A May-December romance A May-December romance (July 22, 2005)

'Harold and Maude' reemerge on TheatreWorks' stage

by Robyn Israel

Thirty-five years ago, Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort came to Palo Alto to shoot scenes for "Harold and Maude," a touching, if quite dark, love story between a 79-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man.

Critics panned the film and theaters pulled it after a week, but college campuses loved it. The black comedy would, in due time, become a cult classic, touching audiences through its poignant story and quirky characters. Thirty years later, Harold and Maude are revisiting Palo Alto, this time in the form of "an intimate musical" that opens Saturday at the Lucie Stern Theatre. Though the love story is the same, the interpretation is different, relying on music to further capture the characters' personalities. Presented by TheatreWorks, the piece will be directed by Robert Kelley. The leads are a contrast in opposites: Maude is a vivacious woman with a joie de vivre , while Harold is a morose teenager fixated on death. He attends strangers' funerals and stages mock suicides, while she sees every day as a celebration of life. Through Maude, Harold is awakened to the beauty and possibility of being alive. Joining forces for this West Coast premiere are composer Joseph Thalken and lyricist Tom Jones, who are, in their own way, like Harold and Maude. While Thalken is an emerging presence in the world of musical theater, Jones is the veteran, having written "The Fantasticks" -- the longest-running production in the history of the American stage. The show closed in 2002, after a 42-year run. The duo began collaborating after Jones' longtime composing partner, Harvey Schmidt, retired in 2001. "We started writing and found we have a good sense of back and forth," Thalken said. Jones has flirted before with the idea of bringing "Harold and Maude" to the stage. Though a 1980 Broadway play flopped, Jones always thought there was a way to successfully adapt the story (a Parisian play, based on the film, ran for several years in the '70s). "I thought there were mythic underpinnings that gave it a tone under the comedy and the romance, but I couldn't get a handle on how to do it," Jones said. Having children later in life helped. Now in his 70s, Jones is approaching the age of Maude's character, yet has college-age kids who challenge him to bridge the generational divide. "This whole thing about reaching across time to make contact with someone, I felt deeply about it, because it was my life," Jones said. After the people who owned the rights to the story gave the green light, the project was a go. The first lyrics Jones wrote were for a song Maude sings to Harold: "We're strolling along two sides of a river, A river known as time. I'm over here in my final year You're over there, in your prime." "She's on one side; he's on another," Jones said. "Yet they see each other and sometimes they're close enough to touch." In adapting the story for the stage, Jones first decided to set it in contemporary times, with hip-hop lyrics ("I was trying to be hip, to write in the voice of my children" he explained) but Thalken nixed the idea. "I thought the hip-hop opening got the show off on the wrong foot," Thalken said. "It's amazing in musical theater; one little thing -- the wrong opening number or the wrong tone -- can sink it and you never recover. If you start it off right you have a much better chance of making it." At Thalken's urging, they decided to keep the early '70s setting, and found a way, through music, to express the characters' thoughts and emotions -- particularly those of the suicidal Harold, who is a passive character in the film. "We go deeper inside his mind," Jones said. "Harold sings his first song as a duet with his mother, while he's hanging himself." "There's not a lot of plot -- it's a character-driven show," Thalken added. "The typical musical is plot-driven. So we're peeling things back -- their growing relationship is the plot." Though the 1970 film included songs by Cat Stevens, the stage adaptation does not. "I didn't try to imitate him -- I'd be a third rate Cat Stevens," Thalken said. "But I did try to get a little more into the early '70s feel, without being pastiche. "I've had a blast. I've been able to spoof different kinds of music -- church music, military music. The music that's most personal for me is the music that's most personal for them. Surrounding that is music that verges on being cartoon-ish. (It shows that) the outside world is crazy, but these two people, who are perceived as crazy, are the most real." "Harold and Maude: An Intimate Musical" received its world premiere in January at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey. The 1,500-seat venue was not ideal, according to Jones and Thalken, and they have higher hopes for the Lucie Stern Theatre. "It works better in a 450-seat theatre -- 'Harold and Maude' is an up-close and personal story," Jones said. Since its premiere, Jones and Thalken have added four new songs to the show, as well as a new character: Uncle Victor. He is an Army general who appeared in the film -- a reminder of the then-current Vietnam War. In 2005, his character is a haunting reminder of the war in Iraq. "The Army was not a real issue when I first started writing the book," Jones said. "But it's coming back to haunt us. And I feel it strongly, having two boys of college age. I feel that the draft is going to come back -- no one is joining the Army or the National Guard."
What: "Harold and Maude: An Intimate Musical," presented by TheatreWorks
Where: Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto
When: The show will preview tonight at 8 p.m. and will open on Saturday at 8 p.m. Show times are Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m.; Wednesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. The production will run through Aug. 14.
Cost: Tickets are $20-$50, with discounts available for youth, students, seniors and members.
Info: For tickets and information please call (650) 903-6000 or visit www.theatreworks.org.

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