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Two Gentlemen of Verona (musical)
Encyclopedia
Two Gentlemen of Verona is a rock musical
, with a book by John Guare
and Mel Shapiro
, lyrics by Guare and music by Galt MacDermot
, based on the Shakespeare
comedy of the same name.
The original Broadway
production, in 1971, won the Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Book. A London production followed in 1973. The Public Theatre revived the piece in 2005.
hometown to experience life in urban
Milan
. Valentine falls in love with Sylvia, whose father has betrothed her against her will to the wealthy but undesirable Thurio, and plots to win her hand. Disregarding his loyalty to Valentine and Julia, his sweetheart back home, Proteus also sets his sights on Sylvia. He plans to expose his friend's intentions to her father, have Valentine banished from Milan, and claim her for himself.
in Central Park
in the summer of 1971 and twenty previews, the Broadway
production, directed by Mel Shapiro
and choreographed by Jean Erdman
, opened on December 1, 1971 at the St. James Theatre
, where it ran for 614 performances and won two Tony Awards including Best Musical over such shows as Grease
and Follies
. The cast included Raul Julia
, Clifton Davis
, Jonelle Allen
and Diana Davila in the leads; Stockard Channing
and Jeff Goldblum
were in the chorus.
A West End
production was mounted at the Phoenix Theatre
beginning on April 26, 1973 and ran for 237 performances. Shapiro directed and Erdman choreographed. The cast included Veronica Clifford, Derek Griffiths
, Benny Lee
, Michael Staniforth
and Samuel E. Wright
.
The New Jersey
Shakespeare Festival revived the piece in 1996, directed by Robert Duke and starring Philip Hernandez and Dana M. Reeve.
The musical was revived by the Public Theater
in their Shakespeare in the Park series for a limited run in 2005 at the Delacorte Theater. Kathleen Marshall
directed and choreographed, and the cast featured Norm Lewis
(Valentine), Oscar Isaac
(Proteus), Rosario Dawson
(Julia), Renée Elise Goldsberry
(Silvia), Paolo Montalban
(Eglamour), Mel Johnson Jr. (Duke of Milan) and John Cariani
(Speed). Critic Ben Brantley
compared the "festive production" to "a fruity sangría", praising the cast but concluding that the work has not held up well. He wrote that the play's "wayward" characters were "not without parallels among the lotus-eating youth of the post-Woodstock years – a comparison that Messrs. Shapiro, Guare and MacDermot made canny use of. They also scaled down Shakespeare's passages of poetic pain for an approach that emphasized an easygoing, multicultural exuberance over wistful poetry and nonsense over sensibility.... [But] MacDermot's songs... lack the variety of his score for Hair
.... And the lyricism Mr. Guare is known for as a playwright is rarely in evidence in his clunky work here as a lyricist.
Act II
Rock musical
A rock musical is a musical theatre work with rock music. The genre of rock musical may overlap somewhat with album musicals, concept albums and song cycles, as they sometimes tell a story through the rock music, and some album musicals and concept albums become rock musicals...
, with a book by John Guare
John Guare
John Guare is an American playwright. He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, and Landscape of the Body...
and Mel Shapiro
Mel Shapiro
Mel Shapiro is an American theatre director and writer, college professor, and author.Trained at Carnegie-Mellon University, Shapiro began his professional directing career at the Pittsburgh Playhouse and then as resident director at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C....
, lyrics by Guare and music by Galt MacDermot
Galt MacDermot
Galt MacDermot is a Canadian composer, pianist and writer of musical theatre. He won a Grammy Award for the song African Waltz in 1960. His most successful musicals have been Hair and Two Gentlemen of Verona...
, based on the Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
comedy of the same name.
The original 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...
production, in 1971, won the Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Book. A London production followed in 1973. The Public Theatre revived the piece in 2005.
Synopsis
Lifelong friends Proteus and Valentine leave their ruralRural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
hometown to experience life in urban
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
. Valentine falls in love with Sylvia, whose father has betrothed her against her will to the wealthy but undesirable Thurio, and plots to win her hand. Disregarding his loyalty to Valentine and Julia, his sweetheart back home, Proteus also sets his sights on Sylvia. He plans to expose his friend's intentions to her father, have Valentine banished from Milan, and claim her for himself.
Productions
After tryouts at the Delacorte TheaterDelacorte Theater
The Delacorte Theater, established in 1962, is an open-air theater located in Manhattan's Central Park and has a seating capacity of 1,800. The Delacorte is owned by the City of New York and operated by The Public Theater. It is an open-air amphitheater, with the Turtle Pond and Belvedere Castle...
in Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
in the summer of 1971 and twenty previews, the 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...
production, directed by Mel Shapiro
Mel Shapiro
Mel Shapiro is an American theatre director and writer, college professor, and author.Trained at Carnegie-Mellon University, Shapiro began his professional directing career at the Pittsburgh Playhouse and then as resident director at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C....
and choreographed by Jean Erdman
Jean Erdman
Jean Erdman is a dancer and choreographer of modern dance as well as an avant-garde theater director.-Early years:Erdman was born on February 20, 1916 in Honolulu, Hawaii...
, opened on December 1, 1971 at the St. James Theatre
St. James Theatre
The St. James Theatre is located at 246 W. 44th St. Broadway, New York City, New York. It was built by Abraham L. Erlanger, theatrical producer and a founding member of the Theatrical Syndicate, on the site of the original Sardi's restaurant. It opened in 1927 as The Erlanger...
, where it ran for 614 performances and won two Tony Awards including Best Musical over such shows as Grease
Grease (musical)
Grease is a 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical is named for the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as the greasers. The musical, set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School , follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of love,...
and Follies
Follies
Follies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The story concerns a reunion in a crumbling Broadway theatre, scheduled for demolition, of the past performers of the "Weismann's Follies," a musical revue , that played in that theatre between the World Wars...
. The cast included Raul Julia
Raúl Juliá
Raúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay was a Puerto Rican actor.Born in San Juan, he gained interest in acting while still in school. Upon completing his studies, Juliá decided to pursue a career in acting. After performing in the local scene for some time, he was convinced by entertainment personality Orson...
, Clifton Davis
Clifton Davis
Clifton Duncan Davis is an American actor, songwriter and minister. He has appeared on the television shows as A World Apart, That's My Mama and Amen...
, Jonelle Allen
Jonelle Allen
Jonelle Allen is an American actress, singer, and dancer.Born in New York City, Allen grew up in Harlem's Sugar Hill among neighbors that included Duke Ellington, Sonny Rollins, and Johnny Hodges, all of whom had an influence on her career choice...
and Diana Davila in the leads; Stockard Channing
Stockard Channing
Stockard Channing is an American stage, film and television actress. She is known for her portrayal of First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series The West Wing; for playing Betty Rizzo in the film Grease; and for her role as Ouisa Kittredge in the play Six Degrees of Separation and its...
and Jeff Goldblum
Jeff Goldblum
Jeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Goldblum is an American actor. His career began in the mid-1970s and he has appeared in major box-office successes including The Fly, Jurassic Park and its sequel Jurassic Park: The Lost World, and Independence Day...
were in the chorus.
A West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
production was mounted at the Phoenix Theatre
Phoenix Theatre (London)
The Phoenix Theatre is a West End theatre in the London Borough of Camden, located on Charing Cross Road . The entrance is in Phoenix Street....
beginning on April 26, 1973 and ran for 237 performances. Shapiro directed and Erdman choreographed. The cast included Veronica Clifford, Derek Griffiths
Derek Griffiths
Derek Griffiths is a British actor who appeared in numerous British children's television series in the 1960s to 1980s and more recently has played parts in TV drama.- Career :...
, Benny Lee
Benny Lee
Benny Lee was a British comedy actor and singer.Lee began as a performer in radio comedy programmes including Breakfast with Braden , in which he sang with Pearl Carr, Round the Bend with Michael Bentine and later It's a Square World...
, Michael Staniforth
Michael Staniforth
Michael Staniforth , born in Selly Oak, Birmingham, was a British stage actor who entertained both children and adults alike as ghostly jester Timothy Claypole, a mischievous medieval poltergeist, in the long-running BBC children's television comedy series Rentaghost...
and Samuel E. Wright
Samuel E. Wright
Samuel E. Wright is an American film and theater actor and singer who is best known as the voice of Sebastian in Disney's The Little Mermaid, for which he provided the main vocals to "Under the Sea", which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. He also voiced Kron in Disney's CGI film...
.
The New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
Shakespeare Festival revived the piece in 1996, directed by Robert Duke and starring Philip Hernandez and Dana M. Reeve.
The musical was revived by the Public Theater
Public Theater
The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as The Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers. It is headquartered at 425 Lafayette Street in the former Astor Library in the East Village...
in their Shakespeare in the Park series for a limited run in 2005 at the Delacorte Theater. Kathleen Marshall
Kathleen Marshall
Kathleen Marshall is an American choreographer, director, and creative consultant.-Life and career:Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Marshall graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School and Smith College. She worked in the Pittsburgh theatre scene when she was younger, performing with such...
directed and choreographed, and the cast featured Norm Lewis
Norm Lewis
Norm Lewis is an American actor and baritone singer. He has appeared on Broadway as well as in regional theatre.-Life:Lewis was born in Tallahassee, Florida and grew up in Eatonville, Florida...
(Valentine), Oscar Isaac
Oscar Isaac
-Personal life:Isaac was born in Guatemala to a Guatemalan mother, Maria Estrada Nicolle, and a Cuban pulmonologist father, Oscar Gonzalo Hernandez. He was raised in Miami, Florida. While in Miami, he played lead guitar and sang vocals for his band "The Blinking Underdogs"...
(Proteus), Rosario Dawson
Rosario Dawson
Rosario Isabel Dawson is an American actress, singer, and writer. She has appeared in films such as Kids, Men in Black II, 25th Hour, Sin City, Clerks II, Rent, Death Proof, The Rundown, Eagle Eye, Alexander, Seven Pounds, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Unstoppable.-Early...
(Julia), Renée Elise Goldsberry
Renee Elise Goldsberry
Renee Elise Goldsberry is an American actress, singer and songwriter.Goldsberry was born in San Jose, California and raised in both Houston, Texas and Detroit, Michigan. After graduating from Cranbrook Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills she went to Carnegie Mellon University where she graduated...
(Silvia), Paolo Montalban
Paolo Montalbán
Paolo Montalban is a Filipino-American actor and singer best known for his performance in ABC/Disney's telepic of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella as Prince Christopher, opposite Brandy as Cinderella....
(Eglamour), Mel Johnson Jr. (Duke of Milan) and John Cariani
John Cariani
John Cariani is an American actor best known for his role as CSU Tech Julian Beck on television's Law & Order, and for his performance as Motel the Tailor in the 2004 Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof for which he received a Tony Award nomination. He is also a playwright best known for...
(Speed). Critic Ben Brantley
Ben Brantley
Benjamin D. "Ben" Brantley is an American journalist and the chief theater critic of The New York Times.-Life and career:...
compared the "festive production" to "a fruity sangría", praising the cast but concluding that the work has not held up well. He wrote that the play's "wayward" characters were "not without parallels among the lotus-eating youth of the post-Woodstock years – a comparison that Messrs. Shapiro, Guare and MacDermot made canny use of. They also scaled down Shakespeare's passages of poetic pain for an approach that emphasized an easygoing, multicultural exuberance over wistful poetry and nonsense over sensibility.... [But] MacDermot's songs... lack the variety of his score for Hair
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
.... And the lyricism Mr. Guare is known for as a playwright is rarely in evidence in his clunky work here as a lyricist.
Songs
Act I- Summer, Summer
- I Love My Father
- That's a Very Interesting Question
- I'd Like to Be a Rose
- Thou, Julia, Thou Hast Metamorphosed Me
- Symphony
- I Am Not Interested in Love
- Love, Is That You?
- Thou, Proteus, Thou Hast Metamorphosed Me
- What Does a Lover Pack?
- Pearls
- I Love My Father (Reprise)
- Two Gentlemen of Verona
- Follow the Rainbow
- Where's North?
- Bring All the Boys Back Home
- Love's Revenge
- To Whom It May Concern Me
- Night Letter
- Love's Revenge
- Calla Lily Lady
Act II
- Land of Betrayal
- Thurio's Samba
- Hot Lover
- What a Nice Idea
- Who is Sylvia?
- Love Me
- Eglamour
- Kidnapped
- Mansion
- Eglamour (Reprise)
- What's a Nice Girl Like Her
- Dragon Fight
- Don't Have the Baby
- Love, Is That You? (Reprise)
- Milkmaid
- I Love My Father (Reprise)
- Love Has Driven Me Sane
Awards and nominations
- Tony AwardTony AwardThe Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for Best Musical (winner) - Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (winner)
- Tony Award for Best Original Score (nominee)
- Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical (Davis and Julia, nominees)
- Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical (Allen, nominee)
- Tony Award for Best Costume Design (nominee)
- Tony Award for Best Choreography (nominee)
- Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical (nominee)
- Theatre World AwardTheatre World AwardThe Theatre World Award, first awarded for the 1945-46 season, is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or off-Broadway.-History:...
(Allen, winner) - Drama Desk AwardDrama Desk AwardThe Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
for Outstanding Book (winner) - Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography (winner)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics (winner)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding MusicDrama Desk Award for Outstanding MusicThe Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music is an annual award presented by the Drama Desk, a committee comprising New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors...
(winner) - Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design (winner)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance (Julia and Allen, winners)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director (winner)