Doonesbury: A Musical Comedy

by G.B. Trudeau

Book by Trudeau, G.B.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Plays, Cartoon, Comic Strips, Musicals

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Garretson Beekman "Garry" Trudeau is an American cartoonist, best known for the Doonesbury comic strip. In 1970, Trudeau's creation of Doonesbury was syndicated by the newly formed Universal Press Syndicate. Today Doonesbury is syndicated to almost 1,400 newspapers worldwide and is accessible online in association with Slate Magazine at doonesbury.com. In 1975, he became the first comic strip artist to win a Pulitzer, traditionally awarded to editorial-page cartoonists. He was also a Pulitzer finalist in 1990. He was nominated for an Oscar in 1977 in the category of Animated Short Film, for A Doonesbury Special, in collaboration with John Hubley and Faith Hubley. A Doonesbury Special eventually won the Cannes Film Festival Jury Special Prize in 1978. Other awards include the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) Newspaper Comic Strip Award in 1994, and the Reuben Award in 1995. He was made a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993. Wiley Miller, fellow comic-strip artist responsible for Non Sequitur, called Trudeau "far and away the most influential editorial cartoonist in the last 25 years." In addition to his work on Doonesbury, Trudeau has teamed with Elizabeth Swados and written plays, such as Rap Master Ronnie and Doonesbury: A Musical Comedy. In 1988, Trudeau joined forces with director Robert Altman for the HBO miniseries Tanner '88 and the Sundance Channel miniseries sequel Tanner on Tanner in 2004. In 1996, Newsweek and The Washington Post speculated that Trudeau wrote the novel Primary Colors, which was later revealed to have been written by Joe Klein. Trudeau wrote the political sitcom Alpha House, starring John Goodman and Bill Murray. The pilot was produced by Amazon Studios and aired in early 2013. Due to positive response Amazon has picked up Alpha House to develop into a full series.

Reviews

[David Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been rereading the comic strip and moved on directly to this book, which was formatted at the same size as the era's strip reprints. This stage production, which I haven't seen, filled the gap between the end of the strip in 1983 and its return 22 months later. Here, all the college-based characters graduate, leave their Walden commune and prepare to enter the real world. Kind of a curiosity for fans, but amusing.

[Daniel M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love it.

I've been listening to the soundtrack since the 80s. I've never seen the show.

I love the music. It is fun and emotionally evocative where it should be. I find it hard to believe the lyrics were written by the same person who wrote the book. The book is bland and uninteresting. The story I made up in my head from listening to the soundtrack was so much better.

[Brian McCann · Rating 1 out of 5]

A terrible book with terrible music equals a terrible musical comedy.

I saw it in the mid-80s in a college production and don’t recall it being so bad.

But it truly is a poor show with poor songs.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t really expect this to be all that good when I read it, so I wasn’t particularly disappointed with it. But for the record, it’s not really all that good. It’s possible that it came off better in performance than it does just reading it, but I have my doubts.

[Allan Olley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains the basic content of the play, but does not give all staging information, musical score etc. (this should be obtained from Samuel French Inc.). Also, I know that it has at least one misprint, where it fails to include a verse of the one of the songs (I know this because I own a copy of the original cast recording which can still be found used for a reasonable price). There have been various editions of this book and possibly different printing correct this error or introduce other problems. In any case the book does include some black and white photographs of the original Broadway production, the play is rarely performed and so this is one of the few ways to find out what happened in this play, something of relevance to those wishing to achieve the complete Doonesbury experience.

The play is a fun, often funny and occasionally poignant look at this familiar cast of characters as most of them cast off 13 years as a perennial college students. The main Doonesbury cast (including the eponymous Mike Doonesbury, Mark Slackmeyer, Zonker Harris, B.D. and Boopsie) are preparing for graduation and are anxious or hopeful about their future. Joanie Caucus has returned with her newborn son in toe to see her old friends off. Joanie's adult daughter JJ is feuding with her mother and being wooed by the unsure of himself Mike. Adding menace to these proceedings Duke and his assistant Honey Huan are planning to convert the cast's home (the Walden commune) into condos. All this is covered by intrepid talking head Roland Hedley. The characters plots are all resolved more or less and this sets the stage for the characters return to comic strip form (although there are a few slips between the portrayal of events in the comics and at the end of the play). Although some scenes and bits are much like the comic strip (a Washington press conference is parodied at the start), the play does tell the stories of these characters, with the musical numbers accentuating the action. The number of characters means that each character is rapped up quickly and this can often make the stories feel a bit shallow, but nothing feels out of character or otherwise obviously clunky about the script.

[Kyrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Doonesbury and I find Trudeau's liberal humor to be really funny.