In Dreams debuted this summer at the Leeds Playhouse in England, and made its North American premiere this week at Toronto’s CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre.Supplied
O Roy Orbison, Roy Orbison, wherefore art thou Roy Orbison?
Canada’s David West Read, one of the creators behind 2019′s Shakespeare-remixed Broadway musical & Juliet, wrote the book to the new Roy Orbison jukebox musical In Dreams, which made its North American premiere this week at Toronto’s CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre. And while the story of Orbison’s life has all the triumph, tragedy and redemption a theatre stage might require, In Dreams is in no way the pop star’s story.
“A biographical musical was never something I considered,” says Read, who reunited with & Juliet director Luke Sheppard for In Dreams. “There are a number of Orbison biographies out there for anybody who wishes to read them.”
In Dreams, which debuted this summer at the Leeds Playhouse in England, mines an Orbison catalogue that spans early-sixties radio hits (Only the Lonely, Running Scared, Crying, Oh, Pretty Woman and others) to the singer’s comeback-era contributions to the Traveling Wilburys supergroup in 1988, the year he died of a heart attack at the age of 52.
Given that the Orbison demographic is an ever-narrowing one – he would be 87 if still alive – a broader audience is targeted with In Dreams. “I was trying to craft something for people who somehow lived on this planet and avoided his music completely,” Read explains, speaking from Los Angeles. “Now they can experience it and not feel they’re left out.”
Read also wrote the book for the jukebox musical & Juliet, which employed existing music from the hit-laden song catalogue of the Swedish pop maestro Max Martin, whose credits appear on everything from the Backstreet Boys’ I Want It That Way to Katy Perry’s Roar to Britney Spears’s Oops!…I Did It Again.
David West Read, who wrote the book to In Dreams, also wrote the book for the jukebox musical & Juliet, which employed existing music from the hit-laden song catalogue of the Swedish pop maestro Max Martin.Willy Sanjuan/The Associated Press
The plot of & Juliet is not restricted to the star-crossed lovers’ forbidden romance. Likewise, a narrative focusing on one character – Orbison – would not work for what Read and the producers envisioned for In Dreams.
“When you’re trying to write musicals for a new generation and diverse audiences, it helps if there are multiple storylines that people can see themselves in,” Read says.
There is another reason a bio-musical was not seriously considered: Who would be up to the onstage duplication of Orbison’s gifts? Sure, any wig mistress worth her superhold hair spray could whip up a black pompadour. And a pair of thick, dark glasses would go a long way to recreate the Orbison man-in-black appearance. But the representation of the singer’s tenor voice, one of the most remarkable instruments in rock history, would be problematic.
Dwight Yoakam once said Orbison’s unearthly, multioctave croon was the “cry of an angel falling backward through an open window.” Bruce Springsteen believed that Orbison’s haunting pop music was best listened to “alone and in the dark.”
And Bob Dylan, in Chronicles: Volume One, wrote that the mysterious Texan sang like a “professional criminal,” whatever that means, and that his voice could wake a corpse: “Orbison was deadly serious – no pollywog and no fledgling juvenile. There wasn’t anything else on the radio like him.”
This was not lost on Read, a native of Scarborough, Ont., who grew up on Orbison’s music. “My parents were massive fans,” he says. As a child he was exposed to the high, tremulous despair of “I’m so tired of being lonely” on the Wilbury hit Handle with Care.
“He was one of the most unique singers in pop music,” Read says. “I didn’t want someone on stage in sunglasses trying their best Roy Orbison impression.”
Instead, the lead of In Dreams is a young woman, played by Lena Hall. The character is the former singer of a country-rock band that she reunites for a party in modern-day New Mexico.
Roy Orbison in 1965. Given that the Orbison demographic is an ever-narrowing one – he would be 87 if still alive – a broader audience is targeted with In Dreams.Supplied
The musical’s sizzle reel presents a revved-up production with an exuberant, bright-eyed cast. Not only is there no Orbison character, his dreamy, balladic melodrama seems to be missing too. The suggestion from the highlight clip is that In Dreams is not your grandfather’s Orbison music. However, members of the creative team push back on that.
“These kind of trailers use a lot of high energy, but we deal with some dark subjects,” says Catherine Jayes, supervisor of music and orchestrations. In fact, many of Orbison’s anguished ballads (including the title song) are in the musical. “They fit well.”
Adds Read: “If you’re worried there is no heartache or pain in this musical, you needn’t be, because that’s all there.”
Indeed, when it comes to Orbison’s music itself, it is all there. His untraditional pop songs soared like mini operas, outfitted with crescendos and tortured emotions. The sentiment of the Bolero-inspired Running Scared, for example, was paranoia. Orbison could also be tender, as heard on Blue Angel and Blue Bayou.
And, lest we forget, he could rock: Oh, Pretty Woman is a towering masterpiece, iconic for its growl and guitar riff.
The musical’s sizzle reel presents a revved-up production with an exuberant, bright-eyed cast.Supplied
What ties it all together is the emotional release. Even the saddest music Orbison composed was written when he was already over the sorrow. “I knew what Only the Lonely was about when I wrote that,” he told Rolling Stone magazine shortly before he died. “I had been alone and lonely. I wasn’t at the time, though.”
So, what if Juliet Capulet didn’t sip the poison, and what if Roy Orbison got the girl (as he did in Running Scared)?
“When you listen to Roy’s music, you feel inspired, you feel moved and you feel better,” Read says. “That’s what we want audiences leaving the theatre with, that feeling of catharsis.”
In Dreams runs Sept. 26 to Nov. 12 at Toronto’s CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre.