The Secret Life of the American Musical
Page 33
Mame
Jerry Herman’s follow-up to Dolly is more machine than animal in most respects, but it’s a swell score and very well delivered on the original cast album. And when Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur declare themselves “Bosom Buddies,” there’s not much to do but smile.
The Most Happy Fella
Frank Loesser at his best, Columbia and Lieberson at their best, and one of the masterworks of Broadway. Virtually the whole show is on the original cast CD offering, and it’s a spectacular experience, gorgeously sung by Robert Weede, Jo Sullivan, and the greatest of all cult belters, Susan Johnson. Johnson should have been a star, but after playing the girl in the second couple here, she was elevated gradually to leading roles in a trio of flops and faded away. By the mid-’80s, she was teaching machine knitting in a well-appointed mobile home outside of San Diego. She made a glorious late appearance in a production of Follies in Long Beach, and then faded away again. But her voice in all the shows she appeared in—Brigadoon, Donnybrook!, Whoop-Up, and Oh Captain!—is immediately recognizable and a joy.
On the Town
Bernstein’s first Broadway show, staged by George Abbott and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, is brash, busy, even obstreperous in its ambition to do something new, noisy, jazzy, and classical. It wasn’t recorded when it was produced in 1944, but in 1960, after the film version had taken on a life of its own, the composer conducted it for Columbia, with the lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green and the comedian Nancy Walker all repeating the roles they played in the original. The resulting album is a treasure, and includes not only the song score (a lot of it jettisoned for the film) but also much of the dance music, which is thrilling.
The Pajama Game
Adler and Ross’s Broadway debut, and it’s impressively fun. George Abbott and Jerome Robbins shared the directing credit—the beginning of Robbins’s ascent as a musical theater director. John Raitt sings wonderfully on the original cast album, and you may be forgiven for wondering if Frank Loesser was the ghostwriter of “A New Town Is a Blue Town,” Raitt’s opening number. Adler and Ross were among his protégés, and it sure sounds a lot like “My Time of Day” from Guys and Dolls to me.
Pal Joey
Along with Show Boat, this 1940 Rodgers and Hart entry can lay a claim to modernity before Oklahoma!, with its antihero, its frank view of gigolo sex and the quid pro quo that goes with it, and its dream ballet (though there had already been a few of those by 1940). There are a handful of good recordings of the jazzy, noirish score. My favorite is a 1951 studio cast album featuring Harold Lang and Vivienne Segal, but it’s worth hearing Elaine Stritch sing “Zip” on the revival album from 1952, and the Encores! version from 1995 probably sounds more like 1940 than either of them. The album that purports to be the soundtrack from the Frank Sinatra movie is really a cobbled-together collection of other Sinatra recordings mixed with some of the songs as they actually appeared in the film. I’d stay away.
Porgy and Bess
The original cast album on Decca includes a very limited selection from the score, though it’s great to hear Todd Duncan and Anne Brown, the original Porgy and Bess. They sing it in a style that now feels somewhat antiquated, but it does put you in the time machine. The 1977 recording of the Houston Grand Opera’s restoration of the entire opera is magnificent, and there are other good complete opera house recordings. But the Houston one, which was directed by the Broadwayite Jack O’Brien, sounds like the real deal to me. As with The Most Happy Fella (see above) and Show Boat (see below), you can take the whole thrilling ride in an evening in your living room or on a long drive, and emerge restored by the sheer greatness of the achievement.
Show Boat
There are dozens of choices with various virtues and shortcomings. Faced with the bewildering conflict of ancient authenticity, modern streamlining, and everything in between, I always choose the 1988 studio cast album that delivers, on three CDs, virtually the entire show. It’s badly acted by opera singers and squarely conducted by John McGlinn, but it features the more or less original orchestrations, and the cumulative effect, for all its flaws, if you can forgive them, is overwhelming. You can hear the stunning ambition of Hammerstein’s first real attempt to make something completely new in the theater, and Jerome Kern’s unending inventiveness and melodic gift; I dare you to get out of the way. And Alec Wilder, who wrote the first great study of the American songbook, American Popular Song, is right about one thing: the verse of “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” is more interesting than the chorus, even though it’s almost never heard. Give a listen here and see if you don’t agree.
South Pacific
Hammerstein’s other epic, this time with Richard Rodgers. Unsurprisingly, there are many albums, but only two real choices: the original, with Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, and the Lincoln Center revival, with Kelli O’Hara and Paulo Szot. The latter is more complete; the former has Martin and Pinza delivering two great star turns. But both are beautifully sung and played. The others range from the movie soundtrack—not for me—to various “complete” studio cast recordings, all of them dutiful and unexciting. Both the original cast and the Lincoln Center versions have the energy of actual theatrical performance—and there’s no substitute for that.
Index
The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
Abbott, George
Abie’s Irish Rose (Nichols)
Act One (Hart)
Adams, Lee
“Adelaide’s Lament”
“Adelaide’s Second Lament”
Adler, Richard
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The (Twain)
Ah, Wilderness! (O’Neill)
AIDS
“Ain’t Got No”
Aladdin (film)
Albee, Edward, xn
Aleichem, Sholem
“All er Nothin’”
“All I Need Is the Girl”
Altman, Robert
American Bandstand (TV show)
American Idiot
American musicals; American values promoted in; arriving “fashionably late” at; auditioning for; backers’ auditions for; B-level; books of; Broadway musicals vs.; Broadway openings of; classic tales and novels rewritten as; closing of; collaborative work on; craftsmanship of; dialogue in; evolution of; “fixing” of; foreign language versions of; “gaps” in; “jukebox”; multiplot; national tours of; in 1920s and 1930s; in 1940s through 1970s; in 1980s and 1990s; noise and energy of; out-of-town tryouts of; plots of; previews of; producing of; revivals of; revolutionary; romantic; second couples and subsidiary characters in; sexual content in; showcasing of songs and performers in; storytelling in; structure and two-act form of; subplots of; as tourist destinations; of twenty-first century; villains in; as well-made machines
American Popular Song (Wilder)
American songbook
Andrews, Julie
Andrews, Nancy
Angels in America (Kushner)
Annie; original cast and album of; story and characters of
Annie Get Your Gun; original cast album of; story and characters in
“Another Hundred People”
anti-Semitism
Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare)
Anyone Can Whistle
“Anything Goes”
Apollo
Arms and the Girl
Armstrong, Louis
Arno, Peter
“Arnold and His Accordion”
Aronson, Billy
Arsenic and Old Lace
Arthur, Bea
Art Institute of Chicago
Ashman, Howard
audience; approval of; as “big black giant”; boring of; direct address of; early departure of; engaging of; expectations of; in New York; noise of; understanding of
&
nbsp; Austen, Jane
Avenue Q
Bacall, Lauren
Baez, Joan
Bailey, Pearl
“Ballad of Sweeney Todd, The”
ballets; dream; opening
“Barcelona”
Barnes, Clive
Baxley, Barbara
Beatles
Beatty, John Lee
Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (film)
Beckett, Samuel
“Been a Long Day”
Beguelin, Chad
“Being Alive”
Benanti, Laura
Benchley, Robert
Bennett, Michael
Bergman, Ingmar
Berlin, Irving
Bernstein, Leonard
“Betrayed”
“Big, Blonde, and Beautiful”
“Big ‘D,’”
“Big Dollhouse, The”
Big River
Big Sleep, The (Chandler)
Big Sleep, The (film)
Binder, Jay
Birth of a Nation (film)
Bishop, André
“Bitch of Living, The”
black bottom (dance)
Black Crook, The
Blaine, Vivian
Blakemore, Michael
Blitzstein, Marc
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
“Bloody Mary”
Bloomer Girl
blues
Bock, Jerry
Bogart, Humphrey
Bohème, La (Puccini)
Bond, Christopher
Book of Mormon, The; characters and story of; music and lyrics of; original cast album of
“Bosom Buddies”
Boston, Mass.
Bravo Giovanni
Brecht, Bertolt
Brigadoon
British musicals
Broderick, Matthew
Brooks, Mel
“Brotherhood of Man”
Brown, Anne
Brown, Jason Robert
Brynner, Yul
Burns, David
Burns, Ralph
Burn This (Wilson)
Burr, Aaron
Burrows, Abe
“Bushel and a Peck, A”
Bye Bye Birdie
Byers, Billy
Cabaret; music and lyrics of; opening number of; original cast album of; story and characters of
Cabaret (film)
“Cabaret”
Caesar, Sid
Cage aux Folles, La
Calloway, Cab
Camelot
“Camelot”
camp
Candide
“Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man”
Capp, Al
Cariou, Len
Carlyle, Warren
Caroline, or Change
Carousel; bench scene in; music and lyrics of; opening ballet of; original cast album of; story, theme, and characters of
“Carousel Waltz, The”
Carradine, John
Carrie
Cassidy, Jack
Cats
Chagall, Marc
Champion, Gower
Chandler, Raymond
Channing, Carol
Chaplin, Charlie
Chapman, Michael
Charles, Ray
Charleston (dance)
Charnin, Martin
Chicago
Chorus Line, A; conception and direction of; music and lyrics of; opening number of; original cast album of; story and theme of
Christmas Pantomime
Circle in the Square Theatre
City of Angels; direction of; lyrics of; original cast album of; story and characters of
civil rights movement
Clark, Victoria
Clayton, Jan
Clueless (film)
Cohan, George M.
Coleman, Cy
Collins, Dorothy
Columbia Records
Comden, Betty
comedy; domestic; erotic; evolution of; satirical; slapstick
“Comedy Tonight”
“Come Out of the Dumpster”
Company; characters of; lack of plot in; opening number of; original cast album of
Company: Original Cast Album (film)
conditional love songs; as “aftermath songs”; as bromance; “I Want” songs merged with
Conquering Hero, The
Conway, Patrick
Cook, Barbara
“Cool”
Cooper, Chuck
Corman, Roger
costumes
Courtship Habits of the Great Crested Grebe (Huxley)
“Cow and a Plough and a Frau, A”
Cradle Will Rock, The
Crazy for You
Creatore, Giuseppe
critical reviews
Cumming, Alan
curtain calls
curtains; final; first-act; opening
Damn Yankees
dancing; choreography of; chorus; modern musical evolution of; romantic expression in; soft shoe; see also ballets; specific dances
“Dancing”
Danes, Claire
Davidson, Gordon
Dean, James
Dearest Enemy
“Dear Friend”
Declaration of Independence
de Mille, Agnes
democracy
“Dentist!”
de Paul, Gene
Depression, Great
Dexter, John
Dickens, Charles
Diller, Phyllis
director-choreographers
directors; creative control of
Disney, Walt
Disney Studios
“Dites-Moi”
“Dividing Day”
Doctorow, E. L.
“Don’t Feed the Plants”
“Doodletown Fifers”
Doyle, John
“Do You Love Me?”
Drake, Alfred
drama
dramaturgy
Dreamgirls
Duck Soup (film)
Duke, Vernon
Duncan, Todd
Dylan, Bob
Ebb, Fred
Eder, Richard
Eisenhower, Dwight D.
“Elegance”
11 o’clock numbers
Ellington, Duke
Emma (Austen)
entr’actes
“Epiphany”
Eugene O’Neill Theatre
“Everybody Ought to Have a Maid”
“Everything’s Coming Up Roses”
Fancy Free (ballet)
farce
Fela!
Fever, Cy
Fiddler, The (Chagall)
Fiddler on the Roof; direction-choreography of; music and lyrics of; opening number of; original cast and album of; story and characters of
field hollers
Fierstein, Harvey
Fifty Million Frenchmen
final blackout
finales; intimate vs. noisy; moral admonishment in; reprises as
finaletto
finale ultimo
Finian’s Rainbow
Finishing the Hat (Sondheim)
Fink, Bert
Finn, William
Finney, Jack
flops
Flora the Red Menace
folk music
Follies
Fosse, Bob
Freud, Sigmund
Friml, Rudolf
Frozen (film)
Full Monty, The
Funny Girl
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, A; book of; characters and story of; direction-choreography of; opening number of; original cast and album of; out-of-town opening of; overture to; reviews of; revivals of
Furth, George
Garland, Judy
“Gazooka, The”
Gelbart, Larry
Gemignani, Paul
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Gershovsky, Yaron
Ger
shwin, George
Gershwin, Ira
ghost stories
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilford, Jack
Gilfry, Rodney
Gilmore, Patrick
Ginzler, Robert “Red”
Glass Menagerie, The (Williams)
Glazer, Benjamin
Gleason, Joanna
“Glitter and Be Gay”
“God, That’s Good!”
Golden Age of Broadway
Golden Boy
Goldilocks
Goldman, James
Goldman, William
“Good Morning Baltimore”
“Goodnight, My Someone”
Goodspeed Opera House
Gottfried, Martin
Got Tu Go Disco
Grable, Betty
Grand Hotel
Gray, Joel
Great Britain, cast albums from; musical entertainment forms in
Green, Adolph
Green Day
Greene, Ellen
“Green Finch and Linnet Bird”
Green Grow the Lilacs (Riggs)
Greenwillow
Griffith, D. W.
Grigolo, Vittorio
Grimm’s fairy tales
Guettel, Adam
guitars
Guthrie, Woody
Guys and Dolls; book of; music and lyrics of; opening number of; original cast album of; story and characters of; structure of
“Guys and Dolls”
Gypsy; book of; dialogue in; music and lyrics of; opening number of; original cast album of; overture to; penultimate scene in; story, theme, and characters of; structure of
Gypsy (Lee)
Hair
Hairspray; book of; direction of; music and lyrics of; original cast album of; penultimate scene in; story, theme, and characters of
Hairspray (film)
“Hakuna Matata”
Hamilton, Alexander
Hamilton; hip-hop musical style of; historical content of; opening number of
Hamlet (Shakespeare)
Hamlisch, Marvin
Hammerstein, Oscar, II; death of; operetta lyrics of
“Hand Me Down That Can of Beans”
Handy, W. C.
Happy Hunting
“Happy to Make Your Acquaintance”
Harburg, Yip
Harnick, Sheldon
Harris, Sam
Harrison, Rex
Hart, Lorenz
Hart, Moss
“Hasa Diga Eebowai”
Haun, Harry
“Havana”
Hawks, Howard
“Hello”
Hello, Dolly!; direction of; music and lyrics of; original cast album of; story and characters of
“Hello, Dolly!”