New play/musical development pre-ACL

[missthemountains]

Posted: 4/26/21 at 12:41pm

Based on my understanding, ACL is thought of as the first "workshop", but this puzzles me a little bit as The 'O Neil had to have been doing staged readings through National Playwrights Conference since 1966 (from what I can tell based on the 'O Neil's website), and National Musical Theatre Conference since 1978. From what I can gather from ACL's Wiki page, it looks like the first "tape session" was January 26, 1974--so from there, I deduce that there was at least one "workshop" between then and opening night at the Public which was  April 15, 1975. This would pre-date NMTC by a few years, but not NPC, which would've been around close to ten years at that point.

I guess my question is this--based on my understanding of theatre history, for most commercial theatre ventures, it seems common that shows would either transfer from university productions (see: Godspell, Pippin), or would go straight to trying out of town--why were producers so quick to stage things, presumably before they were ready to be seen? Surely backers auditions date back to around the 30's and perhaps even earlier, but am I to understand that the traditional trajectory of shows used to be:

backers auditions (sometimes maybe having concurrently with private, closed door table readings?) -> out of town try out -> broadway/off broadway?

While out of town still happens, it definitely is no where near where it used to be. I credit some of this to the internet and heavy production costs, but I can't understand why back in the day producers would bankroll entire plays and musicals without having some sort of an idea as to how they were going to be staged. I guess the economy wasn't really as bad back then, but still!

Given the many stories over the years of disastrous out of town tryouts (which I am of course so grateful for), I don't understand why producers wouldn't have come to a consensus that shows needed longer reading/workshop processes--surely this would've weeded out quite a few flops back in the day. Can someone help me understand this logic? Am I missing something here? Was it maybe more of a case-by-case basis where some shows went straight from backers auditions right into rehearsals, or were some of them actually formally workshopped more? I just can't imagine this being the case for infamous disasters such as Prettybelle, Portofino, Lolita My Love, Rachael Lily Rosenbloom, Into The Light among many, many others. 

Apologies if something like this has already been posted.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/26/21 at 2:40pm

I think the piece you are missing is this:  ACL started from NOTHING.  It was through these workshops that the show came into existence.  When it started, they weren't even sure a show WOULD be possible.   All the other things you are talking about is more like re-writes, edits, experimentation - but the script already existed.

[missthemountains]

Posted: 4/28/21 at 8:31am

Sure. Fine. But it still doesn’t answer my question. Why werent new plays and musicals take time to develop back in the day? Unless they did and I stand corrected. Seems these days a new play or musical can spend years in reading/workshop hell before it’s staged.

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 4/28/21 at 5:50pm

missthemountains, I believe you're right in your assumption of the process. Reading biographies of famous composers, lyricists, directors, etc; it seems like it started with an idea. The individual tries to work on the idea, maybe collaborates with someone. Once they have a draft they "shopped it around". Found a producers or director, worked on it some more, then if secured the capital, when out of town where things were played with, changed and reworked until it either died on the road, or came to Broadway.

I think Rodgers and Hammerstein talked about ideas. They both though "Green Grown the Lilacs" could be a musical. They went "away [they] go" to write a draft or two of the libretto and score. Once that we done, they found producers. Then they went into production, and then eventually "Oklahoma" opens! I think that the idea that you work on something until you feel you are ready to do a production. You then use your rehearsal time and 3 or 4 out of town tryouts to shape and mold. I wonder how much of the decline of out of town has to do with the idea of workshops, etc.

Also, it seems like money was easier to come by then. They didn't need 2 readings and a lab for producers to feel like they should spend the money on the show.  There was also usually only one or two producers, who needed to like your idea to fund it.