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| Is Mack & Mabel over? | |
| Posted by: Zelgo 08:31 am EDT 06/16/22 | |
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| Jerry Herman believed Mack & Mabel was his greatest score. He was holding out for a major revival. Instead, he finally relented to Encores! producing it, with the hopes it would transfer, but the show wasn't reviewed or received well. Interestingly, Merrily, We Roll Along was also a flop at its first production but keeps getting revivals, although none of them seem to click with audiences. And, next there's a real-time movie being produced. Is it over for Mack and Mabel? Will any producer take a chance with it now? |
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| re: Is Mack & Mabel over? | |
| Posted by: tmwctd (bfreimueller@gmx.at) 08:26 am EDT 06/17/22 | |
| In reply to: Is Mack & Mabel over? - Zelgo 08:31 am EDT 06/16/22 | |
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| Watched both the opening and closing night of "M&M" in Görlitz, Germany. Will never forgive myself for forsaking the chance to watch this show in London in 96. Görlitz did a very fine job, the audience on closing night stayed in their seats till the orchestra had played its last note. Basically it was done as a show within a movie, with the opening and closing credits projected on the curtain and the leads wearing whiteface. But it´s true, the 2nd act is somewhat of a downer although the end was somehow mellowed here - Mack sings "I never promised you a happy ending" to Mabel on the phone while she slowly dies. As I have never seen the show before - there were several hints of a drinking problem with Mack. Is that the usual thing for this show? Here´s a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddBGZODwKlE&t=15s |
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| re: Is Mack & Mabel over? | |
| Posted by: EvFoDr 04:23 pm EDT 06/16/22 | |
| In reply to: Is Mack & Mabel over? - Zelgo 08:31 am EDT 06/16/22 | |
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| I know people love to talk about how the score is so good and the book is a big problem, but it''s not that simple. The score IS glorious. I LOVE listening to the recording. But, as noted, the show gets very dark in the second act as Mabel decends into drug addiction. No amount of book re-writing can fix this---unless they decide to rewrite history and make it lighter. Because the songs that Herman wrote for the second act don't tell that dark story, with the exception of Time Heals Everything. You actually need new songs that are of a style that probably wasn't Herman's style and not the sort of thing he would have written. Also in general the score probably has one too many songs for Mack singing about or recreating silent movie moments. I say this based on research about the show and having seen the Encores production. I wonder if some felt that the original got it right somehow, but that the audience just didn't embrace it. |
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| re: Is Mack & Mabel over? | |
| Posted by: FIG 09:07 am EDT 06/17/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Is Mack & Mabel over? - EvFoDr 04:23 pm EDT 06/16/22 | |
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| Completely agree with you. I saw the Encores presentation and have know the CD for years, and tin my opinion he problem is that the score is not in sync with the book (specially in the second act). It is wonderful Jerry Herman music, brassy, fun, and the book is trying to tell I more dramatic story. I feel Gower Champion was trying to do a 'serious' musical, and didn't completely have it in him. No that dissimilar of what happened with The Happy Time. FIG |
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| re: Is Mack & Mabel over? | |
| Posted by: lanky 04:33 pm EDT 06/16/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Is Mack & Mabel over? - EvFoDr 04:23 pm EDT 06/16/22 | |
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| I saw the original and for the reasons you outline the show didn't work. The second act especially -- as you suggest -- was very dark and lacking in pace and energy. There were many walkouts. I've always been puzzled by the support for a revival. | |
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| the Sondheim factor + Merrily's setting is more popular + i think Merrily's issues fascinate more then nullify more than M&M's | |
| Last Edit: Chazwaza 02:49 pm EDT 06/16/22 | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 02:45 pm EDT 06/16/22 | |
| In reply to: Is Mack & Mabel over? - Zelgo 08:31 am EDT 06/16/22 | |
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| The silent film era is such a niche thing for audiences these days, and having it be a big part of the show and executing that on stage I think turns a lot of people off. It's like even if they do it well, it's not going to engage or impress most audiences nor is it going to fix the issues with the book. And I think Merrily not only has issues that are fascinating to people, it has a setting that isn't niche ... and it's benefited immeasurably by it being a Sondheim score. They are in fashion, and give a director and cast soooo much to work with/on, more than a Herman one.. as a general assessment that isn't entirely fair but I do think it's true. Another things is I think the sadness and tragic elements of the relationships and lives of the characters in Merrily are set up to help us reflect on our own lives and choices and relationships to our dreams and our younger selves (or future older selves). M&M just tells a sad love story that ends tragically, just to tell it. That's fine for me, but for a lot of audiences they just don't want to see a zippy romantic fun classic Herman musical with that kind of story. Also I think people, probably rightly, think they need a splashy production to sell M&M, given the world the show is set in. And I am sure that helps. And it some ways hurts because the more it feels like a fun old school musical the more many audiences get confused when it starts getting dark. Merrily doesn't need any flash or sets per se, and I think directors and actors see it much more as an interesting "actors musical" in a way they would never see M&M which gives the only juicy acting roles to the two leads, and requires major dance numbers and chorus, etc. I absolutely LOVE Mack & Mabel and would buy a ticket to any production -- I've never been given then chance (I wasn't in NYC for the week Encores did it)... And I think Merrily is a brilliant show... in the ORIGINAL version. Frankly, I would sooner by a ticket to Mack & Mabel than the licensed version of Merrily. I've seen many productions of it at various levels and it never works for me, not because the show can't work but because in trying to fix it they broke it quite a bit more - surface level and under the skin of the show, - than if they had just left the original version alone and gone to therapy. The original was very flawed but the script and score has a kind of lightening in a bottle aspect for those it works for, and now the whole show just has a mild wattage - it's fine, it's lights up a space I guess... but... not every show needs to "work" for everyone, sometimes writers just writer what they want, which they very much did, and it's amazing to some and bad to others and curious to others. Letting the straight-to-broadway original production, directed by someone having a creative breakdown who sabotaged the entire thing, be the determining experience for if audiences or critics would ever like or get the show they wrote is absolutely bonkers and unfair to the show, which actually never got a production that served it enough to be used to judge if the show as they wrote it could work and why/how. I have way less experience with the text and history and revisions of Mack & Mabel, but I'd be very glad to see even a staged reading of the original version of the show. Or the revised, hell. Anything. The score is so good, and I find the story compelling even if very sad and almost not worthy telling. Ha. |
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| re: Is Mack & Mabel over? | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 10:57 am EDT 06/16/22 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 10:55 am EDT 06/16/22 | |
| In reply to: Is Mack & Mabel over? - Zelgo 08:31 am EDT 06/16/22 | |
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| I think the Encores "Mack and Mabel" was the last show I saw before the pandemic. It's possible that since most theater shut down that any momentum and publicity from the production just kind of dissipated. It's a great score, but wedded to a book that especially has 2nd act problems. Mabel's descent into drugs and scandal is a journey that I don't think an audience really wants to take, especially when she's paired off with a title male lead who seems self-aware that he's not going to take steps to help her. Still, the score is wonderful, so maybe someone will try rewriting it and perhaps incorporate some Jerry Herman trunk songs to make the 2nd act work. | |
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| Mack & Mabel vs. Merrily | |
| Posted by: Showtunegal 12:34 pm EDT 06/16/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Is Mack & Mabel over? - PlayWiz 10:55 am EDT 06/16/22 | |
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| I saw a revival of Mack & Mabel in the West End in 1996. It starred Howard McGillin and had an 8 month run. My feeling at the time was that the production needed more razzle dazzle, more bigness. But there have definitely been successful revivals of Merrily--the one that Maria Friedman directed at the Menier transferred to the West End and got the best reviews of any West End Sondheim production ever, and it eventually played the Huntington in Boston. | |
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| re: Is Mack & Mabel over? | |
| Last Edit: ShowGoer 10:03 am EDT 06/16/22 | |
| Posted by: ShowGoer 10:02 am EDT 06/16/22 | |
| In reply to: Is Mack & Mabel over? - Zelgo 08:31 am EDT 06/16/22 | |
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| "Is it over for Mack and Mabel? Will any producer take a chance with it now?" I can't imagine why they would; the Paper Mill production in the '80s, the West End production iand a Barrington Stage productio in the '90s, a Goodspeed production in the 2000s, etc., Chichester Festival in the 2010s, Encores in the 2020s, etc. - this show has had more than its run of solid chances, most with talented people at the helm. This is bound to be a minority opinion, but ever since first seeing them live, I've always felt that Herman's "The Grand Tour" and "Dear World", albeit far less-known and with slightly less stellar scores, are both far more workable as stage properties than Mack and Mabel. The two shows I cited have their issues, to be sure, and whether the properties they're based on needed to be musicalized is an open question.... but Mack and Mabel has inherent problems built into the two central characters that no one seems to be able to solve. |
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| re: Is Mack & Mabel over? | |
| Posted by: mrstephen 11:16 pm EDT 06/16/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Is Mack & Mabel over? - ShowGoer 10:02 am EDT 06/16/22 | |
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| I saw the West End production in 1995. I fell in love with Caroline O'Connor as Mabel, and warmed to Howard McGillin as Mack. ("Warmed" because his character seemed intentionally unlikable at times, until he was able to recognize he needed Mabel) After that I saw a few amateur productions in London, and the 2005 Watermill version. I loved every one of them. From those productions, I didn't understand the issues people had with the book. Dark musicals were fairly common by then. Then in 2020 I saw the Encores production. I couldn't wait to see what NYC could do with this fabulous show. But to me, that production bombed. Maybe my expectations were too high, or maybe I had seen so many other shows that my standards had changed. But with that production I didn't fall in love with Mabel. I didn't even like Mack. The actors were in fine form, but maybe the script or the direction just didn't land. I think this show may still be revived, but most likely in the UK where the score and show has been embraced multiple times. |
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| Dear World | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 02:52 pm EDT 06/16/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Is Mack & Mabel over? - ShowGoer 10:02 am EDT 06/16/22 | |
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| I have no idea why Dear World hasn't been more beloved in the musical actor and director world, why it hasn't had more "visionaries" try it, or just straight up productions. I know it can be hard to find an older musical theater actor who can REALLY do the Countess properly, who isn't a name actor, but I also think many Broadway supporting actors and understudies who don't make it to stardom would kill to do a solid production of this show, as would many broadway leading ladies... and the super talented women working in regional theater. It's a fun, quirky, exuberant, beautiful show... even with its substantial issues (like the title song), you could do far worse. And I agree it seems more workable than M&M. I don't know Grand Tour enough to comment. |
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