Carmen Jones was a 1943 Broadway musical, later also performed a 1954 musical film; the play also ran for a season in 1991 at London's Old Vic. It is an updating of the Georges Bizet opera Carmen in an African-American setting. (Bizet's opera was, in turn, based on the 1846 novella by Prosper Mérimée.) The Broadway musical was produced by Billy Rose, using an all-black cast. Oscar Hammerstein II wrote the book (dialogue) and lyrics, but stuck rather closely to Bizet's original music, which was re-orchestrated for a Broadway orchestra by Robert Russell Bennett.
| Carmen Jones | |
|---|---|
| File:Carmen Jones Broadway.jpg | |
| Music | Georges Bizet |
| Lyrics | Oscar Hammerstein II |
| Book | Oscar Hammerstein II |
The original Broadway cast were nearly all new to the stage; Kennedy and Muir write that on the first day of rehearsal only one member of the cast had ever been on a stage before.[1]
The 1954 film was adapted by Hammerstein and Harry Kleiner. It was directed by Otto Preminger.
The motion picture won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture—Musical and star Dorothy Dandridge was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, the first African-American so honored. Halle Berry, who played Dandridge in the biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, which included a re-enactment of one of the film's famed scenes, was the first African-American actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for the film Monster's Ball.
The film has also been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Plot
Parachute maker Carmen Jones makes a play for a soldier named Joe, who is in love with sweet Cindy Lou. Later, Carmen abandons Joe to pursue boxer Husky Miller. Joe then abandons Cindy to pursue Carmen; when she rejects him, he kills her.
Music
The compositions in Georges Bizet's opera Carmen were in French (because Bizet was a French composer), but lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II translated them to English for his Broadway production. "The music was pretty much left intact," explains Arts and Entertainment Editor Elisabeth Vincentelli, "but Hammerstein transferred the action to WWII America. Carmen's tobacco factory became Carmen Jones' parachute factory, bullfighter Escamillo became boxer Husky Miller, and so on. As if this weren't enough, there also was the 'small' detail of casting the show only with African-Americans." Vincentellli goes on to say, "Hammerstein's attempt at writing 'black' hasn't aged all that well, but many of the show's songs retain a surprising impact. The feverish intensity of 'Beat Out dat Rhythm on a Drum,' for instance, hasn't dimmed over the years, and the song's been covered by a wide variety of performers, from Pearl Bailey and Marc Almond to Mandy Patinkin." The majority of the actors performing the songs in Carmen Jones were dubbed. Even Harry Belafonte, the singer famous for "The Banana Boat Song," was dubbed with Le Vern Hutcherson. The Broadway production Carmen Jones and the film Carmen Jones features the following songs: Overture Lift 'Em Up and Put 'Em Down Dat's Love (Habanera) You Talk Just like My Maw Dere's a Cafe on de Corner (Seguidilla) Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum (Gypsy Song) Stan' Up and Fight (Toreador Song, also known as March of the Toreadors) Whizzin' Away Along de Track (Quintet) Dis Flower (Flower Song) De Cards Don't Lie (Card Song) My Joe Dat's Our Man
By the way, habanera is music for a Cuban dance. Next, seguidilla is music written for a Spanish dance. Finally, a quintet is a piece of music intended for five singers or instruments. A toreador is a bullfighter, reflecting bullfighter Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen. All of these words (except for the French-derived "quintet") are derived from the Spanish language, reflecting the opera's Spanish settings in Seville.
Original New York cast
- Carmen Jones - Muriel Smith / Muriel Rahn
- Joe - Luther Saxon / Napoleon Reed
- Husky Miller - Glenn Bryant
- Cindy Lou - Carlotta Franzell / Elton J. Warren
- Frankie - June Hawkins
- Remo the Drummer - Cozy Cole
Film cast
| Carmen Jones | |
|---|---|
| File:Carmenjones.jpg Film poster | |
| Directed by | Otto Preminger |
| Written by | Oscar Hammerstein II (book) Harry Kleiner Prosper Mérimée (novel) |
| Produced by | Otto Preminger |
| Starring | Dorothy Dandridge Harry Belafonte Olga James |
| Cinematography | Sam Leavitt |
| Edited by | Louis R. Loeffler |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation |
Release dates | October 5, 1954 |
Running time | 105 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $750,000 (estimated) |
- Carmen Jones - Dorothy Dandridge, sung by Marilyn Horne
- Joe - Harry Belafonte, sung by LeVern Hutcherson
- Husky Miller - Joe Adams, sung by Marvin Hayes
- Cindy Lou - Olga James
- Frankie - Pearl Bailey
- Mert- Diahann Carroll
- Sergeant Brown - Brock Peters
- Carmen's Grandmother - Madame Sul-Te-Wan
Original London cast
1991 at the Old Vic
- Carmen Jones - Wilhelmenia Fernandez / Sharon Benson
- Joe - Damon Evans / Michael Austin
- Husky Miller - Gregg Baker
- Cindy Lou - Karen Parks
- Frankie - Carolyn Sebron
- Remo the Drummer - Robin Jones
Notes
References
- Kennedy, Michael Patrick and Muir, John, Musicals, HarperCollins, 1997, updated reprint 1998, ISBN 0-00-472067-9.
External links
- Carmen Jones at IMDb
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