Stinkfoot, a Comic Opera
| Stinkfoot, a Comic Opera | |
|---|---|
 Screwy (John Beedell) vs Soliquisto (Andy Black) Original Bristol performance | |
| Music | Vivian Stanshall |
| Lyrics | Vivian Stanshall & Ki Longfellow-Stanshall |
| Book | Vivian Stanshall & Ki Longfellow-Stanshall |
| Productions | 1985 Old Profanity Showboat (Bristol, England 1988 Bloomsbury Theatre revival |
Stinkfoot, a Comic Opera is an English musical with book, music, and lyrics by Vivian Stanshall and Ki Longfellow-Stanshall written for the Crackpot Theatre Company aboard the Old Profanity Showboat in Bristol, England. The show is based on a series of tales written by Longfellow about a New York City alley cat, a bit of a rogue and more than a bit of a rake. It had been intended for children. When told by a New York literary agent that “No mother in America would want her child identifying with Stinkfoot the alley cat,” [1] the story went into a drawer. It came out with the marriage of Vivian and Ki, at which point the story “grew up” as it became a melding of two very different visions and two very different musical traditions: Vivian’s days as frontman for the Bonzo Dog Band and his childhood in Leigh-on-Sea with Ki’s love of America’s Broadway.
The Plot
The plot of Stinkfoot is about a once great music hall artiste, the mournful Soliquisto, who believes he has come to the end of his career. Once he played halls like the Hackney Empire, now he’s lucky to play small rooms at the end of piers. His act has always consisted of trained animals: a singing parakeet (Parakeet to Meet You), and two all-dancing, all-singing cats, one male, Stinkfoot, and one female, Persian Moll. Each of these were creations of true brilliance, but all he has left now is Moll. He and his company ("Soliquisto & His Not So Dumb Friends") have returned for a week’s engagement at the very end-of-the-pier venue where nine years before he had mysteriously lost his famous songbird and his most precious creation, the even more famous Stinkfoot. His young nephew, Buster, works with him, acting in all capacities: props, costumes, manager, and even as a ludicrous stand-in for the lost Stinkfoot. Buster is ambitious. He knows his uncle was once the best. He is convinced there’s a secret to being a true artist and if only Solisquisto would tell him that secret, Buster too could be a great artist. Soliquisto has told Buster in every way he can what the secret is, most pointedly in the song: Follow Your Nose. But Buster cannot “hear” him.
Aside from his animal act—the Diva Persian Moll, who, without Stinkfoot, is basically the whole show, and knows it (Ow! Ow! Wasn't I Good Tonight!)—Soliquisto is also a ventriloquist. His dummy, Screwy, never lies. Screwy voices all that Soliquisto cannot or will not say, including terrible truths about himself. (Song of the Saw)
Under the pier is another world of English shale beach and cold sea. Here lives Mrs. Bag Bag, a bag lady whose life has been spent collecting “little things.” Nine years before one of the things she collected was an egg which had hatched into a parakeet she’d named Polly. Isaiah the Flounder, a doleful beach-dweller, is enamored of Polly, but Polly senses she was meant for more…but what? {No Time Like the Future) Mrs. Bag Bag knows, but will not say. Just as Screwy always tells the truth, so too does Mrs. Bag Bag, but Mrs. Bag Bag’s truths are oblique, couched in riddles and rhymes. (Sphinx & Minx) The bane of Mrs. Bag Bag’s existence, Elma the Electrifying Elver, lives here too. A gorgeous creature of absolute certainty and complete self-absorption, she lives in or out of the sea.
The story begins when Stinkfoot suddenly appears with enormous bravado after going missing for these nine long years. When he does, Solisquisto rejoices. With Stinkfoot, he believes he will rise to his heights once more. Buster is jealous since he believes he will be pushed aside and never recognized for his talent. (Quickchange Artiste) Persian Moll, a true Diva and sure of her stardom without Stinkfoot, still worries that he will reveal that one night she ate Soliquisto’s parakeet and tried to do something dreadful to Stinkfoot himself. (Only Being Myself) But Stinkfoot had escaped her and run away to become a star of the Broadway stage. By returning, he has not come back to perform with Soliquisto...he's merely passing through to show off his success. (Landing on my Feet, Feet)
A complementary story is taking place under the pier. Polly, the daughter of the Solisquito’s murdered songbird, wants to fly, to find her true home. The smitten Isaiah explains life is all doom and gloom, best to accept where she is and who she is. (You Can't Confound a Flounder) But Polly, who has no idea who she is, is desperate to find out. (A Foundling's Song)
Each character, whether animal or human, above or below the pier, is an aspect of the one central character voiced by the aging music hall artiste, Soliquisto. (What My Public Wants) The plot is fairly simple, but the underlying ideas are more complex. Basically, Stinkfoot is a portrait of the artist’s creative heart and mind. Soliquisto believes what he has made must remain in his control or his art is lost. By the end of Stinkfoot he realizes nothing is ever lost, that he can let his creations go, that once he (or she) has created something it takes on a life of its own, and that the artist can always make more. With this lesson learned, Soliquisto, who has made nothing new since Stinkfoot disappeared, sees Elma the Elver dancing on the beach. (Drowned Sailor's Dream) Ah! Here is his new creation, his latest work of art. He will make her a star! The act of creation is forever…it goes on and on.
Background
In 1985, the show was intended to close the hatches of the Old Profanity Showboat on a high note and to provide all those who had worked so hard for the ship’s success a chance on its stage. At first it was intended to merely produce an established musical, but this idea was quickly discarded as unworthy of the ship or its crew. In three months and half months (from September to December, 1985), the show was conceived, written, scored, and rehearsed (both actors and musicians) for a Christmas run. Each part was tailored by Longfellow and Stanshall to accommodate the talents (or lack thereof) of the performers. [2]
Vivian’s story can be found in his own wiki article as can Ki Longfellow’s. Together they created Stinkfoot to celebrate the Old Profanity Showboat.
Productions
Stinkfoot was staged twice. Once in 1985 for the ship where it was produced by Longfellow and directed by Stanshall. Stanshall was also the musical director. And a second time in 1988 for the Bloomsbury Theatre in London. The first production was a sell-out for its entire run and garnered wonderful reviews. The second show (partly financed by Stephen Fry) also sold out, but without the participation of either Longfellow or Stanshall, as well as miscast, was a muddle of misdirection.
In 2008, interest in restaging the show, never flagging, became a reality. The show is now in pre-production for a revival in 2009. [3]
Book
The entire script of Stinkfoot, a Comic Opera with an introduction by Ki Longfellow-Stanshall and illustrations by Vivian Stanshall was published in 2004 by Ben Schot’s Sea Urchin Press based in Rotterdam.
Songs and music
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Main characters
- Soliquisto — Andy Black
- Stinkfoot — Steve Howe
- Screwy — John Beedell
- Buster — Richard Smith
- Persian Moll— (originally played by Nikki Lamborn of Never the Bride)
- Polly— Cindy Stratton
- Mrs. Bag Bag— Sydney Longfellow
- Isaiah the Flounder— Pete Coggins
- Elma the Electrifying Elver— Hirut Araya Bihon
Secondary characters
- God — Vivian Stanshall
- The Giant Squid —
- The Angry Sea —
- The Public —
- The Right & Left Halves of the Screwy’s Brain
- The Partly Cooked Shrimp
- The Coarse Coastguard
- A Chorus of Woeful Sirens
Setting
The play's fictional setting is both on and under a long pier somewhere in the south of England. On the end of the pier is a rather shabby theater still holding on to its glory days with a succession of magicians, novelty acts, and once famous performers down on their luck. The pier and the theater are based on Stanshall’s time as a member of the Bonzo Dog Band as well as his love of music hall. The beach is the typical stony fringe with its cold waves and rainy days. The New York Stinkfoot comes home from (and returns to), is the New York of the Great White Way, a million lights and a hundred theaters.
The time is anytime.
Critical Reception
The Guardian theatre critic David Foote wrote in his review of the musical's opening night in Bristol, "Backed artistically by Pamela Ki Longfellow, Vivian has given us an offbeat Christmas show that is funny, bluesy, and loony…the marvel is that here is an original, unusual musical, smelling of the salt sea, with Coward, Cagney, and Mae West around to keep us happily buoyant.[4]
London Times’s theatre critic Richard Gilbert wrote of the Bristol opening, “…a watery tale set alternatively at the end of a seaside pier and under the ocean, peopled by an angst-ridden music hall artiste, his Faustian apprentice, a tomcat under the influence of James Cagney (Stinkfoot himself), a Mae Westian glamour-puss (Persian Moll) and an oracular ventriloquist’s dummy, Screwy. Under the waves there is more derring-do from a cynical flounder, a giant squid and a partly cooked shrimp. The cast of local singers, fringe actors and musicians seems to have absorbed the complexities of the highly moral plot where regeneration triumphs over evil and all optimists ultimately defeat the pessimists. The story-line is less important than the ambitious and resonant songs and music. The length of the Old Profanity boat is cunningly exploited by the marine set…and deserves to be seen in London on dry land at a larger venue.” [4]
The Bristol Evening Post’s theatre critic David Harrison said, “Stinkfoot is a joy - a wondrous collection of bizarre characters, eccentric ideas, and at least one top ten contender among the songs. There is unlikely to be another Christmas show as innovative and challenging as this.” [4]
Notes and references
- ^ Discovery: an English Radio Two interview aired in 1990.
- ^ Woman's Hour, a long-lived and popular English radio show, 1993.
- ^ Interview with author at Barnes & Noble, San Francisco, California, 2008.
- ^ a b c Stinkfoot Reviews - various print reviews reproduced at GingerGeezer website (Ki Longfellow).