Aaron Sorkinis here to ensure thatCamelotas a classic musical is not forgot.
“Even though we keep failing, loop back and try.
That notion is appealing to me.
Phillipa Soo as Guenevere; playwright of the newly revised Camelot, Aaron Sorkin.Joan Marcus; Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
I like writing idealistically and romantically, and this certainly fit that category.”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Anyone who knows your work can easily recognize you’re a musical theater lover.
So why has it taken until now for you to write one?
Guenevere (Phillipa Soo) and Arthur (Andrew Burnap) play chess in ‘Camelot’.Joan Marcus
AARON SORKIN:Iama musical theater lover.
In fact, my college degree is in musical theater.
I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Musical Theater from Syracuse University.
Guenevere (Phillipa Soo), Arthur (Andrew Burnap), and Lancelot (Jordan Donica) face a difficult crossroads in ‘Camelot’.Joan Marcus
Maybe I would’ve written one sooner, but the thing about writing a musical is you need collaborators.
You need a composer and a lyricist, and it just never happened.
Do you remember your first introduction toCamelot,but also more broadly Arthurian legend?
Lancelot (Jordan Donica) confesses his love to Guenevere (Phillipa Soo) in ‘Camelot’.Joan Marcus
I’ve never seenCamelot.
I’ve seen the movie, but I’ve never seenCameloton stage.
There are dozens, probably hundreds of versions of the Legend of King Arthur.
Guenevere (Phillipa Soo) revels in the lusty month of May in ‘Camelot’.Joan Marcus
It’s been around for roughly a thousand years.
I can’t remember what my introduction to it was, what my first experience with it was.
But what I do remember is reading reading the script forCamelot.
Arthur (Andrew Burnap) looks to a murky future in ‘Camelot’.Joan Marcus
And this isn’t easy to say because I have so much respect for Lerner and Loewe.
They’re a legendary force in musical theater.
But the book forCamelotdoesn’t work.
Lancelot (Jordan Donica) and Arthur (Andrew Burnap) duel in ‘Camelot’.Joan Marcus
I lovedCamelotwhen I read it.
I thought it was a great story not very well told.
The book has always been problematic.
Jordan Donica as Lancelot du Lac in ‘Camelot’.Joan Marcus
Apparently, Bart felt the same way.
It was a daunting thing to take on because it is part of musical theater history.
The idea of rewriting Alan Jay Lerner isn’t something you take on lightly.
Mordred and Morgan Le Fey in ‘Camelot’.Joan Marcus
But I felt the same way that Bart did that there was another draft to go.
So I dove in.
What was it that made you want to tackle it?
TheCamelotthat Lerner and Loewe wrote has magic in it.
There was going to be none of that.
These were going to be real people who lived at a real time and a real place.
It wasn’t going to beGame of Thrones.
If there was no magic wand to cure everything.
If we can see that we’re capable of being better, that we’re capable of greatness.
It seemed like a good thing to write about, particularly now.
How much of the original book would you say you kept, if any?
Well, not much.
There were moments where I knew I wasn’t going to do better than that.
White’sThe Once and Future King.So there would be a line that T.H.
White wrote that I thought,My job is to get there and set that line up.
I’m not gonna do better than that.There are those moments.
But by and large, I can’t say a percentage for you.
It’s a new book.
You worked with Bart onTo Kill a Mockingbird.
He’s directed a lot of these classic revivals of Golden Age musicals at the Lincoln Center.
How is the experience different this time working with him?
But nothing like this.
This is a situation where I put the score out on the floor and wrote a new book.
Everyone sees you as a political writer.
What do you think we can learn fromCamelottoday?
It’s not that I have a political agenda.
And Jenny Lavin was volunteering after school at the local McGovern for President headquarters.
So I thought it would be a good idea if I did too.
I write from time to time about politics because there are good stories there and stories that fit.
I like to write idealistically and romantically and aspirationally.
I’m not trying to make a political point.
This, at its best, does that.
Here, Guenevere is the Princess of France, rather than a local maiden of unknown origin.
What motivated that change for you?
Was it about making her less of a damsel in distress or something else?
That’s more than just exposition in this version.
It becomes part of the tragedy.
She was a human moat.
But she is often a passive character and that’s not true here.
Was that something you wanted to counteract?
She is now a co-author of the Roundtable.
I wanted her to be truly invested.
I wasn’t doing it just to be current, in terms of equality.
And the smarter the character is, the more fun she is.
Both Richard Harris and Richard Burton were not particularly young men when they played Arthur.
And they both looked older because of their drinking.
But what made you want to lean into this younger Arthur?
Because Andrew is very boyish looking.
And in those early discussions with Bart, I had said, “Let’s make them young.”
It was going to be weird that a king in his mid-thirties wasn’t married yet.
I didn’t want a guy in his mid-thirties marrying a princess who was 20.
So, I wanted them both to be young.
ThisCamelottakes place over a shorter period of time.
The originalCamelottakes place over five or six years.
This one takes place over 18 months.
So to see that idealism get stamped out when they’re that young, it hurts more.
Did you have a particular year in mind for the setting?
That isn’t a particular year.
It’s a particular century.
It wasn’t important to me that it be 1710.
What was important to me was that we feel like the world is about to change.
You have changed the duel between Lancelot and Lionel to Arthur and Lancelot.
Was that just about the magic, or did it feel dramatically stronger to you?
Originally, it’s a joust.
But you could’t see a joust on stage.
you’re able to only have it described to you.
I changed it to a broadsword fight because who doesn’t like sword fighting.
Then, yes, Arthur substitutes in for Lionel because they’re getting embarrassed.
Then, by accident, Lancelot whacks him in the head.
Because of your resume, people might come into this expecting very strong ties to the JFKCamelotof it all.
Was that something you and Bart talked about?
Did you wanna nod to it at all?
The JFK of it all really wasn’t part of this.
And, you know, the JFK of it all really wasn’t part of it back then.
That was a Jackie Kennedy thing.
He liked the show and he liked listening to the original cast album.
After he was shot in ‘63, Jackie fanned the flame of Camelot.
Who do you tend to side with more?
Oh, I side with Arthur, which I understand is soft.
I side with Arthur.
Or do I side with Arthur all the time?
I think I side with him all the time.
Because it’d be hard to get out of bed if I didn’t.
I side with Arthur because my father would’ve sided with Arthur.
This is a tragedy, but do you hope the audience walks away with some renewed belief in goodness?
I do hope so.
It is a story with a tragic ending that is nonetheless aspirational.
We put all our chips on a one page scene with a 12-year-old boy named Tom.
How did that color your approach and what you wanted to say here?
There’s a line in the show that consistently gets a round of applause every night.
I knew the line would land, I just didn’t know it would land that hard.
Morgan says, “Oh, you’d be amazed who people will follow.”
Was that something you wanted to explore because of the Enlightenment setting?
You just said that people want to believe in magic.
I don’t think that’s true.
I don’t want to believe in magic.
I want to believe in the best of humanity.
