Shangri-La (musical)

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Musical dates
Title: Shangri-La
Original language: English
Music: Harry Warren
Book: Jerome Lawrence
Robert E. Lee
Lyrics: Jerome Lawrence
Robert E. Lee
Literary source: Lost Horizon by James Hilton
Premiere: June 13, 1956
Place of premiere: New York City , Winter Garden Theater
Place and time of the action: Shangri-La , present
Roles / people
  • Hugh Conway
  • Lo-Tsen
  • Rita Henderson
  • Robert Henderson
  • Charles Mallinson
  • Miss Brinklow
  • Chang
  • Arana
  • Ti
  • the little one
  • the high lama
  • Choir and dancers

Shangri-La is atwo- act musical by Harry Warren . The libretto comes from the playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee and is considered a disastrous adaptation of James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon . It premiered in New York City in1956 atthe Winter Garden Theater under the direction of Robert Fryer .

The musical was filmed in 1960 by George Schaefer under the same title for a television production and in 1973 by Charles Jarrott as a cinema production under the title Lost Horizon (Eng. The lost horizon ). Shangri-La is described by critics as one of the "worst musicals of all time" and is one of the biggest flops in musical history.

action

The action takes place in two acts at a border crossing in Tibet , in the mountains of the Himalayas and in the mystical place Shangri-La . The focus is on Hugh Conway, a British diplomat who risks his life to free a young Englishman (Charles Mallinson), an aging dance couple (Rita and Robert Henderson) and a missionary (Miss Brinklow) from a communist prison in China. While on the run, the five protagonists are almost killed when their plane crashes in the wilderness of Tibet. A group of mystical monks rescues the group and leads them to Shangri-La.

This hidden valley is inhabited by equally looking, muscular and overjoyed people. It seems that the place has magical powers that, among other things, cause all inhabitants of the valley to live up to two hundred years. The monks founded a monastery in which valuable books and art treasures from around the world are kept to protect them from wars and disasters. They live in peace and spend most of their time philosophizing about moderation . The question arises for Conway and his companions whether they want to stay in this paradise or return home. The dying High Lama offers Conway to take over the leadership and responsibility of Shangri-La. Together, the group decides to leave Shangri-La and return to the " civilization " they have known so far.

Track list

Musically, the musical shows itself in various facets: exuberant dance music, ritual music, melodramas . The relatively large orchestral line-up accompanies the following songs:

first act

  • Om Mani Padme Hum (soloist)
  • Lost Horizon (all contributors)
  • The Man I Never Met (Lo-Tsen)
  • Every Time You Danced with Me (Rita and Robert Henderson)
  • The World Outside (Lo-Tsen and Charles Mallinson)
  • I'm Just a Little Bit Confused (Miss Brinklow)
  • The Beetle Race (Chang and Ensemble)
  • Somewhere (Charles Mallinson)

Second act

  • What Every Old Girl Should Know (Miss Brinklow and Chang)
  • Second Time in Love (Rita and Robert Henderson)
  • Talkin 'with Your Feet (Rita and Robert Henderson)
  • Walk Sweet (Lo-Tsen)
  • Love Is What I Never Knew (Lo-Tsen and Charles Mallinson)
  • We've Decided to Stay (Miss Brinklow, Rita and Robert Henderson)
  • Shangri-La (Hugh Conway)

libretto

Harry Warren composed the music for the musical . The libretto , based on the hit novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton , published in 1933 , was written by the playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. Since Warren was not satisfied with the dialogues and songs, he had Sheldon Harnick rewrite several texts shortly before the premiere.

In various publications James Hilton is listed as co-author, often even as the main author of the lyrics and songs of the musical. To what extent this corresponds to the facts or PR aspects is unknown. However, under no circumstances could Hilton know the finished libretto, as he died of lung cancer in 1954 after a long illness and there is evidence that work was still being carried out on the texts until a day before the premiere in June 1956. This is countered by a 25-page typewritten script entitled Shangri-La: A New Musical Play , which appeared on an Internet auction platform in California in 2009 . According to the seller, it is said to contain over 200 handwritten pencil notes by James Hilton. However, the auction was closed after only ten days with the note “this item was not sold”.

The James Hilton Society in Cambridge does not list the book and songs of the musical among the writer's works. This corresponds to the copyright index of the US Library of Congress from 1957, in which it is noted under Shangri-La that the text by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee is based on the novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton.

In fact, the musical is a product of the Cold War and has little in common with the original. The plot has been radically changed. The Tibet conflict , philosophical indoctrination , Chinese patrols , border control posts , liberation campaigns, communists, super people et cetera do not appear in Hilton's novel. The protagonists do not correspond to the origin either. The characters Rita and Robert Henderson, Arana, Ti have been added - and with the exception of Mallinson, all of the survivors of the plane crash in Shangri-La want to stay in Hilton's bestseller . Lyrics like "Shan, Shan Shan Shangri-La ... use my wings when storms come around" (Eng. "Use my wings when storms come" ), whose intention is to leave Shangri-La, completely contradict the content of the original novel .

Ultimately, Harry Warren also stated in a later interview that the lyrics were basically written by Lawrence and Lee, which he said was a mistake, as Hilton's novel turned out to be too serious and cumbersome to be staged as a musical from the outset.

Broadway production

The Broadway production (120 minutes with break) was created under the production line of Robert Fryer. Albert Marre was responsible for the production and Donald Saddler for the choreography . The stage developed Peter Larkin . The costumes were designed by Irene Sharaff , who received a Tony Award nomination in 1957 in the Best Costumes category. Dennis King played the main role . Other members of the cast included: Shirley Yamaguchi , Jack Cassidy , Alice Ghostley , Carol Lawrence and Berry Kroeger . Shangri-La started in New York City on June 13, 1956 at the Winter Garden Theater and was canceled on June 30, 1956 after only about two weeks. A tape recording was made during a performance but was never published. The musical was to be performed at the same time at the Shubert Theater in Boston , but the several weeks of rehearsals were already ended before the Broadway premiere.

TV production

In the unchanged Broadway production of 1956 (music: Harry Warren; libretto: Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee), the musical was filmed for television (90 minutes in color) and on October 24th, directed and produced by George Schaefer Sent in 1960 by NBC in the Hallmark Hall of Fame television series. Richard Basehart played the main role . Other cast members include: Claude Rains , Marisa Pavan , Gene Nelson , Alice Ghostley and Helen Gallagher . This TV production is one of the few films that was never televised again on reruns of the prestigious Hallmark series and was never released on VHS .

review

The clear majority of the critics describe Shangri-La to this day as one of the biggest flops in musical history. The choreography and the staging were partly identical to the Broadway musical Brigadoon . The main cause of the failure is listed as the fact that Hiltons novel is in no way suitable as a plot for a musical or a music film. In addition, Shangri-La tended to be referred to as propaganda .

The New York Times wrote on June 25, 1956 that "it is more than bizarre to process the serenity and moderation of Lost Horizon in a Broadway musical". The British Daily Mirror headlined: "Shangri-La has a limited horizon" - and the critic of the New York Daily Tribune saw himself in a kind of shock in the first act during a "clichéd native dance about the survivors of the crashed plane" and described them Music as well as the orchestra as "sloppy". The review in The Harvard Crimson was also extremely negative (abridged translation):

“The most important thing on a stage is the representation of characters and not the representation of abstract philosophy. Political ideas only get drama when the people on stage point out the dilemma in which they find themselves in their role. The characters in Shangri-La have no real problem, however. Your actions represent circumstances that you cannot influence. As a result, the blasé dialogues are irrelevant, self-evident and boring. Full of determination, for the most part , Shangri-La is a serious musical that gives actors no chance to show off their entertaining talents. One of the worst things on the show is Harry Warren's music. The songs aren't necessarily uncomfortable, they just don't impress. After the performance is over, it is impossible to remember more than eight notes, but even if you do, it is hardly worth remembering. The director's awkward efforts to emphasize the music, with all the cast but the soloists leaving the stage during melodramas, does nothing to make the songs more memorable. The staging is successful in only one thing: Irene Sharaff's costumes make Shangri-La one of the most beautiful musicals that ever existed. Nevertheless, it remains a failure, mainly because the authors are satisfied with using the stage only as a platform for presentations.

For the artistic and financial "crash landing of Shangri-La " further aspects are listed. The musicalization of the novel Lost Horizon, which was extremely popular at the time, was associated with very high expectations among the audience, the critics and the entire theater world. In addition there was Frank Capra's Oscar-winning literary film adaptation Lost Horizon (Eng. In the Shackles of Shangri-La ) from 1937. The American columnist and music theater critic Tom Shea stated that there are worlds between Frank Capra's classics and Shangri-La and " the inevitable comparison with this film caused the musical's world flop ”.

Motion picture

Although Shangri-La already nicknamed at producer Lost Investment had acquired, produced Ross Hunter , the musical in 1973 under the title Lost Horizon (dt. Lost Horizon ) as a feature film . This version was also a flop and is listed among the “Fifty Worst Movies of All Time”.

See also

literature

  • Dan Dietz: The Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, pp. 253-255.

Left

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Adrian Wright: West End Broadway. The Golden Age of the American Musical in London. Boydell Press, 2012, p. 125.
  2. ↑ Information on the Broadway version of the musical (1956) in: IBDB , accessed on November 15, 2018
  3. ^ Constantine Santas, James M. Wilson, Maria Colavito, Djoymi Baker: The Encyclopedia of Epic Films. Scarecrow Press, 2014, p. 364.
  4. ↑ John Wilson: The Official Razzie Movie Guide. Enjoying the Best of Hollywood's Worst. Grand Central Publishing, 2005. p. 44.
  5. ^ Dan Dietz: The Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, pp. 253-255.
  6. ↑ Thomas K. Schwabacher: Shangri-La. The Harvard Crimson, May 9, 1956 in: www.thecrimson.com, accessed November 15, 2018
  7. ↑ Thomas S. Hischak: Broadway Plays and musicals. McFarland, 2009, p. 4850.
  8. ↑ Information on the Broadway version of the musical (1956) in: IBDB, accessed on November 15, 2018
  9. ^ Adrian Wright: West End Broadway. The Golden Age of the American Musical in London. Boydell Press, 2012, p. 125.
  10. ↑ TheTelegraph: Jerome Lawrence. Telegraph Media Group, March 3, 2004 from: www.telegraph.co.uk, accessed November 15, 2018
  11. ↑ Philip Lambert: To Broadway, To Life! The Musical Theater of Bock and Harnick. Oxford University Press, 2010, p. 29.
  12. ↑ Show Details Shangri-La in castalbums.org, accessed November 18, 2018
  13. ^ Dan Dietz: The Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, p. 254.
  14. ↑ Online Collectibles Auctions in: icollector.com, accessed on November 18, 2018
  15. ↑ Works by James Hilton in: www. jameshiltonsociety.co.uk, accessed November 15, 2018
  16. ^ Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series. Published Music. January - Juny 1956. Office The Library of Congress Washington, 1957, p. 282.
  17. ↑ cf. James Hilton's original novel: The Lost Horizon. Piper, 2018.
  18. ↑ Max Wilk: They're Playing Our Song. Conversations With America's Classic Songwriters. Easton Studio Press, 2011, p. 140.
  19. ↑ Information on the Broadway version of the musical (1956) in: IBDB , accessed on November 15, 2018
  20. ↑ Ken Mandelbaum: Not Since Carrie. Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. St. Martin's Press, 1992, pp. 163-164.
  21. ↑ Information on the TV version of the musical (1960) in: IMDb , accessed on November 14, 2018
  22. ^ Shangri-La in The Cyper Encyclopedia of Musical Theater, Film and Television in: musicals101.com, accessed November 16, 2018
  23. ↑ Tom Shea: Broadway's Most Wanted. Potomac Books, 2004, p. 18.
  24. ^ Dan Dietz: The Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, pp. 253-255.
  25. ↑ Ken Mandelbaum: Not Since Carrie. Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. St. Martin's Press, 1992, pp. 163-164.
  26. ^ John Whalen-Bridge, Gary Storhoff: Buddhism and American Cinema. SUNY Press, 2014, p. 74.
  27. ^ Constantine Santas, James M. Wilson, Maria Colavito, Djoymi Baker: The Encyclopedia of Epic Films. Scarecrow Press, 2014, p. 364.
  28. ^ Dan Dietz: The Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, pp. 253-255.
  29. ↑ Thomas K. Schwabacher: Shangri-La. The Harvard Crimson, May 9, 1956 in: www.thecrimson.com, accessed November 15, 2018
  30. ↑ Thomas S. Hischak: Broadway Plays and musicals. McFarland, 2009, p. 414.
  31. ↑ Tom Shea: Broadway's Most Wanted. The Top 10 Book of Dynamic Divas, Surefire Showstoppers, and Box-Office Busts. Potomac Books, 2004, p. 18.
  32. ↑ John Wilson: The Official Razzie Movie Guide. Enjoying the Best of Hollywood's Worst. Grand Central Publishing, 2005. p. 44.
  33. ↑ Trivia The Lost Horizon (Shangri-La) 1973 in: IMDb, accessed on November 16, 2018