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Shalom!
This week, The Broadway Maven kicks off Sondheim December with a look at A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
• On Sunday, December 4 at Noon ET and Monday, December 5 at Noon and 7 pm ET we’ll have a FREE class exploring Sondheim’s hilarious Roman farce. Register here.
• On Tuesday, December 6 at Noon and 7 pm ET ALL-ACCESS Passholders will have a FREE class about Miss Saigon, a tale of love and war from the creators of Les Misérables.
• This Weekly Blast includes:
A) a FORUM on whether drag is still funny in light of the humorous cross-dressing in Forum;
B) a Broadway Maven YouTube GEM with a countdown of the best 100 Sondheim lyrics;
C) a REVIEW of a film with a lot of Sondheim music;
D) a VIDEO QUIZ about recognizing the opening lines from Sondheim shows;
E) a SURVEY about the upcoming Sondheim classes from The Broadway Maven; and
F) LAST BLASTs about Kiss Me, Kate and Spring Awakening.
Question: How do you look back at the drag in Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in light of today’s sensibilities?
Mickey Jo Boucher: In the not-too-distant past, drag as a form of queer artistic expression was a mostly underground, counter-culture movement confined to LGBTQ+ spaces. Now, as hundreds of queer drag artists have come to prominence in mainstream media (thanks largely to international television phenomenon RuPaul’s Drag Race), drag is seen by far more people.
After witnessing so many authentic, heartfelt, and passionate testimonials about the transformative and identity-affirming power of drag, seeing a straight, cisgender man positioned to get laughs in a dress can feel uncomfortably appropriative. “Lovely” (from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) is perhaps a little less lovely once you compare it to the more respectful “I Am What I Am” (from La Cage Aux Folles). (Find Mickey Jo online: @mickeyjotheatre)
Max Clark: Drag remains an effective comedic tactic – but its purpose must now be wholesome, rather than insulting. Sure, there’s been humor from dressing a man as a woman, as Hysterium does in Funny Thing, and making fun of the man by calling him feminine and making him appear inferior for dressing as such. To me, for comic drag to continue to be acceptable, there must be a purpose to doing so – such as Mrs. Doubtfire, in which the man portraying a woman does so for personal reasons that define the character rather than diminishing their thoughts and feelings. In my mind, Hysterium may still dress as Philia, so long as he makes the choice to do so and it becomes part of the character to go along with Pseudolus's scheme. (Max Clark is a Broadway Maven co-host.)
Broadway Maven YouTube GEM: Is your favorite Sondheim lyric included here?
REVIEW by Max Clark: Greta Gerwig's 2017 Oscar-nominated film Lady Bird uses Stephen Sondheim to mirror and reinforce the tumultuous mother/daughter relationship through the daughter’s senior year of high school. The film closely follows the fights that fill their days and the quick pivots from passive-aggressive criticism to tolerance and respect. It’s a textbook definition of ambivalence, Sondheim’s go-to mental state.
Early in the film, Christine, the daughter, auditions for her fall musical Merrily We Roll Along with “Everybody Says Don’t” from Anyone Can Whistle. Both shows had lyrics and music composed by Sondheim. Similarly, we hear kids audition with “Being Alive” from Company and “Giants in the Sky” from Into the Woods. Gerwig’s directorial choice to use exclusively Sondheim music in a film in which the mother and daughter consistently flip between yelling at each other and expressing their care for one another is, to me, perfect. (Max Clark is a Broadway Maven co-host.)
Broadway Maven VIDEO QUIZ: Recognize these Sondheim shows from their first lines:
The ALL-ACCESS Passes for 2023 are on sale at a discount. The Early Bird rate of $195 (same as last year) expires December 12.
What was Sondheim’s first Broadway show in which he wrote both music and lyrics? It’s the hilarious Roman romp, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
Our Forum class meets this Sunday, December 4 at Noon ET and Monday, December 5 at Noon and 7 pm ET.
ALL-ACCESS Passholders do not need to register. Just show up.
Which of the following actors delivers Broadway’s toughest line the best? Explain your answers in the comments:
Note: links to register for ALL classes are ALWAYS available at TheBroadwayMaven.com.
• Sunday, December 4 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Noon ET, FREE)
• Monday, December 5 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Noon and 7 pm ET, FREE)
• Tuesday, December 5 Miss Saigon (Noon and 7 pm ET, ALL-ACCESS Passholders ONLY)
• Sunday, December 11 Company (Noon ET, FREE)
• Monday, December 12 Company (Noon and 7 pm ET, FREE)
• Tuesday, December 13 A Little Night Music (Noon and 7 pm ET, ALL-ACCESS Passholders ONLY)
• Sunday, December 18 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Noon ET, FREE)
• Monday, December 19 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Noon and 7 pm ET, FREE)
• Tuesday, December 20 MASTER CLASS on Hamilton (Noon and 7 pm ET, $12)
• Sunday, December 25 NO CLASS
• Monday, December 26 Assassins (Noon and 7 pm ET, FREE)
Reminder: ALL-ACCESS Passholders do not need to sign up or pay for anything. Just show up!
LAST BLAST: One curious thing about Kiss Me, Kate is that it has a significant character named Lois Lane. By the show’s Broadway debut in 1948, Superman and his sometime girlfriend were already well-established in American culture. So why the same name? One hint: the script refers to leading man Fred Graham as “writer, director, actor, and superman.”
Last BLAST: In Spring Awakening, two notable musical numbers include swear words in their titles: “The B**** of Living” and “Totally F*****.” Compositionally, these two songs are related: they are in the same time signature (4/4), similar tempos, and use a similar descending chord progression, using the “flat 7th” note. Furthermore, they both use the same rhythmic pattern: two 8th notes in the bass, followed by a quarter note “hit” in the guitar. It’s almost like they’re two versions of the same song! (Course co-host music educator Mateo Chavez Lewis)
The Broadway Maven, David Benkof, helps students further their appreciation of musical theater through his classes, his YouTube Channel, and his Weekly Blast. Contact him at DavidBenkof@gmail.com.
The plays by Plautus (Roman Comedy, often lifted by Roman playwrights from Greek playwrights, and later by the Bard of Avon for his works) that Sondheim, Shrevelove, Gilbert used to meld together 'Forum' had drag to confuse and gender bend as intricate details in their plots. It is important to know this in modernizing such historic works and that inclusion of this theatrical ploy (in Forum, done with Hysterium to throw off Miles Gloriosus and try to retain Hero and Philia as a couple) is legitimate theatre and must be retained, else 'Forum' need be retired to the 'lost musical' graveyard. (Which it does not deserve)...
Even now, hitting Broadway big time is an adaptation of Billy Wilder's classic drag/gender bend comedy, 'Some Like It Hot'.... must that work equally be scrutinized? Or the importance of an earlier work, 'Charley's Aunt' by Brandon Thomas - 1890 (later to become Loesser & Abbot's Tony Winning 'Where's Charley' - 1948 - launching Loesser's career and netting star Ray Bolger a Tony)... now, sadly, sent to that same graveyard of older shows...
And, what of 'Victor/Victoria' that relys on drag as the main plot motivator... going from a artistic female portraying a male female impersonator to the final burlesque ... drag and gender bending are the key elements of the plot...
'La Cage' - mentioned - relies heavily on drag to provide a tool for acceptance - from the art form of Albin to the burlesque of the Dindon's escape as the climax (netted several Tony awards)...
No, even though drag has become a "high art", the use in classic theatre is still legitimate and gender-bending in such a sense is valid in musical comedy and regular theatre... it plays on many levels and, depending on level of use, be it burlesque or class, helps to further broaden audience perspective into redefining what are real gender roles, and, hopefully, to break judgemental societal standards gently in the process.
Personally, I've never found drag for-the-sake-of drag to be particularly funny. However, I've certainly seen it used as a device in specific shows when it succeeds marvelously and is quite funny, indeed. I believe, as in any genre comic fare - whether drag or slapstick or class warfare - it works when it is used in a sincere and honest way. I've seen (as I'm sure all have) productions of Forum in which the Lovely sequence is really not that amusing (even if we laugh because we know the cast members involved lol). But, when the scene is played with honesty and realistic intent, it's knee-slappingly funny. Seeing this man being coerced into drag, and watching him transition from disgruntled and embarrassed by the entire situation to beginning to enjoy the sensations he's feeling and falling in love with - himself. However, just because a guy puts on a dress and a wig does not make me laugh - I don't know how many people it does, but I doubt many; it's simply too commonplace in entertainment today.
I certainly do not believe in Forum that there is any reason for a transgender woman to play Hysterium. If there is any derisive and mocking laughter at Hysterium, it not due to his being in a dress - it's because he's so imminently unattractive as a woman but finds himself 'lovely.' Although I've not seen it yet, I understand that the two men who play the drag roles in the new Some Like It Hot musical on Broadway are terrifically funny - and these have been reports from people who are about as 'woke' as they can be lol. But, their being in dresses is never the REASON for the laughter; the humor comes out of the situation(s) that the drag characters find themselves in, not because they're in drag.