A
Broadway musical with
book,
music, and
lyrics all by
Rupert Holmes, based on the
unfinished novel by
Charles Dickens. Holmes cleverly solves the
problem of not having a
traditional ending by asking the
audience to solve the
mystery -- the
subtitle is "The
Solve-It-Yourself Broadway Musical."
A
theatre company is attempting to
stage a musical comedy of the story that Charles Dickens was writing when he
died. The show "features" an
actor who never arrives (causing the
master of ceremonies to be unceremoniously dumped into the
proceedings) and an out-of-town
prima donna "
male impersonator" in the
title role who storms off the stage and
quits the show just before
intermission, and the entire show comes to an absolute
halt in mid-song about two-thirds of the way through the
second act, since the
story was never finished, and the
mystery of who killed Edwin Drood was never solved by its
author. Instead, the audience solves it via a number of
votes. The audience
chooses from among five possible "Datchery"s (a clearly
disguised "
detective" who has been snooping around the second act in a long
coat and a
beard), seven possible
murderers, and a
pair of
lovers selected from the remaining three, four or five
principle characters of either
gender. Altogether, the cast has to be ready for
eight hundred possible
endings.
The
original Broadway
production included
Betty Buckley,
Cleo Laine,
George Rose,
Patti Cohenour, and
Howard McGillin. The show won
five Tony Awards, including
Musical,
Actor in a Musical (George Rose),
Direction of a Musical (
Wilford Leach),
Book of a Musical (Rupert Holmes), and
Original Score (Rupert Holmes).
Song ListThere You AreA Man Could Go Quite MadTwo KinsmenMoonfallMoonfall QuartetWages of SinCeylonBoth Sides of the CoinPerfect StrangersNo Good Can Come From BadNever the LuckThe Name of Love/Moonfall (Reprise)Settling the ScoreOff To the RacesDon't Quit While You're AheadThe Garden Path to HellOut on a LimerickJasper's Confession*
Rosa's Confession*
Puffer's Confession*
The Writing on the Wall* While these three
confessions are on the
CD, each character has a confession song. Rosa was the murderer selected on the
Press Night preview of the show, and is the author's favorite "
serious" confession. Puffer was the murderer selected by the
Broadway Opening Night audience, and is the author's favorite "
comedic" confession.