Role: Violet
Theatre: American Airlines
Previews: March 28, 2014 - April 19, 2014
Opening Night: April 20, 2014
Run: March 28, 2014 - currently running
Setting: Across the American South in 1964
Original Broadway Cast:
Emerson Steele (Young Violet)
Sutton Foster (Violet)
Alexander Gemignani (Father)
Charlie Pollock (Leroy Evans/ Radio Soloist/ Bus Driver 3/ Bus Passenger)
Ben Davis (Preacher/ Radio Singer/ Bus Driver 1/ Bus Driver 4)
Annie Golden (Old Lady/ Hotel Hooker)
Joshua Henry (Flick)
Anastacia McCleskey (Music Hall Singer/ Bus Passenger)
Austin Lesch (Virgil/ Billy Dean/ Bus Driver 2/ Radio Singer/ Bus Passenger)
Rema Webb (Lula Buffington/ Almeta/ Bus Passenger)
Colin Donnell (Monty)
Synopsis:
Violet starts out on a bench in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, waiting for a Greyhound bus. It is 1964, and she is 25, from a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains. A deep, ragged scar stretches across her cheek and the bridge of her nose - a reminder of an accident suffered at 13, the day her father's axe blade flew ff it's handle. A country doctor treated her and sewed her up "like a pair of old shoes". Although her father saved up to take Violet to a plastic surgeon for her 18th birthday, he was told he had waited too long.In the two years since her father's death, Violet has saved her own money to make the trip clear across Tennesee and Arkansas to the Tus, Oklohama headquarters of a televangelist, whom she hopes will grant her a miracle and remove the scar. Waiting for the bus, Violet sees herself as a young girl, before the accident. Young Vi sings as her father chops wood (WATER IN THE WELL). A local's nosy question breaks VIolet's reverie. She looks forward to the change she thinks will help her transcend her provincial little town (SURPRISED). On the bus an old lady takes the neighboring seat. As she prattles on Violet wonders how the stranger's features might look on her own face (ON MY WAY). The passengers pile off the bus to get some food at a rest stop in Kingsport, Tennesee (M&Ms). In the grill Violet meets two poker-playing soldiers, Flick and Monty. Both are bound for Fort Smith, Arkansas. She asks to join their game, and as they deal her in, she privately recalls her father teaching her to play (LUCK OF THE DRAW). Back on the bus, Monty teases Violet about her preacher (QUESTION & ANSWER). Later, in the Nashville station, Flick wants to know exactly what it is Violet wants to change. With the help of a movie magazine she shows him the physical features she's like best (ALL TO PIECES). She sits alone as the journey continues, and daydreams her encounter with the Preacher (A HEALING TOUCH). As they are approaching Memphis, Flick seeks her out to suggest she can take care of herself without any preacher (LET IT SING). In Memphis Monty and Flick convince Violet to join them at a boarding house for the overnight rest stop. She takes an early evening cat-nap while a song plays on the radio (WHO'LL BE THE ONE (IF NOT ME)). She dreams Young Vi, after introducing her father to the old lady from the bus, dances with Monty - who has really entered Violet's room, intending to wake her up When he reaches to turn off the radio, he finds the catechism she has carried with her from Spruce Pine. He leafs through it. In its pages she's noted down observations Monty doesn't find complimentary; it irks him but given what she's suffered he's inclined to be forgiving. (YOU'RE DIFFERENT). She's awake by the time Flick shows up, and the threesome venture out to a Beale Street music hall (LONELY STRANGER). All three dance together; when Monty makes a pass at Violet, Flick leaves the music hall. Violet runs after him. They return to the boarding house but go to their separate rooms under the proprietor's watchful gaze. Much later, after she is asleep, Monty comes in through the unlocked door, wakes Violet, and makes love to her (LAY DOWN YOUR HEAD). The act ends with these two unlikely lovers in tableau, along with flick alone at a bar, and a trip of singers: the music hall singer, a hotel lounge singer, and a streetwalker (ANYONE WOULD DO).
The next morning Violet travels to Tulsa via Fort Smith, so she can stay with the soldiers longer. Flick is upset by the events of the night before (HARD TO SAY GOODBYE). Violet rushes to the bus bathroom, where she rehearses what she will say to spurn Monty. In the front of the bus Monty rehearses his own spiel, at Flick's direction. But when it comes time to part Monty begs her to come back to Fort Smith once her healing is done in Tulsa (PROMISE ME, VIOLET). She promises nothing, and the bus pulls away. In Tulsa, Violet surprises the preacher in rehearsal with his choir (RAISE ME UP). He pawns her off to a young assistant, whom Violet escapes. As she runs through the unfamiliar building, she relives being carried in her father's arms after the accident (DOWN THE MOUNTAIN). She finds refuge finally in the televangelist's empty chapel. The preacher discovers her and asks her to leave. She refuses, pleading with the preacher to help her invoke a miracle (RAISE ME UP (REPRISE)). When nothing comes of this, she demands the preacher see her for what she is - scarred and hideous, a prodigy of pain (LOOK AT ME). When she looks to the heavens for a moment, the preacher is replaced by her faher. They fight, until he apologizes for what he has done. He claims to have done his best to help her (THAT'S WHAT I COULD DO). He allows that what he knew to do might not have been what she needed. Afterwards, aware that something about herself has changed, Violet assumes it is her scar (SURPRISED (REPRISE)). She reboards the bus. The passengers are all strangers to her, though they remind her of those she traveled west with (M&Ms (REPRISE)). She tells a fellow traveler that if Monty is indeed waiting in Fort Smith, and does not recognize her, she'll know her face has been so miraculously transformed that she'll be able to live with him happily ever afterwards. If Monty does recognize her, then she'll be too ugly to ever be happy, and she'll flee from him back to the bus. The passenger doesn't know what to make of Violet. When she gets out at the Fort Smith Station Monty is there to tell her he's voluntered to go to Viet Nam. His efforts at sympathy make plain to her that her face has not changed at all. If anything, bedraggled, sleepless, she looks worse. She declines Monty's invitation to join him in San Francisco until he ships out, but does ask him to be careful overseas. Flick is also at the station. Flick sees Violet has changed, though her scar is the same. He entreats her to stay with him (PROMISE ME, VIOLET (REPRISE)). At first she refuses, but her younger self appears to stop Violet from rejecting what she wants most. Violet's healing is complete when she takes Flick's hand, and the company celebrates their coming together (BRING ME TO LIGHT).
Songs:
Water in the Well (Violet, Young Violet and Father)
Surprised (Violet)
On My Way (Violet and Company)
M&Ms (Company)
Luck of the Draw (Father, Young Violet, Violet, Monty and Flick)
Question 'n Answer (Monty and Violet)
All to Pieces (Violet, Monty and Flick)
Let it Sing (Flick)
Anyone Would Do (Hotel Hooker)
Who'll Be the One (If Not Me) (Radio Trio)
Last Time I Came to Memphis (Monty and Violet)
Lonely Stranger (Music Hall Singer)
Lay Down Your Head (Violet)
Anyone Would Do (Reprise) (Music Hall Singer, Almeta and Hotel Hooker)
Hard to Say Goodbye (Violet and Flick)
Promise Me, Violet (Violet, Monty and Flick)
Raise Me Up (Preacher, Lula Buffington and Choir)
Down the Mountain (Violet, Young Violet, Father and Virgil)
Look At Me (Violet)
That's What I Could Do (Father)
Surprised (Reprise) (Violet)
Promise Me, Violet (Reprise) (Flick and Company)
Bring Me to Light (Company)
Awards & Nominations: Coming soon
