Randy Newman’s Faust: A battle for a young man’s soul waged between Lord and Devil

As we send this week’s Director Selects, rehearsals for Randy Newman’s FAUST: The Concert commence in New York City in a rehearsal studio near Times Square. The uber-talented cast is taking a deep dive into the extraordinary world of America’s best known songwriter.

In lieu of a video interview this week, please read journalist Craig Byrd’s piece about how this once-in-a-generation project at The Soraya came to be. Craig is a longtime Los Angeles arts writer who really gets the scoop.

If you missed it while on summer vacation, here’s a Director’s Selects rerun of my interview with Mr. Newman himself.

Gratefully,

Randy Newman’s Faust: A battle for a young man’s soul waged between Lord and Devil

by Craig L. Byrd

The title of this show tells you a lot. It’s not just Faust. It’s Randy Newman’s Faust. For anyone who knows Newman’s style – from such massively popular songs as “I Love LA,” “Short People,” and “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story to lesser-known gems like Real Emotional Girl and It’s Money That I Love – Newman is a once-in-a-generation songwriter with a perspective on the world that is uniquely his own.

As it is with his deeply sardonic take on Goethe’s battle for a young man’s soul waged by the Devil. Only this time, it’s a bet between God and the Devil and the wager is the Devil’s ability to return to heaven.  At the center of their wager is the young Henry Faust who just might prove the Devil’s point that The Lord made a mistake in creating mankind.

In other words, Newman hasn’t just written a musical, he’s created a version of Faust unlike any you’ve seen before. Which is what makes it so entertaining.

As Newman said during a 2014 concert performance of Faust at New York’s City Center Encores!, “This is my version of Goethe’s Faust. His Faust, of course, is a masterpiece. I read the classic comic book, and I concur.”

This is Randy Newman’s only musical score, and it was first performed in 1995 at the La Jolla Playhouse in Southern California. Laurie Winer, in her review for the Los Angeles Times said, “Here is a score, thrilling and stage-worthy…a score that brings idiosyncratic, smart humor back into the American musical.”

Many fans first fell in love with Randy Newman’s Faust when an all-star recording was released that same year. Newman was joined by Don Henley, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor to sing his songs. Arguably the most popular song is “Feels Like Home.”

Amongst those fans was The Soraya’s Executive and Artistic Director, Thor Steingraber, who remembers first hearing the album over 20 years ago.

“A friend of mine lent me this CD. At that time, I still had a CD player in my car, and it stayed in my CD player for an untold number of weeks and months.”

So thoroughly had this album burrowed a hole into Steingraber’s heart and soul that when that 2014 concert performance in New York took place, he immediately suggested that a concert performance of Randy Newman’s Faust take place in Los Angeles.

“I’m very interested in how stories evolve over time,” Steingraber says. As an opera director he had worked on production of Gounod’s Faust and Boito’s Mephistopheles, both of which were also inspired by Goethe’s story.

“The idea of having yet another and now contemporary rendering of it was super compelling to me. The Faustian bargain is, 221 years later, a very important concept in our life’s decisions as human beings. There is a timelessness to these characters.”

But he had to wait a decade to make it a reality.  Now that he has, he’s assembled a cast that very much showcases some of our most interesting artists.

As the Devil, Reeve Carney will be in battle with Javier Muñoz as the Lord. Carney originated the role of Orpheus in the Tony Award-winning musical Hadestown. Television audiences know him from his role as Dorian Gray in Showtime’s “Penny Dreadful.”

Muñoz was personally selected by Lin-Manuel Miranda to be his alternate and to take over the roles of “Usnavi” in In the Heights and the title role of Hamilton on Broadway once Miranda left the productions.

Since this is a concert presentation, a narrator will guide the audience through the story. Jordan Temple, who has written for Abbott Elementary, Atlanta and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is writing his own narration for the show which he will also perform. He has spoken with Newman and is reviewing all previous versions of Randy Newman’s Faust to create something wholly unique for these concerts. That he’s a massive fan of Newman’s work doesn’t hurt.

Stuck in the middle of the battle between the Lord and the Devil is the title character, “Faust.” For these concerts he will be performed by Ryan McCartan who starred as Brad Majors in Fox’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again. He’s also appeared on Broadway as Fiyero in Wicked.

Two women figure prominently in the second act: Margaret, a nice, beautiful poor girl who Faust immediately wants as his girlfriend. There’s also her friend, Martha. The Devil becomes entirely smitten with her.

Vocalist Veronica Swift, who can scat and sing jazz with the best of our modern-day singers and then rock your socks off with her fierce energy, plays Martha. Joanna Lynn-Jacobs, regularly seen and heard in modern operatic works directed by Yuval Sharon (The Comet/Poppea, ATLAS and War of the Worlds), plays Margaret.

Los Angeles choral ensemble Tonality will serve as the chorus and wait until you hear what they will be singing. All of these performers will be backed by a nine-piece band.

“Randy Newman has been a backdrop in our lives for a variety of reasons for 50 years,” Steingraber says. “Through his film work, his live performances, anybody who has a connectivity to popular culture of the last 50 years can’t not engage with Randy Newman.”

Nor can you not enjoy yourself listening to Newman’s point-of-view on our world. You might even be surprised to know Newman’s own response to Faust.

“I really enjoyed doing this. I never worked on anything that I liked better. People dancing to music that you wrote and acting and tell the jokes…I really liked it. I hesitate to say fun, because work has never been fun for me, but this came pretty damn close.”

I, too, fell in love with this music from the first time I listened to the album. I also saw the original production. I’ve been waiting for 29 long years to get another chance to jump on the glory train that is Randy Newman’s Faust.

It’s a journey that will most certainly entertain you. You’ll find yourself laughing – a lot. It will move you with some of Newman’s most emotional songs. And, in the end, have you reveling in the timeless that is and will always be Randy Newman’s gift to us all.

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