''A Family Affair'' is a
musical
Musical is the adjective of music.
Musical may also refer to:
* Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance
* Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...
with a book by
James Goldman
James Goldman (June 30, 1927 – October 28, 1998) was an American playwright and screenwriter. He won an Academy Award for his screenplay '' The Lion in Winter'' (1968). His younger brother was novelist and screenwriter William Goldman.
Biog ...
and
William Goldman
William Goldman (August 12, 1931 – November 16, 2018) was an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He first came to prominence in the 1950s as a novelist before turning to screenwriting. He won Academy Awards for his screenplays '' ...
, lyrics by James Goldman and
John Kander
John Harold Kander (born March 18, 1927) is an American composer, known largely for his work in the musical theater. As part of the songwriting team Kander and Ebb (with lyricist Fred Ebb), Kander wrote the scores for 15 musicals, including ''Ca ...
, and music by Kander. This was Kander's first show and his only one written without
Fred Ebb
Fred Ebb (April 8, 1928 – September 11, 2004) was an American musical theatre lyricist who had many successful collaborations with composer John Kander. The Kander and Ebb team frequently wrote for such performers as Liza Minnelli and Chita Riv ...
in Ebb's lifetime.
Synopsis
In Chicago, Gerry Siegal and Sally Nathan, a young suburban Chicago couple, decide to marry.
The bride's Uncle Alfie (her guardian) wants an intimate wedding and wages a war of words with the groom's entire family. The groom's brassy Jewish mother Tillie commandeers the planning, steering it towards a large country club wedding (despite her husband's scolding her for taking over). Caterers, dressmakers, band leaders, rabbis, florists, photographers and a bossy wedding planner are pushed to the limit by the madcap preparations.
The bride and groom, who have retained their sanity, realize that their families have almost destroyed the wedding. They announce their intention to have a quiet family affair.
Song list
;Act I
*Anything for You
*Beautiful
*My Son, the Lawyer
*Every Girl Wants to Get Married
*Right Girls
*Kalua Bay
*There's a Room in My House
*Siegal Marching Song
*Nathan Marching Song
*Harmony
;Act II
*Now, Morris
*Wonderful Party
*Revenge
*Summer is Over
*Harmony (Reprise)
*I'm Worse Than Anybody
*What I Say Goes
*The Wedding
Background
The three collaborators on the show, William and James Goldman, and John Kander, had all been friends for a long time and shared an apartment in New York City. Although all three would enjoy great success, when the musical was written only William Goldman was doing well in his career. He later remembered:
They were older than I was, Kander and my brother, and they were the ones who were supposed to succeed and they weren't I was. It terrified me and I wrote a musical with my brother and Kander, ''A Family Affair'', which got on, which failed. I don't know why I did it. Here were these two wonderful figures for me and I was doing well and they weren't and I helped them in my own nutty way. Except it didn't work out that way, since everything I tried for the theatre failed.
William Goldman says the idea for the musical was his. It was originally optioned by
Leland Hayward
Leland Hayward (September 13, 1902 – March 18, 1971) was a Hollywood and Broadway agent and theatrical producer. He produced the original Broadway stage productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein's '' South Pacific'' and ''The Sound of Music''.
...
and when he dropped the option their agent, Richard Seff, talked his cousin Andrew into producing it. Money was raised by doing live auditions, according to Seff:
Jim couldn't sing a note, Bill can't really sing but John Kander can a little bit, so Kander would play and sing and Bill would sing with him and then I had to get up and sing with them too so here was the agent playing actor. There were thirty people, fifty people, and we'd raise the thousand dollars one night and two thousand the next and we put together the whole show that way.
The credits are shared by all three equally. "I would not say I was a major contributor to the lyrics, but we all decided the three of us would take the billing," remembers William Goldman.
Production history
Originally planned as a project for
Gertrude Berg
Gertrude Berg (Born Tillie Edelstein; October 3, 1899 – September 14, 1966) was an American actress, screenwriter, and producer. A pioneer of classic radio, she was one of the first women to create, write, produce, and star in a long-running hi ...
to be directed by
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television.
Among his nu ...
, it opened in Philadelphia directed instead by
Word Baker Charles "Word" Baker (March 21, 1923 – October 31, 1995) was an American theatre director and teacher who is most famous for mounting the original off-Broadway production of ''The Fantasticks''.
Early life and education
Baker was born and raise ...
, who recently had staged ''
The Fantasticks
''The Fantasticks'' is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and book and lyrics by Tom Jones. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the 1894 play ''The Romancers'' (''Les Romanesques'') by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neigh ...
''
off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
. With everything from the script to the score to the set in disarray, theatre producer
Hal Prince
Harold Smith Prince (born Harold Smith; January 30, 1928 – July 31, 2019), commonly known as Hal Prince, was an American theatre director and producer known for his work in musical theatre.
One of the foremost figures in 20th century America ...
was brought in to replace Baker and repair the damage. Poor box office prevented the out-of-town tryout from being extended and Prince, making his directorial debut, brought the show to New York City knowing it was better but still in need of serious work.
The Broadway production opened on January 27, 1962, at the
Billy Rose Theatre
The Nederlander Theatre (formerly the National Theatre, the Billy Rose Theatre, and the Trafalgar Theatre) is a Broadway theater at 208 West 41st Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1921, it was de ...
, where it ran for 65 performances and five previews. The cast included
Shelley Berman as Alfie,
Eileen Heckart
Anna Eileen Heckart ( Herbert; March 29, 1919 – December 31, 2001) was an American stage and screen actress whose career spanned nearly 60 years.
Early life
Heckart was born Anna Eileen Herbert in Columbus, Ohio. The daughter of Esther (), w ...
as Tillie,
Rita Gardner
Rita Gardner ( Schier; October 23, 1934 – September 24, 2022) was an American actress and singer.
Career
Gardner made her stage debut Off-Broadway in Jerry Herman's musical review ''Nightcap'' (1958) before her breakout turn as Luisa in the ...
as Sally, and
Larry Kert
Lawrence Frederick "Larry" Kert (December 5, 1930 – June 5, 1991) was an American actor, singer, and dancer. He is best known for his role of Tony in the original Broadway production of the musical ''West Side Story''.
Early life
Kert was ...
as Gerry, with
Morris Carnovsky
Morris Carnovsky (September 5, 1897 – September 1, 1992) was an American stage and film actor. He was one of the founders of the Group Theatre (1931-1940) in New York City and had a thriving acting career both on Broadway and in films un ...
,
Cathryn Damon
Cathryn Lee Damon (September 11, 1930 – May 4, 1987) was an American actress, best known for her roles on television sitcoms in the 1970s and 1980s. She is best known as Mary Campbell in ''Soap'' (1977-1981).
Early years
Damon was the ...
,
Bibi Osterwald
Margaret Virginia "Bibi" Osterwald (February 3, 1920 – January 2, 2002) was an American actress.
Life and career
Osterwald was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the daughter of Dagmar (Kvastad) and Rudolf August Osterwald, a hotel own ...
, and
Linda Lavin
Linda Lavin (born October 15, 1937) is an American actress and singer. She is known for playing the title character in the sitcom '' Alice'' and for her stage performances, both on and off-Broadway.
After acting as a child, Lavin joined the Co ...
in supporting roles.
According to Richard Seff:
We kept it alive, barely. It earned a living for those nine weeks but it never made any profit to speak of and to go on longer would have meant to take big losses so it was sensible to close it... When we first heard it, we thought it had great charm. But I think it would have been helped by a director who really understood big musicals and Wood Baker had just had the great success with ''Fantastiks'', which was only a few people in a tiny, tiny theatre, and he did that one imaginatively, but this one he did not do imaginatively and it was very clunky. A lot depends on the director in a musical. He really can make fair material much better and a bad director can take excellent material and make it worse... Hal Prince
Harold Smith Prince (born Harold Smith; January 30, 1928 – July 31, 2019), commonly known as Hal Prince, was an American theatre director and producer known for his work in musical theatre.
One of the foremost figures in 20th century America ...
took over the direction out of town. He helped it a lot. It got better. It just didn't get good enough.[Egan p 35]
An original cast recording was released by
United Artists Records
United Artists Records was an American record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 to issue movie soundtracks. The label expanded into other genres, such as easy listening, jazz, pop, and R&B.
History Genres
In 1959, ...
.
References
*''Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops'' by
Ken Mandelbaum
Ken Mandelbaum is a Jewish American columnist, critic, and author whose primary field of expertise is musical theatre.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Mandelbaum was introduced to Broadway musical theatre by his parents and grandparents at ...
, published by
St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...
(1991), pages 141–42 ()
''A Family Affair''at the Music Theatre International Website
*Egan, Sean, ''William Goldman: The Reluctant Storyteller'', Bear Manor Media 2014
External links
Internet Broadway Database listingA Family Affair plot summary & character descriptions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Family Affair, A
1962 musicals
Broadway musicals
Musicals by James Goldman
Musicals by William Goldman
Chicago in fiction