| The Unsinkable Molly Brown revisal | |
| Posted by: AnObserver 07:00 pm EST 02/20/20 | |
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| Whoever invented political correctness probably didn't think their ideology would become cliches for musical theatre. The folks at MSNBC probably didn't realize their way of thinking would become cliches for musical comedy. But these are the new cliches. And the people in charge of the "revisal" of The Unsinkable Molly Brown have embraced them fully. Is that a good thing? Molly Brown is a good idea for a musical show. It's the Cinderella myth, the Ugly Duckling myth, it's about family and it takes place in an interesting time - the creation of the automobile, post-Gold Rush, post-Industrial Revolution. I did not see the 1960 Broadway show, but I know the 1964 movie very well. I don't know if Tammy Grimes was given only spunky optimism to play. But in the movie Debbie Reynolds has more to do than just that. There's a poignant scene towards the beginning in her adopted father's shack where 4 males discuss her as if she's not there, and she lies there silently. Charles Walters' camera is close-up on her face and it's up to us, the audience, to decide what she's feeling: loneliness, frustration, gender anxiety, sexual anxiety, a desire to make something of herself? The feeling of being a misfit, an outsider? All of those things? She then has a quiet scene with her father as she's packing to leave and head for the big city. There's plenty of spunky optimism after that. But in the second half of the movie Reynolds really shines, when we see her bitterness at not being accepted by the Denver 36, and her realization that her ambition has almost been her undoing and her marriage is on the rock. The thing she wanted most - like Mamma Rose, and other characters - has come back to bite her in the rear. (I think it will happen at some point to those in the Trump Dynasty, as well. Let's wait and see.) In the film, the writer and director don't hammer home social points. They're there, though: class distinctions, social ambition, the haves vs. the have-nots, gender distinctions, etc. They circle around the basic story of the romance and the Cinderella aspect. In the new revisal, all of those social points are punched up, and then some. There's even animal rights. And I don't think Beth Malone is ever bitter or lonely, just spunky. Maybe there's no way to do Molly Brown as a revival/revisal in 2020 without added social commentary, but even with animal rights? (And I'm all for animal rights.) SPOILER: In this new metoo-ed, post-Trump, post-Weinstein version of the story, in order to make Molly a female saint, she doesn't get to have her dalliance with the guy in Europe. Instead, her HUSBAND has a dalliance (at a "gentleman's club" in Leadville; was Leadville big enough for a "gentleman's club?" Why don't they just call it a backroom in a saloon?) Therefore, the dalliance is something Molly OBSERVES, and reacts to. She's not part of it. This is one of the many mistakes in the show, in my opinion. Also, in the second act, we're TOLD too much, instead of SHOWN. Maybe I'm wrong. But if it moves to Broadway, I'll eat my hat. (It's a small hat; not one of Martita Hunt's hats in the movie.) SPOILER: The book writer Dick Scanlan has created a character in this revised version: a young "widder woman." (My term, my quotation marks.) When she and Molly meet and Molly starts suggesting she should move in and help the widder, who is also pregnant, I wondered if Scanlan had seen Doris Day and Allyn Ann McLerie in the movie Calamity Jane too many times. (It's another story about tomboy-goes-feminine.) There's also in the show a line from All About Eve: "This is for lawyers to discuss." I guess the team behind this new show got the Meredith Willson Estate lawyers to give them carte blanche to create the MSNBC version of Molly Brown. (I'm a liberal Democrat, and very eager to see all the Trumps and their sycophants, and all the weak, scared, immoral Republicans and so-called "conservatives" get their just desserts, just in case you're wondering about my politics as you read my thoughts.) |
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