My new book, Running Away with the Circus (Or, "Now is the Winter of our Missing Tent") is now available to order from Lulu.com, although it may be a few weeks before it becomes available through other outlets such as Amazon.

Running Away with the Circus began life as letters home to friends and colleagues during my three months with the American Universal Circus on tour in Taiwan, one of the most truly bizarre experiences of my life (so far). I knew that I wanted to turn them into a book when my friend, television producer Norman Campbell threatened (jokingly) to bootleg them and publish them under his own name.

In real life, I am a composer-lyricist for the musical theatre. My night-time day job has usually involved working backstage in various London West End theatres. However, on one occasion in 1997, I found myself facing nursing a broken heart, unemployment and - worse yet - taking on a soul destroying job to make ends meet. Then an ad appeared in The Stage for circus workers. I jumped at it. A team of psychiatrists in the employ of my family then jumped on me. But I went anyway.

Nothing could have prepared me for this experience. (Not that any attempt was made to prepare me - I was fed a shocking litany of disinformation: nobody would even tell me what sort of clothes to bring.) I found myself in a foreign country with no understanding of the language or culture, doing a job that was deeply embroiled in local politics.

The impresario, Mr. Hsu Po-yun, who was presenting the circus, was deeply connected with the ruling Nationalist party, who for the first time in history were losing their grip on power. As a result, we were being refused routine permits, while facing down police corruption and being greeted by animal rights protesters (whom we learned had more than a few valid points).Our troubles really began when, two weeks into our trip, we were forced to take down our tent because of an approaching typhoon. The cultural misunderstandings began to pile up when we asked for a six-ton forklift and were given a four-ton and a two-ton instead.

But the show went on, and I had a chance, in between guarding tigers and putting up tents, to explore some of the little-known tourist sites of Taiwan, including the Pescadores Islands, Sun-moon Lake and the spectacular Alishan Forest Railway. We visited Taipei, Taichung, Touliu, Kaohsiung and Chia-Yi before it became clear that the reason why we were being paid late was not really because the cashier didn't get to the bank on time. After the promoters threatened to make one of our staff "disappear" if he didn't stop demanding his pay, we left in a very big hurry.

 

ISBN 9780991695713

Can be purchased by going to http://www.lulu.com/shop/mel-atkey/running-away-with-the-circus-or-now-is-the-winter-of-our-missing-tent/paperback/product-21001957.html.

This review by Keith Garebian recently appeared in Stage and Page.

            A self-styled “manifesto with an agenda,” rather than a comprehensive history or an academic study, Mel Atkey’s third book (following When We Both Got to Heaven and Broadway North: The Dream of a Canadian Musical Theatre) is very much a generalist fan’s book. As he relates, Atkey grew up in Vancouver, B.C., where his early experience with musical theatre was with local amateur productions, movies, and the odd touring show. Because he saw musical theatre at a distance of 3,000 miles from New York, Broadway might as well have been a million miles from where he dwelled. This fact did not deter him from writing musicals in high school, going on to be finalist for the Musical of the Year competition in Aarhus, Denmark, short-listed for the Vivian Ellis Prize, the Ken Hill Prize, and others. His first musical, Shikara, was produced on Canadian radio, and he spent two years as a theatre critic in Vancouver, before moving to Toronto to pursue his career as a musical theatre writer. He won commissions from the CBC, became a member of the Guild of Canadian Musical Theatre Writers, created an off-off-Broadway musical showcase, and went on to more prestigious things in New York and Chicago. He also continued to lecture internationally on musical theatre, so his credentials are impressive and help bolster his attempts to puncture several myths about musical theatre. Atkey’s manifesto-agenda takes to heart Alan Jay Lerner’s dictum: “Broadway cannot live without musical theatre, but the musical theatre can live without Broadway.” And Atkey also seems to subscribe to playwright Steven Berkoff’s view that the contemporary musical knocks spots off modern drama.

To help the reader understand his fervour for the musical genre, he divides his book into two acts with an intermission or entr’acte, the first being a quick survey of The Parents, i.e. Europe, showing how vaudeville started to sing with Mozart’s anonymous contributions to Emanuel Schikaneder’s productions and thereby raise standards of popular taste. Mozart eventually created a full-scale opera with The Magic Flute, but Europe had other musical geniuses in addition to him: Offenbach, Bizet, Johan Strauss, jr., Franz Lehar, Gilbert and Sullivan, Ivor Novello, Noel Coward, etc, who all enriched the musical theatre repertoire, changing its contours and textures with their distinctive styles. Useful as this information is, it is not exactly new, and Atkey’s piecemeal menu approach dilutes the material. And yet, this section is useful as a potted summary, with some interesting sidelights on Spain’s Zarzuela and Stalinist Russia’s incongruous musical comedies. Cabaret, of course, makes a strong entrance in Act 1, especially with a survey of German and French manifestations, though the preponderance of names without substantial analyses of their contributions is once again a flaw.

As for the central argument, Atkey contends that the American musical is not a separate art form from its European parent, any more than American English is a separate language from British English (whatever this is!). He argues that the Broadway sound established by Jewish and Irish immigrants in the latter half of the 19^th century and the early 20^th century (Cohan, Herbert, Kern, etc) was different from the European operetta sound of Friml and Romberg. True enough, but it would take a scholar to distinguish between these sounds more profitably than Atkey does.

However, my criticisms (encompassing the lack of editorial supervision and guidance that result in spelling and punctuation errors, as well as a lack of literary finesse) do not preclude my admiration for his enthusiasm and purpose. Of course, Atkey is enlightening on various topics with a Broadway connection—such as why The King and I, while a landmark in musical theatre, is a travesty as a representation of history; how Grease turned from an ensemble piece into a romance about Sandy and Danny; how The Sound of Music radically altered the facts about Maria von Trapp; and how The Drowsy Chaperone, a modest little offbeat Canadian musical morphed into a big Broadway hit. But these sections are but part of an overall structure aimed beyond Broadway. A Million Miles from Broadway is not for scholars or academics; it is for musical theatre fans (which is to say Broadway enthusiasts), those who should know something of international musical theatre. In this regard, Atkey does yeoman service. Beyond offering evidence that disputes other critics’ complaints about the “emptiness” in French musical theatre, Atkey is particularly informative about musical theatre in South Africa, Latin America, Australia, and Asia, introducing us to many shows and creative figures who are undoubtedly unfamiliar to most readers. And there are interesting tidbits, such as the absence of any great Irish musical; why Evita has never been staged professionally in Buenos Aires; how Argentina suffered a loss of artistic momentum under Fascism; why Sarafina! was heavily criticized in South Africa; how musicals are big business in Korea in Japan; or how Singaporean librettists are able to escape censorship.

Atkey’s agenda is pointed. It is aimed squarely at the middle-aged “dinosaurs” in universities and the theatre profession who keep resisting change and evolution in the arts and who think of musical theatre as being rather frivolous or empty in contrast, no doubt, to the mediocre documentary plays or tarted-up soap operas they so frequently present with generous arts funding. As a Canadian, he is on firm ground, for I cannot think of a first-rate or even second-rate Canadian university that offers a specialist’s degree in musical theatre. In fact, most artistic directors (certainly in Toronto, the mausoleum of nationalist theatre) cringe at the very mention of musical theatre, thereby showing themselves to be out of step, artistically and commercially, with one of the greatest art forms of their profession. I have to date produced six production histories of classic Broadway musicals—many of which have won accolades from American scholars and theatre professionals (including Hal Prince, whose international reputation far exceeds that of any Canadian’s)—but only two or three of these books have ever earned serious reviews in my country. So I appreciate the mountain of indifference and ignorance that stands in the way of anyone attempting to create Canadian musical theatre or advance Canadian musical theatre scholarship. While Canada is still deciding what it is culturally, the rest of the civilized world—especially Asia—is miles ahead of us in musical theatre. The Shaw Festival, under Jackie Maxwell, is a valuable exception to the rule—with interesting, though flawed, new work by Jay Turvey and Morwyn Brebner in particular, but generally speaking, Canadian fans of musical theatre can draw little musical theatre inspiration or exhilaration from their national librettists and composers. I, therefore, salute Atkey for this book that attempt to open eyes and minds in Canada and elsewhere to one of the greatest art-forms in theatre.

I just received this message from Dick Lee, Singapore's pre-eminent musical writer:
"Congratulations on your new book, which I just read, and thoroughly enjoyed. The passion and dedication you tirelessly put into it has resulted in an engaging and informative account on the state of musicals in the world. I am proud to have been included!"
http://www.lulu.com/shop/mel-atkey/a-million-miles-from-broadway-musical-theatre-beyond-new-york-and-london/paperback/product-20419142.html;jsessionid=616AF3A28A1E7B3CFE1F233160226099

Peter Filichia's Review

Here is the full text of Peter Filichia's review of A Million Miles from Broadway as it appeared on Kritzerland.com on 16 November 2012:


Peter Filichia Review

Kritzerland.com

On page 143 of Mel Atkey’s A Million Miles from Broadway, there’s the sentence that encapsulates the thrust of the book: “The Drowsy Chaperone was a love letter to the American musical, but as one Japanese director observed, that letter was definitely postmarked Toronto.” By lumping the United States, Japan and Canada in a comment about one musical, Atkey’s premise is well-substantiated: there is much musical theater beyond Broadway and London.

The author points out that once – but not now -- many countries had inferiority complexes about their musicals; if shows weren’t American, they couldn’t be worthy. “But we just weren’t good at it,” admits Australian Tony (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) Sheldon, when speaking of decades ago. He cites a ‘50s musical of Lola Montez that suffered because the creators were much too much influenced by Paint Your Wagon.

Times change. All right, Manning Clark’s History of Australia: The Musical doesn’t sound like a hit – and it wasn’t – but Atkey points out the merits of The Hatpin and laments its just-missed status. He points out why the Australian The Boy from Oz was a much darker and better show than what we got here. On the other hand, there was that Kookaburra production of Company in which the actress playing June (sorry – April) fell ill and had no understudy. As a result, the director dropped “You Could Drive a Person Crazy” and “Barcelona.” Learn what happened when Sondheim heard about it.

See what Michael Kunze, co-author of Dance of the Vampires, really thought of the Broadway version. Why Mame inspired Anne of Green Gables to change two songs before its London premiere. How a Baker Street writer’s knowledge trickled down to help The Drowsy Chaperone.

If you thought that Evita was forbidden in Argentina, Atkey clarifies the real reason why B.A. has yet to see it. He does tell why Sarafina! was heavily criticized in South Africa and why the The King and I is banned in Thailand. (Did you know that Anna’s original surname was actually Owens, but she added the Leon to the front of it because it was husband Tom’s middle name? Atkey does.)

Who’d expect that former rocker Cat Stevens was a groupie for the 1961 British musical King Kong? Or that the first American musical produced in Buenos Aires was retitled Simple y Maravilloso. (Can you translate or at least infer the title that it had had on Broadway?) As for that all-female Japanese Takarazuka troupe that does American musicals as unlikely as Kean and Ernest in Love, Atkey points out that no two women ever kiss for real on stage. In short, there’s never been a better book for the armchair-traveler-theatergoer.

 

Now vailable on Amazon

My book A Million Miles from Broadway – Musical Theatre Beyond New York and London has been available in both print and e-book formats from lulu.com for about three weeks now.  It recently also became available through Amazon.  Within the next month or so it will also be available through other outlets, both online and “bricks and mortar”.  Dress Circle in London is already accepting orders for it.

Advance copies have been sent to various media who specialise in musical theatre.  This book is unique in that it is of local interest in several countries, including Canada, Australia, Singapore, South Africa and Argentina.  There is very little promotional budget for this, but I have sent posters to all the West End and Broadway musical houses, as well as to theatres in Toronto and Melbourne.  There will be an ad in the academic journal Studies in Musical Theatre beginning next month.  I’m on the lookout for opportunities to appear on radio (both internet and over-the-air) to feature songs from other-worldly musicals.  I’m particularly anxious to get the book into libraries and schools.  I know of a university in Philadelphia that has already ordered it for their library – let’s hope there are many more.

I haven’t read any reviews yet, but will be in touch when they’re out.

Finally available -- A Million Miles from Broadway

My exciting news is that my book A Million Miles from Broadway: Musical Theatre Beyond New York and London is finally available from http://www.lulu.com/shop/mel-atkey/a-million-miles-from-broadway-musical-theatre-beyond-new-york-and-london/paperback/product-20411410.html.

To self-publish or not to self-publish?

Further to my recent email update, this is to let you know the options I’m considering for A Million Miles from Broadway.

Last month, shortly before I completed the manuscript, I sent out proposal packages to a number of trade publishers.  This package included an audio CD with musical excerpts from some of the shows covered by the book, as well as clips of my appearances on two radio programmes.  I have not received any responses.

A number of people have made various suggestions to me, including that I publish the book myself, either as an e-book or as print on demand.  I am holding both of those options as a fall-back in case I am unable to secure a trade publisher (or in any case one who will publish the book as I have intended it, with its international focus intact.)  I have received a lot of support, and it is clear that interest in this book is quite high within the musical theatre community.

There are a couple of ideas that may help see this project through – whichever option I end up taking.  One would be testimonials that I could quote in my approaches to publishers.  (I have already received ones from Tony Castro, John Sparks and David Overton).  The other thing is that it would be very valuable to me if some of the schools with musical theatre studies programmes could give me a written expression of their intent to use the book – either by purchasing it or placing it on reading lists.  If anybody is willing to consider this, I can send them a perusal copy of the manuscript.

I still have great reservations about self-publishing, as in the past I have always found the support that a recognised trade publisher provides – both in editorial and marketing – to be invaluable.  However, I must accept that this book may be a little too “specialised” or “niche market” for that – although I am still convinced that there is a large enough market for a publisher who knows how to reach it.

I appreciate all of the support that this project has enjoyed from many corners, and hope to be able to announce some progress soon.

Mel Atkey

To join a facebook group for A Million Miles from Broadway, click here