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IS
4 4
1 1I
II I
BCCADWAy
MUSICAL*
\V
Open
treat
No
other form of
enu lainment ge ,c tes such electricity or exother book about Broadway
citement. And
the energy,
ihe exhilarate
has captur
r
,neer size
.c musical with such
color, an
^roadway
fabu'
r .usicais.
>
'
lavish coverage.
This extraordinary volume explores the musical theater in all its dimensions with nearly 400
pictures, 112 of them in full color, including
original production shots of all the great musi-
The
the
"MAGNIFICENT
ZIEGFELD THEATRE
BEST MUSICAL
1975
NEW VORK DRAMA
CIRCLE
CRfTICS
BR
m J!r
"SUPgte
fl
"INCREDIBLE"
"STUNNING'
AWARD
L9
us on
a large-cast, multi-set
IP^
shows, from the first decade of the twentieth century to the present, are
all here
No, No, Nanette, Anything Goes, Porgy
and Bess, Oklahoma!, West Side Story, Fiddler on the
but the text and pictures also proRoof, Annie
vide a view of musicals that even the best seats in
how
PASSIONATE
to
nC
SHUBERT THEATRE
44TH STREET VtEST Of BROADWAY
backstage as it is being performed. The photographs, drawn from the finest theater archives,
include many never before published and some
CRITICS
FEUEIt tnd
MARTIN pruent
COLE PORTER S
CAN-CAN
Booh and Direction by
ABE BURROWS
DafKM
ntf
bi
MICHAEL KIDD
starring
MB
LILO
MEIH
with
CLEAVON LITTLE
MELBA MOORE
Fully inu,
jnf'.
'5
uijsimtions, including
112
SHERMAN HEMSIET
in
C.
DAVID COLSON
JOHN HEFFERNAN
GEORGE
S.
IRVING
ERIK RHODES
NOVELL* NELSON
HELEN MARTIN
JO MIELZINER
full color
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SAM
SHUBERT THEATRE
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JOHN
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music box
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MARTIN GOTTFRIED
BCCADWAy
MUSICALS
tfi
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JANE
m
Project Editor: Robert Morton
Lory Frankel
Designer: Nai Y. Chang
Research Editor: Lois Brown
Editor:
Broadway musicals.
Includes index.
1.
Musical revue, comedy,
etc.
Title.
ML1711.G68
782.8T097471
ISBN 0-8 109-0664-3
78-31297
in
Japan
isse
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 6
ELEMENTS OE A MUSICAL
III
dock 9
MUSIC 39
LYRICS 53
I I
I II
MINIM A SHOW
M TIM
73
THE SUCK
DIRECTORS 5
MISTER ADDCTT 0
JEROME ROLLINS 1C1
LOLEOSSE 111
THE DIRECTORS* ERA 125
RUNNINO A SHOW
TURCUCU ANNIE 151
COMPOSERS: THE CIANTS
JEROME
IN 1C1
RICHARD RODOERS 175
COLE RCRTER 2C1
OEOROE CERSHWIN 221
I
IRVINO
I I
IN 235
MODERN ERA
COMROSERS:
III MISTERS 249
III
III
RROEESSIONALS 287
STERHEN SONDLiEIM
I I
317
EINALE 341
INTRODUCTION
This book
is
devoted
in
Drawing by Al Hirschfeld
from The World of
Hirschfeld.
in another.
always appreciate great art, but it knows what sterile art is. It can
often separate the pretentious and sham from the direct and legitimate. Recognizing this, most producers realize the futility of trying
is
from
The Woi
Id of
Hirschfeld.
technique.
reasonable.
spirit
supposed
The
They
are
all
is
to be.
popular and
is
an
art both
fine,
naive variety shows and the musicals of the early days. They still
energize the increasingly artistic musicals. It is this flamboyance and
showmanship that have c reated the mystique of Broadway musicals.
on a show's theatrical
It is this emphasis on entertainment first
viability
in artistic
ride begins.
in",
choreography
In
Bob Fosse.
<**
S&*
2
.
W-
%'K
'^
'.<
JT.
7V.1
rr
m
V
V ->
v.
it
m **;
Pr
ft
fe
k
,*
BMC
SSI
THE
Of
Cl\
lyrics
the book
set to.
It
is
is
is
produced
Ultimately,
it is
musical.
preciated. Consequently,
is
it is
What
If the
is
is
awkward, having nothing to do; scenes are not playing smoothl) and
musical numbers aren't properly set up; in short, one way or anothei
the book isn't working. Show doctors look on such defects as things
be "fixed." They rewrite in sections, tinkering with the faults,
adding, dropping, and combining characters as if playing with tin
soldiers. Seldom having more than a few weeks in which to do this,
they gloss over the problems, hoping to hide them.
Book trouble is not always the result of poor writing. Sometimes
it is also the result of material that is unmusical. Certain stories and
subjects and settings have natural musical references. The King and I,
for example, has them in the exotic sounds and gestures of Siam.
The story for The Musk Man is also itself musical, dealing as it docs
to
may
hythm of
)thei
dealt,
not
somehow
sue
labor
dance quality
that does not.
in
its
Still,
means
all.
work
as less
an
The
success.
What
them: texts tailored to the form and style of the musical theater and
to a particular show. Such books require an understanding of the
musical's chemistry. Playwrights are unlikely to share the mentality
10
he Red
popular Broadway
performances
operettas,
running 279
enjoying a
'hows
and
ties
I
tin
he Red
ill,
and opened
>n usual as we know it
audiences
songs (including
W<
"),
enchanted
Broadway
11
The
style
set by
Guy Bolton
(left),
Wodehouse
(center)
Although the term "book musical" has come to mean a conventional show, it originally meant the musical with a story, as opposed
to a revue, which is a series of songs and sketches. "Book" derives
from the Italian "libretto" ("booklet") the script of an opera. The
librettist wrote every word of dialogue and song. Some of Broadway's librettists, like Oscar Hammerstein II, continued to do all a
show's writing: the play and the lyrics. But almost at the start, we had
specialists: lyricists and librettists. So, "libretto" and "librettist" have
come to refer to the book the script of a musical rather than the
lyrics.
his collaborators
own
lines,
The
to
first
first librettist
perhaps the
first
person
thing
12
new
a musical
play.
In adapting
Edna
Hammerstein began
was integrating the book with the lyrics, thereby creating the
"book song." A book song relates to and even Furthers the plot,
functioning as dialogue set to music. Early musical comedies hadn't
plot enough to support sue h relevant lyrics. Hammerstein provided
tion
all
movie.
The
is
.i
it\
thru
it
was
in
I
Ruhaul
exhilarating.
m lyrit
m Hammi rstein II In
in, ir_
new
to
scores.
Holm,
Ihnt
him
(
tn ()\i
In
reated om- of
upfront
mul I loin
Betty Garde,
\lfred Drake,
ami
In
tin
lift to
ists
great
from
stylt
Broadway
13
95,
Sit
AH*
%
'"
JAm
:.<
IKN
'
; m<?~.
r<
9 H
^to**
*
>
01
p
I1
w
Lj
*p
is
is
no dialogue.
The second
sarcastically,
"He
is
pleased with
and master." The King and Anna enter and meet for
the first time. This is one of the book's longer scenes, taking time to
develop the main characters. Anna is refined and cerebral, the King
authoritarian and physical. They spar about her quarters, which are
in the palace. Anna insists on the private house she was promised.
The King refuses and leaves. His head wife, Lady Thiang, tells Anna
of Tuptim's love for the young man who brought her. There seems
only one purpose for this: so that Anna can sing "Hello, Young
Lovers." After the song, the King reappears, announcing that the
me!/My
lord
seems
this
a contrivance
it
plays smoothly,
is
marvelous.
There
The
is
another scene
in
The
Here, in
theater's
most thrilling
I, is
moments "Shall We
its
976,
premiere, Brynner
Towers,
two-year run
astoundingfor a
revival.
many years, before I came here," she says, "Siam was to me that
white spot.
16
Now
"For
son leaves.
17
She asks Anna to forgive the King and help put his court into
European shape, for a British legation is coming to see things for
themselves. Lady Thiang sings about the King's specialness
"Something Wonderful" and Anna is convinced, understandably,
for the song represents ideal integration of lyrics and plot, making a
most compelling argument: "He may not always say/What you
would have him say/But now and then he'll say/Something wonderful." Hammerstein uses this song just as effectively in the following
scene in one, after Lady Thiang tells the Prime Minister she's con-
vinced Anna to help the King. For this time, when she sings a reprise
of "Something Wonderful," the implication is not of her love for an
imperfect King but of Anna's, which is then budding. This is excellent dramatic manipulation on Hammerstein's part.
In the final scene of the first act, Anna and the King are
unconsciously playing courtship games and it is quite nice. The
scene and the act then end uncommonly, not with a musical number
but dramatically, capitalizing on the device that had been set up over
the previous hour and a quarter: The King prays to Buddha for
success with the visiting English, promising in exchange for that
success that he will give
Anna
upbeat.
The second and weaker act opens with the King's wives dressing
in Western style and singing "Western People Funny," but when the
it is
condescending treatment of Orientals, evident throughout the show, is typical of both Hammerstein
and the period in which he was writing. Anna dances with one of the
Englishmen, a former beau, making the King jealous. The show's
most crudely structured scene follows: Lady Thiang tells Tuptim
that her lover is being sent away. The couple plans to flee together.
They sing "I Have Dreamed." Anna comes across them, they tell her
of their plans, and she reprises "Hello, Young Lovers."
Next comes Jerome Robbins's ballet, "The Small House of
Uncle Thomas." Presented as an entertainment for the Englishmen,
Tuptim has devised it to describe her own situation: a slave and her
lover fleeing a tyrant. It is an excellent, textual use of ballet and the
dance itself is a classic. Following this is a wasteful section setting up
the minor "Song of the King," but it leads to one of the show's
highlights: Anna teaching the King to polka. "Shall We Dance?"
logically belongs several numbers earlier, after the King had been
madejealous by Anna's dancing with the Englishman. Placed here to
strengthen the second act's latter half, it is virtually uncued but it
remains one of the enthralling moments in American musical theater, a blue-chip showstopper.
The dance is interrupted by Tuptim, who bursts in, pursued by
the King's men. She was caught fleeing and will not tell where her
lover is, though he will soon be found dead. The King is about to
whip the girl when Anna challenges him on the point, calling him a
barbarian. He backs down but realizes that in doing so his time as
king has passed, and he flees from the room. "You have destroyed
King," the Prime Minister tells Anna, in the Pidgin English that
Hammerstein uses throughout the play when dealing with the
British arrive, they panic. This
Siamese.
18
moving
finale.
in this script
is
practical but
it
is
also
The
libretto
is
its
tends to rush from scene to scene, but it deals forthrightly with the
problem of combining dramatic with musical theater. It is also,
not incidentally, a book with great musicality of subject matter
model of its kind. With such work, Oscar Hammerstein II made
drama,
it
too used episodes to link one song with the next, like the
one stanchion
to
another
in a theater lobby.
Some
19
good for
has the simplicity, the energy, and the consistency of the original. Sandy Wilson's The Boy Friend, a rare British
all
time.
It
fifties, is
way show.
Contrary to most, who considered musicals light entertainment
and wrote comedies for them, Joshua Logan tended more toward
the Hammerstein style of musical play. As a director-librettist, he
had a streak of hits from 1 95 to 1 954 South Pacific (co-written with
Hammerstein), Wish You Were Here, and Fanny. Fanny had the best
story, based as it was on Marcel Pagnol's trilogy of plays about life in
Marseilles. It is a good standard musical play.
1
Among the
of
its
Laurents wrote both West Side Story and Gypsy. While neither book
was a work of art, they gave a solid underpinning to the two wonderful shows. He seemed the musical theater's most significant librettist
for Anyone Can Whistle, Do I
since Hammerstein. Yet his later books
Hear a Waltz? and Hallelujah, Baby did not hold up. Joseph Stein
wrote the excellent book for Fiddler on the Roof, but not many others
of its caliber.
Laurents and Stein, like Lerner, wrote musical plays in the
Oscar Hammerstein tradition. Betty Comden and Adolph Green,
on the other hand, were heirs to George Abbott's style of musical
,
20
.4//
affectionatefun at
Rodgers and
American musicals
/fair's
year-old Julie
Andrew
(right).
//
920s notably
(
introduced a nineteen-
Author-composer-lyru
ist
Sandy
that
is
hi'
what
it
intended.
21
among
their start
under
his direction.
They were
all librettists
Dolly!
lished
and
him
Love
My
Wife.
as a true professional.
established
first.
Ephraim
Levi, has
made
in full
like illustrations
The first
opening number
midst of this
train to Yonkers.
22
style.
consistent
in the
of these olios takes Dolly
to Grand Central Station for the
bemoaning
to
Barnaby
their restricted
life.
They
will
go
to
New
York, he says they will stink up the store with exploding tomato
"We're going to have a good meal,
cans so that it must be closed
we're going to be in danger, we're going to spend all our money,
we're going to be arrested .... And we're not coming back to Yonkers
until we've each kissed a girl!" As the cans start to explode they sing
"Put On Your Sunday Clothes."
Upstairs, Dolly, Ambrose, and Ermengarde are also dressing to
go to New York, for Dolly is going to enter them in a polka contest at
the Harmonia Gardens Restarurant so that with the prize
a week's
engagement as a dance act they can afford to get married. So these
three join in singing "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" while the set
becomes the Yonkers railway station. A big, steaming locomotive
and train arrive for everyone to board and as it pulls offstage, the hat
shop of Irene Molloy pulls on. Irene's assistant, Minnie Fay, can't
open the door but Irene arrives to cut stage fiction with the breath of
reality: "It's stuck? Then push!" The two revolve the whole set,
transforming the store's facade into its back wall. Irene tells Minnie
she's marrying Vandergelder because she's tired of "being suspected
of being a wicked woman with nothing to show for it." Trying on a
hat she sings "Ribbons Down My Back" which, like all ballads, is hard
to cue and defies musical staging. Cornelius and Barnaby show up,
hiding from Vandergelder, who is waiting outside the shop to meet
Dolly. When he comes in, bringing Irene chocolate-covered peanuts
(unshelled), the boys hide. Vandergelder realizes someone is hiding
there ("No man that hides in ladies' closets can frighten me") but
Dolly, who has arrived a few' minutes earlier, distracts him by singing
"Motherhood." Once Vandergelder goes, Irene tells the boys to
leave or she'll call the police, but with her usual perverse logic, Dolly
suggests that Irene and Minnie dine with them first. "It's the way
done
dungeons afterwards."
Believing Dolly's description of Cornelius and Barnaby as playboys,
Irene suggests they all eat at the plush Harmonia Gardens, but the
things are
in the law.
Dinner
first,
impoverished Cornelius begs off, claiming he can't dance. Presenting her dance instructor's card, Dolly insists that "absolutely no sense
of rhythm is one of the primary requirements for learning by the
Gallagher-Levi Method." The dance lesson becomes a full-scale
waltzing number, "Dancing."
This almost c inematically dissolves, again through the use of an
olio, into Dolly's old neighborhood. She tells her dead Kphraim that
she's had enough of independence: "I've decided to rejoin the
human race, and Kphraim ... want you to give me away!" That is.
I
23
Parade Passes By," but it enriches Dolly's character and works with
great feeling. At the parade, Vandergelder fires Dolly as his matchmaker, convincing her "he's as good as mine," and the first-act
curtain falls. Here, again, is that rarity, a dramatically effective,
cheerful
The second
naby walking
to the
and Bar-
to the
penniless boys, "really elegant people never take hacks." This becomes the stylish song and dance "Elegance." As they all exit, Am-
brose and Ermengarde enter, practicing their polka for the dance
contest. They pass, too, while Vandergelder finally meets Ernestina
Money, a very fat young lady indeed. This all happens "in one" the
only use of this device in all of Hello, Dolly! and it is used because the
subsequent Harmonia Gardens setting is too elaborate to be moved
in full audience view, by remote control. Now the light bleeds
through behind this scrim (a painted drop curtain that becomes
transparent with such lighting). At the Harmonia Gardens the waiters are being told that in honor of Dolly's return after a ten-year
,
There
will
more of
ice
the "Waiters' Galop"
buckets, trays, and skewers flying through the air. Barnaby and
is
falls.
This show marked a sharp break with Broadway's musical comedies. Demanding more of a book, Stewart made it much more
classical in its style
classier.
24
of farce,
to the story
and
also to
its style,
theater
is
in all
of
Dolly's entrance at
title
songfrom
this
one
is
all
great stage
a transaction
sang
it,
the
directly between
audience neverfailed
to
cheer
Clothes"
is
and choreographic
from the steaming
of Hello, Dolly!
locomotive
to the
feathered hats
and
the
l
&im
^^M
V
A
HI
F^
Ik
*K
=jr
V
"V
'/
I
and few of their cues are arbitrary. The central plot deals not with a
romance between a standard hero and heroine, but, rather, with an
antiromance between a conniver and an object of ridicule. The basis
of Stewart's libretto is actually style, and in that respect Hello, Dolly.r s
story is consonant with its stage production. The show deserved
every one of its 2,844 performances. Revived ten years after its
opening, a dangerous age, it showed no sign of dating. It seems a
classic. It is also a truly funny musical, one of several produced in the
sixties. The musical theater was unmistakably graduating from the
adolescence of musical comedy.
Matching Neil Simon with composer Cy Coleman and lyricist
Carolyn Leigh for the 1962 Little Me was inspired. Patrick Dennis's
satiric novel, Little Me, is a mocked memoir of a been-around actress.
In adapting it, the challenge lay in converting the story to one with a
starring male role. Simon, along with co-directors Cy Feuer and Bob
Fosse, accomplished this by having the lead (Sid Caesar) play all
seven men in the actress's life, beginning with her lifelong love,
Noble Eggleston, a young aristocrat so rich he attends both Harvard
Law School and Yale Medical School.
Little Me has one of the best of Broadway musical books.
Though it ran for only 247 performances, the show has developed a
cult following and is better remembered than many greater hits.
Perhaps the eccentricity of its comedy was ahead of its time. The
show will doubtless prove revivable because of its unique, smoothly
written, and deliriously funny script. The score is also wonderful
but, again, the lasting power of a Broadway musical is always determined by its book. Musical scores can endure but they cannot over-
28
Me.
1966,
1978.
and
He
and
style is
fam
tonefot
production, even
songs
its
\<omi< musical,
own comu
its
style
entire
tin
and dances,
an/1
The
Mc
Little
is
made
until
its
time.
(co-directors),
Cy Coleman (musii
Leigh
(lyrics)
overall tour
its
Neil Simon.
librettist,
unusually whimsical
Little-
),
awl Carolyn
i/v/s srt
Mc
In the
sho.rsan
bizarre Simon,
and even
from
is
Mc
was tailored
It
to
it
is
tmh
zany
Sid Caesar's
is
e.
He ha/I heen
and knew
by heart
which
it is
memoirs
Dennis hook on
of
famous
("Poitrine," of course,
life of
is
Belle Poitrtne
French for
chest),
accident
swim,
when
and drowns.
famous movie
star,
bet
from
?6 Black
to l )
course,
is
draws a gun.
points
it
"It's
the only
way," he
says.
is
of
But he
a stick-up."
naturalistic.
The parts
its
subject
the
Kit
for these
sc
its
John
harac
one
It
29
*A.^
<r-,'
^1
/jv;
^*J >v
;****
32
West Side Story and leading through Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret,
Company, and Follies. Indeed, Bennett, who "conceived, choreographed and directed" A Chorus Line, had been Company's choreog-
rapher and Follies' s co-director. The book of A Chorus line docs not
have the ingenious structure that Company's book has, nor the conceptual authority of Pacific Overtures book but it organically includes
song and dance as a series of pools and undercurrents flowing
throughout the body of the show. Taking music and dance, as well as
and their roles in the show are written into
the book, into account
the book
A Chorus Line was the most successful of all the concept
musicals up to its time. It was a monster hit, and that was because A
Chorus Line had the excitement and emotional clout that successful
Broadway musicals always have and always must. So its book is worth
detailed study as an example of the book of a concept musical.
A Chorus Line's book was written by James Kirkwood and
Nicholas Dante, though Bennett formed the show in rehearsal before a word of dialogue had even been written. The script was based
on tape-recorded conversations between the dancers and Bennett.
The book was begun, then, with the production already getting on
its feet. The script opens with action: the sound of a rehearsal piano.
The lights go up on a dance studio. Zach, a choreographer, is leading
twenty-eight dancers at an audition. He chants the directions over
Again." The orand over: "Step, kick, kick, leap, kick, touch
chestra goes to full blast. Brief spurts of dialogue between the
dancers tell the audience the basic facts of such rehearsals and what
these "gypsies" (chorus dancers) are like as people. A song with the
repeated lyric "God, I hope I get it!" is interwoven with the dialogue.
The "it" is the jobs they're all after. Among the dancers, Zach
personally knows only Cassie.
The "story" doesn't start in earnest until after ten minutes of
this dance and dialogue. After eliminating several dancers, Zach tells
the
the sixteen remaining dancers to step up to the "chorus line"
white adhesive tape on the stage floor. When they are in a row he
asks each dancer to give his name and age and to tell a little about
himself. While they do so, he moves to the rear of the auditorium,
behind the audience. Then, Zach explains that he is looking for a
"strong dancing chorus" but thinks it "would be better if I knew
something about you." (Nothing of the sort happens at real auditions.) He tells them he is going to hire four males and four females.
Mike, asked to begin, talks about his childhood introduction to
dancing. This becomes a song and dance for him, "I Can Do That."
Bob talks about his past but, behind him, the company resumes the
chant they repeated earlier, this time asking, "What should I say?"
Bob finally continues his story and then Sheila, who has been established as the wisecracker, the show's comic relief, takes her turn.
This becomes another autobiographical song, "At the Ballet," but in
the midst of it the others in the company sing individual lines about
their own, similar pasts. With Kristine's turn to speak, her memories
lead into a duet with her husband, Alan (also auditioning), "Sing!"
she can't).
(which is this character's problem
As the individual reminiscences continue, a mini-opera begins.
Mark starts telling a childhood story that fades into the company
singing "Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love." That refrain
becomes the overall motif and frame for bits and pieces of different
'
33
"**
^^^ **^&
^^
A M
1
'v^^A
But then
when
was fifteen
\\\d
Although
A Chorus
From
right are
Sammy
Williams as a vulnerable
and
Ass";
LuPone as
the
the singer
it
(A Chorus L/nr)
verging on recitative.
he refrain ol
"Goodbye Twelve" resumes, building against the various counterpointed stories. The entire number takes a lull fifth of the- show's
This
is
the integrated
lytic
entire script
young man is
and so the choreographer excuses him and .ills a
break. It leaves the stage empty for a personal scene between Za< h
and Classic-. The book's only "story" as such invokes them, and the
writing here changes decidedly. What had sounded like ac tual conversation (and probably was, mostly), now takes on a very "written"
Zach
calls
reluctant to speak,
<
sound.
We learn
had been
a featured
the
step, up, step, up, plie, kick, plie, tip the hat, plie, tip the hat.
35
plie
hat.
right, ball
Now,
let's
When
company
the
ZACH
girl
Is this
what you
really
want
to
do?
(THEY both
to
life.
... I'd
derful.
all
special.
combinations. Paul slips in the midst and damages his bad knee. His
career is probably over. The event is striking and we realize a truth
about dancers' dependency on physical luck, but it is used to lead
into the show's one irrelevant song, "What I Did for Love." Though
this is a good ballad, it is a blatant try by composer Marvin Hamlisch
and Edward Kleban for a hit (they got it). It detracts from a score
otherwise scrupulous in its devotion to the show's purposes. This
song is followed by Zach's announcement of his selections. His
speech is brief. He asks those whose names he calls to step forward.
These are the ones eliminated. (The dramatic device is lifted from the
movie The Red Shoes.) Cassie is among the chosen. In reality she
would not have been. The emotional effect of her being rejected
would have been strong but also perhaps depressing, which is why
the decision was made otherwise. As the lights dim, Zach tells the
remaining eight dancers that they have jobs.
In Zach's final speech he says the words these dancers have been
dreaming of hearing, the answered prayer in the show-business
litany: "Rehearsals begin September 22nd. We will rehearse for six
weeks with a two-month out-of-town tryout," and so on. The chosen
dancers are overcome with emotion. One weeps. Another reaches
for the rafters.
36
A Chorus
is
taste.
the book
is
where
a musical starts.
37
zM
MUSIC
Music is the key to musicals and yet were it strictly the music that
epitomized the feel of musicals, we could sit at a piano, play a show's
songs, and get the kick we get at the theater. It is a score as it is
performed that characterizes our musical theater. In tracing the
music's journey from its composer's piano to the stage, perhaps we
can understand the process, if not the magic, by which a show sparks
to life.
The score
for a musical
is
second
act) to the
musical number.
music. Irving Berlin, at the other end, could play the piano
and there have been Broadway composers who
in only one key
couldn't even do that. Most Broadway composers are slightly
classical
arrangements. These state the song in the upper staff (or row of
lines on which music is written), and then give a complete piano
arrangement of the accompaniment in the bottom two staves. It can
pretty much state what kind of orchestration the composer has in
mind voicings, harmonies, counterpoint, and so on. Ideally, the
composer should do his own orchestrations. It makes the music
personal and whole. Some, including Bernstein and Kurt Weill,
have worked on their own orchestrations. Gershwin, of course,
orchestrated Porgy and Bn\. But few Broadway composers are
trained for it, and most claim that the breakneck production
s<
39
Petei
Howard, conductor
nj
Annie.
hundred songs
made.
is
were
The composers begin their work when the first draft of the book
finished. With that in hand, the composer and lyricist make the
his script to
fit
their songs.
Having been placed, the songs are then written. Usually, but not
always, the music comes first; occasionally lyrics are written first
(Hammerstein almost always did this). Some composer-lyricist
teams work simultaneously. For example, the lyric for the main part
of a song (the chorus) might fit the music perfectly but the lyricist
may have thought of a middle part (release) that does not. If the
composer can be convinced of the lyric's quality, he will write new
music for it. So the songs grow through a process of give-and-take.
The songs written by the composer and lyricist at this stage are
rarely, if ever, the final ones.
theater,
The
is
It is
theater works
in
melodies,
makeup, and
texture
creative source.
Whin
ness Like
Show
Merman heard
the marvelous "There's No BusiBusiness' For Annie Get )'<>tn Gun, she insisted that it
Ethel
be hers
to sing.
sing
it?
problem. The
operators of the show, she suggested, would sing the first chorus and
?" and proceed to do the rest
then Merman would say, "You mean
of the number. Berlin translated this into the lyric, "There's no
business like show business/If you tell me it's so." Even as late as
1946. then, when musicals were presumably growing up, such stuff
and nonsense was common. In fact, stars still demand good songs for
themselves or deny them to others. So, song spotting is not always
reasonable. Moreover, the most unreasonable spot can be overwhelmingly successful.
If a director is involved with a musical early on, he too will work
on song placement. With the growing importance of the director in
musical theater, this initial involvement is becoming common. Indeed, the director is usually the ultimate judge of which songs go
where.
Once these songs are approved by the director (assuming that
the show has been sold to a producer), the composer tape-records a
piano version of the score for the orchestrator, the choreographer
Dorothy
Written simply
to
in
41
42
is
so
complex,
its
different parts
mr
rehearsed in different places and often not seen In all the contributors until
finished. Here,
<
How
to
Succeed
and dance
in
SO that their
dances.
The dance
pianist
the choreographer.
If
is
middleman between
the
composer and
it
is
If
his al-
when
the
choreographer
is
making of
sounds
to the audience.
its
ok
And
is
responsible
the
moment
lot
the
first
company of a
time
is
reheai
s-
show making.
Broadway ore hestratoi s work under an absurd handicap: The)
are obligated to employ the prec ise numbei of musicians, spec ied
thrills of
if
43
Ballet
in the
musical theater,
dance music
is
existing music.
extemporizedfrom tunes
But
in the
44
Jk
-J
if
^
re
\*&>
rmi
-.,
The
Jonathan Tunick for Stephen Sondheim. Even in such cases, however, the result is only an approximation of what the composer might
have done for himself.
The songs cannot be orchestrated until they've been routined
and rehearsed. Routining is the actual conversion of a song into
performance. It is the laying out of how a song is sung; the number
of people to sing it and the number of choruses to be sung; whether
it should be fast or slow, loud or soft; what key it will be sung in; if,
when, and how to use a chorus behind the singer; if there should be
dialogue inside the song; how to voice the chords (that is, writing the
harmonies for the chorus if it is not to sing in unison) and soon. If
the composer does not voice the chords, a vocal arranger will. Sometimes, a musical number so dominates a scene
a finale, for
example that the entire sequence, including dialogue, is routined.
46
Hi
the time
mugging
ballet,
which
of Phil Silvers,
Mack
so
Sennett (Mac k
and Mabel),
he didn't
certainly didn't
musical.
budget
how
he can
keep the songs routined and rehearsed
fast
one step ahead of the orchestrator. In addition, the score for each
a laborious task
musician in the pit band is copied by hand
rather than printed. If song changes and slow rehearsals force the
orchestrator to go out of town with a show, and he and the copyists
end up working around the clock, orchestration can triple in cost,
to as
much
as $
()(),()()()
in 1977.
the subject
Underscoring is the music played beneath dialogue and between scenes to accent mood and to provide continuity. It is usually
left for last. Before microphones came into use, only light
instruments strings or flutes could be played while actors were
speaking or else their lines would be inaudible. Choreographerdirectors are especially music-conscious and want continuous
music. Amplification of the voices has made that possible. Under-
composer
he is able and willing; it is not as challenging as writing original dance music or doing
the orchestration. Pieces of the songs are more apt to be used than
original themes. More often than not it is the hard-working dance
pianist who does it. Miallv the orchestration of the underscoring is
postponed while a show is on the road. The composer or dance
pianist will meanwhile improvise it for one or two pit musicians to
the-
if
play.
The
musicians
who
are to play in
is
New York
are hired by a
"c
ontrai
17
Julie
Andrews works on
the routining
of "Show
Me" in My
Fair Lady.
them.
The pit musicians are led by a musical director who, despite his
title, is not the show's musical director. (That role is really the
composer's.) He is a conductor. Yet he too is an important figure
because he is the only member of a show's musical team who is
present at every performance and who is an active participant in the
daily running of the show. It is the musical director who keeps the
musicians and singers in balance and up to standard; he who keeps
the tempos right
the musicians synchronized with the singers and
dancers; he who makes sure numbers don't slow down or (more
likely) speed up as the show goes into a long run.
Finally, there is the sound engineer. When musicals introduced
microphones and sound amplification in the late forties, an audio
engineer was added to the theater personnel. By the time of rock
musicals, composers were seeking to emulate the fabulous tricks of
studio engineering that had been developed by the pop-record
industry. Burt Bacharach, a composer whose experience and success
had been with pop records and movie music, hoped to bring to the
theater their tricks of over-dubbing, sound mixing, and isolated
amplification when he did Promises, Promises in 1968. Bacharach
brought a first-rate recording engineer into the theater along with a
sound-mixing console. The engineer was placed in the midst of the
audience at the rear of the house and has since become a familiar
there
is
sight in theaters.
Follies,
There have
tapes while the actors synchronized their lips to the recordings. This
was necessary for hectic numbers in which the actors have to sing
48
his
keyboard.
the
v-^
<-
.-)
mm
v **fV
I'
i_ycics
Weary of repeated references to "Ol' Man River" being Jerome
Kern's song, the wife of Oscar Hammerstein II finally said that Kern
hadn't written "Ol' Man River" at all. Kern wrote "Da-da-da-da," she
said. "Oscar Hammerstein wrote 'Ol' Man River.'"
make
it
singable, they
make
it
They make
whole.
it
a song.
In a crowning momentfrom
laughed when
<>t
his
household
staff
and his
an obvious place
fin a
iong hut a
lyricist less
Once
M\
never entered
my
mind.
musical
the
the lyrics
the- lyrics
are the
least
rucial to success.
it
lyrics,
danc
es, sets,
costumes)
th.it
53
i.
When lyrics are mundane, they simply present the music. When
they are well made, they can also be appreciated in themselves,
providing two pleasures for the price of a song. But when they are
theatrically conceived, they can elevate the entire
matic experience.
An example
You
it!
As much
The
as Frederick
We
men
54
serving
line, ideally
i
onus
al
up
it
.it
the
(if
lyric). It
must
grasp the kernel of the comic situation and then play with the
elements that make it unn\
Having first concentrated on the contribution of the lyric to the
show, the story, and the character, the lyricist must then fit it to the
music or, if writing before the- music is composed, write- with music in
f
mind. This calls in the craft of lyric writing and it is a very strict one.
Writing to Sir Arthur Sullivan's music W. S. Gilbert established the
discipline that Broadway's lyricists follow. The Savoy operas set out
standards of prosody (the faithful matching of pronunciation and
accent to musical time values), rhyming, singabilitv, verbal dexterity,
literacy, and felicity of expression. The prosody must be immaculate
,
W.
our
Ever willing
To be wooing,
We were billing
We were cooing;
When merely
I
From him
parted,
We
were nearly
Broken-hearted
When
in
sequel
Reunited,
Gilbert
if
(The Gondoliers)
made such
virtuosity
Let's
Celebrated as Porter
noted lor romanc e:
is
is
just as
55
title
song.
Ever
up
would review
to his
his
usual standard.
Is
some guy
in the sky
Yet
(Anything Goes)
The drama
its
meeting
When ev'ry
Intruding
is
in nudist parties
In studios,
Anything goes!
Rhyming
(Anything Goes)
"intruding," "nudist,"
lyrics at
cian as Porter
56
where
them
pm post-.
[e
<
Hammerstein knew
series
(Oklahoma!
saccharine, but, except for "gist" (of what?), these are excellent
examples of internal rhymes that are ingenious without being senseless, and they are not showy. We will find that too many good lyricists
want their tricks noticed. Sometimes we enjoy the fun. Other times
we
tire
of its
triviality.
of
England had
recently
57
me.
listen to
The breeze
hasn't time
To stop and
hear what
talk to
them
say.
in vain.
all
Touch someone
my dreams
I tell
you
And
(Paint Your
Wagon)
"Smoke Gets
ever,
in
Your
Eyes"). In P. G.
a lyricist for a
Wodehouse, how-
These are not exemplary lyrics. "Form and face" and "manly grace"
are each awkwardly sung to notes played in rapid succession. The
first phrase, having three words, makes for uncomfortable singing;
"manly grace" is better. "That you" is wrongly accented not only for
the sake of a musical beat but to
rhyme with
rhyme
only
if
love
him
The
(Shoiv Boat)
don't
fills
Hammerstein.
The
informal
style
Weep no more, my
lady,
58
We
will
home,
At Tony Pastor's
And
this
That we
That we won't come home,
No, we won't come home until we
There
fall in
love!
(Hello, Dolly!)
of challenge that
Porter and Hart were the supreme lyricists of the American musical
theater, at least as it existed in their day. Hart was twenty-three when
he teamed up with Richard Rodgers in 1918, and but for trivial
exceptions he never worked with anyone else. His lyrics were tender,
established by Gilbert.
It
little
risk
his
Can
Who
wants people?
The
furtive sigh,
The self-deception
I
wish
were
till
the day
in love again.
die,"
lie
(Babes in Arms)
showed
many
59
let's
alike,
Soon be
national.
Say
it
Come true,
Baby.
sexy
!razy. It
to
performance was
r/.s
{Oh, Kay)
Perhaps all the "baby's" and "sweetie pie's" in Ira Gershwin's lyrics
have come to characterize his work but they also characterize the
Broadway feeling of his era.
E.Y. ("Yip") Harburg was Ira Gershwin's protege, but though
he began writing for the theater in 1929, wrote the classic "Brother,
Can You Spare a Dime?," and did the marvelous lyrics for The
WizardofOz, Harburghad no hit show until the 1944 BloomerGirl. In
1947 he came up with his only other major success, the classic
Finians Rainbow with Burton Lane. Aside from the mildly successful
Jamaica, Harburg's other shows did not do very well.
Finians Rainbow made Yip Harburg's reputation. Its lyrics are
so often cited as models by later generations of Broadway lyricists
that he might be considered the most influential of all the masters.
This is because he was one of the first to write lyrics to character and
managed to combine our best lyric-writing traditions: the wit of Hart
and Porter, the warmth of Hammerstein, the directness of Berlin,
the spirit of Ira Gershwin. Working to Lane's rich Firuan stoic,
Harburg came up with a gimmick lyric that only Ira Gershwin could
have so unself-consciously exploited:
61
In
Lady
in the
to
Lawrence was
the mock-ardent
Gershwin's
lyric
overdone:
"Head
to toe
know
Thou'rt so adorish,
Toujours l'amourish,
I'm so cherchez la femme.
Why should I vanquish, relinquish, resish,
When I simply relish this swellish condish?
this lyric
Rainbow)
positively ingenious
is
(Finian's
and
it is
a very early
My heart's in a pickle,
It's
constantly fickle,
And
fear.
(Finian's
as "constant"
Rainbow)
is
impeccable, his
Ira Gershwin,
Howard
Dietz was
We do ev'rything alike
We look alike, we dress alike,
We walk alike, we talk alike,
And what is more we
On
62
to
tell
us apart.
Dancing
Till
in
the dark.
Were
waltzing in the
here,
Time
hurries by,
We're here and gone.
(The
Band Wagon)
This song
is
This
lyric
uses
it
As in
myself,
Though
the
dance
of of)'stage singers
Wagon
WOS made
in 1968,a.sfa>
It
WHS
the
63
We
lyrics
plot.
lyrics
grated")
lyrics.
Relevant
lyrics refer to
He had
These are in the character's style. The jokes are on her, so they make
her lovable, and they are jokes that land (that is, they work). When
Dorothy Fields wrote for ordinary people like Cissy, the people
sounded not only legitimate but as if she liked them.
real big
spender.
(Siveet Charity)
This was Fields writing, at sixty, for the dance hall hostesses in Sweet
Charity. She never let slang developments pass her by. Set to Cy
Coleman's music, these words are colloquial and on the nose as well
as intelligible (as lyrics must be). They also support the melody,
64
giving fat sounds for the music's big beats "walked," "joint,"
"man," "dis-ft>if -tion," and "real," "big," "spender." These are words
lyric
it
is
the lyric
Lyricists Betty
got
The number
is
Get
the
Town)
for On the
Town,
lyrics by
This
is
and performed
in nightclub revues. It
These beautiful
Pajama Game
Eddie Foy,Jr.
eccentric
Her
is.
lyricists
fella bats,
Not
lyricists
66
it
is
Her is
kinda doll what drives a
Isn't her?
comedy
Janis Paige in
(left)
burlesque clowns on
specific
It also
comic
and
gave
see
how
they look
So discreetly sympathetic
When they see the rose and the book.
I
make believe
Nothing is wrong.
pretend?
make it right.
Dear Friend.
(She Loves
Me)
is
just gorgeous.
and the irony of his partner John Kander's music, Ebb realized
that the lyrics would most effectively contribute to the savage mood
if they were sickeningly innocent against that background:
ness
What good
is
sitting
is
a cabaret, old
chum,
(Cabaret)
on the idea of a vaudeville bill, is about an adulteress who murders her lover. Ebb's "Mister Cellophane" is a song
that her ignored husband sings in the costume of a gloomy clown:
Chicago, built
68
and
correctly
this lyric
is
secure
pronounced on every
every word
beat.
is
The words
are easy for the actor to sing. In keeping with Chicago's concept, the
lyric is modeled on a period number
Bert Williams's "Nobody"
and even
phraseology
is
in a
I,
I,
(The Act)
Comparisons are useless but irresistible. Our theater has had lyricists
the equal of Fred Ebb, but none the superior.
The third major lyricist of this generation is Carolyn Leigh.
However, with only three complete scores for the conventional
shows Wildcat, Little Me, and How Now, Dow Jones
to her credit,
she hasn't faced as many challenges as Harnick and Ebb. Miss Leigh
works in the style of the classicists Hart, Gershwin, Porter, and
Harburg and none of her contemporaries can write a gentler or
more consistently metaphoric lyric:
Right
The
now I'm
ship that
Has me
in the
call
hope.
"Hope"
bow.
tall
all
hope
(Wildcat)
lyricists,
the
comedy song
The
rhyme scheme
(Little
from
is
Me)
Little
Me
70
is
which had boon so long rej ted foi the wil <>l [ai and
Porter. Simplicity is as valid (and certainly as difficult to achieve) as
tradition,
genuinely sophisticated
state.
71
/
iss
-f
i
99MHH^^HBHHS
MWi^^HHBHH
A SHOW
DESIGNING
Scenery for a musical
expensive
elements.
is
among
its
A Broadway
one
of the
even full-scale
closed,
it
from
for the
1978
sketch to blueprint to
Limited
the show.
exteriors,
rotated
thirties
interiors,
train unfolded
On
hit
streamlined train
and
(left)
and
spread-eagle
with the
Harold Prince wanted it. That was the way most directors of musicals had
come to want it, making for a fluid, uninterrupted performance. There was
a time -when musicals restricted themselves to one set per act or, when
changes needed to be made, they were made during blackouts or behind a
curtain while the actors performed out front ("in one," as
set
up and
in
view
directors actually
musical's
set
of the
Twentieth Century,
they
it's
called).
and
lights
Today,
remain
of scenery. Indeed, a
like
On
the
of the
Imogene
oca
f>la\s
a religious fanatii
stirkns on everything
who
\laf>s
"Repent"
observation car.
73
SVG,
AlfMSAH
fAiMf^b -,^ewC>
t-
l-MI
T=(_je-s:.T-
fci
s
->
g>
^\
(sonrTHikiC-! Utaa
;-
LJ
Stage right
Observation car
Compartment A
Bar
I
Proscenium
<
Ac-*c/-Ac*fc=rn35.
vj
Rear of stage
"XL
K
Audience
,l
>>/
At the
/;/
fen left
On
lit-
is
Robin Wagner's
Neat
left
is
sketch
Wagner's
l>\
the
sketch anil
/< the
On arjaffe.
first
Arc
is
about
Garland. At
left (below)
is
Wagner's blueprint
of bird's-eye
On
/<
so
the scenu
of the era's
the
Nolan Scenery
studios,
sbme the
marked
off
on huge pieces
aid oj mechanical
pipes
stencils
"flats" were
interior of
of
sketch {opposite,
The
new
period of
used as a
pieces of
arrangements necessary
main
a kind
is
star. Lily
of the St.
(,nl"
of the
he makes a
of the girl
up on a grid
system,
OJ
tin
mounted on frames,
paintings,
and
stored in the
moment.
75
7
TU"
L
I
^;
CENTURY
UGH
&H
wide;
scale
its
is
one
it.
in dotted
it,
observation-car set in
lines, is the
its
closed
(right), the
It opens,
this takes
During
New
to
board the
convince the
now movie
star, Lily
him
76
train.
out.
Garland,
and
bail
77
For
%.'.
the climactic second-act sequence in which the train itself becomes the
Wagner
(left)
of
images. First (top), a dark stage with distant stars; then, on the horizon, two
faraway
and
i-^ 0,1*1 ->
hissing steam fill the proscenium; finally, the entire massive engine
revealed.
Below
is
and
seventeen
and
is
and
this
is
In
its
finished form
(left)
the vast
Revealed
is
tin-
Coan
in the engineer's
(i
a mod, train-long
the
/<,
lilfirkout.
sht
And
on
and trainmen
she's
who
psychiatrists, conductors,
from
window
who
life.
cabin
79
On
Most of
the action of
at the
designer's
show
oj the
Garland
to sign the
a fake suicide, he
last,
desperate effort
lies
to
jooled at
get Lily
so fast,"
A woman
doctor (whose
last wish,
triumphantly. "Not
to
she cries
he exhorts Lily
and Oscar
"Look
to
sign the
leaps
up
at the signature!"
and
Not
Lily suddenly
confess their love for one another; they embrace; the train arrives in
Grand
Central,
80
and
all
ends happily.
81
CCSTWMES
Although costumes give musicals much of their
aren't necessarily the best.
needs. They
must be accurate
to
guy
color, the
in plaid
man
in red
is
woman
vain, the
in
blue
is
and
colors
and
is
I
J
<
^
)
is
c
and
at right are
some color
renderings for Chicago, with the finished costumes beside them. For Pip-
f
*r < * J
\f I
'
***
and flexible
ftgfa
point,
it
left
to
to clean,
tries
to the
shows.
stage
and most
spectacle,
by
Tony
and
with
right, in a fitting
On
the following
Camelot and
room,
page
the
is
1972
Pippin, Broadway costuming had grown from orthodox realism and splendor toward a more creative approach
to
costuming.
83
llvk
ii/.l
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The director of
he supervises
the
speaking of its dialogue, the acting out of its story, the transformation of writing into living theater. The responsibilities of a musical's
director are not so clear-cut because he deals not only with dialogue
and stage directions but also with songs and dances. He is the head of
a creative committee that includes a librettist, a composer, a lyricist,
a choreographer, an orchestrator, designers, rehearsal pianists,
dance arrangers, and vocal arrangers. Presumably, he criticizes,
sorts, apportions, and blends their work and then brings it all to life.
I say "presumably" because directors of musicals have not always wanted to or been allowed to do all this. A show usually has a
center of power and this center has changed from era to era; it still
changes from show to show. Who holds the center of power depends
on who has the reputation, the prestige, the name; it depends on
who finally attracted the producer and the investors. It can be a star
performer or a star composer, or even the producer himself, but
things are not right with a show unless the dominating person is the
director, for his interest is the show as an artistic whole.
Directing a musical is so different from directing a play that few
have been successful at both. At one time, directors of musicals
actually staged only the dramatic scenes
the book
and merely
supervised the musical elements, approving or disapproving the
songs and dances as staged by the choreographer. It was inevitable
that the choreographers would resent a drama person's control over
their work. They felt that rather than the story, the songs and the
dances were what made musicals popular, and that a musical person
rather than a drama person should be in charge. Producers and
composers tended to agree and so, in the sixties, directing began to
pass from the writer-directors such as George S. Kaufman, Abe
Burrows, Moss Hart, Josh Logan, and George Abbott to the choreographer-directors such as Jerome Robbins, Michael Kidd, and Bob
Fosse.
When the choreographers first began to direct, they were handicapped by their inexperience with dialogue and drama. They didn't
know how to deal with actors. Ultimately, those choreographerdirectors who couldn't learn to "direct book" fell by the wayside.
Those who could learn changed the power structure in the musical
The
writer-directors
Gower Champion
them assumed
engaged composers and authors
over by directors.
85
MISTER ABBOTT
From
cals.
He
George Abbott
Once
Upon A Mai
tall,
bespit tailed
casting.
Mr. Abbott
Flora, the
Prone
Mi
Abbott's
si
n(>t; the
omposer and
and
it is
new
until
six
weeks
biter,
when
will
have
family
they
will have their first dress rehearsal and for the
first time hear the musii played by an orchestra.
the most optimistic
exi itnig
day
this
87
The
director, as he
saw the
role,
was
book
88
Yes, that
is
Johnson's
an elephant dwarfed
by Albert
be
the
huge
story
It
Jumbo
starred
press agent. It
Jimmy Durante
was produt ed
as a
by Hilly
flamboyant
Row.
with a
Paul Whiteman.
89
led
When
choreographers began
to
dance were
Oklahoma!
sailors
without song or
This one
on shore leave
is
in
in
from
On
New
York,
Broadway musicals
the
Town: One
Gaby (played
all.
after
of the three
by John Battles),
amusement park, only tofind the locale turn into a boxing ring. She
knocks him out. Symbolism was big in 1 944.
90
The gentleman
is
Donald
At
is
Roberts
hit,
paste-up affairs.
High Button Shoes was Jule Styne's first show as a Broadway
composer. Abbott regularly worked with new composers and lyricists. He had introduced Bernstein to the theater, as well as Hugh
Martin, Morton Gould (Billion Dollar Baby), Frank Loesser (Where's
Charley?), Adler and Ross (The Pajama Game), Bob Merrill (New Girl
in Town), and Stephen Sondheim (A Funny Thing Happened on the
Way to the Forum). This may not have been altogether altruistic of
him. The composer having his first show produced is not apt to be
assertive. Novices can be counted on to be respectful. Abbott occasionally worked with established composers who could fight back,
but his quarrels with Rodgers and Hart had made him wary. Helping newcomers get started had its advantages.
Turning sixty years old as the fifties began, he showed no signs
of slowing down nor of interrupting his succession of hits. He
directed musicals almost exclusively and was very successful with
them. His taste agreed with the public's. It was a taste for the genre of
"musical comedy "
theater meant simply to entertain.
We loved the Abbott musicals of the fifties and love them still.
For many, those were the golden years of musicals. It wasn't just for
their music, it was for their energy and spirit. This was a time when
that excitement seemed perpetual and Abbott helped to keep it
going by directing and co-writing one smash musical after another:
Call Me Madam A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Wonderful Town The Pajama
Game, Damn Yankees, Once Upon a Mattress, Fior ello !
1952 was Abbott's first year without a new musical in seventeen
years! He was back the next year, however, and with two
Wonderful
,
92
Town and Mi and Juliet, the Former liii and tin- latter jolting fii st
failure for Rodgers and lammerstein. It proved to be an iinhapp\
reunion for Abbott and Rodgers.
Wonderful Town contained the seeds of Abbott's approaching
.1
.1
Bernstein's music, as
it
dance show, a step forward from On the Town. Yet Abbott made
Wonderful Town a standard musical and, although Robbins came in
to help on the road, it could not be altered into anything else.
Having successfully tried musical plays with A Tree Grows in
Brooklyn, Abbott now turned to them with increasing frequency. For
Broadway was mistakenly thinking of progress in terms of content
rather than in terms of form. The musical play simply was to be
made the same way as a musical comedy; just without the laughs. For
its lack of laughs alone, it was considered superior to funny theater.
This is wrong in fact and in spirit. There is nothing closer to the
stage's heart than making an audience laugh, and there are few
greater challenges. Yet, in the change from musical comedy to
musical play, laughter as a prime purpose was shunted aside. Development of form which is the only real progress was ignored.
It was of course not the idea of laughter itself but the song-storysong scheme that made the musical comedy trivial. Some shows
sought to be amusing but the fun had gone out of them. As the
clowns went, so went the clowning. Perhaps the theater reflected the
America of the fifties. There were few laughs.
The presence of vaudevillian Eddie Foy,Jr., gave Abbott's The
Pajama Game (1954) some golden comic spirit but this show was
essentially a musical play, and one with a most unlikely subject
An
actor
top hat
this
is
pouring
the stuff oj
Brandon
f Whei e's
stage business 01
was
Ray Bolger,
94
["he
objei
i/\
show,
/ his
tin
to
stardom with
musical
who were
to
die
the
musical director,
oj the
"I'll
Abbott.
Damn
Abbott had staged so many shows that they were beginning to look
alike. His cavalier attitude toward musical numbers and his willingness to force fit a song into a story situation had once been part of
normal procedure. Constantly confronted with the need to find
good excuses for staging dances, he created artificial devices which
stuck out like the sore thumbs they were
in The Pajama Game, a
union meeting entertainment ("Steam Heat") and a visit to a nightclub ("Hernando's Hideaway"), and so on. Such devices weighed
down
Abbott's musicals.
to their cocky,
95
_^^K
^HH^B^b
^/L
^m
S^I^^A
*T*
TV
Above:
won a
Fiorello!
Abbott in
959, but
it
was
be bis last
hit.
Brash
was
qualities, hut
minor
details
he
were
were
all
around him.
Still,
Fiorello! was as
But these shows failed because the style was then passe. Eventually
he was simply offered mediocre shows that hoped to catch the tail
end of his waning reputation, and he accepted them because he was
and
H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N,
Is
the directors
who
made him
obsolete
Left:
yeai
sear.
<
Princess
in this
97
Fade Out
to theater
and
*#]
the shoiv
lost;
was forced
and it reopened, but the box office
never regained its momentum. None
of this hurt Burnett, who had become
she
to
a major television
star.
An
inspired
and the
again.
98
The
and
routine
burlesque
that
is
basic
made
singularly appropriate to
it
to the
Forum,
^A
I
JECC/HE ECBBINS
George Abbott's reign
came
an almost ritualistic end the day in 962 that Jerome Robbins went
to Washington, D.C., to help on A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to
the Forum. It was like the formalization of a succession that had been
to
happening gradually, since Robbins's West Side Story five years earlier. Abbott had brought in the hit Fior^Z/o/, but it was his only success
during this time and would prove his last. The writing was on the
wall: West Side Story had established dancing as so important to the
musical that the future belonged almost exclusively to choreographer-directors, and to the genius among them, Jerome Robbins, in
particular.
Robbins came
Forum to smooth the physical movement and fix the opening number. He replaced that song, a
Sondheim ballad called "Love Is in the Air, " with a cheerful production number, "Comedy Tonight." Robbins's intention was simply to
tell the audience, at the start, exactly what sort of show this was going
in only to "doctor"
He accomplished more
He
than
that.
his
own
right,
was one
of the
and
to
few who
allow
to
do
it.
pit.
him
Robbins
had already earned himself a reputation as more than a choreographer. When he was staging the counterpoint duet "You're Just In
Love" for Call Me Madam in 1950, he told Irving Berlin that he
trusted the song so much he wasn't going to give it any musical
none of the special lights, costumes, dance movestaging at all
ment, or musical routining that usually support a number. Berlin
was aghast but Robbins insisted that nothing distract from the song.
Of course, it was a showstopper. Berlin never forgot the deep impression made by the confident young man.
Robbins also directed one of Broadway's several versions of
Peter Pan, in 1954, but he got his real solo start as a director in 1956
with Bells Are Ringing. A conventional musical comedy, it was a hit
and a good show. Robbins had his hands full with Judy Holliday, a
102
Pajama Game
in 1954, but
magnificent star but one who could neither sing nor dance, yet she
wasn't the reason for this musical's modest ambitions. Robbins was
still directing in the manner he'd learned from Abbott, compartmentalizing the play, the songs, and the dances. Instead of
being a choreographer-director, he was being a choreographer with
the musical numbers, a director with the book scenes. But a single
year later, his West Side Story would become not only the first outright
dance musical but the progenitor of the concept musical.
West Side Story was the first show to bear a credit that has since
become familiar "conceived, choreographed, and directed" by
one person. Its idea, Romeo and Juliet transposed to the streets of
New York, seems naive today. Planned as a romance between lovers
from warring Jewish and Italian communities, it ultimately dealt
with Puerto Rican and "American" street gangs. The plot, the
characters, and the dialogue are stifled by implied social comment.
Musicals, which have only half the normal time to tell the story, are
doubly unfit for giving social advice, unless they deal with the subject
satirically. West Side Story's liberalism is so ingenuous that the show is
embarrassing to revive. However, Robbins's wall-to-wall choreograph) sel a new standard for the musical theater, for not only were
his dan< es extensive and exciting but it seemed as if every step taken
by every haracter during every moment of the show was a dance
step: mambos in the gym, stately ballets, and young toughs fingersnapping down the street. Here was a musical that was musical
throughout, and not merely when a song or dance w as at hand. Its
initial su< ess was not as great as many people remember it as being;
this was a rare instance when a show 's movie version (and not a vet \
good one) established its reputation. Indeed, West Side Story wasn't
even recognized as the best musical of its season (The Music Man won
the
on) Award thai year). Yet, it is one ol the most significant
music
als in
Broadway
histoi
to
combine
thest
dearest,
costumefantasy, at
strategically
is
maledanct
r,
llaiohl Lang).
Gypsy w.is not the show one would have expected next from
103
It
the
Puerto Means)
it
fun'!
shadow
in the
Romeo and
Juliet
music that elevated the brashness of vaudeville to scathing archetype. It ranks among Broadway's greatest scores. Perhaps
in
it is
its
material, cohesiveness,
and
consis-
The show was not the one Robbins had first envisioned. After
Gypsy opened on May 21,1 959, he told Laurents, "It's your show. It's
a book show," meaning a conventional musical play, which it is.
Robbins had hoped that Gypsy would further the kind of musical
theater that West Side Story had initiated. His idea had been to make
Gypsy a cavalcade of American vaudeville using animal acts, juggler
to make the variety show its concept. Those who
acts, trapeze acts
worked with Robbins on the show insist that this idea was impractical. Perhaps it was, but a genius should be trusted. He can envision
what no one else can see. It was such a need to compromise that
finally drove Robbins from the musical theater to the ballet, where
the choreographer's power is absolute. Who knows what Gypsy
might have been? Perhaps a greater music al than it turned out to be.
Still, it is a marvelous work with a finale that may well include the
single most ef fee tive numbei ever done in a musical. "Rose's Turn"
al
theatci
gi eatest possibilities.
Opposite: Judy HolUday was one of the bestloved stars Broadway everproduced, a wonderful
performer. Brainy
and endearing,
made
she
hi
>
Rin^in^ was
its
hei fust
show-stopping
surefire a
managing
numbei
to lift the
It
<
she sings
was
c/\
audient
out of
its
seats
Petti
Gennaro,
the choreographer-to-be.
05
%4J
^^^^^T^n
number
is
This
is
her turn
Mama
there
is
Robbins's challenge
Side Story
to
m choreographing
ivas tofind a
dance
his
rue from
find cool on
New
York's streets.
West
style appropriate
Here
(at center),
rehearsal. (At
i.s
West
dramatic rather than the musical theater but he did extend the
emphasis on music and dance sequences that had begun with West
Side Story. Without Fiddler there could have been no Cabaret, Company Follies, or A Chorus Line, our modern concept musicals.
Fiddler on the Roof was a fabulous success, closing as the longestrunning musical in Broadway history (3,242 performances). It
proved that art, universality, and popularity could all come of a
,
our back."
With this, the strings
The company
first
line
explodi ni a
StOl
Aiming
uere
107
Vr
A
/
/
IP
mm.
Shi
vgsSUfi
*>
VWi*>n
Jewish people
indomitable.
'
huge and
the theme and pro-
For that is
duction concept of Fiddler on the Roof. This metaphoric history of
the Jewish people tells of traditions broken, violated, and
changed and of traditions that had made survival possible. Robbins drew upon the strict rituals of Hasidic Jews for his dances, his
musical-dramatic sequences, his stage pictures. And these were inherently theatrical: weddings with strict, ceremonial processes; folk
dances; rigid rules of behavior and vivid ways of dress; even persecution that was ritualized by history. Robbins drew upon this fund of
featherlight, singing of "Tradition."
presented as a
concept, or motif, was a
life,
108
emotional peaks. Mostel proje< ted the traditions, ideas, and feelings
that have been the Jewish people's strength through centuries ol
survival. A man with profound feelings about his Jewishness, he
played the role as if it were his personal gifl to humanity. In return
he was given his greatest personal success, becoming a major st.u
with the show. If hit musicals have anything in common, it is emo-
poured
new home
that
America.
Although Robbins subsequently doctored Funny Girl and directed two dramas that failed (Brecht's Mother Courage and Maria
Irene Fornes's The Office), it is Fiddler on the Roof that is remembered
find a
in
Broadway swan song. Realizing that Fiddler and West Side Story
had been but the beginnings of a new type of musical theater, he
as his
sought the privacy of a studio to develop it. With a $300, 000 grant
from the National Endowment for the Arts, he began his American
Theater Laboratory. It was a project that lasted two years and
generated no productions. Except for a musical adaptation of
Brecht's The Exception and the Ride that never materialized, Robbins
has not been associated with the musical theater since. He joined the
New York. City Ballet, presumably to be George Balanc nine's heir as
its artistic director. As he had been groomed to follow George
Abbott, so Robbins left Broadway with trained successors to carry
The
audience.
was
to
such as
this
meaningful.
II.'.
BOB rcssc
When
for
as
wife,
star,
friend, onetime
New
Girl in
hackivard lean,
Town. The
and
trademarks. Offstage,
so
/> ///''
cigarette in Fosse's
own
cigarette.
Ill
turned their toes inward; they knocked their knees and sometimes
danced on them. The number was uncommon for its intimacy; it was
eccentric, understated, and refreshing. Fosse put a "Steam Heat"
type of dance in almost every show he did. In Damn Yankees the show
that made Gwen Verdon a star, it was "Who's Got the Pain?" In Bells
Are Ringing it was "Mu Cha Cha." (Fosse was so pleased with one of
his dancer's improvisations for this number that he trusted him to
choreograph much of it. The dancer was Peter Gennaro, later to
become one of Broadway's classiest choreographers.)
,
112
he
PajamaGame
steps.
4***<
10^
r*
-m
1
'^mm^
iflHHHH
Period costumes cannot disguise
(with
Gwen Verdon
New
Girl in
Town
Though
not
betray his
it
works.
Nor
is
it
to
Chicago,
( 1
was a perfectly appealing show with a catchy score by Albert Hague and Dorothy Fields,
revealed Fosse's ties to Abbott and the musical comedy of the past. It
history. Fosse's choice of Redhead,
is
a thriller set in a
although
it
the story
is
stretched to include
it
115
The high
kicks in
contemporary
oj
Redhead
iccrr
unusualfor Fosse.
usual
The show
is
He
is
the most
Redhead,
dimension
to Ins
dances.
rist of the
show, the
is
He is
effei
Though
t is
and movements.
the star
choreographers
<>)
this
to
add an
extra pictorial
sinking.
117
Above, and
Rag" from
Little
Me and "Rich
polished, so energetic,
long, inventive,
counterpart
in Sweet Charity
is
an adaptation of
The
story
is
about a
Broadway morality,
hostess). That the Fellini
Fosse
made her
a taxi
dancer (dance
hall
movie was not a particularly musical choice revealed Abbott's continuing influence over Fosse. Holes had to be pried open in the story
for songs to be stuck into. Moving its setting from Italy to New York
only made it characterless. Still, Sweet Charity showed Fosse stretching. For one thing, it had been his idea from the start; he even began
writing the libretto, though he ultimately needed help from Neil
Simon. For another thing, he now had the confidence and craft to
bring any show to a high polish. Finally, Sweet Charity showed Fosse
opening up his dance imagination, working with larger groups and
118
119
The
Hirson, told a false-naive fairy tale about Pippin, the son of Charlemagne. The book's main concern is Pippin's quest for the meaning
of life. Fosse responded to such philosophical questions by throwing
the show's authors out of rehearsals. He made Pippin into one long
production number.Though only the first act of Fosse's Pippin really
holds together, this production consolidated his new-found reputation.
Academy Award
for Cabaret,
made
won
Being the
first
director to win
who was
all
three prizes
movie success
as
well.
to the
tal at
her
trial,
and then
capitalizes
was a fabulous accomplishment, a spectacular exhibition of staging skills. It also displayed Fosse's grudging willingness
to grow. With this show, Fosse acknowledged his ability to go beyond
musical comedy.
Nevertheless,
120
it
capitalized
on an ironic contrast
Gwen Verdon
content.
(right)
style
and a
cynical
costumed
to look like
chorines.
underdressed, older
ignored vanity
With
Chicago
to
achieve power.
movie version
and brought
it to Chicago. He had always shown unusual
interest in costumes and pictorial qualities, so the
powerful imagery here was not new for him. But
the Cabaret look influenced a new turn in his
dances
a turn away from conventional
gracefulness, away from small groups doing cute
steps, away from unison dancing.
degenerate, decadent, grotesque look
...
*-:=-
Mi
'
/;,(
%
:*-
SI
heart surgery.
faced Fosse
a script
and without
a story, this
to organize
122
make Dancin
stories.
three acts into two hours, with no pause in the relentless energy and
musical volume. He planned every number to be a showstopper.
Fosse got away with this, but Dancin' was still a dance program and
not a musical: it had neither form nor continuity.
So, Dancin was Fosse's eleventh hit in a row and further proof
that he could whip almost any material into commercial shape. But
23
is
a distinguished group of
and
co-librettist
THE
DIRECTORS*
ERA
In(>ttmgto/(nou>//*ra,abiographyofOscar Hammerstein II, Hugh
Fordin describes how Rodgers and Hammerstein maneuvered Josh
Logan into waiving his right to royalties as South Pacific's co-author.
While Logan was out of town, Rodgers and Hammerstein's lawyer
cornered Logan's lawyer with a contract, giving him two hours to sign.
The threat was naked: If he didn't waive the book royalties, Logan
wouldn't direct the show. The lawyer signed the contract.
If perhaps in extreme, this unpleasant behavior exemplified the
imbalanced power structure of the 1949 musical theater. Songwriters and stars had the clout. Things did not remain that way for long.
By 1957, West Side Story ushered in the era of the director. There had
been well-known directors before Jerome Robbins was given the
unprecedented credit for having "conceived, choreographed, and
directed" West Side Story. George S. Kaufman, Moss Hart, Abe Burrows, and George Abbott were all successful, experienced, active,
and reputable directors of musicals. They remained, however, mere
hirelings, staging materials that had already been created. They
were secondary to the composers and performers. But it was Robbins who emerged most prominently among the creators of West Side
Story, and never after would major directors be pushed around as
Logan had been. Following Robbins's example, they started becoming co-owners of their shows. Indeed, directors came to develop
such influence that they called the shots on royalties. Contrary to
Logan's experience, it became common practice to give the director
a share of the librettist's royalties even when he hadn't written a word
of the book. The justification is that he invariably suggests dialogue
and even creates scenes. Of course, that is the director's job, but a hit
Broadway musical is too involved with too much money for most
people to be generous. The minimum royalty for a composer, lyricist, or librettist is 2 percent of a production's total receipts (the
"gross"). The average, sold-out musical takes in about $200,000
each week. Two percent of that is $4,000 a week for the New York
company alone. (Touring companies, foreign productions, and ultimately summer stock yield still other royalties.) Not satisfied with
their own royalties, some directors demand a share not only of the
author's but even of the composer's and lyricist's royalties, contending, rather greedily, that they collaborate on every aspect of a show. If
the director's name is big enough, his demands are met.
In Robbins's wake came Bob Fosse, Harold Prince, Gower
Champion, and Michael Bennett. They were the musical's new prodigals. Shows would henceforth be known as Fosse or Champion or
125
Prince musicals and often for good reason: No longer merely directing ready-made materials, these directors were actively reshaping
scripts and songs and even initiating projects themselves. There was
as those
Story.
Loves
to pretty pictures.
Me in
1963.
Opposite, below:
dances against
Me
perhaps
Jerome Robbins's Fiddler on the Roof was one of the last musicals
Prince presented on behalf of another director, but it gave his
subsequent directing focus and purpose. When Robbins abandoned
the theater, Prince assumed responsibility for refining the concept
musical. Plainly, he saw himself as Robbins's successor.
Prince regularly
painterly devices.
He conceived
staging
."3f
-^
v V
;
/^
lT
in
capacity.
On
its
potential
Follies
maximum
It
needed
When
he did
Follies,
So
decay, age,
were played
by six-foot-tall
show
girls
still taller.
to
"ghosts"
qualities
and memory.
Opposite: In
his
Follies
(Hugh Wheeler)
this time.
Never-
then stretched his backers' patience to the breaking point. This 1976 musical marked the peak of the SondheimPrince collaborations, but it also took the team into an artistic
Pacific Overtures
128
,
1
l^ffifl
h r^^i
W
J
fr
. **
Am
i**i
>
W3i
$fc
*
^
time.
Among the
Yvonne de Carlo at the far right and, in the red dress, Alexis Smith, who
found a new career in musicals as a result of her brilliant performance.
way musical.
In his supervision of the Hugh Wheeler-John Weidman script,
Prince advanced the revolutionizing of libretto structure beyond the
point he reached with Company. But Pacific Overtures never had a
chance. The only sort of Oriental musical that Broadway audiences
the very Caucasian King and I or Flower Drum Song sort.
Prince's prestigious production was a million-dollar disaster. Thereafter, he had to find other producers to raise the money for his
would buy
is
His sense of musical theater was too refined for that. One scene in it
was even on the Follies level: an actress trying to decide between
doing a mannered comedy or a religious spectacle. Prince staged her
imagined merging of the two as a marvelously mad scene with
monks and biblical figures among a cocktail party's guests. He en-
131
Mic had Bennett was the heir Prince produced to continue the line of
directors that had begun with Abbott. With a single show, A Chorus
Line, Bennett was catapulted to fame and power. This was because
by the mid-seventies, the musical theater had become a place where a
The
Bennett
is
seemed
he pushed
Joseph Papp
to let
it
The result
While
of this
attests to Bennett's
132
Ik
u.is
so devastating thai
one risking
th.it
Based on
proved
the Itfe
le\s
<>l
couturiere Chanel,
Coco
It
It
was
at the
als.
was overwhelming.
/ij
Bk
jb
'
A Chorus Line for real: Michael Bennett rehearses dancersfor Promises, Promises.
Ballroom was
the musical
A Chorus
the
A Chorus Line;
lompany and
right)
to
to
discotheque steps
new
in the theater.
star in
would choreograph
Like
would befeatured
the
Oh, Calcutta!
135
Not Where
You Start, " a show-stopping balloon dance. Tune
subsequently co-directed the 1978 Broadway
trusted to devise his
own number,
"It's
success
basic
he
up as choreographer-director
of a giant success.
they
136
and their
thrill.
show that made him a star was the tremendous hit of 1964,
Overleaf:
A Chorus
Hello,
Line quadrupled.
t
Mf
c,
**<.
^ >^*vV>3<VC>
or
/
3 ^Cf
iErt
>
a]
."'
-*
at
Dolly!
graph, not a
moment when he
lost track
of the elegant
it.
Champion's hot streak of hits cooled after / Do! I Do! This was a
stunningly staged musical that was more appreciated for its stars
Mary Martin and Robert Preston than for Champion's work.
/ Do! I Do! offered obvious challenges, being a two-character show
based on Jan de Hartog's play The F ourposter Champion managed to
give it full Broadway size as well as a special charm by denying the
story's naturalism. He regularly reminded the audience that it was
watching actors in performance (Martin and Preston would apply
makeup onstage). A striking example of this conceit was the opening
of the second act: With the playing of the entr'acte overture, the
lights suddenly went up behind the stage cyclorama (a high curved
cloth stretched the width of the stage). Behind this, where we never
expected to see them, were the orchestra and conductor. The stage
picture was dramatic, glamourous, and exciting. Such brainstorms
are what the theater lives for and they showed Champion expanding. / Do! I Do! is a warm, handsome, and whimsical musical, expertly assembled, and made for any pair of star players. That is why
it
country.
Champion
the
it.
140
em
its
sta>\.
Chita
Dyke.
Champion
as a choreographer-director
who
shoulder-to-shoulder volume
producer,
make
said, "is
and
by "choreographing"
it
As a producer of musicals, David Merrick was the most prolific in the history
ofBroadway. His name became as well known as any of the Stars, omposers,
or directors he hired. He made himself /anions, not for ego's sake hut because
he knew the value of publicity. Merrick became the man people loved to hate,
but as long as they lined up at the box office, he had no objections.
Merrick ivas the last of Broadway s flamboyant producers. Some of his
promotional schemes have taken their place in theater lore. When his Subways Are for Sleeping opened to devastating pans, hefound seven laymen
who had the same names as the drama critics and ran an advertisement
quotingfrom their "rave reviews. " It made several early newspaper editions
<
illness.
When
had an
nd cowboy club to
roar up and down Forty-fifth Streetfor the sake of Deslry Rides Again, and
he erected a statue of a belly dancer in (Central Park to promote Fanny.
Fanny, in 1954, was Merrick'sfirst show. During the next twenty-two
years he produced twenty-five musicals. With one of them, a good show called
u 'ere she to complain again. Merrick also hired a Staten
New
its
York
I.sla
critics by
touring
it
at
it
Though his
Gower
Champion
feuds
and composers Harold Rome, Jerry Herman, Bob Merrill, andjule Styne. As
Carol Chan ning said, "I'll never work for him again until he offers me
zvere legendary,
With
the arrival
Wife
in
successful revival of
in 1
in Connecticut.
Merrick turned to movie producing, perhaps realizing that the Broadway he'd
enjoyed no longer existed. It was impossible for any man to single-handedly
raise the
the era
to treat
more or
less
ended.
143
.2J
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^gtfll
^v
(4
-4r
^,4 r
_jr*
*ls
>
^^
'*-
*^
"K-
'.V
~~*~~
<
^rii
^V
TtV
/iW
^^
_-ffT
>TX4.
^TJ
H
ig%!&
M
uUL
%g
/
,/
If
V
/k
[J
_ _>*
--
>*L
-s*~
.
Hk,
_.
SvtClfT.
when
their dances,
show in trouble on
have time
-J
^3
John Kander and Fred Ebb's The Act ran into problems
on the road. Problems had been on the horizon right along for here
was one musical whose star, Liza Minnelli, had all the clout. She was a
surefire box office attraction and it was assumed that whatever the
quality of the show, she would guarantee business (this was typical of
In
977,
Reynolds,
typical
is
Champion
took over
many shows
that were in
closed on
drain with
that
it
went
A Broadway
this
Champion staged
the black
shows of the
Chocolates.
Musical.
an
affectionate look at
thirties called
"Hot
time). Minnelli
Broadway
was
still
roots as
billed as director.
it
in respectable condition,
The
likes to think.
Champion,
claimed to have
still
Street.
Ron Field was another director who had let Broadway's ups and
downs get to him. Having revived On the Town in 1971, plainly
144
*y-V*
.
v'K
.
.*
Bf
te
and how to do
stardom.
it.
He
credit.
146
must decide
fic>
// it's
obst
em
from
Set arid
waytostardom. Below:
the
gave Verdon
left
chance
show from
I. do.
Steal
it
she did.
147
Andy
in the
exuberant
and voice
led to expectations of
\- h
I
It**
The show is Mame, directed by Gene Saks, the star is Angela Lansbury (center) making her big
Broadway splash, and the dance is by Onna White, one of Broadway's classiest choreographers.
The
The Cat!
The
in
Formed on
that
a bumbling cop's
the
show was
directed by Joe
succeed on appeal
to special
witts.
or too-edueated tastes.
149
AJLVI
fTONY AWARDS
RUNNING
A SHCW
TUCCUeU-ANNIE
When
is
un conscious adjustment:
hardly notice that the
sustaining the
to
it
begins;
illusion.
ant of the people, the planning, the coordination, and the details necessary
give a performance.
It is
to
zation both on
and backstage.
The musical we're going to observe is Annie, a show that opened to a small
advance sale at the Alvin Theater on April 21 1977 and went on to be a
huge hit. I've chosen Annie because it is a complicated production that uses
all the technical resources of the musical theater. With rising costs, some
musicals have tried to cut corners by using one set and by keeping the cast
small and the show simple. Being a big Broadway musical, Annie is oldfashioned. In backstage parlance, it is a show with a "heavy book," a
,
There are twenty-three actors who appear at one time or another, as one
character or another, in Annie. There are also three "swing" actors
male,
a female, and a child who can play (or "cover") any role that isn't assigned to
an understudy. The "swing" actors appear only when someone is ill. They do
not have parts of their own. They cover the uncovered, filling in the last role
as everyone moves up a notch. Even Sandy, the dog in Annie, has a standby
(named Arf).
Then there are four stage managers fanet Beroza, the supervisory
production stage manager; Jack Timmers, the stage manager who actually
pilots the
show; and two assistant stage managers. There are also twelve
and change
costumes.
wardrobe supervisor
is
in
charge of them.
Annie has a stagehand staff of thirty- three and that includes carpenters,
electricians, fly
"fly
control the scenery that "flies" or drops from the "fly floor" high above the
stage.
"sliders, "
151
Down in the orchestra pit there are eighteen musicians and their musical
director (conductor), Peter
an
in case of illness,
is
And
an Annie production
house
(theater)
routine that will look to the audience as if everything began at curtain time
man
is
onstage.
(properties)
is
during the pressure of performance. (There had been but a day and a half before previewsfor the director to
figure all this out!) The placement of every piece becomes routine but it must
be checked at each performance. Should one step in this "preset" ritual be
a particular stagehand
it
would happen were Miss Hannigan's desk to slide out without its
chair? Or without the radio on it (she has to turn it on at one point) ? Or
indeed,
doing a
light check.
for burned-out bulbs and frayed wiring. The "gels" (gelatin filters) that tint
the lights can also burn out. A burned-out blue gel, for instance, will cast an
None of it can
be trusted to memory.
At 7:30, a half hour before curtain, the entire Annie cast except for
Raymond Thome, the actor playing President Franklin Roosevelt, is required
act,
to be in the theater.
Thome
four leading actors usually arrive at seven: Reid Shelton, who plays Daddy
Warbucks; Dorothy Loudon, who plays Miss Hannigan, the mistress of the
Municipal Orphanage; and Sandy Faison, who plays Warbucks's secretary.
Shelton likes to relax before a show; Loudon takes her time putting on her
costume, makeup, and wig. Faison vocalizes, preparing her voice. Andrea
McArdle, the show's original Little Orphan Annie, is a relaxed youngster who
strolls into the theater close to curtain time and plays at her dressing room
pinball machinefor the lastfew minutes. (McArdle had become the show's star
but her stay was limited. She began playing the eleven-year-old Annie when
she herself was fourteen; soon she became too oldfor the role and was replaced
in March, 1978.)
The entire crew of stagehands is also due at 7:30. Only then can the
production stage manager rehearse understudies on the set, which, according
152
153
During shows, they are in the hands of God and the conductor.
musicals stage manager has a stand-up desk in the "wings" (just
performers.
offstage).
On
the desk
show
this
every light
is
42 winch cues, 40 fly cues. Working from the prompt book, the production
stage manager controls every physical move and change. Before he gives the
go-ahead which tells the person responsible when to move a prop or switch
on a spotlight he gives an alert, or warning signal. All of these cues are
marked down in the prompt book precisely, even between two words of
dialogue. There is a system for cuing everyone. The cues may be vocal (the
stage manager wears a headset with a microphone) or visual (turning on a
uen
is
mm
na
sxamx,
s iwc.
.I'M GOKHA
THAT'S
WiiiPl
KE*8E iOKSA
winch operators, and the sound man. One of these buttons is labeled "panic"
and it is neither a joke nor the actual panic button. There are so many switches
around
it
that
it
TUAV.
pressed,
it
Even
scenery dropping
managed to
From Timmers's
is
difficult to
But
can be
believe that the clanging, banging,
light.
if the light
Especially
noisy scene changes are covered by musical underscoring but sometimes that
Because of the tab curtain the stage manager can only see part of the
show he is running. He sees the rest on a television monitor. A camerafixed to
the front center of the balcony transmits this picture to the stage
manager and
are set on a platform ten feet high above the stage manager's desk,
light
men
there
results
and
the
monitor.
As the minutes clock down to curtain, the preset routine speeds up. Now
7:45, Timmers is running his finger down the prompt book checklist. The
opening scenery has now been put onstage, the actors are in costume. Miss
Beroza is giving "notes" (criticism) to the company, based on the previous
performance. The dance captain is also giving notes on musical numbers. A
musical's dance captain
154
is
dancers in
Annie
is
is
At two minutes
to
is
divided
among
the production
announces, "Places, please, for Act One." Soon, Timmers is in radio contact
with the house manager out front, "holding" (delaying) the curtain if there
are blocks of unoccupied seats downfront, where latecomers would distract the
performers.
backstage
is
ready,
and
the
audience
is
microphone,
With Timmers's whispered "Go," the auditorium lights dim halfblackout. Timmers asks for "curtain warmers," the lights focused on
electrician.
way
to
it
ways
to
lobby, or
to
Annie
an
end,
the theater
and
the public-address
Timmers
opening scene of Annie, in
to
an announcement over
is
the tap
on the shoulder,
into actors
1,3 00 people.
performance
minutes. Timmers
the
prompt
next one.
book.
is
running time
wings and
He calmly recites
xvill
minutes.
From one
and fifteen
them
cries to
to her,
him
script's
pages
to the
know
155
with visitors.
"It's
There are two musical numbers in Annie 's opening scene, "Maybe" and
a Hard Knock Life. " Suddenly, the scene is over and Timmers must
on the
As the door unit reaches center stage on its way off, it is just infront
of the bridge painted on a traveler at the rear. As they coincide, stagehands
behind the set begin sliding the bridge off on its tracks, in the same direction as
the door. This is all designed as a montage of horizontal and vertical
movement all over the stage. The audience is never given a chance to watch
any one piece of scenery completing its move to exit because that goes beyond
the point of interest. As soon as one unit orflat or slide establishes the direction
it is going in, another begins to move, and then another. With the orphanage
treadmills.
on
their tracks,
from
to glide in
is
It is
an
After
its first
big move,
end of a number.
Annie
is
rolling. Little
156
is
Among
members.
many complex
the shine's
maximum
the show's
set
scenes,
it
it is
because
requires
it
make
to
it
look as
if
wings and
But
down a
basement
and
company saunter
then roar
up
and
and casual
u>igs to
many
abruptly bolt
and
there are
set out,
grab new
the
emerge onstage,
once more cheerful, songful, choreographic, and casual. The audience has no
idea of the breakneck behind-the-scenes activity. It should have no idea.
Loudon seems
to
giving
herself,
to the
audience,
is
Timmers
human
loves the
too. It
always
to
down and
is
number draws an
especially
long ovation,
it
either
alternative.
With the intermission, the stage fills as the theater empties. At fourteen
minutes, Annie's intermission is one minute shorter than the Broadway
usual. This is a long show and nobody wants to make it longer. Each one of the
fourteen minutes
is
audience
it
can
is
it
can
to
lose interest
and become
restless.
In
short,
the
is
is
thirties
and
assistant stage
managers
him,
"We
is
is
in place
and
the
than the first. Musicals' second acts are almost always shorter than the first.
used not to cover a change of scenery butfor artistic purposes. This particular
157
^V
m
2S mill 111
'***<
V*.
VC^^
MM
K9
>('
less
it is
show Roosevelt
is
treated in
a comic way
and even leads his cabinet in song. The blackout, by putting a "button" on the
scene to end
sketch,
it
which keeps
The second
it
a vaudeville
is
developing
its
sentimental side.
The show at last moves into itsfinale and the audience response is warm.
Annie is not great or significant; it is an old-fashioned book show built on the
theater's corniest devices
children, Christmas, even a dog
but to use the
Broadway
theater,
works.
The
key word in the
musical
it
audience has gotten
its money's worth. The curtain plummets down and then soars up again as the
company takes its bows. The actors'faces are lit up, not merely by the lights but
by their response to the audience and the applause. Timmers begins his final
cues. "Bring it home," he tells the rope man at his side and the man drops the
curtain for the last time."Houselights, please." The traditional "walkout
music" begins as the audience starts up the aisles. They whistle Annie'5 hit
song, "Tomorrow. " The show is done.
At least it is done for twenty hours. At seven o'clock the next day, the
preset ritual for the evening performance will begin all over again.
?A
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<
JEECA4E KEEN
Jerome David Kern was the father, the teacher, the master the
king of American theater composers. They are all in debt to him and
they all admitted it. It was Kern who took operetta music through an
American door and into the twentieth century, Kern who invented
the show song. Is it really possible that he wrote "They Didn't Believe
Me" in 1914?
From the early twenties until 1945, when he collapsed of a fatal
cerebral hemorrhage on a New York sidewalk at the age of sixty,
Jerome Kern created the foundation on which Broadway show
music has been built. He never seemed fully convinced that high
theater music should not be in the operetta style. His songs prove
otherwise.
so
was rooted
in that
Amer-
icanism.
It
match
was
its
as. if
Drawn from
of Kern theater
songs is prodigious and beloved. It ranges from the early "Till the
Clouds Roll By" through the Show Boat score to the final lilting
melodies ("She Didn't Say Yes," "I've Told Every Little Star") and
exquisite ballads ("Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," "The Touch of Your
Hand").
Kern did not have a steady lyricist. In the first half of his career,
P. G. Wodehouse was his most frequent collaborator. He never had a
regular partner afterward, although he wrote several shows with
Anne Caldwell, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Otto Harbach. On his
last five shows, his partners alternated between Hammerstein and
Harbach, as if he were even then wavering between the operetta
tradition of the past that Harbach was tied to and the musical play of
the future, to which Hammerstein was looking. If Kern and Hammerstein had considered a steady partnership, their 1939 failure,
Very Warm for May, would have put an end to the notion. Hammerstein went on to team up with Richard Rodgers. Curiously, those two
were the producers of what was to have been Kern's last show, Annie
Oakley, with lyrics by
Dorothy
Fields.
When Kern
was turned over to Irving Berlin. It became Annie Get Your dun.
Too bad that Kern never worked with the likes of Lorenz Hart
or Ira Gershwin. He wrote frequently with Dorothy Fields, but only
he was
for movies. Because he was unwisely arrogant toward lyrics
Kern might well
not inclined to change even a note lor their sake
1()1
The
An
aloof
man
common
prac-
given to humor.
In 1917, though, he had no fewer than five musicals entirely his
own Have a Heart, Love o' Mike, Leave It to Jane, Miss 191 7, and Oh,
Boy! All but Love o' Mike were written to lyrics by P. G. Wodehouse.
Oh, Boy! was one of the legendary "Princess shows." These were a
series presented at the Princess Theater, a midtown house with the
and
feel
look',
glum
in the
chorus of Kern's
19 18 Princess Theater musical Oh, Lady! Lady! She would later hit her
stride as the star of I Married an Angel and Pal Joey.
162
163
us a
lift.
had no superior.
Having as much as invented stage ballads with "They Didn't
Believe Me," he proceeded to develop production numbers. If his
ballads might be considered pop music of a decidedly higher class,
"Who?" (Sunny, 1925) couldn't be considered pop music at all. Here
was a song made for the stage for a chorus to sing and dancers to
dance. Kern had been working his way up to such "numbers" with
the title song for Leave It to Jane, for example, but it was not until
"Who?" with
its
breathless excitement
the held
notes stretched
164
for
the Silver
Lining"
Left:
A somewhat
Sally
is
(lyric by
B. G. DeSylva).
Leon Errol,
best
known to
The object
of his ardor
is
Miss Miller.
165
young men.
Show Boat, on the other hand, deals with adult and not always
happily ended romance. Hammerstein's lyrics refer to the story and
so are sung in character. This forced the composer to consider the
particular story when writing his songs, for melody had to match
character and suit what a particular character was thinking or feeling at any given moment. Such lyrics also forced the audience to keep the
mind while enjoying the musical numbers. This was the first step
toward integrating songs with story in a musical. It was a singular
contribution to the development of Broadway musicals.
Show Boat does smack of operetta, but how could it not? Breaks
with the past are nevei made- overnight. Hammerstein, alter all, had
ollaborated on Rose Mane and The Desert Song. Kern had developed
his light, "American" approach to show songs with the intimate
PriiK ess Theater musicals. Show Boat is a big period pie< e, Natui all)
it
tugged him back to the more grandiose music of operetta. So,
Hammei stein and Kei n pulled each other toward the past while .it
the same time "pushing each other ahead to the future. Their show's
opening number, a traditional strolling chorus to introduce the
setting ("See the show boat"), hearkens back to Victoi Herbert.
Other songs in the score also spring from operetta: the declamatory
story in
musical theatei on
American
its
way
to
being a uniquely
stage genre.
Opposite: A show within a show an oldfashioned melodrama in the theater on the Show
Boat
theater oj
its
the musical
Winninger plays
accompaniment to the
the
an
turns to
<
Overleaf:
Center
revival of
in I'-Xth starred
folic.
11,7
fn,
[fi
.
iv
ic
**
ts-j&
170
"You Are Love," the l>ui square At hi- Fail ," and the vei y Nelson
EddyJeanette Ma< Donald "Why D< Love You?"
But this score also includes the mosl marvelous ol the American
Kern: the exquisite "Make Believe," the <>u< hing "Bill," the gliding
easygoing, unmistakable Kern oi "Life Upon the Wicked Stage."
The bluesy "Can'l Help Lovin' Thai Man" is a rare example ol Kern
being influenced (b) Gershwin) but n is and deserves to be a lassi<
Its double-time production reprise even manages to be ingratiating
u
while treating blacks as hand-< lapping darkies. Vnd as l<i (
Man
i
<
>l
stereotyping.il
.ut
is still
a giant
t,
is
an
unlike romance, is
,il
racial
hough il
big
its
is
the only
modern
ontext.
this
point
Perhaps he was too close to see what possibilities it invited, pet haps
he was still song-conscious when theater-consciousness was the
order of the day. Although he had discovered the need to tailor
songs to character and situation lor the stage, he nevei reall) ommitted himself to it. For all the integration of Show Boat's music and
story, Kern was a composer interested mainly in his son^s. Sweet
Adeline, which he wrote with Hammerstein in 1929, was a step back
to musical comedy. Others were to surpass the steps these pat trie s
had taken.
In 1931, for example, the Gershwins had already written outright theater music for Of Thee I Sing while Kern was still doing
1931
success
anil above)
writes
the violin).
many mch
popular and
dancers
orchestras
and
/tizz bantls.
slentlet
lovers
left.
Waltei
Slez/th. I
si
he other i/uaniliug
and
iullio Carmhutti
17
172
\t
'
v
*
.;..!
.
* *
i.
<
at
v,
>
...
V'
and
>
v*.
V
*
comes
the Fiddle
..
.-....,
....
wavering between
Broadway.
operetta and
This show's "The Night Was Made for
Love" is reminiscent of Friml's "Indian Love Call."
The Cat and the Fiddle, a musical about the making and unmaking of an operetta, was unusual in showing the competition between
new and old theater music but is hardly of a whole as is Of Thee I Sing.
It had a decent run of a year or so, like the subsequent Music in the Air
(1932) and Roberta (1933), but none of the shows was theatrically
notable. They included marvelous songs, it goes without saying, but
more than good songs were already expected of musicals.
While Kern was in so many ways a daring composer, his choice
of book material tended toward the journeyman. Though a literate,
urbane man, he lacked an instinct for the theatrical, and is posthumously paying the price. Among the early Broadway musical giants,
only those with a sense of theatricality left shows that had a chain e
for endurance while those who concentrated mainly on their songs
did not: Rodgers rather than Berlin, Gershwin rather than Porter.
Yet none of them, perhaps, would have become what they
became without Kern. He is the father figure. He came first and he
isolated songs for The Cat
<
still
u'cis
Among Kern's
stars
featured
in
as
the audience
is
far
left
George Murfibs,
and
>>n ustreet,
at the far
'
.S.
senator
for California
first.
173
ClCH/tCO ECDGEES
Richard Rodgers is the grand master of Broadway theater music. He
wrote more than forty musicals, almost all of them hits. He had two
separate careers, one in partnership with Lorenz Hart until 1942,
the other with Oscar Hammerstein II until 1960, and either collaboration would have assured his historical position. His Oklahoma!
was the first legitimate musical to play a thousand performances,
and he wrote the music for three other shows to reach that milestone: South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. Noother
composer can match the number of Rodgers show songs that outlived their productions to become standards.
Richard Rodgers was the only one of the giants to bridge the
first half-century of the musical theater's existence and to write for
the revues of the twenties, the
all the different kinds of shows
musical comedies of the thirties, and the musical plays that followed.
Kern died without capitalizing on the innovations of his Show Boat.
Gershwin was cut down in his youth. Neither Porter nor Berlin was
one for stage adventure. If he finally became a theater conservative,
Richard Rodgers was responsible for so much progress, over so long
a time, that his place in stage history is doubly secured
as a master
writer of theater songs and as an activist in the musical's development.
Seldom has a composer's style been so affected by his lyricist.
The Rodgers who wrote with Oscar Hammerstein II is practically a
different man from the one who wrote with Lorenz Hart. Rodgers's
music was light and bittersweet with Hart, serious and milky with
we heat
the giants
Are
we
dissolve.
men
or any of
Songs can't be
better.
any of them,
we
think he
is
When we
of all tune.
hear
sometimes sounds contrived, as if he were restraining melodic freedom to fit Hanunei stein's thoughts as well as meters. A piewtitten
175
was a man for set pieces songs that can stand on their own and
perhaps the best lyricist America ever produced. Hammerstein was
a man of the theater and his lyrics were meant not to stand alone as
poems but to further a plot. So, with him Rodgers tended to write
songs that referred to a particular show, music to be dramatically
presented rather than merely sung.
The shows that Rodgers wrote with Hart are not as significant
or as revivable as those he wrote with Hammerstein. First of all, they
came earlier, when little was demanded of a musical comedy.
Though the team claimed to be ambitious, the importance of Show
Boat, Of Thee I Sing, and Porgy and Bess apparently eluded them.
They seem to have been satisfied with the musical comedy form.
Working at a time when performers and songwriters were stars, they
couldn't keep themselves from writing hit tunes. As a result, they
wrote many hit shows but few memorable ones. Pal Joey is their lone
classic. The Boys from Syracuse can still play, if its cardboard construction and corny jokes are overlooked. Otherwise, the team must be
remembered not for its shows but for its songs. Even with George
Balanchine as their choreographer, for On Your Toes, Babes in Arms, I
Married an Angel, and The Boys from Syracuse, their works were not
ambitious, and, despite the inclusion of a full-length ballet, "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue," in On Your Toes, none grasped the potential
of dance musicals.
The Rodgers and Hart collaboration began in earnest when the
composer, then eighteen years old, and the lyricist, twenty-five,
wrote the songs for Poor Little Ritz Girl in 1920. Rodgers was a New
Yorker who from adolescence had idolized Jerome Kern. He was so
theatrically precocious that he wrote Poor Little Ritz Girl while a
student at Columbia, and that college was chosen because of its
annual undergraduate musical, the Varsity Show. Rodgers had no
formal musical training at Columbia, but he later took classes in
harmony and theory at the Juilliard School of Music (then called the
Institute of Musical Art). By his own admission his "piano playing
would never be more than adequate." As stage composers go, Rodgers was better trained than most, but not really a schooled musician.
Melodic instinct and musical integrity made his success but he never
shared Gershwin's fascination with the harmonic and rhythmic intricacies of music and he never aspired to orchestrating.
Hart, a descendant of the German poet Heinrich Heine, was
also a New Yorker. He had been something of an intellectual prodigy, in love with the theater and obsessed with rhyming. A tiny man,
destined to be plagued by emotional problems, he lived for
his words and was employed as a play translator when he first
met Rodgers. Though Hart had long since quit Columbia, the two
worked on Varsity Shows together, one of which led directly to Poor
Little Ritz Girl. When it opened on Broadway, half their score had
been replaced with songs by others, which was not at all unusual at
the time.
Poor Little Ritz Girl was a flop, as was The Melody Man of 1924.
Their first hit show was the 1925 revue The Garrick Gaieties, with its
marvelous "Manhattan." Their subsequent history is astonishing:
the
only one failure, the 1928 Chee-Chee, whose subject matter
176
Avenue"from
first ballets to be
used in a musical.
Rodgets
Though one
dancing
its
himself.
stars,
not
make the
did. fits
movie's
humorous and
less
style was
suited to a
sophistication
(and overleaf),
I
<x-s,
filigrees that
were
his specialty.
177
1.
tion
Romantic
1927
<
ast of
to
and "A
Swell"
star, too.
Connecticut Yankee
(left).
One
Alive. "
after
the
died,
the
lyricist
rejected his
forgot
in
lines.
so sorry,"
79
*#
'
Lady Is a Tramp," a wry list song. The show had the perfect comedy
song in "I Wish I Were in Love Again." But if you want to talk of
quintessential Rodgers and Hart you need go no further than "My
Funny Valentine."
One
"Johnny One-Note"
Babes in Arms, Lorenz Hart came up with
line,
"Got
may be
the composing of a
to
in
the
to he
Balanchine
to
do an Egyptian
ballet.
Sn< h
Opposite:
///
his
autobiography. Rodgers
1937
I'd
unheippy experience
retirement
to
I).
masterpiece
alteration
so
s
to
much
Hart's hrics
it
patronizing contempt.
181
Both
ex< eption.
Its lihrettist, George
men in
American show
tin
most enduring
ami
The Boys from
business, a stage
Opposite: Jimmy
opening
ritualistic
Saw clowns
through the
"The Masks"
of
and a
ming.
last)
col-
to
Boys horn
finest of all
he
S\ racuse, whichfeaturedoneoftht
scores.
based on
quoted as saying,
"it's
sets
by Jo
Mulzmei.
A Comedy of Errors.
Hart was
laborating with O'l lara on the hook. Abbot! inevitably made il in his
own mold swiit-p.u ed and wise* .11 king. his has dated Pal Jot j
i
<
an
si ill
Of
<
.1
character.
Although Rodgers and Hart wrote several more shows, including their longest-running. By Jupiter (1942), Pal Joey marked the
peak of their partnership. Hart by then had become hopelessly
trapped in alcoholism and despair. In 1943, Rodgers found a new
partner.
Havoc
(above).
book and
lyrics for
Guys and
Dolls
185
to
Hammer-
in the surrey,
and
Celeste
sunny.
Kern
in-
all
Much
in
Oklahoma!
feel.
Oklahoma! had the nerve to open with a slow song ( "Oh, What a
Beautiful Mornin'") when musicals were expected to begin with
rousing production numbers; it included a ballet dealing with the
heroine's dreams; it even had a villain. Jud Fry is a heavy whose bad
character is indicated by the pinup pictures in his shanty. That's
Hammerstein's morals for you. Such prudishness marred the Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration. Yet there's no denying the
significance of this show, or its grandness. If Porgy and Bess, Show
Boat, and Of Thee I Sing hadn't settled the issue, Oklahoma! finally
established the musical theater as a stage form to be reckoned with.
Though none of its numbers, not even the hits, have more than
nostalgic value when considered as individual songs, the score as a
186
to
wanted
dc
it.
None matched
.Willi's class*
5.
188
whole
is
one of oui
Oklahoma! can be
<l
.1
pie< e,
and
musk
is
fitted to
a story,
love it
used oi
ertain simplemindedness
aftei
.ill, the show's crucial concern is whether Jud or Curl)
will take
.tut e> t<>
hut it also is a downright thrilling Broadwa)
box MX ial
musical. It has marvelous and showmanly numbers: a flue charm
song in "Kansas City," two first-rate comic songs (the kind Ham
merstein wrote best) in "All er Nothin"' and "I Cain'l Say No," and
anothei perfe< Rodgers wait/ in "Out of My Dreams." which is the
show's one melody reminia cut of the Rodgers of Rodgei s and Hart.
It brings back his spec ial knack lor the melancholy.
Oklahoma! made permanent a giant step taken by our musical
theater. It also allied Rodgers with a man who took the musical
theater seriously. It prepared Rodgers for composing a considerably
more sophisticated and important score for Carousel
Carousel which opened in 1945. was the second in the mighty
Rodgers and Hammerstein quartet the musicals that established
the team .is a national institution (the others are South Pacific and The
King and I). Like Oklahoma! it deals with a rural, white Protestant
America. This was an image with which the country had long identified itself, an image that sustained America through the Second
World War the image of a clean-living, morally authoritarian,
agricultural country. Just what Rodgers and Hammerstein had to do
with that America is hard to understand since they were big-city,
Jewish hoys. Contrary to the old writing rule, nothing they wrote had
anything to do with their background.
Oklahoma! was based on Lynn Riggs's play Green Grow the Lilacs.
Carousel transported Ferenc Molnar's Liliom from Budapest in 1919
to New England in the late 1800s. It is the story of the romance
between Billy Bigelow, a ne'er-do-well, and Julie Jordan, a nice girl.
Billy is killed in a robbery and goes to heaven, leaving Julie a lifelong
widow who rears their daughter on a sea of sentiment. A starkeeper
in heaven gives Billy just one day to return to earth, see his daughter,
.1
.1
a<
in
Carousel
John Rarit
nne
in
Hdh
Bigelow, 'lead
Heaven to
comfort his fatherless child with "You'll Never
Walk Alone." Thoroughly corns, and thoroughly
robbery, Later, he returns brieflyfrom
moving.
is
<
189
One"
"Mr. Snow." For "If I Loved You," the verse, which usually introduces a song, is routined into the middle of the song. It is so fully
developed and exploited that it becomes a theater device, not merely
leading back into the main theme, but revealing the inconsistency,
hesitation, and character of Bigelow. In short, these numbers accomplish in musical terms what would otherwise have to be done
through textual exposition.
As for the rest of the Carousel score, it includes two magnificent
production numbers: "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" and yet
another great waltz, "This Was a Real Nice Clambake." Neither is
musically ordinary, neither a standard production number. The
show also has the touching "What's the Use of Wond'rin'," with a
lyric that promises the gorgeous "Something Wonderful" to come
in The King and I.
And of course there is "Soliloquy," a number of unprecedented
length. One may well smirk at the idea of a song sung by a hero alone
onstage, dealing sentimentally and superficially with the hopes and
fears of an expectant father. But the theatrical idea is more important than the lyric's lack of grace. And as for the music, only Kern
could have come up with so continuous a flow of melody, as of course
he had done with "Ol' Man River." Whatever "Soliloquy" may owe to
that song, and however much Rodgers is indebted to Hammerstein's
theatrical idea, this is a stunning number, a solo of pioneering
duration (seven minutes). It is that rare creature, a showstopper that
is pensive rather than exuberant.
Rodgers may have matched the melodic constancy of Carousel
elsewhere, and may have written more delicious songs with Hart, but
in terms of theater music, this show is his crowning achievement.
South Pacific.
South Pacific
190
is
among
hits.
In-
if
wore liberalism on us
sleeve;
it
estab-
it
.1
it
theater.
i\
&
;w<Mi
Arfty
The finale
(if
ajhl the
.
hem
while
in the of/ran)
and famous
society doctor, by gosh, he hasn 7 an omfdished
anything at all. He U going bat k home to be a
beams
that by
becoming a
rich
two utterly
I
World Wat
II.
South
Pa<
ifi<
different people Ensign NeUie Forbush(Mary Martin) from Arkansas and the
tin-
that Pima's
show, underlining
rhecomit
relief in
South
Pacific
Luthei
nu cess,
New
Billis, the
193
ould make
hit fr,
Of
dance numbers).
My
Hair,"
events are particularly prone to dating but the main reasons for
South Pacific's transience are
its
Many of its
194
faults
was
U'ii
besl
musical
is
known
as
.1
staging but in
its a<
A
its
thai ai e
Yul Brynnei. playing the King, proved the show's real discovery. Others have played the role. Alfred Drake and Rex Harrison
were actually offered the part first. Brynner owned it.
There is much to love in Rodgers's score for this show. "Something Wonderful" is a perfect example of a dramatic song: It tells a
great deal about both the King and the head wife who sings it. "The
March of the Siamese Children" is an orchestral piece of marvelous
emotional effect (and, to Van Druten's credit, he and not Robbins
Flower
Drum Song
was
set
in
San
character
his
and Pat
arranged engagement
to
another.
anyone
in this
rernval oj
speaks of writing exotic but not alien music. "Shall I Tell You What I
Think of You?" is a soliloquy in the Carousel tradition and anticipates
Rex Harrison's talk-singing in My Fair Lady However, The King and I
also has its share of extraneous songs, particularly the ballads "We
Kiss in a Shadow" and "Hello, Young Lovers."
Without detracting from Rodgers's achievement in writing The
King and I, at least some credit for it must be given to Robert Russell
Bennett, the orchestrator who worked for so many years with Rodgers, and with Kern as well. Bennett spent a career in their shadow s.
He gave the music of Kern and Rodgers a fullness the composers
alone did not always provide. Rodgers wrote more detailed arrangements than did Kern, three-stave arrangements rather than
lead sheets. But detailed as Rodgers's notation was, he would not
deny Bennett's great contributions to the final sound of his music. A
In st-c lass musician, Bennett has been one of the theater's most
influential orchestra tors.
With The King and I the best work of Rodgers and Hammerstein was done. They had shows of varying success in Me and Juliet
(1953, 358 performances), Pipe Dream (1955, 246 performances),
and Flower Drum Song (1958, 600 performances), but these lacked
the impact of then previous shows. The team had become the
theatric al ( rcnci al MotOl s. Hammerstein's folksiness was ovei clone.
Sue ess made Rodgei s's< omposing complacent. His late style is staid
and respectable. It is not music for the stage's irreverent, anarchic
Thing Happened on
the
it
so beautifully).
It is
exactly what
It u<a.s
staged
Francisco's
A Funn\
and Broadway w .is last bee omplace ol dance musicals. Rodgers and Hanuneistem became
ing
victims oi their own legend. The Sound ofMusic, theii lastshowanda
spirit;
.1
195
w.
&
HH
"
il
.i
.1
is
essentially live.
It
was
haps predi< table that The Sound of Music would he an ex< eption.
It had notheatei spirit lor Hollywood to desti oy, though it did have
some lovel) songs in "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" and "My Favorpet
ite
list
song.
he show was the last of Rodgers and Haminci stein. The lyriisi took ill dining the pre-Broadwa\ tout and died some months
alter the New York opening. "Edelweiss" was their final song. The
bond ol the two men. as a team and as friends, can he felt in this
beautiful melody's tenderness and intimacy, the lovely lyrics. Hammerstein at last wrote with uncontrived simplicity. Fittingly, the
musil was simple Rodgers wait/.
Rodgei s was stunned by the loss. It showed in the turn his career
took afterward. He was a man who had worked with but two lyricists
I
,i
Trapp, Hie
<>l
Maria von
Man
Martin
~lo
The Sound
ol
Musk
made naivete
Re Ml."
\h
-
story
<r
wr
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p.
2 ^^^
]
>]
Hear
Whether
former
his
Do
either
Two
stein could.
qfi
h\
Allen
right, center).
starred in Rodgers's
1970
Odets's
f>la\
isjewish
apple
pie.
itself.
is all
outi United
.is
much
to the music
al
theater as he.
Samuel Taylor
to
base a libretto
human being."
Ruhard Kil<~\.
199
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CCLE PCCTEC
Among
Porter received
he was
known
to
much
life of
1937
more recognizable.
an awesome number of standards, but
songs are among the most famous of all, and not just because
of their dashing melodies. His lyrics are as responsible for his enduring reputation as his music, and why shouldn't they be? They are as
bright and delicious and dextrous as any ever written.
Without them, his place in history might not be so assured. He
wrote marvelous songs, but he did not have the melodic gifts or the
versatility of his towering colleagues. Perhaps his musicianship,
which was greater than theirs, allowed him to do more with the talent
he had. For Porter's songs are ingenious rather than inspired, smart
rather than warm or emotional. They are dramatic, subtle, and
his big
pain until
his
New
an
rippled in a
York,
is
m white
unassisted (it
is
the premiere
of Noel Coward's
moody.
It is
makes Porter
For though he wasn't the only one to write both, nor even the
First (there was Berlin before him), nobody ever did it with such
virtuosity and verve. There is an obvious advantage in being a
composer-lyricist. It makes for a unity that can only be approached
by a team. When one man writes both words and music, they agree.
They rise from one soul and come closest to expressing the composer's heart in words. That is certainly true of Irving Berlin's work
and it is true of the work of some other composer-lyricists. Cole
Porter's best music was so original and so idiosyncratic that it's hard
to imagine anyone else setting lyrics to it; in fact, it sometimes seems
the other way around: that he was the only one who could possibly
have created the right music for his lyrics. As but one example,
consider the song "Anything Goes." Who but the author of the lyrics
would have given such musical exclamation points to the key words
"mad," "bad," "white," "night," "gent," and "cent"?
great.
today
the
(Anything Goes)
201
Not only do six successive lines end with "today," which the music
emphasizes with repeated notes, but it is only on the rhymes that the
melody changes, moving up the scale chromatically until the music is
finally resolved.
chance audiences
less
afollow-up
Excluding him
iti
to
"It's
De-Lovely,"
"Anything Goes."
this routine
called
full:
Your words
can
feel after
every
line,
A thrill divine
Down my spine
my lad
(Anything Goes)
Not a list number but on the same order as "You're the Top" as a
charm song is "It's De-Lovely" (from Red, Hot, and Blue). This
number succeeded because of the lyric's device: "delovely" and
"delightful" and "delicious," "delirious" and "delectable" and finally
"delimit." It's an Ira Gershwin sort of trick, something like " 'S
Wonderful" of nine years earlier. But there is a fine rhythm and an
irresistible melody to "It's De-Lovely." Again, as in "You're the
Top," the melody of the release ("You can tell at a glance/What a
swell night this is for romance") is catchier than the main tune, and
the interior rhyme
"tell" and "swell"
aids the effect. In general, a
202
music and lyrics for his sly charm songs than for his ballads.
Cole Porter was born in 1891 in Peru, Indiana, the son of a
gentleman farmer and a doting mother. Educated at private schools
and Yale, he went to Harvard Law School under pressure from his
grandfather, a lumber millionaire. Porter had been musical since
childhood. While at Yale, he wrote theatricals and cheer songs, the
"Yale Bulldog Song," as everyone knows, among them. He ultimately convinced his grandfather to let him transfer from law school
to the Harvard department of music. It was there that he received
the kind of musical training so rare among Broadway composers,
and he later supplemented it by studying in Paris under Vincent
d'Indy. This complete and luxurious education was typical of the
Porter
Of Thee
Gershwin's
makes
thirties
to
duet in
"It's
"Down
in the
De-Lovely,"
Merman
got to sing
style.
203
whom
'.
1932
he fang
posh hotels and resorts. This might be the reason the other composers tended to do shows set in America while Porter's were as often as
not set on the Continent.
His way of life was almost as celebrated as his work. Porter lived
splendidly, in town, in the country, and finally at the Waldorf Towers. He mingled with society rather than show people and traveled
constantly, luxuriously. All this was well publicized. Although the
fashionable life he led was beyond the reach of the general public, he
did not become a target of resentment, not even during the Depression. For he was living out everyone's fantasies, and he made his
glamourous society life available for everyone to share by putting it
into his songs.
him
had
In a peculiar way, wealth and the high life were obstacles for
to overcome. He had to prove himself no mere dilettante. He
songs merited. We
should have such problems, perhaps, but Porter had them.
Ultimately, he had much graver problems. In 1937, at the peak
of his success, he was thrown from a horse. His legs crushed, he
underwent countless operations, finally an amputation, and remained crippled and physically agonized until his death in 1964.
The irony was overwhelming, for Porter's personal and career
image had been of a man heaven touched. His was supposed to be a
life of elation and dancing, of good looks and dash, of perfect luck.
The image gave way to a ghastly reality: the man in white tie and tails
being carried into the theater on opening night.
Cole Porter wrote twenty-three shows but only his 1948 masterpiece, Kiss Me, Kate, is memorable. Though his songs are theatrical, most are isolated numbers, not part of score units or related to
particular musicals. Almost all his great songs were written in the
early thirties. Though his musicals continued to be successful into
the forties, few great songs came from them. His career ebbed and it
wasn't until Kiss Me, Kate that he resurfaced. How much the curve of
this career relates to his disastrous accident in 1937 is a matter of
to surpass celebrity to be given the
due
his
psychological speculation.
Gay Divorce
and the 1934 Anything Goes, with its fabulous score: the title song
plus "I Get a Kick Out of You," "You're the Top," "All Through the
Night," and "Blow, Gabriel, Blow."
A shipboard musical not unlike many shows of the twenties,
Anything Goes has the feel of one of Jerome Kern's Princess Theater musicals, probably because it was first written by Kern's
collaborators on most of those musicals, Guy Bolton and P.G.
Wodehouse. The revised script by Russel Crouse and Howard
Lindsay is credited with saving the show, but Anything Goes still
cannot be revived except as a period piece. These shows of Porter's
golden years served mainly to solidify the popularity of musical
comedy. Although they broke no new ground, each contributed to
the tradition and the establishment of musicals as a stage genre. This
was an important function of the workaday production. If every
musical were a trailblazer, there would be no body of shows to satisfy
the public on the belly level. Bread-and-butter shows bind techniques and refine innovations. Such shows have also been the source
of the magnificent collection of theater songs that are our national
treasure.
204
>
.
/%
\
)
.of
ring as a
tplain things in Porter's
Anythin
ro
and at
kucton
is
tin
an unusually
The
Of
best songs
those that have lasted are jewels. His Jubilee, for example, may be a
musical best forgotten but not its songs "Begin the Beguine," "Just
One
Reno Sweeney
(played by
passengers. Above,
Merman). All
this took
"
of Those Things," and "Why Shouldn't I?" "Begin the Beguine" is Porter's most famous song, noted, among other things, for
its extraordinary length
108 measures as compared to the usual
32. It is a wonderful song even if it does have just one "Oh yes, let
them begin the beguine" too many. But to my mind, the archetypal
Porter song is "Just One of Those Things." This song doesn't have
an expansive melody either, but musical containment works in its
favor because the lyric is about emotional containment. The words
are rueful and ironic, but one senses that the character singing the
song is truly brokenhearted, which establishes a tension within the
song. This is an ideal example of a matched mentality in lyrics and
music, and what is truer to the Porter style than being debonair in
pain? "Here's hoping we meet now and then." The high note on
"hoping" reflects the marvelously corny dash in the lyric, a cape
flung over the shoulder and out into the night. It's too much. "Jusl
One of Those Things" is pure Porter. Still, of these three Jubilee
songs, it seems to me that "Why Shouldn't I?" is the impeccable one.
It tings more than most Porter, up and down the- scale. It develops its
main theme tight away, without going on about it. It has a middle
pari or release that can stand oil its own. a little melodic sin prise with
a catch in its throat ("You'll be kissed and then you'll be kissed
207
set
removed
Cafe Martinique.
of the
The
lyric is
208
Panama
success.
There had been no anticipating it. Not from a Porter who had
seemed written out, whose name alone no longer guaranteed financing. It was the start of a second career that seemed to have no
connection with his previous work. In the past. Porter had taken a
blithe attitude toward his shows, often handing in his songs and then
disappearing. By the late forties, musicals had grown more demanding of composei s. Not only did a show's songs have to relate to stones
but its music was expected to play a larger role in general. The
composer was expected to work with the show. With his career
skidding. Porter could no longer afford to be so cavalier, espe< tally
since he had not been handing in hit songs. Perhaps this is one
reason why he provided Kiss Me, Kate with more music than he'd
ever given a show before. It is also one of the greatest <>l all music al
209
<
Opposite:
which
Went
l'iot< r's
Merman
to
she's the
start
lie is
.t
a<l\
examining
on Broadway singing "Well. Did You Evah?" which Porter later used in
i
Panama
u ore
\\ .in
Haiti" anil Beit Lahr (below) dreamed he was Louis XIV. The
million-dollar legs
the
DuBarr)
and
).
"Friendship."
sill)
story
Blair,
it
WtiB*
tilt -itits
It
plays as
if
it
isa
about them.
The show is based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. It
was adapted by Bella and Samuel Spewack, a pair of commercial
evitability
squabbles
as Shakespeare's
Petruchio begins
to soften his
<
and
karat ten.
Fm
bears the
stig-
it
is
and
it
is
amazing. There
is
nothing
in his
Its
success owes
much
to the show's
It is
<
its
positively
Shakespeai an
>site:
)ppi
es,
li/a-
and sings
bicker a while, but then reminisce about earlier and happier days
in the
mock-Viennese "Wunderbar."
Near
the
end
<>j
Kiss
Me, Kate
announce
the
to collect
the debt
is
better lyru
to
Brush
'
fi
)'<>ui
Shakespeare."
none
215
Italian setting,
216
Greenwood
built
Charlotte
an
sits it
Out
entire career
on
out as Greek
of
This World,
takes hit
the
titles
"Where,
shows
to
its
Oh Where,"
to the
cognoscenti:
its
own.
-~*
*.
*cV
- I*BP
j*
kl
I
4*"
*.
frr*
Kr
>^
\#
^m
A
i^
all
that
.1
unique.
of the
musical.
219
-^
B^H
\
A
Nv
GEORGE GEESHWIN
George Gershwin is the greatest theater composer Broadway has
produced. Kern and Rodgers might have been purer melodists.
Berlin was certainly more versatile a songwriter. No composer ever
reflected an era as perfectly as Porter did the thirties. But Gershwin
was as
much
man
He got
way
otic
Aljolson was a
stai
Sinbad
in
wht "
interpolated into
first hit
song of
his ever
surpassed
its
la\
ahead, no
commercial nu
ol
rehearsal pianist.
221
complete Broadway
and
he went back to
establish
him
score but its mild success didn't
interpolating songs and trying to knock out pop tunes. He became,
La, La, Lucille, in 1919, was
at last, strictly
Gershwin's
first
as the
of revues that had thirteen editions between 1919 and 1939. The revue a series of sketches and musical
numbers was the dominant form of musical theater in the twenties. It was stifled by musical comedy, much to our loss. Gershwin
wrote five Scandals scores, working with several lyricists of whom
only B. G. ("Buddy") DeSylva would make a name for himself.
Gershwin had already begun collaborating with his brother, but Ira
Gershwin so feared being accused of using family connections that
White's Scandals, the series
he wrote these lyrics under the pseudonym "Arthur Francis" (Arthur and Frances were the first names of the other Gershwins, a
brother and a
In 1922,
sister).
"Do
his first
his music.
songs in the
style that
It
song.
given three different sets of lyrics until the fourth established it.)
There- are also instances in which lyricists challenge and inspire the
222
Be Good!
in
(left)
as the
whofalls in
love
Predictably, the
up a nightclub
ladies (below).
another
lyricist?
team had
.1
spec
ial
hemisti
Revues presented a series <>t isolated turns, which encouraged lusoi 1)4 iii a composer, while music <il comedies, sill) as the) wen
provided a story in which to scl a song and demanded a bigger "feel*
in a song. "Fascinating Rhythm" from Lady, Be Good! is typical of the
fun Gershwin had with music, and the show was typical <>f the
ensuing sei ies of musical comedies that were to establish George and
Ira Gershwin between 1924 and 1929. Tip-Toes, Oh, Kay, Funny
Fare, and Girl Crazy cannot be e\ ived unless then foolish hooks .11
rewritten, hut their songs form the hasis of Gershwin's enduring
popularity. These songs were quick to engage the puhlic "Someone
to Watch over Me" (sung to a doll by Gertrude Lawrence in Oh,
Kay
the exquisite "He Loves and she Loves" (Funny Face), with its
swimming and voluptous harmonies; the hluesy "How Long II. is
This Been Going On?" {Rosalie); and the marvelous score lot Girl
Crazy. The overture itself is exciting, as ovei tin es ought to he. The)
and the walkout music lie at the heart of Broadway musicals. he
Girl Crazy overture spoons the audience right into the show, h (.111
only be topped by a curtain soaring up on an opening numbei
hut it's topped by more than that: "Embrac cable Von." "I Gol
Rhythm" which introduced Ethel Merman "Bidin' My Time,"
"But Not for Me," and the unfortunately titled "Broncho Bustei s,"
t
pop
<
.1
musicals before Porgy and Bess, his final work, were three political satires
Strike Up the Band, Of Thee I Sing, and Let 'Em Eat Cake.
Each of them takes a step away from light-headed entertainments
toward a new kind of musical. The last of them. Let 'Lm Eat Cake, is
last
<
it
225
ww
.i
In contrast, Oj
I In
its
.1
m. mi
it
I '(>
.1
.1
pl.it
able
01 in ol "love."
man who.
The vice-president
F01
<
)l
Ik(
Simk.
by
George
librettists
satin
inventing a candidaU
./7<
marry
his secretary,
unsettled. Butaftei he
giving birth
and he
to
settles
When
Man.
he decides instead
tin
country
is
twins (belov
>
boosts hispopularity
/n
the beauty
Throtdebottom.
At the md of Lei
1-
Eai
lake,
Via
now
it
ledto
dtctatan
left),
Supreme Court
229
this, its
a story
one can
it
some were
written by
Heyward
lyrics.
While
who
were collaborations,
it
is
difficult to tell
work is one long rush of the most gorgeous music ever written for
the American stage. The music is so familiar to most Americans that
seems almost unnecessary to recount individual titles. The songs of
personal emotion
of hope, loss, and love
reach out on long lines
of heartfelt melody: "Summertime," "My Man's Gone Now," "Bess,
You Is My Woman Now," "I Loves You, Porgy." The rhythmic
pieces have a soulful richness that crowned Gershwin's lifelong
affair with black music: "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'" and "It Ain't
Necessarily So." Harmony does visceral things to us. We sing melody
but we feel harmony. "There's a Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon for New
York" particularly capitalizes on a harmonic motif that Gershwin
uses throughout Porgy and Bess. At the song's peak moments (always
on the phrase, "That's where we belong"), Gershwin repeatedly
manipulates our emotions through changing harmony in a way that
no other Broadway composer did before. The rhythmic pulse and
the harmonies developed throughout Porgy and Bess give it a musical
heartbeat, intensified by the orchestrations, which were written by
Gershwin himself. Where would "My Man's Gone Now" be without
its crushing accompaniment? How could we be devastated by the
final "Oh Lawd, I'm on My Way" without its rushing rhythm, its
dramatic harmonies, its aching counterpoint, its breathtaking init
songwriter.
strumentation?
when
230
it
commer-
cial failure,
the most frequently performed works in all our musical theater, and
has been produced extensively abroad. Unfortunately, main <>l the
were abbreviated versions. Produ< ers have taken great liberties in trimming it, most often by omitting the recitatives
the
his was particularly deplorable since
dialogue sung between a lis.
Gershwin made more musical use of the device than did most opera
composers, who usually did not give substantial melodies.
Gershwin spent his final years in Hollywood, writing songs foi
movies. Far from being mere doodles. "A Foggy Da) ." "The)
an'l
Take That Away from Me," and "Love Is Here to Stay" were the
equals of any songs he'd evei written.
Where mighl he have gone from there? He spoke of writing
musical about the making of a musical. Almost fort) years later,
Chorus Line. It's not that George
such
musical w.is produced:
Gershwin was ahead of his nine. It's that all the possibilities ol the
musical theatei seemed to flow from him. lie simpl) embodied the
Broadway musi< al theatei
re\ ivals
it
.1
<i
Porg)
.iihI
Bess,
akin
Ain't Necessarily So
the song's verse,
ain't got no
what
away
like
is:
"Sun
siteoj
tin
tin
" ///
shame So
t<>
is
phnp-lihe Sportm'
amoral t reed
attitude, n*
I ife
will lure
ork by
m jail jm
Overleal
1
'I
Porg) .mil
ompany
successful
"It
f>ut
moon
no shame, doin'
tin
li>
teUmght
killing
it's
I ain't got
do!" Sportin
thepicnu
sets
nut mi
opera's
Way."
.1
ml; urn ut
1M
\i
"!^ % 2^l
.iv|
't
3^1'ii
1 ^a^r
^^V^k
Kw^JI
jr.
fi
^|
T#
'
^Al
fl
^/iTlM
^r
'f C
B^ H
/^
CVINe BERLIN
There have been more theatrical composers on Broadway and there
have been more sophisticated compose] s on Broadway bin thei e has
never been a more beloved composer or a better songwriter on
Broadway than Irving Berlin. Of all the giants of out musi< al stage.
is
lyric
it
and a
./
//<
fat
"/
mu
his
title
a helping hand,
understand,
I will
Always, always.
demonstrates the perfect mating of music and words. The two could
not have been more different. Porter sought the dextrous and witty
in his lyrics. He was cool, ironic, his heart protected. Berlin opened
up, looking for the words on the tips of our tongues. In his music, the
well-schooled Porter could create a song through style. Using clever
construction he could make the most of his basic melodic material.
The untutored Berlin depended on melody alone. His harmonies
were only implied, his use of rhythm instinctive. He did not include
such details when he played his songs. Porter aimed to please his
circle of sophisticates. Berlin measured success by mass popularity.
Personally, they could not have been more different. Porter was a
lotus-eater, Berlin a worker. Yet, they admired each other
indeed,
liked each other. Israel Baline, born in Russia, an immigrant to New
York's Lower East Side; Cole Albert Porter, a Yale man, mixing in
cafe and even high society. Their noncompetitive relationship was
possible because they were secure enough to respect equals and
knew that originals cannot have competitors.
Though we speak of Berlin's characteristic simplicity, his music
can't be easily identified. He wrote so many different kinds of songs
it's hard to believe the same man was responsible for them all. Where
is the similarity among the syncopated "Everybody Step," the rousing "Say It with Music," and the innocent "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up
in the Morning"? It was such versatility that led to gossip that Berlin
had a black songwriter squirreled away, writing his tunes (prejudice
had forced many black songwriters to work anonymously).
These stories arose because of the contrast between Berlin's
range and his musical illiteracy. He could not read music or write it
down. A musician would sit by his side at the piano and notate a
finished song as Berlin played it. Nor could he play the piano well.
On one occasion, a producer couldn't believe that Berlin had written
an awful song he was playing, but suddenly inspired, the producer
asked the composer to play "White Christmas." When it sounded
just as bad, the new song was accepted on the spot. Berlin couldn't
even play the piano in more than one key. He had a special piano
that would, with the shift of a lever, change keys.
As a major Broadway composer, Berlin was preceded only by
Kern. He wrote his first score in 1914 (for Watch Your Step) and
continued through twenty-one shows until the 1962 Mr. President.
Like most of the show writers in the twenties, he specialized in
revues, in his case The Ziegfeld Follies and the various editions of The
Music Box Revue, named for his own theater. From these shows came
such theatrical numbers as "Shaking the Blues Away"; the arche-
"A
beautiful "What'll
236
lyricist
would
///
1917, Berlin
u rotefot the
Ziegfeld Follies
the
song that
would evei aftei be associated with it- "A Pretty Girl Is I ikea
Melody." Musical scoresfoi Ziegfeld's shows wereusually
written by teams
<</
compost
ft
was a
"
Berlin's revue
everlasting "Easter
it is
the very
theatrical
its
its
its
expansiveness,
wide range,
its
its
soaring
sense of movement.
format
newspaper.
too.
924-1 925)
of the
thirties,
need of a parade number for its finale. He dug into his trunk and
came up with a 1918 song he had written imitating Felix Powell's hit
song "Pack Up Your Troubles." The song was called "Smile and
Show Your Dimple" ("you'll find it's very simple"). By his own
admission it was a "terrible" song, but, stealing its first eight meain
238
,1
<
Amei
an
life.
Although
and.
is
foi
le
(ii
>.
unci, in lent a
239
revue,
This
Is
the
Army
cast
was
life
from a
it
he dwelled
in
the country's
heart It was only in latei yeai s (with Misi Liberty and Mr. President)
thai he became professionally patriotic. This Is tin Army is as accurate
a reflection of wartime America as a defense-bonds postei 01
Norman Rockwell cover for the Saturday Evening Post. Some ol its
songs were drawn from his Yip, Yip, Yaphank ("Oh, H<>\\
Hate to
Get Up in the Morning") and othei S wei e new
Ins Is the \i m\
Mr. Jones"), hut all of them reflected (he honest we're-in-thistogether of America in the war yeai s <>l the Forties. Finan< ed .is wai
benefit, the show had an extended Broadway run and then tout ed .is
a military entertainment. Entirely identified with Berlin
he was
it established him as America in song.
even in it
Late in 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein offered Berlin Annie
Get Your dun after the death of Jerome Kern. Berlin had misgivings
about the project. He wasn't at all sine he liked the Dorothy and
Herbert Fields hook. He didn't quite Believe the producers' ex< usethat they were "too busy with another project" to write this one
themselves. Rodgers, he thought, can write anything, so Berlin
concluded that Hammerstein considered Amur Get Your Gun too
superficial an entertainment for the team. Berlin was also uncertain
that he could write lyrics for the rural characters in Annie Get Your
Gun. Hammerstein assured him, "All you have to do is drop the g's.
Instead of 'thinking,' write 'thinkin'.' " Berlin gave it a try, going
home and writing "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly." Though Rodgers
and Hammerstein approved, he still wasn't certain, went home
again, and wrote "They Say It's Wonderful." All in a week.
Finally sold, Berlin proceeded to compose one of the greatest
scores ever written for a Broadway musical. The catc hiness is unend.1
.1
Army,
audits success
established Berlin
0/
Ins Is the
onceandfm
all as
an
came
to believe ia this
reputation
among
the
arm-wai
is
at
and
stai^i
it
presented a
hillbilly
Yet, crazy
Annie
naive that Merman could go out and do
as this sounds,
and still
be
uncomplicated as A n n ie.
they
matched shooting
Right: For
silliest
"
Berlin
big chief
it
was
exactly
get
what audiences
242
with another.
It is
melody
The
"The
Girl
That
To top this
244
its
book rewritten.
He
He
tried to
problem was
that
make
it
he was an inexperienced
different needs of a
drama and
librettist,
is,
kind of
Sherwood's
unaware
of the
esteemed
<>/ its
librettist
of thefirst
mpermusicals,
sum
Berlin
playwright Robei
a musical.
The score for Miss Liberty, on the other hand, is vintage Berlin.
It would be nearly as popular as the AnnieGet You) dun score had the
show been a hit. Perhaps Miss Liberty would have done better had it
been written for a star. There are songs in that have the appeal of
almost anything in Annie Get Your dun: "Let's lake an OldFashioned Walk," "A Little Fish in a Big Pond." The show has a fine
charm song in the Lorenz Hart-like "Falling Out of Love
Be
it
Cm
Fun." In setting Emma La/arus's poem "The New Colossus," engraved on the statue's pedestal, to music as "Give Me Your Tired,
Your Poor." Berlin revealed his admiration lor Rodgersand Hammerstein's "You'll Nevei Walk Alone." but Berlin's son^ is siill a
stirring piece. It was just one of an unusually large numbei <>l horns
Eddie Albert,
songs for a Berlin show. Since none ol the leads
was a majoi star,
Allyn Ann McLerie, and Mar) McCarth)
per liaps Berlin didn't trust then voices.
He wouldn't risk weak voices the next time out and went straight
(
modelf01
tin
Statue
<<l
ru
he
Liberty.
In Berlin's Call
Adams,
The
os test
On The Ball," a
Truman
elected President.
providing Call
Me Madam
with a plot.
962
starring Robert
246
to
Merman
were
for Call
Me Madam, one
just as prestigious as
those
foi
yeat
later.
His collaborators
director
<
>\
<
leal
<
omedy,
ifmf)\ thert
wasn't that
much
t<>
worry about
.1
l)ut
it
Madam
when
clown
ricaevei produced,
<
In greatest
xtravagant and
buffoonery
ll<
i.
Brunnhildi in a travesty
>/
rwoonthe
D, ,/,,!,
Gray's
Wagnerian opera
nation of these names and Merman was enough to make the show
still another supermusical. Like Rodgers and Hammei stein. Berlin
would
settle for
Call
nothing
Me Madam's
less.
score
is
Gun
'J
.Mi
H
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k
' j
-*
|W
\
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\
I
H -V
-Vw
<f
:rr
i
HMm
r
r-
Be
to*.
IH4!
^*
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rV
"
*9^f
>!
mm
Sr-'
tf
*r
HI
HRkHUL
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/7<\S
SI
mm
CCUPCSEES
THE MASTERS
Kern. Rodgers. Berlin. Porter, and Gershwin ma) well have been the
giants but they were hardly the only men who set the high standards
for Broadway's music. From the twenties to the fifties, similarly if not
equally gifted composers were working all around them. But for
accidents of career and chance, some of these others might also have
ranked
at the top.
They
are
all
personalities,
S<
hwartz
is
e's.
same generation
the Big Five. He is one of
also of the
BeriLah became a Ua
withtht
1928 Hold
Everything Hemadefirst-nighte\
laughtei as a punch /hunk fighter, along
ith
>th
.<
manHarry
DeSyhta and
My
it
Coffin
itself
with the
and went on
Bnth
<ii
tin
included "You're
h>
ihi
Cream
George Whke'i
to write
s<
andab
ntch statulnnh
>
"I hi
rte."
up
Howard
Dietz he
found
.1
lyricist
nearl) aa
).
Sun
and
added the exquisite "Alone Together," "Louisiana Hayride," and "A Shine on Your
Shoes." He also wrote (for Between the Devil) the perfectly lovely "By
Myself," a song as consistent with its lyric (by Dietz) as any written by
in the Sky,"
"I
Colors
a composer-lyricist.
Broadway
m
Ulightedv
Teafoi Two" and"l
revival. Audit
nickfamiUai
oldies as
ith
Hi
(from
>i
Helen Gallaghei
Below,
liit to right)
Ruby Keelet
Gilford aiut
left:
join
"Take a IMtteOm
\t,f,
tirp
company
to
match.
Even thefabulous
tet fn
Albert
SKSMnriw
A Tree Grows in
JJV\
story like
Brooklyn
is
liberated sister
was
built
up
came
deserved more than 270 performances. This was a musical play in the Rodgers and Hammerstein
to a hit
book musical.
It
and
The music
for
252
From the
contemporary Broadway. Yel Ins song catalogue attests to achievement enough. Were the unlucky decisions i<> work on revues and
weak hooks really bad lu< konly? Perhaps, rather, theatei awareness
a sense ol w here the stage is going, a nose lot possible shows
may
be as net essary to a
com poser
and
Harold Arlen,
Though
lie
man considered
composing
is
more
ap-
why audiencesdo
Two of
Woman
in
in 1954.
St.
Louis
He
it.
but the
1946 musical
Arien-Mercer uim
is
best
rememberedfm
it*
St.
Louis Woman
(left to right)
Some
fine songs
cause he, too, thought in terms of the song rather than the show.
Like Arlen, Mercer was a poor judge of book material, and the
musicals they worked on never stood much chance of success. The
St. Louis Woman run of
13 performances hardly seems fair, considering such songs as "Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home," "Come
Rain or Come Shine," and "I Had Myself a True Love." However
classy, these are pop rather than theater songs, more thoughtful
than exuberant and spontaneous.
As for Capote, his lyrics for Arlen's 1954 House of Flowers are
positively remarkable for a newcomer. They are technically profi1
cient
254
and
artistically superior.
The
shared l>\ Vrlen and Capote, so it's hard to know who wrote
which words. It's likel) thai Vrlen contributed Ik- technique and
apote the poeti j rogether, the) made this score one of the mosl
Iviu sis
become
he-
shot*
is
anothei
of
those thai
on the basis ol
lis
a cull favorite
cull musicals,
its
revival
,i
.1
autograph:
I
The most
A
Yet
I've
talent to
Bitter Sweet
had
amuse
comprising Tonight
.11
<>/
playlets In
H-.'M).
Coward
The tongis
the
it,
th/it
my life began
is
(
just
Bitter Sweet)
who
unaccustomed to writing lyrics: They are selfconsciously literary and overly dense. "April in Paris," with its
French harmonies, and the bluesy "Autumn in New York" make a
unique and lovable pair.
Most of Duke's theater work was done in the thirties and early
forties, during which he wrote nine scores. After a twelve-year absence he returned to Broadway in the fifties with two revues, Two's
Company and The Littlest Revue, neither a success. His most successful
book musical was the 1940 Cabin in the Sky, with its hit song, "Taking
a Chance on Love" (lyrics by John Latouche and Ted Fetter).
Otherwise, no significant musicals mark Duke's career.
The second generation of theater composers must begin with
Burton Lane and Hugh Martin, not only because they are two of my
favorites but because they spring from the same tradition as those
who preceded them. Born in the century's teens, Lane and Martin
form the connecting link between the first generation of musical
theater composers and those who matured in the forties. If Kern
and Gershwin had musically married, Hugh Martin and Burton
Lane would have been their children, and professionally troubled
the composer
is
Hugh
Martin
is
man
became a
arrangers of the Broadway
former and
later
vocal arranger
one of the
finest vocal
an invaluable background
because vocal arranging deals with the very difference between pop
and stage music. Martin was one of the most promising of show
composers and had a first-class collaborator in Ralph Blane. Their
first musical was a beauty and a hit: Best Foot Forward in 1941. Its
boisterous opening number, "Buckle Down, Winsocki," set the tone
for years of opening numbers to come. The show was smooth
enough
more or
stage.
This
is
to
less
Martin and Blane are best known for a movie score, Meet Me in
St. Louis, with its "The Boy Next Door," "Have Yourself a Merry
Little Christmas" and, of course, "The Trolley Song." They nevei
quite matched that when writing for Broadway, though Martin on
his own had middling successes with Look Ma, I'm Dancin'! and Make
a Wish. When the team broke up, Martin collaborated with Timothy
Grey on High Spirits, an adaptation of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit.
Since Martin gave Grey equal credit on both music and lyrics, it is
difficult to know who is responsible for what. There are good songs
in High Spirits
"You'd Better Love Me While You May" and "Go
Into Your Trance"
but they do not match the quality of Martin
and Blane's earlier work. Hugh Martin has written no shows since.
The frustration of his career, one of the musical theater's mysteries,
is downright depressing.
as strange.
He was signed
to write
the score for The Greenwich Village Follies when he was fifteen] Although the show never materialized, he was soon contributing son^s
There were,
of Jerome Kern.
It is
at
lass
lineage in either
<
ase.
Diet
Three's a
i(
ici
years later,
Laffing
Room
al
<
omedv
Holt! an
Though
it
to
Bea
l.i/lir.
fhr
i.\
being levitated
tin
i
hopt "/
<
Tram
this scene
is
tin rati
torcisn
Edward
In "(,o Into
with his
(,<
)
<>in
In
this famous
Rainbow,
Congressman Rankin)
magical
bolt
is turned black by a
of lightning. From a modern
being turned
black
virtually unrevivable.
who
Singing
life m
as
about elegant
herformer
undo
In nn and Burton
Cosh" here,
recalls,
Lane's "Tosy
self,
and
she reminisces
suitors.
which Lane also wrote the lyric "FeudirV and Fightin'" the shot*
didn't take off. Strangely enough, aftei so bus) a youth, Lane then
became the reluctant giant among Broadway omr> ei s. He wrote
only two shows in the next thirty-three years, Finian's Rainbow and
On Clear Day You Can See Forever. His explanation is that movie
commitments kept him from doing some shows and weak books kept
him from doing others, bul these- ex< uses are too lac tie foi sue h a
long period of inactivity. Whatevei the real reason,
is plain from
the work Lane did do that he is prodigiously gifted. Even having
written just two shows, he ranks at the lop. Had he- done- more he
would surely be as celebrated as Rodgei s.
Finian's Rainbow has one of the best of all Broadwa) sc di es, with
lyrics by E. Y. Harburg at the peak of his form. To list some oi the
songs is enough to set the mind to humming: "When I'm Not Neat
the Girl Love," "How Are Things in Glocca Moria?." "Look to the
Rainbow," "If This Isn't Love," "Something Sort of (i andish." "( )ld
Devil Moon." There is no other show, not even My Fan Lady, that
produced so many song standards. Lane's ingenuity is astounding
for a self-taught musician. He wrote a minuet for "Something Sortoi
Grandish," a verse- that doubles as a release for "Look to the Rainbow," a melody that climbs the scale like a ladder for the- exubei ant
duet "If This Isn't Love," and a mi ics of tricky, bluesy, modulating
harmonies for "Old Devil Moon." "When the Idle Poor bee oine tinIdle Rich" is a production number whose- rousing melody ant be
drowned out by a shouting chorus. The Finian's Rainbow seoiesimply cannot be- overpraised. The show has an outdated political
worked when it counted
book by Harburg and Fred Saidy but
most
when the show was first proelue eel.
\ Clear Day You Can V
( )n the other hand, the lib] ettO ol On
Forever (1965) was bad from the Start. Alan |a\ Lei net \ original
story was devised to argue- and celebrate the virtues of extrasensory
pen eption. This approach did not woi k; it restricted the show with
forced
its lee iu re-demon st at ions ol what can't be demonstrated;
skeptic
a audience.
the show to argue with a
Lane's
scoielot
However,
the show is almost the equal ol
Finian's's score.Lane writes foi book musicals. He writes songs foi
plot. Perhaps such book-show songs are growing old-fashioned, but
i
(i
it
it
it
Lane
c
is
so theatrical,
hocolate or
with "lltuiv!
what
is
lii
and
epla< es.
It's
Lovely
so good, that
We
I
about to transpire.
take w hal
his
we- get.
old-fashioned
On
a Cleat
is
hk<
Day begins
The
Bertolt Brecht
and Kurt
Threepenny Opera
capitalists to gangsters.
is
Weill's
The
a cynicalfable likening
"victorious
execution
happen
to
in real
mances
in 1933.
to
Macheath,from
lyric
work has
its
Burton Lane's
larmelina was an
about an Italian
woman
if>la\ed In
Georgia
is still
collecting
American
ex-GI's.
Her Italian
Song." Was
it
sit still
fot a
musical play
stylet If
m the lift"
it's
good
later.
ht
porary decades
phenomenon
261
^^
Ml
In
Lady
in
successful
li(f of
magazine
in the
editot
Mulnu
\'k to>
stars-to bt
right) as a itun
Kaye
left)
as a photograph*
as
>
left,
is
Victor
the right
is
Danny Kaye.
to
sing the
which he becamefamous.
and
and
in a
Sew
1954 Marc
York premiere
Blitzstem hit
had nothing
Ironically, the
to
do with Hit
lit
had become a
"Broadway."
all
about daily
life in
New
York.
this
show
Indeed, Street
Bernstein
theater in
Weill's
too operatic.
he structure
<>!
and Anderson
.is
Knickerbocker Holi-
The only professional he worked with besides < shwin was theyoung Alan Jay Lerner, who had a particularly Americanizing effe<
on Weill. He wrote his most "Broadway" songs for their Love Life:
day).
"Here
I'll
Stay" and
"Green-Up lime."
In practice, unfortunately,
This Year") when he started work on Where's ('.hurley'? Both his father and his brother were trained musicians, but his
own musical background was rudimentary, although he later
Be
a Little Late
studied piano.
"Make
a Miracle," a breathless,
think-about-the-future duet.
It
is
and
Mnae
le"
is
one continuous
lilting strain.
The
score foi Guys awl Dolls, produ< ed two years latei is Loeshis musical version <>l Damon Runyon's
ser's most celebrated.
.
romance
it
there
(derived from
its
its
Broadway argot
trio
to
of
Fuguefor Tinhorns"),
to its
shown
here.
At the
top left
game (held
in
is
the
a sewer) in
and wins
to
turn up at the
Army
girl
right)
and other
In Sky's
Salvation
Nu
to
Levene) leads
"Sit
Down,
the
tin
<
'
who plays
nightclub
<
mam. And in
announi
es
evi
seated next
Shortly,
"
neand Vivian
his fiancee
<>/
utu Adelaide)
<i
Blaine,
//
grandfinale
fourtet n \<a>s.
math vow
(bottom,
evi n pt
is
an
irresistible
.i
to
left)
Sky
its
.i
>
.i
t <
<
and
show,
so
La
^i
ippe,
1.
grippe,
appeal
And
sinus that's
la
post-nasal drip
eall) a
|)i|>!
is
.i
in a
Broadwa)
st\lc.
making
it
accessible.
and
Dulls
also has
Know"
production number "Luck Be
ballads
"I'll
Lad)
onight."
"Sit
Do** n, You't e
at the-
in
the
seen only once. Accepting, she arrives to find that he'd sent not his
pie lure but that of his young foreman. She man ies rbnyanywa) I'm
in her disappointment allows hei sell to he sedu< ed l>\ the- foreman.
When
ol hei
'
it
il
Robert Weede
politan
left the
Metro-
Fella, in
right,
to
by mail.
he sings the
title
little
town,
from
its
his
quaintfather
Up to
nevertheless
lovely
You"
them togethei
The Most Happy Fella had the misfortune to open in the spring oi
1956,
.1
bare
six
weeks
aftei
My
Fait
Lady's spectaculai
arrival.
Because ol that, it
might have been, though ran a
676 performances. Without question is a golden work and
one of our musical theater's ovei looked ones.
Frank Loesser's on!) Broadway failure was Greenwillow, which
ran foi 95 performances in 1960. Die show, based on a novel b) B.J.
Chute, had a co) story that marked a fat journe) from the fre<
wheeling Guys and Dolls. Greenwillow be< ame a ult musu .il be< ause
of its in h score, with its offbeat "A Day Borrowed from Heaven," the
Rowing "Summertime Love," and a parti< ular gem, "Faraway Bo) ."
litis List has the delicate flavor of "Mote
dan not Wish You" from
Guys and Dolls.
wasn't hailed as
it
it
health)
it
<
The
Business
on Hoic to
Succeed,
without music.
just
.is
well
How
Without Rc.ilK
i\m^ was directed by Abt Burrows and Rob
Fosse in a cartoon ^tylr. Old-time nonet Hwl\
to Succeed in Business
<
VoMee (thirdfrom
the theater, /omul
tin perfet
nlhness fat
>w h
>
oessei
's
last
Huh,
it
\\
i<
thui In ,n ni in
tin
ting
tin boss's
"Grand Old
.t
Budd
S(
.i
title
and one
can't
help but be
Mexican
flavor.
hough
his
Where's ('./unify?
Broadway's
Harold
best.
Rome
partmentalized,
in
is
omposei
era or style.
1\
isi
who
He emerged
Me Mister,
was
and
be neatly com-
cm not
and Needles.
at m\
etei .ms
\
\ latei
revue,
to civilian
life.
www
Broadway
that introduced a marvelous new star, Betty Garrett. Hailed as a new Merman, her stage
careei was tragically destroyed by McCarthyism be< ause of accusations not against her hut her movie actor husband, Lai \ Pai ks.
Rome had another hit four years later, with the 1950 musical
comedy Wish You Were Here. This show occupies a special niche in
the hearts of musical theater makers. It was homhed by the critics
hut survived destruction, riding on word of mouth to a 598performance run. It has been a symbol of hope, ever since, to
musicals that are panned.
Harold Rome's greatest success was Fanny of 1954. Starring
Ezio Pinza, Florence Henderson, and Walter Slezak, it was based on
a trilogy by Marcel Pagnol. A musical play in the Rodgers and
It
successful
very
liftt\
Me
Mister
tin
postwat
Hammerstein
tradition, this
good theater
third.
When
comes
to writing
effective.
It
sets
It
builds
up excitement
is
the only
272
Playing that
"little
Rock,"
in
"Diamonds Area
and become
theater.
operaUn
hiredfor a support
Vtiss
Marmebtein, h
Elliot
l<
in
anGetll
.
Based on
on the
stripper's mother,
latest lover
and Funny
Girl
his best.
Styne had
made
patsies in a swindle.
Opposite: Though Gypsy ended up
as
an
had
mind
in his original
plan
to
make
it
it
lilting
that
in
a concept
Broadway plunge
year before
Loesser. Over the next twenty-five years he wrote sixteen shows,
making him the most prolific composer of his era. He started off
with a hit in High Button Shoes (727 performances), a period piece
about New Jersey in the century's teens. The flimsy story deals with a
couple of confidence men trying to use a respectable family as
and very
the
special "Can't
is
You
filled
in 1947, the
You Dance
274
'.
Wi
**
3fc2
lists,
Belli
Are Ringing.
We
Green
it
lie
team
i\ it
about
I tin
\/.
n great beauty,
>
llltl.
()/J
and
the audit ru r
yelling at
it
Out.
original stoi\
is
lint
hit thcii
an
about a sh) girl (played b) [udj
Holliday) who works Foi
telephone answering service, and hei
romant e, first imagined and then realized, with a handsome lienl
(Sydne) Chaplin). IThisis a journeyman storj bul
was viable al the
time because (omden and Green tailored n to the adorable comi<
personality of their pal, Miss Holliday. Styne i>i< ked up the tonguein-cheek style oi lus collaborators. He also wrote perfectly in chara<
ter for Holliday, as he had earlier for Channing and would, later, foi
Merman and Streisand. "It's a Pet led Relationship" is a swell theatei
song.
he whimsical lyric ("1 talk to him. and hejusl talks to me") is
underlined by satiric music which begins in a light mood, nuns
melodramatic, and ends as. ol all things, a conga. "It's a Simple Little
System" is a plot song describing how the- answei ing sci \ k e is h onl
for a bookie operation, but it is presented as a mock cantata. Thei e
are also a couple of first-class ballads in "Just in Time" and the classic
"The Party's Over." My favorite from the show is the vaudevillian
finale, the show-stopping "I'm Going Back" ("Where can be me/At
the Bonjour Tristesse Brassiere Company/.
A little mod'ling on
the side"). This is a spirited, funny, and irresistible number thai
showed off Miss Holliday's unique combination ol brains and clowning. Judy Holliday, who died in 1965 when she was not quite fortyfour, was one of the stage's most special stars and think "I'm Going
Back" is the song to remember her by.
Over the next eleven years, Styne wrote five more shows, four of
them flops, with ('omden and Green, before the partners realized
that they were not bringing out the best in each other. For in the very
same stretch, while working with others, Styne wrote two of Broadscript
.i
<
it
.i
.\ |>\
a real chat
tht
partoftht brassy,
was the
Get
Out
kit k
slu- didn't
nl
You"
ShowBusim
Business Like
What
is it
merely intra
Hint "!>''
is" and
It
is
Merman}
iilmiit
a stage
pi
It. </
mn haw
rformei
course,
/*
the
ami important
dynami
hnnth
associated with
compose)
sht
compose}
tin
, rshwin's
once it mas
greatest sa
tin
itti
sin
brought out in a
reason hi wrotefoi
Even
first placi
<
ourfa
it
"Everythii
in
sti,
>n
//
'
wen
to
tin
theatei intht
concede that
and
Girl with
Bob
Merrill.
Ralph Burns.
it
shows
that
Mama
>it <-
is still
Anything Goes,
Berlin's t<"
rman.
(.\ps\
hi re
is
Annie Gel
These are
N <>ui
thr\
written />
no perform*
who has
so
hat the
Broadway
a class
of
number,
style
its
of music
own.
at full throttle.
Literally
and
figuratively,
it
is
it is
in
Gypsy's ultimate
actress
modern
era.
Funny
Girl at the
and a
star
is
audience. This
is
love on
Barbra Streisand,
pretending
it is
the soul
she
is
in
in
its
way
Funny
to ecstasy.
Girl, isn't
of stardom.
it
Funny
one for
it
modern
operettas,
it
lyricist-librettist
Alan Jay Lerner, Loewe reeled off a series of hits whose scores
brimmed with melody.
What's Up? in 1943, The Day Before
After a few false starts
Loewe established himself with Brigadoon in 1947:
Spring in 1945
its lively, exciting opening, "Down on MacConnachy Square," and
278
Youi w
as about
who taki hi\
daughtei (Olga San Juan) prospectingfot gold
Lerner's boohfoi Paint
(Ui
in
19th-century California
about het
late mother,
exquisite
I still Set
Hen
Lernei
hi
rewuni
and
"
Elisa
then the endearing "The Heather on the Hill," "There But for You
Go I," "Come to Me, Bend to Me," and "Waitin' for My Dearie."
Brigadoon was a bit heavy on the endearing. The show's most popular
song was also its best "Almost Like Being in Love," a lilting, soaring
song that is eerily reminiscent of Kern.
Four years later, in 1 95 1 Lerner and Loewe came up with Paint
Your Wagon. It was only a mild success (289 performances) though it
had such fine songs as "I Still See Elisa," "I Talk to the Trees," "They
Call the Wind Maria," "Wand'rin' Star," and "Carino Mio." But these
songs clashed with the show's rural western setting. Loewe was born
in Germany and his musical background lay in Viennese operetta.
Although Paint Your Wagon dealt with Americana, it had ContinenTony Bavaar with an
tal music, emphasized by a leading man
operatic tenor. Given Lerner's lyrics, such music could pass for
Scottish in Brigadoon as it later passed for English in My Fair Lady
and Camelot. Broadway audiences did not notice such musical
anomalies. But operetta music for a western mining town? Audi-
compose one
My
Shaw's and
it
inspired
Loewe
make
shortcomings
seemed
the show
of the era
it
less
it.
Fair Lady
is
h speaking voice-. It
with a weak singing voice by capitalizing on his
was not new to have- a character speak-sing Gertrude Lawrence
had just done it in The King and 1 but Loewe made an a< tual asset.
Again and again, Harrison enchanted audiences with his pattei
songs: "Why Can't the English?" and Tin an ( )i clin.u y Man," and ol
course the exhilarating "A Hymn to Him" (bettei known as Win
Can't a Woman Be Moi e Like a Man?").
Composing with an exacting awareness ol character, Loewe
1
1<
<>/
a century, a
ui thi villagt
broken
The
rs
bet n
asleep
set
schoohnastei Mr.
two young
Scottish
may
l>li>t '*
<
leavt
omplicated In one
<<l
\
l><
tht
it
In tin hi
who
nli
tries to
um
away
\mong
and
tin
marvelous
show was a
befot
featuring tht
>;//>/
ilum
lames Mitchell
28
to
her changing
character, from the Cockney "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" and the
angry "Just You Wait" to the refined celebration of "I Could Have
Danced All Night" and the finally independent "Without You." As a
set of songs for a straightforward musical play, this score is without
even tailored
Eliza's
songs
in musical
terms
superior.
282
Me to the Church on
Time.
mt^mM
usually
little
choreography. This
is
because the
writer has
Hanya Holm.
he tars oj
Ait/no
tht
the Simple Folk Dor" But though there is great deal <>l musi< alit)
in White's material and its chivalric pel i<>d, the shou ouldn'l come
to life with My Fair Lady's ghost hovering in the background. \
duplication should not have been attempted. After so large-scal<
shou equall)
success, it is better to do something simple than
.1
.1
elaborate.
Besides,
ol
Loewe did
not
.-
THE
PRCfESSICN/iLS
verything had been too eas) It was time foi
isis.
The first generation of musi< .il theatei compose] s had refined
the quality popular song. rhe> saw stage musi< as superior populai
music. The second generation <>l omposei s grew more theati i< ally
I
.1
aware but they still didn't consider a show score sua essful unless tun
or three hits emerged from it. With On the Town Leonard Bernstein
proved, to his chagrin, that hit songs were not the
itei ia <>l a good
score. Then, without warning. American taste in popular music
changed dramatically to loud, raunchy, danceable rock n' roll. The
third generation of show composers found that Broadway's music
was no longer America's popular music
<
the-
ruffians of rock
n'
toll.
Al-
l.iz/i
when
Floi
she
with the
.1.
the
'"
Mena
Ke-el
/ >
learn
wh
to carry u
it
'
sex
ialism
it
ordinary
at
tuw and,
frankly,
>i
klutz
Singt
Garland Butfriends
bt
by performing in nightclui
film
No
bb
was
"iii by
stepping into
briefly
ill;
hit .1^
and when
tht
i,,fif>,.>it,
foi h>
1.
hml
/liliiihuMint, nml
ihi
M111111II1
lnhiilnit
li<
\c\
pop music business and the musical theater blocked, composers and
lyricists with theater aspirations had to find not only a new, purely
theatrical reason for writing songs, but also a new route to Broadway. The one they developed was out of the college musical and
through the summer resort. Hotels and camps in the mountains
outside New York, such as Tamiment in the Poconos and Green
Mansions in the Adirondacks, engaged resident composers and
lyricists to
bound youngsters such as* Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, Fred
Ebb, Sheldon Harnick, Mary Rodgers, and Marshall Barer got their
door by working at such resort hotels.
Weekly deadlines and the immediate need to satisfy audiences provided a sharpening discipline. From there it was but a hop to the
New York theater, with a skip over the old way station of hit song
writing. Broadway's producers were so anxious to capitalize on the
musical theater's popularity that they were then willing to share risks
with the newcomers.
Instead of realizing that theater music and popular music were
mutually exclusive and had overlapped in the past purely by chance,
these third-generation theater composers still longed to write hits;
they still considered themselves in the pop music business. We must
try to understand this since hit fever infects every Broadway
songwriter. It is the reason even the most ambitious musical will
abruptly stop to showcase or reprise a song its writers believe to have
hit potential. There is nothing that satisfies a songwriter team like a
hit. This is not merely because of the money, though it can be
considerable. It is because of the kick the writer gets from having the
whole country singing his song; from hearing it on the radio, hour
after hour; from making it in the music business.
So the debut shows for this third generation of Broadway music
writers
Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick's The Body Beautiful, Lee
Adams and Charles Strouse's Bye, Bye, Birdie, and so on tended to
have at least some songs with a rock'n'roll beat. Bye, Bye, Birdie was
about a rock 'n' roll singer. Other shows had no such excuse. They
merely added the rock rhythm to ballads, looking for hits by thinking new (rock) and old (ballads) at the same time. Inevitably, these
were bastard songs, defeating a show's integration and making for
isolated numbers: "What I Did for Love" in A Chorus Line or, even
more incongruously, "Tomorrow" in Annie.
When not making such tries for hits, Broadway's composers of
this generation tended to ignore both rock and time. They pretended that nothing had changed and continued to write the style of
show music that had attracted them to the theater in the first place.
Few composers were moving forward or were exploiting their own
talents or were looking past "songs" to longer and more complex
musical forms. It was such music that Leonard Bernstein would
ultimately compose as he began the third generation.
Bernstein's career had seemed securely destined for conducting
and composing classical music when he began converting his 1944
ballet "Fancy Free" into a musical. He became the best theater
composer of his era. Unfortunately, he was a victim of his own
versatility. Gifted in so many fields, he had to steal time to write
shows. He opened the door to a new musical theater and then, rather
than walking through, he chose to go elsewhere. He wrote only five
shows in thirty-two years, with a nineteen-year gap between West
Side Story (1957) and J 600 Pennsylvania Avenue (1976), but his shows
feet in the show-business
count.
288
"Fancy Free"
is
.1
ballet
<>n
shore leave.
.1
.il
Football."
Wondei
.*>
J%
cadets
who would
<i
group
rathet
lul
own
the played a
<>/
Brazilian
dance than
talk
Wonderful Town
's
around
on
the
(center, right)
to
left)
as the intellectual
to be written for
had no
voice;
a less-than-an-
Once
only trouble was that literary credentials are of little help in solving
second-act problems, Hellman's fidelity to Voltaire's episodes only
assured a show lopsided with plotting and scenery. Still, Bernstein
outdid himself, providing a satiric score lavish with musical invention. It is dry ("Bon Voyage," "You Were Dead, You Know") and
cynical ("What's the Use?"). Its most famous piece is the mock
coloratura aria, "Glitter and Be Gay," a fabulous musical exercise.
Unfortunately, Candide 's lyrics are wordy, as lyrics tend to be when
literary people write them. They are funny to read but too densely
written for the theater.
290
is
In- v.j
singing and
K-t\ a ml
dam m^
rathei than
is
a comic
show, and it is a
Rican (it is influenced by Copland's "F.I Salon Mexico"), the
number's offbeat rhythms save it from beingjusl .mother list song.
The excitement of the West Side Story score- comes from its
meters, the clipped "Something's Coming," the tense and jazzy
"Cool," and the counterpoint of the "Jet Song" against Tonight."
like Stravinsky's
The
it
theater music
and
being thrown
at
finale. It
is
quite a piece of
it.
Robert Rounseviile
to
The
John Murray
American
career.
is
over.
Bernstein's
to
From time
and
song "Matilda"
John Murray
Anderson's Almanac.
Such clever, goodlooking Broadway
revues were great fun,
butfor no good reason at
all, their likes
be seen again.
may never
original works.
J
y
Damn
baseball players'
winging and
sliding mm<e\.
the sixties,
Fast
on
astantin
Damn
,.\,
7/u
//
.-t.v
i^Aiii
singfru
Whatevei
ugiass in hopt
violate his
antra*
and
I 'In
tn
acceptance.
Gay
and style,
in this case
rowdy
Nineties.
|4lL 1
Hf - <9
w\
'1
*^
*flB
'
^^te-
"
'm?
^m
31
"'
L.
'
'
i^^m
~^l~J
^r j^^
^H
17
'3
//
^^HL^rfilf
^^^l^^l
nfc
K^V AT
3Bl_fa
..
Adler and Ross took equal credit for both music and lyrics, so it
is difficult to know who was responsible for what. With Ross's death,
however, Adler was unable to continue on the same level. Writing
the music and lyrics for Kwamina in 1961 and Music Is in 1976, he
couldn't come up with melodies. He turned to producing.
Arriving on Adler and Ross's heels, Jerry Bock had a fair success
collaborating with George Weiss and Larry Holofcener on the 1956
Mr. Wonderful. The show, a vehicle for Sammy Davis, Jr., was little
more than a frame around a nightclub act. It produced a couple of
hits ("Too-Close for Comfort" and the title song) and was enough to
establish the composer. The partnership with lyricist Sheldon Harnick that followed was to have a healthy record of success, including
the Pulitzer Prize- winning Fiorello! and the landmark Fiddler on the
Roof. More striking than Bock and Harnick's success was their re-
294
to
New York in
Though
in
si
Broadway
more than
usual,
comedy performance,
it
was
of
musical
braSS-plated ham.
Loves
Me
is
On
111
Sh<
and Barbara
to the right,
Baxley.
Ralph Williams
brash musicals. She Loves Me was better suited to the quieter taste of
later times and has become popular in revival.
Fiddler on the Roof was a smash hit at once. Bock did not, perhaps,
fully rise to the musical challenge of this trailblazing show. Considering its perpetually choreographic staging, its deep emotional roots,
and its universal theme, the music might have had longer lines and
greater breadth. Still, the composer brought rich Yiddish musical
qualities to his score and much of the feeling in Fiddler on the Roof is a
result of deep sentiment in the music.
Bock and Harnick were hard put to follow this act. While Fiddler
on the Roof was in the process of setting Broadway's long-run record
(3,242 performances), they chose to do an entirely different kind of
musical
different from Fiddler and different from any others
and wrote its book themselves with Jerome Coopersmith. Or rather,
its books, for The Apple Tree of 1966 was a bill of three one-act
musicals: The Diary of Adam and Eve, based on the Mark Twain story;
The Lady or the Tiger?, drawn from the classic Frank R. Stockton
fable; and Passionella, based on a Jules Feiffer novella. Although a
gifted director of plays, Mike Nichols was ill at ease staging The Apple
Tree, and the novelty of its being three musicals in one made life no
easier for him. The show had much that was marvelous (especially
The Lady or the Tiger?), but it didn't hold together and it didn't have
the feeling of a hit despite a decent run of 463 performances.
Bock and Harnick began having personal disagreements while
preparing The Rothschilds, four years later. Both were unhappy
about doing another "Jewish" show after Fiddler. The Rothschilds ran
over 500 performances, making Bock the most successful of the
third-generation composers, but it also caused Bock and Harnick to
break up. Harnick went on to collaborate with Richard Rodgers on
the failed Rex and Bock took an extended leave of absence from
Feiffer,
forced
respectively,
choice
by
is
is
a lady
and a
the Princess
Barbara Harris.
296
tiger.
Barbara
Guiding his
I
i
R
//(
.ik(
tulr nl
in
I,
GUason
\\\.
Hen he
Wilderness,
Upfm
stai
lima
Huh MerrtiFs
catchy title song along with WalU Pidgton and
the company. GUason, Phil Stivers, Buddy
Hachett, Sid Caesar, and Alan king wen <>l the
last generation <>/ comu tu considet theatet a
Jackie
tings
necessary />a>r oj
Above: From
Pierre Olaf,
then reperUm
left to
Alberghetts
the sixties
and
friendship.
Above,
Carnival,
( 1
loved song
"Hi
Lili,
( 1
Hi Lo"
a stage ver-
Lili.
making
left:
of
men
in musicals of
srventies.
movie
Some
Like
It
Hot,
band
to
298
journeyman
he accepted the
offer to write the words to Jule Styne's music foi Funny Girl in 1964
and rose to the occasion. Many of these lyrics are superb. Working
again with Styne on Sugar, eight years later, he couldn't duplicate
that success. Between these shows, Merrill wrote the complete score
Henry, Sweet Henry
for a dud
and after Sugar he abandoned
Broadway to write for films and television. He attempted a theater
comeback in 1978 with The Prince of Grand Street, for which he wrote
the book, music, and lyrics, but the show closed during its out-oflyricist,
town tryout.
In contrast, Meredith Willson was a classical musician; he had
been a radio music director before writing his first show The Music
Man at fifty-five.
success, but
he wrote
all
of
it:
is
delightful.
No compose!
<
Robert
Preston, best
known
(it
title
299
As
The
star of an
Tammy
right)
actress
rich
performed 532
times.
300
made
their
Broadway debut
was a decade of
to capitalize
roll simultaneously.
Presley figure
on anil
"One Last
hit.
301
He seemed
have
his
whose main distinction was that it was Prince's first show as a director
(he was called in during road troubles). Ebb had written lyrics for
several off-Broadway musicals. They were brought together by a
Tommy
Valando,
show was
Flora, the
music publisher,
who
The
first
established
them
Red Menace
all.
like the
show
itself,
schizo-
putting
Boy
An
example was
into a musical
(left).
score: "I
and "This Is
302
9>
^_>yr\
The problem
It's
It's a
Superman
Holiday)
fly.
Bird,
It's a 1'I.iik
was having
Some
(Bob
seeming
\tlly.
<H
tMWWY
^1
' Jfl
of a comic
It's
1H
,^
Bird,
It's
Plane,
to
It's
sung
oj
303
hit
phrenic. As Cabaret was half concept musical and half musical play,
so his music adopted a Kurt Weill cabaret style half the time, and a
Opposite, beloiv,
is
Up in
same show. In
is
Tommy Rail in
was a
hit.
ferry
sophisticate, but
304
no song
that
is
is
was not up
to his st.uiclai
Madwoman
oj
els.
Taking i\e years to recovei from thai fit si flop. Herman then
produced one of his best sets of sou^s () I974's Mack and Mabel.
A music, based on movie directoi Mack Sennett's romance with
u.is
actress Mabel Normand,
tried out in Los Vngeles, where
considered a show with problems but basicall) sound. 1U the time
f
il
it
il
in
a hit.
have missed the chance to thrill over the sheer Broadway rhythm
and the heart-stopping exuberance of this show's "Movies Were
Movies"? How many have never heard the rhapsodic stage-scale
ballad, "I Won't Send Roses"? Mack and Mabel proved a painful
example of a newly developed problem: Intensified economic pressure and the focus of a national spotlight were making a musical's
tryout and tune-up process too tense to serve its function.
The failure of Mack and Mabel, and of music its composer
thought his best so far, depressed Herman tremendously. He
worked tentatively in the years that followed, worn down by a musical theater that was losing the fun-of-it while becoming a high-stakes
business. In a real way, his career exemplifies what has been happening to the Broadway musical. For though there are better-trained
and more ambitious composers than Jerry Herman, of all in the
third generation he is closest to the musical theater's original spirit;
he is the one most similar to the giants. More than any other
composer, he could have won the country's love while satisfying the
musical theater's needs. He would surely be back with more shows
his The Grand Tour arrived on Broadway in 1978
but one cannot
help wondering whether the expense and pressure of the modern
musical stage are not smothering the exuberance that is its basic
The
that opened on
theater:
and a
dance.
strength.
Tom
was tiny even by off-Broadway standards, but that doesn't explain its
incredible duration. Fact is, Fantasticks has been done all over the
world ever since its premiere, in theaters large and small. No, its real
advantage is popular appeal. This free adaptation of Edmond Rostand's Les Romantiques has an ingenuous charm and a simple, basic
musical score that has produced
standards in "Soon It's Gonna Rain" and "Try to Remember." Set to
sensitive, craftsmanlike lyrics by Tom Jones, who is a lyricist in the
theatricality. It also has a lovely
Opposite:
1965 and
then moved to Broadway, where it ran up over
2,000 performances. Richard Kiley, who played
Quixote, is shown here with Ray Middleton,
Lincoln Center's temporary theater
in
himself a leading
earlier.
refreshing
orchestration
the
306
Oscar Hammerstein tradition, these are lovely theater songs. Harvey Schmidt is a Broadway musical natural. He is a natural in a less
flattering sense too, being unable to read or write music. A musician
must sit by his side and notate as Schmidt plays his songs. However,
he is hardly a musical simpleton. Schmidt plays piano excellently and
his own arrangements spell out harmonies and inner voices in detail.
Much of his work rivals that of more sophisticated composers.
Because of the success of The Fantasticks, Schmidt and Jones
were engaged by producer David Merrick and wrote two successful
shows, 1 10 in the Shade in 1963 and 1 Do! 1 Do! three years later. The
former has a particularly fine score that combines Broadway spirit
with an American musical language reflective of Aaron Copland.
110 in the
Theater composers in search of a Southwestern sound
Shade, based on N. Richard Nash's play The Rainmaker, is set in
Texas
show was
.1
this
era the
early
'/
sex.
to
who proved
less
than
was unusual for a composer to succeed at writing nonrock songs, but Coleman succeeded.
He was in his thirties when he turned to the theater. Unlike most
of the other composers of the third generation, he wasn't show
people. His background was in the music and record business, his
associations those of a commercial composer, and he was not steeped
sixties
it
in the lore
cliches of
man
oil drilling in
Texas.
show prematurely,
had to
close. This can be a problem even when a show
that is good in its own right is overly dependent on
but when she
a major
left the
star.
it
first
filled
with the
musical, Wildcat in
Where You
opened
308
pop
show
and
last
songs.
it
projects
with various
up with
lyricists
Love
My
writing
his w.is
an unusual musical,
with but lour characters and a small, onstage hand. Rathei than
being embarrassed by the- show's modesty Coleman capitalized on it.
He even orchestrated the music a usually overwhelming job, made
possible here by the smallness of the hand. Small hand or no, ( lolelibrettist
lyrics.
man
the rare
experiment.
My
Coleman
presented a major opus, a score totally unprecedented for him, one
that at last capitalized on his musicianship. This was the score lot On
the Twentieth
Love
written with
Green and
was
Century
still
Wife began
other
its
lyricists,
run,
Betty
Comden
and Adolph
it
virtually another Candide. For
Coleman had written what was tantamount to a comic opera. Here
was an enormous amount of music that simultaneously mocked and
was comic opera. One might miss, in this score, the catchy melodies
and show husiness pizazz that had marked Coleman's previous show
songs, but that would be to miss the point of his
hammy
story
and
its
work here:
its
significance to
The
sheer quantity of music, with its elaborate counterpoint and its writing for groups of singers, demonstrated a Cy Coleman outgrowing his roots in pop music and reaching for new theatrical breadth. Among Broadway's third generation
of composers, Cy Coleman has written some of the more contagiously joyous and musicianly scores and his growth is exciting.
Looking back over this generation, one is struck by the time
suspension that rock music wrought. Many wonderful scores were
written during this era but the mass of people who do not go to the
theater was generally unaware of them. There are few songs that
lath,
conducted an
taxi dai
stai
<>l
tin
previous
generation.
have entered the public consciousness. Adler and Ross, Bock, Merrill, Willson, Strouse, Kander, Herman, and Schmidt are gifted
composers, but they have not become household names. Overall,
their work shows Broadway's style of music at a standstill. There is
little difference between their music and that of the generation
before them. Except for Bernstein, Sondheim, and Coleman, the
composers of this generation tended to go over the past rather than
move ahead toward the future.
Although rock music had developed into a sophisticated musical form, none of its major songwriters wrote for the theater. Few
were asked and the successful ones hadn't motive enough. Most
w ere composer-performers and the record and concert husiness had
become more lucrative than successful shows. Besides, these composers found youthful audiences more enlightened, enthusiastic,
and stimulating than the older Broadway audiences. A group of fine
young composer-performers arose Paul McCartney and John
Lennon of the Beatles, Randy Newman, Jim Webb, Neil Sedaka.
Carole King, Paul Simon, and James Taylor. But ourtheatei missed
making contact with these versatile and gifted newc omers bee ause
felt so antagonistic toward rock. The age of roc k did introduce Gait
MacDermot, composer of Hair, Two Gentlemen oj Verona, Dude, and
Via Galactica. Although he is a gifted musician, all of his shows to
it
109
Hair was Broadway's first rock musical and its success unsettled the tight
community of musical theater professionals. A number like "White
little
unintelligible,
and drugs
comfortable
>
i.s
.1
31
wife.
left)
subjectsfor a
based
776 on
those events,
somewhat
and Howard da
Silva
(left)
as
Adams
Ben
off-Broadway
to
years in doing
so.
Undistinguished in nearly
was bewildering.
which ran 1,050 performances from 1975 to 1977. Though superficially dissimilar, these two shows were in the Rodgers and Hammerstein vernacular. Udell's books and lyrics reflect Hammerstein's
worst traits (sentimentality, dramatic obviousness) rather than his
best (craftsmanship and stage-sense). Geld's music is a resume of
musical-play song cliches. However, the success of these Geld-Udell
shows did suggest that audiences still hunger for melodic, singable
songs and sentiments they can respond to.
Stephen Schwartz, a composer-lyricist, was another fourthgeneration songwriter with repeated Broadway hits, but his successes had little to do with his music. Recalling Pippin, The Magic
Show, and Godspell, one must conclude that a score isn't the key to a
musical's success, and nobody concluded that more profitably than
Schwartz.
ing power.
They
and
stick to
it.
tremendous
last-
Indeed, they've
tended
to
guard's heels.
The time has come, for only one composer has been steadily
dealing with the musical theater's growth, and its future cannot
312
alone.
>
there
//
Broadway
>
lyricist
who seemed to
be leading a
ration u>
it
i.
',
his
Magk Show
he
'nfortunatety, Schwartz's songs had little to do with his success. Godspell (left)
was a small-size Hair, a monster hit giving the composer his onepopulai song in
"Day by Day." [Tie M.i^ic Show (fai left) was an amateurish production
capitalizing on thefabulous young magician DougHenning. Pippin, which
was utterly remade by its director, Hob Fosse, made a star oj the spectat ulai Ben
I.
<
n rut below).
television
skills as
fright). It
Broadway
was the
first
large-scale use oj
and a weak
musicals were in trouble, instead of working on the shores, the producers worked
on the commercials.
STEPHEN
SCNEHEIM
By the age of forty-nine,
in
1979, Stephen
Sondheim had
written the
lyrics for
composers and
active
lyricists
influential.
established the type of musical theater Kurt Weill had aimed for
in overall
when
spend most
these aims.
Rodgers. He will never be idolized as they were; his tunes will never
be whistled in the street. Yet he is doubtless the dominant composer
and
lyric ist in
period of study
an informal
and, he claims, his most valuable
with Oscar Hammerstein II, a family friend. When the fif teenwar-old Sondheim brought Hammerstein his first show, the oleic
man tore it apart and then proceeded to give the youngster a series
of musical-writing assignments. Hammerstein dealt with each carefully and constructively. Though Sondheim's astringence seems to
have little in common with the warmth of Hammerstein's lyrics,
the newcomer never denied his debl to the veteran. The score of
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is dedicated to
i
Hammerstein.
Sondheim made
his
1957. These lyrics did not always prove tec hni< .illv smooth.
apt for the characters, or gracefully expressed. But writing them
established him and gave him incomparable professional experi-
Ston
Whistle with
its
composer
nizing
tin
importance
in
was
hallenged by the rhythmi< irregularities ol Bei nstein's music and its demands for multiple lyrics set to
trio in the- "Tonight
musical counterpoint. Writing words for
ence. Foi the
young
lvri< ist
.1
Stephen
lyricist
Rnn^-
session.
icon In
ded
though
isnn
tht
show's
tin to.
t<>
am
"/ his
time.
<>t
make
be? Yes,
it
such as those
it
could.
But
set to the
Coming":
exciting "Something's
Could
it is
it is
Gonna be
great!
Sondheim hoped
catch
its
to
be given his
first
drive:
the guts!
some people,
The feeling and spirit there count for even more than the neat triple
rhyme of "some humdrum."
One shrinks from choosing a high point in the Gypsy lyrics
because they are so rich, and yet the finale, "Rose's Turn," can't help
but stand alone. It may well be the most powerful single number or
"turn"
in all of our musical theater. Here, Sondheim's lyric is one
long, sweeping stream of consciousness:
Get offa
Startin'
my runway!
now
bat a thousand.
up Rose's
Everything's coming up Roses
(Gypsy)
These
lyrics,
is
a virtuoso
electric
it.
rescue
l>\
giving
him
Thing Happened on
the
his liisi
Way
<
production
/muni
to tin
in
composer:
Funny
Ins was one ol the
1962.
.is
.1
None
ol
thai
success
hi
Anyone Can
The
brightness of
its
and
individuality.
music, staging,
I01
humor in
omposei
Excepl lot his earlier, unproduced Saturday Night, Forum was the
only Sondheim stoic written In the traditional mannei
thai is. .is
musical numbers inserted between hook scenes. Still, the songs n
fleeted the show's theme: the< onne< tion between the am ieni Roman
comedy ol Plautus and our burlesque stage. This is an excellent score
and the rare comic one from its composer. Influenced by the playful
as a
Sondheim wrote
show for buffoonery and clownt
script,
and humor
one
nominated
s,
the
Way
to tin
F01
um
The
interwoven story, music, and dance that foreshadowed the Sondheim to come. There was no way of telling where Laurents's hook
left olf and Sondheim's lyrics began, 01 when Herbert Ross's wonderful dances were be<
his
is
no
the wait/
melodies as compiled b) a dance pianist. Most
"<
ookie Chase" are Sondheim's. lie was also
variations in Whistle's
writing freet and less restrained music than he would fot his latet
rehash
of
of
shows. This
is
nuisK
lot
.1
is
<
was much interested in his composing for the next five years. This
discouragement and his friendship with Laurents led to one more
assignment strictly as a lyricist, this time for Richard Rodgers, and it
would be his last. The show was Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965), an
adaptation of Laurents's play The Time of the Cuckoo. Do I Hear a
Waltz? is a conventional musical play. Rodgers provided several
lovely melodies and Sondheim's lyrics were craftsmanlike, but only
one song, "We're Gonna Be All Right," had any life to it. Do I Hear a
Waltz? had a very modest success.
wry
marriage.
wife
husband and
floor,
and is
is
demonstrating karate
to
her
know he's on
the
"It's
the
little
things you
noteworthy
in
than singer-actors, they could not be called upon for difficult vocalizing. This didn't leave much room for ambitious musical sequences,
but Sondheim did write an extended piece for Robert's lecherousby-proxy friends ("Have I Got a Girl for You?") leading into his own
musings about a dream girl ("Someone Is Waiting," a beautiful
320
The jumpy
perhaps too many
waltz).
Should there be
a marital squabble,
Available Bob'll
glue.
(Company)
able.
Sondheim's
lyrics
<
ompan) <>l
midst of a marvelous production numbei
eleven; a playfully "big" numbei lor an intimate, yet full-size musical. The number begins with the loping "Side- by Side by Side." which
flaghas a lovely and strong melodic line. It then swings into
lot this
in the
.1
"The
Little-
Things You
Do
ogethei
"
to the wifely
boredom
revolves,
DeanJones
is
alone
Compan)
as usual
despite
making merry
n\ they
notice that he
expressed toward the end in the electric "The Ladies Who Lunch."
It is such pessimism toward marriage and the hero's inability to love
a
sensitivity
toward
this, a
Would
We Do Without You?" is
retentive musical
mind or
Another group of
Follies
songs, written in
music. "Waiting for the Girls Upstairs" has older characters singing
as they
Gould
leave you
Leave the
lies
ill-concealed
(Follies)
flam-
boyance. Probably, none has the taste foi sue h vitriol anyway.
hese
lyrics are brilliant, if perhaps too< level to be wise. To underline theii
fury. In- puts them to a swirling waltz in the Style of Maurice Ravel. It
I
a striking display
this
score
is
the flaws in
the
its
to
its
limits.
Whatevei
's
supreme achievements.
Coming on the heels of Company and Follies, A Little Sight Musk
(1973) seemed tame in its aspirations and pretentious in its identification with Mozart (the
is
a translation
ravishing beauty.
of the story's family. These songs are even longer than those in Follies
and their lyrics are more elaborate. The first of the series, "Now,"
establishes that the main character, Frederick, has an immediateneed for a sex life. He considers, in a set of witty, (perhaps overly)
literary lyrics, the possibility of seducing his virginal second wife with
suggestive reading:
ruin
Night Music)
Overleaf,
i<>|>:
/"
V little Night
Musm
is
>l
Cariou),
bottom
<
)vci leaf,
<
ountry" was
"
tl closest
ruffled at all.
tekt
nd
ittle
in tht
\iuln
Musk
<
"Remembei
?"
he- score-
ltw.il/it':
musical
spirit tin
dangt
and elegant di
tht
country chateau oj
Armfeldt.
rs,
traps, complications,
mantu
!>> siret
's
short-circuits at
motht
>.
Madam
'
'
*.
-U..W
IMiJfciiJ
F.
~.
i
...
.J ..-U\^
J
.1
"Send m
of
Nighl Music
the
Clowns"from A
in
description of
what
(haunter
communicate
to specified
poils
-*-
-i
W ( pJ
must go through.
made
In these drafts
studies
pun tl on
yello
n general
i.\
trying to
the
ti
ess
il\ms Johns,
'hi
<-
the story
h,
r.
1.
Sondhembegdn
These ni iations
withjree-associattonsfoi the
-v
hit ui
intact by the
end
lose to the
mark
that a
2.
The
interior
monologue became a
series oj
rhetorical questions
and nonu
Sondheim began
to
the notion
short phrases,
observations.
of disguises also
emerged.
'.
but there are some: "Every Day a Little Death," "The Miller's Son."
and "Send in the Clowns." "The Miller's Son," it seems to me, sounds
like too many other songs for its own good. "Every Day i Little
By now.
had
<
"What
I de-Si
is
a jewel.
and
the result
linens
remains
Every day a
little
death
and
move and
In the he. u
1
\ei
And you
Hi ingS a pel
Every day a
little
sting
in
the head
evci
hardly feel
Ice
(A Little
a thing,
little
"fun tuning",
is
tin
\M(
sine that
nuh
ompleted,
to be
lulls expressed
death.
Night Muat
is
word chosen
breath,
beiame
tin full
song
is
put
to
papt
>
4$
X
n Nl^
j?
mgk
5.
L^
...
*
1w
326
***
perfecl
little
death."
It
is
hard
to
writing that.
and
theatrical ambitiousness
)\ci tines,
Mako
played
tin
Pacific
Ret
it>
>
n figun
toll
<
infn
ami
brashness in
traditions to
<i
Wtstrrn rock
modern technological
world.
of intellect and
scheme
tion
will,
that
it
became aural
tures
represent
still
history.
Stephen Sondheim sits at his piano with the door open beyond
him the door not only to his future but to the future of the
Broadway musical. He seems incapable of the safe 01 conventional.
He might well be discouraged by the greater success of lesser shows
than his or by the failure of mass audiences to respond to his major
efforts. His work represents the musical theater's greatness dining
his time, and his future is its future.
Sweene)
odd, the
Demon
Bai bei
<>t
Fled
and hen
Eugene
music
Though
Lee.
n\ complex
and u enk
as ever, this u
<>i<
Sweene)
no theatei
i)inf>t>st
odd was
ytu^int;
unsatisfying. It
hud
BLACK MUSICALS
A
We
might no
longer put up with a show called A Trip to Coontown, the 1898
production that began the sorry phenomenon of the all-black musical, yet in the racially sophisticated seventies, we put up with its
contemporary equivalent. If our theater is no longer blatant in its
racism, and no longer presents blackface mammy singers, the practice of selling color still persists. Productions are still identified as
"black musicals" and we cannot pretend that a show cast solely with
black performers isn't a "black musical." Nor can we pretend that
race isn't part of the show.
Broadway has maintained a tradition of black musicals for as
long as there has been a musical theater. Black revues were produced intermittently on Broadway throughout the twenties and
thirties. Racism was so ingrained a part of American life that producers had no qualms about giving these shows such titles as Chocolate Dandies, Brown Buddies, and Blackbirds, which was the best know n
of them. Blackbirds of 1928, the most successful of several editions of
this revue, starred the great tap dancer Bill Robinson. Ethel Waters
and Lena Home appeared in other editions. There was once, in
London, even Whitebirds, starring Maurice Chevalier.
Seldom was an all-black revue written or produced by blacks.
932, and even as
An exception was the Shuffle Along series in 92
late as 1952. These had music and lyrics by Noble Sissle and Kubie
racially right in
our theater.
Robinson and Josephine Baker appealed in various editions; at the time, such shows were the main way for black pel formers to escape the ghetto-vaudeville circuit. Baker managed her escape with dignity only by fleeing to Pai is, whei e she was treated as an
exotic. The celebrated Florence Mills had to settle for singing songs
like "I'm a Little Blackbird Looking lor a Blue Bird" in shows with
1921). The careers oi Bill Robinson and
titles like Dixie to Broadway
the legendary comedian Bert Williams were contingenl on theii
that is. performing obsequiously. Wil
playing the Uncle Tom
liams's early credits included such humiliations as Bandanna land
(1908) and Mr. Lode of Koal (1909). Although Williams eventually
became a Ziegfeld Follies star and Robinson be< ame stai in Shirley
Temple movies, theii careers were strictly limited, and the conditions on them were st ingent.
Blake.
Bill
.1
in a
story
Hello. Dolh
is
'/>
sht is,
wasa
commercial gimmit k.
legt ml.
Broadway fusion
identical exceptfin
tin'
II
tin
turns
racial difference 0/
tin hlttik
among
Kan
an
tin
version must
is its
distinction.
theater
moved up from
As
whites
"coons"
Bill "Bojangles"
Robinson was
fifty
before
is
330
in black
revues,
it
shows
was
the most
.1
Damon Runyon
teristic
has
become
in
)uys
The seventies' boom in black musicals was set off by Hello. Dolly!
in 1967. With business beginning to sag four years into the show's
run, its producer, David Merrick, replaced the company with an
all-black cast headed by Pearl Bailey. The Dolly box treasurer once
more started putting out the sold-out signs and saw something new
on Broadway black customers. It took other producers little timeto notice the change, for in the past black shows had been pi ocluc cd
for white audiences. A slapdash musical called Buck White was hurried to Broadway, starring a bloated and stage-frightened Muhammad AH (then Cassius ("lay), who was barred from boxing at the time
because of his political and religious beliefs. The show didn't last
long but the rush to black music dhPurlie, Raisin. The Wiz, Bubbling
was on.
Brown Sugar, Guys and Dolls, Timbuktu
Not all of these musicals presented black performers in white
material. Even going back to the thirties, there were some musicals
hi
nulls tan
/ whitt
ompeting versions
^t\lr
tht
"I
Hie Mikado,
>;
charac teas
and Dolls? We cannot and do not accept the chara< tei s as being bla< k
even when they are being played by black ac toi s. Instead, we wat< h a
a black show
for the production's main chara*
different show
Black versions
on Broadway
A-.
////
refort hut.
tht
ntpei
iets
A2
-^
..
/j*
*^Qte* *f
AT. tflifl
-*
--
II,
who
among southern
became Husky Miller, the boxer, and so on.
of Bizet's opera
matador,
332
Opposite, above: Until Pearl Bailey came along, Lena Home ivas
star. Here (above and at top, in Jamaica) is a
woman
It
is
a pity
is
on the
right.
written specifically about black people with musi< in the blai k vet
nacular. PorgyandBess is, of course, the first to come to mind. One can
and appreciative.
The first hit black musical
Hansberry. So,
this
to
was based on
was written
by
Peter Udell
Victorious, written
idiom
in
problems, which not only made black actors necessary but also
provided it with a built-in black audience, Broadway's first such
audience in significant numbers.
On the positive side, then, in addition to at last giving work to
black performers (if not black musicians or stagehands) and desegregating audiences, the heightened fashion in black musicals accomplished something else: It opened the door to musicals dealing
with the black experience. But they were still created almost entirely
by whites.
The Wiz sounded, in prospect, like still another white story being
made into a black show for the sake of exploitative, racial novelty.
However, librettist William F. Brown rewrote Frank Baum's The
Wizard of Oz in ghetto street argot and Charlie Smalls provided the
show with soul-style disco music. George Faison choreographed the
company using ethnic dance steps. This was a black show, by blacks,
for all audiences, and a frequently exhilarating show. Black artists
who attempted more serious musicals about their people had
tougher going. In 1971, Melvin van Peebles (a novelist and moviemaker with little stage experience) wrote the book, music, and lyrics
for a powerful and angry show called Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural
Death. It was the one Broadway musical to confront the audience
with the unpleasant facts of ghetto life. Comfortable theatergoers,
expecting cheerful black singers and dancers, found themselves
being held responsible for a real crime in a real world. "I put a curse
on you," one of Van Peebles's characters snarled to the audience at
the show's end. The character was a mother and she wished on the
the
audience's white children what had happened to her own
334
big
few
Brown Sugar
in
Bubbling
Porgy
and Bess. The handsome lady isfosephine
Premice, and the song is "Honeysuckle Rose."
The plot of Bubbling Brown Sugar concerned
Sportin' Life in the first major revival of
Death
in
Supposed To Die
1971.
He hoped a black
a Natural
musical could
336
many
and more
successfully.
E.
&
understand the mentality thai reated even the most offensive ol the
old shows, foi onl) !>\ accepting the realty <>t such prodm tionsas l
i
and
clownan
"I ncle
Tom"
to
survive in
it
Or cabaret act.
with consistent
style.
black music as
Broadway
Fm
history
had
reflected:
Trip
to
America.
to
have
-white inside
.1
\d
is
.i
.1
.1
Broadway must realize the importance and significance <>l desegregating itself and making black theatergoers feel welcome there.
Black composers and authors should be
ee. sti
tl\ on the basis ol
talent, to do the writing, not just for bla< k shows, hut hn an) shows;
1
the
young
black per-
words emphasized
accompaniment. The
entertainers
is
how
musical
particular,
it is
comment enough on
ol
>scai
think of rate shows, the) do give actors work. Bin the black actoi
should not he- saddled with a choice between work and dignity.
understanding
valid
.1
the history of
i<
they should he allowed to compete; they should write on all subjei is.
not just those concerned with rate. It is astounding that despite the
mammoth contributions of black singers and musicians to the per-
it
chance
show
like
The Wiz.
his
is
the
more
will be<
ome
and not appear as loathsome to the future as those ol tinwill be unnecessar) foi
past appear to the present. Perhaps then
some future hook about the musical theatei to have a spe< ial mi tion
just
it
devoted
,-
4;&1&>&
pr^-'
...
tin AM
L*>.W
rf
riNALE
The theater belongs to the world, hut the American musi< al belongs
to Broadway. Drama and comedy do not need Broadway to exist.
They have existed for lour thousand years and will exist forever,
whatever happens to New York's commercial theater. But the musical cannot survive away from Broadway. It is a child of thai theater.
Nor can Broadway survive without the musical. A hit musical provides its life juices, lights up New York, and keeps all the playhouses
busy. A season without a smash musical just isn't a proper season.
which depresses not only Broadway hut the whole- town. For the
musical is one of those things that makes New York New York. Take
away the musicals and Broadway is just a couple- of side streets.
The Broadway music. il stands with one foot at the brink of
fulfillment, the other at the rim of extinction. Its best examples wei
never better, yet the spirit seems endangered: the productivity, the
activity, the ferment, the optimism, the energy. A previously undreamed-of commercialism threatens to drain the musical theater of
its fun and to make it less a theater for theatergoers than one for the
mass market.
<
ing and the constantly musical musical possible. The most troublesome problem that of the book is near solution, now that concepl
musicals have led to scenarios especially designed lor the musical
stage rather than "musical plays" borrowed from drama.
The trailblazing work of composers Leonard Bernstein and
Stephen Sondheim has led to sophisticated music in the- Broadway
vernacular, music
al
sequence. The choreographer-directors have made shows that interweave story, song, and dance. The musical theater has grown up
as a craft; its artists can now cone cntrate on the pi< tin es athei than
on the paints.
But with the technique mastered, where's the joy in musicals?
Some of the music al theater's most devoted adhei cuts feel that its
i
soul
is
dead
that
it
has
become too
Our Kin
(ind thirties
who cm
gradual
st.ikc to rely
shows
/ minstrel
he
in fact
in i nil,
\tin
was
nil
>'i
//"
twt nth
tin
"mamnry singer,"
working
still
m blackface,
m
stars
less egotistical
and didn't
ZiegfeW
countless
Follies.
clappinghis
stun, whiit
I
some
hands and staring bug-eyed at the audiet
reason the) adored tins, and tin routine kept Cantoi
workingfoi thirty years. He had star power, the onstagt
i
life
that is stifled in
today's movies
spark betwet n
tht
lnul u confuL
to p< rfoi
m,
man
miin, Ins
but they .a
numbers
-Sinbad, Bombo,
" im rely set upsfoi
as
spokt us
il
musical
rheWundei Bar
Ins specialty songs,
such
<
foist
u unsettledfoi months
"Rock
maim
and u
possessed. Peoplt
but
at
He
livid.
Ills
.ras basically a
on mere
quality for success; they feel that audiences can be sold anything with
the tight marketing strategy. More tune is now spent fixing a musi
is
way: hi
Aljolson was
Eddit
much money
it tills
investments and multi-million-dollai profits have brought highpowered managements in place- of the showmen and entrepreneurs
who once produced Broadway's shows. These new managements
take the attitude that too
put
iiiil\
st,,
ins
as frank
iny
aftt
iiinilrst,.
"1 can't
con
J41
Though
it is
stage performers
beauty
and
is
then
record
is
extravagant;
it is
it
moment,
to replay.
disappear.
of
They
tomorrow.
and
of Washington Square"?
The Yiddish dialect comedienne? The star of
watching the great performers. They do everything, risk everything, in that transient
dangerous moment
in the spotlight.
and
of audiences.
There are other troubling signs. Because of inflation, fewer
musicals are produced than ever before. Choruses of singers and
dancers have become financially insupportable. American taste in
popular music has long since shifted from Broadway songs to rock
'n' roll. Young people make up a minority of Broadway audiences,
and there is no fourth generation of composers and lyricists crowding the wings. The choreographer-directors may be growing too
powerful, for as dancers they minimize the importance of professional writers, of words, of thought; and as co-producers they are
tending to cut out anyone who might share in the huge profits of a
hit. That is even more discouraging to the composers, lyricists, and
librettists who might write for the musical theater. Finally, retrospectives and revivals are in abundance. It would be good if respect for
classic musicals had spurred the revivals of shows like The King and I,
Fiddler on the Roof, and Hello, Dolly! with their aging original stars, but
unfortunately these revivals smell of the quick buck, the summertime music tent, and the celebration of yesterday as if there were no
and
On
many
to
showed
up in the construction of The King and I yet the Rodgers and
Hammerstein masterwork remained valid. When Yul Brynner and
Constance Towers whirled around the stage at the peak moment of
forget their special
thrill.
its
revival in 1977,
flaws
still
342
to
emotional explosion. Whether this was sho\* savvy 01 superstition, it led to many of the musical theater's great moments.
he
eleven o'clock number could be big: "Hello. Dolly!" It could be
intimate: "I've Crown Accustomed to lei Fa< e." But it was always
that
.1
surefire success.
iting n adition.
at
8:00.
Without
risk
musical. Before
it's
for a thrill
lift
a musical
just isn't a
its
put the audience in shock. A business does not work that way.
theater can't act like a business and be theater. Products don't
seats,
The
musical theater ever loses the dynamism to transport that beast, its
heartbeat will have stopped. Since our own hearts have come to beat
in the same rhythm whenever the lights darken over an orchestra
pit, something within us would die as well. For ultimately, the
on they take the show with them. Not vet out of the theatei they are
on their faces. On the sidewalk the) are
still wealing the show
different from the other people. I'hcy'rc fresh from peaking, not
.
life.
costumes, lighting, actors, dancers. Yet, something biggei had been made, somecomedy. heatei
thing liberating. This had been no drama, nol
yes, but a special kind of theatei with onl) one name In !<>i it: the
Broadway music al.
Well,
it
was only
show: music
1\
1<
s.
libretto,
.1
INDEX
Page numbers
in
"Abbondanza" 267
19-20.
Abbott, George
Ball, Lucille
290
Adams, Edie
Adams, Lee 144. 288, 301, 302, 303
"Adelaide's Lament" 267
Adler, Richard 66, 92, 95, 293-94. 309
Adrian
Who?"
Aleichem, Sholom
336
107
"Allez-vous-en" 216
Allyson, June
211
"Almost Like Being in Love"
"Alone Together" 25
281
161
208,247,277
"Anything Goes" 56,202
"Anything You Can Do" 242,244
312
Apartment, The
"Appalai hian Spring" 306
Applaud
16, 146, 302
Apple Tree, The 296, 296
"April in Paris" 255, 256
"Aquarius" 31
Arlen, Harold 66, 253-55, 332, 333
Aronson, Boiis 107. 127, 128
A round the World in Eighty Days 209
"Arthur in the Afternoon" 70
"As on Through the Seasons We Sail" 219
Asiaire, Adele
204,251
177,204,222,235,251
Astaire, Fred
238,238
As Thousands Cheei
"At Long Last Love" 208
1
"Babette"
"Bab
Bacall,
Peai
131
308
116,146
Bun
I
332
329
Bakei Josephine
Baker, Kenny 264
Baker, Mark 291
,
Bakei Street
131
Hake, Wije, The
Balanchine, George
Baline, Israel
344
236
13.346
88, 109, 176. 177, 181
304
Call Me Mister
"Call on Dolly"
My Time"
"Big'D"
271,271
22
Cameht 83,281.282-85.284,285
Can-Can
146,147,216-19
Candide
128, 131, 290. 291, 292, 309
"Can't Help Lovin' That Man"
7
Cantor, Eddie 341,343
"Can't You Just See Yourself in Love with
Me?" 274
Capote, Truman 254, 255
Carev, Macdonald 263
"CarinoMio" 281
Cariou, Len 323, 327
Carmelina
260,261
Carmen 33 332
Carmen Jones 33 332
Carmichael, Hoagy 265
185
224,225
267
267
120,308
"Big Spender"
"Bill"
58,171
92
Billion Dollar Baby
Biglev, Isabel
107
Birch, Patricia
"Birth of the Blues, The"
Bishop, Kelly 35
249, 322
95
255
331,332
Bi/et, Georges
"Black and Blue" 339
329, 330. 336
Blackbirds
330
Blackbirds of 1928
"Black Bottom" 249
Blame, Vivian 267
Bissell,
Bitter
Richard
Sweet
Blair, Betsy
211
"C'est Magnifique"
109,260,263,265
Brennan, Maureen 291
Blue. Fanny 278,342,343
216
107
Chagall, Man
107
Chakiris, George
Champion, Gower
Brecht, Bertolt
307
Celebration
195
Blyden, Larry
66, 107,288,293,294-96,309
Bock.Jerry
Body Beautiful, The 288, 295
57
Boland, Mary
Bolger, Ra\
7,93, 177,265,265
12, 12, 19,37,204
Bolton, Guy
171
Carminati, Tullio
Carnington, Katherine
171
Carnival 22, 136, 143,278.297,297
278.297,
Carousel
189,189-90,252
252
189, 189
"Carousel Waltz, The"
179
Carpenter, Constance
199
Carroll, Diahann
Cassidy.Jack 295
Cat and the Fiddle, The
171, 173
Pamela 35
329
Blake, Eubie
88, 256
Blane, Ralph
257
Blithe Spirit
Blit/stein, Marc
263
"Bloods Mary" 64
Bloomer Girl 61,253,254
"Blow, Gabriel, Blow" 56, 204, 207
222
Blue Monday Blues
"Blue Moon" 222
20.21
"Boy Next Dooi Ilu" 257
76. 183. 183
Boys from Syracuse, The
148
Brady, Scotl
Brahms. |ohannes 2.35, 323
13, 348
Breakfastat Tiffany's
Blair,
"Cabaret"
63,251
Sea
252
287,302-4
141,288,301,301,303
the Beautiful
Cabaret
Bombo 3
Bontemps, Ai na 253
"Bon Voyage" 290
"Boom-Boom" 308
252.252
Booth, Shirley
Lauren
Bacharach,
Bailey
256
317
Babbitt. Milton
BabesinArms
65,
"By Myself
By
22, 136,
185
136
Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The
247
"Best Thing for You, The"
"Best Things in Life Are Free, The" 249
"Bidin'
New York"
By Jupiter
195
12
in
247,277
"Autumn
29
308,309,317,341
Anything Goes
132-36.322,342
46, 195, 260
Bero/a, Janet
Angelus, Muriel
Annie Oakley
230
Anderson, Maxwell 26 265, 333
Andes. Keith 308
Andrews. Julie 21, 48, 83, 282, 282, 285
13,
236
Ameche, Don 219
"America" 291,308
"American in Pans, An"
Berle, Milton
Berlin, Irving
225
"Brother, (Ian
Mimi 304
Bergman, Ingmar 128
"Always"
"Broncho Busters"
Ben/ell,
336
183
King of Siam
236-38
"All Alone"
7,302
All American
189
"All er Nothin'"
278
"All I Need Is the Girl"
164
"All the Things You Are"
56, 204
"All Through the Night"
13.190,191
Allegro
199
Allen, Elizabeth
Alston, Barbara
204
297
Ah. Wilderness
336,339
Ain't Misbehaviri
334-36,
Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death
143. 297
Alberghetti, Anna Maria
183,245,245
Albeit. Eddie
296
Alda, Alan
266
Alda, Robert
308,308
"After You,
Ballroom
'
132-36.136,231.288,342
269
Dream, he"
Chute. B.J.
"Cm us
Dunn,
26:5
(lass
Cla) Cassius
Dura nu
:5.i
>,
keyed
197
320-22.320,321,323.327
Conreid, Hans
ngel,
rrol,
293
Family
25
nle)
i.ii
and a
ami
risk,
in go,
musicals
an
it
"/ such
musical theatt
15,
120
101,
someone else,
won't happen
in
exubt
is
tin
musit
new
tlu-
key tn any
every show.
iam>
Hut
als.
jm
magic
exist*
magu
that
is
Douglass, Stephen
167,293
Down in the Depths on the 90th FIooi
"Down on \1.k ( onnach) Square
278
Drake, Alfred
13. IH6. 195,213
Drat! 11,, Cat!
19, 149
an
spirit oj
threat
291
smash
,,)
32,
13,
107,
18,
131,
132,
5.
109,
9
125,
12.269.293.315
59
58
I"
1191 100
195
Foy. Eddie. Jr.
I
rani
203
66,<H,95
199
222
Vrthui
dm. in ( mi aid
19
is.
/-
222
208,211
Friendship
Friml, Rudoll
I
rom
12,
Momi
Ins
Fry. Nathaniel
I
ugue
"I iinnv
Funn
tin
being a
hit
12.
this
ostei Stephen
Fourposter, Tht
is
ihf/.
157
Robei
Red Vtenaa
87,95,287, 102
Drum Song
131, 195, 195
185
IN m ii Garden ol M\ Heart, ["he"
99
Flov ring Peai h, I >
251
Flying Colors
"Fogg) Day, A" 2:51
that
iiiitsiials
'*~
I hi
the
you
an mad*
102,
ire Falling,
hi h.
272.27
<
ml
Flora.th,
256
Mins Becausi
259
28,29,43,
"Firebird, ["he"
"Firefly"
307
16
k.nhri ine
Dunham,
1(1
Finian's
Fig Leaves
t<>
there
118
:5.
'529
Broadway
Dixon, lit
13,186
tin
Dixie to
happen
296
dna
42nd Street
Fosse, Bob
208.211
DnBarry WasaLadt
509
Dudi
Duke, \ ii uon 255 56
2">"i
Dukilskv \ l.ul mi
Duncan. odd 230
is
245
124
)olin
203
Had
191
Aiinam.u \
Dui/. Howard 62-63,64,65.251.252,257
"Dimples" 308
thinking seems
126, 102
Federico
l)ii
Follies
ft
nu business
306, 306
Tarawa) 15o\
269
Farming" 209
"Fascinating Rhythm"
60, 222,225
Feuer.C)
269
like
Fantasticks, Tht
t<>
:5:5
ed 256
Fettei
"Feudin' and Fightin'"
:5:5
drain,
tin
Fei
322
Doctoi fazz
277
"Fane) Free"
102,288.289
Fanny
13,247,271 72
20,
12, 1157
muni
19,
Feiffer.Jules
go down
In
tin
\ffair,
In
uluih
stars
millions of dollars
immune
I
98
9"..
In
.us, hi.
Fellini,
63, 63,
2:5t>
~>2
Sanih
"Falling in Love with Love"
183
"Falling Out ol Love Can Be Fun"
Again
13, 148, 272
DeSylva, B. G. ("Buddy")
164, 165,21 1,222,249,
d'Indy,
it
tpectat
\<>
Coming Up
Faison, Geoi ge
Die ke)
57
FadeOut -Fadt
186,312
Davenport, Mania 252
'512
David. Hal
David. Mack 305
Davis, Bette
349
Davis, Ossie
311,332,334
291.302
Davis, Sammy, Jr.
Dawson, Mark 92
Day Befort Spring, The 27s
I)a\ Borrowed from Heaven, A"
"Da) b) Day" 315
Dearest Enemy
10
"Deai Friend" 68
"Deal World"
305
de ( ai lo, Yvonne 130
10
de Hai to^. J.m
1:5.43, 187,281
de Mille, Agnes
Dennis, Patrick 28,29
Desert Song, The
79
165
Fabray, Nanette
235,246,217
tin Musi,
238
19
1.
12. 126. 29:5.
Damn Yankees 92, 95,
Dancin'
9,37,85, 111. 115. 122-2:5. 123
Destry Rides
Fact
"Dancing" 2:5
"Dancing in the Dark"
312
Daniels, William
ami jail
ami
directors,
Ii
nl fnthln
unpredictability
20,201,208.255,255,257,319
19,204,207,247
Crouse, Russel
CryforUsAU 306.346
Cullen, Countee 253
\u holas
da Silva, Howard
Icon
Roses"
Exception and the Rule, The
109
itha
Nod
Dante,
\T1
mm
\,i
iliinan
ust
"Everything's
107,
Duke
mi ybod) Sup"
179. 179
128
Dale.Grover
Coward,
r
1
147
Contradictions
nu
tn see
1
win, Hai Ii.ii a
"Evelina"
254
230
289,289
I
g;
ll
Mexico
291
"Embraceable You" 60, 22 1,225
28
to Me"
32, 33, 36, 107, 127, 128, 131, 132, 135,
Connecticut Yankee,
llington,
te,
*///
flamboyance of tht
"El Salon
Me, Bind
in
W \\
mon
Edelweiss"
197
Education of H*\
Edwai ds. Sin man
1
I'ut
oj
nil
red
Eddy,
9
66, S8.90, 102,
20.22.37.65,65
and energy
shows
254
57
29, 68, 70, 71, 120
Nelson
171
i
bb,
131, -JIT.
Concerto
"Congal"
astei Parad
as\ Sin
13
"Coffee Break"
181,239
Cohan, Georgi \l
Cole. Jack
112
Coleman, C) 28, 29.64, 131, 293, 107
"Come
he
25
I
Company
89
agleand Me,
19
)ptimist"
Beit)
|inum
1:5:5
Comden,
211
on)
189
Clayton. Jan
"Climb Ever) Mountain"
Coca, Imogene 73, 79
Coco
a mi
Diic|in in
(III
loi
ml
175
ni
<
)n
2 16
295
s.
Juli,
I
Vay
to the
t"
"indush
Hague, Albert
317,319,320
-ill, George
32,127,320
Fm
Gallagher, Helen
92,251
Garbo, Greta 219
Garde, Betty 13
Garland, Judy
173,256,287
Garrett, Betty 271,271
176
Garrick Gaieties, The
Gautier, Dick
301
Gaxton, William 179, 206, 207, 227, 229,
Gay Divorce, The 204,204
229
Home
Sweet
Homer
starring
60-61,62, 161,171,202,222,225,
229,230,255,257,261,265
"Get Happy" 254
"Get Me to the Church on Time"
"Get Out of Town" 208
"Getting Married Today" 321
25
Getting to Know Him
16
"Getting to Know You"
282, 282
Geva, Tamara
Gielgud, John
177
140
Gigi
285
Gilbert, W. S.
Gilford, Jack
7,
101,101,251
Gingold, Hermione 292
277
Ginzler, Robert
Giraudoux, Jean 305
Girl Crazy
61,224,225,277
Yul Brynner.
The 21
Girl Friend,
Girl jrom Utah, The
162
322
Girls Upstairs, The
"Girl
Love"
Gondoliers, The
55
Gone with the Wind
Herbert, Victor
II, 167
111 Stay"
265
Here's Love
20, 300
"Here's to Us" 308
300
"HeiTs"
Wife
(starring
88, 90,
02,
181
173
265
Griffith, Andy
148
Griffith, Robert E.
95, 126
312
Hackett, Buddy 297
346
277
Hackady, Hal
293
Herman, Jerry
"Green-Up Time"
225
"Here
260
Greenstreet, Sydney
195
272
312,342
"Great Day" 249
Green, Adolph 20, 22, 37, 65, 65-66,
131,247,277,289,290,309
Greene, Ellen 263
Green Grow the Lilacs
89
Green, Mit/i
Green, Paul
16, 18,
Grease
all
33-35
304-5, 343
191,290,291
22-24, 24, 28, 29, 59, 85, 111, 140,
297
"Glitter and Be Gay"
290
God Sends Sunday 253
Godspell
120,312,315
"Go Into Your Trance" 257, 257
Goldenberg, Billy 43
Golden Boy
302,302,331
Goldman, James 322
Goodtime Charley
shows
176
Lillian
"Hello, Dolly!"
263
323
143,304-5,329,331,342
245
Gleason, Jackie
had been
Hello, Dolly!
181
294-96
Harrington, Pat 21
Harris, Barbara
259, 296
Harrison, Paul Carter 336
Harrison, Rex 53,195,281,282
Hellman,
"Give Me
"Glad to Be Unhappy"
Heine, Heinrich
That
15
Gay, John 7
Gay Life, The 252
Gelbart, Larry 29,101,319
Geld, Gary 311-12,334
Gennaro, Peter 105, 12, 144
272, 272, 274, 347
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
George M.
6
George Whites Scandals
222, 249
Gershwin, George 39, 40, 60, 61, 85, 102, 171,
173, 175, 176,201, 202,203,207.221-31,249,
255, 256, 257, 272, 277, 289, 307, 317, 322, 333,
342
Gershwin, Ira
10,
Hi Lo" 297
254
Hirschfeld, Al
6,7
120
Hirson, Rogei ().
Hit the Deck
249
Hold Everything 249
Hold on to Yiiin Hats 257
Holiday, Bob 303
105,277,347
Holliday, |ud>
282
Holloway, Stanle)
Holm. Celeste 13,186
Holm, Hanya 284
Holofcener, Larr)
294
Home Sweet Home) 306,346
"Hi
Hill,
Lili,
Ruby
Howard, Peter
253-54,333
39,
52.
55,
57
2 16
Howard
1
267
Sidney
I've
How
"How Much
"I've
Window?"
Is
297
tones
70, 95
Moh to Handle a
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
"I've
Don
15.269,269,171
angsion 26 I. 265
"Hurry! It's Lovely I p \\c\<43,
9,
Want
259
Camera
29
Women
rhai
Are So Sim-
216
ple"
\\ ish
Delight
Idiot's
Book"
a
2
181
lot,
252
Jennie
291
"Jet Song"
Mix n
88.251
|ohnny 252
Susan 268
Van 185
jolson, M
85,221,339.341,
321
Jones. Dean
185
lom
14
39,
joplin, Scoti
111
292
306-7
339
Jubilee
56,57,207.208,208
|iilia. Raul
263
Jumbo 87, s.s. 88,89, 181
"June Is Bustin'Oui VHOver"
line"
277
[USI ill
[ones,
13,306,307
140, 142,
Do! I Do!
181, 181,203
I'dRathei Be Right
54.291
Feel Pretty"
Would Leave You" 282
"If Ever
I
II
Having become a
Pi efei
"lust
.i
277
"1
"I
Diamonds may
actress
Have Dreamed" 18
Know rhat You Know"
"I
"I
Like New
You?" 257
York
"(I
249
June) How
in
"I'll
Bu\ You
"I'll
"I'll
"I'll
"1
/
222
25
Love Louisa"
My
Love
22.
Wife
Paris"
49,
02
14.28
he
Vamp
bettei n/l
with
<><><l
an
material.
I,
189
Went to Haiti"
Kaufman, George S.
211
Katie
229
Damn
199,200.263
267
Kearns, Allen 224
251
Keeler, Ruin
350
Kelly
177.185
Kelly, Gene
12. 12,37.
Kern, lerome David
K. lye,
58,85, 161
53,
2S7.3I7.3I2
"Keystone Kops
in a \/)lti\h\
73. 175, 176. 179. 186, 190, 195, 201, 203, 204,
236. 241, 2 19, 256. 257. 260, 2s
207, 22
Know" 267
Never Be Jealous" 95
See You Again" 255
Love
"I
Aboul
252
Star"
is
Kaye.Stubby
"I'll
Kander, John
309
"Kansas Cm"
Gentlemen
wonderful Carol
"1
the
with
\t<u
Blondes,
190
une'
Vgain
0V
Johnson,
Johnson,
Johnson.
[ohnson,
Could Write
ill
Johnny Johnson
W K
269
Believe in You"
..mi Say No"
189
Can Do rhat" 33
272, 273
I Can Get It fm You Wholesale
255
"I Can'i Gel Started w n h You"
(
.mi Give You Anything bui Love" 339
'-'(12
"1 (oik entrate on You"
282
"I Could Have Danced Ml Nielli"
"1
lappy
\\ histle a
281
Am Ashamed
"I
he with You
to
Jamaica
\m
161
Hutton, Betty 21
"Hymn to Him, V
'-.''
lughes,
Woman"
"I've (.ot
99.
309
13,47, 102
Ballet"
219
"I
17"..
95.281.342
109
King, Carole
lt>
KingoJ limits
191
Kingsley Sidney
213
Kirk.Lisa
Kn kwood. lames 33
19.112
Kismet
19,204,209-16.213,214,215,219.
KissMe.Kate
253
Kiviette
251
16
Kleban, Edward
"Kleine Nachtmusik, Eini
I
Klot/. Floreni e
Klugmanjack
'-'
274,277
261, 265
Knickerbocker Holiday
fudj Holliday's
Hut Spot, a
Mary
"Is
["alktothe
unch,
222.
Lady, Be Good!
Is a
ramp,
211.217
<i
Ion Margarei
Billion
20.61
103,211
Hat old
140, 149,319,
ansbury, Vngela
It's
Its a
Simple
216
Me"
Relationship"
277
Little S\stein
.'77
Down
Chile
in
27
De-Lovely" 202.202,203
"Its Not Where You Stan
136, 108
261
line loi a Lose Sony
"It's
"It's
Delightful
atei
"It's
rents,
Vrthui
II
"I've
.ikes a
Woman
(nine
to
Wive
2
It
Wealthily
in
Padua'
2 16
'"
an,
263,
retire.
148
gifted composer,
Wartm Charm
nt on todirei
hi
or the 7
I"h<
263
5s. 281
57
rees"
adiesWho
Vnnie
sin ck
the lyrics
\l<
McKechnie, Donna
Lawrence, Jane 93
146-49
Layton.Joe
Lazarus, Emma
245
McLerie, Allyn
Leave 1 1 Id J inw
162, 164
Leave It to Me 208,21:1
Lee, Baayork
135
Lennon.John
309
265,
278-85
Let 'Em Eat Cake
225, 229, 229
Let's Face It
55, 209
235
"Let's Face the Music and Dance"
209
"Let's Not Talk About Love"
245
"Let's Take an Old-Fashioned Walk"
"Let the Sun Shine In" 311
Sam
Levene,
The
Funny
Girl;
267
Beatrice
Lilo
"Lily
147
Done
the
Limon.Jose
"Little
Pulled
336
173
Howard
Lamb"
Me
278
(musical)
323-25, 325,
294, 295
"Little Filings
321
Anita 274
Lopez, Priscilla 35
63
Losch.Till)
"Losing My Mind" 322
Lost in the Stars
265, 333
301
"Lot ol Livin' to Do. A"
I.oos.
the
and
musical. This
Richard Chamberlain.
Mc A idle, Andrea
152
MacArthur, Charles 89
McCarthy, Mary 245
McCartney, Paul 309
McCauley.jack 92
McCormick, Myron 193
MacDermot.Calt 309-11
MacDonald, Jeanette 171
M< Hale. Duke 181
Mack and Mabel 47, 143, 144.305-6
149
McKavle. Donald
348
Milliken Breakfast
Mills,
252
265
Love Life
101
"Lovely"
173
"Lovel) to Look At"
"Love Makes the World Co Round"
162
Love o' Mike
"Love Walked In" 221
Luce, Claire 204
Miller, Arthur
191
Miller, Marilyn
165
"Miller's Son, The"
325
Show
345
Florence 329
Stephanie 334
"Mine" 229
"Mine Till Monday"
'
that he
246.247
Mills,
Mesta, Perle
Is
Bob
348
Loesser, Frank
He announced
271,274,277,277,318,343
22, 142, 43,306,331,348
Merrill,
Little
176
66,253,254
Merrick, David
"Little
"Lo\e
327
29
143,349
Matchmaker, The 22
"Matilda" 292
Mature, Victor 62,263
"Maybe" 156.302
Mayro, Jacqueline 274
Me and Juliet 13,93,195
"Me and My Shadow" 68
"Meeskite" 304
Meet Me in St. Louis 256-57
"Melinda" 260
Merman,
118, 120,308
Me (novel) 28
Little Night Mime. A
Little
It
227. 229
MataHan
"Little Fish in a
Little
88,92,256-57
85, 140, 142, 193, 194, 194, 197,
Masteroff.Joe
Lindsay,
327
149,149,305
"Maine" 305
Mamoulian. Ron ben 85
"Manhattan" 176, 179
Mannheim, Ralph 263
Man of La Mancha 112, 306, 346
"March of the Siamese Children" 16, 195
"Maria" 291
"Mark Twain: A Portrait for Orchestra" 162
"Marrying for Love" 247
"Marry the Man Today" 267
Marsh, Howard 167
Martin, Barney 68
244,264,307
257
HerCoattail"
The 305
120,312. 315,342
of Cliaillot,
189
Lillie,
Madwoman
Martin, Hugh
Martin, Mary
297
Liliom
musical-making
Lili
309
Mako
Mame
Lewis, Jerry
350
68
Lewis, Ted
Lieberson, Goddard 317
323
"Liebeslieder Waltzes"
76
"Lite Is Like a Train"
"Lite Upon the Wicked Stage"
247
Life with Lather
245. 245
McMartin.John
Lee. Eugene
327
Lee, Gypsy Rose
105, 107, 185, 27-1
Lee, Lois 92
Lee, Madeline
101
Leigh, Carolyn
28, 29, 70-7
307, 308
Leigh, Mitch
306, 346
Lend an Ear
136. 141
1
35, 135
Ann
252
Minnelli, Liza
120, 144, 256, 287
Minnie's Boys
312
Miracle on 34th Street
300
Miss Liberty
102.241.244- 45, 245, 247
Miss Moffat 349
Miss 1917
162
Mister Abbott
"Mister Cellophane"
68,68
Mister Roberts
1
Mitchell, David
Mitchell, James
291
156
281
Molnar, Ferenc
189
Montalban, Ricardo 332
Mostel, Zero
29, 101, 101, 107, 108
Most Happy Fella. The 20, 268, 269
"Most Happy
Fella,
Mother Courage
The"
268
109
"Motherhood" 23
"Movies Were Movies" 305
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus 323
278
"Mr. Goldstone, Love You'
Mr. Lode of Koal 329
Mr. President 235, 236, 24 1, 246, 247
I
189, 190
"Mr, Snow"
\/> Wonderful
294
"Mu< haCha" 112
Muhammad \h 331
ph\ ( Jeoi ge
173
Mm
"One
Ont
301
|6
ast K.-s
101
in
287, 289
On
Musk
in tin Ail
On
Musi,
Is
III,
171, 173
97,294
II
)<tm
Orbat
MtutVAfan, lli,
9,20, 103.299,299-301
Mum. rhat Makes Me Dance, The" 278,278
\h ( up Runneth ( >vei
307
\l\ Darling, M) Darling"
265
\h Defenses Vre Down" 24
Os.ii,
|en\
h.
297,306, 312
90
Sum.
,.
Oil! /,.;,
'III
"Out ol M) Dreams
189
Onto/ This World 216.216
My AVm
Lady
9, 20,
281-82,282,284,285
"M\ Favoi He hings" 197
M\ Funn) \ alentine" 181
"M) Hearl Belongsto Daddy" 208
\1\ Hean IsSo Fullo) Vou"
267-69
Pacific Overtures
"Pack
Ms
Pajama Game,
Hi,
mam,
I.
281
R5
185,261
209, 21
27
306,307.308
264,265
219
Neff, Hildegarde
"Nevei Give Anything Away" 216
"New Ashmolean Marching Societ) and Student
Conservator) Band. 1 he" 265
Newa) Patricia 197
"New Colossus, The" 243
12. 114, 115, 126,
1. Ill,
New Girl in Town 92.
278,297
Newman, Rand\ 309
Nash, N. Richard
Passionetla
Nash.Ogden
"Pass
Pell.
296
289
Football"
li.it
Pene du
Hois. r.
'People'
278
H8
Pan
ana
57, 186
I'
102.292
13
254
254
Nichols, Mike
296
"Night and Day" 204
Nights
Pleasures
293
137
289
Fayard
Nicholas. Harold
Nit holas.
Cabiria
302
"NightSong"
162. 161
Oh, Calcutta
135
Oh, Boy!
in
the
Moi
fling"
236,
211
Oh, Kay
61,225
162.162
Oh, Lady! Lady!
Stanley
95
287.301
Presley. Elvis
300
Presnell. Harve
or Man
Preston, Robert
Prowse,
[uliet
I'm
mi.
19,
175.
,i
/<ys2
"PutOna Happ) Fa
I'm On Yout Sunda)
Puinn
On
Clothes"
the Kn
ni
K)
20
259, 260
147
Quadrille'
"Kat
my
with ihc
Ragland.Rags
|i
211
Hamr
Raisin
Raisin
tl
Raitt.lohn
Kail.
I. .liinii
Ramin,
66.95.189
23.24,
wo's
iompan)
didn't/art well in
Intuits.
311.
Purlii Victorious
On
revue
345
"Puzzlemt
.,
Bette Davis
142,299,300,307
236.237,322
"Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody, \
20
Previn, Andre
29 12 17,73.87,95.97.109,111,
Prince, Harold
15. 123. 125. 126-31. 128, 132. 287, 291, 295,
302, 303. 319, 320,322
299
Prince qj Grand si,,,/. Ii.,
'>'
Princess and the Pea, The
132, 135.
13. 31 I.
Promisi
P
I'm I,,
River"
10.
no. 348
Prettybelle
230
186
Beautiful Mornin"'
Oliver
12
312
"Oh, What a
Oklahoma!
13. 13, 37. 57. 85, 90, 92,
IK5-K9. 186, 187, 191.261,322
Olaf.Piene 297
"Old Devil Moon" 259
195.201,201-19.221.236.247,
175.
173.
71.
Odets. Clifford
191. 199.302.331
Oenslager, Donald 56
109
Office, The
OfTheelSing 60.60, 171. 173. 176, 186,203,225,
227, 227-29
312
O'Hara.Jill
O'Hara. John
183, 185
to (.el I
76
186
Is Dead"
229
and Bess
39, 10.85.88.176.186.222.225.
229-31,230,231,331, 333.3 12
55-57, 59.61.63. 64, 6
ole Albert
Porter,
Pragei
Hale
Porgy
No Strings 197-99.199
"Now" 323
27
RltZ (,nl
"Poie |ud
How
ami Palaces
I'linl I /till
"Oh.
role oj M.n.i
opening night.
349
Marissa
Peter
in the
title
Picon, Moll)
30
Pidgeon, Wallet
297
27
Pins ami Needles
Pinza, Ezio
193, 191.271
195
Pif/e Dream
I',/,/,,,!
82,,S3. 111. 115. I2d.3l2.315
I'laia anil I am \
9
107
Plane. Liane
319
Plautus
ill
"N.Y.C."
95. 102
93
Hal!,,
28
293
162, 176, 18
Palmer, Byron
I',
58,
9, 66,
Pal /mm
20.271
Paige, |anis
66, 95
Paint ) "in \\ agon
57
111.
32
roubles
Pagnol, Marcel
179
p Voui
he
63,208
323
Rasch, Albertina
Ravel, Maurice
Rave, Martha
Senor Indiscretion
143
Set to Music
201
7 '/> Cents
95
Andy
339
"Razzle Dazzle" 304
Razaf,
Red
Blues,
The"
7776
219
70 304
"Seventy-Six Trombones" 300
Shakespeare, William
183, 209, 213, 216, 290
"Shaking the Blues Away" 236, 237
"Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?"
16. 195
opening night
of $650,000. The
show, about a fellow who
performance at a
creators of this
its
loss
Sharaff, Irene
16,21,41,46,53,57,
59, 85, 88, 89, 92, 93, 124, 125, 161, 173, 175,
317,319,342
143,224
Rogers, Ginger
Rogers, Jaime 302
306
Rosalie
Rose, Billy 89
Rose Mane
12,167
"Rose of Washington Square" 342
105,107,278,318
"Rose's Turn"
149,319
Ross, Herbert
Ross, Jerrv
66, 92, 95, 293-94, 309
Ross,
Ted 334
Edmond
Rothschilds,
The
296
Rounseville, Robert
Roxie Hart 68
Runaivavs
37
Runyon,
Damon
19,
291
289,290
Rvan, Robert 246,247
Rvskind, Morrie 60, 227, 229
road in Baltimore.
"Sabbath Prayer"
109
"Sadder but Wiser Girl, The" 300
Saddler, Donald 92
Saidy, Fred
259
Sail Away
20
66, 253, 253, 254, 254, 333
St. Louis Woman
149
Saks, Gene
Salh
164, 165
San Juan, Olga 281
Sappington, Margo 135
Saratoga
254
Saturday Night
319,320
Savo, Jimmy
183
236
"Say It with Music"
149
Schaefer, Milton
"Send
in the
Sennett,
350
Mack
Siepi, Cesare
Silk Stockings
Silvers, Phil
32
322
261
219.219,247
29, 47, 92, 195, 297
Slezak, Walter
171,271
"Small House of Uncle Thomas. The"
18
Smalls. Charlie
334,339
Small Wonder
136, 141
"Small World" 277
"Smile and Show Your Dimple" 238-39
Smiles of a Summer Night
28, 323
130
Smith, Alexis
Smith, Oliver 22, 105, 142
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" 58, 161, 173
"So in Love" 216
"Soliloquy"
190
"So Long, Dearie" 24
"Somebody Loves Me" 60
"Some Enchanted Evening" 64, 194
1
It
Hot
298
Russell, Rosalind
Jerry Lewis
48
Some Like
306
Rostand,
295-96
Shujjle Along
329
"Siberia"
219
241
282
"Show Me"
306
13,
244, 245
Shevelove, Burt 29, 101, 149,249 319
"She Wasn't You" 260
"Shine on Your Shoes, A" 25
"Shortest Day of the Year, The"
183
Show Boat 12-13, 3'/, 58, 64. 88, 16U
341
183
311-12
Sherwood, Robert E.
107,120,141
Norman
342
249
Shenandoah
Roberta
173,173
Roberts, Joan
13,92,186
Roberts, Tony 298
Robinson, Bill ("Bojangles") 329, 330, 331
140,144
Rockabye Hamlet
"Rock-A-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody"
"Rodeo"
16, 18,
Robbins, Jerome
18, 43, 47, 85, 88, 89, 93, 95, 97,
101-9, 107, 111, 112, 122, 123, 125, 126, 132,
146, 195, 244, 247, 274, 277, 278, 291, 320
Rockwell,
We Dance?"
Shannon, Harry T.
"Shall
Rivera, Chita
312
70, Girls,
209
115
27
261
1
"September Song"
225, 289
209
It
Away"
271
South Pacific
13, 16. 20. 64, 124, 125. 175. 189,
190-94, 193, 194,244.247
Stofi the
Stothart, Herbert
12
43
322
265
289.291
264,265
Streisand, Barbra
272.273,277,278,278
sink, I 'p the Band
225 27
Su ike Up the Band" 60
1. 288,293, 301-2, 303.309
Sirouse, < harles
Stravinsky. loi
255
Street Scent
Styne, jule
13.92, 102, 105,
10,
265, 272-78, 298, 299, 3 8, 348
13
Subways \n foi Sleeping
I
Sweet Adeline
rt
Charit\
njit,
"
Sony.
rollej
186
in ke)
ink,
"
307
10,
ntei
an n
uili
16, 327
line"
135
Want
at
309
erona
247,27
d<-
3,
216
31
Sam
le
alando,
251
Janie"
|ohn
in, n.
Warm
231
323
us
and
14, 117,
inningei
75-
73.
282
0.:
I'
122
289
21
Working
37
World oj Hirschfeld, I
Wouldn't ll Be overl)
290
Wrong Noti Ran
214
"Wunderbai
HI
Wundet Ii,,,. Tht
I
da\s
.//. Yaphn
si,
<
on and
">
-'II
ih,
I..
\i.
\ ...I
I
171
Get
an't
You'd Bettei
You Did ll" 53
I
323
\l
...
You
II.,
\,
So,,
ll
You
M Ni
w
n
Man
.
t..i
Mi
ith a
inn
hil
Vwa) ii.mi Mi
W.,lk VIoi
in
2 19
in,
i
\ ...nil. ills. \
Run
20
Kiss
W eli
to
229,260
19
29
>eoi ge
Shadow"
'
U, p, n in
Wi n Gonna
Wen him
t
~>~
36,
I'' 11
16,
208.21
107,
unn)
W< vi Got ll
Whal a Wasti
Whal Did Havi
I
WI,
1,
III,
Wen
213,
MM
llll
Ill
\|-
''ll
Di
in
li
'Zigi
hat
.'17
109
18
18,
107,
195
-li. 216
B< Ml Right"
iki
hai Spe< ial
stei n P( upli
105,
You
lolida) Inn
120
<u
108
-'-"'
19.20.247.271
260
268, (04
the ( ountry, A"
Wi
(31
President"
Wh, Tht
IS4
WizardofO I ' 61
(.
Wodehouse,
12, 58, 161.
Wonderful Town
19.66,
"W on You hat lesion with M,
Woodward, r dward 257
80
78.
d<. Roberl
Weill,
'.
foi
homas ("Fats")
291,
167
hai les
ogethei
fonight"
22. loo
hornton
illi.uns. Samm)
35
Willkoinm, ii
101
Wills,,,,. Meredith
119
Wilson, Bilh.
Wilson, Doole)
256
Wilson, Sand)
20.21
119
I.
308
112
Bill)
"Wintergreen
197
ia
Sim\ -Five"
Walka Little Fastei 255
Walker, Don
189
103
Walker, Nanc)
I
70, 108,
Wen-
"Wail HI
We,
161, 164
">
"
21.329
"Waiters' Galop"
"Waitin" foi M) Dearie"
281
"Waiting foi the Girls Upstairs"
Weiss,
277
I.. Keep M) Love Vlive
179
om, On k and Harry" 216
romorrow" 150. loo. 28H
12,
309
"Wedding Dream,
260, 260,263
\ss
rodd.Mike
331
22
112
'.i.
ro Be a Performei
"
Weekend in
Weidman, |erome 272
Weidman, John 12, II
on M) Hands
2 19
immers, |a< k
151, 154, 155,
/..,->
N..>
'
line
Tip
2 10
Wildflowei
Williams. Ben
68, 70,
Williams. Ralph
295
52
Crowd 2") 7
I In, ml,, I /;
256
"Till the Clouds Roll By"
310
236, 24
Wilder.
Wilder,
216
ai.
102. 164
101. 164
Mm
foi
Walla, h.
Waller,
uckoo, lh,
181
Are Ion
Wildcat
29. 195
Wagner, Rohm
Led?
New
foi
mi, oj tin
an
216
hat
141
111,
Voltaire
290
lapp. Mai
win
Timbuktu
Idli
211
Via Galactica
ife
Whi
tht
24
Oh Where
oi
"Who<
302
269,271
erdon.Gwen
Very
181
Lu
164
Who
2II.2H7.293, 309
Veieen, Ben 315
13.
Very Good Eddie
21 1.277
R
romi
<
omm)
Rud)
Vera-Ellen
Call the
Girl
in tin
<
Isii,,
i.
WI,,.-
230
23.').
ih.
.ii
omes
hristmas
White, |ane 97
Whii, n, .u,. Paul
Wlm, On,,., 149
White.
II
41,
ii
Noi \.
12.331
Whi
Whit,
ompany
256, 3 19
wo Sleep) People" 265
York"
\.
Banana In,
van Di
M.ii><
When
Vamp.Tht 347
Van, Bobb) 251
foi
ii
Where,
308
heodore, Lee
107
rhere But for You Go I" 281
" rhere Is Nothing Like a Dame"
6
"There Once Was a Man" 293
"There's a Bo.it Dat's l.eavin' Soon
I
lii
"Whi
296
dell, 1'etei
199
tainment"
Whal
Whi
Vallee,
hat's
rin
wo" 249,251
"Tea foi
telephone Hour, ["he" 141,303
329,330
["emple, Shirle)
Tenderloin
68,294,295
" revyeand His Daughters"
107
hat's
\\
,,t
"
s,
19
it
wi,,
"
Woi
Du
haikovsky" 263
Tea and Sympathy
I
hal
'2.252
Rag.
he"
15
( 'nsinkabU Molly Brown,
The
300, 300
Urban, Joseph 75
sc \ om Imagination"
1
2
309
Samuel
raylor.
s il,,
II
194
Shrew, The
["aylor.James
308
oj thi
s ii
12
202
.,
199, 199
Taming
Mark
Two's
60,
Is
161
306
136.
[onathan
k,
"Two
omim
327
Fleet Street
.i
Hope'
293
100
Twoby Two
ake Little
ne-Step" 251
185
"Take Him"
Take Me Along 278.297.297
"Take Me Along" 297
akinga Chance on Love" 256
rail
167,
329,3
he"
257
Remembei
to
unii
["he"
nne.
"I'm
1
hi
16,
"Trouble
"
\\.\u>\
hal
Wat
old
Did
Whai
Whal
Whal
62
iiplcis
28,64,115.118.118,120.308,
33
.,nd rails
onstance
Mikado, The
it
r wain,
Wonderful"
owcrs,
171
309
Swenson, Inga
259
195
.,/
29
"Swanee" 221.341
Swanson, Gloi ia 128
Durum Barbei
S46
OS) and
osh
on, h ol Youi
Wh.ft,
ml,,
i.
op Hat, Winn
13.225.247.
On
lose
ropol
Suzuki, Pal
>,,
/.ipprodi
I
''
5 12
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
here are people who helped me with his hook.
\.n Chang is the master artist-craftsman who designed it. page h\ page, and made n more beautiful
imagined an) hook could be, espe< ially my
than
own. Lor) Frankel was m\ In si cop) editor, and
everything she took from one sec tion and promised
to save foi another, b) God, she saved. Libby Seahe! g look ovei for her, and then along came Ellen
Grand. Lois Blown spent dreary hours in dusty
photo archives foi me, and Judith Tortolano aranged for the authoi izations to reprint lyrics. Arlene Alda was with me for .1 month, backstage at
i
me over the years, sharing enthusiasm and knowledge. I have those showmakers to thank not only
for talking hut foi doing, since without their musical (heater a book on the subject would hardly exist.
And hist, I'd like toexpress my profound gratitude,
as well as my respect and affection, for Robert
Morton, my editor. Stubborn, exasperating, and
collecting, besides
and my constant
critic.
collect blueprints
of his
sets.
and
librettists
and
directors,
who
rarity, a real
cism
On
Line, photograph bv
the jacket: A Chin
Martha Swope.
Endpapers: The following show posters courtes)
of
The Museum
New
of the City of
My
Me, Kate,
Abrams, Inc.
Photographs by Arlene Alda on pages
38-39,
1,
1949,
top,
Inc.: 25,
26-27;
Dick
Moore &
Ralph Morse,
Associates, Inc.:
Magazine,
Life
350 bottom;
1939, Time,
Inc.:
200;
Museum
178,
bottom, 351;
78 bottom;
HankWalker,
Life
Magazine.
1957, Time,
Inc.:
40.
128;
352
266-67, 268
right, 292;
Inc.:
258,330,340,341,342;
BobGolby:
271,281,291
106;
212;
Culvei Pictures:
92, 93, 94, 162-63, 165, 171,
181 215, 217, 218, 220. 223, 228, 245, 249. 255.
1
Swope
The
Local 802 AF ol M
local
A 1SE
Local 764 AVAL'
1
is
someone
that
modern
whose
criti-
DDCTC CREDITS
The
book person
and generosity.
SONG CREDITS
The
following song excerpts used by permission. All rights are reserved and mternation.il copyi iglus secured
Get
l.v
1934 by
ki<
.i
Warnei
Im
Bros.. Iiu
It
Out
Vou'
ol
i>v
Cole Porter,
1934
8c
Love with
lied
by
"
In the Si
ill
8c
ol the
Co., Inc.,
cation
and
"Could
"Dancing
Warner
in
Inc.
renewed.
Bros., Inc.,
1931
by
.ill Hope" Km
Coleman (from
1922 by New
"Do, Do, Do" by Ira Gershwin,
renewed; used by permisWorld Music Corp.,
sion of
Warner
Bros. Music.
Right with
Me" by Cole
Porter,
&
One
1953
owner
bv
ol publi-
1936 by Chap-
"It's
"Just
MPL Communications,
ol
1941
"Love
is
II,
1951
Wren Musk
rights controlled bv
b>
Co., Inc.,
1973 bv Kilting
and Revelation Music Publishing Corp.
1956
bv
Rodgeis and
Im
o
happell \
<
<
rhere's No Business Like Shots Business" by Irving Berlin, 1946 bv living Berlin, < renewed
1973 bv living Bei Im reprinted by permission ol
living Berlin Musk < Ol p
llns
Is
1941
New" bv li.i
bv Chappell &
Co
Weill,
.s.
"You Did
and
allied rights
Turn"
1959
bv
bv
llU
and
"Sabbath Prayer"
1954,
|ciiv
I'lllll
Warnei
Top
Cole Porter,
bv
Bros., Inc., (
bv
"(What Did
the
SA
"When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love in I ^ Har1946 bv Players Musk
burg and Binton am
renewed, assigned to ( happell ft
orp
(
<
<
Bo<k,
N1I1S ( O
lyrics
1964
The
following
sc
pi
1
1
all
choreographed, and di
k bv
|ames
Michael Bennett;
Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, musii bv Marvin
M.iinlisi h, Ivik s bv Edward Kleban i |oseph Papp
.4
(hmus
line, conceived,
reeled bv
\( \s
vuth
oi k
Plum
Shakespeare Production,
in
.i^< iation
I'loilm lions
"Some People"
Liu
bv
Styne,
In-
Inc.,
1931
renewed
ommunica
Im
bv
(ASCAP).
.ill
"Let's
"Rose's
Inc.
II
Lorenz Hart,
renewed
renewed.
lions. Iiu
allied rights.
of
"You're the
lyrics
bv
the
allied rights.
"Dear Friend"
in
pell
"Come
Co..
"It's All
1962
<
Publications Co.
Co.,
Chappell
"It
1966
Im
ights
"I
son, Inc.,
Inc.
.ii
"Something's Coming
bv Belt) Comden and
Gel Carried a^.iv
Adolph Green, 1946 bv Warner Bios. Im
renewed.
newed.
and si
oni Musii t oi p owners ol publica
and allied rights throughout the world: < hap
pell It Co.,
"I
"Bill" by Jerome
Inc., renewed.
Bios.,
"I
"I'm
Warnei
bv
tion
Music Corp.
"Always" by Irving Berlin,
1925 by Irving Berlin,
renewed 1952 by Irving Berlin: reprinted by
permission of Irving Berlin Music Corp.
k bv
(
olem.in and
Sum. n
Neil Simon,
I
.iiolvn
oleman and
<
musk and
arolyn
lyrics b)
by
eigh
Neil
ONCiAC'HI TlttAlRr
"BR ILLIANT"
"SUPERB"
wm
moil wswi
"INCREDIBLE"
"
-mium. ran
post
**iJ#
mm$
lii
cm
Lift
fllCH
MS
Ull
flCH
ius
un %
SHUBERT THEATRE
44TH STREE
WEST OF BROADWAY
NEW YORK
CIRCLE
AWAI
COLE PORTER
40
AH- 15 i
Book and Direction by
ABE BURROV*
Dgnui and Muntal Humbert Stag*d bf
MICHAEL KIDD
starring
LILO
nntKigMK-csEum
CLEAVOrUITTLE
MELBA MOORE
JOHN HEFFERNAN
SHERMAN HEMSLEY
-
v.:.
C.
p^?EfgigKf
50*
ST.
MATS,
Wtd 4
S.
IRVING
JO MIELZINER
HELEN MARTIN
MOTLEY
SAT.
*%
HOi
ERIK RHODI
NOVELLA NELSON
EURT
DAVID COLSON
GEORGE
Rami
mm
MKTON KUIN1TOCK
M1U
IAHO
AIR-CONDITIONED
uni
u u
SAM
SHUBERT THI
MATS
S,
44lh ST WIST
o(
way
'MAMIE
IS
BROADWAY'S
anecdotei
go
flFSFMUSICAL!"
'
Foi
ring
Business" in
here
No
Business
Gun
and
only
tells
Dolls, Gypsy,
Homei
.iikI
insights
and
and
n,
and
I.
\h
Show
ONNllV
ike
to to(k
Kelly,
\4e,
and
devotes spei
Dude,
,i
ial
ipusicals, black
musicals,
nostalgia shows.
N THEATRE
WINTl
ROADWAY TWEATFE
SW?ieet Mais Wed
m &Sun
ini|H*rial
ihra.re
n| l.u.iv
n.v.c
">"'
!'....*
GuiEnvtRDon-cmnRivENi
MONO
-CHICAGO
ten*
imp it*
voS^J^"^ ,M&lr*
1963,
drama criti<
Women's Weai Doit) in
moved to the Wb Yori Post asdrama criu<
senior
foi
1974,
.iiul
\+
Pi
mi.
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in
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f,
14
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