A Doll's Life

The book. Exploring Nora's life after she left Torvald was just a BAD IDEA.

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I saw the show on Broadway (about a million years ago!) and Margo is completely correct. The score is absolutely gorgeous and Betsy Joslyn was dazzling, but the book is very muddled and underwritten.

LOKI AND BALDOOOOOOOOOOR! BALDOR AND LOKIIIIIII!

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Actually, the York revival started previews with a six piece orchestration, but it proved to be too overwhelming in that space. So, it was reduced to two pianos. Comden, Green and Grossman did add a lovely song though in Act Two, called "Can't You Hear I'm Making Love To You".

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I saw the show on Broadway and both Betsy Joslyn and George Hearn were excellent. But the show was a snooze. A big disappointment from Hal Prince.

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It's such a shame because this score is so heart-stoppingly beautiful. Do you know if there is a libretto or score/selections in print?

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I’m seeing a lot of responses that A Doll’s Life was a “mess”. I don’t think that was the problem at all. Apart from a fussy device used at the beginning, where actors are rehearsing A Doll’s House and the actress playing Nora becomes Nora, A Doll’s Life was otherwise pretty straightforward, intelligent and not hard to follow, with many lovely songs. There was some derivative staging (the trademark Hal Prince bridge from Sweeney and Evita, and a waltzing couple drifting in from Follies). But I think Doll’s Life had several other intrinsic problems that had nothing to do with what was onstage.

1). Nora slamming the door in A Doll’s House is complete in and of itself. The ambiguity of what happens on the other side of the door for Nora is the essence of what you are left with. Answering that question with A Doll’s Life was an unnecessary proposition to begin with.

2) Comden and Green were known for comedy, and A Doll’s Life was somewhat deadly serious (apart from the opera sequence, and all of those “It’s so Norwegian!” jokes). I think the show was bound for failure because of critical and audience perceptions of Comden and Green and the type of show they write. The tone and earnestness of A Doll’s Life was not what people expected of them, and the reviews were out of proportion with the general quality of their work.

3) That serious, somber tone of Doll’s Life was another problem. Ibsen can be sometimes uproariously funny, but Doll’s Life carried its “importance” on its sleeve, and was a little too stolid and dull for its own good.

4) The show tried out in L.A., earning terrible reviews, before limping into New York. L.A., never much of a theatre town, was probably the wrong choice for a tryout. In Boston, Toronto or Washington, it might have received less damaging notices. With the imprimatur of failure firmly stamped on it from L.A., the New York critics came prepared for turkey, and never gave the show any credit for its ambitions and much of the beauty of the score.

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Updated On: 8/3/05 at 12:27 PM

It could probably make a good concert, and it would be nice to hear those orchestrations again. Unlike other flops though, there doesn't seem to be a sizable cult for A Doll's Life, so I don't think anyone will be jumping to produce a concert version.

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Magruder...your opinions on A DOLL'S LIFE sound strangely similar to Ken Mandelbaum's in "Not Since Carrie."

Try forming your own opinions instead of parroting those of others, okay?

The original production was sadly pretentious. Betsy Joslyn was a paper-think Nora and George Hearn was an empty stentorian noise.

The show made Comden and Green and Prince seem like lightweights attempting to be "profound." I felt icky leaving the theater.

I'm surprised to hear the score stands up. The whole event was one of the most embarassing things I've eever seen in the theater.

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It's so interesting to hear everyone's oppinions. I think that "Letter To The Children" is an amazing song and wish that one of Broadway's leading ladies would record it.

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I don't recall what the New York critics said when this show opened. I remember seeing it and thinking "what a mess". I don't know what was done in revivals or what happened in previews. I remember going to see this production, as a student in acting school, and coming out saying what the hell was that? I enjoyed some of the music but the story and the direction, IMO, was all over the place.

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