Reclaiming a Forgotten Musical: The case of A Joyful Noise
While the use of archival materials has become standard practice for the study of Broadway’s iconic shows, similar resources for shows of shorter runs and outright failures are rarely available, even though such lesser productions represent the majority of the repertoire that has played on Broadway. One notable exception is A Joyful Noise, an interesting failure from 1996.
That show, with a book written by its producer Edward Padula, and music and lyrics by Oscar Brand and Paul Nassau, was an early attempt to bring popular styles, chiefly country, folk and rockabilly, to the stage. Despite its ambitions, the show never jelled, two directors quit during try-outs, and A Joyful Noise closed after only a dozen performances on Broadway.
Although the show fell quickly into oblivion, two archival collections—the Ben Shaktman Papers (Syracuse University), which contains scripts, director’s notes, and reviews, and the Oscar Brand Papers (University of Manitoba), which contains a conductor’s score—make possible the reconstruction of A Joyful Noise and much of its history. These documents identify several issues that doomed the production, including a weak script, an obstinate producer/author, and problematic try-out venues, among other concerns.
Whatever the show’s aesthetic shortcomings, the story of A Joyful Noise’s failed genesis offers new insights into Broadway’s growing interest in popular music in the 1960s, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the dynamics of mounting a show under difficult conditions in an era of general decline and growing financial exigencies on Broadway.