- In 1988, John Waters simultaneously shocked and delighted audiences by casting Divine (Harris Glenn Milstead) as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. When the film was adapted for the musical stage in 2002, Harvey Fierstein took on the role, creating a character which -- like Dolly Gallagher Levi -- attracted many actors to its comedic riches (the 2007 film version of the musical starred John Travolta as Edna Turnblad).
- In 2011, Brian Bedford starred as Lady Bracknell in a Broadway production of Oscar Wilde's 1895 comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest.
- In 2015, Lee Roy Reams (who had toured in Hello, Dolly! with Carol Channing and directed several productions of Jerry Herman's popular musical) put on his best Sunday clothes to portray Dolly at the Wick Theatre and Costume Museum in Boca Raton, Florida.
The #Me Too and #Time's Up movements are forcing producers and directors to re-examine classical works to see whether a woman's viewpoint is being fairly represented onstage.
- In Bartlett Sher's new production of My Fair Lady, Eliza Doolittle storms out of Henry Higgins's house at 27-A Wimpole Street to seek her own future (as George Bernard Shaw originally intended) instead of returning to pick up the professor's slippers and carry on their relationship as if nothing had changed.
- In reviewing the current touring production of Hello, Dolly! several critics have complained about the antiquated (and in some cases downright misogynistic) attitudes expressed toward women in the show.
- 42nd Street Moon's recent production of 1959's Pulitzer Prize-winning Fiorello! dutifully changed the lyric in Marie's Act II solo ("The Very Next Man") from "... and if he likes me, who cares how frequently he strikes me?" to something more palatable to today's audiences.
In her article entitled "Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, After #MeToo" published in 2018 in Vulture, Laurie Winer noted that:
"Billy Bigelow is the protagonist in Carousel, the second work by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and one that’s come to be known as a problem musical, or 'the wife-beater musical.' Billy Bigelow says he does not beat his wife ('I wouldn’t beat a little thing like that -- I hit her,' he explains to the Starkeeper, the head man in heaven’s waiting room). And the problem is not that Billy hits his wife (Julie) but that Julie, seemingly, makes an excuse for him, thereby teaching their daughter (Louise) that abuse is a form of love. This happens near the end of the show when Louise asks, 'Has it ever happened to you? Has anyone ever hit you -- without hurtin’?' As Hammerstein wrote it, Julie answers yes: 'It is possible, dear, fer someone to hit you -- hit you hard -- and not hurt at all.'"It should be noted that (with the exception of Fiorello!) the above-mentioned shows are musical adaptations of older plays (1945's Carousel is based on Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play, Liliom; 1956's My Fair Lady is based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 masterpiece, Pygmalion; and 1964's Hello, Dolly! is based on Thornton Wilder's 1954 hit, The Matchmaker). Bay area audiences are currently being offered two exceptional opportunities to see what it feels like when a balance of power is upended. Because the two pieces of entertainment differ so radically in their style, the culture in which they take place, and the treatment of women, a lot can be learned by examining what their creative teams have to say and how they say it.
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Hong Kong filmmaker Stanley Kwan has often been compared to Spain’s Pedro Almodóvar for his skill at casting and crafting stories about women. With cinematography by Boxue Wang, art direction by Jasper Tsang, and an enticing musical score by Edgar Hung and Yat-Yiu Yu, Kwan’s new film, First Night Nerves (which will be screened at the 2019 San Francisco International Film Festival) is a curious piece of work. While its dramatic structure is easy enough to understand, cultural differences between Chinese and American audiences guarantee that certain subtleties (as well as the career paths of its stars) will be lost on Western audiences. |
| Poster art for First Night Nerves |
The basic setup is simple. Cheng Cong (Angie Chiu), the matriarch of a wealthy Shanghainese family in Hong Kong, is financing the world premiere production of a new play that will be staged in Hong Kong's venerable City Hall. With the opening night performance of Two Sisters drawing near, the story is told in a series of flashbacks covering the events of the prior week. Each flashback introduces complications that arose during rehearsals being supervised by the stressed-out playwright-director, a trans woman named Ouyang An (Gan Kwok-leung). Meanwhile, as the play’s producer, Cheng Cong must try to sort out her family's obligations to the two widows (one Chinese, one American) of her brother-in-law, Cheng Jun, who was killed in a plane crash.
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| The cast of First Night Nerves celebrates the opening night of Two Women |
In some ways, Two Sisters may strike audiences as being inspired by 1939's The Women and 1950's All About Eve. The two actresses set to star in the world premiere of this Chinese melodrama studied under the same drama teacher, Master Qin. While fan magazines have fed a long-simmering rivalry between the two women, the filmmaker is careful to note that:
“In the case of First Night Nerves, the mainland Chinese investors allowed me to shoot everything in Hong Kong while writing in characters who are from the mainland. This is very important because the mix of characters has to be organic to the story and also cater to audiences in both Hong Kong and mainland China.”
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| Sammi Cheng as Yuan Xiuling in a scene from First Night Nerves |
The stars of First Night Nerves are:
- Yuan Xiuling (Sammi Cheng), a veteran stage actress who retired from the theatre a year after receiving word that her philandering husband, Cheng Jun, had died. His failure to provide for her future left Xiuling with the burden of worrying about how to survive, where to find a place to live, and how to pay for her son Yuan’s tuition at a boarding school in England. Cheng Jun’s death also forced her to acknowledge that their marriage was a total failure that left her in a perpetual state of financial embarrassment. Now, five years later, she is attempting to resurrect her stage career.
- He Yuwen (Gigi Leung), a younger film actress making her stage debut who has nursed a career-long rivalry with Yuan Xiuling based on the fact that, early in her career, Ouyang An cast her as Fleur in a film version of the ghost story Rouge (a role which Xiuling had already played on stage). As she struggles to balance her work commitments with her friends’ demands on her time, Yuwen’s insecurities about tackling her first stage role continue to haunt her. Meanwhile, her passive-aggressive personality leads to increasingly petty arguments with the director (Ouyang An) who gave Yuwen her big break.
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| Bai Baihe (Fu Sha) and Sammi Cheng (Yuan Xiuling) in a scene from First Night Nerves |
- Fu Sha (Bai Baihe), a wealthy young lesbian whose continued presence in Hong Kong's gossip rags has become such a problem for her family that her grandparents have taken out a classified ad seeking a husband for her (this plot line is based on a true story). Fu Sha is also a devoted fan of Xiuling's and would love nothing more than to become the actress’s lover.
- Nini (Qi Xi), Xiuling’s personal assistant.
- Yilian (Catherine Chau), Yuwen's personal assistant.
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| Poster art for First Night Nerves |
As the openly gay filmmaker explains:
“We don’t really go into the generational difference between the two stars in the film, but for a director who focuses on characterization (as I do) a script like this allows me to represent the ways things are in ‘normal’ life through the worlds of theater and film. Whether the characters are onstage or off, it’s difficult to tell if the things they do and say are sincere and authentic or not. We can be moved by expressions of vanity or egotism, while authentic feelings can remain elusive. Having read the script again and watched the finished film, I don’t think that what happens to these female characters is necessarily limited to women’s experience. Perhaps I just care more about female-centric emotions and their interaction, so I chose to have a lot of female characters in this film. The transsexual character is crucial to what I mean here. A lot of these relationships, interactions and confrontations are far from unique to women, they happen to men too. It’s just that I didn’t choose to have male characters this time.”The lack of testosterone driving the action certainly forces viewers to examine the power dynamics in certain relationships through a different lens. In the midst of rehearsals, news reaches the cast that Master Qin has suddenly died. As opening night approaches, the director (Ouyang An) suffers a stress-related collapse and is rushed to the hospital to rule out a heart attack.
While First Night Nerves can be difficult to follow as it details the events leading up to the opening night of Two Sisters, two factors will undoubtedly keep the audience's attention: the art deco elegance of the stage set for Two Sisters and the craft, grace, and exquisite close-ups with which Kwan has filmed his two leading ladies. Here's the trailer:
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If the thought of two sisters fighting for the spotlight seems a bit anemic, perhaps the world premiere of Beth Wilmurt and Mark Jackson's new play will have greater appeal. Obviously inspired by Anton Chekhov's 1901 play, Three Sisters, Kill The Debbie Downers! Kill Them! Kill Them! Kill Them Off! vividly demonstrates what can happen when a group of theatre artists disassembles a classic and then puts it back together again with a radically different concept. |
| Erin Mei-Ling Stuart is Masha in Kill The Debbie Downers! Kill Them! Kill Them! Kill Them Off! (Photo by: Robbie Sweeny) |
Working on a unit set designed by Mikiko Uesugi (with lighting by Ray Oppenheimer, costumes by Alice Ruiz, and sound design by Sara Witsch), the six-actor ensemble at the Shotgun Players features Sam Jackson as Olga, Erin Mei-Ling Stuart as Masha, and Gabby Battista as Irina (three sisters whose hopes and dreams of returning to Moscow have been continually stymied by circumstances out of their control). Sharing their moments of uncertainty, angst, and depression are Amanda Farbstein as their sister-in-law, Natasha, Billy Raphael as the lovesick Chebutykin who pined for their mother, and Nathaniel Andalis as the soldier, Solyony.
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| Sam Jackson is Olga in Kill The Debbie Downers! Kill Them! Kill Them! Kill Them Off! (Photo by: Robbie Sweeny) |
Whenever theatre artists feel the urge to revamp a cherished work from the dramatic literature, it's important for them to focus on a clearly-delineated artistic vision. As Wilmurt and Jackson explain:
“Chekhov seems to speak loudest to people in moments of societal stress, indecision, political ambiguity, when we’re wondering how our current circumstances might impact our future, and when we're feeling a struggle between our daily personal concerns and larger world concerns. His work helps us explore the negotiations we make between the personal and the political. ‘Why do this play now?’ is always the question with any classic. Our first significant encounter with Chekhov was reading Three Sisters in 2005 in anticipation of an exploratory workshop with Berlin-based choreographer Sommer Ulrickson. We all agreed we found the play boring, and didn’t understand why it was such a big deal. Two weeks later we were hooked.”
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| Nathaniel Andalis as the soldier, Solyony, in Kill The Debbie Downers! Kill Them! Kill Them! Kill Them Off! (Photo by Robbie Sweeny) |
“Some of us would like to think of ourselves as activists or politically committed, and then something personal pulls at us more forcefully than something social, and it’s embarrassing. What revolutions are rumbling on our horizon? How are we talking (or not) about them and what are we doing (or not) about them? The sisters put their hopes on going to Moscow. What’s your Moscow? Why do we stop ourselves from making the changes in our lives that we’re desperate to make? Answering that question can feel blurry in the moment, only coming into focus over time, with reflection, after actions taken. Chekhov doesn’t offer a message, but rather examples of embarrassing personal emotions vying for priority next to worldly political concerns.”
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| The party scene from Kill The Debbie Downers! Kill Them! Kill Them! Kill Them Off! (Photo by: Robbie Sweeny) |
Over the years I've attended numerous productions of Chekhov's play (including the 1986 world premiere of Thomas Pasatieri's operatic version of Three Sisters). In most cases, watching a production seemed more like a chore than a theatrical adventure (so much frustration, repressed emotions, and unreasonable expectations can only take an audience so far). Whether or not one is a Chekhov purist, the sheer vibrancy of this production by the Shotgun Players (together with its aggressive musical score) gets each character's blood pumping in ways that demand an audience's attention.
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| Billy Raphael is Chebutykin in Kill The Debbie Downers! Kill Them! Kill Them! Kill Them Off! (Photo by: Robbie Sweeny) |
Using video and music as tools to sweep away the usual stuffiness found in Three Sisters and transform it into a challenging (and entertaining) evening of dance/movement theatre is a formidable achievement. Each character's yearnings are clearly contrasted with their realities in a way that effectively replaces the usual levels of silent sulking, passivity, and resignation with moments of justifiable anger and long lost opportunities to vent one's frustrations.
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| Amanda Farbstein is Natasha in Kill The Debbie Downers! Kill Them! Kill Them! Kill Them Off! (Photo by: Robbie Sweeny) |
While the six-member ensemble gave powerful performances, I was especially taken by some moments brought to life by Sam Jackson, Billy Raphael, Erin Mei-Ling Stuart, and Nathan Andalis (nor will it be easy to forget Amanda Farbstein's tap-dancing Natasha). Performances of Kill The Debbie Downers! Kill Them! Kill Them! Kill Them Off! continue at the Shotgun Players through April 21 (click here for tickets). Here's the trailer:
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