Peggy Gorham has served as musical director at 42nd St. Moon on "As Thousands Cheer", "A Connecticut Yankee", Nobody's Heart" and "I Married an Angel". She discusses the very special problems that arise when working with a "lost musical." "With regards to the work at 42nd St. Moon, it is difficult because we are dealing with questionable scores. When they arrive, there is often a great amount missing. There are alterations that have to be made. When you rent materials for old musicals, you never get a conductor's score that shows the breakdown of all the parts. Sometimes you have to create lost songs from old recordings. You're doing a lot of reconstructing, hopefully from a knowledge of the writer and the time period. You want to honor the original and maintain the integrity of the material as best you can. This is what it sounded like in 1927 - that's your wish, that's your goal. It gets tricky, because you have to manufacture sections that aren't there. Many songs were lost or cut out of town and need to be reinstated in the score."
She prefers the intimacy of small scale productions.
"The thing that I love when working on this material is the intimate quality, the lack of amplification as opposed to using miking. The small cast is much more manageable - there's not a feeling of separation. 'Here's the leads and here's the chorus.' It's very exposing, very vulnerable. You can't hide behind big footlights. You're right down there with the audience."
Although her experience as a musical director involves more Sondheim than Berlin, she thinks the shows of the past have a great deal to offer.
"I believe the shows of the '20s, '30s and '40s generally had superior music compared today. That's where the shows shine. I feel very fortunate to be on the musical end because as talented as some of the scripts are, the score is the primary reason for reviving them today."
"One could argue, 'Why do the shows at all? Why not just perform them in a nightclub or in a revue?' But there's something revealing about hearing the songs in context that casts new light on their meaning. The spoken dialogue creates a frame that heightens the impact of the songs that is similar to mixing prose and heightened speech. "
In the case of Rodgers and Hart with "I Married an Angel", they really coined the ballad in the modern sense of the word. Hart was a city boy and his lyrics tell of the trials and tribulations of single life in the big city. Art is a reflection of life and if it's good art, it's telling you something about the social practices of the time period. It gives you a perspective on history.Why do these songs still engage her?
"I enjoy the implausibility of musicals, the transcendence of reality. In the worst times, people looked to them as a way to cope. The idealism of musicals is important. I don't mean that you believe in unreality, but that you transcend that. They celebrate an aspect of life that is important to believe in".
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