What Are Your Thoughts on Mack & Mabel?- Page 2

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 9:49am

It's a great score, but you can't have the heroine die from heroin (!)--and then have the hero say, "Oh, well, I promised you a happy ending."

They thought that was being honest and true to life, but it just made for a bad musical.

I don't believe it can be "fixed," without changing history or changing the style of the score, which would be throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

And I agree with all who love The Grand Tour. That's the Jerry Herman score to revive!

[newintown]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 10:17am

One way to fix it would be to make it all about their rises to fame and success, and end with that; that is, to focus much more on the early part of their careers, and leave out Mabel's drug addiction and death. And just fictionalize it almost completely, a la Funny Girl and Gypsy.

Alternately, if one wanted to keep the darkness of Mabel's real life, assign a songwriter who can deal with that, rather than a jolly tunesmith like Jerry Herman. I like his work, but deep it ain't.

[mallardo]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 10:38am

For those heading to London this summer, the Southwark Playhouse, a great off-West End theater near London Bridge station, is staging Mack and Mabel in July and August. They've done brilliant productions of Company, Parade and Floyd Collins recently so there's reason for optimism.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 10:42am

It's too bad that they never used a fantasy narrator like Cabaret and Kiss of The Spiderwoman did. In those musicals, difficult moments are dealt with by the narrator.

I've always wondered if it was possible to stage some of Act 2 in black and white (ala City of Angels) and use the scenes more as a "movie in Mabel's mind" then circling the ending back to before Mabel left Mack.

[trentsketch]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 1:56pm

"It's a great score, but you can't have the heroine die from heroin (!)--and then have the hero say, 'Oh, well, I promised you a happy ending.'"

Yeah, that's not a good approach. City of Angels does that and it's the one thing that bugs me about that show. No, you can't just say "happy ending" and declare all plot points moot. Find a way to tie it up or accept a downbeat conclusion.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 6/14/12 at 2:39pm

In fairness, CITY OF ANGELS employs the writer as a character and plays tricks with the narrative all evening. That's not really the same as suddenly changing the rules of the theatrical world at the end. (The Ron Link version worked because we had been seeing Mack's cinematic fantasies (bathing beauties, Keystone Cops, etc.) all evening, so his fantasized "happy ending" played as bittersweet without ripping the narrative fabric.

I think PalJoey and Newintown are right: put some part of Mack and Mabel's relationship (either they finally come together or, more likely, they split for good) at the climax and then build to that, even if you have to invent incidents that didn't actually happen. Leave Desmond Taylor's murder and the heroin overdose for the program notes.