Hello Again (musical)
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| Hello Again | |
| Music | Michael John LaChiusa |
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| Lyrics | Michael John LaChiusa |
| Book | Michael John LaChiusa |
| Based upon | Play La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler |
| Productions | 1994 Off-Broadway 2001 West End |
Hello Again (1994) is musical based on the 1897 play La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler (also titled Reigen) with music, lyrics and book by Michael John LaChiusa.
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[edit] Adaptation and Plot
LaChuisa's musical adaptation follows the structure of Schnitzler's original material closely, often replicating fragments of his dialogue, detailing a daisy chain of sexual encounters and love affairs between ten characters in ten scenes. His innovation however was to set each scene of the musical in a different decade of the 20th Century and in a non-chronological order allowing for a huge variety of musical style and pastische ranging from Opera to 1970s disco while simultaneously introducing musical and lyrical echoes throughout to tie all the characters and their experiences together. He also altered the gender of Schnitzler's "Little Miss" to the sexually ambiguous "Young Thing" to introduce a homosexual element into his century of sexual congress.
Highlights of the score include "I Got A Little Time", "Tom", "Safe", "The One I Love", "Mistress of the Senator" and "The Bed Was Not My Own".
[edit] Production History
The musical had its off-Broadway premiere at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (part of the Lincoln Center complex). Directed and musically staged by Graciela Daniele and featuring an impressive cast, the show was much in the vein of Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George in the fact that the staging was like a classic painting coming to life. It was a critical success, receiving eight Drama Desk nominations including Best Musical, three for LaChiusa (Outstanding Book of a Musical, Music and Lyrics categories), two for Daniele (Choreographer and Director categories) and nominations for actors Judy Blazer, John Cameron Mitchell and Donna Murphy. The original cast album was released in 1994 by RCA Victor.
The musical received its professional European premiere in 2001 at London's Bridewell Theatre, as part of a series of musicals introducing the works of the next generation of major American musical theatre writers, including the premieres of Adam Guettel's "Floyd Collins" and Jason Robert Brown's "Songs for a New World", all of which were notable critical successes. It was directed by the theatre's co-Artistic Director Clive Paget with musical direction by Christopher Frost. There were minor changes made to the score in this production as well as a substantial rewrite to Scene 8 (The Writer and the Actress) overseen by the composer.
In 2008 Hello Again was given its Scandinavian premiere in Gothenburg and Borås in Sweden in a production directed by Vernon Mound.
[edit] Cast Lists
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[edit] Scenes and Musical Numbers
- The Whore and the Soldier - Hello Again
- The Soldier and the Nurse - Zei Gezent / I Gotta Little Time / We Kiss
- The Nurse and the College Boy - In Some Other Life
- The College Boy and the Young Wife - Story of My Life
- The Young Wife and the Husband - At the Prom / Ah Maein Zeit / Tom
- The Husband and the Young Thing - Listen to the Music
- The Young Thing and the Writer - Montage / Safe / The One I Love
- The Writer and the Actress - Silent Movie
- The Actress and the Senator - Rock With Rock / Angel of Mercy / Mistress of the Senator
- The Senator and the Whore - The Bed Was Not My Own / Hello Again (Reprise)
[edit] External links
- HELLO AGAIN Current Production
- The OCR at Amazon.com
- Complete 1994 libretto
- The Lincoln Center, New York
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