I feel he's wrong about that. I mean, there probably are a few people at every concert who only want to hear 'Oliver's Army' and 'Watching the Detectives' and then they head for the bar. But he fills out the set with plenty of songs that those people wouldn't know anyway. The kind of person who heads for the bar as soon as he plays a new song is likely to be equally nonplussed by 'I Can't Turn it Off', 'Golden Tom Silver Judas' or 'Pads Paws and Claws', surely? My hunch would be that the 75-80% of any audience who are dedicated enough to recognise 'That's Not the Part of Him You're Leaving' or 'Love Field' are also the kind who are pretty interested in hearing some new songs.sweetest punch wrote:“It’s good to play them, even if it’s just to get a sense of how they’re going to go down in the future. But there is that fear that if you play new songs, everyone is going to be looking for the exit sign or the bar, so you don’t want to create that effect."
(...)
A Face In The Crowd: London 2024
Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical project?
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Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical project?
I've heard 4 of the new songs and, without wishing to sound biased, I think they are terrific.
Vitajix is a jaunty fun song, American Mirror has beautiful harmonies from Rebecca and Megan, whilst Face in the crowd has a lovely tempo and melody.
The last song, Burn the paper down to ash is the best of the lot but I think this is because Rebecca Lovell sings it so beautifully. She earns her corn on that song.
I haven't heard Elvis sing it but as it's a woman's song, he's made the right choice.
Vitajix is a jaunty fun song, American Mirror has beautiful harmonies from Rebecca and Megan, whilst Face in the crowd has a lovely tempo and melody.
The last song, Burn the paper down to ash is the best of the lot but I think this is because Rebecca Lovell sings it so beautifully. She earns her corn on that song.
I haven't heard Elvis sing it but as it's a woman's song, he's made the right choice.
Who’s this kid with his mumbo jumbo?
Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical project?
It is available again.johnfoyle wrote:That account got taken down because of the transcription of unpublished lyrics.
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Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical project?
Interestingly it's been tweeted by @ElvisCostello
https://ecsongbysong.com/2016/04/25/a-f ... the-crowd/
I guess those lyrical issues have been resolved.
I saw this earlier through @ecsongbysong and thought s/he's going to get in further trouble, but here it is in all its new refined glory.
Print it off just in case!
https://ecsongbysong.com/2016/04/25/a-f ... the-crowd/
I guess those lyrical issues have been resolved.
I saw this earlier through @ecsongbysong and thought s/he's going to get in further trouble, but here it is in all its new refined glory.
Print it off just in case!
Who’s this kid with his mumbo jumbo?
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Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical project?
This article published on 25 May in the Swiss newspaper - Zurich Tages Anzeiger suggests that prior to his current Detour Elvis wrote 17 songs for the Musical "A Face In The Crowd" which will be premiered in 2017.
The original text (in German) at the very end of the article reads:
"An dieser Kreativität hat sich nach vierzig Jahren nichts geändert. Kurz vor seiner aktuellen Solotournee verfasste Costello 17 neue Songs für das Musical «A Face in the Crowd», das 2017 uraufgeführt werden soll."
Or in "English" via Google Translate:
"At this creativity has not changed after forty years. Shortly before his current solo tour Costello authored 17 new songs for the musical "A Face in the Crowd", to be premiered in 2017.
MOOT
The original text (in German) at the very end of the article reads:
"An dieser Kreativität hat sich nach vierzig Jahren nichts geändert. Kurz vor seiner aktuellen Solotournee verfasste Costello 17 neue Songs für das Musical «A Face in the Crowd», das 2017 uraufgeführt werden soll."
Or in "English" via Google Translate:
"At this creativity has not changed after forty years. Shortly before his current solo tour Costello authored 17 new songs for the musical "A Face in the Crowd", to be premiered in 2017.
MOOT
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Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical project?
Another new song from the musical was premiered in Brescia: The Last Word.
See: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... 31_Brescia and http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... _Last_Word
See: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... 31_Brescia and http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... _Last_Word
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
"Big Stars Have Tumbled" was premiered at Zaragoza: http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB3 ... =2&t=10833
http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... ve_Tumbled
http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... ve_Tumbled
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
HUGH JACKMAN to star? Looks like this thing might actually happen!
http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Hu ... D-20160614
http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Hu ... D-20160614
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Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
I think this is the first we've heard that the book is by Sarah Ruhl, who also collaborated with EC on the abandoned musical about the Memphis radio station.
EC reportedly took his mother to see Hugh Jackman in The Boy From Oz on Broadway in 2004.
EC reportedly took his mother to see Hugh Jackman in The Boy From Oz on Broadway in 2004.
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Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
Strictly speaking, the book that forms the basis for "A Face In The Crowd" is actually a short story called "Your Arkansas Traveler" by Budd Schulberg. It was published in a collection of his short stories called "Some Faces In The Crowd" . This story was then adapted into the 1957 film "A Face In The Crowd" directed by Elia Kazan.And No Coffee Table wrote:I think this is the first we've heard that the book is by Sarah Ruhl, who also collaborated with EC on the abandoned musical about the Memphis radio station.
Sarah Ruhl is a playwright, so her job will be to write the script for the musical into which EC's 17 songs fit, based on the book/film. She seems to have no previous history of writing for musical theatre, so the piece may be more "serious" than (say) a Lloyd Webber/Rice musical.
Intriguing.
MOOT
Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
Maybe this is a term of art that doesn't translate outside the Greater New York area, but my understanding is that "the book" in this context means exactly what you'd expect a playwright to provide for a musical play: the script.
You can't really say Ruhl has no experience writing the book for musicals, since she worked with EC on the unfinished musical about the all-women's Memphis radio station a few year ago.
Interesting that, according to the (possibly somewhat garbled) New York Post article, EC bought the rights to the story some years ago. I guess this has been cooking for a while.
You can't really say Ruhl has no experience writing the book for musicals, since she worked with EC on the unfinished musical about the all-women's Memphis radio station a few year ago.
Interesting that, according to the (possibly somewhat garbled) New York Post article, EC bought the rights to the story some years ago. I guess this has been cooking for a while.
Last edited by erey on Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
More: http://www.playbill.com/article/elvis-c ... ny-reading
Elvis Costello's Face in the Crowd Musical Gets NY Reading
BY ROBERT VIAGAS
JUN 15, 2016
He's reportedly seeking Hugh Jackman for the Broadway lead.
Grammy-winning Punk and New Wave songwriter Elvis Costello hosted an invitation-only industry New York reading of his musical A Face in the Crowd the week of June 5, according to The New York Post.
The Post reported that the show's backers would like to get Tony-winner Hugh Jackman to play the central role of Lonesome Larry Rhodes, but gave no indication that Jackman was immediately interested.
Costello has been working with librettist Sarah Ruhl on the musical for several years, and reportedly has written 17 songs for the score, including “A Face In The Crowd,” “Town Called Riddle,” “Vitajex,” “They Call Me Mrs. Lonesome,” “Blood And Hot Sauce,” “Burn The Paper Down To Ash” and “American Mirror.” Costello unveiled the title song at a Salt Lake City concert in April 2015 and has been putting songs from the score into his concerts ever since.
The show is based on the 1957 film, written by Budd Schulberg, and directed by Elia Kazan, in which Andy Griffith starred as a homeless man who gets his own radio show in Arkansas. His homey bromides catapult him to national prominence and the power goes straight to his head. Soon, he's trying trying to influence national politics, and perhaps even thinking of running for president himself, on the slogan “Blood and Hot Sauce!” Though written in the 1950s, the story has new resonance in the age of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Donald Trump.
A detailed description of the project can be found here along with quotes from many of the lyrics.
Costello's only Broadway credit is a concert gig he played at the Broadway Theatre in October 1986, titled Costello Sings Again.
A Face in the Crowd is one of at least three musicals Costello has mentioned over the last few years as active projects for him. They include Painted from Memory, a collaboration between Burt Bacharach, Chuck Lorre and Costello, based on Costello's pop album.
Costello also has worked on a chamber opera titled The Secret Songs, based on storyteller Hans Christian Andersen's infatuation with opera singer Jenny Lind.
Elvis Costello's Face in the Crowd Musical Gets NY Reading
BY ROBERT VIAGAS
JUN 15, 2016
He's reportedly seeking Hugh Jackman for the Broadway lead.
Grammy-winning Punk and New Wave songwriter Elvis Costello hosted an invitation-only industry New York reading of his musical A Face in the Crowd the week of June 5, according to The New York Post.
The Post reported that the show's backers would like to get Tony-winner Hugh Jackman to play the central role of Lonesome Larry Rhodes, but gave no indication that Jackman was immediately interested.
Costello has been working with librettist Sarah Ruhl on the musical for several years, and reportedly has written 17 songs for the score, including “A Face In The Crowd,” “Town Called Riddle,” “Vitajex,” “They Call Me Mrs. Lonesome,” “Blood And Hot Sauce,” “Burn The Paper Down To Ash” and “American Mirror.” Costello unveiled the title song at a Salt Lake City concert in April 2015 and has been putting songs from the score into his concerts ever since.
The show is based on the 1957 film, written by Budd Schulberg, and directed by Elia Kazan, in which Andy Griffith starred as a homeless man who gets his own radio show in Arkansas. His homey bromides catapult him to national prominence and the power goes straight to his head. Soon, he's trying trying to influence national politics, and perhaps even thinking of running for president himself, on the slogan “Blood and Hot Sauce!” Though written in the 1950s, the story has new resonance in the age of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Donald Trump.
A detailed description of the project can be found here along with quotes from many of the lyrics.
Costello's only Broadway credit is a concert gig he played at the Broadway Theatre in October 1986, titled Costello Sings Again.
A Face in the Crowd is one of at least three musicals Costello has mentioned over the last few years as active projects for him. They include Painted from Memory, a collaboration between Burt Bacharach, Chuck Lorre and Costello, based on Costello's pop album.
Costello also has worked on a chamber opera titled The Secret Songs, based on storyteller Hans Christian Andersen's infatuation with opera singer Jenny Lind.
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Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
Relatives of the writer Budd Schulberg have posted some comments on the blog of ecsongbysong: https://ecsongbysong.com/2016/04/25/a-f ... the-crowd/
(...)
Benn Schulberg · 1 Day Ago
I echo Chris on the Tom Glazer shout out. I was impressed by your investigative prowess. Now that news has broke on it, albeit, filled with incorrect information, I can say you were ahead of the ball on this. Look for an official press release soon regarding the show.
ecsongbysong · 1 Day Ago
Well, this piece is full of incorrect info as well, alas — it was written before I knew the show would be based on your father’s original story rather than the film, so most of my speculations about the plot are off-base. But it makes me very happy if I’ve helped in any way to get the word out on a great project. The source material couldn’t be stronger, and the nine songs we’ve heard — the seven considered here, plus “The Last Word” and “Big Stars Have Tumbled,” premiered in subsequent concerts — are outstanding. Glad to hear the show is moving forward, and looking forward to learning more about it, and eventually seeing it, very soon!
(...)
Benn Schulberg · 1 Day Ago
I echo Chris on the Tom Glazer shout out. I was impressed by your investigative prowess. Now that news has broke on it, albeit, filled with incorrect information, I can say you were ahead of the ball on this. Look for an official press release soon regarding the show.
ecsongbysong · 1 Day Ago
Well, this piece is full of incorrect info as well, alas — it was written before I knew the show would be based on your father’s original story rather than the film, so most of my speculations about the plot are off-base. But it makes me very happy if I’ve helped in any way to get the word out on a great project. The source material couldn’t be stronger, and the nine songs we’ve heard — the seven considered here, plus “The Last Word” and “Big Stars Have Tumbled,” premiered in subsequent concerts — are outstanding. Glad to hear the show is moving forward, and looking forward to learning more about it, and eventually seeing it, very soon!
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
I haven't seen the film, but based on the trailer for it, the Andy Griffith character seems really vile.
I hope they've got a fantastically written central character who's a good guy or girl, and who's the lead - someone who wants to put right his wrongs - someone you're rooting for. Someone of equal weight to the Griffith character.
It might not be possible to have a long-running musical without that.
Must make some time to watch the film!
I hope they've got a fantastically written central character who's a good guy or girl, and who's the lead - someone who wants to put right his wrongs - someone you're rooting for. Someone of equal weight to the Griffith character.
It might not be possible to have a long-running musical without that.
Must make some time to watch the film!
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Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
Elvis on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElvisCostello# ... o/?fref=nf
Elvis Costello has announced that the Preservation Hall Jazz Band will join him onstage for a portion of his set at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville at his October 17th "Detour" solo show.
Following his appearance with The Imposters at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival this year, Elvis Costello was the special surprise guest of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band at their "Midnight Preserves" show, playing to more than the 100 capacity at Preservation Hall itself.
(...)
Rebecca and Megan Lovell of Larkin Poe, will once again open the show, joining Costello in the finale, as they have done for many of the recent "Detour" shows, providing unique trio arrangements of some of Costello's best known tunes along with a preview of songs from the forthcoming stage musical, "A Face In The Crowd" .
(...)
----------------
It looks like the musical is really going to happen.
Elvis Costello has announced that the Preservation Hall Jazz Band will join him onstage for a portion of his set at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville at his October 17th "Detour" solo show.
Following his appearance with The Imposters at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival this year, Elvis Costello was the special surprise guest of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band at their "Midnight Preserves" show, playing to more than the 100 capacity at Preservation Hall itself.
(...)
Rebecca and Megan Lovell of Larkin Poe, will once again open the show, joining Costello in the finale, as they have done for many of the recent "Detour" shows, providing unique trio arrangements of some of Costello's best known tunes along with a preview of songs from the forthcoming stage musical, "A Face In The Crowd" .
(...)
----------------
It looks like the musical is really going to happen.
Last edited by sweetest punch on Sun Feb 11, 2024 5:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
The movie airs September 24 and October 5 on Turner Classic Movies.
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/74421/A- ... the-Crowd/
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/74421/A- ... the-Crowd/
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Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
I, I, I, I, I , I , I LOVE LEE REMICK!!!And No Coffee Table wrote:The movie airs September 24 and October 5 on Turner Classic Movies.
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/74421/A- ... the-Crowd/
Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p9lNUHM_pcbronxapostle wrote:I, I, I, I, I , I , I LOVE LEE REMICK!!!And No Coffee Table wrote:The movie airs September 24 and October 5 on Turner Classic Movies.
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/74421/A- ... the-Crowd/
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Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
Loved my Go Bs....thanks jmm for understanding and posting the link too.
Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
I love the Go Betweens too. I just finished Robert Forster's memoir , Grant and I. Besides telling off a unique friendship he tells of the band's career, up & down as it was. He writes about actually meeting Lee Remick and mentions Face In The Crowd as being her breakthrough role. Elsewhere he mentions EC when he writes about the studio , Pathway , where the band did demos for Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express (1986).
The book is only available right now in Australia but this supplier will send it post free anywhere in the world -
http://www.bookdepository.com/Grant-and ... =grid-view
The book is only available right now in Australia but this supplier will send it post free anywhere in the world -
http://www.bookdepository.com/Grant-and ... =grid-view
Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
https://prosceniumjournal.com/2016/09/1 ... arah-ruhl/
Interview with Playwright Sarah Ruhl
SEPTEMBER 19, 2016
STEVERATHJE1
Sarah Ruhl’s plays include Scenes from Court Life, For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday, The Oldest Boy, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, The Clean House, Eurydice, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, A Melancholy Play, Orlando, Late: a cowboy song, Dear Elizabeth and Stage Kiss. She is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony Award nominee. Her plays have been produced on Broadway at the Lyceum by Lincoln Center Theater, off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, and at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater. Her plays have been produced regionally all over the country and have also been produced internationally, and translated into over twelve languages. Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University where she studied with Paula Vogel. She has received the Susan Smith Blackburn award, the Whiting award, the Lily Award, a PEN award for mid-career playwrights, and the MacArthur “genius” award. Her book of essays 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write was published by Faber and Faber last fall. She teaches at the Yale School of Drama and lives in Brooklyn with her family.
(extract)
Would you like to share any projects you are working on now, besides “Scenes From Court Life, or the Whipping Boy and His Prince?”
I’m also working on a musical with Elvis Costello and a new play called How to Transcend a Happy Marriage.
Interview with Playwright Sarah Ruhl
SEPTEMBER 19, 2016
STEVERATHJE1
Sarah Ruhl’s plays include Scenes from Court Life, For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday, The Oldest Boy, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, The Clean House, Eurydice, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, A Melancholy Play, Orlando, Late: a cowboy song, Dear Elizabeth and Stage Kiss. She is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony Award nominee. Her plays have been produced on Broadway at the Lyceum by Lincoln Center Theater, off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, and at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater. Her plays have been produced regionally all over the country and have also been produced internationally, and translated into over twelve languages. Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University where she studied with Paula Vogel. She has received the Susan Smith Blackburn award, the Whiting award, the Lily Award, a PEN award for mid-career playwrights, and the MacArthur “genius” award. Her book of essays 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write was published by Faber and Faber last fall. She teaches at the Yale School of Drama and lives in Brooklyn with her family.
(extract)
Would you like to share any projects you are working on now, besides “Scenes From Court Life, or the Whipping Boy and His Prince?”
I’m also working on a musical with Elvis Costello and a new play called How to Transcend a Happy Marriage.
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Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
http://www.playbill.com/article/how-pla ... blank-page
How Playwright Sarah Ruhl Conquers the Blank Page
Ruhl is being honored with the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, but that doesn’t mean it was an easy road there.
Early in the afternoon on November 8, Election Day, Sarah Ruhl says, “It’s sort of like the strange calm before the storm, I feel like.”
However, she doesn’t have more to say about the current state of politics. “I don’t want to count any of my chickens, in terms of where we are on Election Day, because I’m too superstitious,” she adds.
With so much at stake, Ruhl prefers to shift her focus to women in theatre. “I think we’re really in a renaissance right now, with women writing plays, and women directing plays, and women designing plays,” she says. “It’s a really exciting time to be a woman making theatre in New York.”
It is. Theatre luminaries will gather November 14 to honor Ruhl with the 2016 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, presented by The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, and a body of her work will be presented at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater by a group of esteemed actors—most of them women—who count themselves among a fortunate few who have originated roles in her plays.
Celia Keenan-Bolger will perform the epilogue from The Oldest Boy; Blair Brown, Jessica Hecht, and Polly Noonan will perform essays from 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write; Maria Dizzia and Joseph J. Parks, original cast members from the Off-Broadway production of Eurydice, will perform a scene from that show; and Kathleen Chalfant will perform a monologue from For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday.
“We have a great group of, actually, mostly women performing, which is very moving to me,” says Ruhl. “It feels a little bit like: ‘This is your life—being surrounded by a community like that.’ And, to me, it’s an incredible metaphor and lived experience of how interdependent we are in the theatre—to see my work reflected back at me like that.”
Her plays The Clean House and In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) have both been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and she was a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Grant by the age of 32. In 2009 she made her Broadway debut with In the Next Room, picking up a Tony nomination for Best Play.
Still, Ruhl is candid about the work ethic and dedication required to face a blank page.
“I think the hurdles are daily,” she admits. “I think there is a daily hurdle of maintaining focus and coming back to the blank page day after day and not getting distracted. Honestly, I think the long goal for writers is to stay with a blank page every day… This is very moving to me [and] a reminder, I think, to stay focused over the long haul and not to get distracted.”
Ruhl says that she felt demoralized when she realized how long it took to get a play fully produced. Eurydice had about 13 readings before it was mounted. “I remember at that time sitting at my kitchen table with the man who would become my husband, and I was just weeping and said, ‘No one will ever produce my plays!’ That feeling of despair that work is not going forth and finding its collaborators or its audience, and it’s a message in a bottle that keeps washing up back on the shore to you… I think a lot of writers feel that way and continue to feel that way. In a certain sense, it was having a first production that then led to other productions that got me out of that wash cycle of development.”
Ruhl continues to explore dramatic possibilities. She is currently working alongside songwriter Elvis Costello on a musical (that will have a workshop at the Public Theater), which speaks to the current state of the United States. The musical is called A Face in the Crowd, and it has been adapted from the short story by Budd Schulberg that later became a 1957 film directed by Elia Kazan.
“It’s about this populist yokel, who walks into a radio station one day, and is incredibly charismatic, and a woman puts him on the air, and he blows up, and suddenly he’s telling people what to do and what to think, and he thinks he can single-handedly declare war on England because of his vigilante followers,” she explains. “The woman who created him and made him a media sensation is horrified, so she puts him on air one time when he’s talking about the American public, and he doesn’t realize it, and he calls them a bunch of sheep—his own flock of sheep—and he has this terrible downfall. [It was] made it into a movie, really contemplating the effect that television would have on politics, and I just think that it’s enormously prescient, so it was incredible to hear Elvis singing some of the songs [at the Beacon Theatre] the night before the election.”
How Playwright Sarah Ruhl Conquers the Blank Page
Ruhl is being honored with the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, but that doesn’t mean it was an easy road there.
Early in the afternoon on November 8, Election Day, Sarah Ruhl says, “It’s sort of like the strange calm before the storm, I feel like.”
However, she doesn’t have more to say about the current state of politics. “I don’t want to count any of my chickens, in terms of where we are on Election Day, because I’m too superstitious,” she adds.
With so much at stake, Ruhl prefers to shift her focus to women in theatre. “I think we’re really in a renaissance right now, with women writing plays, and women directing plays, and women designing plays,” she says. “It’s a really exciting time to be a woman making theatre in New York.”
It is. Theatre luminaries will gather November 14 to honor Ruhl with the 2016 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, presented by The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, and a body of her work will be presented at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater by a group of esteemed actors—most of them women—who count themselves among a fortunate few who have originated roles in her plays.
Celia Keenan-Bolger will perform the epilogue from The Oldest Boy; Blair Brown, Jessica Hecht, and Polly Noonan will perform essays from 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write; Maria Dizzia and Joseph J. Parks, original cast members from the Off-Broadway production of Eurydice, will perform a scene from that show; and Kathleen Chalfant will perform a monologue from For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday.
“We have a great group of, actually, mostly women performing, which is very moving to me,” says Ruhl. “It feels a little bit like: ‘This is your life—being surrounded by a community like that.’ And, to me, it’s an incredible metaphor and lived experience of how interdependent we are in the theatre—to see my work reflected back at me like that.”
Her plays The Clean House and In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) have both been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and she was a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Grant by the age of 32. In 2009 she made her Broadway debut with In the Next Room, picking up a Tony nomination for Best Play.
Still, Ruhl is candid about the work ethic and dedication required to face a blank page.
“I think the hurdles are daily,” she admits. “I think there is a daily hurdle of maintaining focus and coming back to the blank page day after day and not getting distracted. Honestly, I think the long goal for writers is to stay with a blank page every day… This is very moving to me [and] a reminder, I think, to stay focused over the long haul and not to get distracted.”
Ruhl says that she felt demoralized when she realized how long it took to get a play fully produced. Eurydice had about 13 readings before it was mounted. “I remember at that time sitting at my kitchen table with the man who would become my husband, and I was just weeping and said, ‘No one will ever produce my plays!’ That feeling of despair that work is not going forth and finding its collaborators or its audience, and it’s a message in a bottle that keeps washing up back on the shore to you… I think a lot of writers feel that way and continue to feel that way. In a certain sense, it was having a first production that then led to other productions that got me out of that wash cycle of development.”
Ruhl continues to explore dramatic possibilities. She is currently working alongside songwriter Elvis Costello on a musical (that will have a workshop at the Public Theater), which speaks to the current state of the United States. The musical is called A Face in the Crowd, and it has been adapted from the short story by Budd Schulberg that later became a 1957 film directed by Elia Kazan.
“It’s about this populist yokel, who walks into a radio station one day, and is incredibly charismatic, and a woman puts him on the air, and he blows up, and suddenly he’s telling people what to do and what to think, and he thinks he can single-handedly declare war on England because of his vigilante followers,” she explains. “The woman who created him and made him a media sensation is horrified, so she puts him on air one time when he’s talking about the American public, and he doesn’t realize it, and he calls them a bunch of sheep—his own flock of sheep—and he has this terrible downfall. [It was] made it into a movie, really contemplating the effect that television would have on politics, and I just think that it’s enormously prescient, so it was incredible to hear Elvis singing some of the songs [at the Beacon Theatre] the night before the election.”
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
I'm really hoping to hear or see some of this. I haven't been able to hear any of the songs that supposedly leaked. Are they good?
Who on earth is tapping at the window?
Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
Subjectively: Yes! I've heard ~10 of them, and I think they are great.emotional_fascism076 wrote:I'm really hoping to hear or see some of this. I haven't been able to hear any of the songs that supposedly leaked. Are they good?
A bit more objectively: They went over great with audiences at the 4 shows I show where EC played them. This was true even for ones he played "blind" -- without introducing them as songs from a musical he was working on.
Re: A Face In The Crowd: new musical
This is about the only place where some of the new songs can be heard legally -
http://www.npr.org/event/music/48784342 ... -folk-2016
http://www.npr.org/event/music/48784342 ... -folk-2016