Production history
Chicago, 2001
Chita Rivera was signed as Lansbury's replacement and the musical, directed by Frank Galati and choreographed by Ann Reinking, was staged with Rivera and John McMartin by the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, opening on October 1, 2001. [2] Galati said that because of the September 11, 2001 attacks the show did not move to Broadway: "It was generally a success, but we couldn't get anyone from New York or California to see it. People weren't flying." In that climate, he says, "the whole idea of moving a very dark parable about human greed, the dark side of human nature," was difficult. Reinking said: "By the time you really could travel and people felt safe again, our run was up." [3] [4] Regional theatre productions were considered as an alternative, while McNally rewrote the book. Then, in late 2003, The Public Theater announced it was mounting an off-Broadway production with Rivera and Frank Langella early the following year, but that too was cancelled when financing fell through. [5]
Signature Theatre, 2008
The Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia production of The Visit, began previews on May 13, 2008, officially opened on May 27 and ran through June 22. With direction by Frank Galati and choreography by Ann Reinking, Rivera was once again in the lead, with co-stars George Hearn and Mark Jacoby. [6] [7] Prior to this production, a closed reading was held on February 19, 2008, with, among others, Jayne Houdyshell, Florence Lacey, and Jason Danieley, joining Rivera, Hearn and Mark Jacoby. [8]
Williamstown Theatre Festival, 2014
A one-act version appeared at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, (Massachusetts) running from July 31, 2014, to August 17. The cast featured Chita Rivera, Jason Danieley, Judy Kuhn, Roger Rees, Diana DiMarzio, David Garrison, Michelle Veintimilla and Rick Holmes, with direction by John Doyle and choreography by Graciela Daniele. [10] [11] [12] Music direction was by David Loud, who has served as music director for each incarnation of the show.
Broadway, 2015
The "one-act" version of The Visit which was presented at the Williamstown Theatre Festival began Broadway previews on March 26, 2015, and premiered on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre on April 23, 2015. Chita Rivera and Roger Rees, in his final stage performance, starred, with direction by John Doyle and choreography by Graciela Daniele. [13] The production closed on June 14, 2015. [14] Tom Nelis took over the role of Anton when Rees became ill. [15]
Synopsis
Act I
"The citizens of Brachen are awaiting the visit of their very own Claire Wascher, now Claire Zachanassian, the oft-widowed, richest woman in the world. It's been a lifetime's absence during which they have fallen into utter bankruptcy. In anticipation of this visit, Anton Shell, a once prosperous shop keeper, remembers himself and Claire as young lovers ("Prelude"). The Mayor and the School Master have prepared a special welcome for their distinguished visitor ("Out of the Darkness"). All Brachen marvels at their visitor's glamorous, bejeweled presence ("At Last"). Claire explains the reason for it ("I Walk Away"). Her warm greeting to Anton makes the Mayor realize that Anton is the key to asking Claire to relieve them from their misery. Anton is confident he can ("I Know Claire"). He leaves to rendezvous with Claire and their old trysting place, Konrad's Village Wood, while the others exult in their good fortune. Only the School Master has forebodings about her visit ("A Happy Ending"). Alone in the woods, the two old lovers and their younger selves reminisce ("You, You, You"). Anton is convinced that she will be their salvation ("I Must Have Been Something"). Everyone prepares for the gala banquet that evening at the Golden Apostle Hotel in Claire's honor ("Look at Me"). The Mayor and the citizens tell Claire of their inexplicable decline from prosperity to utter bankruptcy ("A Masque"). Claire then recounts her version of events, which differs considerably from theirs ("Eunuch's Testimony"). In exchange for rescuing them from financial calamity, she asks for the life of Anton Shell ("Winter"). The Mayor expresses outrage but the seeds have been planted ("Yellow Shoes").
Act II
Claire reveals that it is she herself who destroyed Brachen's once booming economy ("A Confession"). She is resolute in her terms: Anton's death. Claire's entourage, her Butler and two Eunuchs, swear eternal fealty to her ("I Would Never Leave You"). Alone in the attic above his shop, Anton wrestles with his fears ("Back and Forth"). The School Master visits Anton and tells him how the village is turning against him ("The Only One"). Anton struggles with his conscience ("Fear"). Embracing his fate and at peace with himself, he invites family for a drive in his son's new automobile, bought, like everything else in Brachen now, on credit ("A Car Ride"). Knowing Anton will join her in their old trysting place, Claire reflects on the incidents that have brought her to this moment in her life ("Love and Love Alone"). The lovers meet for a last time to discuss their whole past, including a child who died, before the town meeting that will decide Anton's fate ("In the Forest Again"). Agreeing to the terms, the townspeople murder Anton, with the town doctor recording that he "died of joy." The visit over, Claire tells her butler, "Rudi, get the bags packed. We are going to Capri" ("Finale").
Critical reaction
In reviewing the 2008 Signature Theatre production, Peter Marks of The Washington Post wrote that it is an "admirable if not consistently embraceable musical", and that it "comes across as something short of electrifying with the addition of song and dance." He wrote that the score is"...a melodically cohesive web of Middle European waltzes and choral numbers that befit the cynical strands in the story and the formality of Swiss society." [17] Paul Harris of Variety wrote that it "offers much to admire, starting with an abundance of enjoyable melodies and clever lyrics from K&E...The radiant [Chita] Rivera offers a stylish performance as the aloof Claire, a woman eager to heap disdain on everyone she meets while guardedly avoiding remorse over the dirty plot against her only true love. She handles song and dance assignments with equal aplomb...[George] Hearn is equally credible...In its reincarnation, there is sufficient vitality, intrigue and entertaining music to make for a most satisfying "Visit." [18]
Reviews of the 2015 Broadway production were mixed. Ben Brantley of The New York Times praised Rivera's "command of the stage and her ability to find a concerto of feelings in what might have been a single-note role", and a score that "at its best has the flavor of darkest chocolate", but wrote that the musical "only rarely shakes off a stasis that suggests a carefully carved mausoleum frieze", and that its "blending of bitter and sweet isn’t easily digested". [19]
Kander and Ebb were a highly successful American songwriting team consisting of composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb. Known primarily for their stage musicals, which include Cabaret and Chicago, Kander and Ebb also scored several movies, including Martin Scorsese's New York, New York. Their most famous song is the theme song of that movie. Recorded by many artists, "New York, New York" became a signature song for Frank Sinatra. The team also became associated with two actresses, Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera, for whom they wrote a considerable amount of material for the stage, concerts and television.
John Harold Kander is an American composer, known largely for his work in the musical theater. As part of the songwriting team Kander and Ebb, Kander wrote the scores for 15 musicals, including Cabaret (1966) and Chicago (1975), both of which were later adapted into acclaimed films. He and Ebb also wrote the standard "New York, New York".
Fred Ebb was an American musical theatre lyricist who had many successful collaborations with composer John Kander. The Kander and Ebb team frequently wrote for such performers as Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera.
Chicago is a 1975 American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Chicago in the jazz age, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same title by playwright and one-time reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins about actual criminals and crimes on which she reported. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal".
Terrence McNally was an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. Described as "the bard of American theater" and "one of the greatest contemporary playwrights the theater world has yet produced," McNally was the recipient of five Tony Awards. He won the Tony Award for Best Play for Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class and the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime, and received the 2019 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1996, and he also received the Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and the Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the highest recognition of artistic merit in the United States. His other accolades included an Emmy Award, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, four Drama Desk Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, two Obie Awards, and three Hull-Warriner Awards.
The Visit is a 1956 tragicomic play by Swiss dramatist Friedrich Dürrenmatt.
Lynn Ahrens is an American writer and lyricist for the musical theatre, television and film. She has collaborated with Stephen Flaherty for many years. She won the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for the Broadway musical Ragtime. Together with Flaherty, she has written many musicals, including Lucky Stiff, My Favorite Year, Ragtime, Seussical, A Man of No Importance, Dessa Rose, The Glorious Ones, Rocky, Little Dancer and, recently on Broadway, Anastasia and Once on This Island.
Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero, known professionally as Chita Rivera, was an American actress, singer, and dancer. Rivera received numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, and a Drama League Award. She was the first Latina and the first Latino American to receive a Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. She won the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2018.
Roger Rees was a Welsh actor and director, widely known for his stage work. He won an Olivier Award and a Tony Award for his performance as the lead in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. He also received Obie Awards for his role in The End of the Day and as co-director of Peter and the Starcatcher. Rees was posthumously inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in November 2015.
George Hearn is an American actor and bass-baritone singer, primarily in Broadway musical theatre.
Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life is a musical revue based on the life of Chita Rivera, with a book by Terrence McNally, original songs by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, and additional songs from various other composers' catalogs. It earned Rivera her ninth Tony Award nomination.
The Rink is a musical with a book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and music by John Kander, the tenth Kander and Ebb collaboration.
Marin Joy Mazzie was an American actress and singer known for her work in musical theatre.
Kiss of the Spider Woman is a musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Terrence McNally. It is based on Manuel Puig's novel of the same name. Directed by Harold Prince, the musical had runs in Toronto (1992), the West End (1992-93) and Broadway (1993) and won the 1993 Tony Award for Best Musical, as well as acting awards for all three principals in the cast.
Frank Joseph Galati was an American director, writer, and actor. He was a member of Steppenwolf Theatre Company and an associate director at Goodman Theatre. He taught at Northwestern University for many years.
Jason D. Danieley is an American actor, singer, concert performer and recording artist. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and was married to fellow performer Marin Mazzie.
The 38th Annual Tony Awards were held on June 3, 1984, at the Gershwin Theatre and broadcast by CBS television. Hosts were Julie Andrews and Robert Preston.
The Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography celebrate outstanding dance and choreography in theatre, both on Broadway and Off-Broadway and in film at an annual ceremony in New York City at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Now carrying the namesake of two-time Tony-winning dance icon Chita Rivera, The Rivera Awards will be presented under the auspices of American Dance Machine, an organization dedicated to the preservation of great musical-theater choreography.
Kid Victory is a musical with the story by John Kander and Greg Pierce, and music by John Kander, book and lyrics by Greg Pierce, co-produced by Vineyard Theatre and Signature Theatre.
Thomas Joseph Kirdahy is an American Tony and Olivier Award-winning theatrical producer, film producer, lawyer, and activist.
