Side Show
February 13 - March 1, 2009

Side Show: Daisy & Violet Hilton On Broadway

SIDE SHOW is a musical about Daisy and Violet Hilton, Conjoined Twins who become famous stage performers in the 1930s. The show was written by Bill Russell (book and lyrics), and Henry Krieger (music), and starred Alice Ripley as Violet and Emily Skinner as Daisy. It opened on Broadway on October 16, 1997, and ran for 91 performances at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Despite critical acclaim, the show closed on January 4, 1998. It was later nominated for four Tony Awards in 1998: Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Musical Score, and Best Actress in a Musical (Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner).

Although Side Show won none of these awards, it was the first and only time that two actresses were co-nominated for Best Actress in a Musical as a team (if they had won, they would have won together).

Audiences loved the harmonious blend of Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner's voices so much that the two actresses successfully released two albums: Duets and Unsuspecting Hearts.

Side Show: The Creative Team, Bill Russell

Bill Russell was born and raised in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Somehow in that Wild West context, Bill was bitten by the theater bug at an early age.

In 1980, Bill made his off-Broadway writing debut, penning book and lyrics for Fortune (music by Ronald Melrose). The show ran for 241 performances at the Actors Playhouse and was subsequently performed around the country and in Rio de Janeiro. In 1985, he teamed up to create The Texas Chainsaw Musical off-Broadway, a revue of unlikely musicals.

In 1991, Pageant, opened off-Broadway at the Blue Angel where it ran for over a year. That project subsequently toured Japan and continues to be produced around the country. Bill has also directed productions in Chicago, Los Angeles and at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

Side Show, with music by Henry Krieger, marked Bill’s Broadway debut as a writer. Works-in-progress include The Last Smoker in America with composer Peter Melnick and Unexpected Joy, music by Janet Hood. Mr. Russell was given an honorary degree by Morningside College in May of 2003 and by the Boston Conservatory in May of 2007.

Side Show: The Creative Team, Henry Krieger

Henry Krieger wrote the music for three notable Broadway shows: Dreamgirls (1981, with lyrics and book by Tom Eyen), The Tap Dance Kid (1983), and Side Show (1997), as well as other works of musical theatre. Born in New York City, Krieger grew up in Westchester County, New York. There he became interested in theatre and the dramatic arts, and later studied at Columbia University in New York.

While still in his twenties, Krieger began composing for Off-Off-Broadway. Krieger wished to craft a musical about Black back-up singers. After several workshops, numerous rewrites and various roadblocks, Dreamgirls came to Broadway in 1981 and won six Tony Awards (including Best Score). Two years later, in 1983, his musical The Tap Dance Kid, went on to win two Tony Awards. It would be well over a decade before his next Broadway musical Side Show opened in 1997.

In 2008, Henry wrote the music for the new musical Romantic Poetry which featured book and lyrics by John Patrick Shanley. The musical premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club at New York City Center in October 2008.

Among other projects, Krieger is working on the score for a musical based on the 1984 film The Flamingo Kid.

Side Show: Conjoined Twins

Conjoined twins are identical twins whose bodies are joined in utero. A rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 200,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence in Southwest Asia and Africa. The overall survival rate for conjoined twins is approximately 25%. The condition is more frequently found among females, with a ratio of 3:1.

Two contradicting theories exist to explain the origins of conjoined twins. The older and most generally accepted theory is fission, in which the fertilized egg splits partially. The second theory is fusion, in which a fertilized egg completely separates, but finds similar cells on the other twin and fuses the twins together.

Perhaps the most famous pair of conjoined twins was Chang and Eng Bunker (1811–1874), Thai brothers born in Siam, now Thailand. They traveled with P.T. Barnum's circus for many years and were billed as the Siamese Twins. They were fused at the torso. In modern times, they could have been easily separated. Due to the brothers' fame and the rarity of the condition, the term "Siamese Twins" came to be used as a synonym for conjoined twins.

Side Show: The Real Daisy and Violet Hilton

Daisy Hilton and Violet Hilton were a pair of conjoined twins born in Brighton, England (East Sussex) on February 5, 1908. Their mother was a single barmaid named Kate Skinner. The sisters were born joined by their hips and buttocks; they shared blood circulation and were fused at the pelvis but shared no major organs. Skinner's boss Mary Hilton, who helped in childbirth, apparently saw commercial prospects in them, and thus effectively bought them from their mother and took them under her care. She trained the girls in singing and dancing.

The Hilton sisters toured first in England at the age of three as "The United Twins". Mary Hilton took them to a tour through Germany, Australia and to the USA. In the true sideshow manner, their performance was accompanied with an imaginative "history". Their controllers kept all the money the sisters earned. When Mary died in Birmingham, Alabama, her daughter and her husband took over. They kept the twins from public view for a while and trained them in jazz music. They lived in a mansion in San Antonio, Texas until the early 1930s. In 1931, the sisters gathered enough courage to sue their "managers", gaining $100,000 in damages, and independence.

They left the sideshows and went into vaudeville as "The Hilton Sisters' Revue". Daisy dyed her hair blonde and they began to wear different outfits so they could be told apart. As if to compensate for their deprived past, they had numerous affairs, failed attempts to get a marriage license and a couple of short marriages. In 1932, the twins appeared as themselves in the movie Freaks. In 1951 they starred in Chained for Life, an exploitation film loosely based on their lives.

The Hiltons' last public appearance was at a drive-in movie theater in Charlotte, North Carolina. Their tour manager abandoned them there, and with no means of transportation or income, they were forced to take a job in a nearby grocery store. On January 4, 1969, after they failed to report to work, their boss called the police. The twins were found dead in their home due to the Hong Kong Flu. According to forensics, Daisy died first, with Violet dying perhaps 2-4 days later.

Freaks: Daisy and Violet Go Hollywood - 1

Freaks (1932) is a horror film with a cast mostly composed of actual carnival performers. The film's director took the exceptional step of casting real people, rather than using costumes and makeup. In the film, the physically deformed "freaks" are inherently trusting and honorable people, while the real monsters are the "normal" members of the circus.

Spliced throughout the main narrative of the film are a variety of "slice of life" segments detailing the lives of the sideshow performers. The bearded woman, who loves the human skeleton, gives birth to their daughter. Violet, a conjoined twin whose sister Daisy is married to one of the circus clowns, herself becomes engaged to the owner of the circus. (Daisy appears to react with romantic arousal when Violet is kissed by her suitor, implying that each sister can experience the other's physical sensations).

On release, negative reaction to the film was intense. Because its cast was so shocking to moviegoers of the time, the film was banned in the United Kingdom for 30 years.

Chained For Life: Daisy and Violet Go Hollywood - 2

Chained for Life is a 1951 exploitation film that incorporates aspects of the Hilton twins' real life, including their singing act, a futile attempt by one sister to obtain a marriage license, and a publicity stunt marriage.

The climax of the film is a touchingly weird dream sequence, in which one twin fantasizes what it would be like to be separated from her sister. We see the two conjoined sisters asleep in bed, necessarily side by side. Suddenly Daisy gets up and walks away, leaving Violet alone and asleep. Daisy wanders through a glade of trees, enjoying the novelty of being all by herself and unattached. She meets her boyfriend among the trees, and they kiss.

This sequence has a strange poignancy because a stunt double was required for Daisy Hilton in order to depict the perfectly normal situation of a woman getting out of bed and walking by herself. During the dream sequence in which the boyfriend kisses the separated Daisy, Violet Hilton is forced to play her part while standing behind a tree... to conceal the fact that she is still conjoined to her sister.

Side Show Dramaturgy © 2009, Ross Harmon: The Barn Players

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