Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

I went to see the musical version of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil at Chicago's Goodman Theatre last weekend. It was...interesting. Having read the book, seen the movie, and visited Savannah, GA and took the "Midnight" tour many, many years ago, I was interested in seeing a staged version. Some of it was good, but some of it wasn't. I have to say, Midnight turned into The Lady Chablis Variety Show and that wasn't a good thing. Yes, Chablis is a huge character in the book and movie, but she's not the main focus of either. Midnight is about Jim Williams and the murder of Danny Hansford. That's the main story here, yet the musical overshadowed the actual murder to showcase Chablis, the drag queen. I wouldn't have minded that much if the actor playing Chablis on stage had a better singing voice. Sadly, that wasn't the case. (I'm using the term "actor" here for all actors in the play whether male, female, trans,  non-binary, etc.) The actor's voice wasn't terrible, it just wasn't that great and to keep giving musical numbers to someone who isn't exactly what I'd call a "Broadway singer" was just a mistake. The actor who played Jim Williams didn't have a great voice either, but he didn't have as many musical numbers as Chablis. There were some really great performances in the play by the actor who led the Savannah preservation group and the actor who played the young black debutant. Those two ladies had wonderful voices. Too bad there were no Johnny Mercer songs. How do you do a musical about a murder at the Mercer House and there's no Mercer music in it? Come on!

Seeing the play made me want to re-read the book. I used to have a copy, but I must have gotten rid of it. I purged a lot of books when I left New York 10.5 years ago. I've been listening to the movie soundtrack also. It's got some great Johnny Mercer songs including a really beautiful version of "This Time the Dream's on Me" by Alison Krauss. Krauss has such a lovely voice. I could listen to her sing the phone book. I highly recommend checking out her song that, unfortunately, only seems to be available on the soundtrack. I'd like to see the movie again, but I don't think it's available on any of the streamers. I might have to get the DVD from my local library. I'm willing to suffer through Kevin Spacey to see it also. (He's not a bad actor, just a terrible person!)