Script Sample

February 25th 2017 version

©ecr2017

Character List (in order of appearance)

Jean Harlow

Harlots 1,2 and 3

Death

Mamma Jean

Doctor

Nurse

Mr. Mont Clare Carpenter

Mary Barstow

Albert

Charles McGrew

Schoolgirl 1

Schoolgirl 2

Maid

Judge McGovern

Edward Bower Hesser

Man 1

Man 2

Man 3

Albert Einstein

Elsa Einstein

Mack Sennett

Charlie Chaplin

Mary Pickford

Douglas Fairbanks

Harold Richman (Death)

Bugsy Siegel

Howard Hughes

Bellboy

Paul Bern

Reporter

Voices 1 -5

Frank A. Nance (Death)

Pressman 1

Pressman 2

Pressman 3

MGM Executive

Louis B. Mayer (Death)

Harold Rosson

Paperboy

Hedda Hopper

Voices 1 and 2

Louella Parsons

Voices 3 and 4

Lady 1

Man 1

Lady 2

Man 2

William Powell

Abortion Doctor

Jack Conway

Clark Gable

Walter Pidgeon

Goodnight Baby Jean

Music List

Act One

P4*   Bye Bye Blackbird                   Death/Harlots

P7    The T is always silent              Harlots

P8    Aviator Man (teaser)                Harlots

P11   Black Panther Rag                   Jean/Company

P17   Play it Dumb                        Jean

P18   Kansas City Train short)            Harlots

P19   Happy Days                          Jean/Charles/Judge

P20   Wedding Parody (short)              Harlots

P23   Naked as nature Intended            Jean/Company

P27   Talking Picture Revolution          Company

P31   His heart it was in Kansas          Harlots

P31*  Puttin’ on the Ritz                 Death

P33   Baby Girl Done Good                 Death and Jean

P35   One Good Turn                       Harlots

P37   Aviator Man                         Jean

P38   Aviator man                         Harlots

P41   Bubble                              Momma Jean

P42   Bubble                              Jean

P44   Hells Angels                        Howard/Jean/Company

Act Two

P47   You’re gonna be sorry               Paul/Jean/Company

P53   Pleadin’ the Fifth                  Jean/Death

P59   Gotta real good friend In Jesus     Momma Jean/Company     

P64   Less You Fall                       L.B.Mayer/Jean/Harlots

P69   The Hollywood two-step              Company

P75   Mamma and Baby (Jean)               Momma Jean/Jean

P78   Boozin’ Again Blues                 Death/Company

P81*  It had to be You                    Death/Harlots

P85*  Smile                               Harlots/Death/

Mamma Jean/Jean

P88   You’ve had a Fall                   Harlots

P90   Sleep Tight                         Clark Gable/

William Powell

Mamma Jean

P91*  Varsity Rag                         Instrumental     

P94   Dance Medley                        Show instrumental

P94   Baby Girl Done Good (reprise)       Death/Baby Jean

P95   Goodnight baby Jean                 Company

*’Bye Bye Blackbird’          Gene Austin

*’Puttin’ on the Ritz’        Irving Berlin

*’It had to be You’’          Isham Jones/Marlon Harris

*’Smile                       Charles Chaplin

*’Varsity Drag’               B.G.Desylva/Lew Brown

Links – A Song Before Sunrise by Frederick Delius,
ACT ONE

Scene 1

House lights go. Curtain up on a dark stage; A scratchy Bessie Smith recording of ‘Hard Drivin’ Paps’ plays, The lights come up very slowly and when they are up fully there is silence.

It is June 7th 1937. Jean Harlow is lying on a hospital bed in the Good Samaritan Hospital Los Angeles; she is motionless and in a coma. On a podium behind her are ‘The Harlots’ who act as a Greek chorus and also play other parts as and when.

Sitting in a chair watching her is a man in a white suit and fedora hat; He is Death. Death has a blackbird in his right hand, which he strokes whilst he sings a very slow version of

Bye Bye Blackbird

Death

Pack up all my care and woe,
Here I go,
Singing low,

Harlots 
Bye bye blackbird,

Jean (murmurs)

Should be in wardrobe

Death

Where somebody waits for me,
Sugar’s sweet, so is she,

Harlots 
Bye bye Blackbird!

Jean (murmurs again)

Shooting Saratoga

Death
No one here can love or understand me,
Oh, what hard luck stories they all hand me,
Make my bed and light the light,
I’ll be home late tonight,

Harlots 
Blackbird bye bye

Death
No one here can love or understand me,
Oh, what hard luck stories they all hand me,
Make my bed and light the light,
I’ll be home late tonight

Blackbird

Harlots

Blackbird

Jean (troubled murmur)

Blackbird?

Death

Blackbird Bye – Bye


Jean (louder now)

Should be playing Carol Clayton 

Death releases the bird, which flies off

Death

Sorry – just saying goodbye to Bessie. Now you have my full attention – Carol Clayton Who’s she?

Jean

Who’s she? An English Lady

Harlots (scornfully)

Ha!

Jean

Who’s you?

Death

Me?

Jean

Yes

Death

I’m Sante Muerte  – but you can call me Santa Baby Jean

Harlots (sing)

Here comes Santa – Jolly – jolly Santa

Meurte Christmas one and all

Jean

Am I dying Santa?

Harlots (sing)

Is she dying Santa

Death

Dying? – Is subjective

Harlots (sing)

Idiosyncratic

Jean

And who the fuck are they?    

Death

They’re with me I call them the Harlots

Jean (laughs)

That’s what that snooty English cow said to me. Margot Asquith

Death

Margot Asquith?

Jean

Yeah! – Bitch – wife of Prime Minister Asquith

Harlots (sing)

Which wife? Bitch Wife – hum-hum-hum

Jean (mispronouncing the name by emphasising the T)

I dared to call her Margot. Margot as in Yogurt

Not Margot as in Margaux

Death

The Tsarina of wines as Bacchus once said

Jean

Five times actually till bitch-wife corrected me with “No, No Jean the T is always silent

Harlots (sing)

Dramatic Pause

Jean

Like in Harlow

Death (laughs)

Ha – that’s’ shanazz

Jean

I call it rude

Death

That’s subjective too

Harlots (sing)

Idiosyncratic too

Jean

Like Death

Scene 2

THE T IS ALWAYS SILENT

Harlots

The T is always silent

Like in ballet and valet and chalet

And listen and fasten and glisten

Ding dong Christmas too

But you

Dear Jean have a W at the end of your name

It’s just the bedroom fame

Gave you the silent T

Silent T – Infamous T

Wrapped up in silk sheets and mink

So heavenly in pi-nk m’dears

So heavenly in pink

Hold the front page it’s happened again

Rhetorical Hysterical Umbilical T

Hold the front page it’s happened again

It’s fundamentally silent that T

Scene three

Jean (oozing sex)

Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?”

Harlots (sing)

We would expect nothing less

Than for you to undress

Jean

Ha damnable ha-ha Harlots – It’s a line

Harlots (run their fingers along their noses)

A line?

Jean (laughs)

Not that sort of line

Death

A line from – Hells Angels

Jean

It was indeed Santa – Dear Dearest Howard

Death

Howard Hughes

Jean

The one and only

Harlots (sing)

Uncle Sam loves the Aviator Man

The aviator man – the aviator man

Uncle Sam loves the aviator man

La la la la la la

Jean

You seem to know a lot about a lot Santa? Especially me – so tell me – Am I dying?

Harlots (sing)

Dy-ing

Death

I don’t use that word much – causes

Beat

Upsets

Harlots (sing)

Passing, Failing, Fading

Expiring, Closing, Ending

Jean

Charming

Death

That works!

Jean’s mother Jean Harlow enters the room and goes to her bed

END OF SAMPLE