Musical Theatre History Monthly - June 2022
Hello fine people!
Happy Pride Month! And Happy Tony season for those who celebrate it concurrently. On June 12th, the Broadway community will celebrate the 75th Tony Awards, where a new slate of history is sure to be drawn. This month, I'm taking you back exactly 50 years, to the 1972 Tony Awards; one of the most controversial ceremonies in the American Theatre Wing's history.
"Two of the hardest words in the language to rhyme are life and love. Of all words!" - Stephen Sondheim
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Musical of the Month - Two Gentlemen of Verona
You knew this was coming. Written by Galt MacDermot of Hair fame alongside John Guare and Mel Shapiro, this heightened rock musical is based on the Shakespeare comedy of the same name. Like Hair, it first tried out with the Public Theater before coming to Broadway, where it was the underdog of the season. In an upset that causes fights in piano bars to this day. Two Gentlemen of Verona won the Tony Award for Best Musical over the now favored Follies. Many perceive this win to be the Wing's way of making up for not awarding MacDermot for his work on Hair three seasons prior. The show is rarely regionally produced, and has enjoyed only one significant New York production; another Public Theater production at the Delacorte.
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Person of the Month - Melvin Van Peebles
The 1972 Tony Awards were an odd duck; only one of the nominated Best Musicals performed in favor of an extended Jesus Christ Superstar sequence designed to pull in a younger television audience. The musical that did perform, Ain't Supposed To Die A Natural Death, was a powerful all Black musical by Melvin Van Peebles, an actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer whose intentionally "in your face" artistic style swept aside racist expectations that Black art had to capitulate to white audiences. Ain't Supposed To Die A Natural Death went home empty handed in 1972, but Peebles was only getting started; the very next season he was back with Don't Play Us Cheap, he is credited as one of the founders of the Blaxploitation film genre, and a revival of Ain't Supposed To Die A Natural Death is in the works. You can check out their Tony Award performance here.
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This months book is a legendary touchstone for every musical theatre history fan. Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies by Ted Chapin is an incredibly valuable record of how the show came to be. Chapin, who recently retired from his illustrious tenure as the President of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, was an assistant on Follies, and this book contains his memories of the Prince and Sondheim show that expanded the boundaries of what you could do with the American musical. A new edition with additional material is coming out in August; have you ordered your copy yet?
Preorder Link
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100 Years Ago, these shows debuted...
- The Ziegfeld Follies of 1922 - 6/5/22
- Chauve-Souris - 6/5/22
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Grease was the fourth competitor for Best Musical in 1972, but it lost every nomination it received. Lucky for their creative team, the loss couldn't sting too much. Following a series of rewrites and revisals, the show was launched into the stratosphere as a mega successful film starring Olivia Newton John and John Travolta. Between regional rights, the film, and the cultural cache of its score, it has almost certainly made more money for its team than the other three musicals combined!
Oh, and one more piece of fun? Today, June 1st 2022, is Grease's 50th Anniversary!
Watch Here
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... and these lovely people were born
- Joan Copeland (The actress was born June 11922)
- George Axelrod (the playwright and screenwriter was born June 9 1922)
- Judy Garland (The legend was born March 24 1922)
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