High Fidelity (musical)
Encyclopedia
High Fidelity is a musical
with a book by David Lindsay-Abaire
, lyrics by Amanda Green
, and music by Tom Kitt
. Based primarily on the Nick Hornby
novel
rather than the subsequent film version
it inspired, the plot focuses on Rob Gordon, a Brooklyn
record shop owner in his thirties obsessed with making top five lists for everything, always observing rather than participating in life. When his girlfriend Laura leaves him, he goes through a painful re-evaluation of his life and lost loves (with a little help from his music) and he slowly learns that he has to grow up and let go of his self-centered view of the world before he can find real happiness.
Kitt, a graduate of Columbia University
, recognized the material's potential for musical adaptation when he first read the book, long before the film was released and became a cult hit. He approached Green (daughter of famed lyricist Adolph
), with whom he had attended the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop
, with the idea, and she too saw the possibilities. Their score runs the gamut from pop music
to rhythm and blues
to romantic ballads, with each song in the style and musical vocabulary of a different pop or rock artist, including Bruce Springsteen
, Beastie Boys
, Indigo Girls
, Talking Heads
, Aretha Franklin
, The Who
, Guns N' Roses
, Billy Joel
, George Harrison
, Percy Sledge
, and others.
The show had a month long out-of-town tryout at Boston
's Colonial Theatre
before heading to Broadway
in New York City
. After eighteen previews, the Walter Bobbie
-directed production opened on December 7, 2006 at the Imperial Theatre, where it closed after fourteen performances. The opening night cast included Will Chase
, Jenn Colella
, Christian Anderson, Kirsten Wyatt
, Rachel Stern, J.B. Wing and Jay Klaitz. The show was first produced regionally in 2008 by New Line Theatre
in St. Louis, followed by productions in Chicago
, Washington DC, and other US cities.. The Canadian premiere was produced by Hart House Theatre in January 2010.
Act II
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
with a book by David Lindsay-Abaire
David Lindsay-Abaire
David Lindsay-Abaire is an American playwright and lyricist. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2007 for his play Rabbit Hole, which also earned several Tony Award nominations.-Early life and education:...
, lyrics by Amanda Green
Amanda Green
-Career:Born in New York City, Green was raised on the Upper West Side with brother Adam by parents Phyllis Newman and Adolph Green. From an early age she was exposed to major talents of Broadway musical theatre, including Leonard Bernstein, Jule Styne, and Cy Coleman, all of whom were regular...
, and music by Tom Kitt
Tom Kitt (musician)
Tom Kitt is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator and musician. For his score for the musical Next to Normal, he shared the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Brian Yorkey...
. Based primarily on the Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby is an English novelist, essayist and screenwriter. He is best known for the novels High Fidelity, About a Boy, and for the football memoir Fever Pitch. His work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists.-Life and career:Hornby was...
novel
High Fidelity (novel)
High Fidelity is a 1995 British novel by Nick Hornby. It was adapted into a 2000 film directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack. It also served as the basis for a 2006 Broadway musical of the same name.-Plot summary:...
rather than the subsequent film version
High Fidelity (film)
High Fidelity is a 2000 American comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack and the Danish actress Iben Hjejle. The film is based on the 1995 British novel of the same name by Nick Hornby, with the setting moved from London to Chicago and the name of the lead character...
it inspired, the plot focuses on Rob Gordon, a Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
record shop owner in his thirties obsessed with making top five lists for everything, always observing rather than participating in life. When his girlfriend Laura leaves him, he goes through a painful re-evaluation of his life and lost loves (with a little help from his music) and he slowly learns that he has to grow up and let go of his self-centered view of the world before he can find real happiness.
Kitt, a graduate of Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, recognized the material's potential for musical adaptation when he first read the book, long before the film was released and became a cult hit. He approached Green (daughter of famed lyricist Adolph
Adolph Green
Adolph Green was an American lyricist and playwright who, with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for some of the most beloved movie musicals, particularly as part of Arthur Freed's production unit at MGM, during the genre's heyday...
), with whom he had attended the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop
BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop
The BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop is a workshop in New York for musical theatre composers, lyricists and librettists.-History:The BMI Workshop was founded in 1961 by Lehman Engel and the performing rights organization BMI ....
, with the idea, and she too saw the possibilities. Their score runs the gamut from pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
to rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
to romantic ballads, with each song in the style and musical vocabulary of a different pop or rock artist, including Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
, Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
, Indigo Girls
Indigo Girls
The Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. They met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
, Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
, Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
, The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
, Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
, Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
, George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
, Percy Sledge
Percy Sledge
Percy Sledge is an American R&B and soul performer who recorded the hit "When a Man Loves a Woman" in 1966.-Early career:...
, and others.
The show had a month long out-of-town tryout at Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
's Colonial Theatre
Colonial Theatre
The Colonial Theatre is the oldest continually-operating theatre in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Designed by the architectural firm of Clarence Blackall and paid for by Frederick Lothrop Ames the theatre first opened its doors for a performance of Ben-Hur on December 20, 1900...
before heading to Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. After eighteen previews, the Walter Bobbie
Walter Bobbie
Walter Bobbie is an American theatre director, choreographer, and occasional actor and dancer. Bobbie has directed both musicals and plays on Broadway and Off-Broadway, and was the Artistic Director of the New York City Center Encores! concert series...
-directed production opened on December 7, 2006 at the Imperial Theatre, where it closed after fourteen performances. The opening night cast included Will Chase
Will Chase
Will Chase is an American actor and singer, best known for his work in Broadway musicals.Chase was born in Frankfort, Kentucky to Jerry and Betty Chase and is the youngest of three boys...
, Jenn Colella
Jenn Colella
Jennifer Lin Colella is an American actress and singer, best known for her work in Broadway musicals.Jenn Colella has been a familiar face in the New York theatre scene since starring as Sissy in Urban Cowboy on Broadway, for which she received an Outer Critic's Circle Award Nomination.Since then,...
, Christian Anderson, Kirsten Wyatt
Kirsten Wyatt
Kirsten Wyatt is an American Broadway actress portraying Frenchy in the new Broadway revival of Grease.Wyatt grew up in Clarksburg, West Virginia. Since completing her training at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 1997, Wyatt has appeared in a number of Broadway...
, Rachel Stern, J.B. Wing and Jay Klaitz. The show was first produced regionally in 2008 by New Line Theatre
New Line Theatre
New Line Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri, is an alternative musical theatre company producing challenging, adult, politically and socially relevant works of musical theatre...
in St. Louis, followed by productions in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Washington DC, and other US cities.. The Canadian premiere was produced by Hart House Theatre in January 2010.
Musical numbers
Act I- The Last Real Record Store - Rob, Pale Young Men, Dick, Barry
- Desert Island Top 5 Break-Ups - Rob, Top 5 Girls
- It's No Problem - Dick
- She Goes - Liz, Rob
- Ian's Here - Ian, Laura
- Number Five With A Bullet - Laura, Top 5 Girls
- Ready To Settle - Marie, Back-Up Singer
- Terrible Things - Marie
- The Last Real Record Store (Reprise) - Barry, Dick, Rob, Pale Young Men
- Nine Percent Chance - Rob, Barry, Dick, Pale Young Men
Act II
- I Slept With Someone - Rob, Laura
- Exit Sign - Neil
- Cryin' In The Rain - Rob, Top 5 Girls
- Conflict Resolution - Rob, Dick, Barry, Pale Young Men, Company
- Goodbye And Good Luck - Bruce, Rob
- It's No Problem (Reprise) - Dick Anna
- Ian's Prayer - Ian
- Laura, Laura - Rob
- Saturday Night Girl - The Skids
- Turn The World Off (And Turn You On) - Barry, Tmpmitw, Klepto Boy, Rob, Laura, Liz, Company