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The Big Ending Home
Show.....Songs.....Characters.....Production ...Cast....Synopsis...Reviews Mel
Starke hates musicals. Trouble is, he makes a lot of money producing
musicals. As his latest blockbuster is about to hit the stage, he
is stricken by debilitating headaches and is forced to see a doctor.
It’s bad enough that she diagnoses a cancerous tumour on the
brain - but the fact she sings his diagnosis makes it so much worse.
About the Show The Big Ending is a one-act musical for 5 performers, 3 female and 2 male. The piece is scored for piano. It is a small-scale show that requires little or no set, just an open-minded audience. It is a darkly comic tale of a hard-nosed Broadway producer and his battle against a brain tumour which, as well as killing him, is inexorably turning his whole life into a musical. Song List 1.
Best Possible Hands..
Dr.Shepherd/Doctor 1/ Doctor
2/Doctor 3 Characters MEL STARKE,
musical theatre producer - Male 1
The Big Ending came about as a result of a collaborative project set up in autumn 2004, between the Academy for New Musical Theatre (ANMT) in Los Angeles and Mercury Musicals Development (MMD) in London. British writers were paired with American writers to create double-bills of one-act musicals. Shrubshall & Free were paired with Scott Guy (book & lyrics) & Ross Källing (music) who wrote The Big Beginning. In April, 2005, ANMT sponsored a public reading of the double bill, now under a collective title of The Big Deal at the Century City Playhouse, LA. Joshua
Finkel Subsequently, an artistic selection committee of judges from Los Angeles, Chicago and London selected The Big Deal to be part of Stages 2005 at Theatre Building Chicago. Cast: Coryell
Barlow Directed, Matthew Gunnels; MD, Jeffrey Bouthiette ANMT presented a rehearsed reading at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, September, 2005. Cast: Joshua
Finkel In October, 2005, the LA cast performed The Big Deal at London's Theatre Museum In August 2006, The Big Deal was presented at the Sixth Annual Festival of New Musicals at The Village Theatre, Seattle. Cast: Charissa Bertels Karen Skrinde The Big Ending had its full production at The Rosemary Branch Theatre, Oct-Nov, 2006. click here to view reviews and photographs Cast: Jeremy Finch Director, Ben Thomas; MD,
Paul Chilvers; Design, Jan Rosser; Lighting, Finn McNulty; Choreography,
Cecilia Darker; Assistant Director, Cleo Sylvestre.
The Story Mel Starke, successful Broadway producer and congenital hater of musicals, goes to his doctor complaining of severe headaches. Doctor Madeleine Shepherd delivers the devastating news that he has a large brain tumour. What is equally devastating to Mel is that she delivers it in song. An operation is his only choice, but even that could be fatal. The stricken producer flees the clinic, trying to keep hold of his sanity while he mounts his latest blockbuster. At the theatre pity is in short supply due to Mel’s mistreatment of everyone he ever worked with. His writer, Henry Fish, who has been kicked around by Mel for years, sings joyfully of this affliction being incontrovertible proof of God’s existence. The musical spills into the street as Mel is pursued by singing cops, newspaper sellers and tourists. He seeks sanctuary – or at least medication – from Doctor Shepherd. There is little she can do to control the psychotic episodes. Instead she sings that he should embrace the experience. Sceptical of the medical advice, the patient nevertheless finds himself falling for the attractive doctor. Being a producer, he sleeps with Rachel, one of the actresses in his show. Full of self-loathing, he assumes Rachel wants something in return, namely a solo number, but she is insulted by his insinuations and tells him so. He can control his show on stage, but the musical his life is becoming is proving increasingly beyond him. Henry pops by to try and get the producer to focus on their show. If he’s unable to do it, then Henry needs to have more power. He tries to remind his old friend of the hopes they had in Milwaukee when they started out. Mel doesn’t want to listen. That night, as he sleeps, Mel finds himself in his worst nightmare - a dream sequence. Worse than that…he is actually singing. Voices urge him to go home and confront his past, and Mel is only too willing to oblige if they will just let him wake up. In a coffee shop in Milwaukee, Mel visits the woman he abandoned at the altar 15 years previously. He is surprised to discover that she has little bitterness left. He was hoping to get some kind of catharsis, but she has her emotions under check. Mel forces her to make him face the music, but she can only sing of loss and sadness. On returning to New York, Mel suffers a bad fall and has to consult Dr. Shepherd. Seeing him under such stress, she counsels him to remain at the clinic until his operation, but he is adamant that he see the opening of his show. He knows how he can get through it. He knows how he can regain control. All he needs to do is sing. At the end of a passionate duet, Mel and Madeleine kiss. She slaps him. What the hell does he think he’s doing? The
pitiful producer goes to see Henry. He realises that the musical
in his head had become his only reality. He thought he could sing,
learn, grow and get the girl. But life is messier than musicals. In the course of the operation, in a final irony, Mel’s tumour appears – all singing, all dancing - to give him a big send-off. Hey, what did he expect? It’s a musical after all.
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