The Fabulous Baker Boys is a 1989 American romantic comedy drama musical film written and directed by Steve Kloves. The film follows a piano act consisting of two brothers, who hire an attractive female singer to help revive their waning career. After a period of success, complications ensue when the younger brother develops romantic feelings for the singer. Brothers Jeff Bridges and Beau Bridges star as the eponymous Baker Boys, while Michelle Pfeiffer plays lounge singer Susie Diamond.
The Fabulous Baker Boys was Kloves's directorial debut and second screenplay. He conceived the story based on Ferrante & Teicher, a piano duo he had grown up watching perform on The Ed Sullivan Show, which inspired him to write a film about working class musicians who are also siblings. Determined to direct the film himself, Kloves sold the script to producers Paula Weinstein and Mark Rosenberg. It was subsequently rotated among several production companies before it was ultimately obtained by 20th Century Fox in 1986. Pfeiffer underwent several months of voice training to perform all of her character's songs, which largely consist of jazz and pop standards. While both Bridges brothers play their instruments on camera, their audio was dubbed by the film's composer, Dave Grusin, and musician John F. Hammond, respectively. Although primarily set in Seattle, Washington, the film was shot mostly in Los Angeles, California, from December 1988 to March 1989.
The Fabulous Baker Boys was released on October 13, 1989, to critical acclaim, but underperformed at the box office. The National Board of Review named it one of the year's 10 best films. Reviewers praised Pfeiffer's performance in particular, often selecting her rendition of "Makin' Whoopee" on top of a grand piano as a standout. The scene is considered to be one of the sexiest in film history, according to several media publications. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards at the 62nd Academy Awards: Best Actress (for Pfeiffer), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Score. Pfeiffer won nearly every acting award for which she was nominated during the 1989–1990 awards season, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, but lost the Academy Award to Jessica Tandy.
Plot The Fabulous Baker Boys are a piano duo consisting of brothers Jack and Frank Baker. For 15 years, they have been performing show tunes in bars and lounges throughout Seattle, Washington on a pair of matching grand pianos. While Frank dutifully serves as the duo's manager, Jack has grown weary of the hackneyed material they have come to perform over the years, but his complacency leaves him uninspired to pursue his talents further. Apart from occasionally playing the music he enjoys at a local jazz club, Jack's personal life largely consists of meaningless one-night stands; caring for his aging Labrador, Eddie; and spending time with Nina, a lonely girl from his apartment building whose single mother neglects her in favor of romantic pursuits.
Concerned about a sudden decrease in stable gigs and loss of income, Frank decides to hire a female singer to revive interest in their act. After auditioning 37 unsuccessful candidates, they meet Susie Diamond, a former escort who demands an audition despite being over an hour late. Although initially at odds with Frank over her boldness and unprofessionalism, Susie impresses both brothers with her audition and they hire her. Their debut performance as a trio is flawed but ultimately well-received and the rebranded act gradually receives better gigs and higher salaries in return.
The now in-demand trio is booked for an extended engagement at a luxurious resort. Jack and Susie flirt with each other cautiously in-between gigs, but neither acts upon their feelings. Noticing a growing attraction between them, Frank forbids Jack from pursuing Susie in fear that a relationship between the two would compromise the group's stability and newfound success. Frank returns to Seattle prematurely when one of his children suffers a minor injury. Taking advantage of his absence to contemporize their setlist, Susie and Jack deliver a sultry performance of "Makin' Whoopee" during the hotel's New Year's Eve festivities, after which they finally succumb to their feelings and sleep together. Susie opens up to Jack about her past as an escort, but Jack remains emotionally distant.
When the couple returns to Seattle, Frank quickly deduces that Jack and Susie have slept with each other; tensions arise when both rebel against Frank's creative control and song choices. After spending another night with Jack, Susie tells him she has received a lucrative job offer to record television jingles for cat food, which would require her to leave the group. Jack is quietly heartbroken that Susie would even consider leaving but refuses to admit how he truly feels, instead acting as though her departure is of no concern to him. Susie accepts the job after a final performance with The Fabulous Baker Boys and they part ways following a heated argument in which Susie accuses Jack of being a coward in his pursuits of both her and his career.
Jack and Frank quarrel about the increasingly humiliating gigs Frank has been booking them due to Susie's departure, which Frank blames Jack for. After nearly breaking Frank's hand during a physical altercation, Jack quits the band. He takes his frustrations out on Nina upon returning home but apologizes soon afterward, learning she will rely on him less once her mother marries her newest boyfriend. Now prepared to venture out on his own, Jack visits Frank to make amends. Having opted to offer piano lessons from his home, Frank accepts Jack's decision to pursue a solo career and explains he thought he was helping his younger brother live a carefree life, of which he was sometimes jealous. They reminisce about the early days of their act with a final duet.
Jack visits Susie, who is not particularly enjoying her new job and he expresses regret about his behavior towards her. Susie is not quite ready to resume their relationship but the two part as friends, with Jack telling her he has a feeling they will see each other again. Jack watches as Susie walks off to her new job until she is nearly out of sight.
Cast
Production
Writing and development Screenwriter Steve Kloves was inspired to write The Fabulous Baker Boys based on Ferrante & Teicher, a piano duo he had grown up watching perform on The Ed Sullivan Show during the 1960s. He found himself fascinated by "blue-collar entertainment – people who work in the arts in a kind of working class way." Remembering that during his childhood, parents typically enrolled their children in piano lessons simply to 'give them culture', he decided to write a story about piano-playing brothers, citing familial dysfunction as a common theme among his work. Although he felt a story about a waning piano act would provide strong material for a feature-length film, some of Kloves's peers warned him "it was a completely bizarre, terrible idea for a movie", expressing concerns that its dark subject matter and frequent arguments would not translate well on screen. Kloves conducted little research while writing the script, instead opting to complete the first draft based on what he learned from spending time in hotels. Kloves recalled that he would sometimes visit hotel bars "and hear some guy play the piano ... and some of them were pretty good. The way my mind tripped off on it was that this guy's parents gave him piano lessons to improve his life and give him an opening into culture and there he was, 20 years later, at a Holiday Inn playing 'Feelings'." Since Kloves typically writes his films around its characters, he spent six months writing notes about the main characters' relationships with each other before finalizing the story. He also used index cards to indicate specific scenes and moments which he organized on a board, but found this approach was not always successful.
A first draft of the screenplay was completed as early as April 1985, in which Kloves describes the titular characters as "a poor man's version of Ferrante and Teicher." The Fabulous Baker Boys was Kloves's directorial debut. The experience he gained writing his previous film, Racing with the Moon (1984), motivated him to direct The Fabulous Baker Boys himself because the final version of the former "wasn't what I saw in my head". Although Kloves had always aspired to direct the film himself, he considered his prospects unlikely due to his young age (he was 25 years-old when he first started optioning the script to filmmakers) and lack of experience, having only written one film prior. Fearing a different director would struggle to fulfill his vision, his determination ultimately delayed the project by several years. Kloves decided to keep the script to himself until he could secure funding that would also allow him to direct his own project. He finally sold The Fabulous Baker Boys as a spec script to then-Warner Bros. worldwide production president Mark Rosenberg, after originally selling it to producers Paula Weinstein and Gareth Wigan of WW Productions. Weinstein and Wigan eventually negotiated a deal to share the film rights with Rosenberg.
Kloves attempted to work on the film with director George Roy Hill, but they experienced creative differences. Following the dissolution of WW Productions, Weinstein became an executive consultant at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) under Alan Ladd Jr., while Rosenberg eventually left Warner Bros to found Mirage Productions with filmmaker Sydney Pollack. Partnering with Mirage, Weinstein briefly relocated The Fabulous Baker Boys to MGM, only for the film to move once again to 20th Century Fox following Ladd Jr's departure from MGM. Kloves attributes his struggles with getting the film made to Warner Bros' reluctance to release the film's rights to a different studio "and watch it be a success for someone else", despite their disinterest in producing the film themselves. Pollack was retained as an executive producer. Kloves credits Rosenberg, Pollack and Weinstein with helping him earn approval to direct the film, having been fans of his previous work. The film's development began in 1986, and was completed over the course of four years, the length of which The New York Times journalist Bernard Weinraub attributed to the film's melancholy nature and Kloves's insistence on directing. Kloves's final draft of his screenplay is dated November 4, 1988.
Casting When casting The Fabulous Baker Boys began, Kloves recalled that while studio executives often dismissed his script as "dreary and depressing", most actors considered for the film found it "funny and moving". Wallis Nicita was the film's casting director. Bill Murray briefly expressed interest in starring while the film was in early development. The studio had also considered casting Murray's Saturday Night Live castmate, comedian Chevy Chase, as either Jack or Frank Baker, despite both actors having little musical experience. Brothers Dennis and Randy Quaid were offered the titular roles but turned them down. Although both Jeff and Pfeiffer were Kloves's first choices for their respective roles, he was initially reluctant to cast Beau, despite Jeff's suggestion.