My understanding (admittedly third-hand) is that a lot of the edits were made by Sondheim himself, who continued to fiddle with it after the first production.
Well, it's not just lyric/music edits. It's also the framing of the show and major reworking of half the dialogue scenes in the first act, plus some other bits and pieces. In particular, basically everything involving Gussie (the second-married wife) in act 1. Also, all references to the cruise.
I have some theories about what the authors might have been trying to achieve with the edits; I'm curious how close my guesses are. Also, I wish I could tell whether I think it worked.
One thing that Sondheim did say/imply in Finishing the Hat is that they tried to play up the idea that Frank is tempted into some of his bad choices by other people, as one way of making him more sympathetic. Which is all well and good except that the other people are his two wives, which, you know, the show was already pretty problematic about gender, without enhancing the effect. (Also, although very little of Beth's stuff was changed from the version I remember, somehow in this particular production, the theme of her ambition struck me in the face, whereas in other productions I've felt she came across as nice first and not so much ambitious as "hey, not living on ramen would be nice." I don't know if that was the production, or me.)
I'm curious: what was the twitch with Franklin Sheppard Inc?
Other productions I've seen (and the original cast album) have played it with Charlie going in rattled and uncomfortable about being on TV, trying to put a good face on things for the camera, and sort of accidentally getting swept up in being overly honest about his feelings and eventually getting mad/blowing up/melting down.
In this production, I felt like Charlie was pissed off from the moment they got on camera, and not trying to hide it. So the song felt much more deliberate on Charlie's part, like he'd decided "this is the last straw, now I'm going to let you have it on national TV." As a result, Frank had much more reason to feel like the wronged party, and Charlie's attempts to apologize afterwords seemed disingenuous.
That's a perfectly valid interpretation, and it does mitigate the otherwise-thickly-laid-on idea that Charlie is always in the right and long-suffering, and all the bad acting comes from Frank. So maybe the story is more interesting and nuanced that way. On the other hand, the song is *less* interesting and nuanced, because it was all on one emotional note.
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Date: 2017-10-04 08:19 pm (UTC)Well, it's not just lyric/music edits. It's also the framing of the show and major reworking of half the dialogue scenes in the first act, plus some other bits and pieces. In particular, basically everything involving Gussie (the second-married wife) in act 1. Also, all references to the cruise.
I have some theories about what the authors might have been trying to achieve with the edits; I'm curious how close my guesses are. Also, I wish I could tell whether I think it worked.
One thing that Sondheim did say/imply in Finishing the Hat is that they tried to play up the idea that Frank is tempted into some of his bad choices by other people, as one way of making him more sympathetic. Which is all well and good except that the other people are his two wives, which, you know, the show was already pretty problematic about gender, without enhancing the effect. (Also, although very little of Beth's stuff was changed from the version I remember, somehow in this particular production, the theme of her ambition struck me in the face, whereas in other productions I've felt she came across as nice first and not so much ambitious as "hey, not living on ramen would be nice." I don't know if that was the production, or me.)
I'm curious: what was the twitch with Franklin Sheppard Inc?
Other productions I've seen (and the original cast album) have played it with Charlie going in rattled and uncomfortable about being on TV, trying to put a good face on things for the camera, and sort of accidentally getting swept up in being overly honest about his feelings and eventually getting mad/blowing up/melting down.
In this production, I felt like Charlie was pissed off from the moment they got on camera, and not trying to hide it. So the song felt much more deliberate on Charlie's part, like he'd decided "this is the last straw, now I'm going to let you have it on national TV." As a result, Frank had much more reason to feel like the wronged party, and Charlie's attempts to apologize afterwords seemed disingenuous.
That's a perfectly valid interpretation, and it does mitigate the otherwise-thickly-laid-on idea that Charlie is always in the right and long-suffering, and all the bad acting comes from Frank. So maybe the story is more interesting and nuanced that way. On the other hand, the song is *less* interesting and nuanced, because it was all on one emotional note.