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FROM THE DESK OFTIM SANFORDDEAR FRIENDS,The guidelines of our literary departmentstate that we do not accept dramatic adaptationsfrom other sources, except for musicals.As a writer’s theater, we often findthe authorial voice becomes commingledor overshadowed by the originating writerin straight adaptations. But the form ofthe musical theater is essentially synthetic(made, not observed) and depends on thecollaborative synergy of its creators to comeinto being. The best musicals find theiroriginality and their voice through transformation.It usually behooves the creatorsto steer clear of widely known or belovednovels or films where an audience mighthave firmly held preconceptions about thesource. Musicals based on somewhat moreobscure sources usually provide the creatorsmore artistic leeway.Far From Heaven hardly qualifies as an obscurefilm, having won several NY Film CriticsAwards and Academy and Golden GlobeAwards nominations in 2003. But it is alsoa film with a very particular aesthetic, onewhose translation into musical theater formdoes not seem readily apparent. EdwardLachman’s distinctive cinematography featuressuper-saturated color, reminiscentof ’50s style Cinemascope, along with furtive,dramatic shadows, à la Douglas Sirk.The dialogue is tightly wound, rippling upto the edges of melodramatic exposure,but never breaking through. Only ElmerBernstein’s lush, sweeping score limns theoceanic emotions lurking within. But asScott, Michael and Richard discuss in theshort interview contained withinthese pages, one of themost impressive featuresof the film isits transformationalself-consciousness.Todd Haynes lovinglyrecreates theethos of the period,but also imbues itwith modernitythrough itsf r a n ktreatmento fits content. The creators of Far From Heavenstrive for a fidelity to its source, but alsotransform it. Scott Frankel’s expansive,stylish score provides the breadth and colorationsupplied in the film by the cinematography.And Michael Korie’s lyrics crackopen the subtext that aches with its unspokennessin the film. Richard Greenbergsomewhat modestly ascribes his role as acaretaker of tone, and much of his dialogueis lifted verbatim from Haynes’s screenplay,but as the initiator of the project, the importanceof this aesthetic oversight cannot beminimized.I remember running into Richard at the closingnight of Grey Gardens on Broadway. Heseemed ever so slightly abashed to havebeen caught waiting until the last minute,but he also seemed uncharacteristically excitedto see it. It seems to me the seeds forFar From Heaven might have been plantedthat night. The two pieces are sharply different.Cathy Whitaker seems about as unlikea character as Edie Beale as possible.And the conformism that dominates FarFrom Heaven seemed an unattainable mirageeven in the imagined first act of GreyGardens. But both musicals take a wide-angledview of American culture, keenly awareof the seismic shifts that have been and continueto rattle our foundations of class, race,gender, and psychological identity.Far From Heaven is one of the most ambitiousartistic undertakings we have everproduced. I am grateful to The Andrew W.Mellon Foundation for its monumental supportof it, to Kelli O’Hara for her long-standingcommitment to it, and to Michael Greiffor his sure-handed stewardship of it fromits earliest stages.Tim SanfordArtistic DirectorThe Mainstage Bulletin isgenerously funded, in part, by theLIMAN FOUNDATION.American Airlines is the official airlinesponsor of <strong>Playwrights</strong> <strong>Horizons</strong>.CASTINGUPDATE (AS OF 3/1)Marinda AndersonFIRST ROW, LEFT TO RIGHTJ.B. ADAMS BROADWAY: Parade, Beauty and the Beast, Me and MyGirl, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. FILM: Far From Heaven.MARINDA ANDERSON Off-Broadway debut.NANCY ANDERSON BROADWAY: Wonderful Town, A Class Act.OFF-BROADWAY: Fanny Hill (York Theatre, Drama Desk Nomination).QUINCY TYLER BERNSTINE BROADWAY: In the Next Room. OFF-BROADWAY: Neva (The Public); Love, Loss, and What I Wore (WestsideArts); Dreams of Flying, Dreams of Falling (Atlantic); Family Week(MCC); Ruined (MTC); The Misanthrope (NYTW).SECOND ROW, LEFT TO RIGHTJUSTIN SCOTT BROWN Off-Broadway debut.James MoyeKOREY JACKSON OFF BROADWAY: Wild With Happy (The Public).TV: “Homeland,” “Law & Order: SVU.”JAMES MOYE BROADWAY: Million Dollar Quartet, Urinetown. OFF-BROADWAY: Dogfight (Second Stage); Silence! The Musical; Happiness(Lincoln Center Theater).KELLI O’HARA BROADWAY: Nice Work If You Can Get It (Tony nomination),South Pacific (Tony nomination), The Pajama Game (Tony nomination),The Light in the Piazza (Tony nomination). OFF-BROADWAY:King Lear (The Public); Bells Are Ringing (City Center Encores!). FILM:Sex and the City 2.THIRD ROW, LEFT TO RIGHTSARAH JANE SHANKS BROADWAY: Wonderful Town. OFF-BROAD-WAY: Unlock’d (NYMF, Barrow Group); Applause (City Center Encores!);Bye, Bye, Birdie (City Center Encores!). TV: “Law & Order: SVU.”MARY STOUT PH: Cather County. BROADWAY: Beauty and the Beast,Jane Eyre. FILM: Sweet and Lowdown, Aladdin, The Hunchback of NotreDame.MEET THE TEAMDuring the run of Far From Heaven, post-performance discussionswith the creative team have been scheduled forthe following dates:Sunday, May 12 following the matineeFriday, May 17Wednesday, May 22These discussions are an important aspect of our playdevelopment process. We hope you can take part!
MAKING IT THEIR OWN:AN INTERVIEW WITH THE CREATORS OF FAR FROM HEAVENHow did the three of you decide to work together on this musical?RICHARD GREENBERG: Scott called me. I’d really liked Grey Gardens and he suggestedwe work together.SCOTT FRANKEL: I’ve known Rich for a gazillion years, and we talked about wantingto work together on a project. Far From Heaven was Rich’s idea; and when hefirst proposed it, I knew immediately that it was the right one!Why Far From Heaven?RG: We went to the diner to talk about ideas. It popped out. Weirdly, I’d been tryingto think of something to work on with another composer for months and this hadnever occurred to me. It turned out Scott loved the movie as much as I did.MICHAEL KORIE: In New York, it’s always the right time for a musical about repressedhomosexuality, spousal abuse, and racial politics. Now is particularly theright time because in a stealthy way it’s about today. My goal is to create musicalsabout the America we live in but without making it obvious. The audience at firstbelieves it’s seeing a period piece. Then the realization creeps up, ‘Oh, this all stillhappens!’What was your first experience with the source material? Watching the film forthe first time, did you immediately have an impulse to translate it for the stage?MK: I first saw the film in a movie theater when it came out. It never occurred tome that it was a potential musical. But when Richard suggested making a musicalof it, it made sense to me because so much of the film’s emotional impact washeightened by the almost continuous film score. The film used it as a stylistic device– and since musicals are all stylization, it was a short leap to putting lyrics intothe characters’ voices.SF: When the film first came out, I saw it in Chelsea with an audience that seemedto be comprised of savvy cinéastes well-schooled in the Douglas Sirk canon. Theywere completely simpatico with Todd Haynes’ vision – and how he was bending anddeconstructing the source material. Some months later, I was visiting my grandmotherin Cleveland – and I took her to see the movie. She was completely grippedby the plot, the melodrama and the storytelling – and was much less conscious ofthe filmic references and devices.RG: My impulse was to see the movie again.Was it difficult to get the rights to the property?SF: First, I approached ChristineVachon, the producer ofthe movie and also the headof Killer Films. I made my casethat Far From Heaven couldwork as a stage musical – andthen she put me in touch withTodd. I am a tremendous fanof his work, going all the wayback to Superstar: The KarenCarpenter Story. So I went outto Portland, Oregon, where helives – and after some livelyconversation, a delicious seafooddinner and a few roundsof cocktails, we had a meetingof the minds and he gave hisblessing.You’ve all made adaptations before. What were the unique demands presentedby Far From Heaven?RG: I guess it was approximating the style, which is almost ineffable. It more-orlessused camp techniques – that kind of hyper-noticing – for non-camp ends.SF: Todd’s screenplay is marvelously constructed: taut and coiled; enormouslysatisfying. When you have that kind of pre-existing architecture in place, it makesthe process of adaptation much smoother. Unlike, say, with Grey Gardens, whichdoesn’t have a traditionally ordered narrative – so we had to discover a very particulartwo-act organizing structure for the musical.MK: Finding the right tone was the biggest challenge in writing the lyrics. GreyGardens had larger-than-life characters, always ‘on stage’ in their minds, and sothey sang bravura show-stopping turns. Cathy and Raymond and Frank speak directly,without artifice, without show-biz. And they are naïve, not yet aware of thenature of the problems they face. Their conflicts with the world around them dawnon them gradually, and can’t be explicated neatly in what theater songwriters referto as an “I Am” or an “I Want” song. Whoever they are and whatever they wantisn’t clear to them at first, and is about to change. Each of their mini-scores withinthe overall score moves continuously towards self-understanding, and has its ownmusical characteristics – a leitmotif. In some ways, it’s a musical constructed like athrough-composed opera even though there is spoken dialogue and the music isin popular song form.What comes first? Music? Lyrics? Text?RG: The movie. Really, the movie. Choosing what to musicalize and what to savefrom the screenplay and then bridging when necessary. I would have been happynot to write a single original line because I find the screenplay’s tone so unerring. Insome ways, I’m only freely diverging now.MK: Most of the time, Scott and I bounce ideas back and forth, come up with a title,some music, some lyrics, some more music, some different lyrics, and pretty soonthere’s a song. I needed a medical procedure that took me out of commission fornearly a year. ‘The show must go on,’ so Scott wrote almost the entire score, musicfirst, and imagined what the words might be in his head. It turned out to be the bestway to write the score to this show. All except for one song, all of the songs in thescore are ‘music first.’SF: I had particular ideas for song moments, song ideas –hunches, first impulses – and just went with my visceral takeson a lot of them.PHOTOS BY ZACK DEZONThe visual language of the filmmakes reference to an earliercinematic style, drawing inspirationfrom the films of DouglasSirk. How do you echo acinematic choice in anothermedium?RG: You don’t. There’s no wayof coming into relation with,say, an earlier model of musicalcomedy in the way that the filmdid with Sirk. We can’t suddenlybase it on South Pacific orsomething. We’ve had to makepeace with that.(CONTINUED ON PAGE 4)MICHAEL KORIE RICHARD GREENBERG SCOTT FRANKEL
Page 4 and 5: MAKING IT(CONT’D FROM PAGE 3)MK:
Page 6 and 7: HELPFUL INFORMATIONCONTACT INFO & H
Page 8: 416 West 42nd Street • New York,

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