About a year ago (4/2003 - when our beloved Dorothy Loudon was still with us, God love her), I entered the contest at TheatreMania for the worst musical idea. I decided to go all out. I realized why I didn't win when I discovered that there was apparently an actual stage musical of this work already in existence (!) However, I hope you all enjoy my insanity.
~Kevin
Psycho!
Music & Lyrics: Jerry Herman
Book: Neil Simon
Director/Choreographer: Susan Stroman
The Hitchcock masterpiece receives a big, lavish musical staging (complete with functioning shower and an additional exclamation point). The cast features Patrick Wilson as Norman Bates, Jane Krakowski as Marion Crane (who would eventually be replaced by Anne Heche, naturally), Rebecca Luker as Lila Crane, Marc Kudisch as Sam Loomis, Lee Wilkof in the dual role of Detective Arbogast and the Psychiatrist, and Dorothy Loudon stealing the show as the voice of Mrs. Bates. Set design by Robin Wagner, with costumes designed by William Ivey Long.
The show features such great musical moments as the opening "The 'We're So Poor We Can't Get Married So Let Me Steal the Money' Blues", a lengthy escape scene, "On the Road to Fairvale" with dream ballet. The dinner scene at the Bates Motel would bring us the musical scene "Checking Them In". Marion's "Singing in the Shower" segues into the Knifing Ballet, choreographed to the famous Bernard Herrmann string score, interpolated for all intense purposes. Immediately following is Norman and Mother's pensive duet "Oh Mother, Not Again!" with a choreographed crime scene cleanup. The end of Act One features Norman's soliloquy "Mother and Me", complete with soft shoe.
Lila's entrance at the top of Act Two features "Oh, My Sister!", and a frantic trio between Lila, Sam and Arbogast: "Marion, the Money and the Motel". Arbogast sings the aria-like "I Long to Know the Woman in the Window" just prior to the staircase scene. Mrs. Bates' argument against the fruit cellar, "A Mother's Right". The brief scene with the sheriff and some of the history of the Bates Motel: "Strychnine" and the eleven o'clock duet for Sam and Lila: "Sunday at the Bates Motel" to the finale "He's a Nut!" (not interpolated from "On the Twentieth Century").
Stroman's trademark use of props will allow for some creative movement with butcher knives and show-stopping curtain call reprises of "Singing in the Shower" and "Sunday at the Bates Motel".
Updated On: 4/27/04 at 12:31 AM
