The Capeman
Encyclopedia
The Capeman is a musical play written by Paul Simon
and Derek Walcott
based on the life of Salvador Agrón
. The play opened at the Marquis Theatre
in 1998 to poor reviews and had an initial run of only 68 performances.
A blend of doo-wop
, gospel
, and latin music, it received Tony award
nominations for Best Original Score
, Best Orchestrations
and Best Scenic Design. Renoly Santiago
also received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Featured Performer in a Musical. Ednita Nazario
won the Theater World Award for her performance.
The Broadway production cost $11 million to produce, taking almost a decade to reach the stage after its conception in 1989. Hampered by last-minute rewrites that pushed the opening date from January 8 to January 29, and protests at the controversial narrative subject matter, the production was notable for its cast of mostly Latin-American actors and marked the Broadway debuts of Marc Anthony
, Renoly Santiago
, Ruben Blades
, Ednita Nazario, and Sara Ramirez
.
Paul Simon's studio album Songs from The Capeman
is a selection of songs from The Capeman performed by Simon with occasional appearances from the original cast. A complete original cast recording of the show was produced, but never released on CD. (It was released in its entirety via iTunes in 2006 - eight years after the show's opening.)
In 2008, Simon and the Spanish Harlem Orchestra
revisited The Capeman at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
with some of the original cast and other well-known artists. Simon also devoted a section of his two-night performances at the Beacon Theatre to "The Capeman." The NY Public Theater presented a concert production of the musical in the Summer of 2010 at Central Park's Delacorte Theater, directed by Diane Paulus
.
Simon then enlisted the help of Nobel Prize winning author and poet Derek Walcott. Their working relationship was awkward at first: Simon was unused to creative collaboration, and Walcott initially disliked the show's main character. Simon insisted that the music be written first, with the lyrics set to the songs. Eventually the two completed the play, with music composed by Simon and lyrics "about 50-50 Simon-Walcott".
Simon next assembled a band and spent almost five years and $1 million recording the songs. This was an unorthodox approach to constructing a Broadway show. Typically a show's writer would deliver a script and score to a director, who would then assemble and create the final production. Simon's intention was to retain full artistic control over the show through its entire production. Simon soon encountered resistance for refusing to play by the usual rules of the Broadway industry.
Simon was often cited as being disdainful of Broadway, and said in interviews that he hoped to reinvigorate what he saw as a stale musical form. Broadway music, he said, had "ended up in a weird cul de sac -- probably because it was never energized by rock and roll."
Theatre producer Rocco Landesman
later responded to Simon's statements: "The idea that you can at a strike rewrite an art form is a little presumptuous. I can't say the people in the theater community were rooting for Paul Simon after all the things he said about Broadway." Years later in 2011, Simon admitted that his inexperience had been a problem, saying "It's not that easy to write for the theater for the first time ... You really need a guide. For people coming out of popular music, writing songs that further the plot is different from writing whatever is on your mind. It's a different discipline."
Simon assembled a team of producers and financiers including James L. Nederlander
and Brad Grey
. The team raised and contributed several million dollars, but none had actual experience producing a Broadway show.
Eventually, the production cost an estimated $11 million, at the time a very high budget for a Broadway show. Some of the high budget was due to Simon's insistence that his musicians participate in all rehearsals with the actors, not a typical practice in Broadway productions.
In another unorthodox move by Simon, the show's director was the last member of the creative team to be hired. Simon first offered the job to Mark Morris
, who agreed to be the show's choreographer instead. Simon then hired set designer Bob Crowley
(who would be nominated for Tony Award for his sets in The Capeman), and then cast Ruben Blades
and Marc Anthony
in the title roles. Only after these decisions was Susana Tubert signed on to be the director.
During the last year and a half before its opening, the play went through a succession of three different directors: Susana Tubert, Eric Simonson
and Mark Morris
, the original choreographer who was the final credited director. The show's eventual release date was delayed by last-minute editing and restructuring. Derek Walcott, the show's book writer, effectively walked out of the production after resisting rewrites. Rubén Blades, in particular, had very strong opinions about Walcott's book: "I admire him deeply, he is a Nobel Laureate, but there are cultural nuances that are lost in the translation that Walcott was simply unable to catch. I also had my struggles with Simon, telling him that a particular line or two would have never come out of a Latino's mouth if the play is to be believable." Significant work was done by Jerry Zaks
, who finally said "I've done about as much as I can with what's there."
The production gave preview performances in New York while the rewriting was taking place. This put the cast in the difficult position of repeatedly performing the original version of the show each night, while in the afternoons they learned and rehearsed rewritten versions.
Before its opening the show evoked controversy. Groups representing the families of the murder victims protested that The Capeman glorified Agron and his violent crimes. On the other hand, some Puerto Rican groups were upset that one of the first predominantly Latino Broadway productions focused on Latin street gangs.
The show opened at the Marquis Theatre
on January 29, 1998, and suffered from very poor reviews from the mainstream press. Within a week, the show's producers had already discussed their strategy for saving the production, and vowed to keep the show open at least until the Tony Award
nominations in May.
The show closed after only 68 performances on March 28. After the show's closure was announced, Paul Simon issued a statement: "What I enjoyed the most, apart from the creative process, was the intensity with which the audience, in particular the Latino audience, responded to the play."
Ben Brantley, reviewer for the New York Times, gave a very negative review, calling the show a "sad, benumbed spectacle" which was "unparalleled in its wholesale squandering of illustrious talents". He praised Simon's Songs From The Capeman
album, but said that the translation to stage was lacking: "Everything in the music melts together; practically nothing that's said, done and shown on the stage seems to connect with anything else." Brantley admired Anthony and Blades' talents, but criticized the writing of their character, saying that Anthony "has been given no proper role to play". He wrote that the historical footage of Agron stole the show, especially young Sal's media statements that his mother could watch him burn. "Nothing that Mr. Anthony or Mr. Blades does in The Capeman begins to approach the disturbing complexity of that image."
There was a minority that appreciated the play, but these were generally outside the mainstream. An article in The Progressive
suggests cultural factors that led to the bad reviews, citing mainstream backlash against Simon's disparagement of the Broadway system, and discomfort with racial and ethnic themes in the Broadway core audience. The article points out that reviews were generally positive among two groups: out of town critics, and non-white New York critics.
, featuring 13 songs from the show performed by Simon with appearances from some of the original cast. Compared to Simon's other studio recordings, the album was not a success, peaking at position 42 of the Billboard 200 chart. Soon after, Puerto Rican singer Danny Rivera
included a Spanish-language version of "Born in Puerto Rico" as part of his live recording, "En Vivo desde Carnegie Hall
". In the recording, Rivera can be heard acknowledging Simon's presence in the audience, and thanking him for the song on behalf of all Puerto Ricans.
An original cast soundtrack recording was produced featuring 21 tracks, but its release was postponed after the show's failure. The record was eventually released in 2006 at the iTunes Store
as The Capeman (Original Broadway Cast Recording). All vocals on this release were performed by the original cast, with an appearance by Paul Simon on "Trailways Bus".
Just days after the show's Broadway premier, Variety
journalist Greg Evans suggested that the doomed show would work well as a concert of songs. He wrote,
"Years from now, when some savvy producer is scouting old theater material for a scaled-down concert staging, "The Capeman" should be first on his list."
In 2008, Joseph Melillo, director of the Brooklyn Academy of Music
produced a stage show called "Songs from the Capeman" using Paul Simon's Capeman music without the narrative dramatic elements of the show. Melillo said, "I wanted to help Paul, to get this demon out of him and onto the stage, where we could say, 'Look everyone, this is great music.'"
Melillo's production featured the Spanish Harlem Orchestra
led by Oscar Hernandez
, original music director for the Broadway Capeman.
Paul Simon appeared to sing "Trailways Bus", one of the songs from the show, and finished the evening with a performance of his 1980 latin-themed single Late in the Evening.
In August 2010 a heavily revised production of The Capeman ran three shows at Central Park's Delacorte Theater
, directed by Diane Paulus
. The production featured Obie Bermúdez
as The Umbrella Man
and a musical number by Danny Rivera
. This version was substantially stripped down, with a running time of only about 90 minutes (compared to the original production's three hours). The new version increased the focus on Agron's mother, dropped some characters and subplots,
used more choreography, and had no sets.
The media was instructed not to write reviews of the show which was officially described as a work in progress,
with Public Theater
artistic director Oskar Eustis calling it "just a sketch" of full reconception of the show.
Even so, Ben Brantley of the New York Times, who said the original Broadway production was "like watching a mortally wounded animal", gave a positive review, focusing on the organic staging outdoors on a rainy night in Central Park.
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
and Derek Walcott
Derek Walcott
Derek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros...
based on the life of Salvador Agrón
Salvador Agron
Salvador Agron The correct spelling of his surname in Spanish is Agrón. But the biography by Jacoby, his personal friend, uses the americanized spelling Agron exclusively throughout...
. The play opened at the Marquis Theatre
Marquis Theatre
The Marquis Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 1535 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan.Situated on the third floor of the Marriott Marquis Hotel, the 1611-seat venue was designed by developer/architect John C. Portman, Jr...
in 1998 to poor reviews and had an initial run of only 68 performances.
A blend of doo-wop
Doo-wop
The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...
, gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
, and latin music, it received Tony award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nominations for Best Original Score
Tony Award for Best Original Score
The Tony Award for Best Original Score is the Tony Award given to the composers and lyricists of the best original score written for a musical in that year. The score consists of music and lyrics...
, Best Orchestrations
Tony Award for Best Orchestrations
-1990s:1997*Jonathan Tunick – Titanic**Michael Gibson - Steel Pier**Luther Henderson - Play On!**Don Sebesky and Harold Wheeler - The Life1998*William David Brohn – Ragtime**Robert Elhai, David Metzger and Bruce Fowler - The Lion King...
and Best Scenic Design. Renoly Santiago
Renoly Santiago
Renoly Santiago is a Puerto Rican actor, singer and writer who has appeared in a number of high-profile Hollywood productions....
also received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Featured Performer in a Musical. Ednita Nazario
Ednita Nazario
Ednita Nazario is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter who has achieved stardom both at home and abroad. She has been in the music business from a young age, and has released over twenty albums throughout her career....
won the Theater World Award for her performance.
The Broadway production cost $11 million to produce, taking almost a decade to reach the stage after its conception in 1989. Hampered by last-minute rewrites that pushed the opening date from January 8 to January 29, and protests at the controversial narrative subject matter, the production was notable for its cast of mostly Latin-American actors and marked the Broadway debuts of Marc Anthony
Marc Anthony
Marc Anthony is an American singer-songwriter, actor and producer. Anthony is the top selling tropical salsa artist of all time. The two-time Grammy and three-time Latin Grammy–winner has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. He is best known for his Latin salsa numbers and ballads...
, Renoly Santiago
Renoly Santiago
Renoly Santiago is a Puerto Rican actor, singer and writer who has appeared in a number of high-profile Hollywood productions....
, Ruben Blades
Rubén Blades
Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna is a Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, lawyer, actor, Latin jazz musician, and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres...
, Ednita Nazario, and Sara Ramirez
Sara Ramírez
Sara Ramírez is a Mexican-American singer/songwriter and actress. She is known for her role as Callie Torres in Grey's Anatomy and as the original Lady of the Lake in the 2005 Broadway musical Spamalot, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.-Early life:Ramírez...
.
Paul Simon's studio album Songs from The Capeman
Songs From the Capeman
Songs From The Capeman is the ninth studio album by Paul Simon, released in 1997. It contains Simon's own performances of songs from the Broadway musical he wrote and produced called The Capeman augmented by members of the original cast. A departure musically from his earlier work, the album...
is a selection of songs from The Capeman performed by Simon with occasional appearances from the original cast. A complete original cast recording of the show was produced, but never released on CD. (It was released in its entirety via iTunes in 2006 - eight years after the show's opening.)
In 2008, Simon and the Spanish Harlem Orchestra
Spanish Harlem Orchestra
Spanish Harlem Orchestra is a Latin dance music orchestra based in the United States, founded by Aaron Levinson and Oscar Hernandez.Their debut album was released in October 2002...
revisited The Capeman at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
with some of the original cast and other well-known artists. Simon also devoted a section of his two-night performances at the Beacon Theatre to "The Capeman." The NY Public Theater presented a concert production of the musical in the Summer of 2010 at Central Park's Delacorte Theater, directed by Diane Paulus
Diane Paulus
Diane Paulus is an American director of theater and opera who became Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University in 2009. Paulus was nominated for the Best Director Tony Award for her revival of Hair...
.
Production
Paul Simon began working on The Capeman in 1989. The early development was aided by Simon's friend Carlos Ortiz, who helped Simon locate and translate source material. Simon and Ortiz met with people who had known Agron in prison, and visited Esmerelda Agron in Puerto Rico. In the first minutes of their meeting Esmerelda described a dream of her son entering heaven which would become the song Esmerelda's Dream. Ortiz also introduced Simon to several Latin musicians, and before long Simon had written Born in Puerto Rico, one of the show's centerpiece songs.Simon then enlisted the help of Nobel Prize winning author and poet Derek Walcott. Their working relationship was awkward at first: Simon was unused to creative collaboration, and Walcott initially disliked the show's main character. Simon insisted that the music be written first, with the lyrics set to the songs. Eventually the two completed the play, with music composed by Simon and lyrics "about 50-50 Simon-Walcott".
Simon next assembled a band and spent almost five years and $1 million recording the songs. This was an unorthodox approach to constructing a Broadway show. Typically a show's writer would deliver a script and score to a director, who would then assemble and create the final production. Simon's intention was to retain full artistic control over the show through its entire production. Simon soon encountered resistance for refusing to play by the usual rules of the Broadway industry.
Simon was often cited as being disdainful of Broadway, and said in interviews that he hoped to reinvigorate what he saw as a stale musical form. Broadway music, he said, had "ended up in a weird cul de sac -- probably because it was never energized by rock and roll."
Theatre producer Rocco Landesman
Rocco Landesman
Rocco Landesman has been a long-time Broadway theatre producer. In August 2009 he became chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts...
later responded to Simon's statements: "The idea that you can at a strike rewrite an art form is a little presumptuous. I can't say the people in the theater community were rooting for Paul Simon after all the things he said about Broadway." Years later in 2011, Simon admitted that his inexperience had been a problem, saying "It's not that easy to write for the theater for the first time ... You really need a guide. For people coming out of popular music, writing songs that further the plot is different from writing whatever is on your mind. It's a different discipline."
Simon assembled a team of producers and financiers including James L. Nederlander
James L. Nederlander
James L. Nederlander of the famous Nederlander family of Detroit, Michigan, is also known as James Nederlander, Jr., and is a veteran on Broadway as a theatre owner, operator, producer and presenter. He is the president of the Nederlander Organization and the son of James M...
and Brad Grey
Brad Grey
Brad Alan Grey is the Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, a position he has held since 2005. Under Grey’s leadership, Paramount has finished No.2 in market share in 2008, 2009 and 2010 despite releasing significantly fewer films than its competitors.Since arriving at Paramount in 2005,...
. The team raised and contributed several million dollars, but none had actual experience producing a Broadway show.
Eventually, the production cost an estimated $11 million, at the time a very high budget for a Broadway show. Some of the high budget was due to Simon's insistence that his musicians participate in all rehearsals with the actors, not a typical practice in Broadway productions.
In another unorthodox move by Simon, the show's director was the last member of the creative team to be hired. Simon first offered the job to Mark Morris
Mark Morris
Mark William Morris is an American dancer, choreographer and director whose work is acclaimed for its craftsmanship, ingenuity, humor, and at times eclectic musical accompaniments...
, who agreed to be the show's choreographer instead. Simon then hired set designer Bob Crowley
Bob Crowley
Bob Crowley is a theatre director, scenic and costume designer.Born in Cork, Ireland, he is the brother of director John Crowley...
(who would be nominated for Tony Award for his sets in The Capeman), and then cast Ruben Blades
Rubén Blades
Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna is a Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, lawyer, actor, Latin jazz musician, and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres...
and Marc Anthony
Marc Anthony
Marc Anthony is an American singer-songwriter, actor and producer. Anthony is the top selling tropical salsa artist of all time. The two-time Grammy and three-time Latin Grammy–winner has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. He is best known for his Latin salsa numbers and ballads...
in the title roles. Only after these decisions was Susana Tubert signed on to be the director.
During the last year and a half before its opening, the play went through a succession of three different directors: Susana Tubert, Eric Simonson
Eric Simonson
Eric Simonson is an American writer and director in theatre, film and opera. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical in 1993 for The Song of Jacob Zulu.- Personal life :...
and Mark Morris
Mark Morris
Mark William Morris is an American dancer, choreographer and director whose work is acclaimed for its craftsmanship, ingenuity, humor, and at times eclectic musical accompaniments...
, the original choreographer who was the final credited director. The show's eventual release date was delayed by last-minute editing and restructuring. Derek Walcott, the show's book writer, effectively walked out of the production after resisting rewrites. Rubén Blades, in particular, had very strong opinions about Walcott's book: "I admire him deeply, he is a Nobel Laureate, but there are cultural nuances that are lost in the translation that Walcott was simply unable to catch. I also had my struggles with Simon, telling him that a particular line or two would have never come out of a Latino's mouth if the play is to be believable." Significant work was done by Jerry Zaks
Jerry Zaks
Jerry Zaks is a German-born American stage and television director, and actor. He won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play and Drama Desk Award for directing The House of Blue Leaves, Lend Me A Tenor, and Six Degrees of Separation and the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and Drama...
, who finally said "I've done about as much as I can with what's there."
The production gave preview performances in New York while the rewriting was taking place. This put the cast in the difficult position of repeatedly performing the original version of the show each night, while in the afternoons they learned and rehearsed rewritten versions.
Before its opening the show evoked controversy. Groups representing the families of the murder victims protested that The Capeman glorified Agron and his violent crimes. On the other hand, some Puerto Rican groups were upset that one of the first predominantly Latino Broadway productions focused on Latin street gangs.
The show opened at the Marquis Theatre
Marquis Theatre
The Marquis Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 1535 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan.Situated on the third floor of the Marriott Marquis Hotel, the 1611-seat venue was designed by developer/architect John C. Portman, Jr...
on January 29, 1998, and suffered from very poor reviews from the mainstream press. Within a week, the show's producers had already discussed their strategy for saving the production, and vowed to keep the show open at least until the Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nominations in May.
The show closed after only 68 performances on March 28. After the show's closure was announced, Paul Simon issued a statement: "What I enjoyed the most, apart from the creative process, was the intensity with which the audience, in particular the Latino audience, responded to the play."
Selected personnel for the Broadway Production
- Paul SimonPaul SimonPaul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
Music, book and lyrics - Derek WalcottDerek WalcottDerek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros...
Book and lyrics - Mark MorrisMark MorrisMark William Morris is an American dancer, choreographer and director whose work is acclaimed for its craftsmanship, ingenuity, humor, and at times eclectic musical accompaniments...
Director and choreographer - Bob CrowleyBob CrowleyBob Crowley is a theatre director, scenic and costume designer.Born in Cork, Ireland, he is the brother of director John Crowley...
Sets and costumes - Oscar HernandezOscar HernandezOscar Hernandez is a Puerto Rican musician, musical arranger and producer.-Early years:Hernandez's family moved to the United States from Puerto Rico in the 1940s, in search of a better way of life. They settled down in the South Bronx, a ghetto, which is a section that is heavily populated by...
Musical director
Original cast
- Marc AnthonyMarc AnthonyMarc Anthony is an American singer-songwriter, actor and producer. Anthony is the top selling tropical salsa artist of all time. The two-time Grammy and three-time Latin Grammy–winner has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. He is best known for his Latin salsa numbers and ballads...
- Young Salvador Agron - Ruben BladesRubén BladesRubén Blades Bellido de Luna is a Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, lawyer, actor, Latin jazz musician, and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres...
- Adult Salvador Agron - Renoly SantiagoRenoly SantiagoRenoly Santiago is a Puerto Rican actor, singer and writer who has appeared in a number of high-profile Hollywood productions....
- Tony Hernandez - Ednita NazarioEdnita NazarioEdnita Nazario is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter who has achieved stardom both at home and abroad. She has been in the music business from a young age, and has released over twenty albums throughout her career....
- Esmerelda Agron - Élan Luz RiveraÉlan Luz RiveraÉlan Luz Rivera is a Puerto Rican-American, Latin Hip hop singer who debuted in 2005 as one of the singers in the band The D.E.Y.-Background:Rivera was born and raised in New York City...
- Cookie
Reception
Initial mainstream press reviews of The Capeman were overwhelmingly negative, though most had some praise for Simon's music.Ben Brantley, reviewer for the New York Times, gave a very negative review, calling the show a "sad, benumbed spectacle" which was "unparalleled in its wholesale squandering of illustrious talents". He praised Simon's Songs From The Capeman
Songs From the Capeman
Songs From The Capeman is the ninth studio album by Paul Simon, released in 1997. It contains Simon's own performances of songs from the Broadway musical he wrote and produced called The Capeman augmented by members of the original cast. A departure musically from his earlier work, the album...
album, but said that the translation to stage was lacking: "Everything in the music melts together; practically nothing that's said, done and shown on the stage seems to connect with anything else." Brantley admired Anthony and Blades' talents, but criticized the writing of their character, saying that Anthony "has been given no proper role to play". He wrote that the historical footage of Agron stole the show, especially young Sal's media statements that his mother could watch him burn. "Nothing that Mr. Anthony or Mr. Blades does in The Capeman begins to approach the disturbing complexity of that image."
There was a minority that appreciated the play, but these were generally outside the mainstream. An article in The Progressive
The Progressive
The Progressive is an American monthly magazine of politics, culture and progressivism with a pronounced liberal perspective on some issues. Known for its pacifism, it has strongly opposed military interventions, such as the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The magazine also devotes much coverage...
suggests cultural factors that led to the bad reviews, citing mainstream backlash against Simon's disparagement of the Broadway system, and discomfort with racial and ethnic themes in the Broadway core audience. The article points out that reviews were generally positive among two groups: out of town critics, and non-white New York critics.
Recordings
In 1997 (before the show's premiere), Simon released a studio album called Songs from The CapemanSongs From the Capeman
Songs From The Capeman is the ninth studio album by Paul Simon, released in 1997. It contains Simon's own performances of songs from the Broadway musical he wrote and produced called The Capeman augmented by members of the original cast. A departure musically from his earlier work, the album...
, featuring 13 songs from the show performed by Simon with appearances from some of the original cast. Compared to Simon's other studio recordings, the album was not a success, peaking at position 42 of the Billboard 200 chart. Soon after, Puerto Rican singer Danny Rivera
Danny Rivera
Danny Rivera is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter who was born in San Juan whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is well-known in Puerto Rico for his political activism.-Musical career:...
included a Spanish-language version of "Born in Puerto Rico" as part of his live recording, "En Vivo desde Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
". In the recording, Rivera can be heard acknowledging Simon's presence in the audience, and thanking him for the song on behalf of all Puerto Ricans.
An original cast soundtrack recording was produced featuring 21 tracks, but its release was postponed after the show's failure. The record was eventually released in 2006 at the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
as The Capeman (Original Broadway Cast Recording). All vocals on this release were performed by the original cast, with an appearance by Paul Simon on "Trailways Bus".
The Capeman after Broadway
The Capeman was not performed in its original form after its 68-show original Broadway run. Shortly after the show's closure there were discussions of a "Songs of 'The Capeman'" national concert tour, but these plans were abandoned.Just days after the show's Broadway premier, Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
journalist Greg Evans suggested that the doomed show would work well as a concert of songs. He wrote,
"Years from now, when some savvy producer is scouting old theater material for a scaled-down concert staging, "The Capeman" should be first on his list."
In 2008, Joseph Melillo, director of the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
produced a stage show called "Songs from the Capeman" using Paul Simon's Capeman music without the narrative dramatic elements of the show. Melillo said, "I wanted to help Paul, to get this demon out of him and onto the stage, where we could say, 'Look everyone, this is great music.'"
Melillo's production featured the Spanish Harlem Orchestra
Spanish Harlem Orchestra
Spanish Harlem Orchestra is a Latin dance music orchestra based in the United States, founded by Aaron Levinson and Oscar Hernandez.Their debut album was released in October 2002...
led by Oscar Hernandez
Oscar Hernandez
Oscar Hernandez is a Puerto Rican musician, musical arranger and producer.-Early years:Hernandez's family moved to the United States from Puerto Rico in the 1940s, in search of a better way of life. They settled down in the South Bronx, a ghetto, which is a section that is heavily populated by...
, original music director for the Broadway Capeman.
Paul Simon appeared to sing "Trailways Bus", one of the songs from the show, and finished the evening with a performance of his 1980 latin-themed single Late in the Evening.
In August 2010 a heavily revised production of The Capeman ran three shows at Central Park's Delacorte Theater
Delacorte Theater
The Delacorte Theater, established in 1962, is an open-air theater located in Manhattan's Central Park and has a seating capacity of 1,800. The Delacorte is owned by the City of New York and operated by The Public Theater. It is an open-air amphitheater, with the Turtle Pond and Belvedere Castle...
, directed by Diane Paulus
Diane Paulus
Diane Paulus is an American director of theater and opera who became Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University in 2009. Paulus was nominated for the Best Director Tony Award for her revival of Hair...
. The production featured Obie Bermúdez
Obie Bermúdez
Obie Bermúdez , is a Puerto Rican-American R&B/Salsa singer and composer.-Early years:Bermúdez was born in Aibonito, Puerto Rico into a family who loved music. His father and grandfather were both musicians. He received his primary education in the town of Aibonito, however in 1992 the family...
as The Umbrella Man
and a musical number by Danny Rivera
Danny Rivera
Danny Rivera is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter who was born in San Juan whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is well-known in Puerto Rico for his political activism.-Musical career:...
. This version was substantially stripped down, with a running time of only about 90 minutes (compared to the original production's three hours). The new version increased the focus on Agron's mother, dropped some characters and subplots,
used more choreography, and had no sets.
The media was instructed not to write reviews of the show which was officially described as a work in progress,
with Public Theater
Public Theater
The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as The Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers. It is headquartered at 425 Lafayette Street in the former Astor Library in the East Village...
artistic director Oskar Eustis calling it "just a sketch" of full reconception of the show.
Even so, Ben Brantley of the New York Times, who said the original Broadway production was "like watching a mortally wounded animal", gave a positive review, focusing on the organic staging outdoors on a rainy night in Central Park.
External links
- The Capeman at Internet Broadway Database
- "The Story of the Capeman", article by Paul Simon
- The Capeman in Concert 2008