9/11/2023 0 Comments Edwin drood musicalThe day before I met with him, I wrote at the top of the page "Victorian Vaudeville." And instantly all the fun and giddiness, and quirkiness of the framing device, poured out of me onto the page. RH: The idea of a company of actors came to me when I first wrote my presentation for Joe Papp. Only having known it from the cast album, I had no idea that the show incorporated such a rich, period world where a company of actors endeavors to tell us Dickens' tale. ![]() It was a treat for me to see Drood at long last. Because, to me, entering the theatre, that would be the absolute height of theatricality, and would do something, especially in those days, that could not be done in any other medium - that of the actors knowing the audience is there and the audience collaborating with the company to create an ending. Instead, I would find some way to allow the audience to vote on several of the questions raised in the plot, and have the possibility of a different outcome at every performance. Then there came the thought of, "How do I deal with the fact that it's an unfinished work?" And within a day or two of first considering the show as the subject of a musical, I hit upon the idea that I would not try to do my mock-Dickensian ending. I thought it would make a terrific musical because John Jasper is a choir master and organist, and he's madly in love with his muse and pupil, so I knew he would have every reason to write her a song for her birthday that would put into her mouth the word he longed for her to speak to him. RH: I first had the thought about making a musical of "Edwin Drood" as far back as 1971. Had The Mystery of Edwin Drood been on your mind at that point? It was as if someone finally picked up the message I was trying to send which was, "Please, let me find a way into musical theatre." They went to the club and sent me a New York Shakespeare Festival card that said, "Have you thought about writing a musical? If so, we should talk." Of course I had, and the idea was Edwin Drood. That was 1983 and Gail Merrifield Papp, who was also aware of my albums, as was Joe Papp, read a good review that Stephen Holden wrote. To some degree I think I was trying to wave my arms frantically at musical theatre and say, "Look over here, I tell stories!" Eventually, it clicked when I was performing at Dangerfields doing comedy and music as a headliner there. But it wasn't until my album "Partners in Crime" that I actually had a couple of top ten hits.īetty Buckley in the original Broadway production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.Ī lot of my early career, I wrote story songs that had narratives, that had plots. The cover versions of my songs that were being recorded are what kept me in the running. I think that alone caused CBS to renew my contract for several years. They only manufactured 10,000 copies, I wasn't even in the running for failure! But one of those albums found its way to Barbra Streisand, and she suddenly wanted to record my songs, and have me arrange and conduct them. But thankfully, my first album, "Wide Screen," was sort of a critics' darling - everyone raved about it, but no one bought it. I wouldn't have gotten to make a fifth album. In today's music industry, I wouldn't have lasted that long. ![]() People think the first record I ever made had the "Pina Colada Song" on it. I know that you're best known for "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)," but I am such a huge fan of the songs "Him," "Partners in Crime," "Wide Screen," "Who, What, When, Where Why" and "Answering Machine." That is some great pop writing and storytelling. Rupert, before we get to Drood, I have to tell you that a friend turned me on to your solo studio albums from the 1970s and 80s. We also look back at his career as a singer-songwriter. caught up with Holmes to discuss revisiting Drood for this fresh production, his new revisions, and some of the initial inspirations for the musical. Drood's rousing and intricate period score has been preserved anew thanks to a lavishly packaged two-disc revival cast album from DRG Records, which was released in late January. Thirty years after it premiered in Central Park at the Delacorte Theater under the wing of the New York Shakespeare Festival (now the Public Theater), Rupert Holmes' Tony-winning musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood is enjoying a vivacious revival by the Roundabout Theatre Company at Studio 54.
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