Liza Lerner knew through “osmosis” that she was meant to work in the theatre industry. She grew up absorbing theatrical talent as the daughter of a brilliant lyricist. Lerner’s father was the notable Alan Jay Lerner who wrote the original book and lyrics for CAMELOT. As a little girl, she remembers him writing the original script for the show and continually working on it. Now, as a producer along with her brother Michael who rewrote parts of the script, Lerner is carrying on her father’s legacy with the new National Tour of CAMELOT. The story of the marriage of England’s King Arthur to Guenevere is played out amid the majesty of the legendary Camelot. The production opened in January and will be crossing the country over the next five months.
Even from the age of eight, Lerner remembers her dad taking her to the theatre frequently to watch as the show was in rehearsals. “He would take my sister and me to the theatre and sit us down someplace and say ‘Sit here, don’t move, be quiet, I’ll be back,’ Lerner remembers fondly. “I saw CAMELOT more than I saw anything that he had written.” She would also listen to the cast album over and over again and had soon memorized every word, every inflection and every nuance of the show. Those experiences while growing up impacted her and led to her desire to revive the show. “It’s always been a show that people around the country have really responded and resonated with so I thought it should be a national tour,” she said.
When Lerner made the decision in early 2000 to revive the show, she knew one of her most difficult jobs would be to find the right actor to play King Arthur. “The thing about CAMELOT is it’s very much, or it has been in the past, a star-driven vehicle.” In the original 1960 stage version, Richard Burton starred as King Arthur and when the show was revived in 1987, Robert Goulet was cast in the lead role. After searching unsuccessfully for several years, Lerner met stage and film legend Michael York and knew he was the right fit. York was eager to take on the challenging role and to do something he had not had the opportunity to do with prior roles. “I’d been in lots of film musicals but I never got to sing,” he said.
He was also thrilled to be involved because of the involvement of Alan Jay Lerner’s children. “Michael (Lerner), who is a brilliant writer, went back to his father’s papers and he was reworking the screenplay and then reworking the book of CAMELOT,” York explained. “What was really fascinating to me was that on our very first night, Micheline Lerner, his mother, came to the performance and she called me the next day to say how much she enjoyed it. I said ‘Did you like the little changes we’ve made?’ and she said ‘Oh, yes. Alan always wanted to do that but he never had the opportunity to see them reworked.’”
When discussing the changes within this new production, Liza Lerner explained that some cuts were made but the tone of the piece remains the same. “For people who are CAMELOT aficionados, which there seem to be many out there, they say ‘You cut this song or you cut that song and we miss this and we miss that.’ But if you’ve not seen CAMELOT before, you don’t know that.” A big change was the length; the show was trimmed by a half-hour as a result of two songs being cut and some rewritten dialogue. “The show is still growing at this point,” she explained and added that minor changes are still being made every three or four weeks. But according to Lerner, the thing that remains true in this new production is the most important one for audiences. “They are on their feet
every night and they love it as much as they always did.”
By: Beth Cox
PHOTO: Liza Lerner, Michael York, and Michael Lerner.
PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Shwartz
