It Will Be Solved By Others
Once or twice a week, I am asked whether I am watching, following, or otherwise engaging with the CBC reality series "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?" The answer is easy … no, no I am not.
I note the absence of Julie Andrews and the presence of Andrew Lloyd Webber and these two elements are enough to keep me away.
I am, however, amused by the marketing juggernaut that seems to be in place for this show, and the degree to which they have borrowed similar fonts, styles, "look/feel" from the FILM's branding, not the original Broadway stage version's branding. This makes a lot of sense, of course, because not many people remember how the original stage version was promoted. In any case, that was me who burst out laughing in an underground mall yesterday, as I was scurrying from here to there, and my eye caught a huge poster for the show that looked, for all the world, like an ad for the film.
One of my undergrad courses was a thesis course and I wrote mine on the variations in stage vs. film conventions of musicals that made it to screen in the '60's. My subjects were Fiddler on the Roof, The Sound of Music and Cabaret! As it happens, Fiddler was a fairly true conversion from stage to film, employing filmic conventions to communicate the same narrative, using the same characters. The Sound of Music undergoes fairly significant surgery to make it to film, with entire characters and plot lines being added, removed or augmented. Cabaret! is barely recognizable, stage to film, with the essence of a few key characters making the leap, but not much more.
I'm sure if I dug around enough, I'd find the answer to my only burning (well, smoldering) question. Perhaps I'll root around over the weekend. My only real curiosity is this: There is a trend to bring movies to the Broadway stage, occasionally in musical form. As per usual, when you move from one format (film) to another (stage + musical), creative compromises, narrative surgeries, and other "improvements" are made. Will the producers return to the original book for the original 1950's stage play for the re-mounted stage version, or will ALW create an entirely new stage work, leaping off from the highly successful film of the 1960's? This choice would bring the work full circle in a way … stage … film … stage (with a detour into reality tv).
The creative process has really turned in on itself with the notion of an audience watching elements of the creation of a stage work, as the work is in the process of being created. This is like a "Making of … " documentary being available before the subject of the documentary has even taken form. For me, it has the feel of advance publicity on mutant steroids, as if they suspect already that the final product will be pretty awful and will need all the help it can get to re-coup investment. It also feels like the leveraging of marketing strategies used for pre-teen, teen and young adult markets ("You too can be part of it all, stand in line for a week just to be part of the audience, have your 15 minutes of fame, get your picture taken with Tony DeFranco! …") into an older market demographic. I don't recall this leap being made elsewhere in a similar way.
As a creative vehicle, The Sound of Music concept is completely out of sync with current sensibilities. If we are in a post-post modern phase, I would argue that The Sound of Music doesn't really even make it as a "modern" piece. It is classic – good guys, bad guys, romance, barriers to romance, children, faith, crises of faith, beautiful scenery and an escape. Oh, and the music. The good guys win, or at least escape. (Sorry – did I spoil it for you there?) It is opera, or operetta, straight from a linear, straight-forward, no nonsense Victorian sensibility. There is a complete lack of insight, no self-reflexive critical thought, no irony, no commentary or awareness of its own message. These are all elements of what makes creative work watchable now. Adding a reality tv element to the enterprise feels like the documentation of a train wreck, in slow motion.
So, no, I'm not watching and am only vaguely interested. Add Julie to the judging panel, preferably in a bobbed dirndl, and you may have my attention.
11. July 2008 at 3:17 pm :
To answer your burning question, we only need look to London, England, where the first run of this show has already been performed to critical acclaim.
11. July 2008 at 3:43 pm :
Thanks for dropping by, FactFinder. And, I take your point, or took it, and just tried to answer my own question – which book is being used for the newly mounted stage show? This took me to the Amazon.co.uk site and the cast recording. This reveals all of the original songs from the Broadway stage production, in the original order and, thus, the producers have gone back to source. Interesting.The reviews that I've found online do seem positive, although one of the first ones I found had the word "adorable" in the first sentence so I'm a bit suspect. :-)See, the problem is that I'm a total and complete sucker for The Sound of Music and anything related to it, which is why my friends keep asking me about this reality show. I've tried to retain some kind of critical distance from the whole revival thing, knowing how easy it would be for me to get sucked in. It is creative schlock … and I've been hooked on it since I was three, dammit. :-)I see that Lesley Garrett sang the role of Mother Abbess in London and that just sort of seals it for me in terms of quality – she'd be marvelous just singing the phone book, IMHO, so I don't doubt she was brilliant in this role.Argh.
12. July 2008 at 12:23 am :
that's the point, right? The hotness of the judges? John Barrowman? Best gay action hero EVER. Rrrrrrrr.