I Cannot Believe This Film Is Going To Be Turned Into A Musical!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                            The book, and maybe the lyrics, will be by Lynn Nottage, probably the foremost name in Black Theater in this town.  The score will be composed by John Legend.  Who?????????   The vehicle is--get this--a musical adaptation of the 1959 film, "Imitation Of Life."

                              Are you kidding me?  In THIS time we live in?  So, don't go jumping on me for demanding a revival of "The Member Of The Wedding.'

                                Some consider this film campy, and believe me, I get it.  I have always wanted Sandra Dee's bedroom, all in pink, her pink wardrobe, and most of all, her pink Princess telephone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                   I only saw the film once and hesitate to see it again.  Not because of camp but because it really cut me emotionally.  The two performances that anchor the film are those of Juanita Moore as Annie Johnson, a Black single mother, and Susan Kohner, as her daughter Sarah Jane.  Throughout the film, Annie passes Sarah Jane as White, but there comes a reckoning, when Sarah Jane is in adolescence, and she is beaten violently in an alley by a young Tab Hunter, who is enraged at her racial deception. Throughout the rest of the film, she treats her mother terribly, with Annie being hurt, yet persevering.  Thinking she will escape all her problems, Sarah Jane runs away to become a cheap Las Vegas showgirl.  She gets word that her mother is ill, but gets home in time for her funeral, where she finally weeps and repents on her coffin, which is being pulled by an enormous truck, with Mahalia Jackson singing.  All Annie's savings were for her funeral.  I say to Sarah Jane, too little, too late.

                                  This sequence, which would have to be staged at The Metropolitan Opera really got to me, thinking about my parents, and if I were this bad to them, and, how I wish they were here.  Coincidentally, or maybe not, I am writing this on what is the 8th anniversary of my father's passing.  I wish my parents and some others could be here.

                                  So, how in hell will this be musicalized?  Will it be changed for our times?  Then the point is missed.  The alley beating is one of the most horribly violent scenes depicted on film, and the funeral is too grand for where they want to stage it, which is The Shed on West 30th Street.

                                    If this musical  even gets off the ground, and that is problematic, who is going to go to it?  If camped up, gays and Theater Queens will run to it.  But then it might lose some of its integrity.  If played seriously, it may lose the camp audience, and only theater purists, who are few and far between, will go.  Years ago, The Public Theatre did a musical adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel and 1956 film, "Giant," which, loving the film, interested me a great deal.  Alas, it did not last long to even consider a move to Broadway, and I have the same feeling if this show gets off the ground.

                                    I hate to say it, but next to this, "Beaches" looks like a hit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      But I will keep my darlings posted on all this, and whether or not I get a pink Princess Telephone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!