The more I hear what people are saying, and looking back at my own experience, I think that the people don't really understand the book. It isn't laid out clearly. The purpose of the book was to show, most broadly, that the government did not do enough for its returning veterans. Although the show dealt with WW II, it was supposed to resonate with everyone who remembered the plight of the returning Vietnam Vets, and there aren't a big amount of those aging boomers still around. Although they made it back home, many were suffering from PSTD, meaning that they never recovered mentally from the horrors that they experienced there. There were suicides, and many more wound up on the streets abusing some substance. Usually alcohol. You may have heard of some WW II combat vets who would absolutely never discuss their war experiences with their families.
I helped out at a homeless shelter and I was appalled at the numbers. Once a month I'd have to drive one to the emergency room because they had the DTs. One day I met a vet who had just finished a month in rehab and already had a flask in his pocket. A very sweet young girl whom I met there had a brother vet who was locked into one of those awful government operated mental asylums. I hope not forever.
So when the government guy tells Danny that he had better find a job real fast because he had already been to another two funerals that week, he is talking about suicides. (This dialog is all on the cast album.)
Danny, really low, then hears on the radio that Baer aspirin is having a contest for a band in every state to write an original song connected to the war. The winning band, out of 48, would go to Hollywood and be in a film showcasing their song. This gives Danny meaning and purpose. He rounds up five other combat vets with adjustment problems: the bassist, Brandon Ellis, who is excellent, is an alcoholic, the trombonist has obsessive-compulsive disorder, etc. And Julia is brought in as the wife of Danny's best buddy. Danny feels responsible for his buddy's death because they are both in a foxhole at night throwing grenades at the Japanese above them. Danny pulls the pin on a grenade and drops the grenade at his feet. He can't find it and dives out of the foxhole before the grenade goes off, but his buddy doesn't get the message in time to get out of the hole before the grenade goes off.
So the band is formed and starts to have success and the members all feel better when they are together performing and rehearsing and proud when they start getting gigs. Winning or losing the contest not important, they have already succeeded. The music industry is not a theme. This is just one company, paying for this contest supposedly to help the vets, instead hiding a paragraph in the contest contract that will screw the bands out of their song rights.
Danny's relationship with Julia is hard to understand. I didn't get it the first time I saw the show. Bandstands' creators see their production as the material for an MGM musical. They draw that parallel. that I would never have thought of. In "This is Life" they draw the distinction between their Bandstand and the MGM musical. In a musical after Danny walks her home he would have ended up in her apartment (well, difficult since she lived with her mother). But since this is life, and not a film, they agree that they're not ready for a relationship now, or possibly ever. The war is still a barrier between them.
Maybe they just should have cut that scene, but the creators seemed proud of it.
If the climactic "Welcome Home" number succeeds in getting a huge response from the audience, it is earned. In this Playbill Popup Performance video, about a thirty minute discussion sandwiched between band performances, Laura says that at first she dreaded having to sing it and the song terrified her. She adjusted, but can't see herself ever singing the song out of the context of the musical. The song is very difficult for the band members to perform as well.
http://www.playbill.com/article/recap-watch-bandstands-laura-osnes-corey-cott-and-the-donny-nova-band-in-this-exclusive-performance-and-talkback
If you can get this video working it's about 30 minutes of discussion sandwiched between two performances. You may have to help the video along by dragging the slider about an eighth of an inch to the right. That will get the video started. After the first performances the video will cut to a promo for the show and then return you to a static screen. Again, click on the screen and when the slider at the bottom appears drag it a little to the right to get things started again.
Sorry, I suffer from terminal verbosity.
