Judy Blume's Ever-Expanding Audience & Relevance

Judy Blume's Ever-Expanding Audience & Relevance

by Elyse Sommer

I'm too old to have been part of author Judy Blume's ever-expanding fan base of girls from early grades to high school. Consequently, I didn't join the Blume reader bandwagon even when the most recent of  her three novels for adults was published in 2016. But Blume is clearly having a big, smartly marketed  moment in the spotlight, with a documentary film about her life on Amazon Prime and an adaptation of her most famous book currently in movie theaters.
 
The delightful Amazon Prime documentary Judy Blume Forever -- in  which  she  is  the  chief  narrator -- prompted me to catch up with her 2016 adult novel. The title, In the Unlikely Event, is aptly   borrowed from words used then by airline hostesses when issuing instructions for using safety  equipment in case of an emergency.  As the now 83-year-old Blume captured my interest in her very  full life and career path, I was so bowled over by Blume's brilliant storytelling  and  greater than ever  relevancy that I decided to devote this new blogspot feature to the book.   

Why Blume's 2016 Novel is Pertinent for Male Readers
 
Before going any further, I'm not ignoring my blogspot's male readers. Given the fact that Blume has  structured the novel to tell her story from the perspective of twenty characters, this big cast includes  teens as well as adults,  men as well as women. While women tend to read more fiction than men, the  pertinence of issues that come up within the novel's December 1951 to February 1952 time frame will trigger a universal response. Furthermore, if you did read In the Unlikely Event when it was published, you'll find rereading this novel more powerful and timely than ever. What was unlikely to happen in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1952 did happen. And to this day, all our lives continue to be a series of unlikely events that do happen.  

Blume's Ability to Connect with Readers Now Works its Magic on a More Diverse Audience
.
 Judy Blume herself grew up in Elizabeth and experienced the plane disasters that drive the novel's plot as a teenager. Thus, Miri, the novel's key cast member, is a stand-in for Blume and the other characters are fictional versions of fellow students and the adults in her life. The way Blume portrays all of them  does indeed work for anyone reading the book. Her terrific storytelling captures the devastation of those events but also makes it a page-turning drama full of warmth -- even optimism, thanks to a jump 35 years forward.
 
 Navigating the details of those unlikely events as well as the multitude of personal dramas is not easy. But the author skillfully alternates between the historic events and the fictionalized subplots. She does  so by introducing each personal chapter with an actual article from one of two local newspapers, thus  effectively merging fact and fiction. Besides touching on every aspect of the characters' lives, the many authentic references to the fashions and culture of the times support its being fun as well as sad to read.   
Ultimately, In the Unlikely Event is timeless since all our lives continue to be a series of unlikely events that may actually happen. Theories voiced about the plane's pilots being foreign terrorists by students    in Elizabeth sound wild in the book. But two planes piloted by terrorists did crash into Manhattan's Twin Towers. 

 In the Unlikely Event more than holds up nowadays and I highly recommend reading it, whether for  the first time or again. The Kindle edition offers the plus of including a cast of characters that's arranged as a list of families and their members. Also, if you haven't seen the Amazon documentary Judy Blume Forever, it too is an invigorating experience, so don't miss it.

Post Script: I've already commented on some of the shows making news as part of the reopening of   pandemic-struck theaters in my last blogspot (Types of Shows That Keep Theater Alive). In case you missed reading that, scroll over to the column of older posts at the right of this posting. A lot of other  shows have opened and are planned. Here are a couple of websites where you can always check out  what's running and where:

https://www.playbill.com/ 
https://www.theatermania.com/

Types Of Shows That Keep Theater Alive

 
 Types of Shows That Keep Theater Alive

   --  By Elyse Sommer

Putting on a play or musical on Broadway, as well as elsewhere, has always been a high-risk cultural  enterprise. And yet, each season an array of old and new works are mounted in hopes of keeping the  fabulous invalid alive. 
 
Though the name that immediately springs to mind when considering a creative work's immortality is William Shakespeare, the sixteen plays that made him immortal were actually borrowed from other  sources like The Holinshed Chronicles, as he was acting as well as producing and writing. That said, to  this day some newly formatted or interpreted versions of one of those plays is on a stage or screen somewhere. What's more, his words are often quoted in nontheatrical settings.

While Shakespeare's works are the epitome of immortal storytelling, plenty of others can lay claim to  this sort of always rebootable afterlife. Chekhov and Ibsen created an even smaller oeuvre than the  Bard, but new presentations of their plays appear on some stage or screen often enough to support their  standing as part of the immortal canon -- such as the minimalist A Doll's House currently on Broadway.

But for super-adaptable, page-to-stage leaps, nobody beats novelist Jane Austen. This season, even her  unfinished last novel, Sanditon, has proved to be a perfect fit as a PBS costume drama spun out in  serial format. 

There are also some shows that gain immortality by virtue of their long life on Broadway. which made  them events for New York visitors, like a trip to the Statue of Liberty. Sadly, rising costs and the fallout of the pandemic have finally shuttered Phantom of the Opera; ditto for Stomp, a seemingly forever  tenant of the downtown Orpheum Theater.

Contributing to the theater's being dubbed an invalid but a fabulous one is its diversity in terms of   subjects and styles tackled each season. That means a new production of a favorite from the golden era  of musical theater is sure to show up. Working its ticket-selling magic this year was The Music Man,  starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster.  Unsurprisingly, Stephen Sondheim, the recently deceased  bard of contemporary musical theater, began his surefire long afterlife with a stellar revival of  Sweeney Todd starring Josh Groban as the demon barber. Since playwrights also had their golden era. an Arthur Miller play was likely to have another turn on Broadway. And, sure enough, a new production of Miller's iconic Death of a Salesman just ended its run in January.

Some musicals -- like Parade, which had only a brief run in its Broadway debut but sadly became  more relevant with the rise of anti-semitism -- have been given fresh Broadway runs, although the long afterlife of the immortals may still elude them.

Finally, the season has also allowed several new shows to knock on opportunity's door, not necessarily  for immortality, but for long enough to make a splash. Perhaps pandemic and bad news fatigue have  made Shucked, a musical that once might have been on the dinner show circuit, the musical that had  critics as well as audiences holding their bellies while laughing at the literally corny jokes. Seasoned  director Jack O'Brien's smart direction, a great cast and tuneful score, savvy marketing, and a theme of  tolerance made it all happen

 A more modest hit is a new solo show, Prima Facie. However, it was mostly praised for the  performance of soloist Jodie Comer rather than its content. Thus, the more name-brand fellow Tony nominees for best solo performance are likely to make Prima Facie's inclusion more honor than fact.  

Since this post has mentioned just a few of the varied menu of shows in the finally reopened theaters,  and the Tonys won't announce the winners until June, here's a list of award nominees:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/theater/tony-award-nominees-list.html
 

Post script: My most delightful recent onscreen experience was Amazon Prime's bio-documentary   Judy Blume Forever. While I'm too old to have read her many children's and young adult books, I  found the 83-year-old Blume, who narrates, most endearing. I'm also reading, and enjoying In the  Unlikely Event, her most recent adult novel.