#88, December 15, 2005

Bottoms-up History

Following the success of “Rent,” several new musical ventures are about to hit the Broadway Stage. They are the product of the New Social Historians Musical Cooperative, social historians who have a sense of rhythm and have forgotten the blues. They are marked by the desire to celebrate the great achievements of white European laborers, without giving too much to revolutionary doctrine, all in the key of C major (minor keys are eschewed). This marks a key shift from the knees-up mentality of the 1970s to the bottoms-up mentality that will build that bridge to the second half of the first decade of the twenty-first century.

Two musicals, in particular, are at the forefront of the New Social History Musical intervention. The first is the re-reading of the 1935 sit-down strikes at Ford in Detroit, titled “Sit”. The United States in 1935 was deep in the Depression, but the music is uplifting enough that unemployment is lost in the powerful harmonies and love songs that brought the fantasy world to life for the hard-working Ford employee. The song, “Driving in Neutral Again,” with its commentary on the failures of Herbert Hoover, really evokes the hardship of being a well-paid employee in a world in which so many around him are joining bread lines and having to beg for food. Its most touching moment comes when the main protagonist croons in heart-rending fashion, “How can you replace me with a woman,/or worse still [and there is a powerful pause at this point]/a black man from Alabami?” One really gets to feel for this man, just as he is about to become the prime force behind the sit-down strike. The high point in the show, however, must be considered the wonderful number, “My Caddy Lacks a Driver.” Here we ache for the Ford employee whose own Model T, somewhat old in design, has to be driven by himself. It becomes extremely moving when we begin to realize that he cannot afford to hire someone to drive him, like all of his bosses in their Cadillacs (though this does seem incongruous, since we imagine that they must really be driving cars made by Ford – artistic license, of course!), and that he even has to consider having his wife learn to drive. Tears come to the eyes as history really comes to life before you!

The second noteworthy musical is the work, entitled “Ship,” which recounts the impact of the mutiny on the Battleship Potemkin. Sergei Eisenstein has provided us with one view of the events surrounding this uprising (too Soviet-inflected for our taste), but as a silent movie it really cannot compare with the visuals provided in this dance extravaganza. Perhaps the most memorable piece in this show is “Tsar Nick does the Trotsky.” Cutting back and forth between the world of Tsar Nicholas and that of Leon Trotsky (just beginning to make his mark in Russia), new quite staggering break dance moves are presented – now commonly known in the dance clubs of Manhattan as “the trot.” The show ends with the arrival of the Cossacks, but these Cossacks seem less menacing than the fabled soldiers of the Eisenstein movie. Instead, the Cossack dancing presented in conjunction with the lines, “Just sing/There’s no need to be revolting,” seem to persuade the revolutionaries that Trotsky’s way is no way to really enjoy oneself. Equality has to give way when there is so much singing to be done!

You’ve just got to love this new social history musical. What a fantastic departure, both for Broadway and the Academy! This is a marriage that has never before been so potent.