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American musical

Mack & Mabel is a musical with a book by Michael Stewart and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. The plot involves the tumultuous romantic relationship between Hollywood director Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand (transformed from an artist's model to a waitress from Flatbush, Brooklyn for the musical), who became one of his biggest stars. In a series of flashbacks, Sennett relates the glory days of Keystone Studios from 1911, when he discovered Normand and cast her in dozens of his early "two reelers", through his creation of Sennett's Bathing Beauties and the Keystone Cops to Mabel's death from tuberculosis in 1930. The original 1974 Broadway production produced by David Merrick starred Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters. It received eight Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical, but did not win any. There was no nomination for Jerry Herman's score. Although the original production closed after only eight weeks, the songs were praised, and subsequent productions, especially in Britain, have had success.

Edwin Lester, the director of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, suggested the project to Jerry Herman, who then involved Michael Stewart. David Merrick agreed to produce, and Gower Champion was engaged to direct and choreograph. Although Champion had initially declined the offer, he eventually accepted, especially when it was decided to hold the pre Broadway tryouts in California. Robert Preston was hired as Mack. For the role of Mabel, several actresses were engaged and then let go, including Marcia Rodd and Kelly Garrett, before the young Bernadette Peters finally joined the cast.

Mack and Mabel opened in pre Broadway tryouts in San Francisco on June 17, 1974 and then Los Angeles, with brisk box office sales in both cities. According to The New York Times, " 'Mack and Mabel' has been doing rather better than its probable guarantee [in Los Angeles] – up to $150,000 in its final seven day period." The musical received reviews that ranged "from fair to phenomenal in San Diego, Los Angeles, and St. Louis". Champion devised a number of eye catching visual effects and spectacular dance sequences set to Philip J. Lang's orchestrations, but their brightness proved to be too great a contrast with the somber mood of the piece. His concept of setting the action in the corner of a huge studio soundstage created problems with the set and limited the staging to the extent that it was seen as static and boring. Audiences "were not ready for a down beat saga about a cocaine sniffing movie queen." Efforts were made to resolve the problems at The Muny in St. Louis, where the musical ran for one week starting August 19, 1974, but this venue was a "terrible mistake". Because The Muny was so large, the performers overplayed and pulled the show out of shape. By the Washington, D. C. Kennedy Center engagement, "nothing was working", and Champion changed the staging of scenes that had previously worked. Richard Coe in his review for The Washington Post stated that it had landed at the Kennedy Center "with all the zip of a wet, very dead flounder." Despite only fair reviews Despite its failure, the show has developed a cult following.

+RoleBroadway(1975)Original West End(1995)West End Revival(2006)UK Tour(2015)Mack Sennett Robert Preston Howard McGillin David Soul Michael BallMabel Normand Bernadette Peters Caroline O'Connor Janie Dee Rebecca LaChanceLottie Ames Lisa Kirk Kathryn Evans Sarah Whittuck Anna Jane CaseyWilliam Desmond Taylor James Mitchell Ray Scott Johnson Richard Brightiff Mark InscoeKleiman (Adam Kessell) Tom Batten Graham Hubbard Robert Pirongs Timothy QuinlanFox (Charles O. Baumann) Bert Michaels Alan Mosley Jon Trenchard Alex GianniniFrank Wyman (Frank Capra) Jerry Dodge Jonathan D. Ellis Tomm Coles Gunnar CautheryFatty (Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle) Christopher Murney Phillip Herbert Matthew Woodyatt Jack Edwards

The Broadway reviews were only fair. Walter Kerr, in his review for The New York Times wrote, "I have rarely seen so much talent so dispirited as the creative souls peering through the gloom at the Majestic librettist Michael Stewart has chosen to lean on the myth of Mack and Mabel, let the mysteries stand, invented no emotional line." He wrote of Gower Champion, "A choreographer ought to be able to do something with bodies. Mr. Champion doesn't set about his task that way [he] has not only avoided dance as a means of intimating a difficult kind of comedy, he has been stingy and even sluggish with the footwork that does crop up to decorate the songs. Production values everywhere are minimal." He noted that "Robert Preston's personal dynamism isn't diminished, it's just restively lying in wait for the solid meat he could handle if only there were a good provider around" and that "Miss Peters is close to touching in her quiet reminder that what Mr. Preston started in 1911 may be over and done with in 1923."