Houdini: A MusicalHoudini is an exploration of freedom and imprisonment. This cross genre musical unlocks time and reality—on the page, in a box, under water, onstage This previously unpublished work offers readers the musical that was performed once in 1973 in Lenox, MA, with Christopher Walken playing Houdini in one of his earliest roles onstage. Houdini presents the spectacular life of world-renowned escape artist, Harry Houdini. Part biography, part fantasy, Houdini unlocks Rukeyser's worlds of illusion and reality as she leads us from Houdini's childhood in Appleton, Wisconsin (picking up pins with his eyelids) to his acts under water and onstage. We meet his wife Bess, his mother, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the poet's own Marco Bone, vehicle of voices, spirits, and songs. Rukeyser presents Houdini's shocking congressional testimony against spiritual mediums. She shows his great feats of escape, his complex relationships with his mother and his wife, and his ironic, untimely death.In addition to revealing the story of this country's tantalizing icon, Houdini offers a new understanding of Rukeyser's own work and life. Written at the height of the women's movement, the musical gives us Rukeyser's most famous lines, spoken by Houdini's wife Bess: "What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open." Houdini's response, "It has. Now I am going after all the pieces." With subtexts of desire, race, grief, and love, Houdini presents Rukeyser's gorgeous, reaching language and her brilliant observations of the human psyche. The musical will appeal to young readers as well as Houdini devotees, poetry fans, theater people, and escape artists everywhere. |
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Arthur Conan Doyle audience BEATRICE Song BEATRICE Yes BEER AND BACON begins believe Bess BILL blue laws body BONE and BEATRICE Borneo CECILIA CECILIA's voice CHAINS child circus clown color CONAN DOYLE Coney Island CONGRESSMAN Convince or prove Dance David Spangler Doctor Watson door DREAMS dress Ehrich ENSEMBLE Song Enter HOUDINI everything Exit eyes FIGHT FREE fortune-telling GIRL goes GRATTAN Harry Houdini hearing high-wire HOUDINI and BEATRICE HOUDINI There's HOUDINI Yes ICE BLACK ICE HOUDINI Indian Rope Trick jail LADY DOYLE Let Me Feel lock magician MARCO BONE Yes mediums MOMMA mother MURIEL RUKEYSER MURPHY never Paris Press rope trick Rosabelle Sarah Bernhardt Scene Three séance SECOND MEDICAL STUDENT Sherlock Holmes shooting gallery sing speak SPECTATOR stand Sure talk thing THIRD MEDICAL STUDENT tonight touch trunk VARICK VOLONTY and MARCO waiting WANT MY MAGIC WARDEN What's WHITSUN and EPICTETUS wife woman