Under the Radar

When we think of the great body of work which constitutes the Great American Songbook, there is a tendency to forget the great composers who never wrote a Broadway show but whose songs are as much part of our musical heritage.  I’m reminded of this while reading William Zinsser’s Easy to Remember; The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs.  Perhaps I’ll have more to say on the book when I’m finished.  Yet, I will say that the book, for me at least, is fascinating, as Zinsser’s passion for the music is evident on every page, it’s encyclopedic, and finally, he frequently discusses the songs’ construction, both musically and lyrically.  This is my kind of tribute to the music I love.

And, yet, there are omissions.  A composer such as Henry Mancini gets but a passing mention, only because of working with the “vernacular poet” of lyricism, Johnny Mercer, on the song “Moon River.”  But a glaring total omission is the work of Johnny Mandel, perhaps not a household name, unless you hear one of his songs which you would swear was written by someone else.  His oeuvre is not extensive, but he’s written a wide range of idiosyncratic songs and teamed up with some interesting lyricists.  He has, most notably, worked extensively as an arranger for well known singers of his time as well as playing with some of the big bands of the 40s such as Jimmy Dorsey and Count Basie.

He too worked with Johnny Mercer the lyricist on perhaps one of his best known songs, written for a movie, “Emily.” Tony Bennett, Sinatra, and a host of others have recorded it.  The jazz community has adopted this work as their own, particularly the superb interpretation by Bill Evans, a version of which can be heard and seen here, Bill Evans in an intimate setting, Helsinki, 1969.

My mother’s favorite song was “The Shadow of Your Smile,” another film song he composed.  Whenever I visited her at my boyhood home from which I had long moved she’d ask me to sit at our old piano, by then partly out of tune, and play what I didn’t realize was a Mandel piece.

And talk about unusual, he composed the “Song from M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless)”, which is also now played in jazz venues.

His work with lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman produced two classic pieces, the mystically evocative “A Waltz from Somewhere” which reaches back to another era and one of my other favorites, “Where Do You Start?” about how does one disentangle one’s life from another’s?….”So many habits that we’ll have to break and yesterdays we’ll have to take apart.”

Yet the song which landed me in the sea of Johnny Mandel songs, never tying them altogether until I bought the composer’s Songbook, was “You Are There” as sung by today’s first lady of song, Stacey Kent.

We had the seen her and her husband, her producer and saxophonist Jim Tomlinson, some ten years ago at the Colony.

Her rendition of “You Are There" really elevates the composer’s intention: “To be done in a rubato feeling throughout”

Dave Frishberg, a musician who is sometimes best known for his satirical lyrics, wrote the words to this moving ballad and his collaboration with Mandel produced a classic, the story of a lover who is not just absent but is dead.  The ethereal quality of Mandel’s music works with the lyrics:

In the evening

When the kettle's on for tea

An old familiar feeling's settles over me

And it's your face I see

And I believe that you are there

In a garden

When I topped to touch a rose

And feel the petal soft and sweet against my nose

I smile and I suppose

That somehow maybe you are there

When I'm dreaming

And I find myself awake without a warning

Then I rub my eyes and fantasize

And all at once I realize

It's morning

And my fantasy is fading like a distant star at dawn

My dearest dream is gone

I often think there's just one thing to do

Pretend that dream is true

And tell myself that you are there

I offer my own piano rendition of this wonderful work.  Thank you Johnny Mandel for all your contributions to the Great American Songbook!

Equus: A Tense Drama of Inner Discovery to Open at Palm Beach Dramaworks

Peter Shaffer’s Tony Award-winning play, Equus, described as a “psychological thriller,” opens at Palm Beach Dramaworks (PBD) on May 18 and continues through June 3.  The idea was suggested to the playwright by a real life incident, although the details were never known to him.  But it inspired his imagination and Shaffer wrote what is considered one of the great English plays of the late 20^th century.  It stands on the level with his other, perhaps better known play, Amadeus.

It takes an exceptional theatre company to produce a play of this magnitude and intensity.  Not many regional theaters are prepared to showcase a cast of this size with all its emotional rawness.  So for those of us in South Florida it is an opportunity to see a Broadway quality play (in fact, it was last revived on Broadway in 2008 which included the Broadway debut of Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame). The PBD production is being directed by J. Barry Lewis.

Peter Simon Hilton, J. Barry Lewis, Mallory Newbrough

Seventeen year old Alan Strang is a “strange” boy.  Sexually repressed, the only son of a obsessively religious mother and an atheist father, fervently and delusionally conflates the suffering of the symbol of Christianity, Jesus, with those of horses, their having to endure bridles, reins, stirrups, riders dashing spurs against their flanks.  And yet, Alan is moved by “the way they give themselves to us.”  Alan replaces a portrait of Jesus in his room with a picture of a horse: “behold I give you Equus, my only begotten son.”

A series of events brings Alan into a job as a stable boy where he can be with the horses he worships and where he feels sexually aroused in their presence.  His erotic, passionate obsession with horses leads to the horrific and unfathomable act of blinding six of them.  

Steven Maier

Alan is played by Steven Maier.  One of Dramaworks’ strengths has been in discovering new talent and then casting them in the perfect role.  In Steven Maier, a young actor in his mid 20s they have found someone who can play this very intense part.  Maier revealed that through his background in music, as an accomplished guitarist and songwriter, he can develop “an emotional rawness that helps me approach the character of Alan in an organic way. Songwriting about my inner feelings makes me fearless.”

“It’s a unique role, a real challenge for me. But I have to approach it as any other role, with truthfulness and honesty, and this one is layered with incredible intensity which builds throughout the play. Every audience will have their own reaction to Alan. All I can do is to play it honestly and with passion.”  Also as a young actor he finds “a special pleasure to work with such a group of experienced actors and a director such as J. Barry. Every day is a learning experience.”

Alan’s case is brought to the attention of Martin Dysart (played by PBD veteran Peter Simon Hilton), the head psychiatrist at a local hospital who specializes in childhood trauma by his close friend and magistrate, Hesther Salomon (played by another PBD veteran Anne-Marie Cusson).  She believes that Dysart is the only one who can delve into the disturbed boy’s unconscious and can “cure” him.  Against his objections of taking on still another patient, Dysart is nonetheless intrigued by the details of Alan’s case.  And so the unraveling of the mystery begins.

Dysart has his own issues, a loveless marriage and a profession he sometimes questions.  The closer he comes to “breaking the case” the more he backs away, fearing that “curing” Alan will rob the boy of his passionate nature,  the magnitude of which he himself has never known.  In fact, this is Shaffer’s comment on modern mankind sliding into obedient citizens simply living out dull and ordinary lives.  One can remember Salieri’s obsession with “mediocrity” in Amadeus.  Dysart has a similar obsession fearing his profession is killing passion.

Peter Simon Hilton, from Arcadia fame last year at Dramaworks, plays the conflicted character Dysart.  “Equus is very visceral as opposed to Arcadia which is very intellectual.  The audience gets right into this play. In many ways it still shocks today.”  About his character Hilton said, “one essentially likes him as he doesn’t give up. And I relate to him as I’m English and I’m old enough to remember the times the play is set in. My memory of the cultural references brings advantages in my interpretation of the character. And as I studied classics, I was able to fast track into my understanding of Dysart’s obsession with Greek history and mythology. It’s one of the great acting roles in the theatre and it’s such an opportunity to play the part. And although the play is set in the 70’s, it is a timeless play.”

Interestingly, both Peter Simon Hilton and Steven Maier cited the same line from the play as their favorite.  It is spoken by Dysart but of Alan: “That's what his stare has been saying to me all this time. ‘At least I galloped! When did you?’”

The highly experienced J. Barry Lewis is the director of Equus.  He thinks of the script as “poetry at times – the words give clarity to issues in the play. The story is not what Alan did but why. And in looking for clues we find where anyone’s passion may lie. Have I done enough? Am I good enough? But we question – and that’s what makes this so relevant: the universal notion of self doubt. And in the case of Dysart he is struggling with a case of ‘professional menopause.’“

“Style is the biggest challenge for me, as a director, to bring this play to life. Staging is something Peter Shaffer gives over to the director to bring the playwright’s imagination alive to the audience. And style is the big surprise of the play: its minimalism, strip away everything and let the story be told. It is extraordinarily representational. And I love the ability to tell stories in a new framing device.”

The “Horses” of Equus

In addition to actors named above, Alan’s parents are played by two PBD veterans, John Leonard Thompson as Frank Strang and Julie Rowe as Dora Strang.  Alan’s unconsummated love interest in Jill Mason (played by PBD veteran Mallory Newbrough) has such a pivotal role leading to the horrific act.  Other actors, all making their PBD debuts, are Steve Carroll, Meredith Bartmon, Domenic Servidio, Nicholas Lovalvo, Robert Richards, Jr., Frank Vomero, and Austin Carroll.  Scenic design is by Anne Mundell, costume design is by Franne Lee, lighting design is by Kirk Bookman, and sound design is by Steve Shapiro.  Lee Soroko is the movement coordinator, and Ben Furey is the dialect coach.

Equus is a multilayered play dissecting the nature of sanity vs. passion, sex and religion.  Palm Beach Dramaworks’ ambitious undertaking can be seen beginning May 18 at The Don & Ann Brown Theatre in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach.  For ticket information contact the box office at (561) 514-4042, or visit www.palmbeachdramaworks.org.

Update: A Review of the play is now published at http://lacunaemusing.blogspot.com/2018/05/equus-soars-stuns-and-unsettles-at-palm.html

All photographs by Samantha Mighdoll at the Dramaworks Rehearsal Studio