All About Eve: How to produce a movie within a radio drama within a play
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As if staging the première play by new theater troupe wasn’t complicated enough, the folks behind Madison's Forward Theater Company have built some serious meta-theatrical layers into their performance of All About Eve Nov. 7 at the Overture Center Playhouse. For starters, the 1950 Bette Davis film has never been adapted as a straight play (though it did inspire the stage musical Applause—um, bear with us): It's only been adapted as a radio drama, so Forward is essentially putting on a play built around a radio-drama performance, in which the audience will see actors standing around microphones, generating interpersonal tension that parallels the plot of the original All About Eve. In addition to tackling this tricky concept, Forward is tweaking the script in-house, writing a new score, and recording the show for a later broadcast on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Old Time Radio Drama. Wondering just how Forward intends to pull all these elements into anything halfway cohesive, The A.V. Club talked with its Musical Director and script-assembler, Jack Forbes Wilson, about how to produce a show that needs to be entertaining to both the eye and the ear, but not necessarily at the same time.
Find a multi-layered story
FTC chose a radio drama because to help cut down on production costs, though that element also presented challenges for making it entertaining to a live audience. Here, the story is the key. All About Eve the movie is a tale centered on the theater, and woman trying to connive her way to the top. All About Eve the radio drama is obviously based on the movie, but it also includes an added twist of the actors within the play backbiting as well—a wrinkle that provides plenty of meta-liciousness for audiences whether they’re listening or watching.
It’s all in the voice
Actors standing in front of microphones—even if they’re in 1950s period costumes—don’t necessarily make for the most scintillating spectacle. That doesn’t mean they can’t be just as engaging. “In this play, the actors have to put everything into their voices,” Wilson says. The actors can afford to be overly theatrical without coming off as over-the-top, because the audience is privy to what’s going on behind the curtain. FTC also specifically sought out veteran actors with voice-over experience, figuring they’d adapt more smoothly to the heightened theatricality.
Make the audience a character
Just as the actors will have to pull double-duty performing the radio-show sound effects, so too will the audience have to do more than dent its chair cushions and clap at the final curtain. At various times the audience will be called upon to cheer the performances that take place within the play. Like the story-within-the-story, this will take the audience down the dramaturgical rabbit-hole, but all show-goers really have to do is clap when the “applause” sign goes up, and then wait to hear themselves during the radio broadcast.
Fluff the pillow where necessary
Even though the original radio drama was written after the movie had become a hit, there were aspects Wilson decided to flesh out, thanks to the luxury of historical context. For instance, All About Eve was Marilyn Monroe’s first movie role, but her character was left out of the radio drama because, at the time, no one considered her a star. “Nowadays you wouldn’t dream of doing that,” Wilson says.
Hammer the details
In order to create a Hollywood feel without the aid of elaborate sets, Wilson wrote a score with a “big Hollywood sound” for a live piano and string quintet. “I watched tons of 1950s movies to prepare,” Wilson says. “And I tried to make it as schmaltzy as I could.” Also, to add an additional air of historical accuracy, Wilson decided to include all of the original Lux Flakes laundry soap commercials just as they aired in the first radio broadcast. “They’re really freaking weird and funny.”
