Bridges of Madison County: The musical A couple of years ago, Jason Robert Brown, composer-lyricist of such acclaimed musicals as The Last Five Years and Parade, had just done a project with writer Marsha Norman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ’Night, Mother, and wanted to work with her on a big romantic musical. He says they found it in a pitch from the agent for author Robert James Waller: “He called Marsha and said, ‘We’re looking to exploit the rights for The Bridges of Madison County. We think it would make a great musical.’ Marsha hung up the phone, called me and said, ‘I’ve found it! I’ve found our La Traviata!’ ” 杰森·罗伯特·布朗是著名的作曲家兼填词人，他创作了许多像《过去那五年》和《大游行》一样脍炙人口的音乐剧。几年前，他和编剧玛莎·诺曼——她的剧本《晚安，妈妈》曾获普利策奖，刚完成一部作品，又希望和她合作一部大型爱情音乐剧。他说，他们从作家罗伯特·詹姆斯·沃勒的经纪人那里得到消息：“他曾打电话给玛莎，说‘我们打算把《廊桥遗梦》改编成一部音乐剧。我们觉得，这定会是部不同凡响的作品。’玛莎一挂断电话，就打给我，说，‘我找到了！我终于找到我们的《茶花女》了！” You wouldn’t have heard that kind of highbrow talk about The Bridges of Madison County in the 1990s, when it became the biggest-selling book of the era, a huge hit with both women and men. It was a pop sensation, like Fifty Shades of Grey, but not taken seriously. But now that the musical is in Broadway previews (after a pre-Broadway tryout in Williamstown, Mass.), starring Kelli O’Hara and Steven Pasquale, it could change the way we look at what was considered a syrupy romance. 《廊桥遗梦》是上世纪九十年代造成巨大轰动的畅销书，但你不会听到品味高雅的人谈论它。它就像《五十度灰》一样，仅是那时的一股流行风潮，没有被重视。但是，现在这部由凯利·奥哈拉和史蒂文·帕斯奎尔主演的音乐剧在百老汇预演（在马萨诸塞州的威廉斯镇试演后），可能会改变人们对它的已有印象——一个煽情的爱情故事。 The story of The Bridges of Madison County is certainly simple enough to make room for singing: It’s about an Italian war bride who has an affair with a handsome photographer of covered bridges. James W. Hall, author of the book Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the Twentieth Century’s Biggest Bestsellers, recalls that the short book sold almost entirely on word of mouth and a push from now-extinct independent booksellers. “I remember hearing, at the time, many of my associates and neighbours and friends who’d read the book saying, ‘And I never read novels, but I read this one.’ ” Throw in the film version with Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep, and everyone in the ’90s seemed to have at least some knowledge of this particular affair. 《廊桥遗梦》的故事情节非常简单，能给歌唱表演腾出足够的时间：这是一个意大利战地新娘的故事，她与一个拍摄廊桥的英俊的摄影记者发生了婚外恋。《一夜成名：破译顶级畅销书的成功基因》的作者詹姆斯·W·霍尔回忆，那本薄薄的书几乎就靠口头宣传的方式和现在已经消失的独立书店推动售出。“我记得那时，常常听到许多读过这本书同事、邻居、朋友说，‘我从来不看小说，但我读这一本。’”而当由克林特·伊斯特伍德和梅丽尔·斯特里普主演的电影版播出后，这段风流逸事在九十年代几乎可以说是家喻户晓了。 But resurrecting The Bridges of Madison County isn’t the same as adapting a classic. Hall says it “was treated with disdain by the few reviewers who took the time to write about it,” and even some booksellers were vicious. A bookstore employee told New York Times columnist Frank Rich that she was happy any time it fell from No. 1 to No. 2 on the bestseller list. Asked if he and Norman were hesitant about taking on a book with a less-than-stellar reputation, Brown says no. “We’re just as snooty and ‘sophisticated’ as anybody else. And what we saw in the book was something very honest and beautiful. And we thought, if we see that, then that’s what we’re going to write.” And, he adds, whatever the critics may have said at the time about the novel, “I felt like it had achieved a sort of iconic stature that was really beyond our ability to criticize.” Hall adds: “It’s a schmaltzy book, sappy but mythic—a combination that never hurts the success of a bestseller.” 但是重新把《廊桥遗梦》搬上舞台并不同于改编一部经典。霍尔说“一些评论家曾撰文对此表示蔑视”，有些书商甚至发表恶意的言论。一个书店的员工对《纽约时报》的专栏作家弗兰克·费奇说，无论什么时候，她都乐意听到这本书从畅销书榜上从第一名跌倒第二名的的消息。当布朗和诺曼被问及承担一本名声不大好的书的改编工作是否有过犹豫时，布朗说从来没有。“我们也和其他的人一样势利和世故。但我们从这本书中看到的是美丽与真诚。所以我们想，既然看到了，我们就应该把它们写下来。”他还补充道，无论当时的评论界怎么看待这本小说，“我觉得，它在艺术上的成就已是登峰造极。”霍尔也接着说：“这是本催人泪下的书，婉转悱恻却精妙绝伦，这点绝不会对它成为一本畅销书带来任何不好的影响。” What Bridges has that gives it that mythic status may be its take on family life. In the ’90s, it caught on because it managed to be about an adulterous affair while also being an endorsement of family values, making it now look very wholesome by 50 Shades standards. “Bridges could allow readers to have their cake and eat it, too, on this front,” Hall says. “The erotic three or four days of infidelity are balanced against the decision the lovers make to go their separate ways to preserve the sacred family structure.” Today, Brown and Norman are hoping those same themes can be used to create a serious, operatic story about hard choices: “I don’t think we take a moral stand on it one way or the other, but what the show posits is that any choice brings with it sacrifices and commitments.” 是什么令《廊桥遗梦》获得了神话般的地位？可能是因为这是个以家庭生活为背景的故事。在九十年代，它之所以流行，是因为它在成功地讲述了一个婚外恋的故事的同时也认可了家庭的价值，若用《五十度灰》的标准来衡量，它就是个健康且正派的故事。“在这个前提下，《廊桥遗梦》也允许它的读者持有‘鱼和熊掌兼得’的观点。”霍尔说，“这使得三四天的出轨行为和爱侣间决定用不同的方式来保护家庭的稳定与圣洁达到了平衡。”现今，布朗和诺曼希望能用这些主题，创作一个严肃的关于痛苦抉择的音乐剧，“不管在哪种层面上，我都不认为我们是从道德的立场来讲述这个故事，然而这部音乐剧所要传达的是：任何一个选择都意味着牺牲与承诺。” Brown says Waller was supportive, not bothering the creators about changes they’ve made to his creation. “He, in fact, had never seen a musical until he came and saw the show at Williamstown. So he did not presume to have some idea of how to make it work. But he came and was very moved and very gracious.” These are, after all, the people who could take the book to a new level. And if you’re doing an ambitious musical, it doesn’t hurt to have a familiar property to work with: “It certainly didn’t escape my attention that, up until The Da Vinci Code, it sold more copies than any other hardcover novel,” Brown says. “That can’t be all bad!” 布朗说，沃勒支持而不是否决，他们对他的作品作出的改动。“事实上，在他到威廉斯镇看这场演出前，他未曾看过一场音乐剧。所以他没有对如何编剧提出自己的见解。但他看完演出后，他非常谦虚地说自己被深深地感动了。”毕竟，这群人把他的作品带到了一个新的高度。如果你在创作一部别具一格的音乐剧，借鉴你熟悉的事物也无伤大碍：“我当然没有错过这样的消息，在《达芬奇密码》出版前，这本书的销量远甚于别的精装书。”布朗说，“凡事都有好的一面。” |
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