Jean Seberg

[Flahooley]

Posted: 7/30/06 at 8:33pm

Who knows anything about this show?

It has a Marvin Hamlisch score - has he EVER written a bad score?

It was a flop in London during the early '80s.

It was based on the life of actress Jean Seberg...

I've seen a couple of Sebergs films and I saw an interesting documentary on her, but nothing suggested that her life was asking to be set to music.

The entire idea puzzles me.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/30/06 at 9:10pm

Heard one song from the score on a Sarah Brightman album called "Dreamers"

It was quite good

[Flahooley]

Posted: 7/31/06 at 2:52pm

Oh yes! I heard that.. very nice. I'm going to guess that it had the usual solid Hamlisch score... but why? What prompted them to write a show on this subject. I'm so very curious

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/31/06 at 6:00pm

It is a British musical & they will try anything so it is not that much of a surprise

[Scripps2]

Posted: 6/7/08 at 6:15pm

I’m bumping this thread because I recently referred to this musical in another thread and it generated some interest in my Inbox.

The musical Jean Seberg, about the life of the film actress premiered at London’s National Theatre in November 1983. As already established it had music by Marvin Hamlisch, and the lyrics were by Christopher Adler (son of Broadway producer and composer Richard Adler) whilst the book was by Julian Barry (Lenny) and Sir Peter Hall directed it.

Jean Seberg started her career in Otto Preminger’s film Saint Joan and the musical’s premise was that Jean Seberg also became the scapegoat and victim of the political and film industry establishment in a similar way to Joan of Arc, resulting in her suicide.

Ironically the musical itself became a victim of the British theatrical establishment at that time. There was considerable adverse publicity prior to the musical’s opening because it was felt that a theatrical company funded by the British tax-payer should not be used as an out-of-town tryout for an American musical. Similar criticisms would be levelled at the RSC when it produced Carrie a few years later. A very small minded attitude in my opinion but one that was very prevalent at the time – remember this was before Les Miserables.

“The arrival of the American musical Jean Seberg at the Olivier Theatre resembles the arrival of a tabby cat at Crufts. It has come to the wrong address and would be unlikely to win any prizes at the right one.”
Francis King, Sunday Telegraph.

The critics felt that the analogy between Jean Seberg and Joan of Arc was a weak one, and rather tasteless, only four years after the actress’s death:

“a tragic cantata that tells its grim story with conviction, a lucidly well organised book by Mr Barry and few concessions to good taste.”
Michael Coveney, Financial Times, 5th December 1983

“Contrary to all the gleeful rumours, Jean Seberg is no disaster, but an extremely accomplished collaboration between a talented team with a burning belief in their subject. Unfortunately that belief is misplaced.”
Irving Wardle, The Times, 3rd December 1983

There was mixed opinion on the score. The lyrics were felt consistently to be weak but the music divided opinion. The knowledgeable and objective Robert Cushman in The Observer said

“Barring a couple of lapses, Marvin Hamlisch’s score is the best he has written for the theatre.”

“This is a show without a really strong song. There is more melody and wit in A Chorus Line, less offence in “They’re Playing Our Song” and more open feeling in “The Way We Were.”
James Fenton, The Sunday Times.

Although relatively young at the time, having seen the show I would say it was largely forgettable. The things that stick in my mind were the supporting actors: John Savident as Otto Preminger turned in a performance that could upstage the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park (he still does), and a couple of West End veterans (Josephine Blake, Judith Paris) stopped the show with a bitchy number for a Hollywood Gossip columnist and an FBI Agent. That was the show’s problem though – a heavy and ponderous subject matter treated with songs like Bosom Buddies. It wasn’t bad, it just plodded along. I’d completely forgotten that one of the West End’s best actors, Joss Ackland (OLCs of A Little Night Music and Evita), was in it until I reread the reviews. I’ll leave the final word to Michael Billington in The Guardian:

“It is simply a rather dogged, trite bio-musical (better than Marilyn but not as good as Evita) that is well staged and boasts a couple of decent numbers but leaves the heart and mind serenely untouched.”