Alan Jay Lerner: A Lyricist's Letters (52 page)

        
As for my coming to New York, there is simply no way that I can. However, Joe said he thought he could come over the first week in April.

        
I must tell you in all honesty that I am not 100% certain it is going to be possible to get this play on when the producers would like to. Jane Lapotaire
⁵²
has signed to do something for the National Theatre and Julia McKenzie has another commitment. I think the casting is going to be very difficult and without a smashing Carmelina, there is no point in doing the show at all, even if all the writing meets our mutual approval.

        
At the moment, Hugh Wooldridge is directing another play and will not be available to us for another ten days. At that time, we can sit down and have some long meetings about everything. In the meantime, I will keep working and keep you informed of progress.

        
I hope you are happy in the new apartment.

        
Best to you both from both of us.

Aye,

Alan

    
To Burton Lane

    
February 24, 1984

    
Dear Burt,

    
Received your letter this morning.

        
About casting: as I told you, Jane Lapotaire is signed by the National Theatre and the only reason I bring it up is because I think that with the exception of Gemma Craven
⁵³
(who is a possibility), you are not going to find a better voice than Lapotaire’s. After all, no matter what you thought of “Dear Anyone,”
⁵⁴
she did Piaf’s complete repertoire and knocked them in the aisles!

        
Chita Rivera
⁵⁵
is of course sensational but really too old— and I don’t think you could get her in the country. She’s now playing Liza
Minnelli’s mother
⁵⁶
and Liza Minnelli could play Gia’s mother! Bernice Massi
⁵⁷
you could not get in the country. That I can assure you—and besides she means nothing over here. Millicent Martin
⁵⁸
is terrific and a dear friend of Liz’s but she’s happily ensconced in
42
^nd
Street
, lives in America and has no desire to come back to London. Besides, she’s 50, which I think is much too old.

        
Mary Tyler Moore
⁵⁹
is a possibility. I am having a meeting tonight with Armand and Hugh and I will bring it up.

        
I think I have a decent outline for the opening scene which I will write up and send off to you in a day or two.

        
Hope you are at last moved. Best to you both.

Aye,

Alan

    
P.S. Needless to say, “Love before Breakfast” will be out and replaced with “You Never Told Me.” I will do a lyric “sort of” based on the music and we can take it from there.

AJL

    
To Burton Lane

    
February 27, 1984

    
Dear Burt,

    
This is what I think is the cleanest and clearest and most immediately audience-absorbing way of doing the first scene.

        
No prologue. The curtain rises on Vittorio in mid-afternoon preparing the cage for the evening’s business. He sings a big soliloquy ending with “Time For a Love Song” in which he pours out his troubles in anger and frustration, which should be a big number—two choruses of
the song plus the interlude in the middle besides the beginning which has to be written. I thought I would write a lyric for your perusal.

        
“Why Him?” with a verse in which she tells of men who have been interested in her and whom she has found attractive—but of course done nothing—and can’t understand why this man should disturb her. This man who never says a word, never makes an advance, etc., then the chorus.

        
Replace “I Must Have Her” with a dialogue statement of his determination to do something about her tonight before the Americans return and all the memories are re-aroused, ending with a reprise of “It’s Time For a Love Song”—the last line being changed to: “It’s time and the time is tonight!.” Naturally, I would fix the previous lines to accommodate the rhyme change.

        
The balcony scene: as planned with “You Never Told Me.” I will do a lyric based on the melody you sent me—but not quite.

        
How does this strike you? I can’t believe there is a more effective way of doing that opening scene—and I love being able to reprise “Time for a Love Song.”

        
The hottest contender for Carmelina—and interested—is Gemma Craven, but what about Jill Clayburgh?
⁶⁰
I don’t know if she would be interested or if we could get her into the country but she’s a wonderful actress and came from musicals, and let’s face it, Carmelina doesn’t have to sing like Mimi! She has to have a good voice and be able to put over a song.

        
There was a huge charity benefit last night at Drury Lane. Liz sang “Why Him?,” got about five laughs and the response was tremendous. They do love that song over here.

        
Getting back to the vocal requirements of Carmelina, if you had seen all the musicals in town which I had hoped you would do while you were here, you would have seen how extensively body mikes and electronic sound is used. It’s almost expected. They like a lot of noise over here. Even the dialogue is carefully miked so when the singing is brought up a bit, it doesn’t change the tone of the show.

        
How are your new digs?

        
All the best.

Aye,

Alan

    
P.S. A very good set designer and lighting man have been set and the choreographer should be selected within the next couple of weeks—so things are moving.

        
P.P.S. I forgot to mention Vittorio. Everybody’s favourite seems to be Denis Quilley
⁶¹
who did
Sweeney Todd
over here. He has a fantastic voice and is a wonderful actor. He did one of the Franco Zeffirelli/Eduardo de Felippo plays with Joan Plowright and does Italian to a fair-thee-well. He is coming by Tuesday night to hear about the play and I will do two of the songs for him.

AJL

    
To Burton Lane

    
April 28, 1984

    
Dear Burt,

    
Received your letter this morning and I am sending you the revised opening scene which I completed about a month ago but was waiting until I had more to send.

        
If I seemed in my last letter to be preoccupied with matters not pertaining to the play, let me assure you my intention was only to fill you in on the possibilities and problems. The fact is, no matter what we write and how good it is, unless we can cast it—there is little chance of getting it on—and frankly, I don’t want to spend a lot of time and travel unless I know there is going to be a production.

        
So far, no one has turned the play down because they don’t like it. It has either been we don’t like them or the ones we did like had conflicting commitments. The exception was Diana Rigg,
⁶²
who liked it but didn’t think it was for her—or so she said.

        
It’s been a long winter and I have been working hard and am exhausted and so is Liz—so we are off on holiday today till mid-May. I will be in touch with you when I get back.

Aye,

Alan

    
To Burton Lane

    
May 25, 1984

    
Dear Burt,

    
Returned from Capri last night and found your letter waiting.

        
To keep the book straight, the reason for my “depression” (which it really wasn’t) last Fall was because of the automobile accident I had in August. I can’t stand being incapacitated and it took a long time before I could move around well.

        
Because I am not good at sitting around doing nothing, I have been working on a new book for the last few months (not autobiographical—about the musical theatre). Collins, who is the biggest publisher over here, is publishing it as soon as I can get it finished and the BBC want to do it as six 1-hour television shows some time in 1985. I also have started thinking about a new musical for Allan Carr
⁶³
and Jerry Minskoff
⁶⁴
with a young up-and-coming composer over here.

        
I have been afraid all along there would be problems about casting
Someone in April
. I have just spoken to Armand Gerrard and as you have probably heard, it seems to be off—certainly for the next six months. I don’t agree with you that it is simply a matter of getting the play right and we will find the right company.

        
I must also tell you in all honesty that one of the problems we have had has been that damn album which, because of the orchestrations, makes the score seem old-fashioned. I think Armand will confirm this with you, so for the last few auditions, I have been doing it myself with a pianist, who plays the score rather Italianate and it works fine. I agree with you that the book could be stronger in the beginning but I assure you that that has not been the problem.

        
Whenever Armand gives me the word, I will drop everything and go back to work. In the meantime, have a good summer and best to you and Lynn.

Aye,

Alan

    
It is interesting to see in this series of letters a dual focus between Lerner and Lane’s discussion of what needed to be changed or added to the show and the
practicalities involved in putting it on the stage. In the case of the writing, they usually agreed on the work’s flaws, but they seemed to disagree on the way to move the production forward. Lane thought that if they perfected the show, they would easily find a theater and star, whereas Lerner felt it was important to know who was going to play Carmelina so the musical could be revised around her. The lyricist also seemed more aware than the composer that until theaters and actors could be lined up, all the time they were putting in on the writing was speculative. Tensions had been constant through most of Lerner’s relationship with Lane, even though the quality of the work they produced was often very high (especially the songs). In the following letter to David Grossberg, his close friend and attorney, Lerner is open about his exasperation with Lane. He also gives some interesting details about a revival of
Gigi
that had been proposed for America, with Louis Jourdan taking Maurice Chevalier’s role of Honoré Lachailles:

    
To David Grossberg

    
29th May 1984

    
Dear Dave,

    
Just got back from Capri. Even though the weather was dicey, we both had a wonderful rest—the first since
Dance a Little Closer
and the hospital last summer—and I am full of piss and ginger!

        
Lots of things. One at a time.

        
As far as
Gigi
is concerned, an American tour is really not to my interest. It most certainly
is
to my interest for Cameron [Mackintosh] to do it over here where—whether he goes to Toronto with it or not—it will definitely play the Old Vic for two months and if it is well cast, well presented and well received, it can be moved to another theatre which is the usual route these days. In other words, I would rather gamble on a first class run here in London, away from Tams-Witmark, etc. So any way you want to get me out of that American business, go right ahead. You could say, for example, that I don’t approve of the changes in the book and I am not anxious to have it done unless I am present, which I can’t be—or maybe you can quibble about the royalties. I don’t care as long as it is cancelled once and for all.

        
What am I doing now? I am working like the very devil on the book and also starting with Gerard Kenny
⁶⁵
on
My Man Godfrey
. I promised
Allan Carr to have some sort of outline for him by mid-summer. In order to do that, I have to see if Kenny and I have a future together and write some songs.

        
As far as
Carmelina
is concerned, it is really in the lap of the Gods. Of course it needs work and of course I am willing to do it, but Armand [Gerrard] agrees with me that we can’t move unless there is the possibility of a cast on the horizon. Burton’s idea that if you make the show as good as you can possibly make it, the rest will follow, is simply not true—at least not here. Not only that, what was primarily wrong with
Carmelina
in the States was the style. It should have sounded like Italian street music and not like an old-fashioned Broadway musical. The sets should have been small and looked Italian and the costumes should not have made the people look like “the folks on the green” instead of real people. The truth of the matter is—and I haven’t really told this to Burton—that everybody here likes the book and the problem is the music. Knowing what I go through writing anything with Burton Lane, I just don’t want to tackle it unless I can see a production. As for the notion of some day bringing it back to Broadway, I think that’s crazy. I am not sure that even if it were hailed over here, I would want it back on Broadway. For obvious reasons it doesn’t do me any good, so why take the chance?

        
The head of P.B.S. is coming over June 10th for a meeting with the B.B.C. and Goldcrest Films about my book. They all have written me they want to do it. The question is, can it be set up financially? Goldcrest is cleaning up these days. Besides being a major investor in
Gandhi
,
⁶⁶
they have the new
Tarzan
picture and three extremely successful TV series over here.