Well, the Rialto is certainly buzzing now, thanks to City Center’s Encore series. There seems to be a dividing line of opinion regarding their latest show, The Life. The Life is a musical with a book by David Newman, Ira Gasman and Cy Coleman, music by Coleman, and lyrics by Gasman, with respectable runs in 1990 Off-Broadway, 1997 Broadway, and 2017 London. The Broadway interpretation earned 12 Tony Award nominations and made award winning stars out of its featured actors, Lillias White and Chuck Cooper. The new musicals also nominated in that season for Tony Awards were: Titanic*,Juan Darien, Steel Pier. The Best Revival Musical nominees were: Chicago*, Annie, Candide, Once Upon a Mattress.
When the announcement was made that The Life was finally being revived, there were so many cheers. The Tony Award winning revival of CHICAGO, came out of the Encores series. It transferred onto Broadway and has remained there ever since. Even after a successful movie adaptation, CHICAGO remains a staple on Broadway. I guess that many are/were hoping that The Life would have momentum to get it to Broadway, especially in what has been such a POC-infused season of new Broadway shows. The Life seemed like a show that could come back and fit into the cycle.
This revival comes with a new adaptation of the book by the Tony, Grammy, and Emmy award winning Billy Porter, and it also includes a rearrangement of song placement, and the score by his longtime friend/collaborator, musical director, arranger, conductor, James Sampliner. In the original production of The Life, the grittiness of the period is present enough to remind people of the era, but somehow it still remained safe enough in the arms of the musical theater comedy framework. This new version has added to the grit, hard truths of a bygone era. The comedy that was infused into the original book came at the expense of the story and the characters, according to Mr. Porter. He requested permission from the estate to make some changes.
The Life had a recent revival in London’s Off West End, but it is such a unique American show, and set in a time and neighborhood that only longtime, theater going New Yorkers remember and many visitors feared. Ms. Lena Horne during her Lady and the Music show that ran during the actual time period that The Life is based, mentions that as she ‘sweats all over Jimmy Nederlander’s stage’…“this ain’t the greatest neighborhood in the world, neither.”
Having not been able to see the original, I have lived with the cast recording ever since I purchased it some 25 years ago. I did get to see the women of The Life, including Lillias White and Pamela Isaacs, featured in the Actors Fund’s 30th anniversary concert presentation of another one of Cy Coleman’s beloved scores, Sweet Charity, a show that also exposed America to a seedier yet tame presentation of New York, too.
The reviews that I have read, including the New York Times, have been scathing. Some of my theater circle of friends echoed many similar sentiments about the show. Terms and phrases like “hot mess”, “unnecessary changes”, “they put that song WHERE?”, “what happened to the Sam Harris character?”, and my favorite, “What did that arranger do to Use What You Got ?” were popular. Honestly, you would have thought a serial killing murder spree had been committed on the stage by some of their tones and tenors.
The commonality that I saw amongst the comments is that they came mostly from white people who consider themselves well versed in their theater love. They really are, but Chile, there was no love from them or the press over this show. Please note that I am not accusing my friends of harboring any racial animus, yet I will say that I found their takes interesting. One of my friends stated that it was not because he was white and had seen the show on Broadway, but it just didn’t come across as good theater, which is totally valid, especially if you knew how much theater my friend consumes. Mr. Porter says that he has chosen to tell “our” story. Many felt that the original book was already problematic, and those changes were upsetting, detrimental to the original tale, and just plain unnecessary.
In one exchange, a friend whose theatrical history includes directing a production of the show, disagreed with the changes biggly (that’s a nod for the folks that made it to the opening of Act 2). Another said that if the direction of the story was to depart from the original by introducing Trans energy without including a known or unknown Trans actor in one of the roles, then it is not consistent with the new agenda. However, it turns out that the actor is Trans, and you would have never known. I think that is where I had to stop absorbing their criticism, because I recognized that all of these folks had seen the original production. This production ultimately challenges their memories, and no one wants to be challenged. I think that because of FX’s POSE and Mr. Porter’s connection to that show along with the popularity of Ru Paul’s Drag Race, the conversation of Trans energy has achieved a place in mainstream conversation and also a place in horrific legislation. One of my biggest criticisms was that the gospel number, “You Can’t Get To Heaven '' was cut. How are you gonna have all those AMAZING voices, like Ledisi, and not give us the gospel number? I digress.
I happened to be with a friend who is a person of color who had never heard of The Life (until now), seen a production, nor heard the score. In fact, he was about 10 when it debuted. He noted some structural issues, but overall, he liked the show. He saw the message as relevant, although it did at times feel heavy handed and forced. I’d blame that on the memory play device in the storytelling. I talked to various people in the audience post show, mostly people of color, many of whom had not seen the original either. I soon sensed that is where the schism was, and I wanted to be sure of myself before I started yapping.
With many of the criticisms echoed, they seemed to be tinged with a “How DARE you touch this show?” vibe, as well. I do not want to speculate that it is racism, but it is really hard to not go there when you think of Daniel Fish’s take on the OKLAHOMA revival. Many of the same folks in my circle had a few problems with that show, too. The changes to Laurie’s Ballet, homoerotic overtones between the two male characters, a black female lead, and the gal who couldn’t say “no” in a wheel chair, did not sway it from winning the Tony Award for Best Revival and Best Featured Actress, Ali Stoker. Those changes were okay enough, because the story was not tampered with that much.
I also asked them about their thoughts about casting Joshua Henry, a man of color, in the lead role of the wife-abusing Billy Bigelow in a recent revival of CAROUSEL, while leaving poor Jessie Mueller’s Julie Jordan, being beaten by a Black man in 1950’s America. The fact that it was the POC actor as the policeman dealing with Billy Bigelow versus a white actor seemed like an odd change, considering the climate of the country. Somehow that discussion did not seem to make reviewers shy of the show and nearly as upset with that change primarily because the rest of the show remained the same, and Joshua Henry is an amazing talent.
The All Black casts of both Hello Dolly in the 60’s and later Guys and Dolls in the 70’s did not receive this much vitriol, primarily because they did not vary far from their books. Hello Dolly even with Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway, basically sounds the same. Go back and listen to the score of GUYS AND DOLLS arranged by Danny Holgate and Horace Ott. It has a definite flavor. You can hear the basic melodies enhanced and “Bushel and a Peck”, “If I Were A Bell” and “Sit Down, You’re Rocking The Boat” still work me out to my core.
So with nothing to compare except a cast recording, I had to take in all of the “changes” of THE LIFE and allow the new story to speak to me. I will admit that the memory play approach is a little jarring and hokey, because it takes you in and out of time, like constantly dunking a tea bag instead of just letting it seep. I pictured the Memphis character, played by Antwayn Hopper, to be more like what I envisioned Chuck Cooper’s Memphis, and he wasn’t. I wish that the other character choices were more of what I imagined, but I was not consulted. No matter what you might feel about the presentation, the reality that Mr. Porter included in this story is undeniable. It is a reflection of the true, ugly history of the era. There are still sex workers of all gender expressions being exploited, abused, and killed. However, those well-meaning white men sat down over 25 years ago and tried to make a show with the best of their knowledge of a world that they may not have been aware of, or they did not have the courage to admit knowing of, and put a score under it. Because these were not like the taxi dancers of Sweet Charity, it was a task.
Do I think that Mr. Porter may have bitten off more than he could chew? Maybe. He took what was a semi-cherished score with an alleged problem book (again, I did not see it), and remixed them. Considering that he only had 8 days to put this show together, without any real time to be able to write and rewrite after the first table read, there needs to be a moment of grace before the dogpile of dissent. I don’t know if there was someone who dramaturgically sat with him and tried to work with his vision and challenge some his choices. Perhaps, it might have made a difference. Of the many critics who have chosen to be lethal with their words towards Mr. Porter, are they based totally on the merits of the show or is it an opportunity to shake the pedestal that Mr. Porter has been placed upon by the rest of the world? Look at what happened to Lin-Manuel Miranda after the In The Heights movie was released. In any case, words can be powerful. And the one thing that I do know about Billy Porter, he is an unstoppable force that can take way more hits than what is being hurled at him, but to paraphrase another cut song from the new production, why don’t they leave him alone?
