Enchanted Evenings:The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber (130 page)

5
.
Rent
(5,124 performances) lost its bid to overtake
Cats
when it closed on September 7, 2008.

6
. John Snelson,
Andrew Lloyd Webber
, 2. Everett notes that during the 2000–01 season West End audiences could see as many as
five
Lloyd Webber shows (Prece and Everett, “The Megamusical,” 254).

7
. Michael Walsh,
Andrew Lloyd Webber
.

8
. Joseph P. Swain,
The Broadway Musical
, 315–32.

9
. Steven Suskin,
Show Tunes
, rev. and expanded 3rd ed., xii.

10
. Ibid., 378.

11
. Raymond Knapp,
The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity
(2005) and
The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity
(2006). The seven Sondheim shows are
Assassins
and
Pacific Overtures
in the earlier volume and
Company, Into the Woods, A Little Night Music, Passion
, and
Sweeney Todd
in the latter.

12
. Scott Miller,
From “Assassins” to “West Side Story”
(
Assassins, Company, Into the Woods, Jesus Christ Superstar, Merrily We Roll Along
, and
Sweeney Todd
);
Deconstructing Harold Hill
(
Passion, Sunday in the Park with George
); and
Rebels with Applause
(
Anyone Can Whistle
).

13
. Jessica Sternfeld,
The Megamusical
. In her “Introduction,” 1–7, Sternfeld presents a useful definition and description of the megamusical. The chapters that follow constitute the most thorough study of the subgenre to date.

14
. See, for example, Mark Grant,
The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Musical;
John Bush Jones,
Our Musicals, Ourselves;
and Scott McMillin,
The Musical Drama
.

15
. Stephen Citron,
Sondheim & Lloyd-Webber
. I think it is not inappropriate to mention that some on the Advisory Board seriously questioned whether Lloyd Webber merited inclusion in a series called Yale Broadway Masters.

16
. Quoted from Mattheson’s
Der Vollkommene Capellmeister
(1739) in J. Peter Burkholder, “Borrowing.” In
Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online
,
www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/62918pg15(accessed September 24, 2008
). The quote continues: “One must so construct and develop imitations that they are prettier and better than the pieces from which they are derived.”

17
. Romberg’s
Blossom Time
(1921), a huge hit in its day and in many touring productions for decades thereafter, consisted of Romberg’s reworking of recognizable Schubert melodies.
Romberg’s reported quip, “Not yet,” at a party in response to whether he had composed Offenbach’s familiar Barcarolle from
Les Contes d’Hoffmann
which was playing in the background, humorously acknowledges this reputation for musical borrowing.

18
. Snelson,
Andrew Lloyd Webber
, 172.

19
. Ibid., 167. Louiguy’s given name was Louis Guglielmi. In 1955 a cha-cha arrangement of “Cherry Pink” by “Mambo King” Pérez Prado was number one on American hit charts for ten consecutive weeks. After “Cherry Pink,” Louiguy’s other mega song hit was “La vie en rose,” composed for French chanteuse Edith Piaf.

20
. Ibid., 168.

21
. Walsh describes Lloyd Webber’s descending chords as “the spiritual heirs of the first notes” of Vaughan Williams’s symphony while Grant more directly states that the “opening minor-key descending riff in the title tune of
Phantom of the Opera
is stolen from Vaughan Williams’s
London Symphony
” (Walsh,
Andrew Lloyd Webber
, 33; Grant,
The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Musical
, 33).

22
. Citron includes a comparative musical example of “Music of the Night” and “School Days” and Snelson includes the relevant passage of “Recondite armonia” (Citron,
Sondheim & Lloyd-Webber
, 334–35, and Snelson,
Andrew Lloyd Webber
, 179).

23
. Example 16.2 shows the relevant phrase only in
La fanciulla
. For an example that includes other “motivic connections” between both
La fanciulla
and its borrowing in
Phantom
, see Snelson,
Andrew Lloyd Webber
, 179.

24
. Walsh, “The Curiosity of
Cats,” Smithsonian Magazine
, October 2007 www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?actional_cpt&title—The+Curiosity+of+Cat+%7 … In his introduction to his larger study,
Andrew Lloyd Webber
, Walsh describes the “match” between these phrases of
Phantom
and
Turandot
as “obvious” (Walsh, 13).

25
. Sternfeld, 87. Sternfeld does address the disparity between people who love and people hate the musicals of Lloyd Webber, and recognizes parallels in reception between the composer of
Phantom
and the composer of
Turandot
but reaches different conclusions from those presented here: “It is rare for critics and audiences to disagree so strongly about a composer; interestingly, another of these rare instances concerns reactions to the operas of Giacomo Puccini, whose style Lloyd Webber has admired and occasionally emulated. In fact, critics often complain that Lloyd Webber sounds too much like Puccini, even when the music does not support this, as if they are considering instead reputation and their own role as critics deriding a popular composer” (Ibid., 72).

26
. Space prohibits rigorous identification of Lloyd Webber’s borrowings, but I think it is important to note the subtle melodic and harmonic allusions to the finale of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto in the very first sounds audiences hear in
Sunset Boulevard
(which return as the main musical material in the refrain of Max von Mayerling’s homage to the great silent film star Norma Desmond he serves and loves, “The Greatest Star of All”). This is an inspired allusion. Unfortunately, this degree of originality is rare in
Phantom
and other Lloyd Webber shows.

27
. Block, “Integration.”

28
. McMillin,
The Musical as Drama
, 31–53

29
. Ibid., 165.

30
. Swain,
The Broadway Musical
, 2nd ed., 315–32 and 385–408.

31
. Ibid., 325.

32
. Knapp,
The American Musical
, 2006, 342.

33
. The Ultimate Edition,
The Phantom of the Opera
, Milestone Film and Video, DVD, 2007.

34
. Foster Hirsch,
Hal Prince
, 169.

35
. The apt phrase “romantic alternative” was coined by Mel Gussow, “The Phantom’s Many Faces over the Years,”
New York Times
, January 30, 1988.

36
. John Snelson illustrates the whole-tone scale in the “I have brought you” verse (which he labels “Phantom’s Lair theme” [Ex. 4.6]) and reveals how this scale pervades an earlier passage in the coda of “Angel of Music” between Christine and Meg (Ex. 4.5), where Christine explains that “He’s with me even now” (Snelson,
Andrew Lloyd Webber
, 94–95).

37
. From the Sondheim interview in the “Musical Mayhem” special feature in the DVD in which he asserted that the
Sweeney
film was “an attempt to take the material of the stage musical and completely transform it” and “not a movie of a stage show” (Sondheim, “Interview with Sondheim,” 2007).

38
. The film abandons some dialogue and recitative, the reprise of “Notes” in act II, and most lamentably the rehearsal of
Don Juan Triumphant
, also in act II. Conversely, the film adds numerous underscored scenic visual moments and pantomimed action devoid of either singing or talking. An example of the latter is an intense and prolonged swordfight at the cemetery in which Raoul emerges victorious over the Phantom but spares his life at Christine’s urging. Viewers also watch at some length as Raoul tries to overcome physical obstacles to reach Christine in the Phantom’s lair at the climax of the story.

39
. The returns to the 1919 frame are part of a larger attempt to make some of the more mysterious plot elements clear to a film audience who may not have seen the stage version many times. For example, the film adds a short conversation between Christine and Meg before they sing “Angel of Music,” including flashbacks of Meg’s mother bringing Christine to the opera house after her famous violinist father died and promised that an Angel of Music would appear to guide her. The conversation also lessens Christine’s gullibility and clarifies her emotional connection to the disembodied teacher sent by the spirit of her beloved father.

40
. In an interesting touch, the singer over the credits is Minnie Driver, who plays the temperamental Italian prima donna Carlotta Giudicelli, whose voice in the film is dubbed by an operatic professional Margaret Preece.

41
. Sternfeld calls this motive the “story motif” due to its usual association with various kinds of narration or exposition, but in his own program listing of musical material Lloyd Webber offers the title “I Remember” for act I, scene 6 (Sternfeld,
The Megamusical
, 247–50 and 385).

42
.
Enchanted Evenings
, 1st ed., 191–93,

43
. Ibid., 375n29.

44
. This is the theme Sternfeld labeled “the story motif” (Sternfeld,
The Megamusical
, 245–46).

45
. See Example 5.7 in Sternfeld for the simple rhythmic variation on the “I have brought you” motive in the “Little Lotte” music (Ibid., 251–52).

46
. In “The Making of
The Phantom of the Opera
,” the documentary that accompanies the DVD release of the 2004
Phantom
film, viewers learn that Lloyd Webber wanted “All I Ask of You” to capture the quality of “Some Enchanted Evening” from
South Pacific
, a musical long regarded as one of his earliest and most lasting favorites. While the pitches and harmonic underpinning are distinct, the rhythm that opens “All I Ask of You” does bear an intriguing resemblance to the opening rhythm of its Rodgers and Hammerstein predecessor. Snelson includes a musical example of a connection between the second major phrase of “All I Ask of You” and a phrase sung by Minnie, also in
La fanciulla del West
(Snelson,
Andrew Lloyd Webber
, 180). Grant, who offers Jerome Moross as “the least credited source from whom Andrew Lloyd Webber steals tunes” states that “‘All I Ask of You” from
Phantom of the Opera
is arguably a direct steal from Moross’s great 1958 film score,
The Big Country
(Grant,
The Rise and Fall
, 107).

47
. Snelson,
Andrew Lloyd Webber
, 97–98.

48
. Ibid., 98.

49
. See Snelson’s thoughtful accompanying discussion of the melody he labels “Twisted” (Example 4.3) and its meaning (Ibid., 91–92 and 231n8).

50
. Since the cast recording omits the intervening dialogue, listeners hear Christine’s rendition less perceptibly meld into Carolotta’s, and the contrast in performance styles is far less extreme.

51
. Snelson,
Andrew Lloyd Webber
, 210.

52
. Ibid.

53
. Even Lloyd Webber’s financial losses are more colossal than those of Sondheim. Compared to $25 million, the $665,000 that
Follies
lost seems puny in comparison, even when considering rising costs in the twenty-three years that separated the openings of
Follies
and
Sunset Boulevard
.

54
. New York, 747 performances and London, 243 performances. See note 2 for a comparison between New York and London runs for other Lloyd Webber shows.

55
. Michael Riedel, “A Really Wine Time: “
Phantom
Sequel Is Unmasked at UK Bash,”
New York Post
, July 16, 2008.

56
. Sternfeld,
The Megamusical
, 75. For what it’s worth, the reason Lloyd Webber named his gelding Frank Rich is not because Rich’s reviews in the
New York Times
were among these raves.