Fraulein Maria: Nostalgia Trip or Snarkfest?

"The Sound of Music" had its Broadway premiere in 1954 and since then we've seen the cultural revolution of the 60's, the end of the cold war, and the advent of the Internet. Songs from the venerable musical – 'Do-Re-Mi,' '16 Going on 17,' 'Climb Every Mountain' – have long been standards, ripe for send up even as they continue to afford abundant avenues for reinterpretation.

Meanwhile in 1988 a modern dance choreographer named Doug Elkins became the new big thing in postmodern dance, the darling of New York's downtown dance scene, when his 'Patrooka Variations,' an unlikely mix of dance styles and musical genres, premiered at Dance Theater Workshop. \\\

For the next 15 years the Doug Elkins Dance Company was a critical and popular success in the USA and Europe. Elkins won the coveted Bessie Award. 'Patrooka Variations' was frequently performed by Cleveland's Repertory Project and the Elkins company performed several times in Cleveland. We enjoyed Elkins' work a lot. Not only was it genuinely funny, it skillfully incorporated breakdance and other elements of pop and vernacular culture into concert dance. So we were sorry and as mystified as anyone when he stopped doing new work and disbanded his company.

Then, suddenly, the wunderkind returned with a new group, Doug Elkins and Friends, and a new work, 'Fraulein Maria,' which enjoyed critical and popular success in, among other venues, sold out runs at Joe's Pub, the cabaret theater space of New York Public Theater. Elkins' new work won him a second Bessie.

Dance Cleveland brings 'Fraulein Maria' to Cleveland's Hanna Theater in Playhouse Square this weekend. Wondering what to expect, we arranged an interview with Elkins. What were his intentions in 'Fraulein Maria'? Is it a nostalgia trip or a snarkfest? Why did he drop out of sight and what brought him back? Elkins didn't require much prompting. In 45 minutes he told us more about the making of 'Fraulein Maria' and the redemptive power of Julie Andrews than we'd ever have thought possible.


Cool Cleveland: Doug, we really appreciate your time. You must be busy with the terrific success you're having with 'Fraulein Maria.'

Doug Elkins: Yes, it's been really wonderful. We've been getting really wonderful audience turnout and one of the reasons, I think, is the iconography of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, our point of departure.

You use the actual soundtrack?

DE: With Julie Andrews the 1965 soundtrack recording of 'Sound of Music.' When I first went to the Rogers and Hammerstein people they said, "Are you trying to do a full production of 'Sound of Music?' That will cost you $80,000." Well, no, I don't have that kind of money.

What I'm interested in is the collective memory of 'Sound of Music,' whether you saw the musical, the movie, or heard it playing in the background during Thanksgiving dinner, whether you heard the Gwen Stephani remix or learned the songs in school as a child, or even if you associate it with the selling of a product on television, it's very iconic music. In the same way that you can look at viral you tube videos of Michael Jackson's "Thriller," it has that kind of largesse, that kind of reach.

When I pitched it to the Rogers and Hammerstein people, I said, "I'm really interested in deconstructing 'Sound of Music.'" That raised their hackles. They said, "What do you mean deconstruct? Dissect?" And I said, "No, no, no. You only dissect a dead thing. Deconstruction is this really beautiful magic trick. You pull it apart onstage and at the end it's still there."

"A loving deconstruction" is how one reviewer described 'Fraulein Maria.'

DE: It is. In another way it's also for my children. There's a dedication in the program, "For Liam and Chi Chi, in case you want to know what Daddy does." It's also a kind of wandering personal narrative on dance history, little shout outs to Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey, but also I started my career as a B-boy, breakdancing, so the 'Lonely Goatherd' is a shout out to all the Afro centric forms. The dancing riffs on everything from step dancing to voguing to other styles of hip hop to little salsas.

What we saw of your work seemed so successful. Why did you disband your company?

DE: The demands of keeping the company going. Constantly looking for funding. It wasn't that the funding wasn't there. Amy Cassello was my company manager and she was brilliant at it. But it was a difficult job and it was becoming a case of the tale wagging the dog where you're constantly going out and teaching everywhere in order to keep the machinery of the company going. And there I was, a new parent, saying to my board, 'I'm going to have to keep some of this money instead of just turning it over to the company." The responsibilities overextended me, or at least I didn't know how to find any kind of balance at the time. So I said, "I think I need to disband the company and just do these residencies at universities and other teaching work and just try to get my bearings." Even so, I ended up on the road, feeling melancholy and missing my child as most parents would.

I think that's probably why I used the vessel of "Sound of Music." Think about the homeopathic essence of the plot. I remember being taken to my first musicals as a child. I saw Julie Andrews in "Mary Poppins" and "Sound of Music" and I remember wondering who this woman was who kept coming into families' homes and healing them. And, if you look at "Sound of Music" it's kind of like that. This strange little trickster, in a way, an outsider who doesn't fit in at the convent, who's sent to the Von Trapp residence, helps the family to heal themselves by teaching them to put on little performances for each other. What better metaphor could you pass on to your kids about the love of art?

Also, Liam was falling in love with "Sound of Music" at about the same age I did. We were watching 'Lonely Goatherd,' his favorite section, and trying to make these puppets out of milk cartons and such. Which also reflects on the homemadeness of the production, how children put on a performance with whatever they find in the room.

So not only didn't you have $80,000, a laughably small amount compared to a Broadway production, you were really on a shoestring.

DE: Not a pot to piss in. If you look at the nun's outfits, we bought some cheap black hoodies and I cut the sleeves off of white short-sleeved t-shirts and put them over their heads. Very much the way my children would make something. Somewhere between a 5-year-old aesthetic and Duchamp.

One more question, Doug. Don't you give yourself an uphill struggle when you decide to be funny? Can audiences have a good laugh at a dance concert and still respect themselves in the morning?

DE: That was the question they asked me when I first started traveling with the company in Europe. They asked, "Your work is very funny and entertaining; are you ever serious? Do you consider yourself an entertainer or a choreographer?" I said, "I'm serious all the time; I don't think it precludes a sense of humor. You had a playwright here a few years ago named Moliere; was he funny? Was he a good writer?"

It isn't that I need to be funny. I was just raised by people who liked to tumel. If you think about it a joke is also a sophisticated structure. It sets up a premise, leads you through a slight twist, and then offers a new perspective.

A joke is a tool for opening up your perception and it pierces you in a very direct way. Humor isn't incompatible with a rigorous intellect. Think of Mark Twain, Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Richard Pryor. Very funny sons of bitches, but also very insightful.




Doug Elkins and Friends performs 'Fraulein Maria' at 8PM on Fri 11/20 and Saturday, 11/21/09 at Hanna Theatre. Tickets $15 and up on line at http://PlayhouseSquare.org or 216-241-6000.

From Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas. Elsa and Vic are both longtime Clevelanders. Elsa is a landscape designer. She studied ballet as an avocation for 2 decades. Vic has been a dancer and dance teacher for most of his working life, performing in a number of dance companies in NYC and Cleveland. They write about dance as a way to learn more and keep in touch with the dance community. E-mail them at vicnelsaATearthlink.net.