Jones' Boys of '41 were in the first phase of that process. They seemed eager to go to war. That's the story, the story of young men who have yet to experience war and the women who stand by their side, whether they be the always present prostitutes or the wives men drag along with them. If you're looking for the movie in the musical, though, you may not find exactly what you're looking for. You will only find it if you look for the story and appreciate the great music and lyrics and music that Sir Tim Rice and Stuart Brayson produced, based on the novel by Jones.
In a brief conversation with Brayson, a blues and rock 'n' roll musician who has carried the idea of a musical version of From Here To Eternity in his head for 13 years, he reinforced the idea of the story.
"I wanted to get the story out to young people who had never seen the movie or heard of the book," he said. "I think that's done today through music."
And that's done with 26 songs, some individually, some duo and some by all or part of the cast. My absolute favorite is a blues song of sorts, "I Ain't Where I Wanna Be Blues," sung by Robert Lonsdale (Robert E. Lee Prewitt) and Darius Campbell (1stSgt Milton Warden) in a drunken encounter, reminiscent of the movie, in the middle of the road late one night. But I like the blues, and this is a good one.
There's not a bad song in the bunch, really. Kicking the show off with "G Company Blues," the one Brayson said he wrote first, through "Thirty Year Man," by the soldiers, "Don't Cha Like Hawaii," by Madame Kipfer, The New Congress Club (where the men find sexual relief) Trio and Company, "Fight the Fight," "From Here To Eternity," "Thirty Year Man," "The Boys of '41," And the "Finale" by the company to conclude the show, the music tells the story told in Jones' novel in great detail in a most entertaining way. You see the soldiers marching, fighting, in the barracks, doing what soldiers do and singing their hearts out. You see them with the prostitutes they visit when they've got the money —"You Got The Money" by the company.
You also see subtleties in dialogue that moves the story and tells it quite clearly. Only one brief sentence sometimes does the job very well, like when "Dynamite" Holmes finally realizes who his wife is having an affair with, which he's been trying to find out all along to no avail. By that time, it's too late to do anything about it because the Japanese are attacking Pearl Harbor and there are more important things to do. Bill Oakes, whose spent 30 years in Hollywood as a script writer and music supervisor — he won a Grammy Award for Saturday Night Fever and and AmericanMusic Award for Grease — has done an outstanding job of telling the story from Jones' novel.
If you've been in the military, you know the story is a true one; if you haven't you get a powerful dose of what military life is like, if you follow the story.
I know the story. I spent some time in the tropical paradise of the Philippines. I've read the book at least three times, including earlier this year when I read the restored, uncensored version, prepared with an afterword, by past James Jones Literary Society president and University of Illinois English Professor George Hendrick, I've seen the movie several times at various stages of my life, which both the book and the movie, give you a different perspective as a result of life's experiences, I've read two versions of the book (the musical script) and have been a small part of the production since June as military adviser. And now I've see two preview performances. And although I know the story, I'm seeing new things all the time. I can only imagine what the entire crew and cast have seen and experienced during the long days and nights and weeks it takes to get to this stage with the premiere on the horizon. And changes are still being made until the show is locked Saturday.
I'm going to the afternoon rehearsal today, to tonight's performance where the music ending Act One is being changed, and to as many other rehearsals and performances possible until the premiere. I want to know the story as well as I can and to see the changes made and all the work it takes to bring a play to the London stage.
And speaking of the London stage, while I'm by no means a theatre authority, I can think of no better place to see the From Here To Eternity musical sprout wings and fly off through the ages. I was in London with a group of students when Miss Saigon was here in the early days and didn't get to see it because of time constraints and confusion. I later saw the show in New York and appreciated it. And I'll probably see From Here To Eternity in New York when it gets there. But I can't imagine not seeing it here. The theatre is magnificent, the set is plain in a way, necessarily, but the filmed backdrop of the dashing ocean coming up on Blowhole and the Hawaiian Islands is both lovely and brilliant, as they say here in London. The theatre-going audiences are wonderful. You can dress casually. Besides local people, you meet people from all over the world. I spent several minutes talking a man of Filipino ancestry from the San Francisco Bay Area in the theatre lobby last night. He asked a question I've heard a lot: Do they have the beach scene with Warden and Karen Holmes like they had in the movie? Well, yeah, they do. The waves look as if they splash right out of the screen on them. But it's not exactly like the movie version.
That's it for the day. The blog is up and running. My daughter Jessica has helped her technologically challenged father in that regard. And the response has been phenomenal through e-mail and Facebook. I've heard from many people around the country, the Philippines, former students, one who even lives in England and has sent me a number of links for sites she thought I might like to visit. So I'll quite sending e-mails of my blog, realizing that many of you who have been so bothered with it may not be interested in hearing any more about the musical.
Until next time, then, if you're a fan of good musicals, I'd run, not walk, to figure out a way to get to London to see this play. I'm confident that it'll make it to Broadway, but I don't know when. It's here in London now and do remember that I'm coming back with a tour Feb. 24-March 4. Still time to sign up for the ACIS "Showtime" tour by Nov. 1 at http://www.acis.com/
See you later from London,
Ray
No comments:
Post a Comment