Tom Eyen

Tom Eyen (August 14 1940 - May 26 1991) was a Tony Award and Grammy Award winning American playwright, lyricist, television writer, and theatre director.

Born in Cambridge, Ohio, Eyen is best known for works at opposite ends of the theatrical spectrum. Mainstream theatergoers became acquainted with him in 1981 when he partnered with composer Henry Krieger and director Michael Bennett to write the book and lyrics for "Dreamgirls", the hit Broadway musical about an African American female singing trio. Eyen's career started, however, with avant garde plays and musicals that he wrote and directed off-off Broadway in the early 1960s, which eventually led to off-Broadway success in the 1970s with the controversial nudity-filled performance-art play "The Dirtiest Show in Town" and "Women Behind Bars", a camp parody of women's prison exploitation films.

Early career

In 1960, Eyen left The Ohio State University and moved to New York City to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. [Klemesrud, Judy. "Dirty is a State of Mind", "New York Times", Sunday August 16 1970.] Having no success with that calling, he began writing and found a home for his unique outlook on contemporary life in the 1960s at the off-off-Broadway avant garde theatre scene at Caffe Cino and La MaMa Theatre, [ [http://lamamaetc.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html La MaMa article] ] where he gave Bette Midler her first professional acting roles in his "Miss Nefertiti Regrets" and "Cinderella Revisited" (both in 1965, a children's play by day and an adult show by night). [ [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,601990,00.html Time magazine profile on Midler] ] He started the Theatre of the Eye Repertory Company in 1964 and is considered a principal proponent of the 1960s neo-expressionist off-off-Broadway movement. [ [http://www.angelfire.com/musicals/cesearsforum/ Profile of Eyen] ] The New York Times noted, "His plays are known for emotionally grotesque material combined with sharp satire." [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E5DD173BF934A15756C0A962948260 NY Times review] ]

Other early off-off-Broadway credits include writing (and usually directing) "My Next Husband Will Be A Beauty!" (1964), "Frustata, The Dirty Little Girl With The Paper Rose Stuck In Her Head, Is Demented!" (1964), "The White Whore And The Bit Player" (1964), "Can't You See A Prince?" (1965), "Court" (1965), "The Last Great Cocktail Party" (1965), "The Demented World Of Tom Eyen" (1965), "Why Hanna's Skirt Won't Stay Down; Or, Admission 10c" (1965, the title character has been described as an icon representative of all the crudeness, exuberance, decadence and off-the-cuff profundities of the era), [ [http://www.lamama.org/archives/2005/HannasSkirt.htm Information about "Hannah"] ] "Give My Regards To Off-Off Broadway" (1966), " Grand Tenement/November 22nd" (1967), "Sarah B. Divine!" (1967), "Kama Sutra, The (An Organic Happening)" (1968), "Who Killed My Bald Sister Sophie? Or, Thank God For Small Favours!" (1968), "When Johnny Comes Dancing Home Again" (1968), "Alice Through A Glass Lightly" (1968), "4 Noh Plays" (1969), "Caution: A Love Story" (1969), "The Dirtiest Show in Town" (1970, with later versions off-Broadway and in London's West End), [ [http://www.lamama.org/archives/2005/HannasSkirt.htm Information about "Hanna" and "Dirtiest Show"] ] "Areatha In The Ice Palace; Or, The Fully Guaranteed Fuck-Me Doll" (1970), "Gertrude Stein And Other Great Men" (1970), "Lana Got Laid In Lebanon" (1970), "What Is Making Gilda So Gray?; Or, It Just Depends On Who You Get" (1970), and "2008: A Spaced Oddity" (1974).

Eyen wrote the song "Ode to a Screw" with Peter Cornell for the 1971 Miloš Forman film "Taking Off".

In 1973, he co-wrote the book for and directed one of Broadway's most notorious flops, the Paul Jabara disco musical "Rachael Lily Rosenbloom (And Don't You Ever Forget It)", which closed after seven previews. The lead character, a flamboyant entertainer, had been inspired by Midler, who nevertheless passed on the role.

Following this setback, Eyen began to commute to Los Angeles to write for television. He contributed scripts to the 1976-78 ground-breaking evening soap opera parody. "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman", produced by Norman Lear. In 1978, he earned an Emmy Award nomination for writing Midler's television special "Ol' Red Hair is Back".

Eyen's campy-disturbing send-up of women's prison exploitation movies, "Women Behind Bars", became a major off-Broadway hit in 1975, first with Pat Ast, and then with Divine, playing the lead role of the sadistic matron in drag. The New York Times called it "an extraordinarily interesting work from one of America's most innovative and versatile playwrights." [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E5DD173BF934A15756C0A962948260 NY Times review] ] . He followed up on this success with "The Neon Woman", another off-Broadway play starring Divine in 1978.

In 1980, Eyen directed a film version of "The Dirtiest Show In Town", with John Wesley Shipp baring all, for the cable network Showtime, making it the first "made for cable" television movie. The film's explicit nudity and depiction of gay characters was considered a breakthrough of sexual expression in the early days of cable television.

"Dreamgirls" and later years

Eyen and Krieger first worked together on the 1975 musical version of Eyen's revue "The Dirtiest Show in Town", called "The Dirtiest Musical in Town". [ http://www.thevillager.com/villager_198/oscardreaming.html "The Dirtiest Musical in Town" is mentioned in this article on Krieger] ] . Nell Carter's performance in that musical inspired Eyen and Krieger to craft a musical about Black back-up singers, which they workshopped for Joe Papp but shelved when Carter dropped out in 1978. A year later, the project caught the interest of Broadway director-producer Michael Bennett, who asked Eyen to direct a workshop production of "Big Dreams", as the musical was then known, with Sheryl Lee Ralph, Loretta Devine and gospel singer Jennifer Holliday as Carter's replacement. However, Holliday left the project, unhappy that her character died at the conclusion of the first act. After several workshops and numerous rewrites, Bennett decided that he needed Holliday, and the team rewrote act two to build up Holliday's character. [Hill, Jeremy. "Pre-Broadway. "Dreamgirls: Your Virtual Coffee Table Book of the Musical".]

Produced on Broadway in 1981, "Dreamgirls"' was the biggest success of Eyen's career. It was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards, including two for Eyen: Best Book and, as lyricist, Best Original Score. The show won six Tonys, including Best Book. It also earned Eyen a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Lyrics. The original cast album won Eyen a Grammy Award as lyricist, and one of the show's songs, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going", sung by Holliday, became a top hit.

When a film adaptation of "Dreamgirls" by writer/director Bill Condon was released in 2006 by DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures, the soundtrack became a number one hit, and two of Eyen's songs from the soundtrack, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going", sung by Jennifer Hudson, and "One Night Only", sung by Beyoncé Knowles (credited as Deena Jones & The Dreams), became hits again. To promote the film's release, DreamWorks and the licensee of the musical, The Tams-Witmark Music Library, paid the licensing fees for all non-professional stage performances of "Dreamgirls" for 2006. As a result, more than fifty high schools, colleges, and community theaters staged productions of "Dreamgirls" in 2006. [ Olsen, Mark (Dec. 12, 2006). [http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/cl-et-dreamgirls12dec12,0,693678.story "One stage of film's marketing is on stage"] , "Los Angeles Times". Retrieved on December 15, 2006]

Eyen's 1984 attempt to duplicate his "Dreamgirls" success with "Kicks:The Showgirl Musical", a collaboration with composer Alan Menken about members of the Rockettes during World War II, never made it past the workshop stages, [Ostrow, Stuart "Present at the Creation, Leaping in the Dark, And Going Against the Grain" 2005, pp. 117-188. ] though individual numbers from the show are often performed in concert. [ [http://www.jorgeplace.com/Cast_ForgottenScores.htm Description of several "forgotten" releases] ]

Eyen died of AIDS-related complications in Palm Beach, Florida at the age of 50. A memorial service was held at the St. James Theatre in New York City on September 23 1991. In 1993, he posthumously received the Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute Award at The Ohio State University, where his papers are archived.

Notes

References

* [http://www.angelfire.com/musicals/cesearsforum/ Profile of Eyen]
* [http://www.dreamgirlsthemusical.com/productions/bio.php?name=3000&production=1000 Another profile of Eyen]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E5DD173BF934A15756C0A962948260 NY Times review of "Women Behind Bars" from 1984]
* [http://www.lamama.org/archives/2005/HannasSkirt.htm Description of "Hannah" with information about Eyen]
* [http://www.talkinbroadway.com/regional/sanfran/s188.html Review of a San Francisco production of "Women Behind Bars", with biographical information about Eyen]
*Stone, Dr. Wendell, "Simulated Performances: Tom Eyen's Employment of Filmic Devices". (2002)
*Stone, Dr. Wendell, "Caffe Cino: the birthplace of off-off-Broadway". (2005) [http://books.google.com/books?id=vKTPQmmed9sC&pg=PA134&lpg=PA134&dq=%22women+behind+bars%22+eyen&source=web&ots=X7rLTivPmN&sig=fVkphZmoNh_kCBZ4U7vwNIipYHA]
* [http://www.4-wall.com/authors/authors_e/eyen_tom.htm List of Eyen's early plays]
* [http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsE/EyenTom.htm List of plays by Eyen]
* [http://finelinefeatures.com/pink/cast.htm Divine bio]

External links

* [http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=8902 Internet Broadway Database listing]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0264132/ Internet Movie Database listing]
* [http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1809051893 Eyen Filmography]
* [http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?search_by=people&keyword=name&first=Tom&last=Eyen&middle= Lortel Archives listing of some Eyen plays]
* [http://library.ohio-state.edu/search/t?SEARCH=TOM+EYEN+COLLECTION: Tom Eyen archives at The Ohio State University]
* [http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/5548 Available Eyen plays]
* [http://www.alanmenken.info/biography/kicks.html Kicks: The Showgirl Musical]