Authors: Greg Lawrence,John Kander,Fred Ebb
Colored Lights: Forty Years of Words and Music, Show Biz, Collaboration, and All That Jazz (20 page)
BOOK: Colored Lights: Forty Years of Words and Music, Show Biz, Collaboration, and All That Jazz
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Velma and Matron:
What became of class?
What became of class?
EBB: I almost talked myself out of that one. Funny songs actually terrify me. I’m at a loss there because very seldom do I think what I’ve written is funny. I would have cut “Class” in two minutes from my own fear of it before I saw it on the stage. I know we often write comic songs that come off, but I never know whether a song will work while I am writing it. With “Class,” we kept trying to find “ass” rhymes. I came up with “Last week my mother got groped in the middle of Mass!” I remember you laughed so hard when you heard that line you almost fell off
the piano bench. We both loved the line, and Chita loved it. We put it in a matinee that same day, but there was dead silence from the audience. So we took the line out. I can be easily discouraged that way.
the piano bench. We both loved the line, and Chita loved it. We put it in a matinee that same day, but there was dead silence from the audience. So we took the line out. I can be easily discouraged that way.
KANDER: I have more belief in your humor than you have.
EBB: But that’s what gets me through. If you had not stuck with “Class,” that number would have been out. I didn’t even do it at the backers’ audition. I thought it would bomb and refused to do it. The first night the song went into the show, I panicked. I ran downstairs to the men’s room to hide. Eventually, I heard the audience laughing and decided to go back up. On the steps, I heard more laughter, and on the line “No one even says ‘oops’ when they’re passing their gas,” there was a really huge laugh. Only then did I realize the song was funny.
KANDER: My feeling about your humor, your humor lyrics if you want to call them that, is that if the audience doesn’t get it, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not funny. Many years ago I worked with Beatrice Lillie on tour, playing the piano, and she had an unerring sense of what was funny. We had a matinee crowd in Palm Beach, and she had to make an entrance that had always gotten a laugh before, a piece of business with a fur coat. But when she did it that afternoon, there was absolute silence. She got up, took the fur coat with her, went back out the scenery door, came back in, and did the same bit again. Then she did it a third time, and by that time the audience was in the aisles. So it’s like saying, “I believe that is funny whether you think so or not.” You and I have somewhat different senses of humor. I love things that are dirty or risque, and I encourage your vulgar streak whenever I possibly can.
EBB: Yes, you keep me vulgar. In
Over & Over,
our show based on Thornton Wilder’s
The Skin of Our Teeth,
I wrote a line, “She’s fucking the producer of the show.” Joe Stein, who wrote the book, said, “I’ve never used the word ‘fuck’ in anything that
I’ve ever written.” I was ready at that point to take it out and change it. But you said, “No, that’s funny. Keep it. It’s my favorite line.” When we finally read the show for prospective producers, that line received a good response. I need the validation of people telling me whether or not a line is funny, and that has been an undercurrent through all my professional life. Hearing applause after one of our numbers is performed means the world to me. There is more of that in me than you, that need for validation. Oddly enough, I seldom approve totally of what I’ve written, but most of the time I do fully approve of what you have written.
Over & Over,
our show based on Thornton Wilder’s
The Skin of Our Teeth,
I wrote a line, “She’s fucking the producer of the show.” Joe Stein, who wrote the book, said, “I’ve never used the word ‘fuck’ in anything that
I’ve ever written.” I was ready at that point to take it out and change it. But you said, “No, that’s funny. Keep it. It’s my favorite line.” When we finally read the show for prospective producers, that line received a good response. I need the validation of people telling me whether or not a line is funny, and that has been an undercurrent through all my professional life. Hearing applause after one of our numbers is performed means the world to me. There is more of that in me than you, that need for validation. Oddly enough, I seldom approve totally of what I’ve written, but most of the time I do fully approve of what you have written.
KANDER: That’s funny. I think of it the other way around.
EBB: Once many years ago I attended an afternoon of scenes that had been cut from various shows. I don’t remember who put the afternoon together or how I even happened to be there, but they did scenes that had been taken out of shows like
Mister Roberts.
There were some incredibly funny scenes, and the lesson of the afternoon was that for the good of the whole show you often have to remove scenes. It may hurt you enormously to take them out. But they can be giant laughs that impede the project as a whole.
Mister Roberts.
There were some incredibly funny scenes, and the lesson of the afternoon was that for the good of the whole show you often have to remove scenes. It may hurt you enormously to take them out. But they can be giant laughs that impede the project as a whole.
KANDER: Sometimes when people see one of our pieces that have been cut, they say, “That’s really good. Why did you take that out?”
EBB: We had a number like that called “This Life” in
The Skin of Our Teeth
when we did it in Arlington a few years ago.
The Skin of Our Teeth
when we did it in Arlington a few years ago.
KANDER: If it weren’t for Dorothy Loudon performing that piece, we would have probably cut it earlier. The character that Dorothy Loudon played was a character that we created for her.
EBB: Dorothy was a given in the casting, and she was wonderful. But the character didn’t belong in the show. It wasn’t Dorothy’s fault. She was a name and a pal and we felt we had to write for her. So we wrote a number that did stop the show.
KANDER: She was very funny doing it, but it had nothing to do with the piece. When it’s really clear like that, it’s not a hard choice to make.
EBB: We knew that was the right choice. We were going to lose a showstopper, but we hoped the show itself would be better.
A somewhat scaled-down version of
Chicago
opened at the City Center Encores on May 2, 1996, then transferred to the Shubert Theater on November 14 that same year. The revival was one of the most lauded shows of recent years. The cast included Ann Reinking as Roxie, Bebe Neuwirth as Velma, and James Naughton as Billy Flynn. The production was directed by Walter Bobbie and choreographed by Ann Reinking “in the style of Bob Fosse.”
Chicago
opened at the City Center Encores on May 2, 1996, then transferred to the Shubert Theater on November 14 that same year. The revival was one of the most lauded shows of recent years. The cast included Ann Reinking as Roxie, Bebe Neuwirth as Velma, and James Naughton as Billy Flynn. The production was directed by Walter Bobbie and choreographed by Ann Reinking “in the style of Bob Fosse.”
KANDER: The
Chicago
revival started the night that we finished the dance auditions for
Steel Pier.
Chicago
revival started the night that we finished the dance auditions for
Steel Pier.
EBB: We went to see the Encores’ presentation at the City Center.
KANDER: We hadn’t been to rehearsals. Johnny Mineo was in the company of
Chicago
and he had auditioned for
Steel Pier
. We saw him leaving the studio and asked him, “How’s it going over there with
Chicago?”
He looked at us very strangely, and blinked, and said, “Oh, I think you’re going to like it.”
Chicago
and he had auditioned for
Steel Pier
. We saw him leaving the studio and asked him, “How’s it going over there with
Chicago?”
He looked at us very strangely, and blinked, and said, “Oh, I think you’re going to like it.”
EBB: He didn’t know how the audience would react.
KANDER: No, but he was happy and I’ve always remembered his reply because that was the understatement of the year.
EBB: We were both exhausted and neither one of us even
wanted to go see the show. On the way, we stopped off at a delicatessen and had a sandwich, and then we literally trudged up to the City Center.
wanted to go see the show. On the way, we stopped off at a delicatessen and had a sandwich, and then we literally trudged up to the City Center.
KANDER: But as we walked through the theater door, the atmosphere was all of a sudden electric. You could sense it almost before the show started.
EBB: What happened that night was astonishing.
KANDER: I don’t think I have ever been through anything like it.
EBB: It was like we had invited everyone in the audience.
KANDER: They went nuts about vamps and entrances and even the announcement of a character.
EBB: “And now the ladies of the Cook County Jail”—“Whoa!”
KANDER: “Whoa!”
EBB: It was unbelievable, and I was not surprised that all of the producers in the audience were after it at the end. If I was a producer, I would have been after it too. I doubt that City Center ever had that kind of a reaction to a musical before. I had never seen anything like that. It was like hysteria.
KANDER: It was like a rock concert.
EBB: We didn’t sit together, and you came over to me during the intermission. I remember your mouth was wide open, and I was just sitting there totally stunned. I couldn’t even move. You said, “What do you think?” I said, “Jeeesus, this is amazing!” You can’t account for a success like that. Don’t even try.
KANDER: I remember telling you, “What is amazing is that it’s the same orchestrations, the same dialogue snipped a bit, the same choreographic style as the original production.”
EBB: What was different was the presentation. It was stripped down.
KANDER: The original production wasn’t lavish.
EBB: But there was scenery, whereas there was no scenery in
this revival, so the songs were sort of in your face. Most of the performers came down center stage and sang to you.
this revival, so the songs were sort of in your face. Most of the performers came down center stage and sang to you.
KANDER: I think you’re right not to try to figure it out, because it was still the same funny, nasty piece that it had been. Reviews for the original production were very mixed and critics who hadn’t liked it suddenly liked the revival. Then they would try to explain why they had changed their minds.
EBB: I think that the audience caught up with the show, and history has been a great friend to us. We are living in a time of sensational murders and people either getting away or not getting away with them depending on what you believe. We have been helped enormously by the O. J. Simpson case, presidential adultery, and similar stories that suddenly had our sort of jaundiced worldview in the headlines.
KANDER: I guess it proves, much to our delight, that corruption never goes out of fashion. But I think, if anything, the success of
Chicago
is a little bit like the history of
Pal Joey,
which was originally considered just too mean in spirit. Then it was revived and was a big hit.
Chicago
is a little bit like the history of
Pal Joey,
which was originally considered just too mean in spirit. Then it was revived and was a big hit.
EBB: What we hear most often about
Chicago
is that it was ahead of its time.
Chicago
is that it was ahead of its time.
KANDER: I don’t really know what that means.
EBB: I don’t know either, but for God’s sake, what does anything mean! I’m just grateful. That opening at City Center was a night I will never forget.
KANDER: That was probably the most unique night in our entire careers. We went into the theater with no expectations except
Won’t it be nice to see Chicago again
.
Won’t it be nice to see Chicago again
.
EBB: We were tired that night, but by the end of the performance I had so much energy that I was bounding up the staircase to see the performers.
KANDER: And you don’t bound.
EBB: No, I certainly don’t bound. Again, it says how fortunate
we are. Individual shows get revived all the time but when you have two sensational productions of two shows at the same time as we do with
Chicago
and
Cabaret,
it really is something extraordinary. Last night I watched
Chicago
again, and this is its fifth year in revival. I sat there remembering the original cast—Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera, and Jerry Orbach. I thought,
My God, this show is still running, and some of it is still funny, and the score is still decent
.
How lucky can you get?
It could have been anybody’s show, given that cast and Bob Fosse’s staging. Years later it was the perfect revival at the perfect time, but that’s just luck.
we are. Individual shows get revived all the time but when you have two sensational productions of two shows at the same time as we do with
Chicago
and
Cabaret,
it really is something extraordinary. Last night I watched
Chicago
again, and this is its fifth year in revival. I sat there remembering the original cast—Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera, and Jerry Orbach. I thought,
My God, this show is still running, and some of it is still funny, and the score is still decent
.
How lucky can you get?
It could have been anybody’s show, given that cast and Bob Fosse’s staging. Years later it was the perfect revival at the perfect time, but that’s just luck.
And I remembered Bobby. Mean, brilliant, friend, companion. Helpful, lovable Bobby. After all these years, how I miss him. How grateful I was to him, how much he taught me and in a funny way how much I was able to teach him. Maybe even about love and forbearance. It’s hard to know now. All I knew then was that he was an indelible part of my life and I would never forget him. And despite everything, there I was, looking at our brainchild. Oh, God, it was complicated, but I was grateful to him. Above all, I was grateful.
The
Act
and
Woman of the Year
Act
and
Woman of the Year
T
he Act
was a flashy, Las Vegas—style vehicle for Liza Minnelli, but the production, directed by Martin Scorsese, was beset during its pre-Broadway tryouts with rewrites, conflicts, and firings. Out of his element in musical theater, Scorsese retained his credit but was replaced by Gower Champion, who pulled the show together in time to win an enthusiastic reception for its star. The first Broadway show with a top ticket price of twenty-five dollars,
The Act
opened at the Majestic Theater to mostly favorable reviews October 29, 1977, and ran for 233 performances.
he Act
was a flashy, Las Vegas—style vehicle for Liza Minnelli, but the production, directed by Martin Scorsese, was beset during its pre-Broadway tryouts with rewrites, conflicts, and firings. Out of his element in musical theater, Scorsese retained his credit but was replaced by Gower Champion, who pulled the show together in time to win an enthusiastic reception for its star. The first Broadway show with a top ticket price of twenty-five dollars,
The Act
opened at the Majestic Theater to mostly favorable reviews October 29, 1977, and ran for 233 performances.
EBB: We first met Martin Scorsese when he worked with Liza on the movie
New York, New York.
For the title song, his request was for us to write a number that would score better than “And the World Goes ’Round,” which we also wrote for that movie.
New York, New York.
For the title song, his request was for us to write a number that would score better than “And the World Goes ’Round,” which we also wrote for that movie.
KANDER: It had to be that title, “New York, New York.”
EBB: As a matter of fact, that’s not the title. The title of that song is actually “The Theme from
New York, New York.”
New York, New York.”
KANDER: That’s right. There was the threat of a lawsuit.
EBB: We received a letter from Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Leonard Bernstein about the title. While you cannot
copyright a title, as we came to understand it, there’s an implied right, which means that if the first song was famous, the second song would seem to be trading on that fame if you used the same title. Their posture was that their “New York, New York” from
On the Town
was that famous, and we deferred to them.
copyright a title, as we came to understand it, there’s an implied right, which means that if the first song was famous, the second song would seem to be trading on that fame if you used the same title. Their posture was that their “New York, New York” from
On the Town
was that famous, and we deferred to them.
KANDER: We had no choice but to write it anyway. For Bernstein’s seventy-fifth birthday, I think, John Corigliano wrote a piece in which the two songs chase each other. Steve Sondheim sent me a recording of it. It’s a funny piece of writing, a big orchestral piece, and, as I recall, the Boston Symphony performed it. In any case, we delivered five songs for the movie, including our first version of the title song. We played them for Liza and Scorsese.
EBB: And for Robert De Niro. I remember that he was sitting on a couch when we were at the piano in the office.
KANDER: Marty and Liza liked all of them. After the two of them told us how pleased they were, we started to leave until we saw this gesture from the couch—from De Niro. Marty went over to him and the two of them had a very animated, hand-waving kind of conversation. Then Scorsese came back to us and was very diplomatic with what he had to say at that point.
EBB: In Oscar Levant’s book
A Smattering of Ignorance,
there is a chapter in which he suggests that when the boss calls you in and starts to compliment you, you know you are about to be fired. Marty started to go on effusively about how he much loved “And the World Goes ’Round,” one of the five songs we had played for them. Then came the firing. He said, “But you know, your ‘New York, New York’ is not as strong as that number. So we wonder if you would take another pass at it.”
A Smattering of Ignorance,
there is a chapter in which he suggests that when the boss calls you in and starts to compliment you, you know you are about to be fired. Marty started to go on effusively about how he much loved “And the World Goes ’Round,” one of the five songs we had played for them. Then came the firing. He said, “But you know, your ‘New York, New York’ is not as strong as that number. So we wonder if you would take another pass at it.”
KANDER: One of the reasons that De Niro was so concerned about the number was that “New York, New York” in the movie was a song that his character was writing. At that point, we
were very thin-skinned about his request for a rewrite, like how could an actor be telling us how to write the song. Of course, we agreed that we would take another pass at it, but we weren’t smiling. I don’t remember what room we wrote it in, but the rewrite couldn’t have taken us more than an hour. In a very short time, we wrote the current version of “New York, New York,” which of course became a hit and was a hundred times better than what we had originally written.
were very thin-skinned about his request for a rewrite, like how could an actor be telling us how to write the song. Of course, we agreed that we would take another pass at it, but we weren’t smiling. I don’t remember what room we wrote it in, but the rewrite couldn’t have taken us more than an hour. In a very short time, we wrote the current version of “New York, New York,” which of course became a hit and was a hundred times better than what we had originally written.
EBB: We wound up being grateful for his request after we had first taken umbrage. What is umbrage anyway?
KANDER: If it wasn’t for De Niro, we would never have written “New York, New York.”
EBB: That’s right. He ought to be coauthor.
KANDER: The fact is that he was right. The other song really was weak, so weak that neither of us can even remember it.
EBB: The first version was about going around in a hansom in the park.
KANDER: It was trite and familiar.
EBB: Like springtime is lovely with the birds in Central Park.
KANDER: But I think one of the strengths of “New York, New York,” the final song, derived from the fact that we were miffed when we were writing it.
EBB: The vamp makes that song. That song is famous for the vamp, the interior melody that leads into it.
KANDER: The vamp came from the lyric. I was playing the piano, and dum dum da de dum came from “Start spreading the news …” That’s the vamp.
EBB: Apparently, I wrote the lyric first, or at least the opening, umbrage and all. What is umbrage anyway?
KANDER: What still makes me smile is knowing that when we wrote it our attitude was “We’ll show that actor!” But had De Niro not dissented we would never have written the biggest single hit we ever had in our lives.
EBB: It would not have gone through if it wasn’t for De Niro, though the song was not a hit in the movie. It didn’t break out until a few years later, when Sinatra sang it.
KANDER: As you know, the worst thing that you can say to me is “Give me a terrific vamp.” I’ll freeze if you say that. The vamp at the front of “New York, New York” is simply part of the tune. There are also vamps in
Cabaret
and other shows of ours. But I don’t sit down and say, “Now I’m going to write a vamp.” If I try that, I become very tense. I also become uncomfortable if we try to work outside our own style. We were asked to do a song in
The Act,
and the choreographer, Ron Lewis, wanted it to be a rock song. I resisted writing that number for a long time, and then I tried it. I was miserable doing it, and I think it even went into the show. It was dreadful.
Cabaret
and other shows of ours. But I don’t sit down and say, “Now I’m going to write a vamp.” If I try that, I become very tense. I also become uncomfortable if we try to work outside our own style. We were asked to do a song in
The Act,
and the choreographer, Ron Lewis, wanted it to be a rock song. I resisted writing that number for a long time, and then I tried it. I was miserable doing it, and I think it even went into the show. It was dreadful.
EBB: “Hot Enough for You?”
KANDER: I wrote the song, and it’s too bad, because it’s like me trying to speak Romanian, trying to improvise in a language I don’t speak.
EBB: That’s funny. I speak fluent Romanian, but “Hot Enough for You” really was uninspired, though I remember when we played it for Marty Scorsese he said that he really liked it.
KANDER: I think I’m old enough now not to let myself do that anymore. Many people make that kind of stylistic transition and do it wonderfully. It’s just not what I do. While we are usually attracted to the same material, I think you were more interested in
The Act
than I was. Is that true?
The Act
than I was. Is that true?
EBB:
The Act
was strange in many ways. Actually, Marvin Hamlisch came to us and his idea was that I write the first act with you and the second act I was to write with him. That was the arrangement he proposed, wasn’t it?
The Act
was strange in many ways. Actually, Marvin Hamlisch came to us and his idea was that I write the first act with you and the second act I was to write with him. That was the arrangement he proposed, wasn’t it?
KANDER: Originally, Marvin wanted you to write it with him, and then he suggested as a compromise that we somehow split the score.
EBB: That wasn’t what I wanted to do, and we turned him down.
KANDER: That was really an act of loyalty on your part. My feeling about the material was that I wasn’t sufficiently interested in the predicament of those characters.
EBB: I was more interested than you. I liked the idea of doing a club act on Broadway with a narrative stemming from the club act.
The Act
is about an actress who has had a screen career but suddenly discovers there is no work for her. She says to herself that she is going to get back in the arena and decides to go to Vegas to do a nightclub act.
The Act
was really about reclaiming success. You know, like the old Shirley MacLaine saga. The conceit was that the show would be put together like a nightclub revue, for which the score wasn’t all written by one person. Although I like Marvin very much, I wouldn’t do it without you, and the idea of splitting the score was not anything either of us wanted to do.
The Act
is about an actress who has had a screen career but suddenly discovers there is no work for her. She says to herself that she is going to get back in the arena and decides to go to Vegas to do a nightclub act.
The Act
was really about reclaiming success. You know, like the old Shirley MacLaine saga. The conceit was that the show would be put together like a nightclub revue, for which the score wasn’t all written by one person. Although I like Marvin very much, I wouldn’t do it without you, and the idea of splitting the score was not anything either of us wanted to do.
KANDER: We both like Marvin as a friend.
EBB: As I recall, he bowed out because the project wasn’t going the way he envisioned. Then quite a few other people came to bear. Stanley Donen was in on it for a while, and George Furth was in on it from the beginning. I couldn’t even begin to tell you all of the rewrites for
The Act.
We made changes out of desperation to try to make the show work. We started the show with one idea, which was that none of the songs would relate to the plot. It was to be a club act going on at the time the heroine was reminiscing about her life. But the audience kept looking for a connection. What was the connection between the club act and the rest of the scenes? That required an entirely different approach. That’s when you know you are in deep trouble, when you have to change ideas midstream because you really haven’t been sure of what the concept is. We’ve had shows that won strong critical approbation—
The Act
was one, at least
with the New York critics—that I thought were actually rather sloppy efforts on our part.
The Act
later squeaked by mainly because of Liza’s phenomenal energy. I thought there were some decent numbers in it, but not until we finally arrived in New York.
The Act.
We made changes out of desperation to try to make the show work. We started the show with one idea, which was that none of the songs would relate to the plot. It was to be a club act going on at the time the heroine was reminiscing about her life. But the audience kept looking for a connection. What was the connection between the club act and the rest of the scenes? That required an entirely different approach. That’s when you know you are in deep trouble, when you have to change ideas midstream because you really haven’t been sure of what the concept is. We’ve had shows that won strong critical approbation—
The Act
was one, at least
with the New York critics—that I thought were actually rather sloppy efforts on our part.
The Act
later squeaked by mainly because of Liza’s phenomenal energy. I thought there were some decent numbers in it, but not until we finally arrived in New York.
KANDER: With that piece, we were at a total loss. Marty Scorsese never should have done that show. We had some kitchen discussions about that before we went out to California. It was very strange that Liza did that show with him.
EBB: She was smitten with him.
KANDER: I think she always believed that somehow we could get her out of any jam, and, in fact, that was often the case, certainly, for you, Freddy.
The Act
was the wrong situation for Scorsese. I don’t believe he had ever walked on a stage before and he and Liza were into this nutsy relationship, about which I knew very little. I didn’t even know anything about cocaine at that time. They would come to rehearsal late all the time, very late. What was the one about the accident?
The Act
was the wrong situation for Scorsese. I don’t believe he had ever walked on a stage before and he and Liza were into this nutsy relationship, about which I knew very little. I didn’t even know anything about cocaine at that time. They would come to rehearsal late all the time, very late. What was the one about the accident?
EBB: Oh, that was awful and really very hard on all of us. There was a day when we had a rehearsal at ten in the morning and the two of them weren’t there. The entire cast was there. She didn’t show up, and he didn’t show up, and it got to be like twelve, one o’clock. When they finally came in, they said that they had been in a terrible accident on the freeway. The car they were in was totaled, and the cops took them in to some sort of holding station. Liza said, “Oh, they separated us because men and women can’t go in there together,” and then it all started sounding very, very strange. You took one look at her and you knew it was a lie. I wanted to say, “Why are you doing this?” That was a terrible day. I think Liza had a certain problem with reality, and maybe she still does. It seemed to me that she had a pretty active other life going on, a parallel life to what was going on in the theater.
Liza Minnelli on alcohol and drug abuse:
You have to remember at the point where I started to go through this, they didn’t have all the information that they have now on this life-threatening disease. According to the AMA, alcoholism is obsessive-compulsive behavior. It’s documented now, it’s all in black and white. They didn’t know those facts back then, so John and Fred saw something happening to me that they didn’t understand. But they were there for me anyway. Only it wasn’t me, it was circumstances and a disease. Nobody else understood, but they somehow kept faith, and I never let them down theatrically.
KANDER: There was never anything unpleasant about Marty.
EBB: I’m sure the rest of the cast thought the situation was unpleasant.
KANDER: But I mean he was not pulling the star thing. He was just in the wrong place. He would come to rehearsals and tape everything. Then he would go home and edit it.
EBB: He put it on a television.
KANDER: In a way, I understand what he was doing. It was like he was going to direct this piece within a technique that he understood.
EBB: Block it like a movie.
KANDER: But theater doesn’t work that way, and Liza kept trying to make excuses for him. I don’t know if you will agree with me or not, but I think there came a point when she knew the show was not working. She was never going to turn on him. She was never going to be the one to go to the producers and allow them to fire Marty. But I remember one of those late-night conversations with her where, without saying so, she was telling us to fix the situation.
EBB: She had to have been aware that the show wasn’t working. The audience reaction was hideous. All she had to do was look out in the audience after intermission. Half of them were gone.
KANDER: Deep down inside, she wanted to be saved, but she did not want to be the one to have to be the bad guy, and nobody was brave enough to say anything to her.
EBB: I wondered what Marty thought about how the show went because he never came back like a Hal Prince might have done. In that same situation, Hal might have said, “Oh, my God, the show’s not working,” and wrung his hands. Scorsese never did that.
KANDER: But he wasn’t there much of the time, Freddy.
EBB: He must have known. We were reviewed in all the papers while we were out of town. Marty had Jay Cocks from
Time
come to see
The Act
, and apparently Cocks told him the show wasn’t working.
Time
come to see
The Act
, and apparently Cocks told him the show wasn’t working.
BOOK: Colored Lights: Forty Years of Words and Music, Show Biz, Collaboration, and All That Jazz
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