First, let's consider the creative talent that comes up with a new concept, melody, design, or technique out of a universe of possibilities. Having shaped, edited, polished, and completed the creative process, some products can then be marketed to the masses (transforming "one out of many" into "many from one").
What better example to illustrate this concept than this video clip from the 3,389th performance of A Chorus Line on September 29, 1983 at the Shubert Theatre (the night the show surpassed Grease's record as the longest-running Broadway musical in history). Though the show's finale is a song entitled "One," A Chorus Line has impacted millions of lives through the power of its art, inspiring many from "One."
President John F. Kennedy was a strong supporter of the arts. In the 55 years since his assassination, the arts have exploded regionally despite suffering severe cutbacks in financial support from the federal government. Conservatives (including Donald Trump) have frequently expressed a strong desire to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And yet, if one combines several of JFK’s most famous quotes about the arts, a powerful philosophy emerges:
“There is a connection (hard to explain logically but easy to feel) between achievement in public life and progress in the arts. The age of Pericles was also the age of Phidias. The age of Lorenzo de Medici was also the age of Leonardo da Vinci. The age of Elizabeth was the age of Shakespeare and the new frontier for which I campaign in public life can also be a new frontier for American art. This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor. I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.”
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| Aaron Shikler's official portrait of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy |
“I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty. I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well. To further the appreciation of culture among all the people, to increase respect for the creative individual, to widen participation by all the processes and fulfillments of art -- this is one of the fascinating challenges of these days.”
The New York Times recently published a blistering Op-Ed by novelist Dave Eggers entitled A Cultural Vacuum in Trump’s White House which should be required reading for any and every person with the slightest interest in the arts. A hard-line devotee of ignorance, incompetence, cruelty, and cluelessness, Trump recently appointed Mary Anne Carter to head the National Endowment for the Arts.
Carter's qualifications for the job? She worked on Trump's inaugural committee, was a Republican political operative who worked for Florida's governor, Rick Scott, and has a daughter who attends a school for the arts. In a recent blog post, the artistic director of the San Francisco Playhouse, Bill English, wrote:
“The purpose of all art (whether theatre, music, dance, painting, novels, or poetry) is to give us a clue into our own nature. Blinded as we are by being buried in the moment-to-moment lives we live, art is essential and we must protect it, defend it, nurture it, and support it. In times like these, so much emphasis is placed on the bottom line and on winning that statistics are called upon to tell us what to do, think, and feel. When a government is perpetually ready to shut down support for the arts and when the money is pulled from arts programs in schools, I am reminded of when Winston Churchill was asked why he wouldn’t cut support for the arts to promote the war effort. He replied, ‘I do it, sir, to remind us what we are fighting for.’”Support for the arts comes in many forms and from many directions. It comes from word of mouth and government subsidies, from generous foundation grants and viral videos. Why? Because the arts thrive in a culture that values creativity and passion. Two recent experiences demonstrated how the arts are constantly driven by the old claim that "Where there's a will, there's a way."
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An utterly delightful documentary being shown during the 2018 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, Shalom Bollywood reveals a curious cultural phenomenon that contributed to the success of India's film industry. Back in the early 1900s, when Indian cinema was in its infancy, cultural taboos prevented Hindu and Islamic women from performing on screen. Since the nation's 2,000-year-old Jewish community did not share the same beliefs, Jewish actresses took on lead roles for women and became the earliest Bollywood superstars. Although their stage names left fans believing that these women were Christians or Muslims, they were, in fact, liberal, progressive Jews.Produced and directed by Danny Ben-Moshe, Shalom Bollywood pays tribute to Sulochana (Ruby Myers), who went on to become India's greatest female superstar. Born in 1907, she began her career in silent film, appearing in 1926's Cinema Queen and Typist Girl, 1927's Wildcat of Bombay, 1928's Madhuri and Anarkali, and 1929's Indira B.A. When talkies took over Indian cinema, she took a year off to learn Hindustani and re-emerged in 1932's talkie version of Madhuri.
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| Sulochana as she appeared in 1933's Daku Ki Ladki |
Sulochana was joined in the 1930s by Miss Rose (Rose Musleah), in the 1940s by Pramila (Esther Victoria Abraham), and in the 1950s and 1960s by the beloved Bollywood vamp, Nadira (Florence "Farhat" Ezekiel Nadira). In the following video, Nadira and Raj Kapoor perform "Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh" (a musical number from 1955's Shree 420).
Shalom Bollywood also tracks how subsequent generations of Jewish families continued to participate in fame and film.
- Sulochana was reported to have the first Rolls Royce in India (Mahatma Gandhi used her images as part of his political campaigns).
- Pramila became the first Miss India in 1947. Her son (actor and scriptwriter Haidar Ali) is one of the people interviewed in the documentary.
- After suffering a back injury in the 1940s, Miss Rose found it difficult to restart her career because Hindu and Islamic women were taking up acting roles no longer deemed to be taboo. She married an American pilot who flew for TWA and settled down in Los Angeles. Her daughter (Cynthia) and granddaughter (film editor Rachel Reuben) are also interviewed in Shalom Bollywood.
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| A studio shot of Miss Rose (Rose Musleah) with another actor |
Other important Jewish women who became famous in Indian cinema include Arati Devi (Rachel Sofaer) and Ramola (Rachel Cohen). Jewish men also made substantial contributions to the art form. Screenwriter David Joseph Penkar wrote the script for India’s first talkie (1931's Alam Ara), thus creating a template for storytelling in Indian cinema. The revered character actor, David Abraham Cheulkar, frequently hosted India's equivalent of the Academy Awards and visited Israel in his role as an Olympic weightlifting judge.
Abraham was at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics when a friend of his (the manager of the Israeli weightlifting team) was murdered during the Palestinian terrorist attack. In the following clip, "Uncle David" leads a chorus of children singing "Nanne Munne Bachche" in a scene from 1954's Boot Polish
In addition to exploring the interfaith relations which allowed Muslims, Hindus, and Jews to work together in pursuit of their artistic goals and passion for filmmmaking, Shalom Bollywood takes viewers inside the Blue Synagogue (Knesset Eliyahu), which was built in 1885 in Mumbai. Here's the trailer:
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Many artists learn to embrace failure as an invaluable teaching moment. Few have emerged from major fiascos quite as spectacularly as Stephen Sondheim. Following the catastrophic nine-performance run of 1964's Anyone Can Whistle, Sondheim went on to enjoy a string of artistic successes with 1970's Company, 1971's Follies, 1973's A Little Night Music, 1976's Pacific Overtures, and 1979's Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. After 1981's Merrily We Roll Along bombed on Broadway, (lasting only 16 performances), he rebounded three years later with 1984's Sunday in the Park With George (which received the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama). |
| The cast of Sunday in the Park With George (Photo by: Ken Levin) |
His inspiration was George Seurat's famous 1884 masterpiece entitled A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte. As Sondheim and his friend James Lapine (who wrote the show's book and directed the original production) were visiting the Art Institute of Chicago, Lapine is said to have noticed that one major figure was missing from the canvas: the artist. That observation provided the key to shaping a musical around an artist's passion and process (rather than the artistic product) and presented the irresistible challenge of figuring out how to present and explain pointillist art to an audience through musical theatre.
A master at using a wide variety of musical styles (the score for Follies delivers one grand pastiche number after another, the music composed for A Little Night Music consists entirely of waltzes, and Pacific Overtures is based on the pentatonic scale), Sunday in the Park With George also allowed Sondheim a chance to deal with an artist's neuroses as well as a person's ability to cope with such painful realities as poverty, rejection, humiliation, and failure.
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| John Bambery stars in Sunday in the Park With George (Photo by: Ken Levin) |
A one-act version at Playwright Horizons during the summer of 1983 (starring Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters) included Christine Baranski, Kelsey Grammer, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in the ensemble. By May 2, 1984, when Sunday in the Park With George opened on Broadway, it had been expanded to two acts with the action set in Paris in 1884 and New York in 1984. Patinkin's character was named George in each century, although Bernadette Peters portrayed his mistress (Dot) in the first act and his grandmother (Dot's child, Marie) in the second act.
Although the original production ran for 604 performances on Broadway, it did not break even. However, performances taped during October 1985 at the Booth Theatre were subsequently broadcast on Showtime and PBS's American Playhouse in 1986. Then a minor miracle happened. By the time Sunday in the Park With George was celebrating the 20th anniversary of its Broadway premiere, the growth in technology for personal computing had made tremendous progress.
In November 2005, a London revival at the Menier Chocolate Factory with sets and costumes by David Farley and projections designed by Timothy Bird and the Knifedge Creative Network made stunning use of computer technology in ways that brought a whole new sense of relevance and depth to the show. The production transferred to Broadway in 2008, opening at Studio 54 as part of the Roundabout Theatre Company's season.
In the ten years since that Broadway transfer, regional theatres have adopted projections and digital mapping for many productions, making it possible for a whole new generation of theatregoers to experience the Sondheim/Lapine musical in ways that augment, enhance, and surpass the original. Since moving from the San Francisco Playhouse's original home at 533 Sutter Street to the former Post Street Theatre, Bill English has designed numerous sets that incorporate projections into their design with impressive results. The latest production he has simultaneously designed and directed (Sunday in the Park With George) offers a testament to the breadth and depth of his craft. As English explains on the company's blog:
"Seurat invented a new way of seeing. His fascination with the science of color led him to use techniques which could deconstruct and recombine reality into a powerful perspective that exploded the art world. His work was so revolutionary (and so angered the established art world) that it was completely suppressed. Despite his ability to see, he himself remained unseen, never getting a major exhibition. He was never part of the mainstream art movement of the time, nor did he ever sell a painting. We say, ‘How can that be?’ It reminds us that we must support new voices, new perspectives, and new visionaries -- not only in the world of art, but in our own world of the theatre.”
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| John Bambery (George) and Maureen McVerry (The Old Lady) in a scene from Sunday in the Park With George (Photo by: Ken Levin) |
“There was a time when only the painter could be counted on to capture the human spirit in visual form. They were the rock stars of their eras and we humans, like pilgrims, would come from miles away to see ourselves reflected back, to see our fleeting presence on earth made immortal. We craved and still crave their vision. Sunday in the Park with George is Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s love poem to artists, poets, painters, composers, and playwrights. It celebrates the voices that celebrate us, holding the artist up, saying, ‘We need you. We can’t live without you because you see us. You lift us up out of the muck of our ordinary lives and lead us to ourselves.'"
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| John Bambery (George) and Nanci Zoppi (Dot) in a scene from Sunday in the Park With George (Photo by: Ken Levin) |
With musical direction by Dave Dobrusky, costumes by Abra Berman, and lighting by Michael Oesch, English's production has been greatly enhanced by the sound and projections designed by Theodore J. H. Hulsker. The technology that has become commonplace since Sunday in the Park With George's 1984 premiere is capable of providing much more visually stimulating impressions of the kaleidoscopic prowess of George's "chromolume." It also allows a projection designer to fade in and out of Seurat's painting so that the audience can see it as tiny dots of color or as the final work of art.
Because of the musical's unique narrative structure, most members of the cast are doubling up on roles. Special credit goes to Maureen McVerry for her droll characterizations of the Old Lady and Blair Daniels, an acerbic modern-day art critic. Ryan Drummond scores strongly as Seurat's fellow artist, Jules, and 1984's museum director, Bob Greenburg, while Abby Haug is especially appealing as Jules's wife, Yvonne, and 1984's Harriet Pawling (a member of the museum's board of directors).
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| Gwen Herndon (Louise) and Abby Haug (Yvonne) in a scene from Sunday in the Park With George (Photo by: Ken Levin) |
Sam Faustine doubles as Jules and Yvonne's coachman and 1984's Dennis (a colleague of George's who wants to go back to working at NASA). Other members of the ensemble include Michelle Drexler, Ayelet Firstenberg, Xander Ritchey, Emily Radosevich, Zac Schulman, and Corrie Farbstein.
Bracketing the story on both sides of a 100-year-span are John Bambery (doing splendid work as both Georges) and Nanci Zoppi, doubling as Dot and Marie in a performance that bubbles with wit, lust, and a deep hunger to be loved and recognized for something of her own.
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| John Bambery (George) and Nanci Zoppi (Dot) in a scene from Sunday in the Park With George (Photo by: Ken Levin) |
While it's easy to crow about the high quality of San Francisco Playhouse's production, one shouldn't overlook the challenges posed by Sondheim's intricate score. Performances of Sunday in the Park With George continue through September 8 at the San Francisco Playhouse (click here for tickets). Here's the trailer:
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