#blitzstein

Muriel Smith sings Marc Blitzstein's setting of Shakespeare's Orpheus Song (1938)

While not exactly Halloween-themed, there is nothing more horrifying in all of dramatic literature than watching Regina Giddens sit silent and still as her husband Horace dies from a heart attack, begging her to bring him his life-saving medicine.  Greed has over-taken the shrewd leading character in Lillian Hellman's 1939 melodrama “The Little Foxes,” set in the deep south at the turn of the last century. Fast forward a decade and Hellman is both flattered and bewildered when composer Marc Blitzstein asks permission to set her play to music.  Hellman never thought of music when writing the play and isn't sure how it might improve upon it.  Bltizstein, a politcally-motivated composer who came to fame with his pro-union musical “The Cradle Will Rock,” sees her play as an anti-capitalist statement.  Hellman relents and the resulting work is a cross between opera and musical theatre called “Regina.” Early on Hellman isn't satisfied with some of his choices and asks that certain material be cut.  Blitzstein complies.  His producer Cheryl Crawford feels the work is two long and asks it be reduced from three acts to two.  Blitzstein complies.  The finished product finally appears on this date in 1949 at the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rogers).  It stars Russell Nype in his Broadway debut and Jane Pickens in the title role.  In the ensemble is dancer Onna White, who goes on to choreograph such Broadway hits as “The Music Man,” “Mame,” and “1776.”  The reviews are mixed and neither Hellman nor Blitzstein are completely pleased with the outcome. It closes by year's end with just 56 performances to its credit. Ten years later the piece is re-worked to the satisfaction of the playwright, but not the composer.  “Regina” would be re-worked again after Blitzstein's death by Leonard Bernstein, who made a promise to “fix” the work for Blitzstein. Bernstein did do extensive revisions, but sadly those 'fixes' were only performed after his own death.  Today the piece has been mainly in the hands of opera companies, who cointinue to try to find the 'perfect' “Regina.”