Friday, April 19, 2013

CARMEN JONES -- Carmen all'italiana -- DIS FLOWER

Speranza

Carmen Jones
Carmen Jones Original Cast Album.jpg
1943 Original Cast Recording
MusicGeorges Bizet
LyricsOscar Hammerstein II
BookOscar Hammerstein II
BasisGeorges Bizet opera Carmen
Novella Carmen by Prosper Mérimée
Productions1943 Broadway
1954 Film version
1991 Old Vic
AwardsLaurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical


Carmen Jones is a 1943 Broadway musical with music by Giorgio Bizet (orchestrated for Broadway by Robert Russell Bennett) and lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein II which was performed at The Broadway Theatre.

Conceptually, it is Bizet's opera Carmen updated to a World War II-era African-American setting.

Bizet's opera was, in turn, based on the 1846 novella by Prosper Mérimée.

The Broadway musical was produced by Billy Rose, using an all-black cast, and directed by Hassard Short.

Robert Shaw prepared the choral portions of the show.


The original Broadway production starred Muriel Smith (alternating with Muriel Rahn) in the title role.

The original Broadway cast members were nearly all new to the stage.

Kennedy and Muir write that on the first day of rehearsal only one member had ever been on a stage before.[1]

The 1954 film was adapted by Hammerstein and Harry Kleiner.

It was directed by Otto Preminger and starred Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte.

The musical has also been revived in London, running for a season in 1991 at London's Old Vic and most recently in London's Royal Festival Hall in the Southbank Centre in 2007.[2]

 

 

 

Parachute maker
Carmen Jones makes
 a play for a "fly boy"
Air Force man, Joe, who
is in love with sweet Cindy Lou
and about to marry her on a day pass when Carmen gets into a cat fight with another woman.

Joe's pass is cancelled in order for him to drive her to
the next town to be handed over to the non-military police.


Instead, she charms and seduces him, and
he is put in the stockade for not delivering her to the authorities.

While she waits for Joe to be released from military prison, she
hangs around Billy Pastor's jive cafe where she encounters
boxer Husky Miller, who is instantly besotted with Carmen, calling her "heatwave".

She is initially uninterested.

But her friends Frankie and Mert know that their invitation from Husky's manager to see him fight in Chicago depends on Carmen's being there, too.
Portrait of Muriel Rahn in the title role in the 1943 original Broadway production of Carmen Jones
Muriel Rahl in the title role in the 1943 original Broadway production of Carmen Jones


Then Joe turns up at the cafe but gets into a fight with his sergeant, who is making a move on Carmen.

The train ticket to Chicago originally given to Carmen offers them a way of avoiding the MPs.

After a few days holed up with no money and no future with Joe, Carmen pays a visit to her two friends, now covered in diamonds and furs, at Husky's training camp.

She is only looking for a loan, but they try to draw her to give up Joe and "go with the money" by staying with Husky.

Later, at Husky's apartment, Frankie reads Carmen's "cards", and reveals the Nine of Spades - the card of Death.

In the belief that her days are numbered, Carmen gives in to Husky's advances, abandoning Joe for the luxurious life Husky can offer her.

Cindy Lou comes to look for Joe,
but he is still in love with Carmen and spurns Cindy Lou.

The night of Husky's title fight, Joe turns up to try to convince Carmen to come back to him, but when she rejects him, he kills her, thus making the cards' prophecy a reality.

 

Although Oscar Hammerstein II translated the libretto for Giorgio Bizet's opera Carmen from French into English for his Broadway production, "The music was pretty much left intact," explains Arts and Entertainment Editor Elisabeth Vincentelli, "but Hammerstein transferred the action to WWII America. Carmen's tobacco factory became Carmen Jones' parachute factory, bullfighter Escamillo became boxer Husky Miller, and so on.

As if this weren't enough, there also was the 'small' detail of casting the show only with African-Americans."

Vincentelli goes on to say, "...many of the show's songs retain a surprising impact.

The feverish intensity of 'Beat Out dat Rhythm on a Drum,' for instance, hasn't dimmed over the years, and the song's been covered by a wide variety of performers, from Pearl Bailey and Marc Almond to Mandy Patinkin." The majority of the actors performing the songs in the film Carmen Jones were dubbed. Even singer Harry Belafonte was dubbed (by LeVern Hutcherson), and Dorothy Dandridge was dubbed by Marilyn Horne (long before Horne became a famous singer).

[edit] Songs

Act 1
  • Overture
  • Lift 'Em Up and Put 'Em Down (Avec la garde montante in Bizet's original opera) – Street Boys
  • Honey Gal o' Mine – Male Chorus
  • Good Luck, Mr. Flyin' Man! – Female Chorus
  • Dat's Love (Habanera in Bizet's opera) – Carmen and Chorus
  • You Talk Just like My Maw (Parle-moi de ma mère in Bizet's opera)– Joe and Cindy Lou
  • Murder-Murder – Female Chorus
  • Carmen Jones Is Goin' to Jail! – Pit Chorus
  • Dere's a Cafe on de Corner (Seguidilla in Bizet's opera) – Carmen and Joe
  • Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum (Gypsy Song in Bizet's opera) – Frankie, Chorus
  • Stan' Up and Fight (Toreador Song, also known as March of the Toreadors in Bizet's opera) – Husky Miller and Chorus
  • Whizzin' Away Along de Track (Quintet (Nous avons en tête affaire) in Bizet's opera) – Rum, Dink, Myrt, Frankie, and Carmen
  • Dis Flower (Flower Song in Bizet's opera) – Joe
  • If You Would Only Come Away – Carmen and Joe
Act 2
  • De Cards Don't Lie (Card Song in Bizet's opera) – Frankie, Myrt, Carmen, and female chorus
  • Dat Ol' Boy – Carmen
  • Poncho de Panther from Brazil – Frankie, Myrt, Husky Miller, Rum, and Chorus
  • My Joe (Micaela's Air in Bizet's opera) – Cindy Lou
  • Finale (of Act II Scene I) – Carmen, Joe, Cindy Lou, Husky Miller, Rum, Dink, Frankie, and Myrt
  • Git Yer Program for de Big Fight – Chorus
  • Dat's Our Man! (Les voici in Bizet's opera) – Chorus
  • Finale – Carmen, Joe, Chorus

[edit] Awards and nominations

[edit] Original London production

YearAwardCategoryNomineeResult
1992Laurence Olivier AwardBest New MusicalWon
Best Actor in a MusicalDamon EvansNominated
Best Actress in a MusicalWilhelmenia FernandezWon
Sharon BensonNominated
Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a MusicalGregg BakerNominated
Karen ParksNominated

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kennedy and Muir 1998, p.77.
  2. ^ southbankcentre.co.uk/carmenjones, Carmen Jones at the Royal Festival Hall in London (25 July - 2 September 2007).

[edit] Further reading

  • Kennedy, Michael Patrick; Muir, John (1998) [1997]. Musicals (Updated reprint ed.). HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-472067-9. 

[edit] External links



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