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Violet (musical)
Encyclopedia
Violet is a musical
with music by Jeanine Tesori
and libretto by Brian Crawley based on the short story "The Ugliest Pilgrim" by Doris Betts
. It tells the story of a young disfigured woman who embarks on a journey by bus from her farm in Spruce Pine, North Carolina
, all the way to Tulsa, Oklahoma
in order to be healed. It opened Off-Broadway
at Playwrights Horizons
on March 11, 1997, and closed April 6, 1997. Directed by Susan H. Schulman
with choreography by Kathleen Marshall
, the cast featured Lauren Ward as Violet, Michael McElroy
as Flick and Michael Park
as Monty. Other cast members included Stephen Lee Anderson, Amanda Posner and Robert Westenberg
. It won the Drama Critics' Circle Award and Lucille Lortel Award as Best Musical.
Thirteen-year-old Violet Karl sings ("Water in the Well") while her father is chopping wood. The shim of his axe
blade suddenly comes loose and hits his daughter across the face, leaving a deep gash which runs from her nose all the way down her left cheek.
The 25-year-old Violet, terribly scarred from her injury, is at a Greyhound bus station, boarding the bus ("Surprised"). Her destination is a televangelist in Tulsa, Oklahoma
, that she has been watching on television
for years. Being a strong believer in God
, she believes that the televangelist will be able to make a direct connection from her to God and make her scar disappear. On the bus, she meets an old woman who is heading to Nashville, Tennessee
to visit her son, "who works in the cellophane plant". Violet eyes the woman's pale unblemished skin with envy and thinks about the things that she would like to ask the televangelist to change about herself ("On My Way").
While the bus makes a stop ("M&Ms"), Violet meets two soldiers: the attractive, womanizing Monty, and Flick, who is African-American. Because the story takes place in 1964, during the Civil Rights Movement
, Flick is often discriminated against during the journey. Violet sits down with them and they play five card draw . Simultaneously, a flashback shows Young Violet carrying groceries into the house. Her father is upset with her because she is short on change. "That's the third time this month you've let them shortchange you at the store! I thought they was supposed to learn you 'rithmetic in school." In attempt to teach her how to add and subtract, he teaches her how to play poker
. ("Luck of the Draw")
Violet and the soldiers decide to travel with each other until they have to go their separate ways. At a bus stop in Memphis
, Violet plans to spend the night with some relatives she barely knows. "I have their number in my suitcase," she claims. Unfortunately, her suitcase is stolen by some mechanics after they verbally attack Flick for being black, so Flick suggests that she spend the night at an old friend's small hotel. Violet, originally reluctant, decides that this is the best idea. After settling into their room, they go to a dance hall
for a night on the town ("Lonely Stranger"). Violet and Monty dance together, and Flick shows signs of jealousy.
After they party, Violet falls asleep in her hotel room as "Who'll Be The One if Not Me" plays (sung by the Jordanaires
.) Monty comes in from his room and slips into her bed. A flashback shows Violet walking home from school, followed by Billy Dean Ellum. Billy Dean claims that he's never done "it" with a girl before. Back in the hotel, Monty falls asleep in Violet's lap and Violet sings to him. ("Lay Down Your Head")
Act II
The next morning, Flick reacts to Monty and Violet's budding relationship, and he and Violet argue ("Hard to Say Goodbye"). Back on the bus, Monty and Flick are preparing to say goodbye to Violet, as the next stop is hers. ("Promise Me, Violet") Violet departs the bus and enters the chapel where a rehearsal is being held for the next episode of the televangelist's show. ("Raise Me Up") Violet interrupts and asks the televangelist to help her, and has a flashback to the day she was injured and got her scar ("Down the Mountain"). The televangelist admits he can't fulfill her request, explaining the people he "heals" are so caught up in the excitement of his program, that they end up healing themselves. Violet, feeling confused and betrayed, turns viciously upon him, mocking him with his own routine ("Raise Me Up - Reprise").
She goes into a trance, imagining that she is having a conversation with her late father, begging him to confront his handiwork ("Look at Me"). He explains that he tried his hardest to be a good father, and assures her he never wanted to hurt her ("That's What I Could Do"). She comes out of her "trance" emotionally purged and, thinking she has been healed just as she had hoped ("Surprised - Reprise"), she gets on the next bus to where Monty and Flick are stationed ("M&Ms - Reprise").
She meets up with Monty and quickly realizes that she still has the scar running across her face. She is crushed, but Flick comforts her, showing her how much both of them have changed ("Promise Me, Violet - Reprise"). Monty goes off to fight in Vietnam while Flick and Violet start a new life together. ("Bring Me to Light")
Outer Critics Circle Award
Drama Critics' Circle Award
Lucille Lortel Award
Obie
Award
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 music by Jeanine Tesori
Jeanine Tesori
Jeanine Tesori is an American musical arranger and composer who won the 1999 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play for Nicholas Hytner's production of Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center and the 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music for Caroline, or Change.Tesori made her Broadway...
and libretto by Brian Crawley based on the short story "The Ugliest Pilgrim" by Doris Betts
Doris Betts
Doris June Betts is a short story writer, novelist, essayist and Alumni Distinguished Professor Emerita at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill....
. It tells the story of a young disfigured woman who embarks on a journey by bus from her farm in Spruce Pine, North Carolina
Spruce Pine, North Carolina
Spruce Pine is a town in Mitchell County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 2,175 at the 2010 census.-History:Spruce Pine was founded in 1907 when the Clinchfield Railroad made its way up the North Toe River from Erwin, Tennessee...
, all the way to Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
in order to be healed. It opened Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
at Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work....
on March 11, 1997, and closed April 6, 1997. Directed by Susan H. Schulman
Susan H. Schulman
Susan H. Schulman is an American theater director.Intent on a career as an actress, Schulman studied drama at Hofstra University in Hempstead, Long Island, New York in the 1960s. She attended Yale University on a playwrighting fellowship, graduating with a Master's Degree...
with choreography by 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...
, the cast featured Lauren Ward as Violet, Michael McElroy
Michael McElroy (actor)
Michael McElroy is an American musical theatre actor, singer and music director.Born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, McElroy moved to New York City in May 1990 after earning his BFA in Theatre from Carnegie Mellon University. He made his Broadway debut in The High Rollers Social and Pleasure Club...
as Flick and Michael Park
Michael Park (actor)
Michael Park is an American actor, best known for his role of Jack Snyder on As the World Turns . Park won back to back Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2010 and 2011.-Career:...
as Monty. Other cast members included Stephen Lee Anderson, Amanda Posner and Robert Westenberg
Robert Westenberg
Robert Westenberg is an American musical theatre actor and acting teacher. He married actress and singer Kim Crosby on June 19, 1991, and the couple now have three children.-Early Life:...
. It won the Drama Critics' Circle Award and Lucille Lortel Award as Best Musical.
Plot
Act IThirteen-year-old Violet Karl sings ("Water in the Well") while her father is chopping wood. The shim of his axe
Axe
The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol...
blade suddenly comes loose and hits his daughter across the face, leaving a deep gash which runs from her nose all the way down her left cheek.
The 25-year-old Violet, terribly scarred from her injury, is at a Greyhound bus station, boarding the bus ("Surprised"). Her destination is a televangelist in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
, that she has been watching on television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
for years. Being a strong believer in God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
, she believes that the televangelist will be able to make a direct connection from her to God and make her scar disappear. On the bus, she meets an old woman who is heading to Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
to visit her son, "who works in the cellophane plant". Violet eyes the woman's pale unblemished skin with envy and thinks about the things that she would like to ask the televangelist to change about herself ("On My Way").
While the bus makes a stop ("M&Ms"), Violet meets two soldiers: the attractive, womanizing Monty, and Flick, who is African-American. Because the story takes place in 1964, during the Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
, Flick is often discriminated against during the journey. Violet sits down with them and they play five card draw . Simultaneously, a flashback shows Young Violet carrying groceries into the house. Her father is upset with her because she is short on change. "That's the third time this month you've let them shortchange you at the store! I thought they was supposed to learn you 'rithmetic in school." In attempt to teach her how to add and subtract, he teaches her how to play poker
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
. ("Luck of the Draw")
Violet and the soldiers decide to travel with each other until they have to go their separate ways. At a bus stop in Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, Violet plans to spend the night with some relatives she barely knows. "I have their number in my suitcase," she claims. Unfortunately, her suitcase is stolen by some mechanics after they verbally attack Flick for being black, so Flick suggests that she spend the night at an old friend's small hotel. Violet, originally reluctant, decides that this is the best idea. After settling into their room, they go to a dance hall
Dance hall
Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for dancing. From the earliest years of the twentieth century until the early 1960s, the dance hall was the popular forerunner of the discothèque or nightclub...
for a night on the town ("Lonely Stranger"). Violet and Monty dance together, and Flick shows signs of jealousy.
After they party, Violet falls asleep in her hotel room as "Who'll Be The One if Not Me" plays (sung by the Jordanaires
The Jordanaires
The Jordanaires are an American vocal quartet, which formed as a gospel group in 1948. They are best known for providing vocal background for Elvis Presley, in live appearances and recordings from 1956 to 1972...
.) Monty comes in from his room and slips into her bed. A flashback shows Violet walking home from school, followed by Billy Dean Ellum. Billy Dean claims that he's never done "it" with a girl before. Back in the hotel, Monty falls asleep in Violet's lap and Violet sings to him. ("Lay Down Your Head")
Act II
The next morning, Flick reacts to Monty and Violet's budding relationship, and he and Violet argue ("Hard to Say Goodbye"). Back on the bus, Monty and Flick are preparing to say goodbye to Violet, as the next stop is hers. ("Promise Me, Violet") Violet departs the bus and enters the chapel where a rehearsal is being held for the next episode of the televangelist's show. ("Raise Me Up") Violet interrupts and asks the televangelist to help her, and has a flashback to the day she was injured and got her scar ("Down the Mountain"). The televangelist admits he can't fulfill her request, explaining the people he "heals" are so caught up in the excitement of his program, that they end up healing themselves. Violet, feeling confused and betrayed, turns viciously upon him, mocking him with his own routine ("Raise Me Up - Reprise").
She goes into a trance, imagining that she is having a conversation with her late father, begging him to confront his handiwork ("Look at Me"). He explains that he tried his hardest to be a good father, and assures her he never wanted to hurt her ("That's What I Could Do"). She comes out of her "trance" emotionally purged and, thinking she has been healed just as she had hoped ("Surprised - Reprise"), she gets on the next bus to where Monty and Flick are stationed ("M&Ms - Reprise").
She meets up with Monty and quickly realizes that she still has the scar running across her face. She is crushed, but Flick comforts her, showing her how much both of them have changed ("Promise Me, Violet - Reprise"). Monty goes off to fight in Vietnam while Flick and Violet start a new life together. ("Bring Me to Light")
Awards and nominations
Drama Desk Awards- Outstanding Actress (Musical) -- Lauren Ward (nominee)
- Outstanding Featured Actor (Musical) -- Michael McElroy (nominee)
- Outstanding Director (Musical) -- Susan Schulman (nominee)
- Outstanding Lyrics (nominee)
- Outstanding Music (nominee)
- Outstanding New Musical (nominee)
- Outstanding Orchestration (nominee)
Outer Critics Circle Award
Outer Critics Circle Award
The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on and Off-Broadway and were begun during the 1949-1950 theater season. The awards are decided upon by theater critics who review for out-of-town newspapers, national publications, and other media outlets...
- Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical (nominee)
Drama Critics' Circle Award
- Best Musical (winner)
Lucille Lortel Award
- Outstanding Musical (winner)
Obie
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
Award
- Special Citation, Jeanine Tesori (music)