The economy is floundering, the Republican White House is said to be out of touch and the mood of the American electorate is at an all-time cynical nadir.
”Wintergreen for President, he`s the man the people choose, loves the Irish and the Jews,” chimes a resulting slogan. The times are not our own, but those of 1931, when that catchy lyric-said to be the shortest and snappiest in musical theater history-graced a theatrical satire.
”I first read `Of Thee I Sing` in 1984, another election year, and its satire didn`t play then,” says Remains Theatre director Larry Sloan. ”The political climate wasn`t cynical enough.”
Fast-forward to 1992. Sloan re-read the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical and decided times are now ripe. ”We`re in our most cynical political period, if you ask me, since the `60s,” he says.
In fact, the fate of the production may hinge on the 1992 presidential election itself. Show organizers say who wins the election and the resulting mood of the voters may actually determine how long the show runs after Nov. 3. In ”Of Thee I Sing,” which opens at Remains on Thursday as the first musical in the troupe`s history, the presidential candidate is Wintergreen, his vice presidential running mate is Alexander Throttlebottom and
Wintergreen`s bride and prospective first lady makes ”the best corn muffins in America.” (That almost isn`t enough. Earlier in the story, the political bosses want bachelor Wintergreen to select his wife in an Atlantic City beauty pageant-an effort to make the campaign one in which the top priority is
”Love.”)
Slogans, from the script by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, are tart cartoons: ”A Vote for Wintergreen Is a Vote for Wintergreen” or,
”Wintergeen-the Flavor That Lasts.” Unlike Herbert Hoover`s prosperity, it`s ”Posterity That`s Just Around the Corner.” Placards bob, red-white-and- blue banners unfurl and crowds cheer.
Without mention of a living politician, except for then ex-president and all-but-forgotten Calvin Coolidge, ”Of Thee I Sing” mercilessly skewered American politicians when they were at their most vulnerable, leading Brooks Atkinson to term the show ”funnier than the government and not nearly so dangerous.”
All helped make ”Of Thee I Sing,” about Wintergreen`s fictional rise to the White House and near impeachment, a landmark in theater history-all that, and the score, that is.
”Ira and I have never been connected with a show of which we were prouder,” boasted his brother George, and the songwriting team`s last name says it all: Gershwin.
A musical first
”Of Thee I Sing,” the first musical to win a Pulitzer Prize, became the longest-running musical by the Gershwin brothers, running in Broadway`s Music Box Theatre for more than 400 performances.
Critics today generally agree that with the musical the Gershwins perfected the sharp-edged, unsentimental satirical effort they began with
”Strike Up the Band” and helped to move along the new musical form.
And yet a lot of musical fans have never seen it. Though somewhat popular in community theaters and high schools, the show rarely gets a full-fledged professional production. Part of the answer is the size-the show was originally written for 48, and even Remains` 25-member cast is daunting for commercial theater.
Satire, too, which playwright Kaufman lamented as the form ”that closes on Saturday night,” isn`t always marketable-unless the targets in question are suddenly vulnerable again.
”The model was Gilbert and Sullivan,” says Sloan. ”They were trying to break with the high operatic musicals of the `20s,” referring not only to
”Show Boat,” but the Sigmund Romberg and Rudolf Friml sentimental operettas.
That rebelliousness has not always helped the show`s viability. ” `Of Thee I Sing` doesn`t tug at the heart strings in the way most musicals do, even today,” Sloan says. ”Even `Les Miserables` and `Miss Saigon,` not to mention `A Chorus Line,` are more in keeping with that tradition.”
Interwoven with that is the Gershwin brothers` remarkably purist style in setting the story to music. There are few Gershwin hits, or Top 10-like hits of any sort, from the score, and probably the most famous, the relatively obscure ”Who Cares?,” is a peculiar one, sung ”by a first lady, of all people, and one who`s kind of a cross between Eleanor Roosevelt and Nancy Reagan,” Sloan says.
About 75 percent of the numbers are choral in nature, large crowd scenes singing away. The tradition of solos and duets of later years is missing here, though the payoff is a more inventive and sophisticated approach to musical scoring.
”The predominant strength is in eight-part harmonies, intricate and dissonant sounds and complicated changes in melody, tempo and key,” Sloan says.
Keeping it simple
For Sloan`s part, and given his not-for-profit theater`s limited budget, he`s hoping to highlight the musical accomplishment by keeping the production technically simple: No microphones and no synthesizers recreating a missing symphonic orchestra.
Instead, he and musical director Jeff Lewis plan to celebrate the sounds and Remains` relatively intimate space by letting the 25 resounding live voices carry the day, backing them up on two highly visible grand pianos.
”Gershwin was such a versatile master of the piano, and the score shows that off,” Sloan says. ”At times we`re even vocalizing violin lines in the chorus-an effect which turns out to be beautiful.”
Other innovations include the use of experimental choreographer Timothy O`Slynne (”The Pope`s Toe,” ”Who`s Afraid of Virginia Woolf-the Dance”)
for what Sloan suggests will be a mixture of standard revival and urban rethink.
”People expecting a totally avant-garde Remains endeavor will be surprised, but so will those expecting a traditional suburban revival,” Sloan says. (Ironically, one innovation that startled 1931 audiences, in which the cast began the show by walking from the rear of the theater, up through the aisles and onto the stage, in a mock political campaign-was dropped as tired by now.)
Sloan`s instincts about topicality are borne out by evidence elsewhere. Professional revivals this year are now scheduled for Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Ft. Worth and New York. Part of that can be attributed to recent new recordings of both this show, with new orchestrations by Michael Tilson Thomas, and of ”Strike Up the Band,” its predecessor, which Pegasus Players plans later this season.
”It`s as if George Gershwin has been resurging forever,” Sloan says.
”Just when you think his popularity has peaked, it grows. But I think the climate for the subject matter is also ripe, more so than during a lot of previous campaigns. I mean, we`re talking cookie bake-offs and Elvis impersonators following Bill Clinton around.
”This election hinges on bad times, and when you pit bad times against the theatrics of politics, the combination`s pretty absurd.”
