The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1985)
by Claire J Rottenberg
"The Mystery of Edwin Drood," based on
the unfinished novel of the same name by Charles
Dickens, was a very unconventional musical. The play
was the creation of Rupert Holmes who wrote the book
and lyrics, composed the music and arranged the
orchestrations for the production. What made
"Drood" truly unique, however, was its
ending, which was decided upon by each audience.
Holmes wrote different possible endings and, at each
performance, the audience voted on different aspects
of the story to lead to a conclusion for the
play.
Joseph Papp produced "The Mystery of Edwin
Drood," originally for a limited run at the New
York Shakespeare Festival in the summer of 1985. It
was a success and, after extensive revisions, Papp
moved the production to Broadway in November of 1985.
It ran for 608 performances, closing in May,
1987.
"The Mystery of Edwin Drood" helped the
careers of several, now well-known and successful,
people. Graciela Daniele, now well-established in the
realm of Broadway musicals, was the choreographer,
and a bit player in the cast, Rob Marshall, is today
a successful choreographer and director of Broadway
and movie musicals. Judy Kuhn, who has achieved
success on Broadway in plays such as "Les
Miserables" and "Chess," also had a
minor role in the original Broadway production of
"Drood."
The original Shakespeare Festival production of
"The Mystery of Edwin Drood" was almost
three hours long and it included 32 songs. The
scaled-down, revised Broadway production left 21
songs in the play, which is still considered a very
long score for a musical. Even with that many songs,
however, none have become popular hits.
"The Mystery of Edwin Drood" won 5 Tony
awards, including the award for Best Musical and two
awards for Rupert Holmes (Best Book of a Musical and
Best Original Score). Wilford Leach won the Tony
award for his direction of "Drood" and
George Rose won for Best Actor in a Musical. Graciela
Daniele received one of the 6 additional Tony
nominations for "Drood."