| If the Merrily score is good or great, a good deal of the reason is George Furth's writing | |
| Last Edit: AlanScott 07:47 am EST 02/28/19 | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 07:42 am EST 02/28/19 | |
| In reply to: re: JESSE GREEN'S PROBLEM IS NOT A PROBLEM. MERRILY IS THE PROBLEM - NewtonUK 09:35 am EST 02/25/19 | |
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| I have read four drafts of Merrily We Roll Along. Sondheim has often spoken of how much he owes his book writers. And from having read all those drafts, I can promise you that if the score for Merrily We Roll Along is good, George Furth's writing has a lot to do with it. Sondheim's score was not written in a vacuum, and it was not written to Kaufman and Hart's play. I can't tell you exactly how much of Merrily"s score was written only after Furth had given Sondheim scenes to write from because the earliest draft I've seen is a complete one, at least in terms of the book. It's missing several songs we know, specifically, "Rich and Happy," "Franklin Shepard, Inc.," "Now You Know," "The Blob" and the cut song "Darling!" But Sondheim has said that he rarely writes anything till he has started to get material from his book writer. Sondheim's score matches the tone and style of the dialogue. The lyrics are tailored to the ways each of Furth's characters speaks. Sondheim borrows phrases from Furth. This is just a guess but I think there's a good chance that "Like It Was" and "Not a Day Goes By" were adapted from Furth monologues. I'd have to see drafts of individual scenes that pre-dated the earliest draft I've seen to be sure, but this is something that Sondheim has spoken of, too, in a general way (with some very specific examples, but the talk in which he discussed this with examples was back in 1971). He sometimes asks his book writers to write a monologue first when he's going to write a song, and then he steals from it (sometimes a lot). One example in Merrily is "Franklin Shepard, Inc.", which musicalizes a good deal of the scene Furth wrote to provide Sondheim with something to write from. He took off from the scene very inventively, but it only exists because of what George Furth wrote. I know this because it was the last song Sondheim wrote for the original production. It was not written when the show started rehearsals, but Furth's scene was written and it is in the pre-rehearsal draft. Lonny Price has spoken of how the song came only very late in rehearsals, which, needless to say, made him very nervous because he knew it was going to be a big showpiece and he was afraid he would not have enough time with it to be ready for the first performances. If someone else had written the book, would the score have been just as good? Quite possibly. But it would not be the score we know. That is the score Sondheim wrote with and for and off of Furth's book. Admittedly, a lot of that book got changed by the time the show opened. All that really happened to Sondheim's score during previews was cuts (not quite 100-percent literally but no new songs were written), but Furth had to rewrite a lot. So if we think that the Merrily score is good, Furth deserves some credit for it. I happen to love the original Follies book. I have no problems with it at all. In fact, I think it's one of the great books, even though I don't even like to say things like that because I think it's something of a mistake to discuss the book of a musical as if it was an independent entity that exists on its own. There may be shows with books that can perhaps be considered somewhat independently of the score — My Fair Lady might be one, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum might be another — but not that many good ones. I don't think that Merrily has ever been completely solved. And when Furth and Sondheim decided to revise it greatly after the Broadway production, I think around 75 percent (at least) of their choices were mistakes. I think if we could see that original book again in a really good production, some folks might be surprised. Is it perfect? No. Do I think the show basically worked with that book? Yes. The script of what opened on Broadway needed tweaks, not a major rewrite. And when they rewrote, I think they should have gone back more to stuff that had been cut along the way, but they did very little of that. I've yet to see a production that has convinced me the show can work in the current licensed version, which, of course, is not what's being seen at the Laura Pels. Actually, what's at the Pels attempts to do something like what I'm talking about, but I'd like to see something go much farther in that direction. But Sondheim will probably never let happen. It's pretty surprising that he's let this happen, and I don't think Furth would have allowed what is at the Pels to happen. I think that Furth was a lot more adamant about never allowing the original version to be seen again than Sondheim was or to even allow elements of it to be put back. NewtonUK, you have a lot of experience. You've seen a lot, and you're more involved with professional theatre than most of who post on this board are. This is why I'm really puzzled when I read something from you like Merrily is a "Great score lost in a mediocre book." It doesn't really work that way. Of course, I guess you don't agree, but I know that Sondheim agrees. As for She Loves Me, I think you're the only person I've ever heard say anything like that, but if the score is good, a good deal of the reason is the book. Joe Masteroff basically wrote a play and then gave them free rein to musicalize as much of it as they wanted. And they took stuff right from the book and put it in the score. |
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