I’m enjoying the book, “There Must Be Happy Endings,” by Megan Sandberg-Zakian. It is described as her “personal odyssey through the American theater landscape.”
Happy endings are a conundrum because they so often seem to defy real life. For example, “Hairspray” seems to conclude with an upbeat celebration that racism is ended. While there is something to celebrate – a Baltimore dance show has been desegregated – it does seem premature to celebrate a world that “can’t tell black from white.”
Sandberg-Zakian describes the arc of “Annie,” a musical based on the comic strip Little Orphan Annie. The musical opens with a little girl alone on a bare, dark stage. She is joined by a dog, Sandy, also seeking shelter. Suddenly, the rest of the musical cranks up with a great deal of color, fun, dancing, and music, peaking to an almost ridiculous level of fantasy.
At the end of the experience, though, the singing and dancing fades, and we observe the child and dog are left alone on the dark, bare stage. All the laughter, struggle, and joy was a dream. The child remains abandoned, and the dog, too. Annie awakens, shivering in the cold, and she and the dog look at each other. End of play.
Sandberg-Zakian writes, “There was a tug of possibility, which wouldn’t have been possible without the circus of musical delight that preceded it; after enjoying the spectacle, I was now implicated in its demise.” And later, “The final image violently destroyed and gently offered out the happy ending in the same moment, the moment of contact between girl and dog. This was perhaps the most satisfying happy ending I have ever experienced in the theater.”
The ending was removed and was never seen on Broadway or in the touring shows.