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The marriage of musical theater and the avant-garde: The musical theater of Tina Landau as experimental theater Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Gordon, Wendy A. Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 27/09/2021 05:54:33 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/292018 THE MARRIAGE OF MUSICAL THEATER AND THE AVANT-GARDE: THE MUSICAL THEATER OF TINA LANDAU AS EXPERIMENTAL THEATER by Wendy Ann Gordon Copyright © Wendy Ann Gordon A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the SCHOOL OF THEATRE ARTS In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2003 UMI Number: 1422479 Copyright 2004 by Gordon, Wendy Ann All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 1422479 Copyright 2004 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 2 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the cop3a:ight holder. SIGNED: APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: i' 30- 0 3 J Judith Sebesta Date Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special thanks to Tina Landau, for taking the time to talk with me and for allowing me to observe her in rehearsals and being so hospitable during my time in Chicago. Thanks as well to Theresa McCarthy for participating in an interview. Thank you to my committee: Marsha Bagwell, who pointed me down the path which led to this thesis and helped me work out the definition of a musical; Jerry Dickey, for all his mentoring and helping me to refine my first paper in graduate school which ultimately became this thesis; and finally Judith Sebesta, for all of her support, encouragement, guidance and patience throughout the whole process. Finally, thanks to Brad for being so understanding and patient and keeping life's day-to- day details running while I was absorbed with the details of writing and rewriting. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 5 CHAPTER 1: Introduction 6 CHAPTER 2: Theatrical Background 20 CHAPTER 3: Non-Musical Works -1969, Stonewall: Night Variations and Space 38 CHAPTER 4: Floyd Collins 61 CHAPTER 5: Dream True 73 CHAPTER 6: Conclusion 85 APPENDIX A; Interview with Tina Landau 89 APPENDIX B: Interview with Theresa McCarthy 104 WORKS CITED Ill 5 ABSTRACT Tina Landau's writing and directing work has gained increasing prominence over the last decade. She has made strides in both the experimental and the musical theater arenas, and her accomplishments in each are noteworthy independent of each other. However, her concurrent interest and success in both arenas, which are commonly viewed as quite disparate, make her work particularly interesting. These interests, which might seem incongruent, are actually interrelated; her work in one area influences her work in the other, a fact which is evident both in her rehearsal process and the end products. Her experimental work has a musical sensibility and her work in musical theater is quite experimental. This thesis examines works for which she was both writer and director as representative examples: 1969, Stonewall: Night Variations, Space, Floyd Collins and Dream True. Her amalgamated sensibility results in a directing style which serves contemporary musicals, particularly "smart musicals," well. 6 CHAPTER 1: Introduction Over the last decade, a trend has emerged in musical theater towards what can be termed the "smart musical."' A number of composers, including Adam Guettel, Ricky Ian Gordon, Jason Robert Brown, Michael John LaChiusa and Jeanine Tesori, are writing musicals that are musically complex (straying from the tradition of Tin Pan Alley toward music which is consistently rhythmically complex and dissonant) and serious in nature, often dealing with topics previously reserved for drama and avoiding plots which center on romance. This group of composers is often referred to as the "Sons of Sondheim," pointing to the seriousness and complexity their work shares with that of Stephen Sondheim, who many consider a pioneer in a new chapter of musical theater history. Included in this category are works such as Michael John LaChiusa's Marie Christine, a retelling of the Medea story, which was so vocally demanding that the star, Audra McDonald, only appeared in six of the eight weekly performances, and Adam Guettel's musical Floyd Collins and song cycle Saturn Returns, with their often dissonant chords. Many of these composers also tackle subject matter unusual for the musical, as in Jason Robert Brown's Parade, which tells the real-life story of the trial and lynching of the Jewish man Leo Frank in the South or Ricky Ian Gordon's Dream True, which is about the telepathic relationship between two men. Although David Patrick Stearns's discussion of this trend focuses primarily on the composers as the promiilgators of this trend, fiirther examination of the productions ' While I cannot pinpoint the exact origin of this term, it is one that David Patrick Steams suggests by the very title of his American Theatre article "The Smart Set," which discusses the group of composers discussed in this paragraph. 7 these composers have generated reveals that several theater professionals in addition to the composers have been involved with a number of these productions as well, and their contributions to the development of this trend merit further investigation. Among them are Ira Weitzman, who served as director of musical theater first at Playwrights Horizons and then for Lincoln Center Theater, director/choreographer Graciela Daniele, who directed Michael John LaChiusa's musicals Marie Christine and Hello Again, and writer/director Tina Landau, whose work this thesis will explore in depth. Tina Landau was bom in Riverdale, a suburb of New York City, in 1962 to Jewish parents. Her exposure to the arts began at an early age-her parents, Eli and Edy Landau, were independent film producers. In fact, two of her brothers are also in the industry: one was a producer for the movie Titanic and the other is a television director.^ Although her family moved to Los Angeles when she was a teenager, she considers herself a New Yorker, and New York is now her home base. She went to college at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, focusing on theater there. Shortly after graduation, she went to the American Repertory Theatre Institute in Boston, which was a professional theater training program. It was there that she first met Anne Bogart, with whom she has had both a collaborative professional relationship and a long-term romantic partnership. In fact, she has met many of her friends in the theater: besides Bogart, composers Adam Guettel, Ricky Ian Gordon and Jeanine Tesori Eire among her best friends (Landau, Personal Interview). ^ Basic information about Landau's background is actually rather difficult to find. The biobibliography in Women Playwrights of Diversity has surprisingly little information ("Tina Landau") and Hedy Weiss provides some information in a piece on Space. 8 Tina Landau's love for the theater had its roots in her childhood: she grew up going to the theater every weekend and learned to play piano by being taught specific songs she loved, such as "Tomorrow" from Annie and "Johnny One-Note" from Babes In Arms. Her career as a writer and director began early: in high school she wrote and directed her first musical. Faces on the Wall, which was picked up and produced professionally before she began college. At Yale, she composed two more musicals before deciding to focus instead on her work as a director. Her career has since come full circle: her resume includes writing plays as well as authoring or co-authoring musicals, in addition to numerous directing projects (Landau, Personal Interview). Tina Landau's writing and directing work has gained increasing prominence over the last decade. Her sprawling, experimental, site-specific work Stonewall: Night Variations garnered her critical praise in the early 1990s. She has been commissioned to develop plays using the Viewpoints technique, made prominent by Anne Bogart and adopted by Landau, by such well-respected theater companies as Actors Theatre of Louisville and American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Landau has also earned acclaim for her work in musical theater, most notably with Floyd Collins, which she co-wrote with Adam Guettel, and she made her Broadway directorial debut in summer 2001 with the revival of Bells Are Ringing. Landau has made strides in both the experimental and the musical theater arenas, and her accomplishments in each sphere are noteworthy independent of each other.