Charlotte Sweet

Background

The musical was developed via a series of flukes. Juilliard trained composer Gerald Jay Markoe was seeking a lyricist when he contacted veteran Broadway producer and agent, Charles Abramson, whose name was the first one listed under "Agents" in the Yellow Pages. Abramson recommended Michael Colby. Colby and Markoe's first collaboration, a musical version of Jean Anouilh's Time Remembered (Léocadia), was given a staged reading, starring Maria Karnilova, at The Lyric Theatre of New York (off-off Broadway). Neal Newman, the company's artistic director, asked Colby and Markoe (both Jewish) to write a Christmas show for the company. The result was Ludlow Ladd, an all-sung, all-rhymed musical whose Dickensian plot unfolds through original Christmas carols. In the cast was a soprano recommended by Neal Newman: Mara Beckerman, whose unusually high voice impressed the writers. Colby and Markoe had such fun on that show, they decided to write a sequel spotlighting Mara Beckerman's high voice, and revolving around other holidays, St. Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve (A final Colby/Markoe musical in this trilogy, Happy Haunting, revolves around Halloween). As Colby and Markoe developed the first musical with Christmas carols, they frame-worked Charlotte Sweet around British music-hall turns (on the recommendation of comedian Elizabeth Wolynski, who also happened to be a photographer for Ludlow Ladd). Ultimately, Charlotte Sweet encompassed three forms of theatre most popular in Victorian England: melodrama, Gilbert & Sullivan style operetta, and music hall. The musical had several other influences. One was Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf—the musical's personalities are defined by their vocal types, just as animals were defined by musical instruments in Prokofiev's piece. Colby was also strongly inspired by the all-rhymed musical sequences of lyricists John LaTouche (The Golden Apple), E.Y. Harburg (The Wizard of Oz), and especially Lorenz Hart (Colby was researcher for the biography written by Hart's sister-in-law Dorothy Hart: Thou Swell, Thou Witty: The Life and Lyrics of Lorenz Hart). A final influence was the Fractured Fairy Tales cartoons of Jay Ward.

Production history

Charlotte Sweet began as an off-off Broadway showcase, playing 20 performances (April 13-May 1, 1982) at the Chernuchin Theatre/American Theatre of Actors. Receiving enthusiastic reviews, it was optioned by Power Productions/Stan Raiff, moving Off-Broadway on August 12, 1982 to the Westside Arts Center/Cheryl Crawford Theatre. It played 102 performances and 8 previews, closing November 7, 1982. With direction by Edward Stone and choreography by Dennis Dennehy, the musical featured Mara Beckerman, Alan Brasington, Merle Louise, Michael McCormick, Polly Pen, Christopher Seppe, Sondra Wheeler, and Nicholas Wyman. Merle Louise and Nicholas Wyman respectively took over for Virginia Seidel and Michael Dantuono, who were in the showcase. The cast album features original cast members as well as Jeff Keller, Lynn Eldredge, and Timothy Landfield (who succeeded Brasington, Wheeler, and Wyman).

Despite generally excellent reviews, enthusiastic audiences, and champions ranging from artist Al Hirschfeld to songwriter Leonard Cohen, the show's all-sung, all-rhymed format and whimsey didn't appeal to everyone. But it may have suffered most by opening a month before rival musical Little Shop of Horrors became the off-Broadway hit of the season. Charlotte Sweet has enjoyed various regional productions, including at the New American Theater (Rockford, IL) in repertory with Ludlow Ladd. Months after its closing, it was nominated for three Drama Desk Awards: "Outstanding Actress in a Musical" (Mara Beckerman), "Outstanding Music" (Gerald Jay Markoe), "Outstanding Lyrics" (Michael Colby).

Synopsis

Set in Victorian England, Charlotte Sweet spotlights Charlotte, a girl with one of the highest and most beautiful soprano voices in the world. Because of her father's debts, she is forced to leave Ludlow Ladd (her Liverpool sweetheart) and join Barnaby Bugaboo's Circus of Voices: a troupe of freak voices including low-voiced Katinka Bugaboo, fast-voiced Harry Host, bubble-voiced Cecily Macintosh, and Skitzy Scofield (with dual personalities & voices). Becoming the troupe's biggest sensation, Charlotte is mercilessly exploited by Barnaby until she has a vocal breakdown. Thereupon, Barnaby and his wife Katinka addict Charlotte to helium balloons in order to maintain her high notes. Only Ludlow Ladd can rescue her—in a scene full of surprises.

Musical numbers

Act I: At the Music Hall • Charlotte Sweet • A Daughter of Valentine's Day • Forever • Liverpool Sunset • Layers of Underwear • Quartet Agonistes• Forever (Reprise) • The Circus of Voices • Keep It Low • Bubbles In Me Bonnet • Vegetable Reggie • My Baby and Me • A-Weaving • Your High Note! • Katinka/The Darkness

Act Two: On It Goes • You See In Me a Bobby • A Christmas Bûche • The Letter (Me Charlotte Dear) • Dover • Volley of Indecision • Good Things Come • It Could Only Happen In the Theatre • Lonely Canary • Queenly Comments • Surprise! Surprise! • The Reckoning • Farewell to Auld Lang Syne/Finale

Recording

The Original Production Cast Recording (1983) was released by John Hammond Records and reissued by DRG Records.