| Zenda | |
|---|---|
 Original Cast Recording | |
| Music | Vernon Duke |
| Lyrics | Lenny Adelson Sid Kuller Martin Charnin |
| Book | Everett Freeman |
| Basis | Anthony Hope's novel The Prisoner of Zenda |
| Productions | 1963 Broadway cancelled |
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Zenda is a musical with a book by Everett Freeman, lyrics by Lenny Adelson, Sid Kuller, and Martin Charnin, and music by Vernon Duke.
Based on the 1894 Anthony Hope novel The Prisoner of Zenda , it sets the action in contemporary times and transforms the protagonist into British song-and-dance man Richard Rassendyl, who is invited to perform at the wedding of Princess Flavia and King Rudolph of Zenda. Rassendyl unknowingly is related to the King due to his grandmother's romantic escapades years before, and when his royal highness is incapacitated by a general who wishes to seize power, look-alike Rassendyl is recruited to impersonate him. Complications ensue when the imposter finds himself attracted to the bride-to-be and the king's mistress Athena makes her presence known. Hope's original ending was changed to allow the two pairs of star-crossed lovers to live happily ever after.
Theatre producer Edwin Lester commissioned the project specifically for Alfred Drake, who had starred in his production of Kismet a decade earlier. Directed by George Schaefer and choreographed by Jack Cole, The scenery was designed by Harry Horner, costumes by Miles White. It began its pre-Broadway tryout on August 5, 1963 at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, then continued to Los Angeles and Pasadena. In addition to Drake in the dual roles of Rassendyl and Rudolph, the cast included Anne Rogers as Flavia and Chita Rivera as Athena.
Scenically the production, designed by Harry Horner, was extremely involved with velour covered hard wall sets instead of typical muslin flats. The raised stage platform floor concealed tracks for the various platform wagon sets to be winched on and off stage. The village set, included left and right store facades with false perspective awnings, were stored, hanging in the off stage loft areas, allowing wing storage for the hard wall throne room (painted deep maroon color); a pink boudoir set; a garden set; and a Cathedral Rose stained glass window-wall with a central enlarged double Gothic arched doorway mounted on a six foot deep by thirty foot wide wagon platform. Staging the wedding scene, the couple began their walk at the rear of the stage on the Cathedral steps into the set. As the couple proceeded walking forward down to the foot-light apron, this massive Cathedral wall followed, moving with the couple to the middle of the stage. The audience never realized that the set was moving downstage with the performers. When the couple turned around, returning upstage, the cathedral wall slowly returned to the back wall position ending the wedding scene. This set wagon wall flew out and was stored against the Curran's stage back wall. In Los Angeles, this set piece was replaced with a painted velour framed backing. Harry Horner matched Miles White's costume color, for Princess Flavia's dressing gown robe, spraying the velour boudoir walls the identical costume's pink color. During rehearsals, White was angry with Horner because only the actress' head could be seen against the identical pink background.
The production required a large staff of stage technicians, flymen, and property crew for the major set changes. During the construction of the stage sets, the shop's minimum construction floor space limited and hindered by space for constructing all the wagon sets. The Light Opera rented film stages at the nearby (closed) Allied Artist Studios, located off Sunset Boulevard (KCET TV purchased the property afterwards). Only six blocks travel, carpenters and scenic artists assembled the scenery in two stages at the old film lot. Preparing the dry tint powder base paint for the throne room set, the Scenic charge man did not calculate the correct amount of "horse glue" binder for the dark maroon paint. Spraying the cream velour covered flats, after drying, the paint did not properly adhere to the velour flats. The paint flaked and stained the stage technicians' hands. Each piece of scenery had to have a muslin case for shipping, keeping the finish from marking and affecting the other pieces of scenery. When this set was handled, each stage technician had to wear gloves when the set was moved into place, or shifted off stage for storage. This set remained a problem throughout the tour. Another folding dimensional scenic arch unit, which had been intended to fold open, and collapse when flown into grid storage position returning into the loft storage areas, became an engineering nightmare. The scenic element, abandoned after two weeks, was replaced by a flat profile garden arch.
Reviews in all three cities ranged from mixed to positive, and the box office takes were promising.
Variety claimed the musical in San Francisco was "good and can become first rate." [1]
When Schaefer, who felt the show wasn't ready for Broadway, invited Samuel A. Taylor to revise the book, Freeman objected, claiming the problems lay not with his work but Schaefer's direction. One inherent problem that didn't exist in any of the film adaptations, and which neither writing nor staging could resolve, was Drake's inability to appear as both Rassendyl and Rudolph at the same time. (This did not appear to be a problem in the novel's first dramatisation in 1896; The Prisoner of Zenda opened as a play in the London's West End, co-written by the novel's author and a playwright called Edward Rose.) Schaefer quit the project and Drake quickly followed. The scheduled November 26 opening at the Mark Hellinger Theatre was cancelled, and the project never was revived.
Paint Your Wagon is a Broadway musical comedy, with book and lyrics by Alan J. Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story centers on a miner and his daughter and follows the lives and loves of the people in a mining camp in Gold Rush-era California. Popular songs from the show included "Wand'rin' Star", "I Talk to the Trees", and "They Call the Wind Maria".
Stagecraft is a technical aspect of theatrical, film, and video production. It includes constructing and rigging scenery; hanging and focusing of lighting; design and procurement of costumes; make-up; stage management; audio engineering; and procurement of props. Stagecraft is distinct from the wider umbrella term of scenography. Considered a technical rather than an artistic field, it is primarily the practical implementation of a scenic designer's artistic vision.
Theatrical scenery is that which is used as a setting for a theatrical production. Scenery may be just about anything, from a single chair to an elaborately re-created street, no matter how large or how small, whether the item was custom-made or is the genuine item, appropriated for theatrical use.
Set construction is the process undertaken by a construction manager to build full-scale scenery, as specified by a production designer or art director working in collaboration with the director of a production to create a set for a theatrical, film, or television production. The set designer produces a scale model, scale drawings, paint elevations, and research about props, textures, and so on. Scale drawings typically include a groundplan, elevation, and section of the complete set, as well as more detailed drawings of individual scenic elements which, in theatrical productions, may be static, flown, or built onto scenery wagons. Models and paint elevations are frequently hand-produced, though in recent years, many Production Designers and most commercial theatres have begun producing scale drawings with the aid of computer drafting programs such as AutoCAD or Vectorworks.
Scenic design, also known as stage design or set design, is the creation of scenery for theatrical productions including plays and musicals. The term can also be applied to film and television productions, where it may be referred to as production design. Scenic designers create sets and scenery to support the overall artistic goals of the production. Scenic design is an aspect of scenography, which includes theatrical set design as well as light and sound.
Rupert of Hentzau is a sequel by Anthony Hope to The Prisoner of Zenda, written in 1895 but not published in book form until 1898.
A flat or coulisse is a flat piece of theatrical scenery which is painted and positioned on stage so as to give the appearance of buildings or other background.
Harry Horner was a Czech-born American art director who made a successful career in Hollywood as an Oscar-winning art director and as a feature film and television director. He was the father of Academy Award-winning film composer James Horner.
Theater drapes and stage curtains are large pieces of cloth that are designed to mask backstage areas of a theater from spectators. They are designed for a variety of specific purposes, moving in different ways and constructed from various fabrics. Many are made from black or other darkly colored, light-absorbing material. Theater drapes represent a portion of any production's soft goods, a category comprising any non-wardrobe, cloth-based element of the stage or scenery. Theater curtains are often pocketed at the bottom to hold weighty chain or to accept pipes to remove their fullness and stretch them tight.
Greenwillow is a musical with a book by Lesser Samuels and Frank Loesser and music and lyrics by Loesser. The musical is set in the magical town of Greenwillow. It ran on Broadway in 1960.
The Prisoner of Zenda is a 1937 American black-and-white adventure film based on Anthony Hope's 1894 novel of the same name and the 1896 play. A lookalike has to step in when his royal distant relative is kidnapped to prevent his coronation. This version is widely considered the best of the many film adaptations of the novel and play.
The Prisoner of Zenda is a 1952 American Technicolor adventure film version of the 1894 novel of the same name by Anthony Hope and a remake of the 1937 sound version and the 1922 silent. This first color version, made by Loew's and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, was directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Pandro S. Berman. The film stars Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr, and James Mason, with Louis Calhern, Robert Douglas, Jane Greer, and Robert Coote in supporting roles.
There are different types of theatres, but they all have three major parts in common. Theatres are divided into two main sections, the house and the stage; there is also a backstage area in many theatres. The house is the seating area for guests watching a performance and the stage is where the actual performance is given. The backstage area is usually restricted to people who are producing or in the performance.
The Studio and Forum of Stage Design was an American training school for theatre designers that was started by scenic designer Lester Polakov in 1958 in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York.
In theatre, a platform is a stationary, standard flat walking surface for actors to perform on. Typically, they are built to be assembled modularly. They are often used to provide varying levels, to make a show more visually interesting. They are also used to separate areas on stage, and as seating bleachers. This is in contrast to scenery wagons, which are mobile platforms that are supported by casters instead of feet.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to stagecraft:
Sean Kenny was an Irish theatre and film scenic designer, costume designer, lighting designer and director.
Peter L. Feller was an American theatrical set builder who worked primarily on Broadway.
Theatre in the nineteenth century was noted for its changing philosophy, from the Romanticism and Neoclassicism that dominated Europe since the late 18th century, to Realism and Naturalism in the latter half of the 19th century, before it eventually gave way to the rise of Modernism in the 20th century. Scenery in theater at the time closely mirrored these changes and with the onslaught of the Industrial Revolution and technological advancement throughout the century, dramatically changed the aesthetics of the theater.
Theatre in the nineteenth century was noted for its changing philosophy from the Romanticism and Neoclassicism that dominated Europe since the late 18th century to Realism and Naturalism in the latter half of the 19th century before it eventually gave way to the rise of Modernism in the 20th century. Scenery in theater at the time closely mirrored these changes, and with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and technological advancement throughout the century, dramatically changed the aesthetics of the theater.