When it's not quite day, but it's not quite night and especially if there has been rain, there's a gentle sway to the dappled light that no substack report can explain. It's the Violet Hour.
I had a shower thought this week “wow, you know, I think I’ve only written about two musicals that have won Best Musical, in 23 posts and not about one since post #4 about A Chorus Line on August 1st.” That streak will continue because this week I’m talking about The Violet Hour which hasn’t even been performed on a stage yet, but man, that means I have like at least 76 more musicals I can write about. Guess this series has a long life ahead of it yet!
Okay, okay, The Violet Hour is a musical based on the 2003 play of the stage name by Richard Greenberg. It is simultaneously a simple but convulated plot. After World War I, John Pace Seavering has started a publishing company. Despite being from a wealthy family, he has only been given enough money to publish a single book. The story opens with him surrounded by manuscripts as he tries to find the best one. Ultimately, he has to decide between publishing the novel (named “The Violet Hour”) by Denny, one of his best friends from college, or a memoir from his lover, Jessie, a famous singer. Easy enough. The convulated part is during act one, a mysterious machine arrives at the publishing company which we learn right before intermission is a printing press that prints books / news / et cetera from the future. John takes the second act to use said machine to see what would happen to both his friend and lover depending on which book he decides to publish. Ultimately, he lets this inform his decision.
2. The History
So yeah, not much history. The play it is based on opened on Broadway in 2003. Doesn’t seem like it got great reviews, it only ran for 54 performances, a little more than a month. Didn’t get nominated for any Tony Awards.
Will Reynolds wrote the music and Eric Price did the lyrics and book for the musical version which released a studio cast recording in 2022 with an all-star cast. Good thing about studio cast recordings is you can get a lot of great talent. It is easier to commit for a one day recording session than a huge Broadway production.
The Violet Hour studio cast includes Tony Award winner Santino Fontana (Tootsie, Cinderella on Broadway, voice of Prince Hans in Frozen) as John, Tony Award nominee Jeremy Jordan (Newsies, Floyd Collins) as Denny, Tony Award winner Brandon Uranowitz (Ragtime, Falsettos) as Gidger (John’s assistant), Solea Pfeiffer (Hadestown, Hamilton) as Jessie and finally Erika Henningsen (Mean Girls, Just in Time, Hazbin Hotel) as Rosamund, Denny’s girlfriend.
I first came across it because the song “Ease” (where John and Rosamund sing about how great it is to be rich) started autoplaying on YouTube sometime around when it released. I was like “oh I love Erika Henningsen and Santino Fontana, what is this?”. It’s very catchy and reminds me a lot of Cole Porter in both music and lyrics. It’s actually in my Top 100 all time listened to songs on Apple Music now.
Eventually, loving the rest of the cast too, I expanded to listening to the whole album which also sounds a bit like Jule Styne of Gypsy in part as well, especially the overture. Kind of sounds like one of those songs you’d hear over the opening credits in an old school movie musical
I definitely think the book needs some work if it ever makes it to the stage. There are multiple times where the same two characters sing like 3-4 songs in a row in one scene which for an album is fine, but if it was on stage would slow the pace to a screeching halt, so I think there are few songs they’d have to cut. Also there’s a song called “Bright” that opens the second act where Gidger (sarcastically) and John (optimistically) sing about how the future looks bright while reading news articles from the next 100 years. The song opens with them discovering there’s a second World War on the horizon which, I don’t think even sarcastically you can say “the future looks bright” after that.
So the music and lyrics all sound really good, but the book I think would need to tighten up if it ever wants to have a life beyond the Studio Cast Recording.
3. Favorite Fun Fact about the show
I got nothing other than the play debuted in 2002 at South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa, California. The year prior, another play that was turned into a musical debuted there as well: Kimberly Akimbo which the musical version of won all the 2023 Tony Awards (Musical, Score, Book, Actress, Featured Actress, probably more). Maybe the success of Kimberly Akimbo will inspire producers to invest in The Violet Hour as well.
4. Favorite Lyric
Firstly, from the aforementioned “Ease”. Love an Ancient Rome reference, and hey look, Anastasia! Maybe that’s why I transitioned to this album after last week.
🎵Ancient Rome had Western Asia The Romanovs had Anastasia And that’s all well but they all fell to their knees🎵
And then continuing on with the classics theme, here’s “Rosamund (Reprise)” where Denny describes Rosamund, likening her to Helen of Troy.
🎵Here’s a face that could launch not just a thousand ships but Trains, aeroplanes. Darling I can’t keep my lips shut 🎵
Speaking of Cole Porter, reminds me of “She’s Got That Thing” below!
🎵They tell us Trojan Helen’s lips Made every man her slavey. If Helen’s face launched a thousand ships Well hers could launch a navy! 🎵
5. If you only have time for one song
I don’t think I’ve given Jeremy Jordan enough love yet this post, so here he is singing the title song (double title song since it is also the title of his book).
6. Concluding thoughts
I know how it ends. I know I’ll succeed. I feel it so near, it could be right here, the next thing I read.
Like the manuscripts John reads at the opening of the score, I think The Violet Hour has a lot of potential, just maybe not in its current form. But the Studio Cast Recording is great and features an excellent score and phenominal acting and vocal talent, and that alone is enough to give it a listen!
Maybe I’ll write about a Best Musical winner next week… Or maybe The Violet Hour will eventually win a Tony Award for Best Musical! If only I had a machine that could tell me the future…
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Thanks for introducing me to this music — it’s wonderful!