Scarlett (musical)
Scarlett is a musical with a score by Harold Rome. The original Japanese book is by Kazuo Kikuta. The Tokyo production was directed by American director/choreographer Joe Layton, with musical direction by Lehman Engel.
Based on Margaret Mitchell's bestseller Gone with the Wind, it traces the fate of vain, self-centered Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara and dashing blockade runner Rhett Butler, who share a passionately turbulent relationship, from the days prior to the American Civil War through the war itself and the period of Reconstruction that follows it.
The original Tokyo production was presented in two parts - each for 6 months - and each ran four hours long. It was wildly popular. The show underwent severe trimming when it was translated into English, reduced to one part but still close to 4 hours long. It had a new book adapted by Horton Foote and was rechristened Gone with the Wind. The West End version, produced by Harold Fielding and again directed by Joe Layton, opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1972, with a cast headed by June Ritchie, Harve Presnell, Patricia Michael, and Robert Swann. The majority of reviews praised Ritchie's Scarlett and were duly impressed by Layton's staging, but criticized Foote's treatment, which relied heavily on the audience's prior knowledge of the characters and plot and as a result was sketchy in its presentation of both. Still, Fielding was encouraged enough to schedule a Broadway opening for April 7, 1974.
In August 1973, a revised version of the London production was mounted at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles by the city's Civic Light Opera Association, with Lesley Ann Warren, Pernell Roberts, Udana Power and Terence Monk in the leads. The strongly negative reviews prompted Layton to make numerous changes throughout the Los Angeles and subsequent San Francisco runs, but Fielding cancelled his plan to move the show to Broadway. In 1976, Lucia Victor staged a production in Dallas that travelled to three other cities, but that was the last time the musical was produced.
Song list (Japanese Cast Album)
- Act I
- Overture/He Loves Me
- We Belong to You
- Scarlett
- We Belong to You (Reprise)
- Two of a Kind
- Two of a Kind (Reprise)/Blissful Christmas/My Soldier/Blissful Christmas (Reprise)
- Goodbye My Honey
- Lonely Stranger
- A Time for Love
- What Is Love?
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- Gambling Man
- Which Way is Home?
- Act II
- Entracte/Bonnie Blue Flag
- O'Hara
- The Newlyweds Song
- Strange and Wonderful
- Blueberry Eyes
- Little Wonder
- Bonnie Gone
- Finale
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Song list (London Cast Album)
- Act I
- Overture/Today's The Day
- We Belong to You
- Tara
- Two of a Kind
- Blissful Christmas/Home Again/Tomorrow Is Another Day
- Lonely Stranger
- A Time for Love
- Which Way Is Home?
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- Act II
- Entracte
- How Often, How Often
- If Only
- A Southern Lady
- Marrying For Fun
- Blueberry Eyes
- Strange and Wonderful
- Little Wonders
- Bonnie Gone
- It Doesn't Matter Now/Finale
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Songs (Los Angeles - First Performance)
Note: The score was heavily cut and revised during the Los Angeles & San Francisco runs
- Act I
- Overture/Today's The Day
- Cakewalk
- We Belong to You
- Scarlett
- We Belong to You (Reprise)
- Bonnie Blue Flag
- Bazaar Hymn
- Virginia Reel
- Quadrille
- Two of a Kind
- Blissful Christmas
- My Soldier
- Tomorrow Is Another Day
- Ashley's Departure
- Where Is My Soldier Boy?/Why Did They Die?/Johnny Is My Darling/Bonnie Blue Flag
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- Lonely Stranger
- Atlanta Burning
- Tomorrow Is Another Day (Reprise)
- Act II
- If Only
- How Often
- Gone With The Wind
- How Lucky
- A Southern Lady
- Marrying For Fun
- Brand New Friends
- Miss Fiddle-Dee-Dee
- Blueberry Eyes
- Bonnie Gone
- Two Of A Kind (Reprise)
- It Doesn't Matter Now
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References
- Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops by Ken Mandelbaum, published by St. Martin's Press, October 1991
- Performing Arts (September 1973) Los Angeles Civic Light Opera program for Gone with the Wind
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