On Apr 15, 8:04=A0pm, remysun2...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> On Apr 15, 6:44=A0pm, "John W. Kennedy" <jwke...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> > Not at all. The speech and de****tment lessons are over. But that's no
> > what the story is about.
>
> That's the logline. The second act shows the consequences of doing
> that. "Not fit to be a flower girl anymore, I am!"
>
> The second act has some great moments, don't get me wrong, but MY FAIR
> LADY is defined by that sequence of "The Servants Chorus (Poor
> Professor Higgins)" to "The Rain in Spain" to "I Could Have Danced All
> Night", as much as SOUTH PACIFIC is by "Some Enchanted Evening",
> "There is Nothing Like a Dame", "Bali Hai"-- all First Act.
>
> THE MUSIC MAN and GUYS AND DOLLS might have some arguments for their
> case, but they both also have great opening numbers, which suggests a
> balance.
But you just said you are *not* looking for song peices but for the
*built* of the act, which I am taking to read the book.
Which is it?
I would say that MAME has a better book for the second act because it
manages to combine its storylines (Patrick's doomed romance, Gooch's
pregnancy) rather than have a series of episodic vignettes that you
get in the first.
Of course this comes form the two pieves of source material. The novel
*is* a series of vignettes - Auntie Mame in the roaring 20s, Auntie
mame fights the Depression and Auntie Mame weds the southern gentleman
- but when adapting the straight play in the 1950s, Lawrence & Lee
combined the two big stories into one for the second act and then
adapted their own play into the musical.
Of course, in so doing, L&L also softpeddled by eliminating all(?) of
the antisemitism of the Upsons which lessens the sting of the musical,
but I still think the second half book of the musical is, overall,
better than the first.
I think you can also argue, along similar lines, that the second act
of GYPSY is better constructed than the first. You can almost argue
that GYPSY is a three-act crammed into two - Rose and the kids, Rose
and June and (in the second act) Rose & Gypsy.
But again, in both these instances, this is more a question of form
than actual quality of the writing, but I think the second acts of
both shows play better than the first because they're so well
contained.
Some shows like the farciful DOLLY! and NIGHT MUSIC and the
melodramatic SWEENEY TODD also play better (although Mr. New****t will
disagree) in their second acts because you have to endure a WHOLE lot
of exposition and set-up in the first act in order to get the pay-off
in the second.
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