How Now, Dow Jones
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| How Now, Dow Jones | |
| Music | Elmer Bernstein |
|---|---|
| Lyrics | Carolyn Leigh |
| Book | Max Shulman |
| Productions | 1967 Broadway |
How Now, Dow Jones is a Broadway musical comedy. From an original concept by Carolyn Leigh, the book was written by Max Shulman, the lyrics by Leigh herself, and the music by Elmer Bernstein. The original production, which premiered at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on 7 December 1967, was produced by David Merrick and directed by George Abbott. The lead parts were played by Tony Roberts (Charley), Marlyn Mason (Kate), Brenda Vaccaro (Cynthia), and Hiram Sherman (Wingate); other now-familiar names in the original cast included Tommy Tune as a Waiter, and Barnard Hughes as Senator McFetridge.
Although nominated for several Tony Awards -- best actors (Roberts and Vaccaro), best director (Abbott), best musical (Merrick), and best score (Bernstein and Leigh) -- only Sherman won, for best featured actor in a musical. The show, criticized even at the time for being slick and unbelievable, was a Broadway failure (after 220 performances, or about 6 months), but one of the songs -- "Step to the Rear" -- has had some appeal; it was soon used in television commercials for Dodge cars, and was even adapted into the college fight song of University of South Carolina [1].
The script is full of topical and cultural references highly specific to 1968; one entire scene in the play -- requiring a set, costumes and actors not used anywhere else in the production -- was an elaborate parody of a then-current Dreyfus Fund commercial depicting a lion emerging from a subway to stride down Wall Street, and many jokes rely on audience's familiarity with Lane Bryant and The Graduate. The plot concerns a young stockbroker who refuses to marry his fiancee until the Dow Jones Industrials Average reaches 1,000 (as of 1967, the daily average had never yet reached that peak).
Despite the datedness of the subject matter, Leigh's lyrics are clever, and the lively music -- from the experienced hand of film composer Elmer Bernstein -- mixes popular elements into a relatively complex style.
The musical is one of the productions charted by William Goldman in his 1968 book The Season, about the ins and outs of a season on Broadway. Goldman explains that How Now, Dow Jones, despite being completely dismissed by critics and surrounded by poor word of mouth, managed to run 6 months chiefly because the title was so bizarre and because many performances were booked out by charity organizations who thought the idea of a "Wall Street musical" would sell well.
Goldman also describes the problems the show had before opening: the original director Arthur Penn was fired in favor of veteran George Abbott (who thought the show was "ridiculous"), the choreographer was replaced, new songwriters were brought in to ghostwrite new numbers, and producer David Merrick even allowed several concurrent shows (including Mata Hari and The Happy Time) to fall apart while he worked to salvage Dow Jones.
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[edit] Characters and setting
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[edit] Synopsis
The entire action takes place in present day New York City.
- Act I
Kate is frustrated that her engagement has gone on for three and a half years, only because Herbert has been expecting the Dow Jones average to hit the magic mark of 1000. She meets Charley, and they find that they share not only suicidal tendencies but also an attraction.
Cynthia, who recently met Wingate at a party and worships him, visits him in his office; Wingate, who is married, sets her up in an apartment as his mistress. After she leaves, Wingate and his fellow tycoons try to talk Senator McFetridge out of using an investigation of Wall Street to help his next election campaign.
After spending the night, Charley is smitten with Kate and wants them to travel the world together, but Kate turns him down, still hoping for a steady life with Herbert.
Having lured all other types of investors, Wingate now wants to convince widows and orphans to take their money out of safe bank accounts. But his customers' men don't have the kind of gawkiness that would win over old ladies. He notices Charley out on a window ledge about to jump, stops him, and finds him to be just the right kind of man for the job. Charley quickly becomes successful at charming rich widows into betting on the stock market.
Meanwhile, Kate finds out she's pregnant from her one-night stand with Charley. She loses her resolve to tell him when his childhood sweetheart Sue Ellen Bradbury and her father show up at their meeting place: now that Charley has turned out not quite the total failure Mr. Bradbury thought he was, Charley and Sue Ellen are engaged. In desperation, during her next Dow Jones update, Kate ignores the true figures given to her and announces that the Dow has reached 1000.
- Act II
There is initial euphoria among investors such as the widows and Kate's doctor. But soon it is discovered that the announced figures were false. After all the tycoons eliminate each other as the perpetrators, they narrow down Kate as the suspect, but Senator McFetridge does not believe the scenario and plans to explose Wall Street corruption in a news interview. The rest try to find Kate.
Wingate visits Cynthia at her new apartment to ask if she knows where Kate is. It turns out that he has never taken advantage of their arrangement since it was first set up. He tells her that if the market crashes, the apartment will have to go. Cynthia brightens up when he asks her come with him to stand by his side when the national panic happens.
Wingate, Cynthia, Herbert, and Charley find Kate in her apartment. Even though she lied in order to get Herbert to marry her, she really doesn't love him. The matter of her pregnancy by Charley causes Wingate nearly to faint at the thought of what this entire illicit affair would do to the image of Wall Street. Left alone, Kate and Charlie resolve against suicide. Charlie is determined to come up with a solution and to make a life with Kate.
At Wingate's brokerage, the bottom is about to fall out. Even the Senator is resigned to having to live off of only his congressional salary from now on. Suddenly Charley comes in with Kate and the solution to the problem: the legendary old man A.K. himself, in a wheel-chair. Wall Street respects everything A.K. does in the stock market. Doddering near the end of his one sane hour a day, A.K. is convinced by Charley to buy up all the stocks that are now up for sale and thereby save the U.S. economy.
[edit] Musical numbers
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