RICHARDFAWKESThe Historyof The MusicalREAD BY KIMCRISWELL 4 Cassettes/ 4 Compact DiscsNON-FICTIONUNABRIDGEDAUDIO-ORIGINALNA422714 /NA422712 THE MUSICAL – A SINGER’S PERSPECTIVEKim Criswell I can’tremember a time when I wasn’t in love with musical theater. Mind you, it wasn’ta particularly easy obsession to acquire, growing up as I did in the AmericanDeep South. It was to be many years before I made it to New York to see myfirst Broadway show, but nevertheless, by the time I was five years old, I washooked. Like many others, I fell in love with musical theater through filmmusicals, recordings, television specials, and the yearly school play. I can stillremember how excited I was the first time I saw the film version of ‘The Soundof Music’ (and what I would have given to be one of those Von Trapp children!).That LP never left the turntable, unless it was to put on my other favorite:‘Mary Poppins’. I had never seen anyone as extraordinary as Julie Andrews; Ispent most of my formative years trying to sound exactly like her. This wasjust great by my parents – she was a terrific role model for a little girl, youcould just tell she was ‘nice’, and what lovely diction she had! It didbecome a little strange, however, when I finally got to play my dream role(Maria Von Trapp) in the school play when I was 15. Although my Julieimpersonation was pretty darn good when I was singing, it was alarming to hearme segue to a thick Tennessee twang for all the spoken lines. It was apeculiarly schizophrenic interpretation, and a performance that only a mothercould love. By that ageI had of course found many other fabulous stars to admire and emulate. JudyGarland, Barbra Streisand, Ethel Merman, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers, MaryMartin, Jimmy Cagney, Cyd Charisse, Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera, Gene Kelly,Shirley MacLaine, Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones: they all kept me spellboundwhen they were on the silver screen or TV. For some reason I didn’t notice howridiculous it was to dream of a career in musical theater – I figured,everybody has to come from somewhere, and why can’t a Broadway star come fromChattanooga, Tennessee? At 15, Ihad my first big break – I was hired to sing and dance in a theme park show atSix Flags Over Georgia in Atlanta. As it turned out, it was a wonderfultraining ground. Not only was I singing show tunes, surrounded by othermusical-theater-mad kids like myself, I was also introduced to the disciplineof doing the same show over and over again – we regularly did five half-hourshows a day, and sometimes did as many as ten. I couldn’t help developing someof the skills that I would later need when I found myself playing the same roleeight times a week for a year and a half. I also found out, the hard way, thatmy vocal cords were not made of cast iron, and there is always a price to bepaid when you push yourself too far. That lesson turned out to be extremelyimportant in later years. By the timeI was ready to make decisions about college, my mind was absolutely made up: Iwanted to study musical theater. I was accepted into one of the first, andbest, degree programs in the US for such training: the CincinnatiCollege-Conservatory of Music’s Opera-Musical Theater program. It turned out tobe four years of musical theater saturation: acting, voice, piano, dance(ballet, jazz, tap), stage crew, costume crew, makeup, theater history, musictheory, sight singing, and vocal coaching. Coaching was the most beneficialclass of all for me, because it was where we were taught (forced, sometimes) tosing and act at the same time, and were encouraged to stop imitating others andfigure out what we had that was unique and special. This was where I had to saygood-bye to Miss Andrews, which was just as well – I was starting to lookrather more like Miss Merman, with a personality to match. It was an incredibleenvironment to learn in, and was probably the most competitive situation I haveever encountered. We did two major and several minor productions every year,and the audition process was much more nerve-wracking than any Broadway or WestEnd audition I can remember. Duringspring break of my senior year, I finally made it to New York and my firstBroadway show. A group of us went up from school, and we saw nine shows inseven days. It’s all a blur now (it was even a blur then) but I do remember thethrill of seeing ‘Sweeney Todd’ in previews – and Angela Lansbury in person! Iwas in heaven. Upon graduation, there was really no choice to be made – it wasNew York or bust. Afterspending the summer in the chorus at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera (where we didsix musicals in seven weeks), I was a member of Actor’s Equity and couldn’twait to head for New York. My friend George and I packed our things and drove arented truck to the Big Apple, where he already had an apartment and needed aroommate. Then came the business of trying to get a job. Of course we didn’thave agents yet, so we had to go to the dreaded open calls. That meant gettingin line at some hideous morning hour, just to sign a list, which then meant youcould come back and audition a few hours later. They also had a particularlybarbaric system called ‘typing out’. When you finally got in the door, oftenthey would line up a group of you and go down the line saying, ‘Yes, yes, no,no, no, yes, no, no!’ – based on nothing other that what you looked like. Ifound out the hard way that I was not the chorus type: I was never, never typedin. Still, it was always a thrill to walk into an audition room and see, behindthe table, the very people that I had studied in college – Hal Prince, TommyTune, Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim, Jule Styne, Jerry Herman,Andrew Lloyd Webber! Despite myapparent lack of chorus suitability, I managed slowly but surely to getauditions and work. My first job was a dinner theater production of ‘Kismet’,where I was in the chorus but understudied the lead. Then I found myself castin the chorus of ‘Annie’ in the 3rd National touring company (the show was sosuccessful that there were five US companies at that time). One thing led toanother, I found an agent, I did my first Broadway show (‘The First’- a flop),then my second Broadway show (‘Nine’- a hit!). Things have continued from there until I find myself whereI am today: living in London, sometimes doing eight shows a week in the WestEnd, sometimes recording yet another musical theater album, most commonlysinging musical theater music in concert in venues the world over. This musicis finding new fans every day – I have found myself doing concerts in places asfar flung as Iceland, Italy, Israel and Brazil, and the reception is alwaysenthusiastic for what is to many of them a new kind of music. It has certainlystood the test of time, and continues to change almost daily in a multitude offascinating ways. I can’t wait to see what this millennium of musical theaterwill bring! KIM CRISWELL is one of the most excitingperformers of our time. She has appeared extensively in musicals on Broadway,Los Angeles and London’s West End. She won a Helen Hayes Award for Side bySide by Sondheimand an Olivier nomination for Annie Get Your Gun. She has made over 25 recordingsincluding Annie Get Your Gun, Wonderful Town (with Simon Rattle), TheLorelei, Anything Goes, On the Town, The Slow Drag and her TER solo album Back toBefore. Her recitalduo with Wayne Marshall is internationally acclaimed through performancesthroughout Europe including La Scala, Milan. RICHARDFAWKES is afreelance writer and film director. He wrote the multiple award winning TheHistory of Classical Music and The History of Opera for Naxos AudioBooks and is a regular contributor to OperaNow, BBC Music Magazine and Classical Music. He has written several books on opera, including a historyof opera on film. He has also written the librettos for two operas one ofwhich, Survival Song, was nominated for an Olivier Award. His credits as a film directorinclude The Original Three Tenors, a documentary about Caruso, Gigli and Bjorling.