As reported by Playbill On-Line in November 1997, Frank Wildhorn, composer of Broadway's The Scarlet Pimpernel and Jekyll & Hyde, is working on a new musical, Havana. Wildhorn's wife and Hyde star Linda Eder has officially signed to appear in the Latin-rhythmed revue.
Said Wildhorn of the project (Nov. 1997), "It'll start as an Atlantic Records concept recording, but I'm hoping it'll be a real vehicle for my fiance [Eder]... The record will feature many of the world's best Latin and Cuban artists." According to a Wildhorn spokesperson (reached June 10), the disk and the Broadway show are expected for fall 1999/ winter-spring 2000, about half a season later than originally anticipated.
Calling it "a film noir musical," Wildhorn said Havana is set in pre- Castro Cuba, with "romance and intrigue and high stakes." The show is being co-created by Gregory Boyd and Jack Murphy -- the same team as on Wildhorn's oratorio, The Civil War.
In Havana, Eder will play the daughter of a high-level Mafioso. Eder and Wildhorn marred in real life May 3.
Asked about his propensity to start the theatre process with a cast recording first -- often way before any public performance, Wildhorn told Playbill On-Line, "I would never begin to do a theatre piece without a record company's support for the recording. You pour your heart and soul into these things, they take forever to do, and the deck is always stacked against you. Why not have the machinery of a music business behind you from the beginning? It's a calling card for the show and a barometer of the audience's temperature. And they become workshops for the shows themselves. With Pimpernel, we've already had a top-40 hit with Linda and Peabo Bryson ["You Are My Home."]" *
Some people can concentrate on only one thing at a time. Composer Wildhorn seems to concentrate on four dozen things at once -- and seemed unhappy unless he has four dozen more in reserve.
"I like to switch around a lot," he told Playbill On-Line (Nov. 1997). "It keeps me from getting bored. You keep a lot of projects in the works, and when one is ready to be born, you feel the momentum around it."
Feb. 1999 will see the Jekyll & Hyde national tour take wing, while an international tour will start in Belgium. Wildhorn had hoped to release the concept album of The Civil War in May or June, but the album has been postponed until late fall/early winter of this year, according to a spokesperson from Wildhorn Productions.
Rehearsals for The Civil War begin in August, with Houston starting performances Sept. 16 for a run through early November. After that, the show will travel to the birthplace of musicals, The Shubert Theatre in New Haven, CT (Feb. 16-Mar. 7, 1999), and Broadway is targeted for Apr. 1999, fitting the show into the current Broadway season.
Spokesperson Ashton said many of the cuts have already been recorded for the Civil War CD, including those by Broadway stars Betty Buckley, Michel Bell and Linda Eder, plus Dr. John and a host of major country/western stars including Travis Tritt, Tricia Yearwood, Carl Anderson, Blues Trader, Kevin Sharp, Deanna Carter, Trace Adkins, Michael English, Tracy Lawrence and John Berry. The CD is scheduled for release on Atlantic Records.
Titled The Civil War: An American Musical, the piece has lyrics by Jack Murphy and will draw its material from original civil war documents, Walt Whitman poetry and other correspondence of the time.
Gary Gunas (of PACE Theatricals) told Playbill On-Line in late 1997 that the "star-studded" concept CD of The Civil War is expected to be followed by a televised concert special. Plans are still underway for the broadcast, but no date has been announced.
Wildhorn told Playbill On-Line (Nov. 1997) that the Civil War CD is turning into a major drawing card for pop singers. Wildhorn calls it, "the largest American theatre album ever made: 28-30 major acts. Such a sweep of wonderful artists, I'm in heaven!" said Wildhorn. "[Civil War] combines what I love the most: theatre and the best pop singers in the world today making a record. It brings the record-making and theatre worlds together. This is an enormous commitment from Atlantic Records to a theatre piece. Not just RCA Victor or Sony Classics -- this is Atlantic Records, home of Led Zep and Jewel."
Wildhorn said of The Civil War, "This thing will have a very different kind of life from a Broadway show. It's not an oratorio, nor a play with music, nor a concert -- but it has elements of all those things. It's a huge emoti ýestry, the people of the times and the loss that defined those times. It consists of letters and diary entries and speeches -- that's the thread of the piece. Even Jack Murphy's song lyrics are based on poetry and speeches. The piece goes from Secession to the dawn of Gettysburg. (There was too much stuff to go to the entire inaugural.) And if it all works, maybe a year from now, we'll do the next part."
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And what's on the Wildhorn back-burner after Civil War gets going? Svengali, which won the 1991 Alton Jones Foundation Award. "We did it in Houston and Florida," said Wildhorn, "but Jekyll & Hyde reared its head and took over our lives. Svengali was written for Linda, and we'll be doing it -- and, of course, a recording of it."
A version of Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland & Through The Looking Glass is also in the offing -- another collaboration between Wildhorn, Boyd and Murphy. "I see it as `Magical Mystery Tour/Sergeant Pepper meets Danny Elfman," said Wildhorn. "We're talking to a major, major female artist for the concept recording."
And last but not least, Carnivale. "We're in the beginning stages," said Wildhorn. "Me and Sergio Mendes are creating a Brazilian Riverdance -- and not, it's not like Oba Oba. We figure it'll open in Spain or South America before it even gets here."
