{"id":1416,"date":"2017-01-02T00:31:57","date_gmt":"2017-01-02T00:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=1416"},"modified":"2017-01-02T00:31:57","modified_gmt":"2017-01-02T00:31:57","slug":"12-plays-of-xmas-6-pal-joey-by-ohara-rodgers-hart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2017\/01\/12-plays-of-xmas-6-pal-joey-by-ohara-rodgers-hart.html","title":{"rendered":"12 Plays of Xmas: 6 Pal Joey by O\u2019Hara, Rodgers & Hart"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"12plays-pal-j\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Book trouble \u2013 it\u2019s the curse of the musical. One of my most slaveringly anticipated shows of the past winter was David Bowie\u2019s Lazarus,<\/em> but the book by Enda Walsh was an embarrassment of portent, messily motivated and thumpingly framed. Similarly, some of the zippiest musical choreography I saw this year was in the retooled Half A Sixpence<\/em>, but the rancidly snobbish book by Julian Fellowes made it seem, if anything, even more old-fashioned than the original. Two promising shows, sunk by terrible scripts.<\/p>\n

I thought it would be interesting to read a musical like a playtext: the Library of America\u2019s American Musicals<\/em><\/a> is my friend here. Love me a bittersweet slice of Rodgers and Hart, so Pal Joey<\/em> it is. I\u2019ve only ever seen the 1957 Frank Sinatra-Rita Hayworth movie: the original 1940 stage show is meaner, dirtier and so much more cynical.<\/p>\n

So many musicals soften out character \u2013 people are too ready to become all heart, to swap life lessons at uncomfortable volume. Not our pal Joey. John O\u2019Hara<\/a> invented him in the aftermath of a drunken bender: a not-too-successful young hornbucket of a nightclub mc describes his unscrupulous antics in clubs and beds in letters to his friend Ted. Joey\u2019s letters appeared in the New Yorker<\/em> before inspiring a musical. As with Damon Runyon\u2019s beguiling Guys and Doll<\/em>s stories, what makes Joey sing is the voice \u2013 naively demotic, confiding, braggartly, buoyant and sleazy. In an age when relatability is key, it\u2019s hard to peg Joey as a hero: \u2018Then I told her what I thought of her and her sister and if she ever showed her face around the hotel I would knock her teeth down her throat. Woman or no woman. I shut her up the bitch.\u2019 Charmed, I\u2019m sure.<\/p>\n

Richard Rodgers believed that the musical \u2018would be different from anything anyone else had ever tried.\u2019 In the very first scene, as Joey tries out for a job in Chicago, he\u2019s quizzed about his vices: he disowns drink, boys and \u2018nose candy\u2019 before admitting he can\u2019t keep his hands off the dames. He romps right through the chorus line before Vera, a rich older woman, takes him to bed and bankrolls his new venture. It all ends in extortion and a hastily closed bank account, leaving Joey on his uppers.<\/p>\n

\"Stockard<\/a>

Stockard Channing and Matthew Risch in the 2008 Roundabout revival. Photo: Joan Marcus<\/p><\/div>\n

O\u2019Hara\u2019s script is salty \u2013 so tough and disillusioned that the songs come as a shock. After Joey (for whom flirting and fibbing are a single manoeuvre) spins a load of manure to a woman he meets at the pet store, it\u2019s disconcerting that they slide into the crooning \u2018I Could Write a Book.\u2019<\/a> This judder continues \u2013 the best rationale for the disconnect is that song is where characters briefly voice their better selves: vulnerable, soft and self-aware. When Vera speaks she\u2019s all front; but she\u2019s endearing when she sings \u2018Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered\u2019<\/a>: \u2018He\u2019s a laugh, but I love it\/ Because the laugh\u2019s on me.\u2019 Nor is she deceiving us, or herself, about what she wants from Joey: \u2018Horizontally speaking, he\u2019s at his very best\u2026 He\u2019s kept enough,\/ He\u2019s slept enough,\/ And yet when it counts\/ he\u2019s adept enough.\u2019<\/p>\n

You can see why Pal Joey<\/em> hasn\u2019t quite secured classic status, and why the book has received major surgery for the screen or recent revivals like the 2008 New York production with a revised text by Richard Greenberg. Still, it wins a place in my heart with its sardonic interviewer Melba Snyder. She has one scene, but what a scene \u2013 she prepares for the interview with a double scotch, says she never bothers taking notes, sees right through Joey (\u2018he\u2019s given me plenty of information, I don\u2019t know about the facts\u2019). And she gets the show\u2019s sassiest number<\/a>, inspired by an alleged interview with Gypsy Rose Lee about the way her brainbox mind wanders while stripping: \u2018Zip! I was reading Schopenhauer last night\/ Zip! And I think that Schopenhauer was right.\u2019 Now that\u2019s a journalist.<\/p>\n

Sample stage direction<\/strong> \u2018Joey gives Mike \u201cthe fingers\u201d and exits backstage\u2026 Mike gestures \u201cYou SOB\u201d with bottle.\u2019<\/em>
\nSample quote<\/strong> Joey: \u2018Keep me as sweet as I am \u2013 pamper me a little.\u2019<\/p>\n

12 Plays of Xmas<\/strong>
\nI have, surprise, a lot of books. And I have, surprise, not read them all. So, 12 unfamiliar plays, 12 posts: welcome to 12 Plays of Xmas.
\nOwners by Caryl Churchill<\/a>
\nBirth by TW Robertson<\/a>
\nRuined by Lynn Nottage<\/a>
\nThe Roaring Girl by Middleton & Dekker<\/a>\u00a0Alkestis by Euripides\/Anne Carson<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow David on Twitter @mrdavidjays<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Book trouble \u2013 it\u2019s the curse of the musical. One of my most slaveringly anticipated shows of the past winter was David Bowie\u2019s Lazarus, but the book by Enda Walsh was an embarrassment of portent, messily motivated and thumpingly framed. Similarly, some of the zippiest musical choreography I saw this year was in the retooled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[402,48,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-1416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-12-plays-of-xmas","9":"tag-musicals","10":"tag-theatre","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1419,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416\/revisions\/1419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}