Those Lune-y Tunes

Music is central to McNally's story of Frankie and Johnny

American Playwright Terrence McNally really knows his music. In fact, he's one of those frightening people who guest on that opera intermission radio quiz on Saturday afternoons - you know, the ones who can name 22 operas whose heroine is named Leonora, and know what was Pagliaccio's favourite bedtime snack?
As you might expect, he has written a couple of musicals, including Kiss of the Spider Woman, which premiered in Toronto. But McNally's musical preoccupations are evident even in his non-musical shows like The Lisbon Traviata and Master Class (both about Maria Callas), or even Lips Together, Teeth Apart and Love! Valour! Compassion!, in which the characters constantly refer to lines from Broadway show tunes.
One of his best-known scripts is the 1987 Frankie and Johnny at the Claire de Lune, which he adapted for a screen version starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. The title refers to the full moon streaming in the windows of the characters' gritty urban apartment, but also to Debussy's haunting piece, which they hear on the radio.
"He has about six or eight specific musical references about the music that's playing on this all-night classical channel and I intend to embrace them all," says Rod Ceballos, who's directing a Toronto production of the show. "I'm setting it in April of 1987, so the recordings that my sound designer are looking for are all pre-1987," he adds.
Thus "Clair de Lune" will be played, says Ceballos, although "You'll only hear it twice." However, "The 'Glenn Gould Goldberg Variations' will probably play all the way to the end of act one."
Every piece is chosen to match the mood of the onstage action. For instance, "He uses the 'Wagner Ride of the Valkyries' as a joke when Johnny - how shall I say it - is unable to fulfill his sexual ardour at the top of act two," says Ceballos.
"In the way a composer is trying to put together various moods, I think he's chosen them because they will resonate with the audience and capture a particular mood with their evening together," he says. With 'Clair de Lune,' "I believe he's chosen that piece because it has a simplicity and a grace and a purity about it that reflects what Frankie wants out of a relationship. They both admit that neither of them listens to classical music. Johnny even admits that 'I left it on to impress you'."
Overall, Ceballos is happy to follow the playwright's musical directions. "What I'm trying to create is an urban oasis of emotional and spiritual intimacy using the music that Terrence McNally has asked for," he says. "My intention is to show a very stark contrast in the day-to-day urban morass that Frankie and Johnny deal with versus the lushness of the classical music that plays off their little clock radio."
BirdLand Theatre presents Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune from September 11 to 26 at the Jane Mallett Theatre of the St. Lawrence Centre. For tickets, call 416.366.7723 or visit www.stlc.com.

Publication Date: 2004-09-12
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=4393