But tradition also spawns a spurious side, excusing an idea that didn't deserve one rewrite, let alone three or four, and cowing an audience into leniency. After all, who can pronounce judgment on work that isn't finished? Surely not the ticket buyers, although they paid full price for an almost-correct play, or the critics, who may spot the same shaky foundation beneath each successive version of the work. And no cosmic law dictates that a new revision will be better than the last; sometimes the writer simply digs a deeper hole, or starts to skid wildly off the track.
Granted, repeated toil may metamorphose ducks into swans. Many years ago a dud called Away We Go! became the landmark musical Oklahoma! But sometimes a piece stalls in place, offering little hope for improvement. Currently on display in Miami are two works in progress, one with a possible future and one best left in someone's file cabinet.
Hollywood is the first exhibit, spoofed during its Golden Age, circa 1930, when movie musicals were glitzy and dumb, and gossip rags uncovered new moral lows. Two young hopefuls -- star-struck Ellie from Walnut, Iowa, who has changed her name from Dinkleberry to Ash; and wimpy Elmo Green from New York, who dreams of writing great works for his uncle Norman G. Neinstein, the sleazeball head of NGN Studios -- meet in the middle of a cornfield and bicycle cross-country together to the promised land. It doesn't take long to get ahead; Ellie is hot to occupy the casting couch, and Elmo possesses the convenient ability to write "hit" movies in less than 48 hours. But their dreams are fated to die hard, thanks to the treachery of a Hedda Hopper clone, Adele De Rale, queen of the gossip columns, and a Joan Crawford clone, Lulu Beauveen, the celluloid prima donna intent on crushing all competition.
These cliche lead characters from Tales of Tinseltown, playing at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, are joined in their absurd moviemaking jaunts by Bertha Powell, an Ethel Merman type who gives up Broadway legitimacy for a shot at shallow fame; Tony Toscanini, the singing plumber with bad teeth, slumped shoulders, and zero charisma; and Danny Burke, a quick-footed fool who "captured the Catskills," and now hogs the dance floor at every opportunity. Of course the roles are meant to be Hollywood stereotypes, and the turkeys they produce -- from The Jungle Song, complete with sparkling purple mechanical monkeys, to The Bird Girl of Alcatraz -- are intended as clever parodies. But Tinseltown quickly deteriorates into a play within a play, a B-musical send-up of B movies. It's hard to tell which is worse -- the tacky films or the clumsy spoof.
With a hackneyed plot of good girl turned bad by stardom, and a listless romance between goofy Elmo and promiscuous Ellie, these tales go nowhere, either thematically or dramatically. Still, music can romp to the rescue of weak storytelling, as in Andrew Lloyd Webber extravaganzas. But there's no cavalry in Tinseltown. Composer Paul Katz's melodies, with the exception of the rousing "I Can Sing," and the pleasant ballads "I'll Stand By You," and "Stars In My Eyes," are generic Broadway-based drones, and the lyrics are equally incompetent. Apparently Michael Colby (who also wrote the story and dialogue) spent some fruitless time with a rhyming dictionary. A typical example: "I who washed dishes like a mule, to work my way through beauty school."
The cast and crew try to make the best of this mire. Choreographer and director Tony Stevens has mounted a stylish, often polished production, which zips along competently from one pointless scene to the next. Melinda Gilb's brassy Bertha vibrates scenery with her robust voice, and Peter Ermides as Danny polishes every floorboard with his flashy dancing feet. Broadway veteran Marcia Lewis wrings wee bits of humor from the De Rale character, and Karyn Quackenbush doesn't embarrass herself as Ellie -- an accomplishment, considering she's on-stage throughout two tedious acts. But John Scherer's Elmo and Keith Devaney's Tony sleepwalk through already colorless roles, and Ellen Harvey's Lulu evokes not Crawford but a coke-crazed bride of Dracula. Only the flashy turntable set and amusing slide show from James Tilton emit a comforting glint of creativity.
Tales of Tinseltown was first produced at New Jersey's George Street Playhouse in 1988, then in San Diego by the Gaslight Quarter Theatre Company last year. Now it comes to Coconut Grove. There's an erroneous rumor circulating that the production is Broadway bound, but Grove spokesmen say it's not true; Chicago might be the next stop. Then again, any hope for progress vanishes with no plot, no dramatic action, and no music, so the Windy City may in the end be spared a fourth attempt to turn swine into pearls.
Anne Frank's story seems ill-suited to song from the start. The strength and spirit of the Dutch girl who spent 25 months in a cramped "secret annexe" with eight other people, hiding from the Nazis, inspired a best-selling novel based on her diaries, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. Librettist Enid Futterman and composer Michael Cohen, through the course of three productions -- at New York's Playhouse 91, in Manchester, England, and now at Actors' Playhouse in Kendall -- have struggled to make Yours, Anne an inspiring musical drama, with mixed results.
Anne Frank first enters the upper quarters behind her father's office when she's thirteen years old, on the brink of womanhood and what should have been a life. Instead she must wash, walk, and talk only in the early mornings, during lunch breaks, and on weekends, when the workers below cannot hear the sounds. Forced to share the dismal space with her beloved father Otto, her mother Edith (whom she doesn't love as much), her shy sister Margot, and the Van Daan family, Anne writes constantly in her diary, both to retain sanity and as an outlet for adolescent fantasies. Eventually even her tiny private space is invaded by Mr. Dussel, a Jewish dentist brought upstairs to fix Mrs. Van Daan's teeth.
A life of imprisonment tends to be monotonous, and the audience is made to feel the captives' boredom, fear, and anguish at every moment, which is part of Anne's problem. With the action emphasizing the way humanity can be crushed by senseless bigotry, rather than stressing the relationships between the victims themselves, the drama bogs down in a frozen void of fear and impotence. And damaging material has been added: Yours Anne draws from portions of the diary that Otto Frank removed from earlier published editions. Aside from the interesting fact that Anne was a budding feminist, these new revelations tend to diminish the heroine's noble character, making her seem more childish, disruptive, and spiteful than her previous image of the eternal optimist in the hideous face of evil.
Yet the show is far from hopeless. The music, lyrics, design, and staging can be effective, even eerie, and with a full orchestra, stronger voices, and more dramatic confrontations, this piece could evoke a deep, disturbing effect. "The First Chanukah Night," "I Remember," "I Think Myself Out," "Hollywood," and "They Don't Have To" are lovely odes to guarded hope, and Jeff Quinn's dank, multilevel set coupled with Stephen S. Neal's cryptlike lighting inspires genuine sorrow.
David Arisco has directed with interesting touches, using movement to express affection, separation, and irritation. Multi-Carbonell winner John Fionte gives Otto Frank enduring strength and infinite kindness, Carol Cavallo uncovers several emotional layers as the spurned, mournful mother Edith, and the rest of the cast generally infuse their roles with honesty and even wisdom. The burden of the play, however, rests on the shoulders of Carbonell-nominee Irene Adjan as Anne. While she imbues the character with the proper amount of exuberance and intelligence, her vocal abilities don't match her acting skills. With only Adjan's quavering voice and a lone piano, the fragile melodies barely come through.
Yours, Anne might well be one show that demands more elaborate production values, and more revisions, to help a difficult premise take flight in musical form. This particular version is not progress, however, and the originators, while they should not give up, should certainly move on.
TALES OF TINSELTOWN
Book and lyrics by Michael Colby, music by Paul Katz, directed and choreographed by Tony Stevens; with Keith Devaney, Peter Ermides, Melinda Gilb, Ellen Harvey, Marcia Lewis, Karyn Quackenbush, John Scherer, and Michael Tucci. At the Coconut Grove Playhouse, 3500 Main Hwy, Coconut Grove, through December 29th. Performances Tuesday -- Saturday at 8:15 p.m., Thursday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m.; no performance December 25. Tickets cost $24-$35, with discount plans available. Call 442-4000 for more information.
YOURS, ANNE
(Based on Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, and the play by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett.) Libretto by Enid Futterman, music by Michael Cohen, musically staged and directed by David Arisco; with Irene Adjan, Carol Cavallo, Elizabeth Dimon, John Fionte, Cindy Marchionda, Drew Morris, Fred Ornstein, and Christopher Railey. At the Actors' Playhouse, 8851 SW 107th Ave, through December 29th. Performances Wednesday -- Saturday at 8:00 p.m., Sunday at 2:00 and 7:00 p.m. Tickets cost $18.50 -- $22.50, with discount plans available. Call 595-0010 for more information.
