When it comes to the perenially popular holiday tale by Dr. Seuss, the misguided green protagonist is not the only wandering soul affiliated with a change of heart. Some 60 years ago, Mel Marvin, composer of the Broadway hit Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical, had an epiphany.
Without it, Charleston audiences would not be anticipating the musical adaptation of the iconic 1957 book. On Dec. 9, the Best of Broadway production opens at North Charleston Performing Arts Center.
And Marvin’s own realization happened right in Charleston.
In the late 1950s, the Walterboro native was on an altogether different path. True, he was already a fan of the musical form, thanks to his mother’s cast recordings.
“I was very affected by Singing in the Rain, which is still one of my favorite movies,” he said.
On a trip to New York City at 16, he saw his first Broadway show, Li’l Abner, at the St. James Theatre, along with an enviable trifecta of first-run productions of West Side Story, The Music Man and My Fair Lady.
But when he enrolled at the College of Charleston, he delved instead into pre-med studies — that is until he found a $46-a-month apartment atop the Dock Street Theatre.
Soon, he was offering to help backstage, while also playing the green room piano. Among those who listened were Emmett and Patricia Robinson. The legendary Footlight Players dramatic duo invited the 19-year-old to write incidental music for a comedy.
“I had no idea I could write anything, and they started me out. They really believed in me,” he said.
Chucking the doctor trajectory, Marvin was off to Columbia University for a graduate degree in comparative literature with a concentration on theater. Since then, he has made a great deal of music, creating scores for 30 works of musical theater, 47 plays, 3 films and 3 operas — picking up Tony nominations as co-author of Tintypes and writing the music for the Broadway productions of Yentl and Chris Durang’s A History of the American Film.
A Grinch is born
The Seuss musical was first commissioned by the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis in 1994, and Marvin never envisioned it as the commercial powerhouse it has become. He was more focused on his own Cindy Lou Who, his 9-year-old daughter Kate.
“Basically, I wrote it for her,” he said, adding that she even sang an early demo.
Nonetheless the crowd-pleasing, family-friendly, inventive take on the original Grinch tale rose to Broadway stature at the St. James Theatre, 60 years after Marvin saw Li’l Abner there.
“On the first day we were in the theater going to tech rehearsals, I went a half an hour early and went and sat in the seat that I had sat in when I was a kid.”
Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical now tours the country year after year, boasting impressive, Seussian black-and-white backgrounds popping with costumes bright pinks and oranges.
“We wrote it for families, not just for little children,” Marvin said. “In a lot of ways, it’s a very sophisticated, cranky, dark, bizarre kind of show that appeals to adults as well as kids.”
It no doubt made an impression on his daughter, Kate Marvin, who first sang the musical for a demo. She is now also a musical composer, whose work resounds on some of New York’s most revered stages.
A Charleston landing
Each year, Marvin scans the list of tour destinations in search of Charleston.
“So I’m really delighted,” he said of the creative homecoming. “So much of my compositional ability is rooted in influences from the South.”
When, like the Whos of Whoville, Charleston welcomes Christmas, it will also welcome the music of one of their own, too. And that will surely swell the heart of one South Carolina son.
IF YOU WANT TO GO: Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical runs from Dec. 9 to 14 at various times at North Charleston Performing Arts Center, 5001 Coliseum Dr., North Charleston. More: northcharlestoncoliseumpac.com
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