"They passed Coborn and Lif as they went; Coborn looked like she’d been crying, and Ka’harja suddenly felt very sorry for her as Lif quietly led her back to the caravans."

ONESHOT NPCS - DEAD

Lost Child

Name: Tess

Race: Tiefling

Age: 14

Gender:  Female

Height: 5′3″

Weight: 30kg

Seeking: Mother

Bar-Owner and Bar-Hand

Name: Foren | Gezzert

Race: Human | Half-Elf

Age: 42 | 29

Gender: Female | Male

Height: 5′6″ | 6′0″

Weight: 50kg | 70kg

Job: Bar-Owner | Bar-Hand

Two Mercenaries

Name: Korok | Henriete

Race: Goliath | Tiefling

Age: 33 | 35

Gender: Male | Female

Height: 7″4″ | 5′9″

Weight: 130kg | 80kg

Class: Fighter | Bard

Travelling Band

Name: The Azure Reeds - Cerulean | Ardun | Brax | Harry Derringer

Race: Human | Half-Elf | Gnome | Tiefling

Age: 23 | 25 | 30 | 26

Gender: Male | Female | Male | Male

Height: 5′6″ | 5′8″ | 4′0″ | 6′0″

Weight: 40kg | 45kg | 30kg | 48kg

Job: Travelling Band

Wandering Drunk

Name: Coborn

Race: Drow

Age: 33

Gender: Male

Height: 6′0″

Weight: 78kg

Cabaret – Music Hall and Character Songs

The focus of this week was British Music Hall and Character songs. Each group was given the sheet music for a popular tune of the period and told to create a performance. There were no boundaries as to what we could create and our performances could include everything from, acting, singing, dance, costume and make- up, video and other medias.

Research and context

Our group was given, The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo. The song was originally written in April 1892 by Fred Gilbert but was later popularised by the famous music hall star Charles Coborn. Coborn was born Colin Whitton McCallum and adopted the stage name ‘Coborn’ from Coborn Road near Mile End where he was born. After a short period of working for a metal broker in the City of London, Coborn pursued his childhood passion of amateur dramatics and starting haunting the music halls of London in order to learn the songs of the leading comedians of the day. Eventually his perseverance paid off and he was employed two nights a week at the Alhambra Music Hall. Whilst at the Alhambra he undertook many roles including, vocalist, delivering recitals, manager and chairman. In October 1879, Coborn auditioned for the Oxford Music Hall, who engaged him for six months. He was billed as "The Comic of the Day". Throughout his long and successful career, he was most renowned for two comic songs, Two Lovely Black Eyes (which he adapted in 1886 from the song My Nellie’s Blue Eyes) and The Man Who Broke The Bank at Monte Carlo. The latter was originally bought for ten pounds, but the rights were eventually sold for six hundred pounds. Coborn later confessed that he had sung the song over 250,000 times and in at least fourteen different languages.

The inspiration behind the song came from the true story of a man called Charles Wells.

http://www.jackpot.co.uk/online-casino-articles/gambling-legends-charles-wells.html

Not only was Wells the inspiration for Gilbert’s song and the key to Coborn’s success, he was also the influence behind Stephen R. Roberts’ 1935 film also titled The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo (dir. Roberts, 1935) It starred Ronald Colman as Paul Gallard, a refugee Russian Prince who’s down on his luck until he wins big at the casino and Joan Bennett as the beautiful Helen Berkeley, who’s given the task by a sinister Colin Clive to lure Gallard back into the casino so he can lose all his money again.

http://www.answers.com/topic/the-man-who-broke-the-bank-at-monte-carlo

Ideas and Brainstorm

       I.            Bring the song up to date by having the protagonist brandishing a cheque instead of notes of money.

    II.            Girls could dosey doe with protagonist and steal the cheque only to tear it up into confetti in a symbolic representation of the money disappearing.

 III.            Once the cheque is shredded the girls become uninterested.

 IV.            Instead of the obvious Monte Carlo, change the riches from money to women therefore making the ‘man’ a renowned seedy old man and that’s why people in the street stare at him.

    V.            Re-write some of the lyrics. Each verse could represent a new era showing Cabaret through the ages.

 VI.            Bring it up to date with the current economic crisis and bank dilemma instead of the Casino term – breaking the bank.

VII.            Use Monte Carlo dice, cards and chips and Monopoly money

VIII.         Use a cane to smack girls’ bottoms.

 IX.            Girls could have writing on their bottoms and the cane is a pointing tool instead of sexual toy. 

    X.            Protagonist similar to Charlie Chaplin

 XI.            Girls similar to Moulin Rouge girls – cancan skirts, feather fans, feather boas, bright colours.

XII.            Katie represents the ‘man’ and Rachel Dunston, Rachel McSorley and I as the girls in his life.

XIII.            Is he really a millionaire or is it all in his head?

XIV.            Tails suit jacket. Jacket slung over shoulder. Pulls out empty pockets. He’s a fake.

Final Concept  

After carefully considering each idea from our brainstorm the group made the decision to create a PowerPoint presentation as a visual illustration of our song. The video included simple symbolic images to help invoke the audience’s imagination. However, whilst making the presentation I encountered several problems. One such example was the line, ‘As I walk along the Bois Boolong’. This line caused problems as I was unsure of the French translation for ‘Bois Boolong’. After much research I discovered that it meant ‘tree lined walk’ and the line was denoted by an image of a tree-lined avenue.

As a result of creating the PowerPoint presentation, which included a computer animated character of the ‘man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo’; the physical character Katie had created was now superfluous. Therefore she became another ‘girl’ for the ‘man’ to enchant with his wealth. The original idea was developed to include our lecturer as the ‘man’ thus following one of Cabaret’s oldest traditions of audience inclusion.

Another element of the performance which was changed was the lyrics. In the original version the ‘man’ refers to himself in the first person using ‘I’ and ‘me’. However, as we had made the decision to sing about the ‘man’ and not as him we simply changed the lyrics to ‘he’ and ‘him’. This brought an aspect of tittle-tattle to the piece which changed the context of the song from a man boosting about his wealth to a group a women mocking and taking advantage of him. It was whilst I practised the new lines that I encountered another problem. The original recording by Charles Coborn had a very low and deep vocal so I set about finding a more accessible recording. Frankie Laine’s recording was perfect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEqGgjhTAO0   

A Reflective look back at the Performance

The piece was performed on Tuesday 5th October. Overall the performance was a success. If I were to do the exercise again the only aspect I would change would be the sound levels of the backing track. During my performance this sometimes drowned out the lyrics. However, the juxtaposition of the modern PowerPoint, together with the traditional elements of the performance, such as the lyrics and audience inclusion, highlighted the timeless quality of Cabaret and hopefully brought a new twist to the genre. 

Referencing

YouTube

markalson1938. (June 4th 2010) YouTube – Frankie Laine – The Man Who Broke The Bank At Monte Carlo: Retrieved 16th October 2010 from YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEqGgjhTAO0   

jozefsterkens2. (January 5th 2011) YouTube – Charlie Coborn, The Man Who Broke The Bank At Monte Carlo – 1933 Footage: Retrieved 14th January 2011 from YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0HQs7AMryw

  Bibliography

Gambling Legends, 2006, [ONLINE] [ACCESSED] 16th October 2010. Available from the World Wide Web - http://www.jackpot.co.uk/online-casino-articles/gambling-legends-charles-wells.html

The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo, 2010, [ONLINE] [ACCESSED] 16th October 2010. Available from the World Wide Web - http://www.answers.com/topic/the-man-who-broke-the-bank-at-monte-carlo

Coborn Picture, 2010, [ONLINE] [ACCESSED] 16th October 2010. Available from the World Wide Web - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1892_Charles_Coborn.jpg

Coborn Poster, 2010, [ONLINE] [ACCESSED] 16th October 2010. Available from the World Wide Web - http://www.melodylane.net/whitestar.html

The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo, 2010, [ONLINE] [ACCESSED] 16th October 2010. Available from the World Wide Web - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cd/ManWhoBrokeBankAtMonteCarlo.jpg

Filmography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1892_Charles_Coborn.jpg – Coborn in character

http://www.melodylane.net/whitestar.html - Coborn Poster

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cd/ManWhoBrokeBankAtMonteCarlo.jpg - Film