Thoughts on Warrior

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 12:23am

Just saw Warrior, a musical with music, book and lyrics by Marcus Hummon, about oldtime athlete Jim Thorpe (in the NYMTF) at the Theater at St. Clement's and have a few thoughts to offer.

This is a showcase production with minimal production values and I was expecting the piece to be at advanced workshop level, which it was. There is a three piece band accompanying.

I think this show is worth seeing. The cast is devoted and focused. The music is good though it still needs work and there are too many slow songs.

If you don't know the story, Jim Thorpe was a Native American (Indian) and an impoverished kid from Oklahoma, who early in the 1900s won all kind of Olympic medals but it turned out he had been paid a small amount to play some minor league ball and therefore was not technically able to compete as an amateur. Great runner and football player. Superb natural athlete. His Olympic medals got taken away so it was a big scandal.

Deven May portrays Thorpe in the cast and he is very good. You may remember him from Bat Boy. He even does a little touch of Indian dancing, a nice short segment of it especially near the end of the play. Marla Schaffel plays his seducing weakness, the liquor Whiskey, embodied in the play as the character of a woman.

This setup has been done before in Eli's Comin', a musical story using the songs of Laura Nyro which you may have caught at the Vineyard. Sexes reversed, Wilson Jermaine Heredia portrayed "Captain Jack" or heroin as a male seducer to the female addict lead, and he was wonderful in the nonspeaking role, portraying his character purely through dance. I found the dance mime technique more effective than the narrative Whiskey character in Warrior. Though Ms. Schaffel is very talented, I found the existence of her character in the piece a distraction, more artifice than help in telling the story. (Particulary I wish she would not wear the red dress with extremely low cleavage as it put me at concern that she was about to expose herself by accident any second and it was distracting from Thorpe, who is the play's center; there were two other dresses which seemed too modern and out of period as well though the one for his wife worked fine.) Perhaps it can work to have Whiskey as a character, but it has to slip down to a much lower prominance or the story becomes about alcohol instead of Thorpe.

And there is a big story about Thorpe to tell but it isn't all there yet. It's hard to take a downer life story where the guy goes to drink and ruin and try to meld it into a story structure. It can be done. The key to this tragedy is not really the man's weakness to alcohol. It's his dissociation from his tribe and his culture. Thus I'd have the alcohol as only a bottle in the play and let his haunting be the call of his tribe, religion and culture that's been waylaid instead.

The play has elements of this in germination stage throughout. It is this sense of loss and longing, however, that is not being shown or explored which could chuck out some of the exposition and sink you into the pathos of this inarticulate, tortured soul. This is a man who ran twenty-some miles away from school one day to get back home. He may not be able to vocalize it, may not even be able to put his finger on what the sense of loss and alienation that he lives with is, but it can bleed through into the play with echoing sound of real Indian chants coming from unseen spirits of his tribe who have passed over, but who keep spiritual tabs on one of their own.

That kind of loss, alienation and pangs are what give Thorpe his true dimensions, his tragic flaw and the pathos that is needed to be able to draw an audience in with empathy to bring them to tears in emotional recognition of the intense loneliness of this athletically gifted outsider.

You could do a lot of suggestive things in a fully realized production. Dramatic lighting. Fewer people onstage rather than keeping all the cast out there almost all the time. For example, if you wanted to remind the audience of his Indian heritage you could have a silent scene of his preparation, his concentration for performing in the Olympic games and have one eagle feather float down from the ceiling. There, you've said it. Here is an Indian about to go into battle. The audience would get it. Same as offstage indian drum and chant or even battle cry would give an intense presence of the historic and lost culture.

Right now the play begins and ends on an Indian theme, and has a seating arrangement as if around a campfire. I think it would be more effective to break the play out of the campfire circle and use the whole stage to convey the sense of the Indian view of the universe. The unseen and the minimal can be more powerful in evoking imagination.

I also think the play's cast could possibly be cut from twelve to as few as seven or eight. If you are going to have twelve, I think they should actually all, or almost all, perform Indian dance for the effect, and at a serious level of dance. Again, that would be for a full production budget.

Just some thoughts, not really a review here...

© 2006 nomdeplume by pseudonym All rights reserved. Updated On: 9/13/06 at 12:23 AM

[folkyboy]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 12:31am

interesting. thank you for sharing. i wish i could see it but who knows? maybe i will in a later embodiment.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 12:35am

Your av is very Dada, folkyboy! Updated On: 9/13/06 at 12:35 AM

[toomeytwopiece]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 7:27pm

interesting thoughts :)

I have to disagree with this:

"And there is a big story about Thorpe to tell but it isn't all there yet. It's hard to take a downer life story where the guy goes to drink and ruin and try to meld it into a story structure. It can be done. The key to this tragedy is not really the man's weakness to alcohol. It's his dissociation from his tribe and his culture."

this story IS primarily about a great man being destroyed by alcohol. the themes of American Indian alienation and racism are also important and probably could be explored more, but whiskey should be a large part of this story. It's actually really interesting to hear your point of view though :) It just makes me realize how differently people see alcoholism.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 7:29pm

Thanks for sharing! I'm ushering there on SUnday, I believe.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 7:33pm

I'm seeing it Sunday and am quite excited.

It is also my first theatre festival show!

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 7:47pm

I believe Thorpe's dissociation, loneliness and alienation may have caused or been combined with an underlying depression which led him to the alcoholism. American Indians are said not to be able to metabolize alcohol well, so there is also some genetic predisposition.

Sometimes when an underlying depression is treated the person no longer seeks escape or relief from depression in alcohol.

So I'm more interested in what's behind or causing the alcoholism.

I'd also say that a writer need not feel they have to include all the timeframe of a person's life in their story as this playwright seemed to feel bound to do. It's a big temptation with historical drama in feeling a duty to present everything and the play gets too expositive. As an alternative you can pick the most significant time chunk or jump around, rather than a straight sequence. There are options.

You will certainly find it worth your time to see, BSoBW2 and dancingthrulife04. Updated On: 9/13/06 at 07:47 PM

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 9/17/06 at 11:41pm

Just saw it today. As of right now, the work seems very unfinished.

First off, the cast is insanely talented. I am not sure what's wrong with Deven May, but the man should be jumping from show to show and should never be out of work. Also top notch were Sherrie Austin (who worked beautifully with May and sang one of my favorite songs in the show - CHILD IN WINTER, I thin), Erich Bergen (who sang the only song I knew from the show - 49-0), and, of course, Marla Schaffel as the ultimate seductress - Whiskey.

The roles of Jim Thorpe and Iva, and their relationship, were for the most part well written. The one part the lacked (extremely lacked) was Avery - Jim's "enemy." There seemed to be a big stink about him later in the show that could have and should have been further developed. It doesn't help that he had one of the weaker songs THANKS KING. Nevertheless, Brian Charles Rooney played it to great (comic) avail. And, perhaps I shouldn't say, it was reminiscent of his fantastic work in 3Penny - and it was nice to hear his real voice. (The relationship between Hiram and Jim also suffers from the same lack of chemistry in the script itself.)

I should also mention Louis Tucci, who played Pop. He was fantastic each time he stepped into the spot light. The rest of the cast was also fantastic.

The work is obviously not finished - as it could use a book overhaul with extended dialogue scenes. The music is pretty fantastic and quite engaging, though some of it could be cut (and some songs could be bettered if they are extended).

The use of Whiskey - as a character - was never fully realized. The "character" was used almost as an ensemble member and that took a lot away from the purpose of alcohol as the grand temptress. I was almost waiting for a musical "battle" between Iva and Whiskey (or something and Whiskey) to lure Jim to the one, obvious, side.

Also interesting was the whole "Freak Show Circus" idea which failed. Wasn't Jim the one telling the story? How did he tell of his own death, I wonder? Whiskey was also the narrator but I think the creators should think of another way to narrate the story and use the Indian circle.

There is a definite commentary on race issues of Indians (even blacks) that could be furthered developed as, perhaps, a cause of the serious drinking - making Whiskey Jim's sole protector in these hard situations.

So, anyway, of course it isn't "finished" yet - but it's close. The music is exciting and hauntingly beautiful and with a few rewrites this could become a great production.

(I also sort of noticed a great "act" break between EASY TO FALL/HARD TO RISE and WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE (a sultry number lead by Whiskey - an example of where Whiskey becomes too much of a person and not an idea).
Updated On: 9/17/06 at 11:41 PM

[Luckydave14]

Posted: 9/17/06 at 11:47pm

I think that at the beginning of the show when they are at the "Freak Show Circus", they are not actually looking at the REAL Jim Thorpe, but rather his remains.

SPOILER
Remember at the end of the show when his remains are sold to somewher in Pennsylvania? I was thinking that at the beginning, they were in this place in Pennsylvania looking at the remains. And also, I think by looking at Thorpe's remains, the story was like being told through the remains.
SPOILER

I'm not totally sure, but that is what I got from it.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 9/17/06 at 11:54pm

Oh, right. Good point.

There were sound problems so I didn't catch everything that was said - so I usually focused on other things...like that sweet headdress.

[Luckydave14]

Posted: 9/18/06 at 12:30am

Haha BSo. There were some sound problems, but personally, I think they could've done the show without mics. It's such a small venue and they sounded even better whenever the mics failed for a second.

[Erich]

Posted: 9/18/06 at 3:28am

Updated On: 10/26/14 at 03:28 AM

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 9/18/06 at 2:54pm

SPOILER
I was thinking that at the beginning, they were in this place in Pennsylvania looking at the remains.

No, they were at the state fair in Ohio. Whiskey says "Welcome to your 1953 state fair... good people of Ohio" (or something to that effect).

I think they might have had his remains at the state fair, though. That would make sense.
END SPOILER

The show was fantastic. There were some sound problems, but I really don't think it took anything away from the show.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 9/18/06 at 3:19pm

I haven't seen the show and it looks like I'll end up missing it sadly, but I have to echo the sentiment that st. Clement's sucks as far as sound is concerned.
I've seen four shows in there and no manner of natural sound + amplification in a variety of ways helps.

[Erich]

Posted: 9/18/06 at 3:37pm

Updated On: 10/26/14 at 03:37 PM

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 9/18/06 at 3:52pm

That being said...it's still annoying. Even for the actors.


I can imagine. But, it all worked out.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 9/18/06 at 3:52pm

Floor mics could work, yeah, but the problem is that an orchestra of almost any size is going to create sound problems.
It's a rough, rough space even though I've seen some good stuff there.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 9/18/06 at 4:11pm

The lighting was great, for what it was.

And, dang, those seats are uncomfortable. I would have given anything to be back at the Delacorte. (Well, maybe that's too much of an exageration.)

But, I suppose, the test of a show is if it can be engaging enough that we don't even think about the uncomfortable seats. And I didn't, until the show ended...

[Luckydave14]

Posted: 9/18/06 at 4:25pm

Agreed BSO. I wasn't even thinking about the seats while at Mother Courage it was all I could think about.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 9/18/06 at 4:29pm

When I did get a seat, I wasn't even thinking about that. I was very wrapped up in the show.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 9/18/06 at 9:55pm

I think some of the enjoyment cells in our body are located in the tuchas.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 9/19/06 at 12:40am

Can someone who saw the show--or is IN it--post the running time, please?

(And if it has already been mentioned in the thread, please forgive me for not noticing. I have not read any of the comments in this thread because I am seeing it on Saturday, after which time I will read every word you guys wrote!)

[Luckydave14]

Posted: 9/19/06 at 12:41am

It was about an hour and a half.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 9/19/06 at 12:43am

Thanks so much, LD!