An Original Musical
BOOK, MUSIC & LYRICS JULIE MANDEL
In 1980 my husband, best friend, and long-time collaborator David Dachs passed away. Musicals we had been working on were put away, and it was a very hard time. Just before he died I had started an enormously engrossing project based on the lives of the Impressionist painters Monet, Renoir and Degas called Le Grand Café which resulted in a rich and beautiful score. Working without a book writer (foolishly), I developed songs out of their enormously moving struggles, their women, wives, and children. Though I had started the project well before Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George had appeared, the success of that show pretty much killed real interest in mine as being somehow too similar in subject matter - which they really aren’t. I was more interested in the more personal struggles of the painters and the women that they loved, and the sacrifices they all made just to keep making the art they couldn’t stop making, in spite of the heartbreaking poverty, starvation, and ridicule some had to endure for so very long. This was something I could deeply relate to - going on without recognition or reward. Two or three workshops were produced by National Music Theater Network, Artsangle, and others with wonderful casts, including Bill Parry, Chris Sarandon, Peter Boynton, Bruce Adler, Mark Basile, Susan Bigelow, and Rosemary Loar some of whom were by then in Sunday in the Park on Broadway. Over the years songs were added and dropped. Various directors made suggestions for restructuring or introducing new scenes or overarching structures and I did my best to comply. In the end I wrote about 40 songs.
In one version of the script I used 19 of those songs, which you can hear below. They are followed by many of the other songs that had appeared in other versions, some of which I really love. Only some terrible live tape recordings of workshops performances in the 1980’s survive other than my own demo recordings, and this includes a mix of those. In some cases there may be other lead-ins and dialogue on the recording, but you’ll be able to get a sense of the way the show might feel.
Le Grand Cafe
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In most versions of the show this was the first song which used a cafe metaphor to set the stage with the characters and politics of the Parisian art world as the young Monet and Renoir and their friends began their struggles for recognition.
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The young Renoir, Monet and others share how disappointed their families are in them for choosing to paint - because this means they will have to support them forever!
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Monet is enraptured with Camille and wants to paint her, outdoors (a radical idea in itself), as four different women.
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Degas, richer and a bit older than the others, is introduced to Mary Cassatt and discourses disparagingly on women who paint. But its a 'meet cute', and at the end he is embarrassed to learn that he had unknowingly praised one of her paintings earlier, saying 'this is an artist who paints as I do'.
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Forest of Fontainbleau was one of the earliest songs I wrote. The script uses an abridged version that then turns into a duet for Monet and Camille. It has been a solo, a duet for Monet and Camille and a trio for Monet, Renior and Degas at various times. In this recording there is a kind of intro called "My Own Way" where the painters express an unfulfilled longing for... something.
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In The Salon the young artists express their frustration with the calcified Salon system, which controls Parisian exhibitions and tastes - and the fates of all painters..
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This song was also quite early and allows each of the three - Degas, Renoir and Monet - to express what they are striving for with their work. Sometimes it was called Everyday Eternities / Pleasure / Light and Nature.
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Starving and freezing in the apartment they shared, Monet and Renoir decide to burn some of their work to stay warm. Another song called BURN IT once was in this spot but was replaced by this one.
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Three woman visit an art gallery.
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Durand Ruel was one of the first gallery owners to take a risk and support their work. Later he was instrumental in introducing them to the world. Here he explains his strategy. Sung beautifully by the distinctive Bruce Adler.
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The painters decide to stage their own exhibition outside the Salon system, which was a bold and dangerous move..
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An aristocratic collector, a friend of Degas', fears what the new art represents and laments the loss of the things he values most. Beautifully sung by Bruce Adler.
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Mary Cassatt was painted by Degas trying on hats in a shop in Paris. In this song Mary thinks their conversation is about to take an unexpected turn and she tries to decide how she feels about it.
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Sung by Monet, who contrasts the hard realities of the world with his own. We can't locate any recordings of this, but if you listen to this version which has woodwinds taking the vocal lines over a piano accompaniment, you can hear how the lyrics in the script work with the music.
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Monet's wife Camille sings a lullabye to their son. Recent recording by Margo Seibert
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There was a cafe owner named Murer who traded meals for paintings, and since the artists and their families were often starving, he got the better end of the deal. Sung here either by Robert Hendersen or by Jack Kyrieleison at a reading in the 80's.
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The song overlays the ridicule the artists were subjected to in Paris with Durand Ruel's reports from an exhibition of their work he organized in New York where they achieved their first success. Throughout the song the painters are treated as some strange follies act, performing for the amusement of the press and public, but in the end they have the last laugh.
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Sadly, Camille's years of living in poverty with Monet took its toll and shortly after their first successes, she died at home. There's a famous painting he did of her after she had passed. away that inspired this heartbreaking song. This is probably Chris Sarandon but could be Bill Parry.
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Julie Mandel
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In one version of the show the cafe singer Yvonne was given another number. It was fun but didn't advance the plot or deepen any characters. Sung by Nancy Callman.
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Renoir sings to his future wife, Aline Charigot. Sung by Peter Boynton.
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There was once a sequence showing Monet using charm and bluster to evade creditors or convince people to help him set up elaborate paintings, such as the station master of the Gare St. Nazarre, where he made one of his most famous paintings. Sung by Bill Parry.
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A simple charming scene between Renoir and a model, Lise Trechot as she poses for him. Sung by Peter Boynton and Abra Bingham.
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Monet tries to calm Camille as she is about to meet his parents for the first time.
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Probably should have been titled “Back In Paris Again”. Degas traveled to New Orleans to see his brother and painted several works there. This song captures his growing feelings for Mary Cassatt back in Paris, as he writes to her.
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I wanted a song that expressed Camille's perspective, who gave so much to support Monet's need to paint. Julie Mandel demo.
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Later I expanded this into a scene where Monet and Renoir are painting Camille, as they often did, and their thoughts and worries pour out. Susan Bigelow, Bill Parry, Peter Boynton.
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The artist Mary Cassatt, a model, and Camille Monet contemplate each other dismissively, disdainfully, jealously, and enviously. Julie Mandel working demo.
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A slightly different take on the same idea, as the three women contemplate each other and the trade offs they've made in their lives. Julie Mandel working demo.
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An earlier version of the scene that became Crazy Impressionist Painters, meant to contrast the Parisian art world and the ultimate success of Durand Ruel's successful exhibition in New York.
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Original opening of Act 2, Parisian gallery patrons insult the Impressionists work.
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The painters contemplate their ten years of failure.
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Camille will give birth shortly and Monet has no money to get there in time or support her. Camille misses him, and he desperately writes to his friend Bazille for money. No vocal recording has been found, but you can follow the lyric and hear how it works.
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Renoir attempts to discourage Aline, his future wife, from becoming romantically entangled with him to save her from a difficult life with a starving artist. Sung by Peter Boynton and Susan Glaze.