Editing Carmen Jones

{{short description|1943 Broadway musical}}
{{for|the film|Carmen Jones (film)}}
{{more citations needed|date=April 2018}}
{{Infobox Musical
| name        = Carmen Jones
| image       = Carmen Jones Original Cast Album.jpg
| image_size  = 260 px
| caption     = 1944 Original Cast Recording
| music       = [[Georges Bizet]]
| lyrics      = [[Oscar Hammerstein II]]
| book        = Oscar Hammerstein II
| basis       = ''[[Carmen]]'' <br> by [[Georges Bizet]] <br> [[Henri Meilhac]] <br> [[Ludovic Halévy]] <br> ''[[Carmen (novella)|Carmen]]'' <br> by [[Prosper Mérimée]]
| productions = 1943 [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] <br>1945 [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] <br>1946 [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] <br>1949 [[Greek Theatre (Los Angeles)|Greek Theatre]]<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times/144234905/ "Music Show Due Tonight"]. ''Los Angeles Times''. September 5, 1949. Pt.&nbsp;II, p.&nbsp;2.</ref> <br> 1954 [[Carmen Jones (film)|Film version]]<br> 1991 [[Old Vic]] <br> 2007 [[Royal Festival Hall]]<br>2018 [[Off-Broadway]]
<!-- Please do not include production-specific (acting, directing, etc.) awards -->
| awards      = [[Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical]]
}}
'''''Carmen Jones''''' is a 1943 [[Broadway musical]] with music by [[Georges Bizet]] (orchestrated for Broadway by [[Robert Russell Bennett]]) and lyrics and book by [[Oscar Hammerstein II]] which was performed at [[The Broadway Theatre]]. Conceptually, it is Bizet's opera ''[[Carmen]]'' updated to a [[World War II|World War II-era]], African-American setting. Bizet's opera was, in turn, based on the [[Carmen (novella)|1846 novella]] by [[Prosper Mérimée]]. The Broadway musical was produced by [[Billy Rose]], using an all-black cast, and directed by [[Hassard Short]]. [[Robert Shaw (conductor)|Robert Shaw]] prepared the choral portions of the show.<ref>{{cite web |title=Carmen Jones |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/carmen-jones-472549 |website=Internet Broadway Database |publisher=The Broadway League |access-date=12 July 2018}}</ref>

The original Broadway production starred [[Muriel Smith (singer)|Muriel Smith]] (alternating with [[Muriel Rahn]]) in the title role. The original Broadway cast members were nearly all new to the stage; Kennedy and Muir each wrote that on the first day of rehearsal only one member had ever been on a stage before this musical.<ref>Kennedy and Muir 1998, p.77.</ref>

The [[Carmen Jones (film)|1954 film]] was adapted by Hammerstein and Harry Kleiner. It was directed by [[Otto Preminger]] and starred [[Dorothy Dandridge]] and [[Harry Belafonte]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=LoBianco |first1=Lorraine |title=Carmen Jones |url=https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/114175 |website=Turner Classic Movies |access-date=12 July 2018}}</ref>

The musical has been revived in London, running for a season in 1991 at [[Old Vic]] and most recently in [[Royal Festival Hall]] in the [[Southbank Centre]] in 2007.<ref>[http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/carmenjones/ southbankcentre.co.uk/carmenjones] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100409075015/http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/carmenjones/ |date=2010-04-09 }}, Carmen Jones at the Royal Festival Hall in London (25 July - 2 September 2007).</ref>

In 2018, it was revived off-Broadway at the [[Classic Stage Company]] under the direction of [[John Doyle (director)|John Doyle]] and [[Anika Noni Rose]] in the title role.<ref>[[Lortel Archives]], Internet Off-Broadway Database_ [http://www.lortel.org/Archives/Production/6478]</ref>

==Plot==
Parachute maker Carmen Jones makes a play for a "fly boy" Air Force man, Joe, who is in love with sweet Cindy Lou and about to marry her on a day pass when Carmen gets into a fight with another woman.

Joe's pass is cancelled in order for him to drive her to the next town to be handed over to the non-military police. Instead, Carmen charms him and escapes, and he is put in the stockade for not delivering her to the authorities.

While Carmen waits for Joe to be released from military prison, she hangs around Billy Pastor's jive cafe where she encounters boxer Husky Miller, who is instantly besotted with Carmen, calling her "heatwave".

Carmen initially is uninterested, but her friends Frankie and Mert know that their invitation from Husky's manager to see him fight in Chicago depends on Carmen's being there, too.

[[File:Muriel Rahn as Carmen Jones.jpg|thumb|x300px|alt=Portrait of Muriel Rahn in the title role in the 1943 original Broadway production of ''Carmen Jones''|[[Muriel Rahn]] (age 32) in the title role in the 1943 original Broadway production of ''Carmen Jones'']]
Joe, having been released from the stockade, turns up at the cafe the same evening. At first, his prospects seem to be looking up, as his connections have put Joe back on track for aviator school. Carmen lays down a guilt trip, protesting that a long-distance relationship with Joe {{convert|400|mi}} away at school just isn't what she had in mind. He immediately gets into a fight with his sergeant, who is making a move on Carmen, as well as putting pressure on Joe. Starting the fight would have been enough to put Joe back in military prison for years, but the fight goes badly, and the sergeant ends up apparently dead. Carmen makes Joe hide the body because desertion seems better than a lengthy sentence.

The train ticket to Chicago originally given to Carmen offers them a way of avoiding the MPs. After a few days hiding in a seedy hotel with no money and no future with Joe, Carmen pays a visit to her two friends, now covered in diamonds and furs, at Husky's training camp. She only is looking for a loan, but they try to draw her to give up Joe and "go with the money" by staying with Husky.

Later, at Husky's apartment, Frankie reads Carmen's "cards", and reveals the nine of spades - the card of death. In the belief that her days are numbered, Carmen gives in to Husky's advances, abandoning Joe for the luxurious life Husky can offer her.

Cindy Lou comes to look for Joe, but he is still in love with Carmen and spurns Cindy Lou. The night of Husky's title fight, Joe tries to convince Carmen to return to him, but when she rejects him, he kills her, thus making the card's prophecy a reality.

==Music==
[[Oscar Hammerstein II]] heavily adapted the [[libretto]] for [[Georges Bizet]]'s opera ''[[Carmen]]'' from the original French for his Broadway production. Arts and Entertainment Editor Elisabeth Vincentelli clarifies: <blockquote>"The music was pretty much left intact, but Hammerstein transferred the action to World War II America. Carmen's tobacco factory became Carmen Jones' [[parachute]] factory, bullfighter Escamillo became boxer Husky Miller, and so on. As if this weren't enough, there also was the 'small' detail of casting the show only with African-Americans...many of the show's songs retain a surprising impact. The feverish intensity of 'Beat Out dat Rhythm on a Drum', for instance, hasn't dimmed over the years, and the song's been covered by a wide variety of performers, from [[Pearl Bailey]] and [[Marc Almond]] to [[Mandy Patinkin]]."<ref>{{Citation |last1=Georges Bizet |title=Carmen Jones 1943 Original Broadway Cast |url=https://www.amazon.com/Carmen-Jones-1943-Original-Broadway/dp/B00008BNUK |publisher=Decca Broadway |access-date=2022-05-24 |last2=Oscar Hammerstein II |last3=Muriel Smith |last4=Luther Saxon |last5=Glenn Bryant |last6=Carlotta Franzel |last7=June Hawkins}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Carmen Jones (1955): "Beat Out dat Rhythm on a Drum" - Pearl Bailey - Full Song/ Dance - Musicals | date=22 January 2020 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88rRu4F1WK0 |language=en |access-date=2022-06-26}}</ref></blockquote>  The majority of the actors performing the songs in the film ''[[Carmen Jones (film)|Carmen Jones]]'' were dubbed. Even singer [[Harry Belafonte]] was dubbed by LeVern Hutcherson, and [[Dorothy Dandridge]] was dubbed by [[Marilyn Horne]] (long before Horne became a well-known opera singer).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marilynhorne.org/marilynhorne.html|title=About Marilyn Horne|website=THE MARILYN HORNE MUSEUM|language=en|access-date=2019-05-10}}</ref>

==Songs==
{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}
; Act 1
* Overture
* Lift 'Em Up and Put 'Em Down (''Avec la garde montante'' in Bizet's original opera) – Street Boys
* Honey Gal o' Mine – Male Chorus
* Good Luck, Mr. Flyin' Man! – Female Chorus
* Dat's Love (''[[Habanera (aria)|Habanera]]'' in Bizet's opera) – Carmen and Chorus 
* You Talk Just like My Maw (''Parle-moi de ma mère'' in Bizet's opera)– Joe and Cindy Lou
* Murder-Murder – Female Chorus
* Carmen Jones Is Goin' to Jail! – Pit Chorus
* Dere's a Cafe on de Corner (''[[Seguidilla]]'' in Bizet's opera) – Carmen and Joe
* Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum (''Gypsy Song'' in Bizet's opera) – Frankie, Chorus
* [[Stan' Up and Fight]] (''[[Toreador Song]]'', also known as March of the Toreadors in Bizet's opera) – Husky Miller and Chorus
* Whizzin' Away Along de Track (''Quintet (Nous avons en tête une affaire)'' in Bizet's opera) – Rum, Dink, Myrt, Frankie, and Carmen
* Dis Flower (''Flower Song'' in Bizet's opera) – Joe
* If You Would Only Come Away – Carmen and Joe
{{col-2}}
; Act 2
* De Cards Don't Lie (''Card Song'' in Bizet's opera) – Frankie, Myrt, Carmen, and female chorus
* Dat Ol' Boy – Carmen
* Poncho de Panther from Brazil – Frankie, Myrt, Husky Miller, Rum, and Chorus
* My Joe (''Micaela's Air'' in Bizet's opera) – Cindy Lou
* Finale (of Act II Scene I) – Carmen, Joe, Cindy Lou, Husky Miller, Rum, Dink, Frankie, and Myrt
* Git Yer Program for de Big Fight – Chorus
* Dat's Our Man! (''Les voici'' in Bizet's opera) – Chorus
* Finale – Carmen, Joe, Chorus
{{col-end}}

==Awards and nominations==
===Original London production===
{| class="wikitable" width="95%"
|-
! width="5%"| Year
! width="20%"| Award
! width="45%"| Category
! width="20%"| Nominee
! width="10%"| Result
|-
| rowspan="6" align="center"| 1992
| rowspan="6"| [[Laurence Olivier Award]]
| colspan="2"| [[Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical|Best New Musical]]
| {{won}}
|-
| [[Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical|Best Actor in a Musical]]
| [[Damon Evans (actor)|Damon Evans]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| rowspan="2"| [[Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical|Best Actress in a Musical]]
| [[Wilhelmenia Fernandez]]
| {{won}}
|-
| Sharon Benson
| {{nom}}
|-
| rowspan="2"| [[Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical|Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical]]
| [[Gregg Baker (bass-baritone)|Gregg Baker]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| Karen Parks
| {{nom}}
|}

==See also==
{{Portal|Novels}}
*[[African American musical theater]]
*[[Voodoo Macbeth|Orson Welles' Macbeth]], conceptual black casting theatre production, 1936.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book | last=Kennedy | first=Michael Patrick | author2=Muir, John | title=Musicals | publisher=HarperCollins | orig-year=1997 | edition=Updated reprint | year=1998 | isbn=0-00-472067-9 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/musicals0000kenn }}

==External links==
*[http://www.ovrtur.com/show/119177 ''Carmen Jones''] at Ovrtur
*[https://playbill.com/production/carmen-jones-broadway-theatre-vault-0000012356 ''Carmen Jones''] at ''[[Playbill]]''
*[https://www.bruxellons.be/WWVersionFiche.php?musical=Carmen%20Jones ''Carmen Jones''] at Festival Bruxellons!
*[https://rodgersandhammerstein.com/show/carmen-jones/ ''Carmen Jones''] at RodgersAndHammerstein.com
*{{ibdb show|2414}}

{{Carmen}}
{{OlivierAward Musical 1976–2000}}
{{authority control}}

[[Category:1943 musicals]]
[[Category:African-American musicals]]
[[Category:All-Black cast Broadway shows]]
[[Category:Broadway musicals]]
[[Category:West End musicals]]
[[Category:Musicals based on operas]]
[[Category:Musicals based on multiple works]]
[[Category:Laurence Olivier Award–winning musicals]]
[[Category:Musicals based on short fiction]]
[[Category:Georges Bizet]]
[[Category:Works based on Carmen (novella)]]
[[Category:Musicals about World War II]]