[Peace-discuss] Your grandparent's anti-war movement

[C. G. Estabrook]

[I've thought for a while that the poets usually get there first.  Maybe
it's true even the second time around.  --CGE]

1937 Anti-War Musical Revived in San Francisco

This Saturday, 42nd Street Moon's new production of the Broadway Musical
Hooray for What! opens in San Francisco. This will be the first time the
Harold Arlen/Yip Harburg show has been performed in its entirety since its
original run and tour in 1937-38, and its return is long overdue.

For Hooray for What! is not just a Broadway hit of yesteryear; it is also
a razor-sharp examination and dissection of war -- uniquely topical in
1937, and still surprisingly relevant today. Under its light and bubbly
romantic-comedy surface brew themes of misguided and jingoistic
patriotism, war profiteering, international conflict, the all-too-often
empty gestures of treaties and peace conferences, and the importance of
the individual in standing up for peace.

In the small (and small-minded) town of Sprinkle, Indiana, a mild mannered
and naïve scientist named Chuckles accidentally invents the most powerful
and dangerous death gas the world has ever seen (while trying to come up
with a humane gas to keep worms out of apples). Chuckles is immediately
co-opted by a huge munitions manufacturer with a slick front man named
Breezy Cunningham, who bribes the scientist with the promise of continued
support for his peaceful research. Chuckles refuses to give up the death
gas formula, however, and international spy Stephanie Stephanovich is
hired to steal it from him. Convinced she will soon wrest it from
Chuckles' grasp, Breezy takes them all to the League of Nations Peace
Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, knowing he can find a willing buyer for
the new death gas among the many bickering delegates from the worlds’
most powerful nations, who are all arguing and trying to get the upper
hand and start another world war for excitement and profit. Stephanie does
manage to steal the formula, and Breezy hopes to sell it for a huge profit
and make his getaway, but when he finally makes a deal giving it to the
entire League of Nations, he quickly realizes the dire consequences of his
actions, as what threatens to be the deadliest war in history immediately
begins all around him.

This is, of course, the fantasy world of old Broadway, and so there does
come a happy ending by the time the curtain falls, and there are plenty of
hilarious antics, sweet songs, romantic subplots along the way. But the
light framework of the play does not lessen the weight of the ideas
contained therein. If anything, the contrast between the levity of tone
and the life-and-death issues explored gives the issues more weight, and
the laughter at the expense of the greedy, short-sighted profiteers and
childish, petty world leaders and spies makes it a bit easier to confront
and consider these difficult issues, which people might ordinarily choose
to ignore. Additionally, it is almost shockingly easy to see parallels
between the some of the events and players on today's world stage (not to
mention those involved in the then-imminent WWII) and the characters and
events which are presented as bordering on lunatic in this 1937 classic.
Looking back from today's post-atomic, post-holocaust world of
Halliburton, terrorism, International Intelligence Organizations and
powerful nations' continuing lust for global hegemony, the foresight of
Hooray for What! is tragic but impressive.

[For more behind-the-scenes background on this production and the show's
history, check out the 42nd Street Moon Blog ... If you're in the San
Francisco Bay Area: 42nd Street Moon's Hooray for What! plays November
10-28th at the Eureka Theatre, 215 Battery St. at Jackson in San
Francisco. For more information on the production dates, times and
tickets, please visit the 42nd Street Moon website or call (415)
255-8207.]

Posted by: Michael Austin on Nov 11, 04 | 4:58 pm

	###