Presents
Lerner and Lowes
CAMELOT
Synopsis
The play opens in the legendary and fabled kingdom of Camelot. It is ruled by King Arthur, a ruler of humble beginnings and possessor of Excalibur. We meet Arthur as he is greeting his bride Guinevere in the woods for the first time (“I wonder what the king is doing tonight,” “The simple joys of maidenhood”). Though they are both nervous about their marriage, they quickly fall in love and begin their rule over Camelot (“Follow Me”).
It is a very prosperous time for Camelot; and Arthur forms a new order of chivalry in which knights are sworn to protect the weak, and perform great acts of valor, justice, and courage. Though the Knights of the Round Table are all equal, when the strong and handsome Lancelot Du Lac arrives, he quickly becomes Arthurs most trusted advisor and confidant, despite a strong dislike of him among the knights.
Two years pass and Lancelot and Lady Guinevere realize they love each other (“if Ever I would Leave You”), and fail to adequately hide their emotions towards each from King Arthur. To further complicate matters King Arthur’s illegitimate son Mordred arrives in Camelot with the desire to overthrown King Arthur and assume power (“The Seven Deadly Virtues”).
After finding King Arthur Hunting in the forest, he convinces his father to stay in the forest one night to prove his trust for Guinevere and Lancelot. When Mordred returns to the castle, he discovers Lancelot in Guinevere’s bedroom and charges them both with treason against the king. Guinevere is arrested and sentenced to burn at the stake, while Lancelot escapes (“Loved you once in Silence”).
On the day of Guinevere’s execution King Arthur is unable to give the call to light the flames and Guinevere is rescued by Lancelot and taken to France.
The Characters
King Arthur–Ruler of Camelot. He served as a simple squire until he managed to pull King Pendragon’s sword out of the stone and became King. He desires to rule fairly and create a land where justice and honor are held in high esteem.
Queen Guinevere–Queen of Camelot. At first she did not want to marry Arthur, but when she met him and saw the beauty of Camelot, she fell in love. She is devoted to Arthur and supports his causes.
Lancelot Du Lac –A knight of France and a skilled warrior, Lancelot comes to be a Knight of the Round Table. He is extremely pious and not particularly well liked by anyone except Arthur.
Mordred–Arthur’s illegitimate son. His mother is Queen Morgause, who bewitched Arthur when he was younger.
He has come to the Round Table to stir up trouble.
Merlyn–A wizard type character. Arthur’s teacher. He wants Arthur to be ambitious and pursue the dream of a chivalrous kingdom.
Sir Pellinore – One of Arthur’s closest friends. He stumbled upon Camelot one day while in search of a dragon and decided to stay in Arthur’s court and join the Knights of the Round Table.
Tom –A young boy who wants to join King Arthur’s army.
Sir Dinadan–A Knight of the Round Table.
Sir Sagramore-A Knight of the Round Table.
Sir Lionel-A Knight of the Round Table
Nimue –A nymph intent on bewitching Merlyn.
Biographies
ALAN JAY LERNER (Book and Lyrics) was born in New York in 1918. In 1942 Lerner wrote his first musical with Frederick Loewe called Life of the Party; in 1943, they wrote their first Broadway musical, What’s Up? The team went on to write The Day Before Spring in 1945, followed by their first hit, Brigadoon, in 1947. Lerner wrote the libretto for An American in Paris, the first musical film to win an Oscar. Lerner and Loewe teamed up again in the 1950s to write Paint Your Wagon, the mega-hit My Fair Lady, the film Gigi (winner of nine Oscars, including Best Picture), and Camelot in 1960. After the retirement of Frederick Loewe, Lerner went on to write On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and Carmelina with Burton Lane, Coco with Andre Previn, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with Leonard Bernstein, and Dance a Little Closer with Charles Strouse. Lerner and Loewe reunited in 1973 to provide Broadway with a stage version of Gigi. Alan Jay Lerner died in 1986 at the age of 67.
FREDERICK LOEWE (Music) was born in Vienna in 1901. A child piano prodigy at age 4, he made his concert debut with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra at age 13. Coming to America in 1930, Loewe wandered about in such odd jobs as branding cows in Montana, gold prospecting in Colorado and saloon hall piano playing everywhere. In 1942, on the brink of establishing himself as a composer of popular songs, Loewe approached Alan Jay Lerner at a club in New York and said he would like to collaborate with him on a musical show. The two went on to enjoy a notable partnership that lasted 18 years, resulting in the musicals Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, My Fair Lady, and Camelot. In 1961 Loewe retired to the French Riviera until 10 years later, when Lerner persuaded him to write the score for a musical film based on The Little Prince, followed by creating new music for Lerner’s expanded book and lyrics for the 1973 Broadway version of Gigi. Frederick Loewe died in 1988 at the age of 88.
Source: http://www.arenastage.org/shows-tickets/sub-text/2012-13-season/my-fair-lady/duo.shtml
DUO: THE MUSICAL EVOLUTION OF LERNER AND LOEWE
By Ken Savage
Alan Jay Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist born to an affluent Jewish family in New York City. Frederick “Fritz” Loewe was an Austrian pianist and composer from Germany who had yet to reach success in music. The unlikely duo met in 1942 at the New York Lambs Club, where Loewe piqued Lerner’s interest in working together. Loewe was already commissioned to rewrite the showPatricia, the pair’s first project and a primal micro-success. Following the first show of their partnership, Lerner and Loewe experienced continued mediocre success with their next three musicals:Life of the Party(1942),What’s Up?(1943), andThe Day Before Spring(1945). Their collaborative work style was evident right off the bat as the duo preferred to write and compose together rather than having one write the music or lyrics first.
Brigadoonwas their first major Broadway hit. Lerner and Loewe incorporated traditional Scottish folk music and dance into the musical about two tourists who discover the village of Brigadoon, which magically appears in the Scottish Highlands once every one hundred years.Brigadoonpremiered in New Haven and Boston where it was ill-received by critics but popular to audiences. It played in Philadelphia to rave reviews then opened on Broadway in 1947 where it won the New York Drama Critics Circle award for most outstanding musical. In 1951, following the success of Brigadoon, Lerner and Loewe were inspired by the other great American-themed musicals likeOklahoma!andAnnie Get Your Gunto write a musical about a mining town in California during the Gold Rush era:Paint Your Wagon.
In 1952 film producer Gabriel Pascal obtained the musical rights to George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion and approached Lerner with the proposition of turning it into a musical, convincing him to do it by saying no other artist was capable of such a feat. Ironically, in an encounter with Oscar Hammerstein II, Lerner discovered that Pascal had also approached Rodgers and Hammerstein with the same project using the same buttery words. However, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, and a list of other composers had given up on the musical endeavor. However, in 1953 Lerner and Loewe’s interest in transforming Pygmalion was reignited. They immediately sought Rex Harrison and even before having contracted him, Lerner and Loewe began writing the songs for the non-singing actor. From their non-singing muse, Lerner and Loewe developed a series of talk-singing pieces for the character of Henry Higgins. They discovered Julie Andrews in 1954 when she made her American debut inThe Boy Friendand secured the British actress to play their Eliza Doolittle. Soon after, they recruited movie actor Stanley Holloway to play Alfred Doolittle, Eliza’s father. The duo underwent a huge ordeal in order to confirm Rex Harrison’s casting, but once he was secured, Lerner and Loewe spent hours constantly writing to finish their musical. The musical development ofMy Fair Ladywas very much based around the voices and talents of their selected actors. At the start of rehearsals, the book and score were nowhere near complete. In fact, they stumbled upon the title “My Fair Lady” during second week of rehearsals.
My Fair Ladyreceived stellar reviews in New Haven, Philadelphia, and New York. In fact, at the time it was crowned the best Broadway musical ever written. It was the longest running musical of the time, playing for six and a half years with 2,717 performances on Broadway and 2,281 performances on the West End in London.My Fair Ladywon six Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. ThoughOklahoma!was America’s frontier musical,My Fair Ladywas Broadway’s first major blockbuster hit.
Lerner and Loewe’s success continued to skyrocket. Immediately following the triumph ofMy Fair Lady, the team was commissioned to write the movieGigi, which was based on the French novella by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette about a rich Parisian playboy and his relationship with a courtesan-in-training. Lerner wrote the screenplay and together they collaborated on music and lyrics.Gigiwon nine Oscars at the Academy Awards. Its transformation into a musical fell short and had only moderate success, but it still earned Lerner and Loewe a Tony Award for best score.
Their last major Broadway hit wasCamelot(1960), based on the legend of King Arthur. It was originally directed by Moss Hart, who also directedMy Fair Lady, and starred Richard Burton and Julie Andrews. Camelot won four Tony Awards, toured London and the world, and was adapted for the screen in 1967.
Lerner and Loewe’s musical journey kicked off with a series of musical flops and underwhelming musicals but eventually gained momentum, producing multiple major hits for the stage and screen. Their music lives on in their popular songs– “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “Almost Like Being in Love,” “They Call the Wind Maria,” “If Ever I Would Leave You”– their iconic actors, and in the audiences who have fallen in love with their work.
Knights of the Middle Ages
Source: Helen Cothran, ed., The 1100s: Headlines in History,(New York: Cengage Gale, 2001).
The mysterious knight gently removed the long strands of hair that were entwined in the comb. He nearly fainted and fell off his horse as he caressed the strands. He “began to adore the hair, touching it a hundred thousand times to his eye, his mouth, his forehead and his cheeks.”
Finally, the knight “placed the hair on his breast near his heart” and continued on his way. Cothran, The 1100s: Headlines in History.
The knight who lovingly placed the strands of his beloved’s hair next to his heart is Sir Lancelot and his beloved is Queen Guinevere, the wife of King Arthur. This depiction of the chivalrous knight is found in Chrétien de Troyes’ tale, “The Knight of the Cart.” Chrétien was the inventor of
Arthurian romance as we know it, and he did much to shape contemporary conceptions of romantic love. Lancelot undertakes a quest to win the queen’s adoration, and for her he suffers humiliation, physical hardship, and exhaustion. He endures many trials during his adventures, but his loyalty to his beloved remains unshaken.
This passage about the mysterious knight depicts the romantic side of knighthood that is probably familiar to most modern readers. Modern readers would also be familiar to portrayals of knights as fierce warriors engaged in bloody battles. Knights are depicted as courageous and athletic, willing to enter dangerous territories and battles with other knights in service of their lords. In fact, real knights were more practical than romantic. They did perform brave feats out of loyalty to their lords during the 1100s, but they were obligated to do so.
Under feudalism, lords granted knights land in exchange for their service during wars.
Knights had to be loyal or they would break the feudal contact with their lords and lose their land. Because inheritance customs at that time dictated that only the eldest born son would inherit his father’s property, all other sons were effectively disenfranchised. For most young men, becoming a knight was the only option open to them unless they wanted to enter into service of the church. Their relationships with others were not governed by any laws, and knights were often ruthless. Kings in the early part of the twelfth century were not yet powerful enough to enforce laws against knightly transgressions, and knights’ misbehavior continued unchecked. Gradually, however, a political and cultural backlash formed to oppose knightly anarchy. As kings began to enjoy more power and influence as a result of booming economic expansion, they were able to afford their own armies, and did not have to rely on knights to protect their territories. Knights, in consequence, became increasingly unnecessary, and their prestige declined.
As a result of their declining reputation, knights found that people whom they used to treat with abandon were less tolerant of their behavior and now had the kings’ laws to protect them. Affluent people of the court also began to expect a higher code of knightly behavior, and began to commission works of literature that depicted knights as thoughtful, generous, and above all, chivalrous toward women. Influential women like Eleanor of Aquitaine—who was the duchess of Normandy and then the queen of England—patronized the arts and encouraged writers to pen romantic stories of knights and other young men in love.
The troubadours—or traveling storytellers—helped to popularize courtly love. Other writers, like Chrétien de Troyes, popularized the notions of chivalry.These depictions in stories and songs helped set a standard for behavior that real knights were encouraged to live up to.