In a 1995 New York Times piece, Newman said that he was first inspired to create a work based on Goethe's Faust in the 1970s, after a first reading of the play. However, during a 2014 staging of the show at the New York City Center, Newman said onstage that " Faust, of course, is a masterpiece: I read the classic comic book, and I concur.” Newman said he had already been a fan of works that concern Heaven, and that "t's such a big idea, with God and the Devil, that I thought I could put everything I knew into it and say whatever I wanted" Regarding his own designs for the material, however, Newman also said that "...there's something so wise about that it made me want to try to destroy it, in a way," and "have all its wisdom frustrated by the nature of real human beings" In 1980, Newman wrote a few songs for the project, as well as a rough draft of a script; he then put it aside to focus on his solo career and film composing. At one point Newman showed a script of the show to Mike Nichols, who criticized the conception of the show's "Faust" character, "Henry Faust," saying, "The kid doesn’t have any arc. Nothing happens to him.” Newman later said, in 2017, "But I liked that. It makes for a gruesome evening of theater." The song "Sandman's Coming" was recycled from an episode of the 1990 television series Cop Rock, for which Newman had written a number of songs.
Production history
Randy Newman's Faust first had a limited run at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego in September 1995, which coincided with the release of a concept album version, featuring a different cast and arrangements than the stage version. The stage production, directed by Michael Greif was praised for its score, but criticized for its script and characters. The script was rewritten by David Mamet for the second production, in Chicago's Goodman Theatre. This production, featuring the same principal cast, suffered similar criticisms that its script was still not the equal of its score. It ran from September 30 to November 2, 1996. On July 1, 2014, New York City Center's Encores! staged a one-night-only performance of the show. This version was stripped down for a more minimal "concert" presentation and heavily rewritten. As on the album, Newman himself assumed the role of Lucifer, alongside a new cast that included Isiah Johnson, Tony Vincent, Laura Osnes, and Vonda Shepard.
Critical reception
In a contemporary review for Playboy, music critic Robert Christgau found the album's vivid songs and musical comedy settings ideal for Newman's "high-spirited cynicism": "Musical comedy is the perfect medium for his unique synthesis of soundtrack grandeur, blues-savvy studio rock, and general Americana." He named it the fifth best album of the year. However, Faust only finished 87th in the voting for the Pazz & Jop, an annual critics poll run by The Village Voice. Al Weisel of Rolling Stone was critical of songs like "Little Island" and "Northern Boy", which he felt deviate from the storyline, although he called the album "the best work in years for all involved". "Life Has Been Good to Me" was performed by French Stewart as Harry Solomon on 1997's "A Nightmare on Dick Street," an episode of NBC's 3rd Rock from the Sun. "Relax, Enjoy Yourself" and "Can't Keep a Good Man Down" were performed by two different cast groups in "Ally McBeal: The Musical, Almost", the 2000 third-season finale of Ally McBeal. The music for "Glory Train" was partially re-used by Newman in the 2017 song "The Great Debate", from his solo album Dark Matter.
