by Laurence Maslon
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| Richard Rodgers with Diahann Carroll, the star of his musical "No Strings," and Sammy Davis, Jr. in "Golden Boy." |
Throughout the country in the early 1960s, the issues of civil rights -- voter's rights and voter registration for blacks, integration, and fairness and equality in the workplace -- were in the news and on television nearly every day, but mostly absent on Broadway. In 1962, Richard Rodgers produced the first musical he had attempted since the death of Oscar Hammerstein II, in 1960, an original piece called "No Strings," for which he would write both the lyrics and the music. Set in contemporary Paris, "No Strings" was about a love affair between an expatriate writer and a fashion model. The model, an American, was played by Diahann Carroll, an exquisite and talented black actress and singer, who had made her Broadway debut in 1954. Although the interracial aspect of the romance was apparent to anyone who was watching, it was never mentioned specifically; Rodgers had Carroll's character refer to her growing up "north of Central Park." Well, so had Richard Rodgers, but clearly he meant something else. A show that looked to be socially progressive appeared, upon reflection, to be finicky at best, cowardly at worst.
Producer Hillard Elkins had an obsession with signing Sammy Davis, Jr. to a Broadway contract. It wasn't the craziest idea in the world; Davis, one of the biggest nightclub and concert attractions of the 1960s, had starred in a 1956 Broadway musical called "Mr. Wonderful," a semirevue about -- imagine that -- a talented, young, black nightclub singer, dancer, and impressionist. Elkins caught up with Davis in London and dangled the prospect of adapting Clifford Odets' 1937 play "Golden Boy" into a musical. The original play was one of the depression era's great dramas, about a boxer who in his quest for ambition loses his soul -- and his life. It would be a serious musical and, in signing Davis, Elkins determined that it would not only be updated but also reflect the struggles of an ambitious young black man in America. The songwriting team of Charles Strouse and Lee Adams were signed, and Odets himself came out of semiretirement to adapt the book.
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| Scenes form "Golden Boy," which starred Sammy Davis, Jr. as prize-fighter Joe Wellington with Paula Wayne, playing Lorna Moon. |
As "Golden Boy" moved toward its 1964 opening, the project began to accommodate its star and, more compellingly, its times. Davis' character was originally called Joe Bonaparte, a poor Italian American, the son of immigrants with a disapproving brother who works as a labor organizer. Here, in one of the show's rare bits of whimsy, he's renamed Joe Wellington, a Harlem resident, whose brother now works for CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality). Strouse and Adams provided a score that banked heavily and effectively on urban jazz. One of Davis' nine numbers (nine numbers, plus a prize fight at the show's climax, is an unfathomably large load for a performer -- even Davis) has him returning as a success to his old neighborhood. In a funky gospel number, Davis and his cohorts mock both white attitudes and George M. Cohan:
Don't forget One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Street --
Don't forget your happy Harlem home!
Don't forget One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Street --
No, siree! There's no slum like your own!
Don't forget the cultural life on this here street --
Richer than the outside world suspects!
Hark! The cheerful patter of all the junkies' feet --
And the soothing tones of Malcolm X!
It was undoubtedly the first time a Broadway audience had heard Malcolm X mentioned in a show. Even better, it was the first time an audience had been confronted with anger, real anger, in a musical for a long time. The social and political frustration in "Golden Boy" -- its hero asks, "Who do you fight/When you want to break out/But your skin is your cage?" -- brought the anger of the musicals of the 1930s to the issue of civil rights.
In the original, Joe has a doomed love affair with the mistress of his manager, Lorna. In 1964, the woman was still the mistress of the manager, but now she was white. The kiss between Joe and Lorna in Act Two sent off shock waves during the show's tryouts.
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