Musical Cyberspace

In 1949 Broadway saw the premier of ‘Lost in the Stars’ a musical with it’s book and lyrics by Maxwell Anderson and music by Kurt Weill. This musical has largely been left in the back shelves of the Broadway musical library, but what caught my eye was it’s basis; Cry The Beloved Country by Alan Paton. As a South African, the idea of American creatives staging this inherently African story in the late 1940’s, piqued my interest to say the least.

The musical follows a very similar plot to that of the novel it’s based on. Set in South Africa at the very beginnings of what would become Apartheid, Paton’s novel tells a rich and endearing story of a Zulu Reverend, Stephen Kumalo, who travels to Johannesburg from his small Natal village, Ndotsheni, to go find his son, Absalom. Absalom has gotten caught up in a life of petty crime which eventually leads to the murder of Arthur Jarvis, a renowned fighter of racial injustice. Kumalo finally finds his son in jail and asks him about his actions. Absalom confesses to the crimes, but also states that he had two accomplices and that he didn’t intend to kill Arthur. At the trial Kumalo meets Arthur’s farther, James who owns a farm near the village that Kumalo is from. Absalom tells the truth but is found guilty and sentenced to death while his accomplices are acquitted. While his son is on death-row, Kumalo returns to Ndotsheni with his faith shaken. Kumalo then meets James Jarvis’ younger son and they soon become acquainted. James becomes increasingly involved in the village helping them with food and their agriculture. On the day of Absalom’s execution, Kumalo goes into the mountains to observe this this time in peace. On his way though, he finds James and the two men speak about the village, faith, the loss of their sons, but also the bright future of James’ youngest son. Alone, Kumalo falls into prayer and starts weeping, mourning the loss of his son.

Reading Cry the Beloved Country, you clearly see the South African names, context and cultures shine through. This, with some plot points and characters, was ineffectively translated to the stage by Weill and Anderson. The New York Times stating that they clearly had some ‘difficulty’ transforming ‘so thoroughly a work of literary art’ into a theatre piece and that the musical was at times ‘skimming and literal where the novel is rich and allusive.’ Even Paton himself had his qualms with the piece saying that Anderson strayed away from the fact that Christianity and faith has a huge focus in the novel.

On the positive end, the reviews praised Weill’s composition saying that it complimented Paton’s writing and enhanced the narrative. ‘The music is deep, dramatic and beautiful.’ The show also had a fair run of 281 performances and has had some revivals and was turned into motion picture. One of the biggest reasons that this musical hasn’t been completely forgotten is the title song, Lost in the Stars, which has been performed by many legends such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennet and Judy Garland to name a few.

All this being said, I have to say I completely disagree with the fact that Weill’s music complemented the story. I actually disagree with the musical in general. The story of Cry The Beloved Country was completely ‘Americanized’ by Anderson and Weill. Having American actors portray people of Zulu and South African heritage is one thing, but having them do it in a general American accent throughout the show completely threw me off. With several mispronunciations of names and not even mentioning some very problematic lyrics, I kept asking “Who thought this was a good idea?” Another point is that of Weill’s music- Looking at it as a separate entity, I can admit it is a good composition. The problem for me lies again in the ‘Americanization’ of it. The score comes across much more African-American, than anything else. Yes, listing to inherently African music and comparing it to African-American music there are definite similarities, but for me Weill failed in setting the musical sound in Southern Africa rather than the United States.

Now, I realize, of course, that I am writing out of a modern context, with a societal lens that has completely shifted since the 1940’s. Yes, Anderson and Weill were Americans, so it makes sense that the show would naturally gravitate to American-isms. Back then they didn’t care as much about appropriation or the idea of authenticity when it comes to representation of different cultures. In modern times we have seen shows like The Lion King, which had a creative team who invested a lot of time in bringing the cultures, languages and feel of Africa into the piece using research and the help of actual people from African countries.

This, however, brings me to the point of this post- there are some musicals that are better left ‘forgotten’ and I feel Lost in the Stars is one of them. As a South African I am clearly more sensitive to this story in particular, but then we must not forget about the musical giants who stole their stories from other cultures to be displayed in an Westernized fashion for Western audiences *cough* The Mikado, Mulan, Pocahontas…*cough*

What would really make this blogpost end in a happy note would be an announcement that Cry the Beloved Country will be RE-adapted to stage as a musical with a fully South African creative team. I do think the novel has a lot of merit to be turned into a musical theatre production and can definitely be story that has weight in today’s society.

Do you think a new and improved adaption of Cry the Beloved Country could work? Or do you think one was enough? Let us know your thoughts down below.

Disney Theatricals may have hit the big time when Beauty and the Beast opened on Broadway in 1994, but the animated feature that started it all, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was adapted for the stage a quarter-century before that auspicious calendar event. The initial 1969 production at The Muny in St Louis was revived there in 1972, with a 1979 engagement at Radio City Music Hall that was a key part of that venue’s diversification plans following its near closure. The show was subsequently televised and released on video, but the show soon slipped into memory and then into cultural insignificance. So how about we celebrate it again today?

The live production of Snow White is indeed a curiosity. Taking the 1937 film as a basis, the story is somewhat expanded in Joe Cook’s Book for the show. Following a prologue that gives us the full spiel about the wish that gives Snow White (Mary Jo Salerno) both her looks and name, we jump forward in time to her father’s second wedding day. The Queen (Anne Francine) is given a bit of a backstory, now coming from a faraway kingdom called Shi-tan, which appears to be a regrettable kind of magical mash-up of Middle and Far Eastern appropriations. Snow White’s father, the King (Thomas Ruisinger), still being alive, the Queen uses her lady-in-waiting, Luna (Yolande Bavan), to traffic Snow White to a remote village where hard labour would destroy her beauty, which the Magic Mirror (Charles Hall, who also voices the Hag) has reluctantly pointed out to his mistress. From there on out, the story plays out very much as the film does, although Prince Charming (Richard Bowne) is built up slightly to have him work with the Huntsman (Bruce Sherman) to expose the Queen’s treachery to the King.

A couple of new songs by Jay Blackton and Joe Cool are thrown into the mix with Frank Churchill and Larry Morey’s eight favourites from the film. The first of these is the forgettable “Welcome to the Kingdom,” which is then followed by the “Queen’s Presentation.” Later, the Prince warbles out a classic 1920s style charm song-cum-lament, “Will I Ever See Her Again?” The lyric of this song lists all of Snow White’s virtues, taking pains to rhyme ‘delicate charms’ with ‘slender arms.’ Far less entertaining is the perfunctory finale, signposted as “Here’s The Happy Ending.”

Frank Wagner’s staging of the show placed human actors alongside theme park-style costumes for the dwarfs and the Hag and a set of woodland characters that offers audiences full-on furry fantasy realness. A live horse is thrown into the mix for Prince Charming to ride – so there’s a clear attempt to use just about every trick in the book along with the expected set designs and special effects. The transformation of the Queen into the Hag is quite spectacular on video and must have been something to see performed live.

The overall result? Well, it’s not great but the children in the audience of the pro-shot that was released on video relished it. That said, there are some fantastically camp moments, more than enough to justify the show’s cult status in Disney’s theatrical history.

Snow White’s next stage appearance would be the notorious opening number of the 1989 Academy Awards ceremony, something that haunts all beings with taste to this very day. A second, much shorter stage adaptation of the film, Snow White: an Enchanting Musical, would be created for Disneyland just after the turn of the century. A typical theme park attraction, the newer production could never replace this grand, crazy, camptastic extravaganza of a show – which Disney seems to have disowned to some extent in its quest to dominate Broadway, the West End and the world.

Got a Snow White memory you’d like to share? Drop us a comment at the bottom of this post!