Pal Joey is now African American! And a gay character added to the plot.... — Page 2

Now that you have gone black, will you ever come back PJ?

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The New Yorker has just that one story online, in its entirety:



THE NEW YORKER: FICTION: PAL JOEY BY JOHN O'HARA, OCTOBER 22, 1938

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I'll stack the resumes and track records of Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and John O'Hara against any of the "creatives" working today.

Updated On: 8/9/13 at 11:33 PM

"Wicked will now be darker, but will also include Corner of the Sky for Elphaba to sing. Madame Morrible will tackle No Time At All, and they will add Over the Rainbow for Dorothy to sing, right before the end of the show."

That sounds pretty good to me.

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Hi everyone, I seldom comment on here...but longtime "lurker" so to speak. Anyway, I live in Little Rock, AR where The Rep will be producing this new version of "Pal Joey" next month. And I have been a long time patron of the theatre and have seen pretty much every show there over the past 8 years. Now, with that being said, I know how well their subscriber base and regular patrons react to their shows...and this theatre plays it SAFE for the most part due to this. Granted, they did do "Avenue Q" as their season ender last year and it brought in- I believe- a lot of new, young patrons that they really needed.

But still, I'd say that most of their subscriber base is of the 55+ white, uber conservative crowd. And based on the reaction to JUST a gay kiss when they did "The Full Monty" a few years ago, I really fear that this re-envisioned production of "Pal Joey" will not go over well at all. I wish it nothing but the best and plan on seeing it. However, The Rep is in the deep south and I just don't feel that this is the right theatre to experiment with the book of a beloved musical such as this one.

Updated On: 8/10/13 at 09:48 AM

I will give them credit, they have started introducing newer works or pieces that are not as known in this region as of late...albeit most of it is incredibly safe material. I'm all for them trying new things...trust me...we have so few options here in Little Rock, so I'll take what I can get in regards to theatre. They're doing a world premiere musical version of "Because of Winn Dixie" in December and while the movie and subject matter bore me to tears, the only thing that is making me want to see it is that Duncan Sheik is writing the music for it and John Tartaglia will be directing it. So they are advancing up the ladder, so to speak. Just hopeful they don't regress because of the current subscriber base.

Are there black characters or gay characters or acts in the Pal Joey short stories? Is he a swinger? (I'm thinking of Jackie the ambisextrous playboy in Moncure March's "The Wild Party.")

This'll probably be the next Pal Joey adaptation:

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