Earlier this week FringeNYC announced the 2011 Overall Excellence Award Winners and we at THM couldn’t have been happier to celebrate with the winners and congratulate them on their success.  One standout for me was The Bardy Bunch: The War of the Families Partridge and Brady which was definitely one of my favorites this year.  I was lucky enough to get a moment with Stephen Garvey – writer of this fantastic show which takes one part Brady, one part Partidge, one part Shakespeare, and all parts groovy and mixes it together in a crazy plot worthy of Sherwood Schwartz on his best day.  Read on to find out if Garvey is Team Brady or Team Partridge … see how creativity can spring in the most unlikeliest of places, and learn what the secret to a great mash-up really is …

Stephen Garvey!!!  First of all, congratulations on winning the Ensemble Award! You’re in great company. It was clear from the first five minutes that your show was destined to win recognition, but did you see this award coming?

SG: Didn’t see it coming but so happy it came. We really lucked out with this cast. Director Jay Stern and I had to hold our auditions very late in the game, and we were nervous. Not only did we need to fill 18 roles, we needed actors who could sing, dance, be funny and manage to capture the spirit of the iconic characters they were playing. How we went 18 for 18 is nothing short of miraculous!

Mash ups are all the rage right now. There is a right way and a wrong way to do them — you obviously know the right way. What would you say your formula for success was when it came to putting together The Bardy Bunch?

I think it begins with knowing your material, and I did, thanks to NYU (Shakespeare) and a wasted childhood (The Brady Bunch and Partridge Family). With mash-ups, it’s easy to get laughs just by folding contrasting genres together, but I think the richer laughs come when you go deeper and find the surprising amount of similarities these opposing forms of storytelling share.

Okay – be honest. Of the two families, who had the kids you’d most want to hang out with and why? Brady or Partridge? And did that play a part in how you put this show’s script together?

I’ll admit it. I grew up Team Brady, but as far as hanging out with a family, I would lean Team Partridge. I loved Laurie and always wanted to ride on that awesome bus. The coolest thing about our show is that it actually felt like I was hanging out with both families while writing the script, which was a childhood fantasy come true…and yes, I realize how pitiful that sounds.

One of the great things about The Bardy Bunch is how perfectly it utilizes so many of the Shakespearean themes we all know so well. Was that an easy thing to do? Do you think that essentially all drama at this point is a bit derivative of The Bard?

It wasn’t that hard to write, because I was having so much fun with it, and as you said, the Bard offers so many plotlines to choose from. Honestly, the whole thing was a thought exercise at first. I was doing laundry one day and thinking about what a great couple Keith Partridge and Marcia Brady would make (as one does when doing laundry). It felt very Romeo and Juliet to me, and that began a game in my head of assigning different Shakespearean characters to different Bradys and Partridges. I sometimes wonder if there was something in the fabric softener I was using that day.

Speaking of Shakespeare … were there any other great plays you’d have wanted to work into the story line but found you couldn’t make fit?

The original draft of this script was about 2½ hours long and had a lot of King Lear and Twelfth Night elements. I needed to keep this thing lean and mean though. I’m saving the other great plays for my Love Boat/Fantasy Island mash-up.

Love Boat / Fantasy Island!  Two more childhood obsessions!  I’ll say it now:  if  you can bring that one to life with even a fraction of the creativity you brought to The Bardy Bunch I think you’ll have another runaway hit on your hands.

Now that you’ve won the Excellence Award, what’s next for Bardy Bunch?

We feel we have a great piece that we’re eager to share with audiences who grew up loving the Bradys, the Partridges and the Bard. We’re ready to “Keep On’ Movin’,” and are talking to venues right now!

That’s fantastic news!  I would love to know that New Yorkers are getting another chance to see this show — Fringe goes by in a flash … Bardy should get a chance to stick around for a loooong time!

Bonus question – no holds barred. Feel free to tell me anything at all … More about The Bardy Bunch, tell me a joke, give me the lyrics of your favorite song, explain what your most passionate about, plug a project (or a friend’s project!) The Mic is yours!

I wish I had something really juicy for you. “No holds barred” almost mandates it. I just want to proclaim my love for the whole Fringe experience. The friendships that came out of this are legion. People bust on The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family for being corny and unrealistic, but our cast and crew embodied a very loving, nurturing spirit throughout, and none of us want to let go of it!

Steve, thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us.  Again, congratulations on your well deserved award – to you and the entire talented cast and production team.  We’re waiting anxiously to see what happens next!  Check back in with us again – we’d love to do a follow up!

Related Posts:

• The Bardy Bunch: The War Of The Families Partridge And Brady (Fringe Festival 2011)
• The Bardy Bunch – Keep On Singing And Dancing All Through The Night
• I Light Up My Life: The Mark Sam Celebrity Autobiography (Fringe Festival 2011)
• Something Wicked (2014 Frigid New York Festival)
• Something Wicked: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2014 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

Harlem

Langston In Harlem – photo by Melinda Hall

by Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

Right now, for just a few weeks more, you can treat yourself to the vibrant poetry of Langston Hughes, the lush music of Walter Marks, and the talented voices of the ensemble cast of Langston in Harlem because this musical is going on at Urban Stages until May 2nd. (Play by Langston Hughes, Walter Marks and Kent Gash, music by Walter Marks, lyrics by Langston Hughes music production by Barry Levitt, choreography by Byron Easley and directed by Kent Gash).

Langston in Harlem is Mr. Hughes’ autobiographical journey told in his own unique voice and tempered with the talent of Marks and Gash who co-wrote the book with him.  Together these three men create more than just a retelling of a life story; they do more than recount a history; together they create a magical odyssey and give the audience a gift in form of poetry, music and dance.

Langston in Harlem starts off softly, dreamily, with the words of Harlem projecting around the room.  But this dream soon explodes into a musical number so powerful it almost can’t be contained in the little 70-person theatre.

Forceful and fiery, the energy only continues from there as we meet the young Langston (Josh Towers) and those who are close to him including his friends Zora (Kenita Miller – a ten thousand watt voice shining from a compact vessel; so powerful it’s like all five feet of her is comprised of lungs – she can shake the paint from the walls with that amazingly strong gift of a voice) and Countee (Jordan Barbour), his mother Mrs. Hughes (Gayle Turner) and the other people of Harlem who know and inspire him.   Told in vignettes each scene allows the audience to experience the Harlem, and the world for that matter, that Hughes was experiencing.  We see the seeds which grew into the poetry we know (or are perhaps hearing for the first time here) and we are able to watch as a life unfolds with all its joys, sorrows, glory, hardships, praise, criticism, and even damnation.

Whether you know the story of Langston Hughes well, or whether you’re being told his story through this musical, this is a show that will teach you his lessons with captivating song.  This is the kind of a show where every musical number is a winner, a gorgeous melding of strong,  rich voices, evocative lyrics and intricate melodies all backed up by an orchestra (orchestrated by Steve Cohen and under the direction of John DiPinto) which is at once joyful, lively, raucous, smoky and seductive. Each number was so powerful that it was punctuated by a “whoooo” from the audience – sure sign that the arrow had hit its mark.

Langston’s sexuality is explored with a sultry song (Havana Dreams), but the transition from a traditional boy-girl love song (Jukebox Love Song: “I could take the Harlem night // and wrap around you, // Take the neon lights and make a crown, [. . .] // Dance with you till day — Dance with you, my sweet brown Harlem girl”) to Langston then revealing his true orientation is a bit abrupt and doesn’t mesh with the pacing of the rest of the story.  However, as the entire story is told in vignettes it would probably take far too long to devote the proper amount of time in order to give this part of Hughes’ life a deeper note.

The scene of his mother’s reaction to his admission of being in love with a man is heartbreaking; when she sings “Lullaby”  so full of emotion and tenderness it was now layered with new meaning:

Oh, little dark baby
Night black baby
Stars, stars,
Moon,
Night stars,
Moon,
For your sleep-song lullaby!

The choreography by Byron Easley is explosive, each dance a showcase to the talent of the artist.  So many forms of dance are represented, a truly wonderful palette of Easley’s many flavors and colors, each one as different as the next from African dance to the Charleston  but never so beautiful as the sad dance of a drug addict throwing himself against the walls, dizzy with addiction.

Highly charged moves and unabashed joy were elemental during the Charleston number where the cast were flying so furiously that it was impossible to believe that there were only a dozen dancers, and not hundreds; their excitement and ebullience brought the house down.

My one disappointment overall is that the story through-line at times can devolve into a showcase, rather than an exploration of who Langston Hughes, the man, truly is.  Langston In Harlem is a wonderful musical, and for those looking for a great night of song and dance, this one is not to be missed.   However, it left me with more questions about the poet than I had going in, which makes me wonder exactly how ready Mr. Hughes was to put his own life under the microscope?  We come away awed by his work and bowed by his words, but the person (even with some  of the scenes as revealing as they are) still remains a mystery.

It does make the show more abstract than most, however, and the gaps of information may leave a Hughes purist wanting more. However, with the amount of talented performers speaking such raw, emotional words, and singing songs of complexity, there’s more than enough entertainment.  It’s clear that Hughes’ words were meant to be put to music and who could want it any other way?

~~~

Related Posts:

• It’s A Sunshine Day For Stephen Garvey, Writer Of “The Bardy Bunch”
• Filmmaker, Writer & Blogger Kat Asharya
• Good Ole Fashioned Happy Musicals

The other day a friend of mine went to see Sessions.  I asked her how she liked it and she said, “I didn’t expect it to be so heavy.  I guess when I saw “musical” I expected “light”.  Huh.  

Comedy Tonight!

As a life long devotee to Sondheim, who’s every musical (even the deceptively named Follies) is filled with some combination of longing, regret, despair, confusion, anger, revenge, lethargy, emptiness, callousness, greed, murder, mental illness, and scorn, the last thing I tend to expect from a musical is “light”.  Even the first song from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (“Comedy Tonight”) takes the time to tell you what you will NOT see: NO ROYAL CURSE, // NO TROJAN HORSE, // AND A HAPPY ENDING, OF COURSE! // GOODNESS AND BADNESS, // MAN IN HIS MADNESS, //  THIS TIME IT ALL TURNS OUT ALL RIGHT! // TRAGEDY TOMORROW! // COMEDY TONIGHT! as if to caution “If you’ve come here for the typical Sondheim fare you’ll be disappointed by all the jubilation!”  Of course Sondheim is brilliant in any mood, so there’ no fear of disappointment, it’s just rarely does a musical start off with the disclaimer WARNING … HAPPY ENDING AHEAD!

Bring On the Girls!

When musicals first started out they were long on musical numbers and short on plot — a hold over from Vaudeville, Burlesque and … dare I say it … Minstrel Shows.  It wasn’t until around the 20s when composers like George and Ira Gershwin, (Richard) Rogers & (Lorenz) Hart and Cole Porter burst onto the scene that Broadway Musicals took a giant step forward.  And as quaint as we like to paint early shows such as Of Thee I Sing now, they were written in direct response to the times as a way to distract everyone from what was happening.  Filled with Busby Berkeley numbers where beautiful girls kaleidoscoped their way through hopeful tunes before the boy got the girl in the end.  As the saying goes … That’s Entertainment!

So how did all of THAT lead to musicals now that almost come with a warning label: Caution: May lead to depression or thoughts of suicide?  When did Oh What A Beautiful Morning! (Oklahoma!), Confidence In Me (Sound of Music) and Happy Talk (South Pacific) turn into Ugly Boy (Bat Boy), The Bitch of Living (Spring Awakening), and It Sucks to be Me (Avenue Q)?

Well, I’ll tell you when.  When Broadway Musicals started reflecting life realistically as opposed to showing it sorta realistically and then distracting you with a pretty song.  Take a closer look at all those fluffy musicals that were the standard and you’ll see they hid just as much double crossing, adultery, murderous intent and skulduggery as anything thing from today, but they couched it all in soaring tunes that had swells of violins and the occasional harp flutter thrown in.

Here is a smattering of plot lines from classic musicals.  Boiled down to their essence they make RENT look like The Wiggles singing selections from The Backyardigans.

The King And I

Obfuscated Plot #1: A lonely widow takes herself and her kid halfway round the world to a strange culture to work in a job where she’s treated like a second class citizen by her boss, constantly reminded that she’s inferior, and when she finally starts feeling good about things her boss dies.  There’s a stable of women who are considered his gifts or property, and when they fall in love with anyone but the king, it’s literally life-threatening.  
Catchy Tunes with Sunny Titles Intended To Distract You From Horrifying Plot Developments: I Whistle a Happy Tune, Shall We Dance?, Something Wonderful.   

My Fair Lady

Obfuscated Plot #2:  A poor woman doing what she can to survive in the dirty streets of London is made an example of when a snotty man makes a bet on her future.  He verbally abuses her, constantly reminds her that she’s inferior, and takes total credit for her transformation when she finally DOES re-invent herself.  He denies all feelings for her, though he has them.  When she leaves, he lets her … and just when you’re saying “good for her!” she comes crawling back to him.   
Catchy Tunes with Sunny Titles Intended To Distract You From Horrifying Plot Developments: I Could Have Danced All Night, You Did It.

Gigi

Obfuscated Plot #3: A young girl is being trained to be some random man’s high priced whore because that is her lot in life.  She’s encouraged to learn how to please a man and forget her own wants and desires.  Her old aunt (who was also a high priced whore) constantly reminds her that she’s inferior and shouldn’t be thinking thoughts of her own.  When she’s finally taken for a test drive  by the rich man who, up till now, was just like a brother to her, he doesn’t like how she’s “all grown up” and not the silly little girl she used to be.  He treats her rudely, take her home, and when she begs him to take her on as his mistress he spurns her again.  Eventually he takes her back but only if he can do the right thing and marry her … making her an “honest woman”.
Catchy Tunes with Sunny Titles Intended To Distract You From Horrifying Plot Developments:  Thank Heaven for Little Girls, The Night They Invented Champagne.  

South Pacific

Obfuscated Plot #4:  A young nurse is sent far away to tend to soldiers during the war.  Among some of the other people who are there is a soldier who’s having lots and lots and lots of sex with an island girl, despite the fact that he’s a racist and constantly reminded that she’s inferior.  When cornered, he refuses to make an honest woman of her.  Meanwhile the nurse has fallen for some rich guy but when she finds out his kids are not 100% Caucasian she throws all her racists paranoia at him and runs away. She comes back, but only because she thought he might be dead.  
Catchy Tunes with Sunny Titles Intended To Distract You From Horrifying Plot Developments: A Cockeyed Optimist, Honey Bun, Some Enchanted Evening, I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy.

Camelot

Obfuscated Plot #5:  A young woman is married to a king but finds she’s desperately in love with someone else whom she can’t be with.  She’s bored, under utilized, and constantly reminded that she’s inferior.  When she tries to run away with her true love, they wind up ruining the whole kingdom.  She’s forced to become a nun, which is better than the burning at the steak deal that was supposed to be her lot.  
Catchy Tunes with Sunny Titles Intended To Distract You From Horrifying Plot Developments: Lusty Month of May, Then You May take Me To The Fair 

Carousel

Obfuscated Plot #6: A young woman works in a factory, toiling away at the looms.  She falls in love with a bad boy who’s rough and abusive and doing so makes everyone in the town treat her as if she’s inferior.  He marries her, but still can’t shape up, and is rude and violent. When she tells him she’s pregnant he considers “doing the right thing” by going out and stealing so he can provide for his baby.  He winds up botching the job and dying mid-robbery, leaving his widow to raise the child by herself.  The child herself is shunned and constantly reminded she’s inferior.  When the dead dad visits his daughter as a ghost he winds up slapping her.  
Catchy Tunes with Sunny Titles Intended To Distract You From Horrifying Plot Developments:  A Real Nice Clambake, Because it’s June, When the Children Are Asleep.

West Side Story

Obfuscated Plot #7: A young woman from another country comes to NYC with her family and her brother joins a gang of street thugs who are in a war with another gang of street thugs.  She meets a guy who seems to like her but when everyone finds out he’s in the other gang, she’s told to keep away from him.  The boy is told to keep away from her kind too … as they are all inferior.  The boy winds up killing the girl’s brother and then gets killed himself in a street fight.  The girl cradles his bloody body and tries to kill everyone else there with a gun.  
Catchy Tunes with Sunny Titles Intended To Distract You From Horrifying Plot Developments:  Tonight, I Feel Pretty, America.   

Gypsy

Obfuscated Plot #8: A young girl has a sister who is beautiful and talented … and spoiled.  The young girl is starving for attention but is ignored by everyone, especially her mother, who only bothers to talk to her when she’s reminding her that she’s inferior.  When the beautiful sister runs away with the boy the girl has had a crush on this whole time, the girl’s mother forces her to take up stripping in order to support the family.  The girl is mortified but the mother literately pushes her on to the stage in front of a group of lecherous men.  The girl learns how to be a better stripper and after she gains some self esteem tells her mom to stay out of her life.  The narcissistic mother takes this moment to tell the world that it was SHE who was the big star all along anyway, despite the fact that she’s talking to herself in an empty dressing room and no one actually gives a damn about her.  
Catchy Tunes with Sunny Titles Intended To Distract You From Horrifying Plot Developments: Mr. Goldstone I Love You, Little Lamb,  All I Need Now is the Girl.  

And last but not least:

Sound of Music

Obfuscated Plot #9: A young woman is trying to become a nun but keeps bumbling her way through it.  She goes to a mean man’s house and tries to raise his kids for him, but they play tricks on her.  The man back up his rotten kids, and constantly reminders her that she’s inferior.  Eventually he realizes he loves this woman and leaves his (more age-appropriate) fiancee behind in order to marry her.  Just when everyone is happy the worst happens and the Nazis force them across the boarder – they lose everything.  
Catchy Tunes with Sunny Titles Intended To Distract You From Horrifying Plot Developments:  The Hills are Alive, The Lonely Goatherd, So Long, Farewell … heck … ALL OF THEM!  

Are We Dead Yet?

While there’ll always be a place in my heart for these classics which I was weaned on, these days I expect my musical to be dark bullets of reality that nick my shoulder and drop me to the ground … allowing me to bleed out slowly.  These days  I’d rather have my reality served up modern-day-musical style, where people stop singing in the middle of the song for an AZT break and the curtain only comes down when most of the main characters are dead.

Related Posts:

• Ye Elizabeths: Living Vicariously Because … (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• It’s A Sunshine Day For Stephen Garvey, Writer Of “The Bardy Bunch”
• Stinky Flowers, Sweet Thoughts
• New Forms Of Something Different: A Review Of “Three Sisters Come And Go”
• “Langston In Harlem” Lights Up The Night