STUDY GUIDE & DRAMATURGY About the Show City of Angels
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STUDY GUIDE & DRAMATURGY About the Show City of Angels City of Angels opened on Broadway at the Virginia Theatre on December 11, 1989. It ran for 879 performances before closing on January 19, 1992. It also enjoyed a run in West End at Prince of Wales Theatre in 1993. Michael Blakemore was the director and Robin Wagner was the scenic designer. The opening night cast included Gregg Edelman as Stine, James Naughton as Stone, René Auberjonois as both Irwin S. Irving and Buddy Fidler, Randy Graff as Donna and Oolie, Dee Hoty as Carla Haywood and Alaura Kingsley, and Kay McClelland as Gabby and Bobbi. Because the show features two stories happening at the same time, every actor, except for the ones playing Stine and Stone, doubled as another role. City of Angels was nominated for and won many awards. Most notably, it won the 1990 Tony Awards for Actor in a Musical (James Naughton), Book of a Musical (Larry Gelbart), Featured Actress in a Musical (Randy Graff), Best Musical, Original Score (Cy Coleman and David Zippel), and Scenic Design for a play or a musical (Robin Wagner). It was nominated for many other awards as well, such as Actor in a Musical (Gregg Edelman), Direction of a Musical (Michael Blakemore), Costume Design for a play or musical (Florence Klotz), and Lighting Design for a play or a musical (Paul Gallo). City of Angels features two stories that are occurring at the same time. On one hand, there is Stine, a crime writer, who is attempting to adapt a novel of his for the big screen while facing problems both at work and at home, and on the other, there is Stone, the protagonist of Stine’s novel, attempting to solve a missing person’s case that quickly turns into an even more complicated mystery. As situations develop and become more complex, Stine and Stone come to realize that they’re going to need each other’s help if they want to see the end of this one. Synopsis Courtesy of Tams-Witmark CITY OF ANGELS is the rarest of musical comedies; one that is not only loaded with music and written in the contemporary jazz idiom, but also filled with sidesplitting comedy. Set in the glamorous, seductive Hollywood of the 40’s, the world of film studios and flimsy negligees, the show chronicles the misadventures of Stine, a young novelist, attempting a screenplay for movie producer/director, Buddy Fidler. While Fidler professes to be a fan of Stine’s work: “I’ve read a synopsis of every book you’ve ever written,” he assures the author, his gargantuan ego forces Stine to make endless compromises in the script he’s writing. The script is an adaptation of one of Stine’s novels which features his Raymond Chandleresque hero, a private investigator named Stone. Every movie scene that Stine writes is acted out onstage by a group of characters whose costumes are limited to various shades of black and white. The same is true of the sets in which they appear and the props that they use. With music scored in the genre, we are, in fact, treated to a live version of a 1940’s private eye film. It is a tale of decadence and homicide with a liberal sprinkling of femmes fatale. The story begins when Stone’s Girl Friday ushers a striking socialite, Alaura Kingsley, into Stone’s office. The alluring Alaura is there to hire Stone to track down the mysterious disappearance of her step- daughter, Mallory Kingsley. Mallory is a beautiful, “bad” young woman, who will later turn up in her birthday suit in Stone’s own bed. But it’s not all fun and games for the private eye. In the course of the “movie,” Stone receives a brutal beating from two vicious hoodlums hired to get him off the Kingsley case, and is also framed for a murder that could land him in the gas chamber. All of this goes on in the black and white “reel” life of CITY OF ANGELS. At the same time, in the “real” life scenes, all played out in glorious Technicolor, Stine has his hands full as well. He must fight off the increasingly demanding Buddy Fidler, and is left to do this alone after his wife Gabby returns to New York because she disapproves of Stine’s tactics. To make matters worse, Stine is then confronted by his alter ego, Stone, who is totally disgusted by Stine’s willingness to sacrifice his principles. Finally stepping over the line that separates fantasy from reality, Stone challenges his creator, Stine. The confrontation results in the rousing duet-You’re Nothing Without Me, which closes the first act. In “reel” life the second act finds Stone more and more ensnared by the treacherous web spun by Alaura. In “real” life Stine has to negotiate his way through the creative landmine laid down by Buddy, while somehow earning back his wife’s respect, Stone’s acceptance as well as his own self-respect. Stine appears on the studio sound stage for the first day of the filming of his script. It is here that, with the surprise appearance of Stone at his side to encourage him, and visible, of course, only to Stine, that the author finds the gumption to stand up to Buddy and reclaim his self-respect. Acquitting himself nobly, Stine is reunited with and once more in the good graces of his wife and with his alter ego, Stone. Together, with the entire company joining in, they perform a robust musical reprise of You’re Nothing Without Me, a switch in the lyrics turning it into the far more positive I’m Nothing Without You. The result is that best of all Hollywood conventions; a happy ending. About the Composer and Lyricist Cy Coleman and David Zippel Cy Coleman was an American composer, songwriter and jazz pianist who began his musical career by giving piano recitals at the age of 6 in venues such as Steinway Hall and Carnegie Hall. He decided to focus on making popular music, despite his classical and jazz background. His career on Broadway as a composer began in 1960 with Wildcat, which was one of many collaborations with Carolyn Leigh. Other works include Little Me, Sweet Charity, I Love My Wife, a collaboration with Michael Stewart, and The Will Rogers Follies. His background in jazz is evident in City of Angels’ score. His decision to return to his jazz background in writing the score for City of Angels was based on the hard-boiled detective film noir movies of the 1940s. David Zippel is an American musical theater lyricist. His work on Broadway includes City of Angels, The Goodbye Girl with music by Marvin Hamlisch, Princesses with music by Matthew Wilder, and The Woman in White with music by Andrew Lloyd Weber, which was nominated for a Tony for Best Original Score. He has also written the lyrics for the Disney films Hercules and Mulan. Coleman and Zippel won a Tony for Best Original Score for their collaboration on City of Angels in 1990. About the Librettist Larry Gelbart Larry Gelbart was an American television writer, a playwright, an author, and a screenwriter. He began to write comedy for radio shows at the age of 16. He later went on to write for tv, Broadway, and film. He’s most famous for creating and producing the hit tv show, M*A*S*H. He produced, wrote, and sometimes directed episodes of M*A*S*H for its first four seasons. He would win a Peabody Award and an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series for his work on M*A*S*H. He wrote many shows for Broadway, including City of Angels and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which he co-wrote with Burt Shevelove and Stephen Sondheim. His book for City of Angels won him many awards, including a Tony Award for Book of a Musical in 1990 and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical. His work for film includes co-writing Tootsie with Murray Schisgal and writing Oh, God!, both of which were nominated for the Academy Award of Best Original Screenplay. An Introduction to Film Noir From “Notes on Film Noir” By Paul Schrader City of Angels is influenced greatly by film noir. It pervades the worlds of both Stine as writer and Stone as his noir antihero. In his “Notes on Film Noir”, screenwriter-director-critic Paul Schrader, former editor of Cinema (Los Angeles), and the author of Transcendental Style on Film, details what aspects define film noir and what distinguishes film noir from other genres. According to Schrader, film noir, most frequently set it the 1940’s and 50’s, is defined by the dark, pessimistic tone and mood of the movie, and therefore film noir is not quite a genre but more a focus on style. It is difficult to categorize what constitutes film noir. However, Schrader identifies four conditions in 1940’s Hollywood that brought about film noir, the first three being post-war disillusionment, post-war realism, and German expressionism in film, which was brought to Hollywood through German and Eastern European immigration. German expressionism, known for its artificial studio lighting, lent film noir much of its tone and visual style. The fourth element Schrader identifies as a precondition of film noir is the hard-boiled tradition, a style of fiction seen in the works of authors such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. The hard-boiled tradition featured protagonists that often had a very cynical and pessimistic outlook of the world.