Word: simonal
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...when he ventured out into the rough, unfamiliar seas of Broadway that he encountered troubled waters. The Capeman--Simon's first Broadway musical, seven years in the works, opening this week--has weathered one of the most heavily publicized and problem-plagued births of any show in years. Reports that Simon, a legendary perfectionist, has not taken well to the demands of theatrical collaboration have been the buzz of Broadway for months. The show's opening, originally scheduled for Jan. 8, was postponed three weeks when a new director--the show's fourth--was brought in to do some last...
...Simon got the idea for The Capeman nearly a decade ago, recalling a famous crime from his New York City childhood. Agron and an accomplice--dubbed the Capeman and the Umbrella Man because witnesses identified them by those accoutrements--made tabloid headlines, feeding the public's fears of juvenile delinquency and gang violence. At 16, Agron became the youngest person ever to receive the death penalty in New York State, a sentence that was later commuted to life imprisonment. In prison, Agron educated himself, began writing poetry and left-wing political tracts and became a cause celebre for liberal intellectuals...
...Caribbean Cultural Center in New York City. The show has even spawned a counterplay: Fred Newman, a playwright and director who was once Agron's therapist, has written and staged an off-Broadway drama on the same subject, Salvador (Fictional Conversations); among its characters is one Paul Simon...
...real-world controversy has been overshadowed by the show's creative travails. Simon had near total control of the project from the start, and he assembled a team of collaborators who were mostly Broadway outsiders. As co-writer of the book and lyrics he enlisted Derek Walcott, the Nobel-prizewinning West Indian poet and playwright. Morris, a leading light of modern dance, was persuaded to make his Broadway debut as choreographer. The lead roles were cast mostly with singers who had little stage-acting experience--including Panamanian musician Ruben Blades and hot young salsa star Marc Anthony (playing...
Finding a director, however, was the real stumper. Simon admits he and Walcott didn't want a strong "auteur" who would try to impose his own vision on the show. "We wanted to do it our way, and we wanted a director whose thinking was compatible with ours," Simon says. "We wanted to work with a good director, but we didn't want to work for a good director." After running through most of Broadway's top names, rejecting some and being turned down by others, Simon settled on Susana Tubert, an Argentine-born director who had apprenticed with Harold...