Welcome to the Musicals Thread, the Avocado’s space for anything and everything related to musical theatre! Every month I’ll post a discussion prompt, but please feel free to comment on other topics, from new discoveries to old favorites. If you have ideas for future prompts or would like to write a feature for the thread, let me know!
Following arguably their greatest hit, Fiddler on the Roof, composer Jerry Bock and lyricist Sheldon Harnick collaborated on The Apple Tree, which was actually three musicals in one, each based on a short story: Mark Twain’s “The Diaries of Adam and Eve”, Frank R. Stockton’s “The Lady, or the Tiger?”, and Jules Feiffer’s “Passionella”, presented one after the other. This unconventional format was prompted by the rise of television and the shortened attention spans it was feared it would create in audiences.
Other shows, before and after The Apple Tree, have combined multiple mini-narratives into a full-length runtime. The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!) is five variations on the same premise in the styles of different theatre composers. Seussical weaves together the plots of Dr. Seuss’s children’s books. Even Bock and Harnick’s own Fiddler was based on a collection of stories by Sholem Aleichem that had to be shaped into the book of the musical we know today.
What do you think – were the Apple Tree creators on to something? Do you generally find musicals to be too long, too short, just right, etc.? I know, for instance, that’s one of the concerns when adapting shows for children to perform, but as a kid I always felt a little insulted that our school was putting on the “junior” version, not the “real” one.
Are there any shorter works of art you think would work well as a musical – either presented on their own like the segments in The Apple Tree or combined like in Seussical? I haven’t read all of J.D. Salinger’s Glass family stories yet, but from what I do know of them they could possibly make a compelling drama, with plenty of opportunity for clever, sophisticated lyrics and deep introspection.