Is Stanton an inherently evil person?
“Nightmare Alley” holds a special place in the hearts of film noir fans. Based on a novel by William Lindsay Gresham about the seedy world of the travelling carnival, the dark-hearted 1947 movie was daring even within its bleak genre. It starred Hollywood superstar Tyrone Power, who wanted to play the sleazy lead role to break out of his leading-man straitjacket. His portrayal of the rise and fall of Stanton Carlisle, a slick con man who rises from carnival barker to celebrated mentalist before his evil ways destroy him, remained one of the actor’s proudest achievements. Composer/producer Jonathan Brielle (“Foxfire”) has been working on a musical adaptation of the story for more than a decade, but it wasn’t until Geffen Playhouse producing director Gil Cates got interested that the project finally came to fruition.
