A Study Guide for Rupert Holmes' "The Mystery of Edward Drood"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Rupert Holmes' "The Mystery of Edward Drood," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama for Students.This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Mar 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535832458

Book preview

11

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Rupert Holmes

1985

Introduction

The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the musical theater adaptation of Charles Dickens's unfinished novel of the same name, premiered in 1985. Rupert Holmes wrote the original score and script for the play. At the time of the premiere, Holmes was best known for his pop music hit Escape (The Piña Colada Song) and had never written a musical, although he was an accomplished musician whose songs had been recorded by many well-known recording artists. Holmes was intrigued by the idea of adapting Dickens's unfinished novel for the stage but was daunted by the prospect of writing a satisfying conclusion for Dickens's mystery. He solved this problem by crafting several different endings and letting the audience vote on which one was to be performed on any given evening. The inventive musical won the Tony award for Best Musical in 1986.

The story of Edwin Drood is performed in the musical by a fictitious nineteenth-century theater company known as the Music Hall Royale. Edwin, betrothed to the lovely Rosa Bud, disappears after Christmas Eve dinner, and as with most mysteries, there are a host of characters that have reason to wish him gone, including his uncle John Jasper and the newly arrived Neville Landless, who both pine for the beautiful Rosa. The company members turn the mystery into an over-the-top melodrama, complete with ominous musical cues that follow any significant or suspicious remark. Like the novel, the musical examines themes of madness, racial prejudice, and obsessive love, but the musical does so with a lighter touch, thanks to the humorous antics of the Music Hall Royale.

Despite the ironic, lighthearted tone of the musical, there are scenes of drug use (one character is an opium addict), and one of the main characters is the madam of a brothel; these elements may be undesirable for younger readers. The full script of the play, including all of the possible conclusions, was published as a book in 1986 as The Mystery of Edwin Drood: A New Musical but is currently out of print. However, it may be found in many public libraries, and used copies are available for purchase online.

Author Biography

Holmes was born David Goldstein on February 24, 1947, in Northwich, Cheshire, England, to Leonard and Gwendolyn Goldstein. His father, an American in the Air Force, met his British mother during his years in service. The family moved to the United States when Rupert was three years old.

Leonard Goldstein was a bandleader and classical clarinetist who became a public school music teacher. Hoping his son would become a classical clarinetist as well, Goldstein taught him to play the instrument. Holmes's musical training and talent earned him a scholarship to Syracuse University's music school, but he quickly abandoned the clarinet (I hated the instrument, he said in an interview with Gregory Bossler in Dramatist magazine) for music theory and composition. After a year he transferred to the Manhattan School of Music; he