MezzA101 said: "Behind the Scenes of a Short-Lived Broadway Musical
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/06/03/behind-the-scenes-of-a-short-lived-broadway-musical"
That's a great piece, even if it really doesn't dissect much of what didn't connect with the masses for LEMPICKA and doesn't touch on her relationship with the producers at all.
A few other takeaways:
1) I'd still like to see her SUNDAY IN THE PARK (which was supposed to happen at Williamstown in 2017 before it got scrapped due to the Gyllenhaal revival).
2) These sentiments make me want to walk into traffic. Amber Gray, a mixed-race actress and TEAM member who played the original Persephone in Chavkin’s “Hadestown,” told me that her relationship with Chavkin has grown strained over time owing to issues of compensation. As the director, Chavkin receives royalties; as an actor, Gray does not. Chavkin told me that she plans to share her royalties with the show’s original Broadway leads, but that she has faced bureaucratic hurdles in doing so. Gray said, “I think some of her morals and ethics—there’s not space for them in those commercial machines.” Still, she gave Chavkin credit for trying to put her ideals into practice in a “yucky, antiquated” system. “Commercial theatre is not about camaraderie. It’s not about the art. It is about making money,” Gray said, adding, “That eats people alive.” A director is a leadership role and a director must be comfortable with asserting that authority over other collaborators who, as valued as they may be, are subordinates. The director must be "The Muscle" on the show, as William Goldman said, and there may have been no muscle on Lempicka. The line about the Bolsheviks strikes a similar tone.
3) This kind of sums up what drives her and it really seems like she's not happy in the commercial space. I usually like her as a director, but maybe she needs a break from commercial theatre after Gatsby. Afterward, on a car ride back to Brooklyn, Chavkin stared out the window. “I often felt, with the Team, that we were too warm or emotional or whatnot for downtown,” she said. “And then, uptown, I feel very welcomed, but also often have felt like my taste doesn’t align with a lot of what gets celebrated or sustained.” She went on, “I won’t speak to this season at all, for a number of reasons, but in previous seasons I will see stuff and I will just be, like, I don’t understand. I am genuinely confused by what ‘good’ is. It’s something about the comfort of the familiar, when what I’ve always been most exhilarated by is, I’ve never seen that before.”
Updated On: 5/27/24 at 05:08 PM
