Arthur, Arthur

Playwright Arthur Laurents, who died two years ago today in 2011, was known for being sharp-tongued.  He fell out with many friends in his long life, and was still calling it as he saw it up to the end.  Take his final book, Mainly On Directing, published in 2009.  More than once he condemns a production of a show he wrote but didn't direct--the 1980 revival of West Side Story, the 2003 revival of Gypsy, the movie version of West Side Story. The people behind them didn't have musicals "in their bones."

What does this mean?  That's what most of the book tries to explain when he's not busy criticizing others. He tells his story mostly from the point of view of a director, who has to work with writers, producers and actors, but at all times must serve the show.

Laurents goes into detail how he directed several musicals: more than one production of Gypsy, especially the 2008 version starring Patti LuPone (he seems to care more about Gypsy than any other show); the first musical he directed, I Can Get It For You Wholesale (1962), which featured the unknowns Elliott Gould and Barbra Streisand; his doomed collaboration with Stephen Sondheim, Anyone Can Whistle (1964); the first mainstream gay musical, La Cage Aux Folles (1983); and his last show, in 2009, a new, tougher take on West Side Story, where the Sharks speak Spanish.

Laurents is interested in the musical play, not the musical comedy.  He doesn't hate musical comedy, but it's too often seeking the show-stopper, which may please the audience, but stops the story dead.  In the musical play, the story comes first, and anything that doesn't move it forward has to be fixed or removed (and in revivals you can't always remove things, even if you wrote the book).  But it's still a musical--you go as deep into the characters as in a straight play, but the characters have to be able to reveal themselves through song and dance.

The most interesting chapter in the book is his discussion of the Patti LuPone Gypsy, where he breaks it down almost scene by scene, song by song.  Even though he wrote the book of the show, he sees that many numbers and scenes that played well in 1959 can obstruct the piece today.  So how to make it work (without rewriting)?  He allows the kids doing the Vaudeville numbers to make mistakes, so it's not just about cutesy songs, but about how Rose has to take what she can get. "If Momma Was Married" isn't just about two kids who barely talk to each other suddenly singing a charm song, it's also about June and Louise forging a bond. "Together, Wherever We Go" isn't just the three leads doing a turn, it's Rose convincing them to get back in the game. "You Gotta Get A Gimmick" isn't just about three strippers doing their act for the audience, it's about how they represent a sad tradition and how Louise reacts to them.  And so on. He also turned some things around. Not wanting Rose to always be angry, he decided her big first song, "Some People," would be about expressing her joy at what she sees before her. And the climax of the show, after "Rose's Turn," would be about Gypsy Rose Lee dealing with her mom, even as her mom breaks down and then recovers.

Laurents often writes as if he's got the answers, and anyone who disagrees with him--even someone like Jerome Robbins, who definitely has the musical in his bones--doesn't get it.  You certainly don't have to agree, but I'd rather hear it straight from Laurents than so many equivocating authors afraid to state their opinion.