SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS Music by Marvin Hamlisch: Lyrics by Craig Carnelia: Book by John Guare. Based on the novel by Ernest Lehman and the MGM/United Artists motion picture. Martin Beck Theatre, Broadway - 14 March, 2002 STORY Act 1 Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America. It's New York, 1952. Welcome to Broadway, the glamour and power capital of the universe. JJ Hunsecker rules it all with his daily gossip column in the New York Globe, syndicated to sixty million readers across America. JJ has the goods on everyone, from the President to the latest starlet. And everyone feeds JJ scandal, from J. Edgar Hoover and Senator Joe McCarthy down to a battalion of hungry press agents who attach their news to a client that JJ might plug. You can become no one if JJ turns on you. Meet Sidney Falcone, a struggling press agent whose sole client is a nowhere jazz dive, the Club Voodoo. Tony, the owner, gives Sidney an ultimatum. No item in JJ, no job. Tonight, the only customer at the Voodoo is Susan, a classy beauty, who's there to see Dallas, the hot young piano player. It's his last night before going off to play a gig in Chicago. He wants Susan to go with him. She can't. There's someone who wouldn't like it. Looking for a client - any client - Sidney offers his services to Dallas. Dallas laughs off Sidney's pitch. He will make it on his own. Sidney then turns to Susan and promises that, if she hires him, he'll make her a star with one mention in JJ. She doesn't bite. Sidney's taken with her but when he sees Dallas sing to Susan, he realises he hasn't a chance. Suddenly JJ shows up at the Voodoo, knowing nothing of Dallas. He has followed Susan, furious that she walked out on him earlier at dinner at the Stork Club. Why is she in a dive like this? As Dallas moves to JJ to tell him why, Susan distracts JJ by introducing Sidney as the reason. She claims Sidney is her partner in acting class. Sidney is stunned. (He'd assumed Susan was JJ's girlfriend but finds out she's JJ's sister). Sidney goes along with the ruse. As JJ questions Sidney about his motives, Dallas slips out for Chicago. Susan's secret is safe. JJ is curious about Susan's new "friend," and invites Sidney on his nightly crawl of every hotspot in Manhattan. JJ buys Sidney a new suit, and gets Sidney's waitress girlfriend, Rita, a job at a fancy nightspot called the Café Elysian. JJ introduces Sidney to the powerful and sinister Police Detective Kello. JJ gets Sidney clients, and urges his new friend to "keep the "O"' and change his name to Falco. Life is great! Sidney can't believe his new friendship. The life he's dreamed of is here. Weeks later, before dawn, at St. Patrick's Cathedral, in the presence of the Almighty, it's payback time. JJ makes Sidney (the former altar-boy) swear he will follow Susan and report on all that he sees. Susan and Dallas are in bed. Susan is in a quandary. She can't tell JJ about their romance. JJ would never accept her loving a nobody like Dallas. Dallas gives her an ultimatum. He's back from his latest gig in Philadelphia in three weeks. Tell JJ by then. Dallas says good-bye to Susan at Penn Station with an epic kiss, seen by Sidney. When Susan sees him, Sidney admits he's following her on JJ's behalf. He advises her to drop this nobody Dallas. Susan reminds Sidney how much she's helped a nobody like him. In return, she asks Sidney to take on Dallas as a secret client and make him a somebody Susan takes Sidney home to JJ's penthouse. JJ regales Sidney with stories about Susie's childhood, their life together and how much everyone loves his little sister. Sidney, seeing how oppressive JJ's love is to Susan,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODU3MzQ=