Working: A ‘70s Crime Classic Gets a Musical Redux

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3.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, host Isaac Butler talks to Suzan-Lori Parks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose most recent project is a musical theater adaptation of the 1972 Jamaican crime film The Harder They Come. In the interview, Suzan-Lori shares her flexible approach to adaptation and, more specifically, how she was able to deepen the original story of The Harder They Come while honoring the original. She also talks about the unique challenges of adapting a movie into a stage musical. After the interview, Isaac and co-host Karen Han talk about the ubiquity of adaptations and reboots and what it means to make a whole new piece of work out of old material. In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Isaac asks Suzan-Lori about her project 365 Days/365 Plays in which she wrote a play a day for an entire year. Isaac also asks about a unique playwriting convention that Suzan-Lori pioneered. Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to working@slate.com or give us a call at (304) 933-9675. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Working. Sign up now at slate.com/workingplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:43.0	I think everyone in our musical is a human being, which means that everyone has stakes. Everyone is considered.
1:02.0	That's because when you elevate one character, everybody is elevated and it makes for a better story.
1:13.0	Welcome back to working on your host, Karen Han.
1:16.0	And I'm your other host, Isaac Butler.
1:18.0	Hello, Isaac.
1:19.0	Hello, Karen.
1:21.0	So who did you talk to for this week's episode?
1:25.0	Well, Karen, I talked to the great Susan Laurie Parks. She is a writer. She's won the Pulitzer Prize. She's a playwright. She's a screenwriter.
1:32.0	She's all sorts of things. And she is having quite the year, a critically acclaimed revival of her masterpiece, Top Dog.
1:39.0	Underdog just finished its run on Broadway recently. And she's got two new projects at the public theater where she's the writer in residence.
1:46.0	The one we're really focusing on today is her stage adaptation of the harder they come.
1:52.0	The landmark 1972 Jamaican crime movie starring Jimmy Cliff that helped popularize Ray Gay in the United States.
2:00.0	Oh, wow, that's fascinating. Adaptation is such a strange process. Like how do you retell a story that already exists in a meaningful way?
2:08.0	I'm so excited to listen to your conversation, especially because film and theater are such different mediums.
2:13.0	But before we get to that, can you let us in on what slight plus listeners can look forward to this week?
2:18.0	Well, you know, if I do say so myself, I think it's a really fun segment.
2:22.0	Susan Laurie Parks did this project like 15 years ago called 365 days 365 plays where she wrote a play every day for a year.
	...

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