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Elvis Costello was in town last weekend for a reading of his musical adaptation of Elia Kazan’s great movie “A Face in the Crowd.”
This show has been flying under the radar for a while, but Costello’s lately been slipping a few of the songs into his concerts. Critics’ darling Sarah Ruhl (“Dead Man’s Cell Phone”) is doing the book, which a source tells me “needs more work.”
“A Face in the Crowd” is in the early stages, but Costello and his backers have a leading man in mind: Hugh Jackman.
Who doesn’t want Hugh? But good luck getting him, Elvis. The most bankable star in musical theater today, he’s fielding, oh, about a dozen offers an hour.
“A Face in the Crowd” ranks with “Sweet Smell of Success” and “Network” as one of the best movies ever produced about the power of the media. Let me also put in a good word for “Deadline — U.S.A.” with Humphrey Bogart. Not as famous as the others, but worth seeking out.
Released in 1957, “A Face in the Crowd” stars Andy Griffith as Lonesome Rhodes, a guitar-strumming drifter who winds up with his own radio show in a small market in Arkansas. He comes to the attention of some big shots in New York, and pretty soon he’s a nationwide television sensation, reaching every home in America with his plain-spoken wisdom. He can even swing presidential elections. Why, he may even run for president himself. Naturally, the power goes to his head, and he becomes a monster who deserves his comeuppance.
The inspiration for Lonesome Rhodes was radio and television personality Arthur Godfrey, who was gentle on air but a tyrant backstage. But you don’t have to be the sharpest knife in the drawer to see a parallel with certain media and political personalities today.
This isn’t the first musical adaptation of “A Face in the Crowd.” Walter Bobbie, who directed the revival of “Chicago” and the Tony-nominated “Bright Star,” worked on one years ago that, if memory serves, had a score by Charles Strouse and lyricist Lee Adams. A veteran agent remembers Bobbie’s version being “half-good” — but nothing came of it.
Costello, sources say, has always loved the movie and acquired the rights to it a few years ago. Among the songs he’s written for it so far are “Blood and Hot Sauce,” “Burn the Paper Down to Ash” and “Vitajex.”
Costello was inducted Thursday night into the Songwriters Hall of Fame at the Marriott Marquis, where he performed his old standby, “Alison.” Though he mentioned “A Face in the Crowd” in passing, he seemed excited about the project and optimistic about the reading
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