of realism, but it managed to remain faithful to the play while incorporating new elements, most noticeably a "rising line of dramatic tension." In the late 1950's, there were several theatrical conventions held sacrosanct, including balancing out the most dramatic moments of the story with comic relief numbers designed to break tension, for example including "Gee, Officer Krupke" in the second act. I've read in Craig Zadan's Sondheim and Co. of dear uncle Arthur's famous "Shakespeare's clowns" argument, but, while valid, I feel strongly that the argument applied more to that time than today.

Especially since the 1980's, when Broadway was largely populated by melodramatic "pop operas" (usually British in origin), audiences have long become inured to what some might deem an emotionally weighty evening. So, I'd like to shuffle the story structure to provide the film's "rising line of tension" for our more sophisticated audience of today.

Also, there are other smaller problems with the script that need to be discussed. The dialogue written for the gangs is part of what has kept them from appearing "tougher" on stage. An artful attempt was made at creating timeless teenage tough talk -- an attempt that has by and large failed. Phrases like "Cut the frabba-jabba" and "Daddy-o" (on the part of the Jets) come across as fey and dated. Faux-Spanish like "kiddando" (on the part of the Sharks) sounds like an almost patronizing attempt to be even-handed. The suggestion made here is to go for realism in the writing.

RISING LINE OF TENSION
* Re-position "America" before the balcony scene (and restore the boys vs. girls lyrics, which are superior to those now in the script).
* Move "I Feel Pretty" to the bridal shop scene in Act One prior to "One Hand, One Heart."
* Transpose the Act One and Act Two positions of "Cool" and "Gee, Officer Krupke."
* Move the rumble sequence to the top of Act Two. Staged as the end of Act One, it comes across to some as anticlimactic. With the "rising line of tension," it's more effective to allow the "Tonight" quintet to close the first act to heighten anticipation; curtain; and then open Act Two with the rumble, leading directly into the continuance of the "line of tension." It also resolves the problem caused by moving "I Feel Pretty," namely dramatic "dead space" at the top of Act Two.

TOUGHER JETS
* If the line suggests a gang member is saying, for example, "Cut the bullshit," let him actually say that. Similarly, I have never heard a woman anywhere, in my life, ever say anything like "Ooblee-oo," whatever the hell that means; out that exchange goes!
* The unrealistic division of the Jets as "ace-men," "rocket-men," and "rank-and-file" should be removed.
* In terms of lyrics, though this is more a matter to discuss with Mr. Sondheim, I feel that today's audience is finally ready to hear the gang sing, "Gee, Officer Krupke, fuck you!" (It seems that even in the traditional production, this was known to creep in anyway; as a friend who saw the City Center revival in 1964 noted, many of the Jets seemed to splice in the real f-word under "Krup.")

REALISTIC SHARKS
* Why not replace the faux-Spanish with some actual Spanish phrases and words and maybe sprinkle more throughout the dialogue for an air of authenticity?
* NOTE: Not whole songs, bits of dialogue here and there, some slang maybe, a sentence or two.
* This would go a long way toward treating both gangs more realistically than the traditional version does.

CASTING
I'm sure I'm not the only one who has heard the apocryphal "dancer's 'Jet Song' parody" courtesy of PalJoey:

"When you're a Jet
You're a Jet all the way
From your first pirouette
To your last grand jeté"

Certain types have always been cast for the gang members on both sides of West Side Story's central conflict. Jerome Robbins' choreography has almost demanded it. Unfortunately, this has led to the casting of the same types: white-bread, "swishy," effete gypsies, the kind that Mr. Laurents so disliked in his first interviews about the revival in 2007. The book material lets down the characters somewhat, but the traditionally cast types who look like they stepped straight from Martha Graham's studio to the stage have also let the characters down. "They're not adorable street kids. They're killers, each and every one of them. They're vicious and they have to be played that way." (Laurents)

BOTH GANGS
* Let's cast thuggish kids who actually look like they could kill each other if they started rumbling on the street ten minutes before curtain.
* Get the right look, have the choreographer drill the hell out of them, and put it on stage. By virtue of how they look, anything they do on stage will be menacing in theatrical terms, especially with the reworked book and the new look (more of this anon) to go with.

JETS
* Inspired partially by the name of the black periodical, Jet Magazine, and partially by the cultural make-up of the real gang conflict going on in the streets of New York City today... make the Jets an urban (read: black) gang.

SHARKS
* To contrast with the Harlem-reoriented Jets that border on Crips... develop the Sharks to be like the present Hispanic menace, the MS-13's, Colombians of an almost mercenary type and frightening size.

TONY AND MARIA
* The love story of Tony and Maria has been reduced over the years, largely thanks to the film, into a story about a couple of sanitized stick figures. "When they sing 'Tonight,' it's like Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy." (Laurents)
* Two words: hot-blooded passion. "It's hard for them to sing because they're so sexually involved. They're all over each other." (Laurents)
* The misleading ads for the late Nineties national tour should be the cue to run with -- a scene reminiscent of the covers of Fifties pulp fiction. (Example here: http://bit.ly/kHZW1K.) That's the edge it needs to have.

MIS-EN-SCENE
When I recently bought the Special Edition DVD Collector's Set of the film, I was struck by a line of advertising repeatedly used in advertising for re-release runs of the film: "Unlike other classics, West Side Story grows younger."

They were right. It may not be the 1950's anymore, but there's still gang warfare in the world. There are still corrupt authority figures helping one side to their own benefit. There's still racial tension today; the immigration stuff in particular has made race a national issue. There's still unconventional love, of all kinds. West Side Story (and its source material, Romeo and Juliet) remains timeless for those reasons.

In re-reading the scripts (for show and film), it struck me that aside from obvious changes that needed making, the story is very au courant. There is nothing that definitely ties it to the past in any version; it could happen today. It would require some suspension of disbelief as to the use of technology, but even in the Fifties, Tony and Maria could have picked up a phone.

With all of the show's plot elements still present in the streets today, it is my opinion that to reach and connect with today's audience, it is vital to set West Side Story in the present (or near future). One of the big parts of what made West Side Story a hit in 1957 was its currency -- it reflected what was going on in the streets. It's important to remind audiences that it still does.

The fix:
* Set and costume designs would reflect current styles/settings/trends in the black and Hispanic communities.
* There should be some minor adjustments in musical arrangements, again to reflect current styles/trends, not so that the score is unrecognizable, but to take advantage of the 21st century and what it has to offer.
* As sacrilegious as it sounds, this may be the opportunity to finally tamper with Robbins' classic choreography a tad. By and large, the traditional steps won't come across as "swishy" anymore because of the current look/feel, but I also feel some minor current steps could be inputted without losing the ideas Robbins was going for in a particular sequence.
* For a stunning example, the Teen Dance Company of the Bay Area in California recently choreographed a tribute to West Side Story using Robbins-inspired moves and slight re-arrangements of the score, particularly the "Dance at the Gym" segment, giving it a fresh hip-hop style and take. (A video clip is available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okBgomoCd6I.)

Updated On: 5/21/11 at 05:16 PM

Posted: 5/20/11 at 5:29pm

wow.















longest. post. ever.










































like. a lot of words.

Updated On: 5/20/11 at 05:29 PM

[Musicaldudepeter]

Posted: 5/20/11 at 5:43pm

I know it's a fable; My way of directing it would be to totally depart from that original look. That's my whole point.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 5/20/11 at 5:59pm

taboo123, if you can't just type tl;dr, how about a brain transplant to go with the plastic surgery the lovable character in your avatar desperately needs? I warned you it would be long. Don't bitch.

*hops off soapbox*

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 5/20/11 at 6:20pm

You don't half go on a bit, don't you!? Cut to the chase, man!

Not that I agree with pretty much any of what you're saying about West Side Story anyway...

[kidbroadway2]

Posted: 5/20/11 at 6:31pm

The Book of Mormon with an all muslim cast.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 5/20/11 at 6:34pm

I'm all for a revised libretto for West Side Story that would eliminate Arthur's frabba-jabba crap, but I still think the structure of the stage version works best for the stage. I think it would be a bit of a mistake to transplant the motion picture changes to the stage, which seem to have been made to specifically make the show work better on film.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 5/20/11 at 6:36pm

Doesn't it generally take way more than one sentence to say how you'd direct a musical?

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 5/20/11 at 6:39pm

^

Not necessarily. I could spit out my entire concept for a musical starring Raúl Esparza that eliminates the need for a costume designer in just one sentence.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 5/20/11 at 11:07pm

This one is shorter. Lately, I've been going through all of Sondheim's early or more accessible shows and coming up with concepts. This one is Gypsy, specifically designed for the Barbra Streisand version but could also be applied to stage, and it comes in one of two flavors: vulnerable human Rose or Patti LuPone Rose.

COMMON CHANGES

* The cuts, likely for time, that Arthur made to the book in the 2008 revival are pretty good. Leaner, meaner, more slick. I can even do without the Kringelein scene.
* Restore the "Momma's Talkin' Soft" counterpoint. (That way, the melody doesn't come out of nowhere in "Rose's Turn" and the audience gets an opportunity to see just how much the two young girls comprehend their mother's conniving nature.)
* Restore "Nice She Ain't." (Herbie doesn't sing much in the show largely due to Jack Klugman's vocal inability during the original production; gradually, in each revival he has been given more to sing, yet somehow "Nice She Ain't" has never returned. It would give the actor something to play to fill out the character.)
* Cut "Mr. Goldstone." (Sondheim has complained long and loud about it, and his reasoning is sound. Move "Little Lamb" up a bit maybe, so that Louise is starting to wear under her mother's pressure and we see it, and then return to the scene when Herbie comes back. Let the actual scene end on that funny line, thereby given the significance it has to Sondheim.)
* Restore "Smile, Girls." (Makes up for the absence of "Mr. Goldstone" for Rose. The repetitive "roll out a headline" vaudeville opener is bad enough being heard at least twice for June. We don't need to hear it in another guise for Louise. Maybe we catch the tail end of that number, and then when Louise trips up trying to do June's baton bit, the girls get discouraged along with her, and Rose busts up the scenery with this number.)
* Four words: Minsky's Salute to Christmas. (It's splashier, it's more fun than the Garden of Eden any day, it's an opportunity for the little "Three Wishes for Christmas" showgirl spot to come back, and you don't have to lose any of Arthur's "witty" repartee, just edit it carefully around what's going on onstage.)

VULNERABLE VS. PSYCHOTIC ROSE

* In the case of a more vulnerable portrayal, the "Small World" reprise from the scene in the dressing room stays. "You go to hell!" is cut and the reprise is moved to that point (staged properly, of course). In this case, Rose suddenly jumps on Louise with the nervous "you are going to be a star" spiel to keep herself going, because Louise is all she has left, and it's all she knows how to do. This allows the audience to feel sorrier for her.
* In the case of a more driven psychotic portrayal, "You go to hell!" stays and "Who Needs Him?" goes in to replace that reprise. When Rose jumps on with Louise with the "you are going to be a star" spiel, she's clearly clinically insane and borderline abusive.

NOTE: This bit has always read to me (with the reprise) as a workable if somewhat uneven compromise between Arthur's and the other creators' approach rather than a full scene. "You go to hell!" is anger, and clearly should be followed by "Who Needs Him?" The "Small World" reprise, meanwhile, indicates a whole other emotion, not wholly unrelated to the emotion that comes before, but a bit of a jump so quickly in the scene. It's not impossible to have both the anger with the dialogue and the sadness with the reprise, as previous productions have shown, but I would like to experiment with both approaches.

Updated On: 5/20/11 at 11:07 PM

[chewy5000]

Posted: 5/20/11 at 11:56pm

[title of show] with a cast of 20 and a 33 piece orchestra

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 5/21/11 at 12:02am

quite well.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 5/21/11 at 12:10am

Not to get all technical and annoying here, guys, but it seems like a lot of you guys seem to think directing is making nips and cuts and changes to the existing script. Sure, that happens all the time in new productions, but it's certainly not the director's primary job. In my opinion, the director's job is to take what's given to him, interpret it, and make it work, not to pinpoint what he doesn't like about the show and attempt to "fix it". Directors are not playwrights.

That said, were I given the license to, I would implement almost all of musicaldudepeter's suggeted changes. Took the words right outta my mouth.

And as for how I'd "direct" a production, by my definition? (It seems as if you're asking for a fresh "concept" for a show.) I would do a dark, frightening version of Pippin that incoroprates experimental theatre techniques and uitlizes projections and live video feeds to make the character of the Leading Player more imposing and frightening than ever before, culminating in his complete meltdown when Pippin refuses to immolate himself. The audience would always have in the back of its mind that Pippin was just a pawn being used in the game of a tyrannical, despotic Leading Player so that his rebellion from the conventions of the theatre is made all the more shocking.

I've also dreamed of a production of Company in which a capella-style voice accompaniment by the cast is used in lieu of instruments and orchestrations. Not sure how that would work logistically, however - the "Vocal Minority" would probably have to be reinstituted to give support during numbers in which the whole main cast is singing.

Updated On: 5/21/11 at 12:10 AM

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 5/21/11 at 1:22am

I would love to direct a version of Beauty and the Beast that is a scary dark fairy tale. Belle's village could be rather dirty and poor, just like a poor provincial French town. The castle can have huge gothic style pieces for the castles, and lots of dark lighting.

Updated On: 5/21/11 at 01:22 AM

[scott68]

Posted: 5/21/11 at 1:37am

I have a vision for a dark, dystopian version of Mamma Mia that takes place in the gulags of a futuristic totalitarian society. Sophie doesn't have three possible dads to choose from (or embrace them all), she has three possible dads to try and rescue, in hopes that one of them might survive with her. It's very Hunger Games.

"I Have a Dream" ends up being the song that she sings on the way to her execution that inspires the proletariat to rise up against the government after... well, you know.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 5/21/11 at 7:47am

Not to get all technical and annoying here, guys, but it seems like a lot of you guys seem to think directing is making nips and cuts and changes to the existing script. Sure, that happens all the time in new productions, but it's certainly not the director's primary job. In my opinion, the director's job is to take what's given to him, interpret it, and make it work, not to pinpoint what he doesn't like about the show and attempt to "fix it". Directors are not playwrights.

While I feel your point is valid, I feel that the post, in its own way, is in fact asking for new concepts for these time-honored productions. That's sort of where my head went. Part of the problem when reviving a show is how to take the material, interpret it, and make it work; the phenomenon of the "revisal" has made this an especially interesting question.

In my own case, I wasn't just thinking of what shows I would do, but what I would do to make them unique. In the case of West Side Story, as I said in a sentence that may have been lost in my admittedly overlong post, the biggest selling point would be to do something different; "something about the show has to reappear in a new way, because it has been performed so often in its original form." Even Arthur's wishy-washy revival clung close enough to be regarded as yet another stock company with some cuts (choreographic and otherwise) and a little Spanish outreach thrown in. My view was to keep what worked, but go in as different a direction as possible and make it sell in the process.

I fully understand that a director is not a playwright (unless the show happens to be directed by the guy/gal who wrote it, or the director happens to know the structure of play writing from having successfully done so themselves), but the line is increasingly blurred as time goes by. In the case of the shows I chose, Sondheim himself has often worked with directors to try out new angles, and so it is not unreasonable to assume that with a good enough proposal, it could at least get work-shopped somewhere, if not staged outright.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 5/21/11 at 11:04am

Belated addition, my version of A Little Night Music, which takes roughly a sentence: put in the lyrics of "Love Takes Time," and use the Fredrika-only version of "The Glamorous Life."

[Xman8]

Posted: 5/21/11 at 1:53pm

I would take on Ragtime.

I would stage it on a theatre in the round. and make it look like a diorama. Since, essentially, Ragtime is a diorama. I would definitely keep the choreography of the original opening number. At least when Houdini hangs upside don EVERYONE can see him. I would also try making the stage revolve so people can see the numbers at different angles.

Another show I'd love to direct is Starlight Express just haven't thought of how.

[pinoyidol2006]

Posted: 5/21/11 at 7:23pm

I would tell the producers to find a better director to replace me.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 5/21/11 at 9:17pm

Evita as a small-scale chamber opera.

Cast:
Eva
Che
Peron

CHORUS
Soprano/Mistress
Tenor/Magaldi
Bass
Baritone
Alto
One young boy and one young girl

In 'The Art of the Possible', all of the "chorus" double as the government, including the children, some in over-sized suits.

There's more, but I won't ramble.