Once again my friend Renee Graves has unearthed a darkly comical musical for my enjoyment (she is, after all, the one who first made me aware of Bat Boy: The Musical a fewish years ago). And this one is being performed locally (as opposed to Bat Boy, alas)! More specifically, Germantown Community Theatre is in the middle of a limited run of Gorey Stories, a musical based on the deliciously macabre works of Edward Gorey. Check out this feature about the show in the Germantown News, and definitely take a moment to peruse Renee’s take on the show below. Performances run Thursdays-Sundays through November 1, and ticket information can be found here.
If I might add one more thought: N is for Neville who died of ennui.
From Renee, whose family even sends Gorey cards for the holidays:
Back when I was a child (in the dark ages), there were only a limited number of television channels. You either had to content yourself with the fare on the three networks (most of it programmed by Aaron Spelling), or else head over to PBS with the rest of the patchouli-smelling hippies. My parents, much to my consternation, were PBS fanatics. And it was there, while I sat miserable because I wasn’t going to be able to join in the conversation about Wonder Woman on the school playground the next day, that I first saw a cartoon that would have a huge impact on me.
It was merely a clip – just the intro to the PBS series “Mystery” – but as I watched the minute-long cartoon – filled with damsels in distress wearing flapper dresses and pearls, men with handlebar mustaches in shady trenchcoats and dubious goings-on behind huge urns – I was fascinated. Here was something authentically and excitedly… sinister. It was artful and intelligent in a way that the Addams Family wanted to be but wasn’t, and it was thrilling. It was also my first introduction to the work of Edward Gorey, the American author and illustrator who reached the zenith of his fame in the late 70′s.
To this day most people probably still know Gorey best from that little Mystery intro, but fans of his work know that he was incredibly prolific, publishing out over 100 books before his death in 2000. However, many fans are often not aware that a little-known musical called “Gorey Stories” was also written in the late 70′s based on his works. It’s unknown because it unfortunately opened and closed on Broadway on the same night in ’78 and went largely forgotten throughout the 80′s and 90′s. However, it seems that perhaps its time has finally come, and it is currently experiencing a revival of sorts with smaller theatre companies in large cities. Realizing the somewhat obscure nature of the piece, though, I resigned myself to the fact that it would most likely never play Memphis.
Apparently, I was wrong.
Obviously, I grossly underestimated my city, as Germantown Community Theatre is currently staging the piece – and staging it strikingly well, too, I might add. Every weekend from Oct. 16th through Nov. 1st “Gorey Stories” will grace the tiny black-box stage of GCT, and if you have ever been a fan of Gorey (or for that matter, the Addams Family, Tim Burton, or just had a passing predilection for dark humor in general), you REALLY need to go see this musical, if not for the amazing production values (and the fact that it is even playing in this market) alone.
I know it is early in the season for such talk, but my sister-in-law who is steeped in the Memphis theatre “scene” and I concurred that the set design will likely be a contender at next year’s Ostrander Awards. Painstakingly drawn in black and white “Gorey-style” squiggles, the Victorian drawing room looks exactly like a page in a Gorey work that has come to life. The over-the-top Edwardian costuming is also dead-on, if you’ll forgive the pun, and the macabre make-up is perfect without being too obvious. Add in the beautifully atmospheric lighting, and you have a show with production values of a caliber not always seen in these parts.
The production itself almost lives up to its spectacular set design. I’ve seen many clips of various other productions of this musical on Youtube, and I have to give GCT credit for the direction that they have taken the piece. I suspect that one of the major reasons that this musical did not make it on Broadway is because the whimsy and charm of Gorey lies largely in his illustrations – his texts, taken alone, are really very, very dark and often a little disturbing. However, the “book” of the musical is lifted nearly word for word from the texts of 18 different Gorey works, without the benefit of Gorey’s accompanying amusing illustrations to “cut” the darkness of the tales. The result can be a little shocking, especially to those who don’t realize that the pieces are meant to be tongue-in-cheek. Many other productions that I’ve seen online try to remedy this by playing the piece over-broadly, nervously mugging and grinning to try to convey to the audience that “this is a joke, we’re kidding! Isn’t this cute?” To his credit, Jason Spitzer, the director of this production, had more respect for his audience than that, and the actors play their gruesome roles with a relish seldom seen on the stage outside of a good production of Sweeny Todd. Unfortunately though, as feared, it seemed that some in the audience on the night I attended perhaps did not “get” the joke – which may have been exacerbated by the fact that a few audience members had foolishly not paid heed to the warning that parts of the play were for mature audiences only, and had unwisely brought their children to the performance. I suspect the conversation in a few car rides home that night got a little uncomfortable… personally I wouldn’t recommend this performance for anyone under at least 13.
That said, the main flaw with the production lies in its timing. The 18 different “stories” presented are only marginally connected to one another (when connected at all), so they play like a series of narrative-theatre rapid-fire vignettes, some set to music and some not. I had the benefit of having been familiar with all of the works in the piece (occasionally to the point that I could quietly sing along, without having ever seen the work on stage before). However, I could see that the two other people I was with were struggling through some of it. The actors moved the dialogue very quickly in some of the “stories,” presumably to build momentum, but it worked against the piece, as some of the stories just got completely lost in the rapid narration. This problem was especially evident during songs in which the whole company sang as chorus – nine voices quickly moving through intricate, sing-songly limericks and lyrics are too much for one ear to discern unless they are sung far more slowly and over-enunciated in unison and with precision. Because of this, whole “stories,” such as the Wuggly Ump and the Insect God, got garbled and somewhat lost on the audience.
However, when they were good they were very, very good; and they were especially good when working with the stories that had longer, more traditional narratives. Gorey was a great patron of the arts, particularly ballet and opera, and the two stories that deal with these subjects, “The Gilded Bat” and “The Blue Aspic,” were two highlights of the production (particularly Tzvetana Denkova’s tongue in cheek work as the Gilded Bat). Those who love one of Gorey’s best-known works, “The Doubtful Guest,” will be charmed with Wesley Barnes’ whimsical portrayal of the title character. Finally, anyone who has ever tried to write fiction will be amused by the “suite” of “The Unstrung Harp, or Mr. Earbrass Writes a Novel” in act two, featuring a hilarious performance by John Buchanan as the confounded Mr. Earbrass.
In all, it was a stunning performance, if not just for the fact that it was such a departure from the “usual” community theatre fare offered in this city. Typically anything in the least bit cutting-edge is done in midtown by one of the several companies there, and GCT needs to be commended for going outside of their comfort zone with this one. It took guts for them to take a chance on this piece and bring it to Memphis, and in my opinion it should be supported if not for that reason alone, frankly. More like this, please, GCT!
