DOCSLIB.ORG

Archy & Mehitabel

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Archy & Mehitabel ARCHY & MEHITABEL (Music by George Kleinsinger: Book by Joe Darion and Mel Brooks: Lyrics by Joe Darion: Based on stories by Don Marquis: Produced on Broadway as Shinbone Alley) Broadway Theatre 13 April 1957 (49 perfs) SYNOPSIS The cartoon characters of Archy, the prim and proper cockroach, and his idol the hedonistic alley cat, Mehitabel, whom Archy is trying to reform, are the main protagonists in this cool, jazz look at the seamier side of the big city. STORY Act I The place and time are arbitrary. It's here and now or there and then, but definitely the wrong side of the tracks in a big town. There's a set. Sort of. That comes and goes. Maybe an office. Maybe an alley. And the cast? Cats! An invisible newsman-narrator. A cockroach. And several ladybirds thrown in for good measure. And the point of view? Down here. Way down here ... as seen through the eyes of the somewhat vertically challenged "Archy," the rather shy and sensitive cockroach. The desk, the chair, the telephone, the typewriter are enormous ... as though we were dropped into a newspaper office the size of Mount Rushmore. The voice-over describes the place in the first song and we see little Archy dancing from key to key on the enormous typewriter keyboard. (Surely, somewhere in the Warner Brothers' archives there's a Busby Berkeley sequence we can consult for reference.) Archy and the newspaperman exchange notes. Archy addresses him as "boss" and the voice-over journalist, with respect and appreciation, encourages his little correspondent to leave samples of his literary output (in exchange for a few apple peelings left in the waste paper basket) in the free verse tales that the tiny insect "hops out" on the typewriter keys - all in lower case, mind you, since Archy or "archy" finds it impossible to manipulate the cap and the letter keys simultaneously. What is left in the newsman's typewriter each morning is the saga of the sensitive Archy and his sensual friend Mehitabel, the disreputable alley cat. The first episode sets the scene in Shinbone Alley where Mehitabel and her feline friends are throwing a party, dancing among the rubbish bins and cardboard boxes, singing about their freewheeling life style. Mehitabel admits she's had her ups and downs, but she's still game; a plucky puss is she. The sound of police sirens breaks up the party and the cats scatter. But with a lilting grin, despite her occasional limp and her tattered fur, Mehitabel sings her philosophy. In the midst of the song, Archy wonders if she might not be a bit too toujours gai for her own good but she responds defending her life style. Next we see Archy diligently at work on the typewriter keys pouring out his heart on such issues as philosophy, politics, ethics, and "The Bragging Flea," but his major concern is Mehitabel who admits she's in love again. "Not again" cries Archy as Big Bill, the tom cat, as tough as they come, and obviously the focus of Mehitabel's affection, arrives on the scene and gives the gentle poet-cockroach a hard time. If a cat could bark, Big Bill would bark. But Mehitabel comes to Archy's rescue as Big Bill merely tosses the little critter aside and warns him to keep his distance. His song lists the delights of sexually compulsive cat life on the wild side! Archy leaves the newspaperman a note to the effect that he tried his best to make a respectable cat out of Mehitabel but has failed miserably. To get his mind off her, he composes the "Ballad of Broadway, The Lightning Bug" but the newsman knows Archy's thoughts are still on Mehitabel. No sooner has she run off than she's back in Shinbone Alley, and Archy sings out the joyous news. A rather bitter and bedraggled Mehitabel, jilted by Big Bill, is offered consolation by Archy who now is determined to reform the naughty cat. But she's in no mood for reform. She's in the mood for a song and dance, so they join forces with "Flotsam And Jetsam." Mehitabel outlines her life history in the song, a tale of woe, and Archy describes how unfortunate it is to be an insect at the bottom of the food chain, "lower than the lowly worms," where the only things lower are germs. Both admit they are just drifting and dreaming of something better than what they've got. Meanwhile at least they have each other. Perhaps determined to reform, Mehitabel decides to get herself a respectable position as a housecat. Archy is overjoyed just as the debonair old tomcat Tyrone T. Tattersall, a revered figure of the theatre, saunters by, warming up his vocal chords with a bit of "me, me, me... me-ow." Tyrone's gallantry turns Mehitabel into a smitten kitten, all blushes and giggles, and he promises to make her a star. Archy attempts to block the seduction - getting a whiff of Mehitabel's old bent toward decadence - but Tyrone is brimming with charm, and she buys it hook, line and sinker. Off they go. Forlorn, the little cockroach confides again in the "boss," typing out "Archy's Suicide Song" in which, to his frustration, the heavy-hearted but lightweight bug relates his attempt to leap out the window of the sixth floor, only to find himself floating up weightlessly to the eighth. Meanwhile the thespian Tyrone endeavours to turn Mehitabel into a legitimate actress, but all is not going well. She gives him "fish and affection," but talent? No! To salve his wounded pride, he sings "The Actor Cat," recalling his glory days in the theatre when, in a pinch, he was called upon to play a bloodhound, and on another occasion, coming to an actor's rescue, once played a beard. Next comes the Mehitabel dramatic lesson with readings from Shakespeare leading into her song reciting "Romeo, Romeo" to a jazz beat as the eminent Shakespearean scholar Tyrone, in horror, abandons her on the spot. Her reaction: "And to think... I gave that big bum the best two weeks of my life!" Act II The voice of the newspaperman brings us up-to-date. Tyrone has gone on the road to fame and misfortune, and Mehitabel is back to her solo act among the alley cats downtown. But Archy tries to turn a deaf ear and declares he's through with that wayward puss and resorts to his literary pursuits to sublimate. And, of course, true to form, considers suicide again. Then he happens to read an item in the society column that Mehitabel is a mother. Kittens! Six! Archy, traumatized, rushes out in search of her. The lady cats of the neighbourhood caterwaul a lullaby to the little ones, but Mehitabel is not a joyful mother. The kittens will interfere with her career. Archy arrives at the ash can nursery just as it's started to rain and water is collecting in the can. Archy pleads with Mehitabel to save the little things from drowning, but she turns a deaf ear. He continues pleading until she finally relents and rescues the brood. She softens ... a bit (sentimentality is not in Mehitabel's gene pool) and decides to go straight and answer a want ad for a house cat in the high rent district. She knocks at an enormous door and is ushered in for an interview. Weeks go by. Back at the newspaper office Archy paces nervously. No mail. No word from Mehitabel. The scene shifts to an indolent Mehitabel stretched out on a bear skin rug, a ribbon about her neck, sipping cream through a straw... but bored. The household that keeps the cat sings a "Pretty Kitty" ditty but Mehitabel treats all the attention with disdain. Archy, missing her painfully, pays her a visit, gaining entrance through a keyhole. She levels her complaints about her luxurious but apathetic life, playing with a ball, rolling on a rug, and blames Archy for getting her into this situation. She runs him out then sings guiltily about mistreating him when she knows he's the best friend she ever had. Archy picks up the song walking alone along the lonely streets, regretting that the fire that once lit up her eyes has diminished in her current, comfortable and secure situation. Back at the newsroom, the reporter is shocked to discover Archy there drinking. The little cockroach is drunk and staggers out of the press room and in a stupor encounters some ladybirds of the evening who sing the "Lady Bug Song," trying to seduce him and lure him into their den of iniquity. In his inebriated state, his pockets are duly emptied by the ladybirds during the course of a frolicsome dance. But all they discover are bits of verse. The big thug, Big Bill, appears again on the scene and, hovering over a collapsed Archy, considers the fact that the little fellow really loves Mehitabel and proceeds to roar with laughter. Archy is back at the newsroom. ‘How did he get there?’ he asks his writer-pal, ‘Did she bring him back?’ The newspaperman recognises a new depth in Archy's writing now, a sadder but wiser cockroach who sings the "Song Of The Moth," a haunting tale of one who could not resist the natural attraction of the flame and quotes variations on Alfred Lord Tennyson's "'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all." And Archy recognises that the moth reminds him of Mehitabel, not the pampered housebound pet she is now, but the Mehitabel of the streets, the toujours gai Mehitabel.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Cockroach Marion Copeland
    Cockroach Marion Copeland Animal series Cockroach Animal Series editor: Jonathan Burt Already published Crow Boria Sax Tortoise Peter Young Ant Charlotte Sleigh Forthcoming Wolf Falcon Garry Marvin Helen Macdonald Bear Parrot Robert E. Bieder Paul Carter Horse Whale Sarah Wintle Joseph Roman Spider Rat Leslie Dick Jonathan Burt Dog Hare Susan McHugh Simon Carnell Snake Bee Drake Stutesman Claire Preston Oyster Rebecca Stott Cockroach Marion Copeland reaktion books Published by reaktion books ltd 79 Farringdon Road London ec1m 3ju, uk www.reaktionbooks.co.uk First published 2003 Copyright © Marion Copeland All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers. Printed and bound in Hong Kong British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Copeland, Marion Cockroach. – (Animal) 1. Cockroaches 2. Animals and civilization I. Title 595.7’28 isbn 1 86189 192 x Contents Introduction 7 1 A Living Fossil 15 2 What’s in a Name? 44 3 Fellow Traveller 60 4 In the Mind of Man: Myth, Folklore and the Arts 79 5 Tales from the Underside 107 6 Robo-roach 130 7 The Golden Cockroach 148 Timeline 170 Appendix: ‘La Cucaracha’ 172 References 174 Bibliography 186 Associations 189 Websites 190 Acknowledgements 191 Photo Acknowledgements 193 Index 196 Two types of cockroach, from the first major work of American natural history, published in 1747. Introduction The cockroach could not have scuttled along, almost unchanged, for over three hundred million years – some two hundred and ninety-nine million before man evolved – unless it was doing something right.
    [Show full text]
  • (XXXIX:9) Mel Brooks: BLAZING SADDLES (1974, 93M) the Version of This Goldenrod Handout Sent out in Our Monday Mailing, and the One Online, Has Hot Links
    October 22, 2019 (XXXIX:9) Mel Brooks: BLAZING SADDLES (1974, 93m) The version of this Goldenrod Handout sent out in our Monday mailing, and the one online, has hot links. Spelling and Style—use of italics, quotation marks or nothing at all for titles, e.g.—follows the form of the sources. DIRECTOR Mel Brooks WRITING Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Richard Pryor, and Alan Uger contributed to writing the screenplay from a story by Andrew Bergman, who also contributed to the screenplay. PRODUCER Michael Hertzberg MUSIC John Morris CINEMATOGRAPHY Joseph F. Biroc EDITING Danford B. Greene and John C. Howard The film was nominated for three Oscars, including Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Madeline Kahn, Best Film Editing for John C. Howard and Danford B. Greene, and for Best Music, Original Song, for John Morris and Mel Brooks, for the song "Blazing Saddles." In 2006, the National Film Preservation Board, USA, selected it for the National Film Registry. CAST Cleavon Little...Bart Gene Wilder...Jim Slim Pickens...Taggart Harvey Korman...Hedley Lamarr Madeline Kahn...Lili Von Shtupp Mel Brooks...Governor Lepetomane / Indian Chief Burton Gilliam...Lyle Alex Karras...Mongo David Huddleston...Olson Johnson Liam Dunn...Rev. Johnson Shows. With Buck Henry, he wrote the hit television comedy John Hillerman...Howard Johnson series Get Smart, which ran from 1965 to 1970. Brooks became George Furth...Van Johnson one of the most successful film directors of the 1970s, with Jack Starrett...Gabby Johnson (as Claude Ennis Starrett Jr.) many of his films being among the top 10 moneymakers of the Carol Arthur...Harriett Johnson year they were released.
    [Show full text]
  • The Animated Movie Guide
    THE ANIMATED MOVIE GUIDE Jerry Beck Contributing Writers Martin Goodman Andrew Leal W. R. Miller Fred Patten An A Cappella Book Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Beck, Jerry. The animated movie guide / Jerry Beck.— 1st ed. p. cm. “An A Cappella book.” Includes index. ISBN 1-55652-591-5 1. Animated films—Catalogs. I. Title. NC1765.B367 2005 016.79143’75—dc22 2005008629 Front cover design: Leslie Cabarga Interior design: Rattray Design All images courtesy of Cartoon Research Inc. Front cover images (clockwise from top left): Photograph from the motion picture Shrek ™ & © 2001 DreamWorks L.L.C. and PDI, reprinted with permission by DreamWorks Animation; Photograph from the motion picture Ghost in the Shell 2 ™ & © 2004 DreamWorks L.L.C. and PDI, reprinted with permission by DreamWorks Animation; Mutant Aliens © Bill Plympton; Gulliver’s Travels. Back cover images (left to right): Johnny the Giant Killer, Gulliver’s Travels, The Snow Queen © 2005 by Jerry Beck All rights reserved First edition Published by A Cappella Books An Imprint of Chicago Review Press, Incorporated 814 North Franklin Street Chicago, Illinois 60610 ISBN 1-55652-591-5 Printed in the United States of America 5 4 3 2 1 For Marea Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction ix About the Author and Contributors’ Biographies xiii Chronological List of Animated Features xv Alphabetical Entries 1 Appendix 1: Limited Release Animated Features 325 Appendix 2: Top 60 Animated Features Never Theatrically Released in the United States 327 Appendix 3: Top 20 Live-Action Films Featuring Great Animation 333 Index 335 Acknowledgments his book would not be as complete, as accurate, or as fun without the help of my ded- icated friends and enthusiastic colleagues.
    [Show full text]
  • Leonard a Temme
    Spring 2018 Leonard A Temme Five Poems: Ares K Gets Around Heidegger Reads Hӧlderlin Woe Imagine the Immense Ares Ares, Aphrodite’s sometime lover, god of war; born of Zeus; Ares, ancient awful horror, god most hated by gods, disdained even by his father; Ares, brother of Eris – discord and strife, the provocatrice of the 10-year Trojan war, brother of Enyo – goddess of bloodshed and violence, Ares, named for bane and ruin, an incarnate curse, fathered Phobos – fear, fathered Deimos – terror, fathered Adrestia – revenge/nemesis/retribution, fathered Eros – Eros; Ares, who has still always lived – never died – vibrant in the hearts of man, vibrant in the ancient, modern worshiped passioned battle lust of war as blood bathing ancient modern grieving Aleppo, its anguished cry cried in the rising chorus of Ares ascending, ascending, ascending, bombs descending descending descending, voices shouting around the world proclaiming the law of war a law (!) Ares, for whom war is sport, delight, joy, but who in battle himself is (yes) cowardly, (yes) weak, (yes) timorous. Ares, yet another god forged in the human, all too human image of the violent coward venial man disgusting. K Gets Around (Rondo) K is for K1 K is for K2 K is for C3 K is for T4,5 K is for A 6 K is for KR7 K is for G8 K is for M9 K is for O10 1 Using K to replace C for the sound of ‘k’ whenever possible has all kinds of interesting konsequences. 2 K is for Kafka, a name that needs a pair of Ks to spell it korrektly.
    [Show full text]
  • History of Man of La Mancha
    17 A NOISE WITHIN 2018/19 REPERTORY SEASON | Summer 2018 Study Guide Man of La Mancha HISTORY OF MAN OF LA MANCHA Man of La Mancha was perhaps the first true “concept musical,” the kind of musical in which the over-arching metaphor or statement is more important than the actual narrative, in which the method of storytelling is more important than the story. The roots of Wasserman’s Man of La Mancha lay in the Golden Age of Television for CBS’s Dupont Show of the Month program. Originally produced as a non-musical television play I, Don Quixote, starred Lee J. Cobb as Cervantes, Colleen Dewhurst as Aldonza and Eli Wallach as Sancho Panza. Upon its telecast, the play was well received by both the public and the critics alike and Wasserman received an award from the Writers Guild of America. The television play was then adapted for the stage. Albert Marre, who was directing the stage production, asked Wasserman to turn it into a musical. Mitch Leigh was selected as composer and the original lyricist was W.H. Auden. Auden wrote great poetry but not great lyrics and he was writing a different, more cynical Don Quixote by Salvador Dali. show. Consequently, he was replaced by Joe Darion, of Shinbone Alley fame, who stepped in and wrote the lyrics place than we found it. for the musical which we know and love today. Man of La Mancha is not a musicalization of Don Quixote; I, Don Quixote has an almost identical plot to what would it is instead a show about a few hours in the life of Miguel become Man of La Mancha.
    [Show full text]
  • Schwartz on His Career
    Stephen Schwartz Career – Questions about His Career Start and Assorted Topics This PDF includes SECTION 1 – Getting started, Education and Training SECTION 2 – Alternative Careers SECTION 3 – Musical Influences SECTION 4 – The Composers Role in Musicals SECTION 5 – Comments about his career successes and otherwise SECTION 6 – Favorites SECTION 7 – Themes and message ADDITIONAL RESOURCES The following questions and answers are from the archive of the StephenSchwartz.com Forum. Copyright by Stephen Schwartz 2010 all rights reserved. No part of this content may be reproduced without prior written consent, including copying material for other websites. Feel free to link to this archive. Send questions to [email protected] SECTION 1 – Getting started, Education and Training When did you know..... Question: Dear Stephen! You hear a lot of tv shows on actors etc saying 'I knew I was going to be in film bla bla when I was 7 and my dad had a stage etc...' you hear this from writers and everything but not really from composers... (if you minus Mozart hah) So my question is, not only when did you feel that you wanted to be a composer, when did you actually realize you had a talent for it? Many thanks! Sophie. Answer from Stephen Schwartz: Hi Sophie: I knew I wanted to be a composer from about age 7. My parents were friendly with a composer named George Kleinsinger, who was working on a Broadway show called SHINBONE ALLEY, and I heard him play some of the songs and then tried to pick them out on his piano.
    [Show full text]
  • October 1992
    VOLUME 16, NUMBER 10 FEATURES STEVE LEWIS EDDIE GORMAN NASH BAYERS The Black Crowes' Steve Gorman Only in his early 30's, Lewis Nash has supplied the pulse for The biggest artists in might not have decades of experience, but this is one drummer some of the top jazz musicians of country—Ricky Skaggs, the our time—Dizzy Gillespie, Ron Judds, Vince Gill, Randy Travis, who's put it all together real fast—and with a high degree of Carter, Kenny Burrell, Branford Rosanne Cash, Hank Williams, Marsalis, Betty Carter, and Sonny Jr.—can't get enough of the success. Learn what it takes to rhythmically propel one Rollins, to name just a few. drummer with the golden (and Check out what this intelligent platinum) groove. Find of today's biggest rock 'n' roll success stories. and passionate skinsman has to out why in this very say regarding the life special MD feature. • by Teri Saccone 28 and language of jazz • by Robyn Flans 22 drumming. • by Ken Micallef 32 COVER PHOTO BY RICK MALKIN INSET BY NEIL ZLOZOWER COLUMNS Education 54 ROCK 'N' JAZZ CLINIC The Funky Octopus Beat BY TOMMY CAMPBELL 70 TRACKING Composers And Equipment Samplers BY EMIL RICHARDS 38 PRODUCT Departments CLOSE-UP 88 ROCK CHARTS Gibraltar Stands 4 EDITOR'S Bill Bruford: BY RICK VAN HORN "Silent Talking" OVERVIEW News TRANSCRIBED 39 Sonor Force 1000 Kit BY ED TARZIA BY RICK MATTINGLY 6 READERS' 8 UPDATE Jason Bonham, Duratech Drumsticks PLATFORM 40 Eric Singer, Michael 104 THE JOBBING BY RICK MATTINGLY Foster of Firehouse, and DRUMMER 12 ASK A PRO Paul Garisto of Shooting Balter Percussion
    [Show full text]
  • Dissertation Is to Determine That Voice And, in So
    “JUST ENOUGH WOMAN FOR ME:” AN ANALYSIS OF THE UNINTENTIONALLY FEMINIST LYRICS OF DOROTHY FIELDS by JESSICA KRISTIN STULTZ (Under the Direction of Freda Scott Giles) ABSTRACT Dorothy Fields was a Broadway lyricist and librettist. Long overlooked by scholarship, the work of Fields is landmark. For much of the Golden Age of the American musical, Fields was one of the only women writing for the Broadway theatre. As such, her voice is distinct in many ways. The project of this dissertation is to determine that voice and, in so doing, to establish her unique contribution to the canon of musical theatre. INDEX WORDS: “Dorothy Fields, Broadway, musicals, Golden Age, lyricist, librettist, Tony Awards, Herbert Fields, Lew Fields, Cy Coleman, theatre” “JUST ENOUGH WOMAN FOR ME:” AN ANALYSIS OF THE UNINTENTIONALLY FEMINIST LYRICS OF DOROTHY FIELDS by JESSICA KRISTIN STULTZ BA, Furman University, 1999 MA, University of Kentucky, 2005 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2011 © 2011 Jessica Kristin Stultz All Rights Reserved “JUST ENOUGH WOMAN FOR ME:” AN ANALYSIS OF THE UNINTENTIONALLY FEMINIST LYRICS OF DOROTHY FIELDS by JESSICA KRISTIN STULTZ Major Professor: Freda Scott Giles Committee: John Kundert-Gibbs David Saltz Judith Sebesta Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2011 DEDICATION Mom, you let me watch Annie every single day. You endured my childhood obsessions with movie musicals from The Sound of Music to The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band.
    [Show full text]
  • First It Was a Movie, Then It Was a Broadway Musical. Now It's Going to Be a Broadway Musical Movie. I Think the Next Th
    “First it was a movie, then it was a Broadway musical. Now it’s going to be a Broadway musical movie. I think the next thing will probably be claymation.” -Mel Brooks Production Notes From the brilliantly twisted mind of MEL BROOKS comes a scheme so clever, so bold and so disturbingly simple that it can’t possibly go wrong: Step One: You start with Broadway’s smash hit The Producers—The New Mel Brooks Musical, winner of a record-breaking 12 Tony Awards, and based on Mel Brooks’ Oscar®- winning 1968 film The Producers. Step Two: You have two major film studios, Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures, join forces to bring the musical play to the big screen. Step Three: You enlist the phenomenal SUSAN STROMAN, winner of five Tony Awards, including two for directing and choreographing The Producers—The New Mel Brooks Musical on Broadway, to make her motion picture directorial debut with the film version. Step Four: You bring the original Tony Award-winning stars, NATHAN LANE and MATTHEW BRODERICK, back to recreate their signature roles and surround them with two of Hollywood’s biggest talents, Academy Award® nominee UMA THURMAN and comic superstar WILL FERRELL. And before you can say “Step Five,” you have the makings of the big, fun-filled, laugh-a- minute musical movie event audiences have been waiting for: The Producers. Only one person in the world could have conceived of such a plan: the incomparable Mel Brooks, whose fabulous career comes full circle with this new film version of The Producers. The Producers – Production Information 2 Brooks was already a television veteran when he made his feature film directorial and writing debut with The Producers in 1968.
    [Show full text]
  • Sixlegged Freak
    Six­Legged Freak A new cockroach has landed on our shores, a stowaway from Asia with impressive staying power. For one thing: Its babies have been known to scurry around on ice. By Christopher Bonanos Published Jan 26, 2014 n July 2012, a pest­control I technician from Bell Environmental Services found a parking spot near the High Line, got out of his car, and headed upstairs. He had arrived early in the day to beat the heat on his rounds, which today involved checking rat­poison Japanese cockroach Periplaneta japonica (Photo: Shinya Kawai) dispensers on the High Line. When he opened one of them, he found several live cockroaches nibbling at the bait, and they looked odd. Most New York roaches are from just a couple of species, and these were something else. They set off a small alarm in his head, enough for him to gather the samples and take them back to his office in New Jersey. There they landed on the desk of Ken Schumann, an entomologist at Bell. The tech had thought these might be a species known as the Oriental cockroach, a bit player in New York’s insect world. (Schumann says he’s seen “a couple of dozen” cases of them in 30 years.) As Schumann started looking, however, his own antennae began to flick. Both males and females had wings; Oriental­cockroach females don’t. The bodies were thinner. The morphology was a little off. He had to keep this quiet. The High Line (like a lot of Bell’s clients) has a nondisclosure agreement with its exterminator, and Schumann couldn’t reveal publicly where his guy had found the insect.
    [Show full text]
  • Archy & Mehitabel
    ARCHY & MEHITABEL Originaltitel: SHINBONE ALLEY Genre: Musical Autoren: Musik George Kleinsinger Buch Joe Darion und Mel Brooks Songtexte Joe Darion Nach den Geschichten von Don Marquis Neue deutsche Fassung von Mechthild v. Schoenebeck (2017) Inhalt: Ein Drama en miniature, Menschlich-Allzumenschliches in tierischer Verkleidung - die Autoren des Kammermusicals ARCHY & MEHITABEL, 1957 am Broadway als SHINBONE ALLEY aufgeführt, zeigen den Blick auf die Verhältnisse der Großstadt "von unten", aus der Perspektive von Kakerlake und Straßenkatze, die im früheren Leben Dichter und Königin waren. Das ungewöhnliche, charmante Stück basiert auf Gedichten und Zeichnungen, mit denen Don Marquis seine Kolumne in der "New York Sun" ausschmückte. Das Buch zum Musical schrieb der bekannte Filmemacher Mel Brooks (THE PRODUCERS, FRANKENSTEIN JUNIOR) gemeinsam mit Joe Darion. Archy, die Kakerlake, dichtet auch im tierischen Leben und versucht mit allen Mitteln, Mehitabel - die er aufrichtig, aber allzu wohlmeinend liebt - von der Straße zu holen und in eine gesittete Hauskatze zu verwandeln. Das funktioniert sogar - jedenfalls vorübergehend, denn es fühlt sich einfach nicht richtig an. George Kleinsingers Musik zu ARCHY & MEHITABEL schillert virtuos zwischen Jazz, Folklore und Klassik. Die pfiffigen Texte sind in Dialoge und Rezitative gegliedert. Inhaltlich ist dieses Musical äußerst vielfältig: einerseits unterhaltsam und rührend, andererseits mit "Mythen der Hochkultur" spielend - ein Werk, das "Grundfragen der Kunst und des Lebens in der gegenwärtigen Gesellschaft thematisiert. Da es nicht vorgibt, diese beantworten zu können und deshalb auch mit einem offenen Schluss endet, fordert es die Zuschauer intellektuell heraus. Ein Musical in bester Tradition und von hoher Aktualität, intelligente Unterhaltung ohne wohlfeile Botschaften" (Mechthild v. Schoenebeck: Der Blick von unten auf die Welt.
    [Show full text]