City of Angels
Directed by Micheal Kott
Music Direction by Kyra Leigh
February 23 and 24
By appointment
Walk-In Welcome
The Story
City of Angels is the rarest of musical comedies: intricate lyrics filled with puns and crackling rhymes, sizzling music written in the contemporary jazz idiom, and a script that couples sidesplitting comedy with neo-noir intensity. Set in the glamorous, seductive Hollywood of the 40s, the world of film studios and flimsy negligees, the show chronicles the misadventures of Stine, a novelist attempting for the first time to adapt one of his texts to the screen at the behest of movie producer/director, Buddy Fidler. The “script” features Stine’s hard-boiled hero, a private investigator named Stone. The show follows Stine's screenplay (the "reel" world where he manipulates projected versions of the various women in his life) as well as his "real" world adventures in love and business, culminating in a collision of two worlds. City of Angels features music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by David Zippel and book by Larry Gelbart.
Characters:
Most of the characters play two roles, a “real” version and a character in the movie.
STINE: male, baritone The author of the novel, CITY OF ANGELS, which he is adapting into a film.
STONE: male, baritone An ex-cop turned private detective, the hero of Stine's novel. The classic hard-boiled detective who is hired to find Mallory Kingsley. Tough, wisecracking and quick-witted.
BUDDY FIDLER/IRWIN S. IRVING: male, baritone The film producer. He is changing the integrity of the novel. He is married to Carla and having an affair with Avril. The actor playing Buddy also plays Irwin S. Irving in the film. /A movie mogul. Stone catches him with Bobbi.
PANCHO VARGAS/ LIEUTENANT MUNOZ: male, baritone The actor playing Munoz in the film./ Stone's former partner, now a bitter rival. He believes that Stone repeatedly antagonizes him. His hatred of Stone has a racial element that Buddy Fiddler demands be deleted from the screenplay
JIMMY POWERS: male, tenor A popular singer who appears in both the Hollywood scenes and in the fictional movie scenes. In the real world, Powers is having an affair with Carla.
WERNER KRIEGLER/ LUTHER KINGSLEY: male, spoken The actor playing Luther Kingsley in the film./ Alaura's husband. Mallory and Peter's father. He is an old man suffering from polio encased in an iron lung. He dotes on Mallory.
GILBERT/ DR. MANDRIL: male, spoken A barber who also plays Dr. Mandril in the film./ A quack doctor hired by Alaura to care for Luther. He is later killed, seemingly by Peter, but really by Alaura.
GERALD PIERCE/ PETER KINGSLEY: male, spoken The actor playing Peter Kingsley in the film./ Luther's son and Mallory's brother. He and Alaura concoct a scheme to kill Luther, Mallory, and Dr Mandrill to take all of the inheritance. He, however, cannot bring himself to kill, and turns on Alaura.
DONNA/ OOLIE: female, mezzo-soprano Buddy's secretary. She has a brief affair with Stine, which leads to the end of his marriage with Gabby. However, she is far more manipulative than she appears. The actress playing Donna also plays Oolie in the film. /Stone’s loyal Girl Friday. Unrequited, in love with Stone, she goes to great lengths to protect and aid him.
CARLA HAYWOOD / ALAURA KINGSLEY: female, mezzo-soprano Buddy's wife. She is having an affair with Jimmy Powers. The actress playing Carla also plays Alaura in the film./ A femme fatale trophy wife. She comes to Stone to have him find her missing step-daughter, but, it turns out that this is all a plot for Alaura to kill her step-children to take her soon-to-be late husband's money. She and Stone have a brief affair. She is shot and killed in a struggle with Stone.
GABBY/ BOBBI: female, mezzo-soprano Stine's wife. She is tired of his obsession with work and his unfaithfulness. She loves him, but eventually leaves him when she learns about his affair with Donna. The actress playing Gabby also plays Bobbi in the film./ Stone's former girlfriend, A nightclub singer based directly on Stine's wife, Gabby.
AVRIL RAINES/ MALLORY KINGSLEY: female, mezzo-soprano A young Hollywood starlet. She is having an affair with Buddy. The actress playing Avril also plays Mallory in the film./ Alaura's beautiful, seductive step-daughter, who Stone is hired to find.
ANGEL CITY FOUR: (2F/2M) vocal quartet Jimmy Powers' back-up singers, a close-harmony quartet who serve as a Greek chorus in the Film world.