Herman The Great
In the choreographed overture ("Rehearse! (instrumental)” - 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue) the cast dances and performs a kind of theatrical ritual calling forth the spirits of the theatre. After a brief blackout, the lights rise on a gathering of politicians having a wild, end-of-year party ("Backstage Babble" - Applause). One, Herman, a down-and-out loner, is gossiped about as being slimy and a general crumbum (“Gossip" - Sunday in the Park). On the other hand, Eva, a potentially rising star with good looks and a sharp brain, is wooed and flirted with by all the hotshot guys (“Pretty Lady” - Pacific Overtures).
After the party turns rowdy, a tispy Herman is egged into giving a performance before the rest of the crowd, with the apparent intent of embarassing him. However, he turns out an emotional, heated song (“I Don’t Care Much” - Cabaret), impressing everyone. Eva, who’s always maintained a certain interest in Herman, corners him afterwards and they fall in, revealing her distaste for the other hotshots, which appeals to his misanthropic nature. She also reveals to him her basic roots and desire to be on the top, and to look down on everyone else, family included. They sing, seemingly sardonically but with an underlying tension of real passion, about their feelings towards each other (“How Can Love Survive?” - Sound Of Music).
On the way home from the party, Herman runs into a travelling mystical carnival, populated by an assortment of freakish characters, who work under The Black Rider ("The Black Rider" - The Black Rider). The Black Rider puts Herman under his own spell with a magic lantern, and promises him anything he’d like, if he can pay the price. Herman, hypnotized, waves away all possible damage or misfortune and wishes for one thing: power.
The carnival troupe celebrates their ritual and, in a wash of fog, Herman finds himself in the midst of the elitist power lunch set (“Let’s Have Lunch” - Sunset Boulevard), where he, through dark forces, finds himself a magnet for the exact people who can help him enact his plans. A key assistant reveals his talent for manipulation and salesmanship ("Dressing Them Up" - Kander & Ebb) and Herman puts him to work, enlisting an entourage of travelling salesmen to push his manifesto ("Hello" - The Book of Mormon). The process is wildly successful and Eva, on a television chat show, gushes about her rise to glory (“Look What Happened To Mabel” - Mack And Mabel). The money rolls in as if it might never stop ("And The Money Kept Rolling In" - Evita).
INTERMISSION
The rise of the second act reveals the uniform crowd that Herman’s manifesto has created ("One" - A Chorus Line) and, flying high, Herman tells Eva of his devotion to her ("You'll Never Get Away From Me" - Gypsy). The crowd falls in for praise of Herman ("Master of the House" - Les Miserables), which serves double to show Eva’s indiscretion with other men, which is tallied by Herman’s spies (“Put It In The Book” - The Roar of the Greasepaint), a number that, in itself, doubles to show Herman’s spies spying on the people of the country, marking down anything they do against Herman’s manifesto.
What the spies mark down are tallied up and, in a grand coup d’etat, Herman’s military sweep up all nonfollowers and untrustworthies for a grand burning and general display of sadistic intent ("Auto-Da Fe" - Candide). At the auto-da fe, as the bodies pile up and the innocent scream with torture and pain, Herman also reveals to Eva that he knows everything she’s done behind his back. She objects that she’s never strayed from him, intellectually (“Always True To You” - Kiss Me, Kate), though this objection is tinged with a strain of fear at the sight of Herman’s bloodlust.
Following the auto-da fe, a gathering of the greatest minds and followers takes place (“Ascot Gavotte” - My Fair Lady) to put together a grand final solution for the rest of mankind, who have been deemed unworthy (“Et moi, ce n'est pas là, pardieu" - The Tales of Hoffmann). The plan is assembled - the minds have gathered and produced a bomb that will, at sundown, destroy everything but their country, at last leaving them at peace to be the greatest race (“God That’s Good! - Sweeney Todd).
Meanwhile, Eva has had a secret meeting with one of the renegade brainchildren of Herman’s posse, and, in an exchange of sexual favors (and coercion - the renegade is upset with having to play charades and would really like to end it all) agrees to help her fix Herman’s bomb to wipe out only their country ("Do Me A Favor" - Carrie). Herman, suspicious, has tracked her down and, while they are inside, sings of how he can't shake her ("How Many Women" - The Wild Party). He catches her coming out of her secret meeting, and, though he doesn’t know yet who she was with, promises her that he will have him found out and snuffed out. She sings of her devotion to him (“Unusual Way” - Nine&rdquo
while the renegade fixes the bomb, and as she lets him have her for the last time, the posse upstairs signs of its anticipation of the final event (“The Sun Won’t Set” - A Little Night Music).
The bomb goes off, catching all in the midst of activities, which The Black Rider, now our friendly narrator, wanders through while his troupe sings of the catastophe (“Boom Ditty Boom” - 70, Girls, 70). He explains that, through a slight error, the renegade set the bomb to blow up not only the country, but everything else, and that the world is now a smoking ruin. He explains that he will spend the rest of his time on the Earth capturing, with his magic lantern, the lifeforces of those trapped in the moment of death, which will be used to start a more hopeful planet somewhere else. You win some, you lose some.
Lyrics would be shifted, I'm sure, and songs pared down and rearranged as necessary.
Updated On: 11/8/15 at 03:52 AM
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