BAJOUR

A Musical Comedy in 2 Acts, 22 Scenes. Book by Ernest Kinoy. Based on the short stories The Gypsy Women, and The King of the Gypsies by Joseph Mitchell published in the New Yorker. Music and lyrics by Walter Marks

Shubert Theatre, Broadway - November 23, 1964 . Transferred to Lunt-Fontaine Theatre 10 May, 1965. (218 perfs)

The highest of all arts, to gypsies, is the bajour - a confidence game in which they swindle lonely and unhappy women out of their life savings. Among gypsies, a talented bajour woman is the most precious possession of her husband's tribe.

ACT ONE

Cockeye Johnny Dembo, King of the Dembeschti gypsy tribe, rents a deserted, dilapidated store in a New York slum. He then unloads his "inventory" from a converted hearse - the entire Dembeschti tribe. Dozens of women with gold-coin necklaces and men in garish silk shirts quickly transform the dingy store into a maze of fringed shawls, beaded curtains and astrological and phrenological charts. The gypsies are in town!

Soon the neighbourhood hums with business: laundry disappearing from clothes lines, wallets vanishing from pockets, shoplifting, illicit tea-leaf readings at Schrafft's. At the police station, Lt. Lou MacNiall of the Pickpocket and Confidence Squad realises that such petty crimes must be the work of his long-time headache and friend Johnny Dembo. The lieutenant's work is further complicated by Emily Kirsten, a lovely, disarming college girl and a distant cousin of the Seventh Deputy Police Commissioner. Emily explains that she is a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at NYU, but, unfortunately, most primitive tribes have been either spoiled by Planned Parenthood or monopolised by Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict. Lou decides that if Emily is to study the gypsy tribes, then the Dembeschti tribe is probably the safest.

At the store (now transformed into a fully equipped ofisa - fortune-teller parlour), Dembo explains to Lou why he has brought the Dembeschti to town: to buy a wife from the wealthy Moyva King of Newark for his handsome young son, Steve. Lou, a gajo (outsider), leaves as the Moyva gypsies, contemptuous of the lowly Dembeschti, arrive. In haggling each tribe tries to outdo the other in feats of agility, while each king disparages the other's marriage candidate. The King of Newark produces his daughter, Anyanka, a girl of panther-like, sinuous beauty, who performs a wild and seductive gypsy dance. Slowly she and Steve begin to circle, then dance faster and faster in a swirling blend of personal challenge and courtship. Even more persuasive to Dembo than her physical charms is Newark's insistence that his daughter can manoeuvre a great bajour: - shrewd, crooked, mean, heartless, greedy -a perfect bride." Dembo agrees to pay the final price, $9,000, eight hundred dollars down, the balance due in three weeks, if Anyanka will give a sample of her vaunted powers as a swindler and pickpocket. While reading the love line in Emily's and Lou's hands, Anyanka plants the idea of love in their minds; at the same time, she steals Lou's wristwatch, wallet and police pistol, which the now-convinced Dembo good-naturedly returns.

Emily quickly experiences the colourful folkways of the gypsies: her purse is snatched, her shoes disappear, she is conned out of ten dollars for a combination palm reading and anti-backache charm. More cooperative, Dembo lets her give him a word-association test to help her understand gypsy psychology: Dembo eventually reverses roles with Emily, as she associates the word "love" with "Lou."

At first, Anyanka resents being sold in marriage and Steve dislikes being saddled with a "hard-nosed witch." But soon, each begins to sympathise with the other's plight, and insults give way to an embrace. Afraid that she may lose Steve, Anyanka reveals that her father, on four other occasions, has sold her to tribes who cannot pay for her, kept the down-payment and then offered her for sale again. This time, however, she will outsmart her father; she will raise the money to buy herself.

When the Dembeschti women challenge Anyanka's attempts to organise them, she asserts her qualifications: they're too soft, while she is mean. In order to get the bride-money quickly, they must pull off a big bajour. "Now all we need is some dame with life savings. A sweet, silly, middle-aged woman with ...: " And enter Mrs. Kirsten, Emily's mother, looking for her daughter. Under Anyanka's insinuating charm, she confides the loneliness of her widowhood, which not even the $75,000 worth of insurance her husband left has made bearable.

Returning to the ofisa, Momma is further ensnared in the swindle. Anyanka convinces her that the insurance money is tainted with a curse laid on it by her late husband. If she will bring her $10,000 - all Momma has in cash - Anyanka will remove the evil spell. After the gajo leaves, all the Dembeschti burst into song and dance celebrating the big bajour. When Dembo casually mentions the impending bajour to Emily, she begs to be allowed to watch. Lou guesses what is going on, but Emily, a true scientist, refuses to help him prevent what to her is a folk ritual.

Emily, meanwhile, goes native, dressing as a gypsy, even studying shoplifting techniques. Lou begins to worry about her, and Emily is touched by his growing affection. After he impulsively kisses her, she wonders whether or not this could be the love she has been promised.

ACT TWO

On the telephone, Momma Kirsten leaves word for Dembo to tell Anyanka not to worry about the cursed money; she has decided to give it to the Gray Ladies' Guild at a fund-raising tea that afternoon at the Guggenheim Museum. Dembo whispers to Anyanka about Momma's plans to give away the money, and Anyanka realises she must somehow get to Momma quickly. She tells a disappointed Emily that her powers have failed her; there will be no bajour. Emily reassures her: "You must keep telling yourself , I can!" "Maybe I'd feel better if I could go to a party," prompts Anyanka. Thus Emily offers to take her to the benefit tea.

At the police station, Lou warns Emily that if the bajour succeeds, she will be criminally involved. She should give up her romantic notions about these gypsies and their customs and rituals. Later, the King of Newark, afraid that he will lose his moneymaking daughter, informs Lou of the impending swindle and that the victim is to be Emily's mother.

In the midst of the elegant tea party, just as Momma is about to pledge her $10,000, the Dembeschti crash the party and escort her right out of the museum. Anyanka then tells her that she nearly passed the curse on to the Gray Ladies. The only way to rid the money of the curse is to bring it to the ofisa - in small bills - to break the curse into little pieces. Later on, Newark reminds Dembo that the balance of the bride-money is soon due, but Dembo confidently promises he will have the money. Clearly, neither trusts the other. When Emily tells her mother that gypsies sometimes swindle women, Momma insists, rightly, that the gypsies have asked for no money at all. On the other hand, Momma worries that Emily is still unmarried and tells her that life has to be taken on faith: it offers no guarantees. Emily agrees that love is a chance.

At the ofisa, now decked out as an Egyptian temple, Anyanka presides in an air of eerie and unassailable authority. When Momma places the money in an embroidered purse, Anyanka begins a mysterious incantation, enters into a dervish-like trance, switches the purse holding the money with a decoy, and sends Momma off with the admonition that, if she opens the sack within seven days, the money will change to blank paper. The bajour has succeeded!

Later, when Lou and Emily rush into the now empty store, he explains to a disillusioned Emily that the swindle is just part of the gypsy way of life. The King of Newark bursts in, infuriated. His own daughter has pulled a bajour on him and has presented him with another purse also filled with worthless paper. And so the Dembeschti at least have money and a first-class bajour woman. They start off across New Jersey in the happy anticipation of fifty states to choose from, every one a prospect for a great bajour.

Curtis Brown

Musical Numbers:

1. Move Over, New York - Johnny Dembo, Ensemble
2. Where Is the Tribe For Me? - Emily Kirsten
3. The Haggle - Anyanka. Steve, Ensemble
4. Love-Line - Anyanka
5. 'Words, Words, Words - Emily Kirsten, Johnny Dembo
6. Mean - Anyanka
7. Must It Be Love? - Emily Kirsten
8. Rajour - Anyanka, Emily Kirsten, Johnny Dembo, Ensemble
9. Soon - Anyanka, Steve
10. I Can - Anyanka,
11. Living Simply -
12. Lou MacNiall, Emily Kirsten, Patrolmen
13. Honest Man - Johnny Dembo, The King of Newark
14. Guarantees - Helene Kirsten
15. Love Is a Chance - Emily Kirsten
16. The Sew-Up -Anyanka, Helene Kirsten, Ensemble Women
17. Finale - Move Over America - Ensemble
    

Scenes and Settings

The action takes place at the present time in New York City

Act 1

• Scene 1; The Empty Store.
• Scene 2: The City.
• Scene 3: The Pickpocket and Confidence Squad.
• Scene 4: Emily's Bedroom.
• Scene 5. The Backyard.
• Scene 6: In front of the Store.
• Scene 7:The Store (now the Ofisa).
• Scene 8: In front of the Store.
• Scene 9, The Ofisa.
• Scene 10: An Urban Renewal Site.
• Scene 11: The Ofisa

Act 2

• Scene 1. The Backyard.
• Scene 2: Momma's Kitchen.
• Scene 3: The Backyard
• Scene 4; The Pickpocket and Confidence Squad.
• Scene 5: The Guggenheim Museum
• Scene 6: Central Park.
• Scene 7: Momma's Kitchen.
• Scene 8: The Ofisa.
• Scene 9: An Urban Renewal Site.
• Scene 10: The Empty Store.
• Scene 11: The New Jersey Flats
  

Discography:

Original Broadway Cast - Sony Broadway SK 48208