The history and evolution of the show are extraordinarily complex, with numerous different versions and recordings.[1] After a 1999 workshop in New York City, the musical was produced in Chicago and Washington, D.C. in 2003 under the title Bounce. Although it did not achieve much success it is notable due to the fact it is the last collaboration between writer-director duo Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince. A revised version of the musical premiered Off-Broadway in New York in October 2008 where the show was redubbed Road Show.
Background
Addison and Wilson Mizner both died in 1933. Interest in their colorful lives as dramatic/musical subjects began with the 1952 publication of The Last Resorts, by Cleveland Amory. Irving Berlin was a friend of Addison, and referred to Wilson as "my pal."[2][3] He began work on a musical called The Mizner Story. It was not completed; a partial manuscript is in the Library of Congress. After the 1953 publication of Alva Johnston's The Legendary Mizners he returned to the project and completed Wise Guy. It was never produced, though songs from it have been published and recorded.
At about the same time, Sondheim began work on a musical based on The Last Resorts, which he discussed with Oscar Hammerstein. In 1956 David Merrick, "for purposes of comparison, sent Sondheim a script by Sam Behrman of Irving Berlin's unproduced musical." Sondheim set his idea aside.[4] Three songs from it ("Pour le Sport", "High Life", and "I Wouldn't Change a Thing") have been published in The almost unknown Stephen Sondheim.[5]
Rewritten and given the new title Bounce, the show opened on June 20, 2003 at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. The production was directed by Harold Prince, with choreography by Michael Arnold, set design by Eugene Lee, costume design by Miguel Angel Huidor, lighting design by Howell Binkley, and hair design by David H. Lawrence. The cast starred Richard Kind (Addison Mizner), Howard McGillin (Wilson Mizner), Jane Powell (Mama Mizner), Herndon Lackey (Papa Mizner/Businessman/Englishman/Plantation Owner/Armstrong/Real Estate Owner), Gavin Creel (Hollis Bessemer), and Michele Pawk (Nellie).[7] This production reunited Sondheim with longtime collaborator Prince for the first time since the disastrous original Broadway production of Merrily We Roll Along in 1981.[8]
The musical then ran at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in October and November 2003 with the Chicago cast. It received mixed–to–negative reviews and was not produced in New York.[9][10][11] A private reading of Bounce was held at the Public Theater on February 6, 2006. Playbill reported that Eric Schaeffer directed, with Richard Kind and Bernadette Peters among the cast.[12]
A new production of the musical, now titled Road Show, rewritten without an intermission and without the leading female character of Nellie (who had been added for 2003 production), opened Off-Broadway at The Public Theater's Newman Theater in previews on October 28, 2008, officially opening on November 18, and closing December 28, 2008. The director/designer was John Doyle, who had become known for critically-acclaimed Broadway revivals of Sweeney Todd (in 2005) and Company (2006); it starred Michael Cerveris and Alexander Gemignani playing brothers Wilson and Addison Mizner respectively, Alma Cuervo as Mama, Claybourne Elder as Hollis, and William Parry as Papa.[13][14][15] This production won the 2009 Obie Award for Music and Lyrics.[16] and the Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Lyrics (Sondheim).[17]
The title changes reflect attempts by the creators to hone the show's story and themes. "Ideally the title is connected to what we hope the show is about," Weidman said.[18]
The U.S. regional premiere opened at Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston, Texas on May 22, 2013, directed by Kenn McLaughlin. The cast featured Tom Frey and L. Jay Meyer, playing Wilson and Addison Mizner, respectively, along with Susan Shofner as Mama, Jimmy Phillips as Papa, and Michael McClure as Hollis. Rounding out the cast were Cameron Bautsch, Bridget Bierne, Hunter Frederick, Sarah Myers, Amanda Parker, Amanda Passanante, Tom Prior, and Brandon Whitley.[20]
In the workshop, then titled Wise Guys, the show was framed as a vaudeville act, with Wilson and Addison opening the show with the title song, in the style of vaudeville comics, a theme that recurred over the show. The tone was meant to be similar to the Road to ... films starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. There was an additional song for Mama Mizner called "Brothers", and a song for Wilson called "Stay Right Where You Are", in which he seduces his future wife. Addison had a song in Act II sung to a sick Wilson called, "Make it Through the Night." This version dealt with Addison's real-life business partner Paris Singer; however, the writers soon decided to deal more openly with Addison's sexuality, and the character of Hollis Bessemer was created.[23][full citation needed] Eventually, the vaudeville concept was dropped, and the overall tone of the show became less comic.
In the later stage version, then titled Bounce, the character of Wilson's wife was developed into a secondary lead called Nellie. Wilson first meets her in a saloon in Alaska, where she seduces him with the song "What's Your Rush?". They re-encounter each other in New York, Nellie having become rich on the brothers' gold claim, and they marry after the song "The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened". She divorces him when his enterprises interfere with their love life. The brothers meet her again in Florida, where she joins in the Boca Raton scheme. After this fails, she leaves with Hollis to find her next opportunity. In Road Show, her character was again reduced to Wilson's marriage to her in Act I.
For Road Show, Sondheim rewrote the opening number "Bounce" as "Waste," to reflect a darker tone. He added an additional song, "Brotherly Love," for the Mizners, and rewrote "The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened" as a duet for Addison and Hollis.
Plot of Road Show
After the 1933 death of Addison Mizner, people who knew him, including his estranged lover Hollis Bessemer, comment on his life and the way he squandered his talents ("Waste"). Addison's younger brother Wilson appears and speaks to Addison, who angrily claims that Wilson was the cause of all his failures. The time shifts to Papa Mizner's death in California at the beginning of the twentieth century. On his deathbed, Papa charges his sons with the task of using their gifts to shape America ("It's In Your Hands Now"), telling them that there's a "road" to follow. Mama Mizner reveals the family's wealth has been eaten away by Papa's long illness and advises the boys to seek gold in Alaska; Addison is reluctant, but goes along with Wilson anyway ("Gold!").
In the Klondike, the brothers share a sleeping bag and reminisce about their childhood ("Brotherly Love"). Wilson leaves to get supplies while Addison works the claim. Wilson is lured into a game of poker. Addison is shocked to discover his brother gambling. Wilson explains his newfound love of taking risks regardless of what's at stake ("The Game"). Wilson stakes their gold claim in a poker game and wins the saloon in which the game is taking place. (This episode is fictitious.) A shade of Papa Mizner appears and tells Addison that this was not what he had in mind for his sons.
Addison leaves in disgust with his share of Wilson's winnings and travels around the world searching for business opportunities and a sense of purpose ("Addison's Trip"). All of his ventures fail due to bad luck. He is left with nothing but souvenirs that inspire him to take up architecture (so he can design a house in which to show them off). Wilson's businesses in Alaska also have failed, so he comes south to seek his brother's help. Wilson seduces and marries Addison's first client, a rich widow, and fritters away her money on various flashy endeavours, including fixed boxing matches and horse races ("That Was A Year").
Although Wilson's various partners lose money, they remain fond of him because of the verve and energy with which he lives. Even Mama Mizner, who is being looked after by Addison and never receives any visits from Wilson, enjoys reading about Wilson's exploits, saying that she can live through him ("Isn't He Something!"). Only Addison remains uncharmed by Wilson, and when Wilson finally comes back, his resources exhausted, he finds that Mama has died in his absence. Addison angrily throws Wilson out of the house.
Learning of rising property interests in Florida ("Land Boom!"), Addison decides to travel to Palm Beach to take advantage of the many rich people settling there who need houses built. (In reality, Mizner went there for his health.) On the train he meets the fictitious Hollis Bessemer, with whom he is smitten instantly. Hollis is the son of a wealthy industrialist, cut off by his father for refusing to enter the family business. His real passion is art, and although he is not talented, he dreams of creating an artist colony in Palm Beach with the help of his aunt, who is staying there in a hotel ("Talent").
Addison shows Hollis's aunt a plan for a house he proposes to build for her. Impressed, she agrees and offers to sponsor Hollis's artist colony. However, Hollis and Addison, now lovers, are too busy designing resort homes for the rich ("You") and enjoying each other's company ("The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened") to follow up on Hollis's original plan. Wilson arrives at Hollis's and Addison's house, destitute and sick ("The Game [Reprise]"). Addison reluctantly takes him in, and when Wilson has recovered, he begins to work on Hollis, persuading him to be a patron to his newest scheme: to build a brand new city in Boca Raton with Wilson as promoter and Addison as chief architect ("Addison's City").
Wilson's con man instincts resurface. He promotes the Boca Raton real estate scheme with increasingly extravagant and eventually fraudulent claims, creating a price bubble ("Boca Raton"). Addison goes along, until it is Hollis who finally puts a stop to the real-estate scheme. He asks Addison to choose between Wilson and him. Addison, brought to a state of desperation, drives Hollis away by claiming he never loved him. Addison also orders Wilson out of his life ("Get Out"), but Wilson insists Addison loves him too much ("Go"). Addison agrees, but still wants him to go.
Wilson leaves for good, but not quite, for in the finale (as in the first scene) all the characters leave the stage except for Wilson and Addison. At this point, Wilson realizes that he, too, has died. The brothers bicker half-heartedly, their differences no longer mattering enough to keep them apart. Confronted by their father, they shrug off his criticisms and the brothers set out together on the road to eternity—or, as Wilson calls it, "the greatest opportunity of all". "Sooner or later", he says, "we're bound to get it right."
Historical liberties
Sometimes the musical is mistaken as a faithful portrayal of the lives of the two brothers; this is not quite the case. Sondheim's interest in the brothers' story came from The Legendary Mizners, written by Alva Johnston, which Sondheim admits was an "exaggerated biography" and Johnston a "fanciful reporter".[23][pageneeded] The exaggerated tone was also kept because Sondheim and Weidman felt it suited the two brothers' attitudes in their own writings, such as Wilson's screenplays and Addison's autobiography.[further explanation needed]
While Addison was an architect and Wilson a con man, among other things, Hollis Bessemer is fictitious. In early workshops the character was based on Addison's real-life friend Paris Singer, but Singer was not a homosexual and was not Addison's lover. In the workshopped Wise Guys, Addison's sexuality was only hinted at, but Sondheim and Weidman decided they had to address it more openly, and so the character of Hollis was created to give him a love interest. As Sondheim put it, "We wanted to take liberties with our characters, but not misrepresent them. Or be sued by Singer's descendants."[23]:234
Wilson's role in the Boca Raton fiasco is exaggerated, and while he did marry a rich widow, who quickly divorced him, she had not been a client of Addison. Addison never blamed Wilson for all his problems. Mama Mizner was not behind the gold mining adventure by her sons. While Addison did travel considerably, it was not around the world, and it was not the case that part of it was a string of businesses. Addison's alleged decision to become an architect so as to build a house for his souvenirs is colorful, but fictitious.
Wise Guys and Bounce stuck more closely to the facts of the brothers' lives, including references to their other siblings, their father's successful career, and Wilson's New York period, but Sondheim and Weidman decided these facts held back the story with what Sondheim called "interesting and irrelevant information". "In our attempt to cover every colorful incident in the Mizners' lives we were shortchanging the emotional content of the material: the convoluted love story between the brothers and with their parents."[23]:191
Musical numbers
As presented in the 1997 Wise Guys reading
Act I
First Vaudeville - Wilson and Addison
Benicia - Mama and Ensemble
My Two Young Men - Mama
Gold! - Prospector, Wilson, Addison, Mama, and Ensemble
Second Vaudeville - Wilson and Addison
Next to You - Wilson, Addison, and Mama
Addison's Trip - Addison and Ensemble
Dowagers - Addison
The Good Life - Wilson
The Game - Wilson
Journalists - Wilson
What's Next? - Wilson
The Game (reprise) - Wilson
What's Next? (reprise) - Wilson and Ensemble
Third Vaudeville - Wilson and Addison
What's Next? (reprise) - Addison
I'm on My Way (reprise) - Addison
Act II
Fourth Vaudeville - Wilson and Addison
Palm Beach Sequence - Addison, Paris and Ensemble
Fifth Vaudeville - Addison, Paris, and Wilson
Boca Raton Sequence - Ensemble
Get Out of My Life/Go - Wilson and Addison
Final Vaudeville - Wilson and Addison
As presented in the 1999 Wise Guys workshop
Act I
Wise Guys - Addison and Wilson
It's in Your Hands - Papa Mizner
My Two Young Men - Mama Mizner
Gold - Prospector
You and Me Together - Wilson
The Game - Wilson
Wise Guys (reprise) - Addison and Wilson
Next to You - Addison and Wilson
Addison's Trip (On My Way) - Addison and Ensemble
Stay Right Where You Are - Wilson and Myra
That Was a Year - Wilson and Ensemble
A Little House for Mama - Addison
Isn't He Something? - Mama Mizner
Wise Guys (reprise) - Addison and Wilson
Act II
Talent - Paris Singer
You - Addison and Paris
Make It Through the Night - Addison
Wise Guys (reprise) - Addison, Wilson and Paris
Boca Raton - Wilson, Addison, Ensemble
It's in Your Hands Now - Wilson, Addison, Ensemble
Addison's Trip (Around the World) – Addison, Salesman, Guatemalans, Servants
The Best Thing That Ever Happened – Wilson, Nellie
I Love This Town - Wilson, Nellie, Addison, and Company
Alaska – Mrs. Yerkes, Wilson §
New York Sequence - Wilson, Nellie, Reporters, Photographer, Ketchel, Armstrong, Jockey, Gamblers, Policeman, Wilson's Women §
Isn't He Something? – Mama
Bounce (Reprise) – Addison, the cast.
Act II
The Game – Addison, Nellie, Wilson, Promoter
Talent – Hollis
You – Addison, Hollis, Aristocrats
Addison's City – Hollis, Wilson, Nellie, Addison
Get Rich Quick - Company
Boca Raton – Boca Girl, Sportsmen, Fashion Models, Yachtsmen, Caruso, Salvador Dalí, Wilson, Addison, Nellie, Hollis, Prospector, Varmints, Bobby Jones, Mae West, Princess Ghika, Chorus §
Last Fight – Addison, Wilson
Bounce (Reprise) – Wilson, Addison
§ In Chicago production, not in Kennedy Center
As presented in 2008 as Road Show, performed in one act
Waste – Full Company
It's in Your Hands Now – Papa
Gold! – Full Company
Brotherly Love – Addison, Wilson
The Game – Wilson
Addison's Trip – Full Company
That Was a Year – Full Company
Isn't He Something! – Mama
Land Boom! – Real Estate Agent
Talent – Hollis
You – Full Company
The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened – Addison, Hollis
The Game (Reprise) – Wilson
Addison's City – Addison, Hollis, Wilson
Boca Raton – Full Company
Get Out – Addison
Go – Wilson
Finale – Addison, Wilson
Critical response
Referring to the 2003 Bounce productions, TheaterMania noted the "brace of mixed-to-negative reviews has all but assured that this production of Bounce will not be coming to New York."[9] In November 2003, The New York Times reported "the show, which received lukewarm reviews in two tryout runs, is not coming to Broadway anytime soon."[24]
Ben Brantley, in his New York Times review of the 2003 Kennedy Center production, said "[It] never seems to leave its starting point...Mr. Kind and Mr. McGillin execute this self-introduction [title song] charmingly, translating wryness and ruefulness into a breezy soft-shoe sensibility. But in a sense, when they have finished the song they have already delivered the whole show...Bounce, which features the vibrant Michele Pawk as a zestful gold digger (of both Klondike and jazz-age varieties) and Jane Powell as the Mizners' mother, only rarely kicks into a higher gear than the one that gently propels the opening duet...their trajectory feels as straight and flat as a time line in a history book. The bounce in Bounce is never very high...Much of the music, while whispering of earlier, more flashily complex Sondheim scores, has a conventional surface perkiness that suggests a more old-fashioned, crowd-pleasing kind of show than is this composer's wont. But his extraordinary gift for stealthily weaving dark motifs into a brighter musical fabric is definitely in evidence, mellifluously rendered in the peerless Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations."[25]
Brantley, in his review of the 2008 production, praised Cerveris and Gemignani, but declares that, "The problem is that this musical's travelogue structure precludes its digging deep. It hints at dark and shimmering glories beneath the surface that it never fully mines. Like its leading characters, 'Road Show' doesn’t quite know what to do with the riches at its disposal."[26]
Recordings
An original cast recording of the 2003 version (then titled Bounce) was released on May 4, 2004 by Nonesuch Records.[27]
An original cast recording of the 2008 Public Theater production was released June 30, 2009 by PS Classics and Nonesuch Records.[28]
Related Research Articles
Stephen Joshua Sondheim was an American composer and lyricist. Regarded as one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, he is credited with reinventing the American musical. With his frequent collaborators Harold Prince and James Lapine, Sondheim's Broadway musicals tackled unexpected themes that ranged beyond the genre's traditional subjects, while addressing darker elements of the human experience. His music and lyrics are tinged with complexity, sophistication, and ambivalence about various aspects of life.
Assassins is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by John Weidman, based on an original concept by Charles Gilbert Jr.
John Weidman is an American librettist and television writer for Sesame Street. He has worked on stage musicals with Stephen Sondheim and Susan Stroman.
Addison Cairns Mizner was an American architect whose Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival style interpretations changed the character of southern Florida, where the style is continued by architects and land developers. During the 1920s Mizner was perhaps the best-known living American architect. Palm Beach, Florida, which he "transformed", was his home, and most of his houses are there. He believed that architecture should also include interior and garden design, and initiated the company Mizner Industries to have a reliable source of components. He was "an architect with a philosophy and a dream". Boca Raton, Florida, an unincorporated small farming town that was established in 1896, became the site of Mizner's most famous development project.
George Hearn is an American actor and bass-baritone singer, primarily in Broadway musical theatre.
Michael Cerveris Jr. is an American actor, singer, and guitarist. He has performed in many stage musicals and plays, including several Stephen Sondheim musicals: Assassins, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Sunday in the Park with George, Road Show, and Passion. In 2004, Cerveris won the Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Assassins as John Wilkes Booth. In 2015, he won his second Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical for Fun Home as Bruce Bechdel.
Alexander Cesare Gemignani is a Broadway actor, tenor, musician, and conductor. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in Carousel and a Drama Desk Award for his performance in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Howard McGillin is an American actor. He is known for originating the role of John Jasper in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1985) and for portraying the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera from 1999 to 2009 on Broadway.
Wilson Mizner was an American playwright, raconteur, and entrepreneur. His best-known plays are The Deep Purple, produced in 1910, and The Greyhound, produced in 1912. He was manager and co-owner of the restaurant The Brown Derby in Los Angeles, California, and was part of the failed project of his older brother Addison to create a new resort in Boca Raton, Florida. He and Addison are the protagonists of Stephen Sondheim's musical Road Show.
Gary Griffin is an American theater director.
John Doyle is a Scottish stage director of musicals and plays, as well as operas. He served as artistic director at several regional theatres in the United Kingdom, where he staged more than 200 professional productions during his career spanning over 40 years.
Merrily We Roll Along is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by George Furth. It is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.
Christopher Cantwell Fitzgerald is an American actor and singer. He is known for his role as Boq in the musical Wicked, Igor in the musical Young Frankenstein, and Ogie Anhorn in the musical Waitress. He earned Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk Award, and Tony Award nominations for his performances in Waitress and Young Frankenstein and won the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for his performance in Waitress.
Norm Lewis is an American actor and baritone singer. He has appeared on Broadway and in London'sWest End, film, television, recordings and regional theatre. He’s also noted for his wide vocal range. Lewis was the second African-American actor after Robert Guillaume to perform in the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera and the first one to do so in the Broadway production. In 2023, he reprised the role in the show's sequel, Love Never Dies, in the West End.
Matthew Stocke is an American stage and television actor. His hometown is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He moved to New York City in 1996 as he began his professional career and educational company. He graduated from the Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts in 1995 with a BFA in Acting/Musical Theatre, where he occasionally returns as a guest instructor.
Michael Jibson is an English actor, director, writer and voice over artist. He was the winner of the 2018 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical, for his role of King George III in Hamilton. He was nominated for the 2003 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical, for Our House.
Sondheim on Sondheim is a musical revue consisting of music and lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim for his many shows. It is conceived and directed by James Lapine. The revue had a limited run on Broadway in 2010.
Jim Walton is an American actor, most notable for his leading performance in the original production of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along as Franklin Shephard.
Claybourne Elder is an American actor, singer, and writer who is best known for his work on television and on Broadway.
Wise Guy, which had at different points the working titles The Last Resorts, Palm Beach, The Mizner Story, and Sentimental Guy, is a musical whose music and lyrics were written by Irving Berlin between 1952 and 1956. It has never been produced.
References
↑ Hutchins, Michael (April 23, 2014), "Road Show", Stephen Sondheim Reference Guide
↑ Sondheim, Stephen; Weidman, John (2009), When the Black Sheep Returns to the Fold, Theatre Communications, ISBN9781559363419, OCLC726928457
↑ Sondheim, Stephen; Weidman, John (2009), My Melody Dream. A Song Poem, Theatre Communications, ISBN9781559363419, OCLC726909750
1 2 3 4 Sondheim, Stephen (2011). Look I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981-2011) with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes and Miscellany. Alfred A. Knopf. pp.181–185, 190ff. ISBN9780307593412.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
