An Emotional Transition!

Alexander Drago writes:

Dear Mr. Riedel:
My daughter and I are avid fans of Theater Talk. In fact, one of the few times a week when we could spend time together, we spent it watching the show. I say all that in past tense because now she is off to college (Syracuse, BFA, Musical Theater) so I am taping the shows for when she returns. I was never a "theater" person until my daughter started performing and then we took her to everything. I began to appreciate theater more and your show has helped with that. From the title one could get the impression that it is for folks already conversant with "theater" and that recent devotees would be lost. Not at all. Each show stands on its own and you learn not just about theater, but history, business, life lessons, etc. At times it is even irreverent, which is a good thing. The show about Walt Disney's biography was really about the history of an American icon and you never had to see a Broadway show to appreciate it.

The chemistry between you and Susan is also wonderful. Her rantings about feminism during the shows regarding A Catered Affair and the Tony show that discussed Boeing Boeing and your dismissive responses were classic.

I have a question that I have tried to answer on my own, but despite my education, I cannot. During the show when you interviewed Arthur Laurents, he said that he was taught to make transitions by emotion, and not dialogue. Susan agreed as though that concept was generally accepted. What does that mean exactly?

Thank you in advance for your response, and I look forward to more shows.

In response, from Susan Haskins:

Dear Mr. Drago:
Glad you like my feminist rants. I'm only sorry I had to leave the one about Les Liasons Dangereuse on the (mental) cutting room floor.

As for transitions. In the old days, shows went from scene to scene following the script: Lights out on the living room. Lights up on a street in Paris.... or sometimes Eddie Cantor skipped across the stage in front of a curtain while the scenery was changed.

One of the significant innovations of the contemporary musical (best epitomized by Jerome Robbins' work with Arthur Laurents in Gypsy) is things happen between scenes to connect them in meaning. The emotional force of the work is carried along by the nature of the transitions. They are as important as the scenes themselves. (The most famous one in that show is when Baby June and her newsboys finish performing, and then they do this horizontal moving dance before a strobe in which they turn into older versions of themselves). The musical functions as one ongoing unit designed to deliver an emotional wallop (I think of Hal Prince's original production of Follies or - to be more up-to-date, Jersey Boys), not a series of scenes with dips in between, during which the audience's involvement could be undermined and diminish.

A new musical that has this force is FELA, which opens tomorrow Off-Broadway... very powerful.