SCENES AND SETTINGS 2 acts, 20 scenes, the original Broadway production used projected scenery plus approximately 20 fly-ins to form the 11 settings. To achieve similar settings with solid scenery would require 7 full stage sets, 2 partial sets, and 4 drops. 2 scenes done on a black stage. ACT I Scene 1: A Gym. Scene 2: Wellington Kitchen. Scene 3: Tenement Rooftop. Scene 4: Tom Moody's Office. Scene 5: Schoolyard Playground. Scene 6: Harlem Street Scene. Scene 7: The Wellington Kitchen. Scene 8: Railroad Depot. Scene 9: The Road Tour. Scene 10: The Madison Square Garden Marquee/ Joe's Dressing Room. ACT II Scene 1: A Bar. Scene 2: Eddie's Penthouse Apartment. Scene 3: River and Bridge Scene with Park Bench. Scene 4: The Park. Scene 5: Tom's Office. Scene 6: Harlem Street "127th Street." Scene 7: Dressing Room. Scene 8: Boxing Ring. Scene 9: Dressing Room. Scene 10: Harlem Street. Scene 11: Madison Square Gardens PERIOD AND COSTUMES New York City 1960-1964: current fashions, dresses, suits, sports clothes, streetwear, sweaters, jackets, boxing shorts and gloves, formal wear, evening dresses, Madison Square Garden attendant uniforms. CHOREOGRAPHY: Modern ballet in boxing motif, modern jazz, rock 'n' roll, fight ballet. LIGHTING AND SPECIAL EFFECTS Special lighting effects, projected scenery, dramatic lighting required, follow spots used from wing loft positions. NOTES: Golden Boy could have been a great musical. Instead, it is only a good one. The second script written in Detroit prior to Broadway tryouts was much better. In this version, Joe was a would-be surgeon, fighting only to pay his way through college. He won't fight harder for fear of injuring the hands he hopes someday will save the lives of Negroes who are turned away by white surgeons. Tom doesn't know the reason he won't hit harder and sends Lorna to bring Joe around. When Lorna finds him in a ghetto park, he is studying his medical books. She is drawn to him, but the racial barrier blocks further developments. The part of Joe's father is much stronger in this version as the man who has sacrificed everything to get Joe as far as he is. All along, he's against Joe's fighting even if it does mean a faster education. Eddie Satin comes across a bigger heel in that such ideals mean nothing to him. When Tom sends Lorna to Joe the second time, the scene provided an understanding of interracial love that never really jells in the "official" version. Never were they closer than four feet until they ran off together at the scene-ending blackout, yet every member of the audience was pushing them together. And, of course, the fight, when the hands that were so painstakingly guided to save lives have killed, completes the paradox. The construction was magnificent. It might be well worth reconstructing.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODU3MzQ=