Ladies in Black is a 2015 Australian musical, adapted from the novel The Women in Black by Madeleine St John. The book was written by Carolyn Burns (who also did the stage adaptations of High Society and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert). The music was written by Tim Finn (of Crowded House).
The show is set in Sydney, Australia, in the late 1950s. The main characters are:
- Lisa Miles, a young, bookish Australian girl finishing twelfth grade, and her family:
- Mr George Miles, Lisa's conservative, paternalistic, controlling father.
- Mrs Miles, Lisa's quiet, conflict-averse mother.
- The staff of F.G. Goodes, a Sydney department store where Lisa gets a casual job:
- Miss Cartwright, the no-nonsense manager of the store at which Lisa works.
- Miss Jacobs, a somewhat frazzled older lady who oversees Alterations.
- Magda Szombathelyi, the cool, aristocratic, distant and pointedly European mistress of the Model Gowns department.
- Patty Williams (nee Crown) and Fay Baines, two working-middle-class salesladies in the Cocktail Frocks department.
- Their friends and families:
- Stefan Szombathelya, Magda's husband, Hungarian, affable and literary.
- Rudi Janosi, Stefan's and therefore Magda's friend, a recent arrival from Hungary and a serial romantic.
- Mrs Crown, Patty's working-class, worldly-wise mother.
- Dawn and Joy, Patty's happier but somewhat more abrasive sisters.
- Myra, Fay's socially forward, free-spirited friend.
The film Ladies In Black is also based on the same novel, but the film is not an adaptation of the musical.
This work contains examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
- The resistance put up by Lisa's parents to the changes in her life, and especially her father's outspoken resistance to her academic hopes, is played up in the stage version to give her storyline more drama. In the novel, her mother, though taken aback by some of the changes, is generally supportive, and her father is mostly away at work or at the racetrack and barely takes notice of what Lisa's up to until his last couple of scenes, which end with him grumpily accepting the fait accompli.
- Fay's fears that her relationship history will spoil Rudi's opinion of her is given more play in the stage version than in the novel, where Rudi anticipates the problem and puts her mind at ease before she's had a chance to really work herself up over it.
- Miss Jacobs' backstory, with the soldier fiancé she never got over, is entirely invented for the stage version. In the novel, her personal history and life outside work remains an enigma from start to finish.
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication: In the sequence where Lisa goes to visit Magda's home after work, Lisa changes out of her black dress before leaving the store, but Magda wears her black dress home and changes there. The disparity is not addressed in the musical, but in the novel it was explained that Magda does not wear the uniform black dress issued to the other staff members, but wears her own black dresses to work, having persuaded the manager that individual style is appropriate to her position in Model Gowns.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
- The ladies of the Cocktail Frocks department are friendlier with each other and more inclined to talk about their hopes and their troubles than in the novel, allowing various bits of exposition to be conveyed in dialogue in the absence of a narrator.
- Similarly, Rudi's friendship with Magda and Stefan is closer and of longer duration than in the novel (where they're fairly recent acquaintances), so that their dialogue can support exposition about each other and what it's like being reffos.
- Adapted Out: Several other Goodes staff members appear in the book but are left out of the musical, including:
- Mr Ryder, the floor manager (whose place in the story is largely taken by Miss Cartright)
- Paula, a friend of Patty's who works as a sales lady on another floor (whose role in the plot is transferred to Lisa)
- Armour-Piercing Question: "Do you want her to be like me, George?"
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Magda's husband asks her why she seems troubled. She lists the reasons: she's worried that one of her colleagues may be getting involved with the wrong kind of man (partly at her instigation), another colleague's marriage is on the rocks, ...and most of the stock in Model Gowns sold out during the Christmas-New Year rush and she thinks that the mostly-empty racks look inelegant.
- Author Avatar: The foreword to the script suggests that Lisa is this for Madeleine St. John, author of the original novel.
- Badass Bookworm: Downplayed. Lisa is a relatively shy, bookish twelfth-grader, but doesn't let that stop her doing her high-pressure retail job, and stands up to her father.
- Bilingual Bonus: Lisa and Magda have some dialogue in French. None of it is particularly pivotal, but it adds depth.
- Brick Joke: Fay and Patty joke about Magda being a "crazy continental" during Act I. In the last few minutes of the act, Magda refers to herself in the same words, in a way which suggests she knows exactly what Fay and Patty have been saying. She is speaking to Fay, who has the good grace to blush.
- Broken Bird: Miss Jacobs. She copes with everyday life fine, but is suggested never to have really gotten over losing her fiance forty years earlier.
- Calling Out for Not Calling: After the first time Lisa goes to lunch at Magda's house, she arrives home much later than expected, partly because she was having such a good time and partly because she didn't account for the bus home being on a weekend timetable. Part of the subsequent dressing-down from her parents includes pointing out that she didn't even call home to let them know the situation, so they had no idea what had become of her.
- Cannot Spit It Out: An abstract version. Frank and Patty are married but are so repressed that they (initially) can't confront the issues stopping them from having a sex life.
- Contrived Coincidence: The entire point of Magda's party; it is essentially an excuse for matchmaking.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The titular Ladies dress in sharp black uniforms throughout, but there is never any suggestion that any of them are evil.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Magda, although she defrosts fairly fast.
- Despair Event Horizon: Miss Jacobs is implied to have hit hers when her fiance was killed in the First World War.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Michael Kovak is established to have some of this going on.
- Establishing Character Moment: Mr Miles has a rather blunt one in "Daddy Come On". It would only be slightly less subtle if every line were replaced with "I don't like women".
- Mrs Miles has hers much later in the show, in "Make Something Out Of This"; it is an Establishing Character Moment partly because she has been quiet, retiring and desperately trying to avoid establishing her character throughout the show.
- Fanservice: Although it is plot-relevant, the considerable amount of time Patty spends in lingerie in Act I can be seen as this, as well as her onstage sex scene with Frank.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Lisa's father considers Lisa's intellectual pursuits worthless and is set on preparing her for life as a housewife and mother. He eventually comes around near the end of the show.
- Flat Character: About half of the leads, including Lisa. While opinions differ on whether it hurts the show, the fact remains that the stories with the most Character Development are not necessarily those with the most stage time.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Rudi and Fay meet at Magda's New Year's Eve party, and are engaged before the end of January. Assuming they don't go on any more dates than the ones shown or mentioned in dialogue, the date in which Rudi proposes is literally their fourth date.
- Given Name Reveal: It is made clear at the start of the show that nobody knows Miss Jacobs' first name. At the end of Act II, she gives Lisa a farewell gift with a card, revealing that her given name is Rebecca.
- The Ghost: Barely averted with Lisa's Love Interest Michael. He is present and seen with Lisa in the party scene, but has no dialogue, and no actions apart from what Magda tells him to do. Dialogue from that point forward establishes that Michael is still present and doing things in Lisa's life, just not onstage.
- Heel Realization: Mr Miles goes through this late in the show.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: Magda, to an extent.
- Hypocritical Humor: Patty gets a lot of comedy in Act I based on the contrast between her outward stitched-up, judgemental Puritanism, and the fact that her entire subplot is based on trying to bed her husband.
- Inherently Funny Words: "Wagga" (the name of a city in inland New South Wales). It is said a few times with increasing incredulity in Act II.
- Informed Flaw: Miss Cartwright and Magda are both suggested to be considerably more fiery and temperamental than they are seen to be on stage.
- Innocently Insensitive: When asked if she plans to make a career in the retail trade, Lisa replies with an amused, "No," ... before remembering she is interviewing for a retail job. Thankfully, Miss Cartwright takes it in good humour.
- Insufferable Genius: Magda, and very occasionally Lisa.
- Love at First Sight: Rudi toward Fay. How sincere he is can depend on the production.
- Love Interests:
- Rudi for Fay.
- The mostly unseen Michael for Lisa.
- Mama Bear: Mrs Miles generally tries to avoid and defuse conflict between her daughter and her husband, but when that is no longer possible, she takes Lisa's side with a passion.
- Meaningful Rename: Lisa's real name is Lesley, but she doesn't like the name and takes the opportunity to rebrand herself when her job at Goode's provides her with a new circle of acquaintances.
- Morality Pet: Lisa is suggested to be this for Magda to an extent, although Magda is never suggested to be evil. "Extroversion pet" or "Friendliness pet" might be more appropriate.
- Motor Mouth: Lisa can verge into this under stress or when enthusiastic.
- Named by the Adaptation: Lloyd and Joe, the two men Myra and Fay go on a disappointing double date with. In the novel, the two men go unnamed.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Out-of-universe. Depending on budget limitations, it can be obvious to the point of confusion that Mr Miles and Stefan are played by the same actor.
- Period Piece: Set in the 1950s.
- Ambiguous Time Period: It is never stated out loud exactly when in the 1950s the show is set. However, the show is set at Christmas and a clip of Queen Elizabeth II's 1958 Christmas broadcast is played at the beginning of Act II, dating the show to that year.
- Pet the Dog: Magda, implied to have previously been rather cold and distant, ends up helping Fay find love.
- Posthumous Character: Miss Jacobs' soldier fiance. He appears in "On a Summer Afternoon" at the top of Act II, but is an ensemble dancer with no lines.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: The novel is a series of vignettes flitting between Lisa, Patty, Fay, and Magda and giving them each approximately equal page time. The stage version focuses on Lisa's coming-of-age story as the main plot thread that the rest is arranged around. As a consequence, Lisa is made more involved in the others' stories, and is the catalyst for the big changes in Patty's and Fay's lives (which happen independently of her in the novel). Also, the characters are generally more inclined to tell each other about what's going on in their lives, because in a stage show with no narrator that's the only way the audience is going to hear about it.
- Really Gets Around: Myra, who - interestingly for 1950s Australia - is completely unashamed about it.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Miss Cartwright and Magda both tweak things just a little to ensure Lisa eventually gets Lisette, the model gown she's been longing for throughout the show.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: This trope can apply to Fay, Magda and Lisa, depending on the production.
- Shipper on Deck: Magda, for Lisa and Michael.
- Ship Tease: To an extent. Lisa's developing romance with Michael Kovak is the subject of discussion through Act II, but it is not resolved to any extent by the end of the show.
- Significant Double Casting: The standard casting has some actors playing multiple smaller roles, sometimes to significant effect. The actor playing Lisa's Fantasy-Forbidding Father also plays Stefan, who encourages her to pursue her dreams. The actor playing Rudi, Fay's love interest, also appears in her flashbacks to her less successful past relationships.
- Significant Name Shift: The moments at which Lisa's mother and (some time later) her father accept her new name stand in for them accepting and beginning to support her hopes for her future.
- The Smart Guy: Lisa. She is unashamedly bookish and academically high achieving in 1950s Australia, not the most friendly environment for intellectuals.
- Stepford Smiler: Miss Jacobs has shades of this. She is unrelentingly kind, but also clearly frazzled and nervous, and on some level clearly grieving the loss of her fiance 40 years earlier.
- Suddenly Shouting: Depending on the production, Lisa's argument with her father late in Act II can be this.
- Teen Genius: Lisa, albeit for the arts and humanities, rather than the traditional portrayal of this trope as STEM.
- Those Two Guys: Fay and Patty; part of the plot is Fay's Character Development into someone other than Patty's rather quiet, romantically unsuccessful friend.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Magda seems to have done this by the end of the show.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Lisa, whose ideas of what she will be able to do with her life are regarded by others as charmingly naive and romantic.
