According to this article in Playbill:

"What A Glorious Feeling", a new musical about the making of the classic M-G-M picture "Singin' in the Rain" -- and about the strained relationship between co-directors Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen -- will get its world premiere in Michigan this summer.

Director Tom Mullen conceived the intimate small-cast show, which he calls "a play with music" and an "exploration of creative and romantic temperaments" set in the heyday of the M-G-M movie musicals. It's also a revealing portrait of the late dancer-actor-director-choreographer Kelly, played by Broadway Contact veteran Sean Martin Hingston.

"What A Glorious Feeling", however, might be considered the highlight of the season for its sheer ambition: A new piece -- with Broadway players in the cast -- borrowing legendary real-life show biz names and using songs from the M-G-M movie musical catalog.

The piano and percussion show doesn't use famous songs to advance plot (that characters aren't singing to one another, per se). The tunes show rehearsals, set a mood or create the atmosphere of the studio system in the 1950s.

Mullen told Playbill.com that Gene Kelly is not seen here as the clean-cut, fresh-faced character known from such pictures as "On the Town," "Anchors Aweigh" and "Singin' in the Rain." He's driven, conflicted, jealous and demanding.

In the show, as in life, his partnership with director Stanley Donen splinters professionally and personally. Dancer Jeanne Coyne, a dance assistant for the men, is the woman in the middle of a romantic triangle here. She eventually became wife to both men, at different times. Donen is the only one of the three still living.

The cast includes Broadway Contact veterans Sean Martin Hingston as Gene Kelly and Colleen Dunn as Jeanne Coyne, and Broadway veteran Michael Gruber ("Swing!", "Kiss Me, Kate", "My Favorite Year") as Stanley Donen, with Brynn Curry as a young Debbie Reynolds and Gordon Thompson as Arthur Freed and Busby Berkeley.

Mullen, a fan of the 1952 movie "Singin' in the Rain," which is considered by many to be the apex of M-G-M's musical films, read biographies of Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, including a book by Kelly's ex-wife Betsy Blair, and "was intrigued that Kelly and Donen never spoke again after 'Singin' in the Rain' -- although they had to when they fulfilled a studio contract [for 'It's Always Fair Weather']."

When Mullen discovered there were professional and personal complications with dancer Coyne, Mullen felt he stumbled onto the stuff of good backstage musicals -- and, he said, the makings for a good episode of an "E! True Hollywood Story."

Jay Berkow (Off-Broadway's popular Jolson and Company) wrote the book to "What A Glorious Feeling".

Jamie Rocco is choreographing and has choice song material to work with, including tunes from "Royal Wedding," "Singin' in the Rain," "Cover Girl," "On the Town," "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and obscurities cut from "Singin' in the Rain"

Mullen said the style of "What A Glorious Feeling" is unique and not traditional.

"It's a play with music and dance," he said. "You'll see the rehearsal process, fragments of routines and sections of famous numbers. There's very little singing it, there's a lot dance -- Jamie Rocco's calling it a hybrid show."

The skeletons of famous movie dance routines are seen in "What A Glorious Feeling", and Rocco also creates his own original choreography. Video will also be used in the show, but no M-G-M material is being screened.

Is it a negative view of Kelly? "I think it's a really great emotionally-hopeful piece," Mullen said. "You get to see this man who think you know so well. You see his madness and his genius and you feel incredibly sympathetic toward him."

Designers are Robert Wojik (costume), Jen Kules (lighting), George Lee (set) and Steve Tabor (sound). Michael Sobie is musical director.

WOW! I don't know about you, but that sounds really cool. I'm dying to see this. I'm not only a huge Singin' in the Rain fan, but I love Gene Kelly (I even went to see him in Xanadu...). I've read a lot about him, and I never got the impression he was a "bad" man -- ie. cruel, backstabbing, or racist.

But I have read over and over again that he was EXTREMELY competitive in EVERYTHING he did. Whether concerning the business, women, or even a simple tennis game he might suggest his guests play at one of his many parties. This never surprised me, given his vision and impact on the biz, and his insistence on doing all his own stunts (which eventually left him crippled as an old man).

Normally I'm not overly excited about old songs recycled, (with songs of this caliber I don't mind so much) but this sounds so darned interesting, especially the focus on dance and resurrecting some of the old movie choreography! It sounds like they are creating this just for me!

We often talk about what happened to the movie musical, and it is clear that its heydey was driven by individuals (duh!) like Kelly and Donen and Freed (among others). Big surprise that big personalities got into feuds. When these personalities left the biz, the art form got temporarily waylaid.

My fabulous husband gave me a great book called Greatest Musicals, The Arthur Freed Unit by Hugh Fordin which looks like some kind of university press reprint but which contains in fascinating detail (budgets, sketches, letter) Freed's process of creating movie musicals. Once I finish it I'll give a more thorough report.

In the meantime, Gotta Dance!

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