Oh, Lady! Lady!!: Greenwich Village Comes to Broadway
摘要
In this final case study, I argue that Kern, Bolton, and Wodehouse deal most directly with the Little Theatre Movement—or at least the milieu that produced it. Oh, Lady! Lady!! grapples with the clash of cultures between the established affluence of one generation and the chic bohemianism of another. Act II is set entirely in Greenwich Village, and the writers self-consciously grapple with the attitudes and mores governing this counterculture. Kern’s, Bolton’s, and Wodehouse’s script contains equal amounts of respect for Greenwich Village’s fervor of artistry and winking derision of Greenwich Village’s relaxed morals. More than any other Princess show, Oh, Lady! Lady!! serves as a time capsule, its allusions and lyrics particularly topical. Much like its Little Theatre “cousins,” Oh, Lady! Lady!! is predicated upon audience members recognizing and identifying with very real people in very real places. And, more than any other Princess show, Kern’s music governs the action onstage. His songs lead into and out of scenes, serve as the culmination of each scene, and reveal the most important facts about each of the protagonists. Ultimately, what we see is a Little Theatre play whose greatest dramatic moments occur in song.