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Jack the Ripper (Di-Grazia)

Casebook Message Boards: Ripper Media: Specific Titles: Drama / Theater: Jack the Ripper (Di-Grazia)
Author: Christopher Michael DiGrazia
Friday, 20 November 1998 - 11:31 am
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I have written the libretto for a JTR musical that will be premiered April 10-26, 1997, in Boston MA. It is a serious and historically faithful look at the murders, concentrating on the lives of the five canonical victims, the impotence of the police and the conflicted loyalties of Mary Jane Kelly when she lears of her personal relationship with the Ripper. Though I say it myself, it has recieved very good reviews throughout its development, and a concert reading of the show was well-regarded.

The show will be performed at the Boston Center for the Arts, and anyone interested may contact them at 617.536.5981, or at http://world.std.com/~centast.

Author: Christopher Michael DiGrazia
Friday, 20 November 1998 - 11:32 am
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Reviews for "Jack the Ripper: the Whitechapel Musical"
Book and Lyrics by Christopher-Michael DiGrazia
Music by Steven Bergman
Directed by Curt Miller

Performances April 10-26, 1997
Boston Center for the Arts Boston, Massachusetts USA

The Boston Phoenix / April 18, 1997:
KILLER TUNES
"Jack the Ripper" sets murder to music
by Anne Marie Donahue

"Jack the Ripper" could be a real killer if its creators would putit to the knife. Half history and half fiction, the ambitious new show sets out to be a thinking person's musical and nearly succeeds. But the script sorely needs some deep cutting, and the final plot twist, which is truly twisted, turns into a maddening tangle at the very end.

Christopher-Michael DiGrazia does take a lot of risks with his book and lyrics. The very idea o a musical about a grisly serial killer and his victims is a risky one, evoking as it does shades of "Springtome for Hitler" camp. DiGrazia, however, is in dead earnest, and he sheds considerable light on his dark subjects, which include anit-Semitism and the callousness of the press.

In the first act, which is based on known facts of the 1888 crimes, he trains the spotlight on the Ripper's victims, all poor prostitutes trapped in the lving hell of a vile East london slum, casting each woman in flesh and blood before the Ripper reduces her to nothing more. In "When I Was a Girl," for example, victim Annie Chapman recalls an early ill-fated love affair. Actress Molly beck adopts a sneer and drunken demeanor affectingly at odds with her sweet soprano voice, giving Chapman the soul of a survivor, which adds to the pathos of her demise. Elizabeith Sride and Catharine Eddowes (played by Linda Goetz and Celeste McClain, respectively) are drawn with similar nuance. Although the victims share a profession and meet with the same ghastly fate, each has her own quirky way of coping in a perilous and demanding milieu.

There is something seriously awry, however, about the musical's conception of central character Mary Jane Kelly, who is complex and confused to the point of inscrutability. In reality, kelly was the Ripper's final victim, eviscerated and hacked beyond recignition. In DiGrazia's second-act scenario, however, she is the Ripper's sister, lover and accomplice. The passion between the benighted siblings is compelling enough, and thei fevered love scenes are riveting despite, or perhaps because of, the taboo. But their extra-sexual motivations are so murky that the denouement makes little sense. In the scenes the pair share, DiGrazia hints at the horrors that have helped to make Jack the monster he is. Ultimately, though, Jack and his sister remain irksomely enigmatic, which robs the conclusion of all credibility.

Before it reaches its lamentable close, which might be wrenching if it were rewritten, "Jack the Ripper" beguiles, provokes, and above all entertains. Among the standouts are the songs and scenes featuring the four rakish hacks billed as the Gentlemen of the Press - protrayed with energy and winning eccentricity by Dan Dowling, Courtney Furno, Micheal paul Ricca and Britton White. With the exception of Goetz, who lacks the voice her role requires, the women are all impressive, and Jennifer Lynn nagy is outright excellent as Mary Jane Kelly. Steven Brumble, Buddy Souza, David Salovitz and Timothy Ostendorf can seem to struggle with the intricacies of Steven Bergman's uneven score, which draws heavily on minor keys and offers too few memorable melodies. But Christopher J. Arruda proves himself fully equal to the difficult role of the Ripper.

The sets, costumes and staging are uniformly marvelous; the small off-stage orchestra meets the score's many challenges with panache, and director Curt Miller's orchestration gives the Centastage world-premiere production the kind of polish that the material, at this point in its development, lacks. "Jack the Ripper" has the potential to be a ripping good show, but DiGrazia and Bergman need to give it another stab.

The Boston Globe / April 16, 1997
SETTING A SCORE FOR "JACK THE RIPPER"
by Skip Ascheim

Probably the boys in the band Spinal Tap, in Robe Reiner's wickedly satiric 1983 "rockumentary," were the first to articulate the notion of a musical based on Jack the Ripper. It was no joke to them, and it's no joke to Christopher-Michael DiGrazia DiGrazia and Steven Bergman, either, whose "Jack the Ripper: the Whitechapel Musical" is having a worthy premiere under Curt Miller's direction for Centastage.

No doubt the Spinal Tap version of the Crime of the (19th) Century would have been hilariously grotesque; we're a lot better off with DiGrazia (book and lyrics) and Bergman (music), even though their show - a sweeping treatment of the crimes and the times in the Sondheim "Sweeney Todd" mode - is more enjoyable than satisfying.

no one knows the identity of the Ripper, who killed at least five, and possibly eight, prostitutes in London's Whitechapel district in 1888. So the first creative decision is, do you leave it a mystery or venture a solution? Siftin through various suspects while maintaining the mystery would make for fascinating speculation: they range from Queen Victoria's grandson, the Duke of Clarence, through physicians and foreigners to - no kidding - Lewis Carroll. But the lac of resolution would be just as likely to produce dull theater. DiGrazia's "solution" has the advantage of lurid theatricality. Unfortunately, in its pop-psychological eagerness to account for Jack's motivation, it degenerates almost to unintended parody.

In the longish first act, four victims are introduced, humanizedthrough dialogue and song, and dispatched. We meet assorted lowlifes, a baffled Scotland yard contingent, and a ravenous press corps. By the end of the act, we, but not the detectives, know whodunnit. In Act 2, while the cops slowly catch up, we discover the incestuous roots of Jack's pathology. The plot refocuses abruptly on his relationship to Mary Kelly, historically the fifth victim but here turned into an accomplice of sorts. The discombobulating consequence is that Mary becomes the show's central character even as her behavior grows increasingly, and implausibly, bizarre - hence dramatically uninteresting. Coherence is dealt a final blow by the absurd reactions of Mary's policeman boyfriend.

But while the foreground material self-destructs, the background bustles with spirited ensemble numbers. In "Stride's Song," the tavern denizens soothe their collective jitters over the murders by enacting mack attacks on each ohter, like in a "Ten Little Indians" scenario. "The Weekly London Murder," which recurs several times, establishes the press as a pack of sensationalizing jackals. "Story of the Century" offers an unsettling portrait of a populace whose attention is snared by the ghoulish. And in "Smarter Than You," police and reporters, as two choruses, deride each other's theories with contrapuntal sarcasm.

Bergman, who also conducts the four-person band, has provided a brassy, muscular score behind the group numbers, which Miller has staged with admirable dexterity in the restrictive BCA space. The composer also reveals a softer touch in several reflective solos and duests. Christopher J. Arruda, as Jack, caresses the notes as tenderly as his knife while christening the weapon "the finger of God." Other standouts in the 18-member cast include Stephen Brumble (Inspector Abberline), Timothy Ostendorf (Dr. Llewellyn, the coroner), Linda Goetz (Elizabeth Stride, a victim) and Molly Beck (Annie Chapman, another victim). In a class by herself, though, is Jennifer Lynn Nagy (Mary Kelly), whose sumptuous operatic sound overwhelms her duet partners and keeps Mary beguiling if not believable.

Internet reviews of "Jack the Ripper" can be found at either: http://www1.shore.net/~greenrm/jack.htm OR http://www.tiac.net/users/ghorton/jackrip.htm

The musical is currently undergoing revisions. Those interested in its history, future, or just wishing to chat may e-mail the lyricist, Christopher-Michael DiGrazia, at: digrazi@concentric.net


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