Nevertheless, along the way there are some memorable songs, memorably performed. })(); The original 1974 Broadway production produced by David Merrick starred Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters. Based on the real life story of the director, Mack Sennett, and his star and lover, Mabel Normand. Mabel, now in love with Mack, resolves to do things her way ("I Won't Send Roses" (Reprise)).Eventually, Mabel wants to move on from comedy and star in serious dramas. Neither Sennett nor Normand was a particularly lovable character, and their story was darker than that usually found in a musical. A comedy musical production called Mack and Mabel features a text by Stewart as well as music and lyrics by Herman. It is ironic that so many interviewers refer to Mr. Herman's ''fallow period,'' the one after the successes of ''Hello, Dolly!'' [22], The show was revived at the Watermill Theatre, in Newbury, England. [CDATA[ Laugh Tag Orchestra8b. By Alvin Klein. Mack and Mabel reunited the Hello, Dolly! That's hardly surprising, given the limited seating. "'Mack and Mabel' Makes Gloomy Stage Music", Citron, Chapter 10 (pp 183-205). Look (Reprise) Mack4. She initially refuses, but when she looks back on the offer, she is dazzled by the career prospects ("Look What Happened To Mabel").Mabel is very successful and becomes a major star. However, with time, which heals everything, according to another of Mr. Herman's song titles, what was once derivative is now simply delightful: a real payoff after a solid buildup. These were interesting people with remarkable, if truncated, careers. Pre-Mabel Underscore Orchestra13. It wasnt planned as a tribute, but it makes a proper homage nonetheless. Soon the whole cast is throwing pies, and the resulting melee inspires another set of two-reelers. But their story ended in an ugly way, and no ingenuity can undo the shadow that ending casts on an otherwise effervescent evening. Click to view the Alchemy Theatre Company program for Mack and Mabel, Mack and Mabel, A Musical Love Story "[14] Herman had turned down three film offers before its Broadway opening, later commenting early in its New York run that he believed he was then in a "stronger position. Tap Your Troubles Away Lottie & Female Ensemble16a. [5] Audiences "were not ready for a down-beat saga about a cocaine-sniffing movie queen. At the time the show opened, the elaborate number ''When Mabel Comes in the Room'' seemed like a Dolly-Mame spinoff, which, of course, it was. Taylor shows up and Mack leaves. staged concert production ran from February 19 to 23, 2020. So what went wrong with Mack and Mabel? Lyrics begin: "I won't send roses or hold the door," Top Sellers is among the best in musical theatre history. Stage Left, [A] magnificent score A bright musical comedy tinged with layers of sadness, regret and loss. AM New York, Irresistably entertaining One should cherish the warmth of spirit reflected in Herman's characteristically lush score and charming lyrics." Chaplin, with his Little Tramp character, quickly became the most popular star in Keystone director Mack Sennett's company of players. Strong Role for Leading Man (Star Vehicle), Strong Role for Leading Woman (Star Vehicle), Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella (Broadway Version). Taylor shows up and Mack leaves. Ironically, this view is presented in a musical that itself eschews the traditional form of musical comedy and instead leans toward the darkness so prevalent in Sondheim and Kander and Ebb. The show here is somewhat shortened from the original, or so it seems, but it's a winner. Meanwhile, Mabel has become attracted to Mack. Practically every 2022-2023 season announcement in Central Texas except for that of San Antonio's Public Theatre offers familiar, reassuring vibes. [17][18] Soon afterward, British ice-skating team Torvill and Dean, who were based in Nottingham, searched the music library at the local radio station for suitable material for their routines, and discovered a recording of the original cast album. Some performances are already sold out. Shaftesbury Arts Centre in North Dorset, UK presented an amateur production from 12 to 30 July 2018, directed by Sophie Lester, with musical director David Grierson. David Soul starred alongside Anna-Jane Casey (replaced by Janie Dee in the West End production) in the small-scale production (with only eleven performers), which ran for a limited season between March and June 2005. Alone on the stage, he reminisces about the past, recalling his early days in New York, his rising success in Hollywood, and his turbulent love affair with Mabel. After the interval, however, the show seems to be marking time. He offers her a part in his next film. artist: "Mack & Mabel the Musical", Awards. The production starred Denis Quilley as Mack and Imelda Staunton as Mabel; it had a successful run but failed to transfer to the West End. Running time: 2 hour 15 minutes. [26][27] Southerland had assisted John Doyle with the 2005-2006 production. When Mabel Comes in the Room Harry, Kleiman, Fatty, Freddy, Fox, Ella, Lottie & Ensemble13a. The show follows the relationship between film director Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand in the roaring twenties and the early days of the Hollywood film studios. Lottie and the rest of Mack's film crew, who include the comedian Fatty Arbuckle, eagerly fantasize about moving up in the world, ("Big Time"). Three days later, on December 3, 1974, the original Broadway cast album was released. The best part of the evening, though, is the Entracte, when only the orchestra is onstage, and the lighting (by Ken Billington) changes color with the colors of the music. Mack reminisces about "when he ran the show", the glorious era of silent movies, thinking of his Bathing Beauties and Keystone Cops ("Movies Were Movies").In a flashback, it is 1911. He adopted a frenetic, slapstick style that kept 'em rolling in the aisles. And one could do without an affected funeral procession near the end. Others, like ''Mack and Mabel,'' do not, and that is a wonder, too. Hermans score, though, has such an embracing loveliness that it trails you right out the door post-show, its romance buoying you like a gentle tide through the Midtown streets. Entracte Orchestra[There is no 12a]12b. The show opened in the fall of 1974, at a time when its producer, David Merrick, had lost interest in the theatre. The Encores! Tap Tag #1 Orchestra16b. The title roles were played by Norman Bowman and Laura Pitt-Pulford, with Jessica Martin as Lottie, Stuart Matthew Price as Frank Capra and Peter Kenworthy as William Desmond Taylor. In a series of flashbacks, Sennett relates the glory days of Keystone Studios from 1911, when he discovered Normand and cast her in dozens of his early "two-reelers", through his creation of Sennett's Bathing Beauties and the Keystone Cops to Mabel's death from tuberculosis in 1930. Alexandra Socha stars as Mabel in Mack & Mabel. The show suddenly fasts forward six years. There have been several versions since the original Broadway production, which starred the unmatchable Robert Preston as Mack Sennett and the radiant Bernadette Peters as Mabel Normand. It was, however, a tragic love story: Sennett and Normand never married; they eventually split up professionally and personally; and Normand later died young after a scandal-ridden post-Sennett career. Mack and Mabel is a musical with a book by Michael Stewart and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. But musicals must end happily, so Mack imagines a happier ending to their story ("I Promise You A Happy Ending"). The "Mack" and "Mabel" of the title were Mack Sennett, the director of silent film comedies featuring the Keystone Kops in the 1910s and '20s, and Mabel Normand, whom he made into a star. Edwin Lester, the director of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, suggested the project to Jerry Herman, who then involved Michael Stewart. Lottie Ames, another actress in Mack's company, has become a star, but Mabel has become a full-time drug addict ("Tap Your Troubles Away"), and her reputation is ruined. the AustinSan Antonio area. [1], Mack and Mabel opened in pre-Broadway tryouts in San Francisco on June 17, 1974[2] and then Los Angeles, with brisk box office sales in both cities. Concord offers a full suite of resources to help you put on the show of a lifetime! I Promise You A Happy Ending Mack19. Mack discovered Mabel when she was just a sandwich delivery girl and made her a star. (1968), Mame (1966), andLa Cage aux Folles(1984). series, which has provided mostly bang-up staged concert renditions of bygone Broadway musical hits, misses, duds, and downright flops for the last 25 . Herman told everyone that this was his favorite score. A flawed show is flawlessly done. Act ISilent movie director Mack Sennett returns to his old film studio in Brooklyn in 1938. Mack and Mabel is laid out chronologically as a frustrated romance between the producer and his star, and that reshaping of what must have been a complex relationship omits significant elements of the history. Those scandals turned the public against Normand. Nobody knows if Mack Sennett loved Mabel Normand as much as she may have loved him, nobody knows why the two broke up (lots of guesses, lots of gossip, but no certainties), and nobody knows. Still, the direction lacks the technical resourcefulness to make such a''schtick'' as the pie-in-everyone's-face routine during the reprise of ''I Wanna Make the World Laugh'' really work. But one cannot dodge the basic fact that Hermans buoyancy is ill-suited to a showbiz fable of doomed love. //