WEBVTT - 5: Dolores Onstage 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:04.320 Trigger warning. This podcast involves discussions of child sexual abuse 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:11.720 and pedophilia. Listener discretion is advised. Alan Jay Lerner didn't 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:15.760 need to take suggestions from his assistant. He was Alan 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.560 Jay Learner. He was a Broadway legend. He had written 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:23.800 lyrics and librettos for huge musicals like My Fair Lady 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:26.920 for Camelot, for Brigade Doone. I don't know what Brigade 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:29.560 Dooon is, he wrote it. He'd worked in movies doing 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:33.000 the music with collaborator Frederick Lowe for Gigi, and he 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:37.239 wrote An American in Paris. But those hits were a 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:41.360 while back now, and it was the nineteen seventies. Learner's 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:44.040 work didn't fit as well into the Broadway culture at 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.000 the seventies. It kicked off hits that had overwhelmed New 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:48.920 York in a culture shifting way in the mid to 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:52.959 late sixties into the early seventies were sexy, edgy stuff 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:57.800 like Hair and Cabaret and Company. And by nineteen seventy one, 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:01.280 God's Bell and Jesus Christ super Star. You know, the 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:06.319 sexy Jesus musicals. Broadway was getting horny, and Alan Jay 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:10.679 Lerner was not a horny lyricist. His work was pretty traditional, 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:15.399 featuring heavy costumes and straightforward love stories with catchy burst 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:18.640 into song hits, and now that luster was wearing off. 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:22.520 His last two shows were nominated for a handful of Tony's, 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:25.400 but they were not the smash, financial and culture defining 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.640 hits he'd had with Low up through Camelot in nineteen 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:32.440 sixty the chased Alan jay Lerner needed to get with 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:38.080 the times. He needed to listen to his assistant. I 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:40.919 think you see where this is going. His assistant wanted 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:45.200 him to adapt Lolita by Vladimir Tobakov, and I quickly 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:47.520 want to give a huge shout out to one of 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:51.080 the top keepers of Lolita history, writer Sarah Weinman, who 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:53.280 we talked to last week for collecting a lot of 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:57.440 this information on the musical back in article for Vulture, 0:01:57.520 --> 0:01:59.840 which I will link in the show notes. So did 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:05.800 Alan j Lerner understand Lolita? Uh? I think that the 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:08.480 story of Lolita is much more pertinent now than when 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:11.600 the film was made. Humbard is such a tragic, flawed 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:15.480 and misplaced romantic lost in post World War two. They're 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:18.200 countless men like him over forty who find it impossible 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:20.440 to wake up in the morning and not blink once 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:24.680 or twice at the life facing them. Oh, absolutely incredible. 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:27.760 Do you ever just hear how any person who has 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:30.680 ever adapted this book talks about the story and your 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:34.760 head just like explodes like that scene in Scanners. I can't. 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:40.440 It's unbelievable. But okay, who's collaborating on this with Mr Lerner? 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:45.080 It's a composer named John Barry, a suave Englishman most 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:47.720 famous for writing the theme song to James Bond. He 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:51.000 was in his late thirties. To Learners fifty one or 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:55.520 Is Learner would describe it a contemporary man go off. 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:59.160 Also on Learner's team is producer Norman Twain, who was 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:02.679 notorious in theater and film for being a gigantic personality 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.120 with big hits and bigger misses. For an idea of 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:08.520 what his vibe is, here's a quote pulled from the 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:12.760 Associated Press piece on the auditions for Lolita in nineteen seventy. 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:15.320 We've got to have a girl who makes a man 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:19.560 forget the moral conventions of society, but it's got to 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.600 be a complete mental situation. If Lolita is five ft 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.560 five with a great figure, it would be perfectly normal 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:28.520 for from Bear to go after her. The musical was 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:32.080 to be called Lolita My Love, and it's the last 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:36.160 attempt at an adaptation Vladimir Tobakov would ever sign off 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:39.440 on before his passing in ninety seven. By this time, 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:42.560 he was living in Montro Palace in Switzerland, working on 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:46.120 new novels full time and enjoying the residuals that Lolita 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:49.200 continued to rake in. He is, as he was during 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:52.360 the Kubrick movie, strongly averse to the idea of an 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:55.320 actual twelve year old playing the part night after night, 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:59.960 calling it sinful and immoral. This is, according to ken 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:05.040 Endel bomb book not since Carrie this statement aside, Nabokov 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:07.200 appears to have had all the faith in the world, 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:10.120 and Mr my fair Lady at first saying the following, 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:14.360 Mr Lerner is a most talented and excellent classicist. If 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:16.719 you have to make a musical version of Lolita, he 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.840 is the one to do it well. Keep in mind 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.039 Nabakov also said that about Kubrick two back in the sixties. 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:25.720 So let's see where this goes. Back to those low 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:29.400 La auditions in November nineteen seventy, dozens of girls as 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:32.240 young as ten and oldest twenty one went to the 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.400 Billy Rose Theater to audition for the head Hanchos and 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:39.279 Sarah Whyneman's piece kind of distills the vibe at these auditions. 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:41.960 A thirteen year old audition ee said the following to 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:46.560 a reporter. I wouldn't like to be Lolita, but I'd 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:49.279 still like to play the part. And a lot of 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:52.559 those auditioning legally had to be accompanied by a parent, 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:58.520 and the parents also had takes. There's a wickedness wherever 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:01.320 you go. It's just lucky my daughter only play accit. 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.680 The audition process sounded similar to that of Stanley Koprick 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:08.479 and James B. Harris's a lot of young girls, bodies 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:12.800 being appraised, a lot of extremely personal questions. Don't wear 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:14.960 makeup next time, said one of the producers to a 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:17.960 girl who was auditioning. I wanted to look sexy. The 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:22.159 girl replied, you look sexy anyways, he said, yikes. The 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.360 actor eventually selected for the role of Lolita was named 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:29.120 Annette Farah, now a casting director who goes by Chris Gilmore. 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:31.719 We're gonna be talking to her today and at the time, 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:34.839 she was fifteen years old and from a Los Angeles family. 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.960 More interested in her music career than being Lolita, but 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.080 being offered the lead in an Alan J. Lerner musical 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:45.080 that was grounds to be launched into superstardom, Honey, and 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:47.479 so she jumped at the opportunity and was willing to 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:50.360 relocate to New York from Los Angeles with her sister. 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:52.640 She had had a guest spot on The Brady Bunch 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:55.520 earlier in nineteen seventy and had sung a number of 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:59.000 obscure but very catchy teen hits in the nineteen sixties, 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.080 and had a promise in rear Ahead, including this incredible 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:05.320 B side I found on YouTube. She's saying nineteen seven, 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:19.920 You're a dumb dumb iconic stuff. Everyone go to YouTube 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:22.320 and listen to You're a Dumb dumb. So at fifteen, 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.080 Farah told the Associated Press her take on the story 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:30.640 of Lolita. Oh no, there's nothing dirty about what Humber does. 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.239 It's not a crime. In the ant umbar is cured. 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:38.680 It's just a love story. Interestingly, she had not read 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:41.320 the book at the time of being cast, so this 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:44.880 impression she's sharing is an impression made from the loretto 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:48.960 of the musical. Other leading roles included Dorothy Lowden, as 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:52.280 Charlotte Hayes. She'd later originate the role of Mrs Hannigan 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:56.680 and Annie and as Humbert the Shakespearean actor John Neville. 0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:59.200 He'd also been in the mix for the Cooper adaptation, 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:03.039 and at least physically and in terms of stuffy englishness, 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:05.679 seemed like a good fit for the part. Rehearsals began 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:10.080 with February one previews at the Schubert Theater in Philadelphia. 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:14.679 In mind and producer Norman Twain was hyping it up, 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:19.760 even as things behind the scenes remained very chaotic. As choreography, music, 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:24.320 and story remained in fairly constant flux, Twaine assured local paper, 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:27.840 The Camden Courier Post that Lolita My Love would be 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:32.680 the best thing Alan's ever done, including My Fair Lady, 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:36.360 and that Alan J. Lerner and John Baba Baba Ba 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:39.640 Barry was that funny, okay, that they would be even 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:43.040 better than Learner and Low had been, no better than 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:49.200 Rogers and Hammerstein, no better than Olivia Benson and Elliott Stabler. 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:51.840 I've never watched s VU, but but I thought that 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:55.160 that might hit for people. When asked what Lolita My 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:58.360 Love was like as a show, Twain said the following. 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.640 No contraver see, no nudity, no four letter words, nothing 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:08.360 which compromises the taste of membo. The moral is that 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:13.440 total obsession with anything destroys a person, whether the obsessions 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:16.920 a little girl or a philosophy here. Okay, oh wait, 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:20.880 you've not done. Could I be involved with a nim fete? Yeah? 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.800 It could be, absolutely. There are certain types of girls, 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:28.000 little girls FETs, but all else being equal, would turn 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:31.160 me on if you met them in a motel by chance. 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.160 But I haven't fallen yet. I've been playing it pretty straight. 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:37.640 My wife prefers it that way. So before the short 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:41.160 history of Lolita my Love was complete, the lead a 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:44.520 net Farah would be replaced for reasons we'll discussed today. 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:48.880 The show was completely reworked multiple times, and it had 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:53.000 lost nearly a million dollars in ninety one money in 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:56.160 production costs. A playbill from the show's final run in 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.679 Boston at the Schubert Theater proclaimed a two act sweeping 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:03.320 produce auction that started in Ramsdale with songs like in 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:08.080 the Broken Promised Land of fifteen and Dante, Petrarch and 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:11.319 Poe all the way through Humbert Sweeping Lolita away to 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:16.120 the Betty By Motel and to Beardsley with Quilties, showstopper 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:20.559 March Out of My Life. I'm not kidding. Nabokov never 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:23.920 saw the show. He was enthusiastic at first, but much 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:27.480 like his experience with the Cooper adaptation, his enthusiasm for 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:32.280 the adaptation wilted over time. By October ninety one, he 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:35.480 told The New York Times the following if they're going 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:37.560 to do it, someday, they're going to do it, so 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:39.680 I had better be around when they do it, not 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.160 only to criticize the thing, but also to explain that 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:45.240 I have nothing to do with it. So why haven't 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:48.520 we heard about Lolita, My love, the show that brought 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:52.320 you my least favorite line in all of music? Who 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:57.080 is the piper who likes them? Post? Because it never 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:28.960 debuted on Broadway? This is lowly to podcast. Welcome back 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:32.200 to Lolita Podcast. I am your host, Jamie Loftus, and 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:34.720 today I think we're going to get about as close 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:38.280 to some levity as this series is going to get, 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:42.120 because we are talking about Lolita on stage now. Saying 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:44.079 this episode is going to be a little lighter doesn't 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:46.760 mean that there isn't still a fair amount of trauma 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:50.640 being discussed this is Lolita Podcast, and there certainly is. 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:54.160 But today we're talking about the Broadway musical of nineteen 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:58.720 seventy one by Alan Jay Lerner one adaptation by Edward Albe, 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:02.800 as well as the mattering of international ballets, stage shows, 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:06.320 and operas in a recent attempted revival of Lolita My 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:09.959 Love in New York, which spoiler alert is the first 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:13.800 adaptation of Lolita ever to be directed by a woman. 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:19.120 I'll say it, Lolita does not work on stage, or hasn't, 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:21.840 I should say, but the reasons why fall into the 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:25.360 same trappings that most adaptations of Lolita don't, but in 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:28.360 a uniquely theatrical way. I think the reason that the 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:30.720 two Broadway failures that we're gonna be talking about the 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:34.800 most specifically rank as less harmful in terms of adaptation 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.920 is because one wouldn't debut on Broadway at all, and 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.480 the other would barely make it out of the starting gate. 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:43.360 They were completely panned, and they never really got the 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:47.000 chance to do much cultural harm to anybody, except, of course, 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:50.439 the girls and women playing the titular role. Another pattern 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:53.400 that is well established that will be devoting an entire 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:56.040 episode two in a couple of weeks. Today, we're gonna 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:59.320 be speaking to Chris Gilmore, formerly a net Farah, who 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:02.560 played Lolita in the nineteen seventy one musical, Blanche Baker, 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:06.480 who played Lolita in the one adaptation by Edward Albi, 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:09.840 and Jacob Holder, the executive director of the Edward F. 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:13.080 Alby Foundation. In this episode, I think you'll notice a 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:17.600 few trends solidifying in the adaptations of Lolita, carrying over 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:19.840 from the Stanley Kubrick movie that have a lot in 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.400 common and are also very uniquely of their time. So 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:27.160 with that in mind, let's return to nineteen seventy. My 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:29.840 parents are in elementary school and a few hours south 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:32.760 of where they lived. Lolita my Love was in production 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:36.120 preparing for a February debut in Philly. The cast dealt 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:41.160 with constant content changes, and the show debuted to uh 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:49.400 these reviews in its present form, which will doubtlessly be 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.080 drastically altered before it leaves down. The show is only 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:59.440 a ghost of Nabokov's comic masterpiece. The kindest thing that 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:05.240 can be said out the musical is that it's a disaster. Yeah, 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:08.520 by all accounts it didn't work. This February shipwreck made 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:14.040 the original March thirty intended Broadway debut more or less impossible. 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:16.679 Learner and Barry had a ton of overhaul to do 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:19.280 and would need a successful preview to go off without 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:22.400 a hit. Before hitting a New York stage, producer Norman 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:26.640 Twain went into damage control mode, saying that quote, the 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:29.560 show didn't work technically, and when things don't work technically, 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:33.400 nothing goes right. I can see the backstage crew rolling 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:36.680 their eyes from here. That was not the problem. It 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:39.599 was the material, and after the failure of the Philadelphia 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:43.240 shows critically, with this constant material change, we see some 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:46.439 of the key players get shuffled out. Director Tito Capo 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:50.640 Bianco is replaced by British director Noel Willman, and Annette 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:54.400 Farah leaves the production as Lolita Now. The reason given 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:57.000 by the production at the time for firing Farah, who 0:13:57.000 --> 0:13:59.200 had been styled to look very similar to Sue Lyon 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.120 and kuprisill Alita, was detailed in a gossip column of 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:05.160 the time which was unearthed by Sarah Weinman. It says 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:08.360 that Pharaoh was quote looking twenty four when she was 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:12.640 supposed to be sixteen unquote. The reality, according to Chris Gilmore, 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:17.040 was very different. More in that shortly after Fara departs, 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:20.680 auditions for Lolita are held again, including a young Sissy 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:23.680 spacect but Denise Nickerson is the choice for the role 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:27.200 in spite of Nabokov's initial anxieties of casting a girl 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:30.360 of Dolores Hayes's real age in the book, Nickerson was 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:33.440 only thirteen. During that next round of previews, she was 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:35.960 seventy five pounds and four ft nine, and her hair 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:40.040 was styled into the blonde bob evocative of lions. And 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.440 if Denise Nickerson's name sounds familiar, it's because she plays 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.320 Violet Beauregard in The Gene Wilder, Willy Wonka and the 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:49.600 Chocolate Factory and had just finished shooting shortly before taking 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.600 the role. Nickerson sadly passed away last year, but with 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.080 the changes in cast and libretto made the show launched 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:59.720 again that March in Boston at the Schubert Theater and 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:04.760 in only lasted nine performances. Luckily for us, or put 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:06.560 a pin in that maybe not, but for my purpose 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:09.560 is lucky. A recording from the audio board from Boston 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:12.920 is preserved in full, giving us recordings of the songs 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:15.920 and an idea of what the show sounded like, although 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:19.600 the extensive dance numbers, yes you hurt that right, remain 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:22.600 lost to history. And no matter how many giggles of 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.800 enjoyment you hear from the nineties seventies Bostonians in the 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:29.120 clips you're gonna hear today, the reviews in Boston were 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:33.360 just as rough. I'm afraid it's going to be a 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:39.400 case of better never than late. Do you be taking 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:44.080 us first? Are melodrama or satire or just a dirty 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:51.200 musical comedy? Some good music and some fine wit, but 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:56.920 it is done in by the plot. We mean style 0:15:57.080 --> 0:15:59.920 and daste and depth. And these are things which al 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:06.000 and Jay Lemo's idea of theater evidently can no longer offer. Oh, 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:08.640 that last review was from the Harvard Crimson. So just 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:11.600 imagine like an eighteen year old with a suit that's 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:15.280 too big saying that. So Lolita, my love flops in Philly, 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.640 it flops in Boston. And Lerner was desperate to save 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.640 the production. He rewrote the show again twice, renamed it 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:24.640 Light of My Life, which seems like kind of a 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:27.240 lateral move in terms of creepy sounding titles, and he 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:31.720 tried to recast the leads again, pursuing Rex Harrison for Humbert. 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:34.520 Rex Harrison was in My Fair Lady and Haley Mills 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:37.800 for Lolita, and Haley Mills at this point was too 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:39.880 old for the role by quite a bit, at age 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:42.240 twenty four, and she had already turned down the role 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:46.280 of Lolita in Stanley Koper's production nearly ten years earlier. 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:49.600 Nabokov had this to say about Fara and Nickerson, the 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.880 two Lolita's cast in a musical. He had never seen 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:55.520 both girls, the one they fired and the one who 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:58.600 replaced her, were awful little boozym me girls, the wrong 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:04.000 type altogether. Uh what. By the end, Lolita My Love 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.720 had hemorrhaged a million dollars and it never debuted on Broadway. 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.080 Everyone was ready to move on, and they did. But 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:12.760 don't cry for this musical, because I think you will 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:15.800 understand why it flopped when we give the one surviving 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:20.480 bootleg recording a little listen. This adaptation is so extremely 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.439 off the mark that it was genuinely hard for me 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:25.560 to keep up with the whiplash of the tone. Like 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:28.439 if you thought the Kubrick adaptation was being played too 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:32.280 much for comedy. You have not heard anything. This musical 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:35.640 isn't just a comedy of manners. Humbered Humbert is presented 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:38.920 as a full on comedic hero and Lolita and My 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:41.760 Love never made it far enough into production to ever 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:44.640 release a cast album. So what's being pulled from here 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:47.399 is a rehearsal that's taking place in front of an 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:51.679 audience in Boston, my home city. And please do not 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:54.399 judge them too harshly for how much they seem to 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.240 love this. There's a lot of adaptation changes that were 0:17:57.280 --> 0:18:01.440 popularized in Kubrick's Lolita that follow through to this adaptation. 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:05.320 Everyone calls the lead Lolita instead of Dolly or Dolores. 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:09.359 Quilty has a hugely inflated presence, and Humbert is a 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:13.040 long standing teacher, But the bizarreness of this adaptation is 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:17.040 uniquely its own. It opens with Humbert Humbert talking to 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:19.560 the audience at the beginning of the show, explaining what 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:23.520 nymphets are to us. The stage format does make it 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:25.960 much easier for Humbert to break the fourth wall and 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.480 speak to the audience directly, and this show does take 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:33.320 smart advantage of that at times. How many of you 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:40.399 have ever committed a murder? I under it surprisingly unsurprising experience. 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:44.840 For eighteen years of my quality, I have been a teacher. 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:48.680 Every morning while shaving, I invariedly looked in the mirror 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:54.560 and said, Humbert, you look exactly like a teacher. The 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:57.480 day after the murder, I looked in the mirror and 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:03.600 I said, humble you, she'll look exactly. Humbert says he 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:05.800 was teaching at a girls school in Switzerland, had to 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:08.639 break down, then goes to Ramsdale, Vermont, to give lectures 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:11.840 at the local college. Now where in New England Ramsdale 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:14.439 is kind of varies depending on the adaptation. It's like 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:18.080 New Hampshire for Kubrick Vermont. In this adaptation, who knows why, 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:21.560 but Humbert does mention to us that he got divorced. 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:27.959 Humbert goes to Ramsdale and meets Charlotte, who brings up 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:31.160 her deceased husband Harold and shows Humbert her dead husband's 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:35.760 gun and his ashes. You're married, divorce, madam, happily divorced 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:43.399 many years ago in Paris, Oh Harrod magic. There's a 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:46.680 lot of laughing on this recording, and Dorothy Loudden is 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:49.440 definitely going for comedy with Charlotte here, but also it 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:53.040 seems like everybody's going for comedy. Denise Nickerson is introduced 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:56.399 to us as Lolita, and at age thirteen, she really 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:59.840 does sound thirteen, possibly more so than anyone who was 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:07.360 or played the part. You are Lolita, Lola, Lolita, there 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:10.200 are me, and just keep in mind for a reference 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:12.720 of how old she looked at this time. She plays 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:16.600 Violet Beauregard in Willy Wonka this same exact year. Humbard's 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:20.399 journals are significantly watered down to keep things light, and 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:23.560 he sings about Annabel to Lolita in the song in 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:28.440 the Broken Promised Land of fifteen. Perhaps it looks more 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:31.720 like a little girl that I knew many many years ago, 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:37.400 where Prince by the Sea Lolita never learned of Annabel, 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:39.920 and other adaptations that I know of. So it's an 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:58.040 interesting deviation, is that man upon the side. Another repeated 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:01.919 trend here is that Charlotte so heartlessly treated by the 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:05.000 script that the audience is trained to respond to some 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:09.920 really brutal lines from Humbert with laughter rumbling upstairs like 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:12.879 a truck on the street. Bursting into my room like 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:17.320 a horrs and heat that like driving out of my sight, 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:20.600 my only to the light of my life. Humbert is 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:24.280 preparing a lecture for Charlotte's group on the poets. I 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:27.359 intend to dwell exclusively on Fante fell in up with 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:29.600 Beatrice when she was nine, pet trot Will fell in 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:32.200 up with Laura when she was twelve, and Edgar Allan 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:36.400 Poe married Virginia when she was Humbert also makes very 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:39.480 little effort to conceal his true nature in this show, 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:41.920 but the people surrounding him are written to be so 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:44.639 clueless that it doesn't seem to matter. For my money, 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:47.080 he couldn't be more obvious. I won't speak to one 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:50.399 of them, only to Lolita, and Lolita, while remaining and 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:54.400 behaving twelve years old, is still framed to be a seductress, 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:58.600 and her quote unquote fluziness is often a pause for 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:02.000 laugh moment as actually, when Quialty is on stage, I'd 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:05.840 love to see little Lovelica. She must have grown. She's 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:11.400 sleeping out tonight, she must have Pulling from kuberc here, 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:15.000 Quilty comes to Ramsdale and meets Humbert. He's famous. His 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:18.280 plays are on TV, and he's also already familiar with 0:22:18.320 --> 0:22:22.200 the concept of a nymphant infant a nymphet by me 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:28.359 caps Walker say how is your daughter? Gross? This is 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:33.040 a song called Dante, Petrarch and Poe. This song is 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:35.560 maybe the best and the worst of what all of 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:38.200 the adaptations have to offer, all said and done, you 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:43.080 see it is a Lectures exclusive plick features poets enraptured 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:48.200 and captured by creatures. Any pue, peasant, pessant, you peasant 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:51.119 chan them and throw them? What else is there to 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:54.720 call them but a nymphant? Because it's gross and awful 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:56.919 and trying to make you laugh about one of the 0:22:56.960 --> 0:23:01.080 worst crimes that plagues humanity. But it's all so written 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:04.280 by the same guy who did My Fair Lady, and 0:23:04.320 --> 0:23:13.480 the music is good. My head is exploding. Who is 0:23:13.520 --> 0:23:18.440 that viper who likes them post viper? Who is that 0:23:18.640 --> 0:23:25.280 viper that likes them post diaper? Why would you write 0:23:25.280 --> 0:23:36.080 that this is how that song ends? I don't know. 0:23:36.280 --> 0:23:38.840 Back at the house, Charlotte tries to seduce Humbert with 0:23:38.960 --> 0:23:41.880 a show stopping number that I'm pretty sure it includes 0:23:41.920 --> 0:23:45.800 an extensive dance routine. But Lolita comes home from a party, 0:23:45.880 --> 0:23:49.159 and she and Humbert immediately start flirting. You remind me 0:23:49.200 --> 0:23:54.960 of a sleepy Flamingo. Charlie gets a more sympathetic moment 0:23:55.160 --> 0:23:57.960 than she does in other adaptations at this point. She 0:23:58.080 --> 0:24:02.080 expresses regret at coming to rm Stell and expresses her loneliness. 0:24:02.640 --> 0:24:06.240 Lolita then delivers Charlotte's letter, and while Lolita is away, 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:13.479 Humbert and Charlotte get married mother Englishman stepfather. Humbert, in 0:24:13.760 --> 0:24:17.480 keeping with being the cruelest Humbert in this entire adaptation 0:24:17.520 --> 0:24:20.880 catalog actually maybe put a pin in that until later 0:24:20.920 --> 0:24:24.080 in the episode. But Humbert then sings a literal song 0:24:24.400 --> 0:24:27.119 about how much he hates being married to Charlotte for 0:24:27.200 --> 0:24:31.800 only twenty days. She talked and talked days me woked 0:24:31.800 --> 0:24:34.840 and wopped in the rain. That wouldn't head kill my 0:24:34.920 --> 0:24:38.680 toes began to web following that, he sings a whole 0:24:38.720 --> 0:24:41.920 song about all the ways he wants to kill her. 0:24:42.840 --> 0:24:47.320 I would never have the heart to shoot her with 0:24:47.480 --> 0:24:51.760 a gun. The way that this song is just presented 0:24:51.800 --> 0:24:56.959 as women right with my hands, all with the puta 0:24:57.160 --> 0:25:07.919 of my life, with the all a night baby is 0:25:07.920 --> 0:25:10.960 at this point in the show, especially where Humbert's word 0:25:11.040 --> 0:25:15.000 is taken at face value. Here, he's the comedic hero, 0:25:15.400 --> 0:25:20.119 the maligned husband with the loud, emasculating wife who's preventing 0:25:20.200 --> 0:25:23.480 him from doing what he wants to. I would never 0:25:23.720 --> 0:25:31.520 have Poisin. Charlotte finds Humbert's journal as normal. She's furious, 0:25:31.680 --> 0:25:34.200 But then this has also played for comedy. How don't 0:25:34.200 --> 0:25:46.040