# The Fix (musical)

The Fix is a musical with book and lyrics by John Dempsey and music by Dana P. Rowe. It concerns the career of a fictional U.S. politician who gets mixed up with the Mafia.
It premiered at London's Donmar Warehouse in 1997.

## Production history

The Fix was developed in association with Cameron Mackintosh under the working title Cal: A Musical Tale of Relative Insanity.
In 1997, The Fix premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, in a production directed by Sam Mendes, with musical direction by Colin Welford. Running from 29 April through 14 June, the production starred John Barrowman, Kathryn Evans and Philip Quast, and featured a young John Partridge and Rebecca Front in ensemble roles. Barrowman and Quast were both nominated for the 1998 Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical for their roles, with Quast winning the award. The production was also nominated for Olivier Awards for Best New Musical and Best Lighting Designer (for Howard Harrison).
In 1998, a reworked version of The Fix made its US premiere at the Signature Theatre. The production was directed by Eric D. Schaeffer and ran from 17 March through 10 May.
In 2015, the Signature Theatre revived The Fix, with Schaeffer again directing. The production ran from 11 August through 20 September.
In 2016, a fringe production played at the Union Theatre in London from 13 July through 6 August.
On 9 August 2017, Feinstein's/54 Below presented a one-night concert production of The Fix.

## Plot

Act 1
Days before a United States presidential election, shoo-in candidate Reed Chandler suffers a fatal heart attack between the thighs of his mistress. Before the body has turned cold, the dead man's widow, Violet, and brother, Grahame (a speechwriter and spin doctor crippled from birth by polio and jealous of his brother's public success) - not keen to see their patience and preparation go to waste - are conspiring to replace him with his own son, an unambitious drifter, Calvin. Cal is enlisted in the army and married off to a perky debutante before developing a hard drug problem and being photographed during sex with his mistress, a nightclub singer named Tina McCoy. To cover up Cal's indiscretion, Grahame is forced to call upon the services of the city's criminal underworld, headed by Anthony Gliardi, who we are told is a "friend of the family".
Act 2
The years pass. Cal is elected governor and his wife bears a son. The list of favours owed to Gliardi grows longer, Cal's addiction deepens and Grahame's legs finally give way and he is condemned to life in a wheelchair. After a drying-out period, Cal rediscovers his sense of self. He confronts the press, coming clean about his misgivings and the Chandlers' relationship with Gliardi. Cal becomes the media darling once again, however on the eve of the United States Senate nominations, Gliardi uses Tina to lure Cal away from his family, then shoots them both. The play comes full circle as at Cal's funeral, Violet and Grahame move in on Cal's young son. And suddenly the future doesn't look so dim after all.

## Orchestration

The Fix is orchestrated for a band of 8 musicians:
* Musical Director/Keyboard 1
* Keyboard 2
* Guitars
* Bass Guitar
* Drums
* Reed 1 (alto and baritone saxophone, and clarinet)
* Reed 2 (clarinet, flute and tenor saxophone)
* Trumpet
The orchestrations are by Michael Gibson.

## Characters and original cast

| Character | Donmar Warehouse 1997 | Signature Theatre 1998 | Signature Theatre 2015 | Union Theatre 2016 | Feinstein's/54 Below In Concert 2017 |
| Cal Chandler | John Barrowman | Stephen Bienskie | Mark Evans | Fra Fee | Mark Evans |
| Reed Chandler | David Firth | Jim Walton | Bobby Smith | Peter Saul Blewden | Gary Milner |
| Grahame Chandler | Philip Quast | Sal Mistretta | Lawrence Redmond | Ken Christiansen | David Cantor |
| Violet Chandler | Kathryn Evans | Linda Balgord | Christine Sherrill | Lucy Williamson | Sally Ann Triplett |
| Peter Hale | David Bardsley | Donna Migliaccio | Stephen Gregory Smith | Sam Barrett | Justin Randolph |
| Tina McCoy | Krysten Cummings | Natalie Toro | Rachel Zampelli | Madalena Alberto | Kristen Gehling |
| Bobby “Cracker” Barrel | Bogdan Kominowski | Lawrence Redmond | Will Gartshore | Alistair Hill | Patrick K. Walsh |
| Anthony Gliardi | Nicholas Pound | Anthony Galde | Dan Manning | Peter Saul Blewden | Paul Thomas Ryan |