#15
"NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC"
*first published in The Marbled Sigh
*first published in The Marbled Sigh
This
muppoem connects with Season 1's episode of The Muppet Show featuring
guest star, Ben Vereen. It is the first poem in the series that overtly
addresses my relationship with the TV screen. I now lovingly refer to
all screens in my life as “The Vereen Screen.” This poem is the
fifteenth in the series, and strangely, I did a lot of my growing up in a
#15 box on a road with many other similar painted boxes.
&
Ben Vereen originated the role of the "Leading Player" in the Broadway
musical, Pippin: his life and times. In the musical, Pippin, on his
search for meaning in his life, ends up trapped, just like Fozzie Bear
does in this episode of The Muppet Show, and just like I have often felt in
my own life. The Leading Player tries to get Pippin to jump into a box
of fire in The Grand Finale.
& “Extraordinary,” one of my favorite songs from Pippin, is featured here along with “Corner of the Sky.”
&
Ben Vereen sings "Mr. Cellophane,” about feeling invisible and inconsequential in life, in this episode. The song comes originally from Kander and Ebb’s musical,
Chicago. In that musical, each number pays tribute to traditional
vaudeville. This helped to reveal the comparisons being made between
themes of “justice” and “show business” in contemporary society.
& Before
Carl Anderson, Ben Vereen played Judas Iscariot in Jesus Christ
Superstar. The fourteenth song in the musical is his, “Damned for All
Time / Blood Money,” and it closes the first act with him giving up
Jesus. In The Holy Bible, perhaps as “the box” does, Judas betrays
Jesus with a kiss. He later kills himself out of guilt.
& The
closing number to this episode is from the movie, Willy Wonka and the
Chocolate Factory. It features one of my favorite songs, “Pure
Imagination.” Charlie gets to explore his own visions by getting The
Golden Ticket. In geometry, a golden rectangle is a rectangle whose
side lengths are in the golden ratio, and this golden rule makes up most
of the boxes all of us see every day. Ben Vereen was Sammy Davis
Jr’s understudy in the Broadway musical, Golden Boy.
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