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how chaplin s memories influenced his art and vice versa the play begins with an early scene of chaplin s childhood lifted straight from his autobiography as his mother a music hall singer descends into the madness that left her institutionalized for the rest of her life the young chaplin age five took to the stage to rescue her from a booing audience he was such a natural performer that as he put it half way through a shower of money poured on to the stage i was quite at home a career was born but chaplin was unable to rescue his mother in the long term she wound up in an asylum and he wound up in hollywood but in a sense at least as chaplin tells it he never really left that london music hall stage throughout the play chaplin is only half living in the present and in his movies and in his private life chaplin relives that moment over and over again the memory drives him to his greatest successes an artist and his greatest failures as a man the play drives the point home with both its casting and its staging for example one time tony nominee christiane noll who plays chaplin s mother also plays edna purviance in the kid and paulette goddard in the great dictator two characters the tramp struggles to rescue while zachary unger plays both the young chaplin and chaplin s kid co star child actor jackie coogan this isn t just a case of doubling up to save a bit of money while filming the pivotal scene from the kid when a callous orphanage official rips the kid from the tramp s arms unger morphs from jackie coogan into the young chaplin and back again as chaplin the man forces himself to revisit his own childhood in order for chaplin the artist to achieve the result he wants yet later when chaplin again remembers his childhood it is the filmed clip from the kid that plays on a large screen over the stage rather than the real life moment a metaphor for how the memory becomes art and the art then supplants the memory or to put it another way how often has a song on the radio evoked the emotion of a time long past when the specific event has faded from memory eventually as it does for all great artists chaplin s creation takes on a life of its own and chaplin the man winds up performing with a chorus line of tramp look a likes doing the dance of the dinner rolls from the gold rush for me as a fan of chaplin the artist this is when the play is most interesting and the most ambitious in its staging given that chaplin was a silent film star working exclusively in black and white the costumes are appropriately muted shades of black white and gray which meant that the rare splashes of color primarily red hair and red roses really pop not only visually but thematically as well it s no accident i m sure that chaplin s mother and his one great love oona o neill are both played by redheads the aforementioned christiane noll and erin mackey respectively and the red rose that passes from chaplin s mother to the lapel of the tramp s coat transforms from a symbol of loss to a symbol of love when by the play s end it finally passes from oona back to chaplin again the second half of chaplin the musical focuses on chaplin s life after the tramp in case you re somehow not aware of it the 1940s and 50s when chaplin s career went into decline was an era when a charge of being a communist a fellow traveler or even soft on communism could end a career chaplin himself lost his visa and wound up living in exile for twenty years before returning to the u s in 1972 to receive an honorary oscar as an aside i was going to write that the subjects of tabloid slander and political fanaticism seem especially timely now with another closely divided election season upon us but then i remembered that in america the subject is always timely for if you know your history you know that politically speaking once every decade or so we americans feel compelled to throw reason to the wind and eat our young focusing as it does on tidbits from chaplin s conflicts with gossip columnists crusading anti communists indifferent audiences and his own ego this part of the production is more conventional than its first half ironically though as chaplin s staging and storytelling become more typically broadway the songs and the acting get better rob mcclure who plays chaplin more about him in a moment is terrific throughout but of the supporting cast it s jenn colella who stands out her turn as the in famous hedda hopper a nationally syndicated scandalmonger whose reach in the hollywood of the 40s and 50s makes today s tmz look like halfwits with a twitter account had the audience ready to charge the stage and if you remember one song from the show it ll be her paean to petty revenge all falls down but the key to the show is rob mcclure as chaplin creating a character based on a public person is so much more difficult than working from a blank slate the actor is competing against the audience s memories of the person and what they think they know of his story when that public figure was also a multi talented actor himself well no wonder people had been trying for thirty years without success to write a musical about chaplin s life re creating chaplin on stage is necessarily a three tier process first imitating the gags second imitating chaplin doing those gags and third finding your own comedy in the gags the first requirement is obvious and the second is probably obvious as well but the third is the difference between the note perfect but stilted piano recital of a well rehearsed amateur and music to play the title role mcclure didn t just have to look like chaplin he had to talk like chaplin walk like chaplin both on the ground and on a tightrope play the violin rollerskate recreate the dance of the dinner rolls fall down throw a pie spoof hitler again all like chaplin and then after the imitation was perfected make an audience care about the result you do all the kind of concrete work that you can do philip seymour hoffman said of preparing to play his oscar winning role in capote the documentaries or the audio tapes or the visuals or what you read you interview people but ultimately it wasn t just imitation it wasn t just mimicry it was creating a character a real guy and it was trial and error the question isn t whether mcclure is as funny as chaplin i mean are you going to judge the last temptation of christ on whether the actor can divide the loaves and fishes but whether he brought a character named chaplin to life in this play on this stage the answer to the question is a definite yes indeed mcclure s impression of chaplin is so good i wish there had been more of it three time tony award winner thomas meehan hairspray the producers annie book christopher curtis music lyrics and book and warren carlyle director dip into chaplin s comedy from time to time as a basis for staging events in his life the boxing sequence from city lights to represent his three divorces for example but too often tell the audience that chaplin was great rather than allowing mcclure to show them judging from those bits mcclure was allowed to recreate i think he could carry a longer sequence lifted from one of chaplin s movies just to allow the audience a moment to laugh like they would have nearly a hundred years ago but i m not a producer or a tony award winning playwright so i ll freely admit i could well be talking through my hat still with a likeable hero a catchy tune or two and a couple of great performances i d call chaplin the musical a success and well worth the effort the next time you re in new york chaplin the musical is in previews now at the barrymore theater in new york it officially opens on september 10 2012 you can check out the official site here postscript to give credit where credit is due it was katie bar the door who made the observation about the relationship between the costumes and the thematic significance of the occasional splashes of red you d think as a devoted fan of redheads i might have noticed that myself well nobody s perfect posted by mythical monkey at 11 42 am 9 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels charles chaplin katie bar the door review self portrait theater thursday august 30 2012 the monkey s back katie bar the door and i were in new york for the past several days going to plays spotting celebrities drinking at round tables in the algonquin etc i ll be offering up a lengthy review of chaplin the musical in the next day or two in the meantime paul mccartney sings the monkees theme song posted by mythical monkey at 10 05 am 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels beatles katie bar the door monkeyvision musical interlude self portrait tuesday august 28 2012 that s typing tuesday 25 the multiverse that s typing tuesday in which i share unpolished unpublished writings from my vast store of unpolished unpublished writings on tuesdays i don t know what physicists think about but i do know that sometimes when i m out walking the dog it occurs to me that somewhere in the multiverse the dog is walking me posted by mythical monkey at 7 03 am 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels that s typing tuesday saturday august 25 2012 it s elvis costello s birthday how will you be celebrating it s the damage that we do and never know it s the words that we don t say that scare me so posted by mythical monkey at 6 14 am 3 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels elvis costello monkeyvision musical interlude friday august 24 2012 are you ready for chaplin the musical i sure hope so because you ll be getting one of the monkey s patented two thousand word essays on the subject a week from today posted by mythical monkey at 6 43 am 3 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels broadway charles chaplin katie bar the door monkeyvision self portrait theater thursday august 23 2012 today is the late keith moon s birthday how will you be celebrating my friends call me keith but you can call me john keith moon posted by mythical monkey at 6 30 am 5 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels monkeyvision musical interlude television who wednesday august 22 2012 it s dorothy parker s birthday it s dorothy parker s birthday let s celebrate with a few choice quotes often attributed to her i can t vouch for their accuracy or authenticity and the images are not my own posted by mythical monkey at 11 05 am 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels dorothy parker tuesday august 21 2012 that s typing tuesday 24 the great gatsby that s typing tuesday in which i occasionally share unpolished unpublished writings from my vast store of unpolished unpublished writings on tuesdays obviously i haven t seen baz luhrmann s take on the great gatsby yet it s not due in theaters for another year but generally speaking i ll say this making a movie of the great gatsby is like going to a museum taking all the pictures off the wall and studying the hooks the dialogue and surface level action is meaningless simply contrivances upon which fitzgerald hung his gorgeous prose and startling insights i hope baz luhrmann can lick the problem of bringing gatsby to life but if he can he ll be the first for gatsby is already alive and anyone trying to adapt it to another medium necessarily has to kill it first posted by mythical monkey at 6 22 am 5 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels baz luhrmann leonardo dicaprio that s typing tuesday sunday august 19 2012 colleen moore it s her birthday you know i almost started this post with the line largely forgotten today colleen moore was one of the biggest stars of the silent era but then realized that with the exception of charlie chaplin buster keaton and maybe greta garbo that s true of every silent film star so i ll just say colleen moore was a big star and was a bigger influence at the time on the classic flapper look than louise brooks ever hoped to be that said she s probably best known now if at all for her fairy castle a 9 foot square 12 foot tall dollhouse which is on display at the museum of science and industry in chicago and is viewed by 1 5 million visitors every year as always i think the best way to get to know a film performer is through the work here is a clip from the 1926 comedy ella cinders which i hope will inspire you to seek out more of her films posted by mythical monkey at 11 54 am 6 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels colleen moore monkeyvision silent era saturday august 18 2012 happy birthday big brother after a lifetime of hard work my older brother finally hung it up last week but as my former next door neighbor once pointed out just because he s retired doesn t mean he needs a rocking chair i ain t ready for the junkyard yet cause i still feel like a new corvette it might take a little longer but i ll get there well i don t need your rockin chair happy birthday brother posted by mythical monkey at 6 01 am 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels friends and family monkeyvision musical interlude poll results a plurality of you can t stand her but for those who can the divorcee is your favorite norma shearer movie you know sometimes the headline says it all posted by mythical monkey at 5 49 am 3 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels norma shearer poll results friday august 17 2012 j accuse 1919 this is my contribution to the speechless blogathon now underway at eternity of dreams a contemporary of d w griffith and louis feuillade abel gance directed over fifty movies in a career that stretched from the silent era to 1972 but his reputation as one of france s greatest directors is founded on three silent movies the epic bio pic napoleon 1927 1923 s la roue the wheel and this one j accuse from 1919 contrary to what you might expect if you know anything about french history the novelist émile zola and or the phrase j accuse this is not an early film version of the infamous dreyfus affair in which a virulently anti semitic french military court martialed alfred dreyfus for selling secrets to the germans without evidence of anything other than that he was jewish after zola s essay j accuse i accuse turned dreyfus into a cause célèbre an investigation revealed that another officer was guilty of the crime instead gance tells a fictional tale set during world war i a conflict gance served in was wounded during and then returned to in order to film authentic combat scenes for the film the story such as it is concerns itself with a poet who is in love with a girl who has been forced against her will into marriage to a wealthy brute the husband séverin mars who later m...