"Fashion" in the Modern Age
"Maybe we don't chase titles as we did in 1845, but the silliness of the twentieth-century parvenu is not terribly dissimilar."—Lewis Funke, The New York Times 1959
1932 Production
Though Fashion is considered a play meant to represent the pretensions of 19th Century society in America, its message does still remain relevant to this day. In 1932, the Illini Theatre in Champaign, IL put on a production of Fashion (pictured on right).
One reviewer wrote the following of the production:
The production at the Illini Theatre, thus, shows the dedication theater-makers at the time had to preserving the message of Fashion within its original historical context. Though Anna Cora Mowatt is not as well known today for her theatrical achievements, her influence seemed to pervade into the early 20th century.
Fashion, the Musical
In the context of the 21st century, Fashion is not performed frequently. it is sometimes picked up by theater companies that aim to produce lesser-known works. The elevated language and historical context of Fashion does not have the same appeal as it once did. In order to revive Fashion, playwright Samuel French transformed it into a musical. In the modern age, theater-goers look for spectacle, for excitement, and for entertainment, and Fashion the musical could provide all of these while exposing an audience to the inner workings of19th century society.
In the link below, you can access excerpts of songs from the musical Fashion.
French's Musical was first performed in 1974, and was revived in 2004 at the White Plains Performing Arts Center in New York. According to a review of this production, the musical is "very loosely" based off of Mowatt's original work. (Klein) This signifies a stark contrast between the goals of theater and audiences of the theatrical eras of the early 20th and 21st centuries.
The review of this 2004 production by The New York Times primarily points to the dated quality of the material of the musical as a reason for the musical's lack of popularity and effectiveness. (Klein) The musical rendition, therefore, was not able to expose pretensions inherent in society as early 20th century and original renditions of Mowatt's play were able to. Audiences and times have drastically changed since then, and the type of material present in Mowatt's play, while, at its core, is universally relevant, may not appear on the surface as germane to the issues we face in modern society.