Thou Shalt Not (musical)

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This article is about the 2001 Broadway musical. For other uses, see Thou Shalt Not.

Broadway Show
Thou Shalt Not
Theatre	Plymouth Theatre
Opening night	October 25, 2001
Tony nominations	2
Tony awards	–
Author(s)	Music & lyrics by Harry Connick, Jr.; book by David Thompson; based on the novel by Émile Zola
Director	Susan Stroman
Leading original cast members	Craig Bierko, and Kate Levering
Closing night	{{{closing}}}

Thou Shalt Not is a musical which premiered on Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre on October 25, 2001.

The musical is based on the novel Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola. Novel adaptation by David Thompson, music and lyrics by Harry Connick, Jr., and direction and choreography by Susan Stroman.

A dark musical, about breaking the Ten Commandments and what happens when you break the Fifth Commandment and the Seventh Commandment, adultery and murder.

• Run 22 previews | 85 performances
• Running Time 2 hrs 45 mins | 1 intermission
• Presented by Lincoln Center Theater

Contents 1 Plot 2 The original novel in comparison to the play 3 Craig Bierko 4 Kate Levering 5 Norbert Leo Butz 6 September 11, 2001 attacks 7 Cast of 25 includes 8 Musical Numbers 8.1 Act One 8.2 Act Two 9 Credits 9.1 Music 10 Awards and nominations 11 Quotes from professional reviews 12 Cast Recording 12.1 Track listing 12.2 Various information 12.3 External link 13 External links

[edit] Plot

The pianist Laurent LeClaire (Craig Bierko), returns to New Orleans from World War II and runs into his old friend Camille Raquin (Norbert Leo Butz), who is a frail man with an overprotective mother (Debra Monk). Camille is married to his own cousin, Therese (Kate Levering). The jazz pianist Laurent falls in love with Therese, they become lovers, and conspire to kill her husband. The pianist murders Camille, who is pushed over the side of a rowboat, near the end of Act One. The news of his death, sends Camille's mourning mother into a crippling stroke. After waiting a year, Laurent marries his friend's widow, but every time he tries to touch her, the ghost of Camille appears and drives them apart. In time, the wife is driven into madness and suicide, and Laurent kills himself as the final curtain falls.

[edit] The original novel in comparison to the play

Stroman's late husband, gave Zola's novel to her and Thompson to take a look at, to see if this was something they could adapt. They were struck by it immediately, and their original impulse was to make it into a ballet, but they decided against it, and felt it could be strong enough as a musical.

Zola's novel from Paris in the 19th century, is updated to 1946-47 New Orleans in the 9th Ward, outside of the French Quarter. David Thompson explains: "New Orleans is sort of a natural cousin to Paris, in some ways. Not in all ways, but culturally... We were looking for a way for this piece to have an American sensibility to it, while retaining some of the European flavor, which New Orleans has. And the other thing that was important was to find a reason to have music a part of the story."

While Zola set much of his novel in the dark, low, shallow building in which the Raquins live and tend shop, the Broadway musical were set to a lively jazz club and restaurant run by Mme. Raquin.

[edit] Craig Bierko

The leading man Craig Bierko ruptured one of his vocal cords on opening night, Oct. 25, when he was accidentally hit in the larynx during a fight scene. "He finished the show and went to the opening night party," spokesman Philip Rinaldi said at the time, "but the next day he was hemorrhaging and had to be brought to the hospital. It was just a freak thing that happened." The staging of the fight scene was not altered. Standby David New took over his part from the next day, and Bierko was reported as being out with "vocal problems". After two-and-a-half weeks of vocal rest, Craig Bierko again took the stage on Nov. 13.

[edit] Kate Levering

Then 22 year old leading lady Kate Levering sprained an ankle and was away for a few performances.

After several workshops of the show with co-star Craig Bierko, including a topless scene, Levering said: "It's a very physically draining show. The dance stuff in Thou Shalt Not is very physical. There's a lot of fighting. There's a big love ballet on this bed and kind of a rape scene. Every day that we did that workshop, I left with bruises."

Kate Levering had already been co-starring with Craig Bierko in the show Music Man (reported in some articles as being "very close friends" at the time).

[edit] Norbert Leo Butz

Norbert Leo Butz, as the murdered husband, received a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical.

[edit] September 11, 2001 attacks

The previews started on Broadway's Plymouth Theatre in New York, on September 27, 2001, only a little over two weeks after the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York, USA. (Harry Connick's birthday, coincidentally, is September 11.)

After delaying its first preview a week following the terrorist attacks, the musical's previews started Sept. 27 (the original start date was Sept. 20.)

The musical opened to largely negative reviews Oct. 25 for a limited run through Jan. 6, 2002.

In early previews there were audience complaints about a morgue scene, which seemed tasteless to some in the light of the Sept. 11 attacks. The scene remained in a tamer revised version.

[edit] Cast of 25 includes

• Craig Bierko - Laurent LeClaire
• Leo Burmester - Officer Michaud
• Norbert Leo Butz - Camille Raquin
• Kate Levering - Therese Raquin
• Debra Monk - Madame Raquin
• Brad Bradley - Oliver/Ensemble
• JoAnn M. Hunter - Suzanne
• Davis Kirby - Sugar Hips/Ensemble
• Ted L. Levy - Papa Jack/Sanctify Sam/Ensemble
• J.C. Montgomery - Flim Flam/Ensemble

[edit] Musical Numbers

[edit] Credits

• David Thompson - Book
• Susan Stroman - Direction & Choreography
• Harry Connick, Jr. - Music & Lyrics
• Thomas Lynch - Scenic Design
• William Ivey Long - Costume Design
• Peter Kaczorowski - Lighting Design
• Scott Lehrer - Sound Design

[edit] Music

• Music coordinator: John Miller
• Music director: Phil Reno
• Orchestrations & Arrangements: Harry Connick Jr
• Concert Master: Martin Agee
• Associate Conductor: Gregory J. Dlugos
• Reed: Jonathan Levine, Jerry Weldon, Charles Goold and Dave Schumacher
• Trumpet: Roger Ingram, Joe Magnarelli and Derrick Gardner
• Trombone: John Allred and Joe Barati
• Keyboards: Philip Fortenberry and Gregory J. Dlugos
• Bass: Benjamin Franklin Brown
• Drums: Brian Grice
• Percussion: Walter "Wally" Usiatynski
• Violin II: Cenovia Cummins
• Viola: Maxine Roach
• Cello: Roger Shell

[edit] Awards and nominations

• 2002 Tony Award® nomination: Best Original Score -- Music by Harry Connick, Jr.; Lyrics by Harry Connick, Jr.
• 2002 Tony Award® nomination: Best Featured Actor in a Musical -- Norbert Leo Butz
• 2002 Drama Desk Award nomination: Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical -- Norbert Leo Butz

[edit] Quotes from professional reviews

• "It takes a singing dead man to bring a spark of life to Thou Shalt Not." - Ben Brantley, New York Times, October 26, 2001.
• "Unlike Zola's sexually depressed characters, everyone in the Broadway version seems to be getting it in spades." - Charles McNulty, The village Voice, October 31, 2001

[edit] Cast Recording

A 77-minute original cast recording of Harry Connick, Jr.'s Tony nominated score. Music and lyrics by Connick who does not sing on this album, but plays the piano as an "additional musician", and does the orchestrations and arrangements, and is a producer on the album.

• Released 18 June, 2002, from Papa's-June Music, on Amazon.com
• Producers: Tracey Freeman, Harry Connick, Jr.

• Length: 1:17:24

[edit] Track listing

1. ACT ONE: "Overture" - 2:16
2. "It's Good To Be Home" - 5:17 - J.C. Montgomery, Ted L. Levy & Ensemble
3. "I Need To Be in Love Ballet" - 3:04 - Kate Levering
4. "My Little World" - 3:26 - Debra Monk
5. "While You're Young" - 1:40 - Craig Bierko
6. "I Need To Be in Love" - 3:00 - Kate Levering
7. "Broken Tea Cup" - 1:32
8. "The Other Hours" - 3:49 - Craig Bierko
9. "The Other Hours Ballet" - 3:10 - Craig Bierko, Kate Levering
10. "All Things" - 2:30 - Norbert Leo Butz
11. "Sovereign Lover" - 5:07 - Kate Levering, Craig Bierko & Ensemble
12. "I've Got My Eye on You" - 3:14 - Debra Monk, Norbert Leo Butz
13. "Light the Way" - 2:41 - Ensemble
14. "Take Her to the Mardi Gras" - 5:12 - Craig Bierko, Norbert Leo Butz, Kate Levering & Ensemble
15. "Tug Boat" - 4:15 - Norbert Leo Butz, Kate Levering
16. ACT TWO: "Entr'Acte" - 1:06
17. "Won't You Sanctify" - 3:06 - Ted L. Levy & Ensemble
18. "Time Passing" - 2:26 - Kate Levering, Craig Bierko, Debra Monk & Ensemble
19. "Take Advantage" - 3:50 - Leo Burmester
20. "Oh! Ain't That Sweet" - 3:35 - Norbert Leo Butz
21. "Thou Shalt Not Ballet" - 8:33 - Kate Levering, Craig Bierko & Ensemble
22. "I Like Love More" - 2:49
23. "It's Good To Be Home (reprise)" - 1:46 - Norbert Leo Butz

[edit] Various information

• Sony releases the two-disc album Harry on Broadway, Act I in 2006: 1. disc, Original Broadway cast recording The Pajama Game; 2. disc, Songs from Thou Shalt Not, Harry Connick Jr featuring Kelli O'Hara
• Versions of "I Like Love More", "All Things" and "Good To Be Home" are part of the 2005 instrumental album Occasion : Connick on Piano, Volume 2, with Harry Connick Jr on piano and Branford Marsalis on saxophone.
• A recording of "Other Hours" with Harry Connick Jr on vocal, is on his 2004 Grammy nominated album Only You.
• Connick's 2003 instrumental album Other Hours : Connick on Piano, Volume 1, consists of 12 compositions written for Thou Shalt Not, including some not used in the final version of the play.

[edit] External link

Audio samples of these songs can be heard as a request at BroadwayWorld Radio

[edit] External links

• Thou Shalt Not at The Internet Broadway Database
• A Conversation with David Thompson
• Opening Night: Thou Shalt Not, Video Feature, at Broadway.com