“Come Fly Away” on Broadway: Tharp and Sinatra in a Timeless Dance, By Whitney Farmer – Un Pop Culture
January 6, 2010 Whitney Farmer 7 Comments
In March, I will be in New York unless I get hit by a bus. The reason I am going is to see the new show “Come Fly Away” that will be opening at the Marquis Theater on March 25. This is a new work conceived, choreographed, and directed by Twyla Tharp and blessed by the Sinatra estate which follows the stories of night club guests through the course of one night as loves are lost and found, set to the music of Frank Sinatra.
I need to provide a disclaimer at this point and write that I have a personal connection to the production. It’s not like I am a doctor and need to avoid doing surgery within my bloodline in case there was a family fight around the dinner table. I just write a blog that comments on culture and avoids navel-gazing, if I do it right. But I saw the presentation of this work three times in Atlanta in the fall and watched its impact on the entire audience, not just my subjective myself. I could bet in Vegas that many voices will enter the dialogue surrounding this show. This is going to be big, New York City big…
I am stepping back and emphasizing in any and every sense that I have no official inside track or access. As I say most frequently at the Club when someone drops my name like a hot rock, “I got no juice…”
An epic friend once said to me that the reason people love – not loved – Sinatra is that he came back fighting. There was a time when he was a rock star before rock-n-roll existed. Then it all dissolved, and fairly rapidly. Maybe it’s an urban legend, but I’ve heard stories of him sleeping on couches when his fortunes turned. And people whom he had trusted abandoned him. He still had all of his skills, but he had become UN POPULAR. There is a lesson there. Somewhere near his deepest valley of shadows, a circle of powerful people gave him another opportunity to perform. They trusted the gifts he had never lost and left the haters to their sad work. Sinatra went from couch-surfer to Oscar winner and Chairman of the Board of the Rat Pack. His turnaround allowed him to become a legend and accomplish a strange variety of adventures, from forcing integration in Vegas when his friend Sammy Davis Jr. was disrespected to mentoring Bono of U2. His golden voice infuses this new Broadway production like the beautiful amber color infuses a Manhattan.
The show is set during one night in a night club, and I was reminded again about why I love what I do. During our shows, I’ll sometimes stand on the upper levels or a few rungs up on a ladder near the production booth to get a sense of how things are running. From there, I will witness everything there is to know about being alive and being human. I’ll see joy and surprise and desire and love, or I’ll see confusion and despair or anger. A thousand dramas and comedies converging in one place in a moment in time. Somehow, Twyla Tharp has captured this. Perfectly. How she has done it is a mystery to me and one of the reasons why I will be in New York in the spring.
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Whitney Farmer runs a rock music venue in L.A. She has an M.B.A. and no one cares.
Whitney
January 7, 2010 - 12:58 am
Note to All:
The working draft that I saw in Atlanta was called “Come Fly with Me”, the artwork of which is displayed in the beginning of this column. Now that it is going to Broadway, the producers recently announced that the title has been changed to “Come Fly Away”. New artwork is in development now exhibiting the new title.
Vinnie Bartilucci
January 7, 2010 - 9:01 am
These revue musicals are getting quite popular, as far back as Smokey Joe’s cafe, Tomfoolery before that, and surely more that I’m forgetting.
So I get the impression that it’s Sinatra’s recoding you’ll hear in the show, as opposed to the cast doing them? That’s probably better – it’s usually not the songs Sinatra did that we remember, but his performance of them. New York New York was written for Liza Minelli – who can even remember her version.
I tell you, if Jim Steinman gets his Bat Out Of Hell revue off the ground, a wall of drunk vampires with chainsaws couldn’t keep me from seeing it.
Mike Gold
January 7, 2010 - 1:03 pm
You know, you could do both: come to New York AND get hit by a bus. There’s plenty of buses out here. And lots of madmen to drive them.
People like Sinatra for the same reason they like Gangsta Rap. He never walked the walk, but the guys who did loved him.
Whitney
January 8, 2010 - 12:57 am
Vinnie –
YOU know what you’re talking about! And having left the land of “Twilight” for the City of Angels, I respect running a bloodsucker gauntlet for a chance to feed my soul.
From the sound of your commentary and — if I may be so bold — your name, I suspect that you might be one of the Sinatra fans who will grace the place. Tell ya what: Let’s meet in the lobby at intermission for a Manhattan and toast to all the broads on Broadway…
Whitney
January 8, 2010 - 1:10 am
Mike –
I need to remember that! The pedestrian culture in NYC is different than in L.A. It always takes me a few hours to settle into the different rhythm.
Very intriguing comparison of Sinatra to gangsta rap! MOTU told me, and I quote, “Black people LOVE Sinatra!” Since this came from a guy who runs The Black Panel but selects Billy Joel and Bonnie Tyler at karaoke, I had no idea how to respond. I think it opened up a wormhole in the space/time continuum.
Vinnie Bartilucci
January 8, 2010 - 10:07 am
My Father-in-law, who I loved dearly and about whom I could tell a few stories, was the kind of guy who sat in Italian retaurants in the Bronx, and people would come and introduce themselves and their friends to him, if you know what I mean and I think you do.
He was ever trying to promote acts in the style of classic performers. He had a really good trumpeter in the Louis Prima/Bunny Berigan mold, and a really good sound-alike for Sinatra.
Sound-alike acts are common today (this being Elvis’ Birthday, I expect you can’t change the channel without hitting one today) but most people would rather just hear Sinatra than hear somebody trying to do him. The only (ON…LY…) reason Frank Jr. gets any booking is out of respect to the dad. You ever hear Jr’s cover of the Gumby theme? Surreal.
And I’ll lay odds that Michael isn’t choosing Bonnie Tyler as much as he’s choosing Jim Steinman.
MOTU
January 8, 2010 - 6:55 pm
Vinnie said,
” And I’ll lay odds that Michael isn’t choosing Bonnie Tyler as much as he’s choosing Jim Steinman.”
Oh, no my friend it’s Bonnie Tyler A N D Jim Steinman.
Whitney- you fucking with my street cred by telling people what I sing at Karaoke-A much better story is how I had just driven off the lot with a brand new car-put on NWA (hint to clueless white people that does NOT stand for North West Airlines) and I was pulled over by the cops. Nothing new about that sadly-except I was blasting a song called “Fuck The Police’ and could NOT find the off button until a split second before the cops asked me to roll down the window.
Now-that’s gangsta!