For those who missed the 1954 opening of the Richard Bissell-George Abbott-Richard Adler-Jerry Ross classic — or the movie or the City Opera revival 17 years ago, The Pajama Game centers on Sorokin (played by Connick in his Broadway debut), who is caught in the middle of a factory union drive for a 7 1/2-cent hourly raise. That surely complicates his budding romance with Babe Williams (Kelli O'Hara, The Light in the Piazza), the pretty head of the grievance committee. It's also a conflict for Hinesy (Michael McKean, Hairspray), the buffoonish time-study executive and Gladys (Megan Lawrence, Urinetown), his no-nonsense girlfriend. Sid's motherly secretary, Mabel (Roz Ryan, One Mo' Time), provides him with the inside scoop on the company, and all ends happily when it's discovered that the raise has already been factored into everyone's paycheck.
Kathleen Marshall has created many happy endings, brightening productions of such musicals as Violet, Kiss Me, Kate, Seussical, Follies, and Little Shop of Horrors. She handled both direction and choreography for the hit revival of Wonderful Town, winning a Tony® Award for choreography. On top of that, from 1996 to 2000, Marshall was Artistic Director of City Center's Encores!, a series of musicals in concert — a good place to hone one's feel for great American tuners. Love of musicals (and talent) runs in the family: Her brother is director-choreographer Rob Marshall who after Broadway success that included co-directing Roundabout's Cabaret, turned to film, helming the Oscar-winning Chicago and the current Memoirs of a Geisha. Front & Center queried Ms. Marshall on her process, her influences, and how The Pajama Game is being re-fitted and re-tailored for this century without popping any of its original buttons.
It's helpful. I'd seen the movie way back, and I watched it again when I knew I was doing the show. I haven't really watched it since. You're right. It's a movie that, with the exception of Doris Day, starred most of the original Broadway cast and the same director — although it was co-directed by Stanley Donen and George Abbott — and had the same choreographer [Bob Fosse]. So a lot of those things are faithful to the theatre original.
Whenever I work on a revival or a new production of an existing show, I do the research. You always find out about the first production, whether there's a movie to watch or whether it's just looking at original production stills and listening to the original dance music and arrangements. Then you have to let that go and see what works for your production and the company you've assembled. We're doing all new dance arrangements. “Steam Heat” is sort of based on the original dance arrangement, but it takes it in a different direction. So is the soft-shoe for “I'll Never Be Jealous Again.” Then there are things like “Once a Year Day” and “Hernando's Hideaway” that go in a very different direction than the original arrangements.
Well, I can tell you that we're going to get Mr. Harry Connick Jr., to a piano at Hernando's Hideaway.
“When you're wearing two hats you actually have to be more collaborative, rather than less.”
Seems like a natural. Speaking of previous material, did you read 7 1/2 Cents?
Yes, I read the original novel. It's interesting, because there's a toughness and gruffness and bluntness to the characters that I love — probably tougher than what the musical was.
It's very salty for its time.
Salty and sultry and sexy.
I looked at the original libretto, and after reading it, I wondered if it wouldn't seem a little musty, in spots, to today's audiences. How do you freshen it up?
Peter Ackerman is doing some revisions on the book. We're taking the same structure, which is very sound — the story, these characters — and trying to freshen it up. We don't want to do anything anachronistic. I keep saying to Peter, we don't want any lines that couldn't have been written in 1954. And yet you basically want to give a modern audience that same feeling of seeing these smart, funny, sassy, sexy, tough characters. It means we have to tweak it just enough, since some of the words might mean something slightly different today. Some of the gruffness on Sid's part, which was probably more palatable in 1954, might make him a little unlikable today. So without changing his character too much, you want to make him attractive.
The character of Prez, in the original, was a married letch and he's going after all the girls. And that's just not very palatable to us today. It was funny then. We've adjusted that character — with Joy Abbott's permission and blessing — so now Prez is a mama's boy who lives with his mother, and that's why he can't get anywhere with the girls. We had to find another way in.
I also hear there's a new song.
There are a couple of new songs. In the second act we're restoring a song called “The World Around Us” which was in the show out of town. It's an Adler and Ross ballad for Sid — he's trying to win Babe back. In the original production, in the second act, Sid didn't have a song till right toward the end, a reprise of “There Once Was a Man.” So that seemed kind of out of proportion, especially when we have Harry Connick. Also in the second act, the “Hey There” reprise for Babe goes into a song called “If You Win, You Lose,” which Richard Adler wrote and which has been done in previous productions.
Have you talked to Mr. Adler?
Oh, yes. He's been involved every step of the way. We've had many meetings with him; he's been in on our casting sessions; and when we did our read-and-sing-through last Saturday, he was there listening to all of it. Over a year ago, when I was first working on the project, I was at Mr. Adler's house and he played this trunk song he had written for Jimmy Durante, called “The Three of Us,” which was never recorded. I listened to that and said, that sounds like a song for Hinesy to me. I said I wanted to use that because Hinesy and Gladys, who are a couple, never have a song together. So now we have “The Three of Us” as a sweet reconciliation song.
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Harry Connick, Jr. and Kelli O'Hara
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And who are the “three of us”?
Me, myself, and I.
This show originally had two artists handling choreography and direction, and now you're combining both. Does that change the process? I mean, does it feel like more power than you want?
Well, no. Since I'm directing and choreographing I think it's very important to surround myself with smart people and listen to them. So I have a great design team, great assistants, people I've worked with on many projects before. I also just had a long session with Harry and Kelli, and we were going scene by scene and line by line, pulling it apart. When you're wearing two hats you actually have to be more collaborative, rather than less. My philosophy is, the best idea in the room wins. You throw out an idea and look around the room and see if everybody's nodding in agreement, and if they are, you go forward. Yet you're sort of reading people, and if you see somebody scrunch up their face, you go, “What? Does that not make sense to you? Let me explain it more to you.” Or if not, how can we take this idea and bend it into something that works?
You're into the second week of rehearsal. What do you think of the cast so far?
I love them, I love them all. I'm so thrilled, because it really is a company of principals. Unlike a lot of musicals, everybody in this show — with two tiny exceptions — plays one character through the entire show. It's not like you're a partygoer in this scene and a waiter in that scene and then a policeman. It's really fun, because it means as we create this, they can create characters and histories and relationships that they might not be able to do in another show.
And what can you say about Harry Connick as a musical-comedy performer?
Oh, my God. He's just a dream. A dream in every way — as a person, an artist, and leader of a company. His generosity is amazing. It comes, I guess, from somebody who is so confident and comfortable in his own skin that he has the ability to be incredibly generous. And incredibly hard-working. We had a read-through on Saturday and he came in today with his script all marked up with a million questions, and I love that. He has all the chops to do this, and he's doing it all at the same time for the first time.
Your brother also directs and choreographs — do you consult each other?
Oh, yes, I ask him all the time for advice. For Wonderful Town he came to our last dress rehearsal and gave me some great feedback that I was able to incorporate into the show right away, so I'm hoping he'll be able to come early in the process to Pajama Game and do the same. It's great to have somebody who you completely trust, who will be unbelievably supportive but also honest.
I was hoping there'd be sibling rivalry. That would make a juicier story.
Unfortunately, there's just none. It's really boring!
How did so much choreographic talent come out of one family?
I don't know; it's nutty. People always ask, “Were your parents in theatre?” They're not. They're both retired college professors. But they were big theatre fans. Both Rob and I were huge fans before we ever thought theatre was something we could do for a living or be part of professionally. We still have kind of a kid-in-a-candy-store feeling — we feel like we're getting away with murder — that we both get to play 'Let's Pretend' for a living.
You're from Pittsburgh. Did Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera ever do The Pajama Game?
It's funny, because they must have at some point, but I don't think we saw it there. The only time I've ever seen it live was the City Opera production with Judy Kaye and Richard Muenz. My parents had the cast album. They both grew up in Boston, and I think my Mom saw the Boston tryout when she was a teenager.
I didn't start dancing till I was 13, Robbie didn't start till he was 16; we were late bloomers in that way. We found our own way to dance, as opposed to kids who are put in dance class at an early age and get bored with it. We actually wanted to do it. It's like people who sit down at a piano and it just fits them. We went into dance class and we instantly could do it.
Do you remember at what point you thought, “Okay, I can choreograph. I think I'll try directing?”
It's a natural progression. I had done some choreographing in college, and before I choreographed on Broadway I directed a production of Chess at a summer theatre in Baltimore. Through Encores!, the first thing I directed in New York was Babes in Arms there. I'd been artistic director a couple of years, and I felt, “I'm ready to try this, I think I have all the skills and knowledge to give this a whirl.”
So what does an artistic director at Encores! do?
I worked with Rob Fisher, who was the musical director at the time. The two of us would basically choose the season, along with Judith Daykin, the executive director of City Center at the time. We had an advisory committee who would make recommendations — I'm still on the advisory committee. But basically we would present the final three. Then we would assemble a creative team — find the directors and choreographers and designers. It was a great job. It just got to the point where I felt like I couldn't continue to do a big Broadway show and do Encores! I realized that I'm happiest in a rehearsal studio and in a theatre.
Marc Miller is a copy chief at Business Week and writes frequently about the theatre.
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