Mack & Mabel
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| Broadway Show | |
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| 1995 London cast recording | |
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| Theatre | Majestic Theatre |
| Opening Night | 6 October 1974 |
| Tony Nominations | 8 |
| Tony Awards | 0 |
| Author(s) | Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman; book by Michael Stewart |
| Director | Gower Champion |
| Leading Original Cast Members | Robert Preston Bernadette Peters Lisa Kirk |
| Closing Night | 30 November 1974 |
Mack & Mabel is a musical with a book by Michael Stewart and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman.
The plot has as its origin the tumultuous relationship between Hollywood director Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand (transformed from an artist's model to a waitress from Flatbush, Brooklyn for the musical), who became one of his biggest stars. In a series of flashbacks, Sennett relates the glory days of Keystone Studios from 1911, when he discovered Normand and cast her in dozens of his early "two-reelers", through his invention of Sennett's Bathing Beauties and the Keystone Cops to Mabel's death from tuberculosis in 1930.
The show had pre-Broadway tryouts in San Diego and then Los Angeles, opening to rave reviews and brisk box office sales in both cities. Buoyed by the critical acclaim and initial public enthusiasm for the show, Herman and company ignored a number of critical warning signs.
Neither Sennett nor Normand were particularly lovable characters, and their story was darker than that usually found in a musical. As played by Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters, the age difference between them was far greater than that in real life, and too noticeable on stage to ignore. Director and choreographer Gower Champion devised a number of eye-catching visual effects and spectacular dance sequences, but their brightness proved to be too great a contrast with the somber mood of the piece. His concept of setting the action in the corner of a huge studio soundstage created problems with the set and limited the staging to the extent that it was seen as static and boring. Most importantly, audiences didn't want to invest two-and-a-half hours in a musical where the heroine dies tragically at the end.
Efforts were made to resolve the problems at The Muny in St. Louis, but the more changes that were made, the worse matters became. By the time the show opened at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway on October 6, 1974, it was less successful than it had been four months earlier. Reviews ranged from fair to middling, and the show closed after only 66 performances, Herman's first major flop.
Despite the reviews and short run, the show received eight Tony Award nominations - for the book, direction, set and costume design, choreography, lead actor, lead actress, and the production itself as Best Musical. Ironically, Herman - whose melodic score had received the best notices - was snubbed. Herman was deeply disappointed, since the project had been one of his favorites (and remains so, even now), and he felt Merrick had done little to promote it. Despite its failure, the show managed to develop a large cult following.
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[edit] Subsequent productions
In 1982, when British ice-skating team Torvill and Dean won the gold medal for ice dance in the World Figure Skating Championships, they performed to the overture from the original cast album. The event was broadcast by BBC Television, and the station was inundated with calls from viewers wanting to know where they could find the music. Demand was so great that the album was re-released in the UK, where it shot to #6 on the charts, unprecedented for a show album, especially one ten years old.
Interest was such that in 1988, a one-time concert version - featuring George Hearn, Georgia Brown and Tommy Tune - was staged for charity at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Despite ecstatic reviews, it wasn't until seven years later, on November 7, 1995, that a full-scale production, with a book dramatically revised from the original, opened at the Piccadilly Theatre in London, and ran for 270 performances. The cast, directed by Paul Kerryson and choreographed by Michael Smuin, included Howard McGillin as Mack and Caroline O'Connor as Mabel.
The show was revived once again at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury in England. David Soul starred alongside Anna Jane Casey in the small scale production (with only eleven performers), which ran for a limited season between March and June 2005. The show did not end there however, as it toured the UK from January 2006 prior to a West End transfer, where it played the Criterion Theatre from April 10, 2006 until July 1, 2006. It featured the trademark style of director John Doyle, with the cast members, except for Soul, playing musical instruments as well as acting and singing.
[edit] Song list
Act I
- Movies Were Movies . . . Mack
- Look What Happened to Mabel . . . Mabel and Company
- Big Time . . . Lottie Ames
- I Won't Send Roses . . . Mack and Mabel
- I Wanna Make the World Laugh . . . Mack and Company
- Wherever He Ain't . . . Mabel
- Hundreds of Girls . . . Mack and Bathing Beauties
Act II
- When Mabel Comes In the Room . . . Company
- My Heart Leaps Up/Hit 'em on the Head . . . Mack
- Time Heals Everything . . . Mabel
- Tap Your Troubles Away . . . Lottie and Company
- I Promise You a Happy Ending . . . Mack
[edit] Reference
- Showtune: A Memoir by Jerry Herman, with Marilyn Stasio, published by Donald I. Fine Books (an imprint of Penguin Books), 1996
[edit] External link
| Jerry Herman musicals |
|---|
| From A to Z • Milk and Honey • Hello, Dolly! • Mame • Dear World • Mack and Mabel • The Grand Tour • La Cage aux Folles • Mrs. Santa Claus • Showtune • Jerry's Girls |
