Pipe Dream (musical)
| Pipe Dream | |
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| Album cover of 1955 Original Broadway Cast Recording | |
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| Music | Richard Rodgers |
| Lyrics | Oscar Hammerstein II |
| Book | Oscar Hammerstein II |
| Productions | 1955 Broadway |
Pipe Dream is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein II. Its conception is tied up with unrealized plans by other collaborators to make a stage musical based upon John Steinbeck's best-selling novel Cannery Row. Steinbeck, who was writing the libretto for that work, discontinued, and instead began creating the story of a sequel novel, Sweet Thursday. Rodgers and Hammerstein acquired rights to make a musical out of this story, under the title Pipe Dream, which is a pun on one of the aspects of the stage decor—an old boiler-pipe that becomes the abode of the lead female character.
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Background and production
Pipe Dream premiered on Broadway on November 30, 1955 at the Shubert Theater. The director was Harold Clurman and the choreographer was Boris Runanin. Among the leads were William Johnson as Doc, Judy Tyler as Suzy, operatic soprano Helen Traubel as Fauna, and dancer Annabelle Gamson as Sonya. The show marked also the Broadway debut of film actor George D. Wallace.
The original production closed on June 30, 1956, after a run of eight months and 245 performances, thus having the shortest run of any Rodgers and Hammerstein show, and the nearest thing to a "flop" they ever wrote together. However, it was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning for Best Costume Design (Alvin Colt), and the musical is still occasionally produced, as with 42nd Street Moon's presentation in 2002.
In his autobiography, Richard Rodgers intimated that if anything had doomed Pipe Dream, it was the casting of Traubel. Rodgers himself took blame for miscasting her in the role of Fauna. Another factor that may have been decisive was that Rodgers himself was absent due to cancer surgery during much of the rehearsal/tryout period before the Broadway opening. Other reasons given for the musical's failure include the artistic incompatibility between the morally conservative Hammerstein and the cheerful amorality of Steinbeck's characters.
According to the sleevenotes on the CD re-release of the original cast recording, Julie Andrews auditioned for Pipe Dream, but was told by Richard Rodgers that she should pursue the other show she was being courted for at the time, My Fair Lady. (Andrews did, and the role of Eliza Doolittle subsequently made her a star.)
In 1989, a few months before the death of Jim Henson, it was announced that a film version of Pipe Dream was being considered as a vehicle for the Muppets. This wildly implausible decision (ultimately abandoned) was clearly prompted by the only Muppet-worthy detail of the show's original libretto: the fact that the main character lives inside a pipe.[citation needed]
Plot
Pipe Dream is a story about friendship and romance among people living around Cannery Row in Monterey, California shortly before World War II. The main characters are Fauna (owner of the Bear Flag Cafe); Doc, a marine biologist; and Suzy, a runaway. With the help of Mac and the boys (who live in the Palace Flophouse) and the other girls of the brothel, Suzy and Doc are brought together at the end by Fauna.
Hammerstein in his libretto toned down the directness of Steinbeck's portrayal of the sexually "low" aspects of the story (and, of course, the language) without discarding their import. For instance, the first scene makes clear that females stay overnight at Doc's, and the Bear Flag Cafe is still a brothel, albeit not one presented explicitly.
Musical numbers
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Primary bibliography
- Story
- Steinbeck, John. Cannery Row [and] Sweet Thursday. Original illustrations by Peter Whiteman. Distributed by Heron Books. Published by arrangement with William Heineman, Ltd. Geneva, 1971.
- Libretto
- Pipe Dream. Music by Richard Rodgers. Book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. New York: Viking Press, 1956.
- Vocal score
- Pipe Dream: a musical play. Music by Richard Rodgers; book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein 2nd; based on the novel, Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck; orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett; vocal score, edited by Albert Sirmay. New York: Williamson, 1956.
- Recording
- Pipe Dream: an original cast recording. Recorded on Dec. 4, 1955. Compact disc. BMI Classics / RCA Victor CD 09026-61481-2, 1993.
- McLellan, Dennis. (2005, July 27). George D. Wallace, 88; Actor With Baritone Voice Had Film, TV and Broadway Roles. The Los Angeles Times
External links
- Internet Broadway Database listing
- Web page for the musical at the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization
- Pipe Dream Memories, by Anthony Newfield, in the journal Steinbeck Studies
- Background on Pipe Dream on the 42nd Street Moon site
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