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The St. Mark's Players proudly present

PAL JOEY

Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
Book by John O'Hara

November 5-7, 12-14, and 19-20, 1999

St. Mark's Episcopal Church
3rd & A Streets, SE
Washington, DC

ACT I

ACT II

The Players

Production Crew

Orchestra

Special Thanks

Antiques & Contemporary Leasing, Inc. - Alice B. Wilson, Manager
Patti Crescenzi - Royal Formal Wear, Pentagon City
Rev. Carl Ripley - Community United Methodist Church, Arlington, VA
Lynn Freer - St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, Washington, DC
Petworth United Methodist Church
Brett Goldstein - Washington Jewish Community Center
Rev. Paul Abernathy - St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Washington, DC
The Arlington Players - John K. Monnett, President
Tantallon Players - Christopher Gerken, President
Montgomery College - Peter Zakutansky
Richard Battistelli
Molly Haws
Rick and Jane Rutherford
Mr. and Mrs. James Sockwell
Kevin Sockwell

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Pal Joey: Musical Theatre Grows Up
by Alexander Fernández

In 1938, as John O'Hara penned a series of short stories about the adventures of a fast-talking Chicago cad, readers of The New Yorker did not suspect that just a couple of years later those short stories would transform into the musical-comedy that is Pal Joey. Fortunately for all of us, in 1939 O'Hara wrote to Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, asking the legendary team whether it would be interested in bringing Pal Joey to life. Intrigued by the concept of writing and composing a musical that has an "anti-hero" as its central focus, Rodgers and Hart readily agreed.

Together with George Abbott, Pal Joey's original producer and director, O'Hara reworked his short stories and came up with a plot that not only touches, but rather immerses itself in blackmail, greed, power and sex. Nobody had tried anything like this before. Indeed, Rodgers notes in his autobiography, Musical Stages, that "[Pal Joey] would be different from anything anyone else had ever tried." And, different it was.

Lauded by some, panned by others, Pal Joey's 1940 debut was rocky, to say the least. The cast was exemplary and included then-newcomer Gene Kelly as Joey and stage veteran Vivienne Segal as Vera, supported by a cast that included Van Johnson and June Havoc. Critics took an almost instant dislike to Hart's lyrics and strongly resisted the "anti-hero" concept developed in the musical. Notably, Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times, while referring to Hart's "scabrous" lyrics, remarked: "Although Pal Joey is expertly done, can you draw sweet water from a foul well?" This question remained unanswered for some time.

In 1952, after watching a Pal Joey revival at the Broadhurst Theatre, Atkinson ate his words. He wrote: "In 1940 Pal Joey was regarded by its satellites as the musical that broke the old formula and brought the musical stage to maturity. There was a minority, including this column, that was not enchanted. But no one is likely now to be impervious to the tight organization of the production, the terseness of the writing, the liveliness and versatility of the score and the easy perfection of the lyrics." Hart, who had been devastated by Atkinson's original review, never saw the retraction. Hart died in 1943, shortly after his last collaboration with Rodgers, who had gone on to work with Oscar Hammerstein.

Recently, while surfing the Internet, I stumbled across a web-site created by a 25-year-old (out of the mouths of babes) Italian, Alessandro Martini. The web-site is entitled "Lorenz Hart's Home Page" and is a treasure trove of Hart facts. It seems as if Martini created the site as a tribute to Hart after watching Pal Joey. In his site, while discussing Hart's lyric-writing style, Martini writes (or quotes from another source, I am not certain which): "The interesting thing about Hart is that his songs often worked on a third level. A homosexual in a time of great social repression, he also suffered from rejection because of his appearance [Hart was a dwarf]. For Hart, sexual attraction was power and he was miserably self-aware of his own lack thereof. It is a power that blasts its way through the Rodgers and Hart canon. Unable to find a mate, Hart rarely wrote a requited love song. His entire collection is dominated by dreams and fantasies, lovers dancing on the ceiling, cheerful blue boys, funny valentines. His songs became his therapy; by transmuting his personal feelings into the conventions of the popular song, he could universalize his emotions. If listeners could relate to his situation, Hart himself might not feel so alone."

Fifty-nine years later, the world continues to grow up. Hart's lyrics are renowned for their daring and inventive nature. The great contemporary lyricist Fred Ebb (of Kander & Ebb) salutes Hart's work with this gem: "Larry Hart made us all a little braver!" Sadly, Hart never knew of the gift he had left the world of musical theatre. His last words were "What have I lived for?" A simple question deserves a simple answer. The answer is presented this evening.

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