DISCOVER THE WORLD OF MUSICAL THEATRE WITH ME
Back in 2021, when I found out about "110 in the Shade", I thought it would be a cool idea to make an essay on it. But, I didn’t have the mental nor emotional space to do it for multiple different private reasons.
And, when I first visited this musical, I thought the soundtrack was fine.
The story. Fine.
The relationships and characters. Kind of boring and simple, but fine.
However, back then, I didn’t really pay attention to the story as I was overwhelmed with so many other things going on in my life at that time.
But, now that I have had a chance to breathe and truly study this story…
I saw myself in these characters.
I realized “110 in the Shade” wasn’t a simple (and frankly strange) love story between a spinster and a con man.
When I dug deeper into the making of this musical, I saw my life.
My relationships.
My insecurities.
Things that I personally went through, and to be honest, I am still going through.
And it made me sad that the original intent of this story was completely pushed to the side for a cheap love story.
“110 in the Shade” wasn’t and isn’t about love. At least not in the romantic sense.
“110 in the Shade” is about family.
The Play
In the early 1950s, N. Richard Nash wrote a play titled “The Rainmaker”.
The plot consisted about a farming family who is dealing with a terrible drought because of the intense summer heat. But, instead of worrying about their cattle, the family is more concerned about the love life of Lizzie Curry, our main character and older sister/daughter who is resigned to the fact she may never find love.
In comes, the titled character, “The Rainmaker” aka Bill Starbuck.
Though it is obvious he is a con man, half of the family decides to pay him in the promise of making it rain.
Lizzie is furious about this, and she hashs out her frustrations at Starbuck only for the man to turn her words back on her.
Even though Starbuck’s seems to be nuance from just his appearance never mind the pretty words and his charms, he surprisingly changes each family member one by one for the better by forcing them to confront their doubts about themselves and to each another.
And while all is still not perfect by the end of the show and Lizzie and Starbuck do not get together in the end, the family feels whole, and Starbuck leaves them better than he found them.
And with rain too.
The play focused on many things: Hope.
Loneliness.
Inner beauty.
Social pressures.
Power dynamics…
But the biggest one that I particularly noticed was this concept of insecurities and how they can blind us.
And it wasn’t just Lizzie but the entire family.
We have Jimmy, the younger brother with a little too much energy but has a heart full of gold.
He is basically you’re big golden retriever.
Someone who never stops moving and gets so excited and happy when everyone else is happy. If you knew him in real life, he would without a doubt be your biggest cheerleader.
But, it seems in this play no one is the cheerleader for him...
He is constantly scolded, ridiculed, and name called for being a man who has too much heart and little to no brains.
Whenever he tries to make his own decisions like deciding whether he should go hang out with his crush, Snookie, he is shut down and scolded for even daring to try.
Whenever he comes up with an idea, he is yelled at for being dumb.
Everyone talks down to him and treats him like he’s stupid. And because of this, we see that he starts to believe everyone.
But then comes Starbuck.
Though a bit too trusting and way too gullible, Jimmy quickly becomes friends with Starbuck who treats him like an equal. He tells Jimmy to believe in himself and his ideas and go after the girl of his dreams. And, despite continued backlash from his older brother, he does just that.
By the end of the play, he is engaged to Snookie.
Speaking of older brother...
We have Noah, a clearly very serious, strict, pessimistic man who doesn’t know the meaning of the word smile.
However, he is also very logical and firm in his beliefs which more often than not keeps the family out of trouble...
But not this time.
It seems with the continued failure of Lizzie finding a husband, being in charge of the ranch and consequently the family, and the appearance of Starbuck has taken a toll on his spirit.
He is exhausted, feeling ignored for his efforts, and starts feeling bitter towards his father who doesn’t seem to care. The expectations on him as the eldest got to him.
As a result, his judgement is clouded. He doesn’t see how his anger affects his other siblings calling Jimmy dumb and telling Lizzie she isn’t beautiful. This causes a rift between the family members, and surprisingly, Starbuck is the one who knocks some sense into him.
Unfortunataely, we don’t get to see a conclusion with Noah’s character arc, but we do see him really thinking about his actions and the consequences of those actions.
Maybe, just maybe, Noah can learn to let go a little. Learn to use his heart a little more than his head sometimes.
H.C., the father of the Curry family, is a kind and playful father but does seem to have a tendance to be aloof towards his children especially Noah.
Because while he loves to joke and play and laugh, H.C. always seems to ignore the rift between his children.
However, once Starbuck comes into the picture, we come to learn he is actually very crafty and observant truly wanting the best for this children even though he doesn't always show it.
And, when things got serious, he got serious as well.
When things got dirty, he got dirty.
Thanks to Starbuck, H.C. proves he is a caring father, and he is the man in charge despite what others think.
Though he was absent in the past, he now tries to be there for his family. To protect them and love them the best way he can.
And now Lizzie.
Our main character who wrestles with her own doubts about her beauty.
She believes she isn’t womanly enough to find a man. And unfortunately, her family doesn’t really help with her insecurity.
Even when the boys invite Sheriff File to visit Lizzie, the plan backfires terribly making Lizzie feel worse than before.
But, Starbuck, in his own strange way, forces Lizzie to confront herself and her fears.
Gives her the space to get angry, laugh, cry, until she finally sees herself for who she truly is.
Beautiful.
Even Sheriff File, though not in the play that much, has his own insecurities that are explored in the story.
His wife left him for another man which makes him feel ashamed to the point of lying to people that she died.
But thanks to a good prep talk from H.C. and being forced with the possible that Lizzie might leave for Starbuck, he makes a decision and asks Lizzie to stay despite his pride and stubbornness.
He decides to give himself another chance to love again.
Each person in this story had a significant insecurity that held them back.
A fear that they couldn’t shake.
A reality they couldn’t confront.
A dream that they wouldn’t allow themselves to believe in.
And ironically, the person who helps them overcome those insecurities is a con man.
Though he is a liar, a fake, and a manipulator, Starbuck does seem to have a heart.
He also has a dream wanting to be bigger than life itself. And whether intentionally or not, he helps this family. He forces them to let go of their own stubborness and pride and confront themselves that will ultimately help them become better people.
Which leads me to my big point...
Starbuck was written to be a catalyst character for the story.
Not a love interest.
Sure, Lizzie is the main character that we as the audience focus on the most in the play.
But the entire family has issues not just her. And the playwright chose to focus on that.
In order to fix the family’s problems, there needed to be another character that forced them out of their comfort zone.
And that was Starbuck.
It is because of Starbuck that there is a new understanding, a new love between the family members that wasn’t there before. There is acceptance.
That was the point of Starbuck’s character.
Sure, there is still that strange kiss at the end of the show, but there was never really an obvious point that the two had any romantic feelings for each another. Starbuck was there to show Lizzie who she truly was.
He didn’t bring just rain but new understanding.
That, in my opinion, is the story’s truest form: a story about a broken family who overcomes their biggest insecurities by someone they least expected.
And that all changed when the movie was made…
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The Movie
N. Richard Nash came back to change his script for the 1956 movie “The Rainmaker”.
While still somewhat the same plot, the family is no longer the center focus of the story, but Lizzie and Starbuck’s relationship.
Now, I understand that adapting a stage play into a film can be difficult as the two platforms are very different.
For one, a play is happening in real time in front of a live audience while a film was shot and edited together to be presented to an audience at a later time on a big screen.
Another is the visuals as a play usually only has one to a couple of different sets to establish the story while a film can transport the story anytime and everywhere. Film has a lot more freedom.
And lastly, time. A play can last for hours depending on the story while a film generally doesn’t run past the 2 to 3 hour mark.
This is all understandable, and as a result, while adapting the play into a film, there will be characters and scenes that will need to be changed, taken out, or left alone entirely for the sake of the story.
However, in my personal opinion, I believe Nash changed the wrong things, took out the wrong parts, and left alone sections that could’ve been changed or taken out all together for the sack of time.
As a result, the story suffered.
One of the main factors, if not the main factor of why the story suffered was the changing of Starbuck’s entire purpose in the story.
Instead of a catalyst character who, while manipulative and cunning still had a heart to help the Curry family, Starbuck became an insecure, emotional romantic love interest who spends most of his time with Lizzie.
This caused the rest of the characters to be pushed to the background with little screen time and little to no character development.
Gone is Jimmy’s character arc.
Gone is H.C.’s character role.
Gone is Noah’s character entirely.
Even File who had not many scenes in the original story, has even less scenes in the movie, so the audience doesn’t really get a good understanding of his character and backstory.
Instead we focus on a frankly brand new character and a cheap Hollywood style romantic story where it is so obvious that the two characters will never work out in the end.
Now, I do think it was an interesting idea for Starbuck to have a bit more emotion and be less calculating.
He has an actual insecurity that Lizzie can poke at (the insecurity being a lack of talent unlike his brothers) and have equal standing with Starbuck when they do talk.
It all just makes him more human, and I am more willing to believe in his desires for adventure, freedom, and love.
However, Nash focused so much on this newfound humanity in Starbuck that he seemed to have forgotten the rest of the characters and their own emotional character arcs.
All of them felt more like one-dimensional characters than real human beings with real struggles and insecurities. I was honestly disappointed in the film once it was finished and felt a little more reluctant to visit the musical again after so long.
Would it still be the simple, lackluster love story I remember it being? Or will I be surprised and realize the musical was about family along?
And…
Yes.
And no.
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The Musical
In 1963, the story was then adapted into a musical retitled to “110 in the Shade” which was successful during its time.
And then in 2007, it was revived for a short time with some minor changes but stuck with the original script garnering some praise but deemed an underwhelming show.
The musical takes after the movie focusing more on the relationship between Lizzie and Starbuck again.
As a result, this pushes the rest of the cast into the background even more so than the movie in my opinion.
The Curry men only have two songs in the entire cast recording while Jimmy has one duet song with Snookie.
And, when he’s suppose to be a romantic love interest for Lizzie, Sheriff File only has one duet song with her and no solo songs for himself.
Even though I have not seen the entire musical, I could tell just from the cast recordings I listened to that the writers focused explicitly on Lizzie…
And really just Lizzie.
I did say the musical focuses on Lizzie and Starbuck like the movie does.
Once Starbuck gets introduced into the musical, they have three duet songs together, and that’s a lot of duets when the couple doesn’t even get together in the end.
However, to my surprise, the duet songs don’t exist just because Starbuck is there...
But because of Lizzie’s journey to self-acceptance.
There is a twist in the musical.
Remember I said Starbuck is a catalyst character in the play version.
While he is still somewhat a romantic love interest in the musical, he does go back to his original roots. He is almost a hybrid of the play version and movie version. He is still a calculating charismatic conman but is also an emotional dreamer looking for a purpose. I do think it’s a nice blend of the two.
However, the difference between the play and the musical is, while he was a catalyst character in the play, he was there for the whole family.
In the musical, while he is somewhat a catalyst character, Starbuck is only there for Lizzie.
He is there to be the one to help guide her and show her who she truly is.
That's the twist.
See, once Lizzie is introduced into the musical, the audience is almost always following Lizzie’s story. And we get to know a lot about her.
“Love, Don’t Turn Away” is about her wants in a husband.
“Naughty” is revealing her wish to give into social pressure and show her well naughty side.
“Old Maid” shows her despair that she will never achieve her true desires.
“Simple Little Things” gives us insight to her true desires for life.
And “Is It Really Me?” is the conclusion to her journey of self-acceptance as she comes into her own and realizes her true value as a woman and as Lizzie.
Just plain old Lizzie.
Her journey is honestly a powerful one as we see her going from being an insecure, helpless, resigned woman into an independent, self-fullfilled, empowered woman who knows her worth.
And I do like this different take on the story.
Just like the story adapting to film, the play had to morph to adapt into a musical so there would be some changes.
While they are both on stage showing in real time to a live audience, a musical ulitizes songs that express a character’s true desires which can take up time.
So, maybe the writers could only focus on one character’s insecurity and their journey of transformation.
However, I still felt something off once I was done listening to the cast recordings.
I felt like something was seriously missing in the story.
And I remembered feeling that way too when I first starting researching this story all those years ago.
There felt like there was a gap, an emptiness, in the story.
And, now I know why.
Where is Noah’s song about the hardships of being the eldest and surcummbing to the pressures of family expectations?
Where are the songs about Jimmy’s need for validation from his family and the want to find strength in standing up for himself?
Where is the song revealing H.C.’s thoughts on his children and the wish that his wife was still there with them?
Why isn’t there more than one song between File and Lizzie? Aren’t they the end couple in this musical?
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Conclusion
My point is “110 in the Shade” or “The Rainmaker” has some incredible depth in it’s story because of the characters. Each one has some serious doubts that at least one person in the audience can relate to and feel seen. There is nothing wrong with a simple love story like the movie or a story about one’s journey to finding inner beauty.
But the original story is not one of those stories.
“110 in the Shade” felt empty, because it only focused on the journey of one character when there was a whole cast of characters waiting to be explored.
A family.
A family that felt real and human and something I believe everyone could relate to. And what’s funny is I didn’t know that at the time when I first researched this musical back in 2021.
Now I do.
I relate to Lizzie feeling like an outcast.
I relate to Noah being the eldest in the family.
I relate to Jimmy being bullied.
Not everyone can relate to a love story.
But everyone can relate to a family story.
A broken one.
But that’s not in the movie or in the musical. And that’s a huge same.
A missed opportunity that could’ve made “110 in the Shade” much more.
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