Carmen Jones

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the musical, for the film adaptation see Carmen Jones (film)

Carmen Jones
Music	Georges Bizet
Lyrics	Oscar Hammerstein II
Book	Oscar Hammerstein II
Based upon	Georges Bizet opera Carmen Novella Carmen by Prosper Mérimée
Productions	1943 Broadway 1954 film 1991 Old Vic

Carmen Jones was a 1943 Broadway musical, later made into a 1954 musical film; the play also ran for a season in 1991 at London's Old Vic and most recently in London's Royal Festival Hall in the South Bank Centre in 2007^[1]. It is an updating of the Georges Bizet opera Carmen in an African-American setting. (Bizet's opera was, in turn, based on the 1846 novella by Prosper Mérimée.) The Broadway musical was produced by Billy Rose, using an all-black cast. Oscar Hammerstein II wrote the book (dialogue) and lyrics, but stuck rather closely to Bizet's original music, which was re-orchestrated for a Broadway orchestra by Robert Russell Bennett.

The original Broadway cast were nearly all new to the stage; Kennedy and Muir write that on the first day of rehearsal only one member of the cast had ever been on a stage before.^[2]

The latest incarnation of the musical is currently running at the Royal Festival Hall in London up until the second of September.

The 1954 film was adapted by Hammerstein and Harry Kleiner. It was directed by Otto Preminger and starred Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte.

1 Plot
2 Music
3 Songs
4 See also
5 External links
6 Notes
7 References

[edit] Plot

Parachute maker Carmen Jones makes a play for a "fly boy" airforce man Joe, who is in love with sweet Cindy Lou and about to marry her on a day pass when Carmen gets into a cat fight and stabs another woman.

Joe's pass is cancelled in order for him to drive her to the next town to be handed over to the non-military police. Instead, she charms and seduces him; and he is court-martialed for not delivering her to the authorities.

While she waits for Joe to be released from military prison, she hangs around Billy Pastor's jive cafe where she encounters boxer Husky Miller, who is instantly besotted with Carmen, calling her "heatwave".

She is initially uninterested. But her friends Frankie and Mert know that their invitation from Husky's manager to see him fight in Chicago depend on Carmen being there too.

Then Joe turns up at the cafe, but gets into a fight with a sergeant. The train tickets to Chicago offer them a way of avoiding the MPs. After a few days holed up with no money and no future with Joe, Carmen gets itchy feet and pays a visit to her two friends, now covered in diamonds and furs, at Husky's training camp.

There, Frankie reads her cards, and reveals the Nine of Spades - the card of Death. In the belief that her days are numbered, she gives in to Husky's advances and the luxurious life he can offer, and abandons Joe.

Cindy Lou comes to look for Joe, but he is still in love with Carmen and spurns Cindy Lou. The night of Husky's title fight, Joe turns up to try and convince Carmen to come back to him, but when she rejects him, he kills her, thus making the cards' prophecy a reality.

[edit] Music

Although Oscar Hammerstein II translated the libretto for Georges Bizet's opera Carmen from French into English for his Broadway production, "The music was pretty much left intact," explains Arts and Entertainment Editor Elisabeth Vincentelli, "but Hammerstein transferred the action to WWII America. Carmen's tobacco factory became Carmen Jones' parachute factory, bullfighter Escamillo became boxer Husky Miller, and so on. As if this weren't enough, there also was the 'small' detail of casting the show only with African-Americans."

Vincentellli goes on to say, "Hammerstein's attempt at writing 'black' hasn't aged all that well, but many of the show's songs retain a surprising impact. The feverish intensity of 'Beat Out dat Rhythm on a Drum,' for instance, hasn't dimmed over the years, and the song's been covered by a wide variety of performers, from Pearl Bailey and Marc Almond to Mandy Patinkin." The majority of the actors performing the songs in the film Carmen Jones were dubbed. Even Harry Belafonte, the singer famous for "The Banana Boat Song," was dubbed with LeVern Hutcherson, and Dorothy Dandridge was dubbed by Marilyn Horne long before the singer became famous.

[edit] Songs

The Broadway production Carmen Jones features the following songs:

Overture
Lift 'Em Up and Put 'Em Down (Sur la place, chacun passe in Bizet's original opera)
Dat's Love (Habanera in Bizet's opera)
You Talk Just like My Maw (Parle-moi de ma mère in Bizet's opera)
Dere's a Cafe on de Corner (Seguidilla in Bizet's opera)
Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum (Gypsy Song in Bizet's opera)
Stan' Up and Fight (Toreador Song, also known as March of the Toreadors in Bizet's opera
Whizzin' Away Along de Track (Quintet in Bizet's opera)
Dis Flower (Flower Song in Bizet's opera)
De Cards Don't Lie (Card Song in Bizet's opera)
My Joe (Micaela's Air in Bizet's opera)
Dat's Our Man (Les voici in Bizet's opera)