When Frank Wildhorn's version of the "The Civil War" opened on Broadway two years ago, it played for four months, then crashed and burned. Now, according to country star Larry Gatlin, who is starring in a retooled, touring production of the show, "it's been brought back from the dead."
During a telephone interview from San Antonio, Texas, the popular entertainer noted that the new touring edition of "The Civil War" goes back to the creative team's original concept.
"This is not your formula 'book' musical," explained Gatlin, who ventured into Broadway musicals a few years ago after he and his Gatlin Brothers group disbanded. (They still perform occasionally; they'll probably be together for Christmas in Branson, Mo.)
"I love the history of the Civil War," Gatlin said. "When we lived in Nashville, we lived on a little farm that was basically on the battlefield. We lived about a mile off the Franklin Pike, where the Confederate Army retreated after they lost the battle of Nashville."
The Theater League of Utah is bringing "The Civil War" to the Capitol Theatre for eight performances, Tuesday-Sunday, April 17-22.
When the show first premiered in Houston, it was Wildhorn's original concept for the piece. (Wildhorn has been well represented in recent months on Broadway and on tour, with "Jekyll & Hyde" and "The Scarlet Pimpernel" racking up significant audience attendance. "Jekyll & Hyde" made a touring stop at the Capitol Theatre last year, and the regional rights for "Scarlet Pimpernel" have just been released — with both the SCERA Shell and Hale Centre Theatre scheduling productions during the next few months.)
"I have a very simple business philosophy," Gatlin said. "If you make me an offer I can't understand, I'll probably take it. (The producers) called my former manager when I was in his office in Nashville, and he asked if I wanted to do 'The Civil War' on the road. He put his hand over the phone, and I said 'Yes.' I had heard Frank Wildhorn's music. I'd been to see 'Scarlet Pimpernel' on Broadway and I'd heard his music and I knew it was powerful, passionate, soaring music that I really loved. So I said 'Yes.'
"I went to New York. I had learned the songs at home off the recording. We rehearsed for 2 1/2 weeks, and I did 18 of the 24 weeks last year. My old buddy John Schneider, came in and filled for me for six weeks because I had previous commitments for 'The Music Man' in a local production in Austin, Texas (where Gatlin now lives), and a four-day concert deal with the Fort Worth Symphony that I could not get out of."
Gatlin says it has all worked out quite well. "We've revamped the show and brought it back from the dead, and I'll tell you what I've told them — Ken Gentry, the producer — I feel so strongly about this piece that if you want to go do this, I'll give you three months of my life for the rest of my life. You just tell me when you want me to show up, and I'll go do this show, because I know that it's good work and it's a work that we need to see.
"We Americans are not totally healed up from that war, and we know that we have racial strife in our country today, we have whites who hate, blacks who hate, Christians who hate, Jews who hate, Italians who hate. It is an honor for me to walk out there every night."
Gatlin briefly explained the history of the show's transition to Broadway and, from there, onto a national tour. Despite the initial success in Houston, the New York producers felt that the Broadway production needed a New York director. Then they decided to transform it into a more typical "book" musical, which the East Coast critics hated. "It just didn't work. They destroyed what they had. It ran for about four months and crashed and burned. But, to their credit, the producers would not give up. They knew they had something. So they hired another director, and they hired me. They took the show back to pretty much what it was in Houston, with a few changes. We took this show on the road and, like I say, raised it from the dead. So that is the show you'll see when we get to Salt Lake.
Gatlin said he likes the show's music and has nothing but praise for its composer — despite what critics may say. "I think Frank Wildhorn is a brilliant, brilliant composer. A lot of the critics these days don't like his music, they don't like his musicals, they want everything to be like it's always been. But Frank wants to push the envelope a little. Their indictment on Frank is that he's a pop song writer, but what they don't realize is that American musical theater was created by pop song writers — Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein.
They took stories and put the pop music into these stories, and that's what made American musicals.
"The typical musical takes three or four main characters and some supporting roles and you have plot development and character development and all that and there's a formula for the way that works. But it's a more difficult project when your musical is about an event. We're not talking about trying to tell a story of three or four or five or 10 people — we're telling it about hundreds of thousands of people, so it's more vignettes. There's not a lot of character and plot development. The war and the chronology of the war is what we're telling."
A variety of musical styles — period country, black gospel and some pop — are intermingled with sections of dialogue taken from historic Civil War journals.
Gatlin, who's written one musical on his own, wants to try writing some more. "I think there's a place for some more things in an American vein that are like 'Les Miserables' — shows that uplift and stir you. That's the kind of musicals I want to write — something that's uplifting. With all due respect, there's a lot of crap on Broadway that's not very uplifting; it's pretty hedonistic," said Gatlin.
Performance times, prices for 'The Civil War'
Performances of "The Civil War" will be 8 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday, April 17-21, and 7 p.m. on Sunday, April 22, with two matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, April 21 and 22. All seats are reserved. Tickets range from $25 to $55. Tickets may be purchased in advance from any ArtTix outlet, including the Capitol Theatre and Abravanel Hall, or by calling 355-2787 or 1-888-451-2787. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.arttix.org.
E-mail: ivan@desnews.com