The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows Are Built (44 page)

On the Town

Bernstein’s first Broadway show, staged by George Abbott and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, is brash, busy, even obstreperous in its ambition to do something new, noisy, jazzy, and classical. It wasn’t recorded when it was produced in 1944, but in 1960, after the film version had taken on a life of its own, the composer conducted it for Columbia, with the lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green and the comedian Nancy Walker all repeating the roles they played in the original. The resulting album is a treasure, and includes not only the song score (a lot of it jettisoned for the film) but also much of the dance music, which is thrilling.

The Pajama Game

Adler and Ross’s Broadway debut, and it’s impressively fun. George Abbott and Jerome Robbins shared the directing credit—the beginning of Robbins’s ascent as a musical theater director. John Raitt sings wonderfully on the original cast album, and you may be forgiven for wondering if Frank Loesser was the ghostwriter of “A New Town Is a Blue Town,” Raitt’s opening number. Adler and Ross were among his protégés, and it sure sounds a lot like “My Time of Day” from
Guys and Dolls
to me.

Pal Joey

Along with
Show Boat
, this 1940 Rodgers and Hart entry can lay a claim to modernity before
Oklahoma!
, with its antihero, its frank view of gigolo sex and the quid pro quo that goes with it, and its dream ballet (though there had already been a few of those by 1940). There are a handful of good recordings of the jazzy, noirish score. My favorite is a 1951 studio cast album featuring Harold Lang and Vivienne Segal, but it’s worth hearing Elaine Stritch sing “Zip” on the revival album from 1952, and the Encores! version from 1995 probably sounds more like 1940 than either of them. The album that purports to be the soundtrack from the Frank Sinatra movie is really a cobbled-together collection of other Sinatra recordings mixed with some of the songs as they actually appeared in the film. I’d stay away.

Porgy and Bess

The original cast album on Decca includes a very limited selection from the score, though it’s great to hear Todd Duncan and Anne Brown, the original Porgy and Bess. They sing it in a style that now feels somewhat antiquated, but it does put you in the time machine. The 1977 recording of the Houston Grand Opera’s restoration of the entire opera is magnificent, and there are other good complete opera house recordings. But the Houston one, which was directed by the Broadwayite Jack O’Brien, sounds like the real deal to me. As with
The Most Happy Fella
(see above) and
Show Boat
(see below), you can take the whole thrilling ride in an evening in your living room or on a long drive, and emerge restored by the sheer greatness of the achievement.

Show Boat

There are dozens of choices with various virtues and shortcomings. Faced with the bewildering conflict of ancient authenticity, modern streamlining, and everything in between, I always choose the 1988 studio cast album that delivers, on three CDs, virtually the entire show. It’s badly acted by opera singers and squarely conducted by John McGlinn, but it features the more or less original orchestrations, and the cumulative effect, for all its flaws, if you can forgive them, is overwhelming. You can hear the stunning ambition of Hammerstein’s first real attempt to make something completely new in the theater, and Jerome Kern’s unending inventiveness and melodic gift; I dare you to get out of the way. And Alec Wilder, who wrote the first great study of the American songbook,
American Popular Song
, is right about one thing: the verse of “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” is more interesting than the chorus, even though it’s almost never heard. Give a listen here and see if you don’t agree.

South Pacific

Hammerstein’s other epic, this time with Richard Rodgers. Unsurprisingly, there are many albums, but only two real choices: the original, with Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, and the Lincoln Center revival, with Kelli O’Hara and Paulo Szot. The latter is more complete; the former has Martin and Pinza delivering two great star turns. But both are beautifully sung and played. The others range from the movie soundtrack—not for me—to various “complete” studio cast recordings, all of them dutiful and unexciting. Both the original cast and the Lincoln Center versions have the energy of actual theatrical performance—and there’s no substitute for that.

Index

The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

Abbott, George

Abie’s Irish Rose
(Nichols)

Act One
(Hart)

Adams, Lee

“Adelaide’s Lament”

“Adelaide’s Second Lament”

Adler, Richard

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The
(Twain)

Ah, Wilderness!
(O’Neill)

AIDS

“Ain’t Got No”

Aladdin
(film)

Albee, Edward, x
n

Aleichem, Sholem

“All er Nothin’”

“All I Need Is the Girl”

Altman, Robert

American Bandstand
(TV show)

American Idiot

American musicals; American values promoted in; arriving “fashionably late” at; auditioning for; backers’ auditions for; B-level; books of; Broadway musicals vs.; Broadway openings of; classic tales and novels rewritten as; closing of; collaborative work on; craftsmanship of; dialogue in; evolution of; “fixing” of; foreign language versions of; “gaps” in; “jukebox”; multiplot; national tours of; in 1920s and 1930s; in 1940s through 1970s; in 1980s and 1990s; noise and energy of; out-of-town tryouts of; plots of; previews of; producing of; revivals of; revolutionary; romantic; second couples and subsidiary characters in; sexual content in; showcasing of songs and performers in; storytelling in; structure and two-act form of; subplots of; as tourist destinations; of twenty-first century; villains in; as well-made machines

American Popular Song
(Wilder)

American songbook

Andrews, Julie

Andrews, Nancy

Angels in America
(Kushner)

Annie
; original cast and album of; story and characters of

Annie Get Your Gun
; original cast album of; story and characters in

“Another Hundred People”

anti-Semitism

Antony and Cleopatra
(Shakespeare)

Anyone Can Whistle

“Anything Goes”

Apollo

Arms and the Girl

Armstrong, Louis

Arno, Peter

“Arnold and His Accordion”

Aronson, Billy

Arsenic and Old Lace

Arthur, Bea

Art Institute of Chicago

Ashman, Howard

audience; approval of; as “big black giant”; boring of; direct address of; early departure of; engaging of; expectations of; in New York; noise of; understanding of

Austen, Jane

Avenue Q

Bacall, Lauren

Baez, Joan

Bailey, Pearl

“Ballad of Sweeney Todd, The”

ballets; dream; opening

“Barcelona”

Barnes, Clive

Baxley, Barbara

Beatles

Beatty, John Lee

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast
(film)

Beckett, Samuel

“Been a Long Day”

Beguelin, Chad

“Being Alive”

Benanti, Laura

Benchley, Robert

Bennett, Michael

Bergman, Ingmar

Berlin, Irving

Bernstein, Leonard

“Betrayed”

“Big, Blonde, and Beautiful”

“Big ‘D,’”

“Big Dollhouse, The”

Big River

Big Sleep, The
(Chandler)

Big Sleep, The
(film)

Binder, Jay

Birth of a Nation
(film)

Bishop, André

“Bitch of Living, The”

black bottom (dance)

Black Crook, The

Blaine, Vivian

Blakemore, Michael

Blitzstein, Marc

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

“Bloody Mary”

Bloomer Girl

blues

Bock, Jerry

Bogart, Humphrey

Bohème, La
(Puccini)

Bond, Christopher

Book of Mormon, The
; characters and story of; music and lyrics of; original cast album of

“Bosom Buddies”

Boston, Mass.

Bravo Giovanni

Brecht, Bertolt

Brigadoon

British musicals

Broderick, Matthew

Brooks, Mel

“Brotherhood of Man”

Brown, Anne

Brown, Jason Robert

Brynner, Yul

Burns, David

Burns, Ralph

Burn This
(Wilson)

Burr, Aaron

Burrows, Abe

“Bushel and a Peck, A”

Bye Bye Birdie

Byers, Billy

Cabaret
; music and lyrics of; opening number of; original cast album of; story and characters of

Cabaret
(film)

“Cabaret”

Caesar, Sid

Cage aux Folles, La

Calloway, Cab

Camelot

“Camelot”

camp

Candide

“Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man”

Capp, Al

Cariou, Len

Carlyle, Warren

Caroline, or Change

Carousel
; bench scene in; music and lyrics of; opening ballet of; original cast album of; story, theme, and characters of

“Carousel Waltz, The”

Carradine, John

Carrie

Cassidy, Jack

Cats

Chagall, Marc

Champion, Gower

Chandler, Raymond

Channing, Carol

Chaplin, Charlie

Chapman, Michael

Charles, Ray

Charleston (dance)

Charnin, Martin

Chicago

Chorus Line, A
; conception and direction of; music and lyrics of; opening number of; original cast album of; story and theme of

Christmas Pantomime

Circle in the Square Theatre

City of Angels
; direction of; lyrics of; original cast album of; story and characters of

civil rights movement

Clark, Victoria

Clayton, Jan

Clueless
(film)

Cohan, George M.

Coleman, Cy

Collins, Dorothy

Columbia Records

Comden, Betty

comedy; domestic; erotic; evolution of; satirical; slapstick

“Comedy Tonight”

“Come Out of the Dumpster”

Company
; characters of; lack of plot in; opening number of; original cast album of

Company: Original Cast Album
(film)

conditional love songs; as “aftermath songs”; as bromance; “I Want” songs merged with

Conquering Hero, The

Conway, Patrick

Cook, Barbara

“Cool”

Cooper, Chuck

Corman, Roger

costumes

Courtship Habits of the Great Crested Grebe
(Huxley)

“Cow and a Plough and a Frau, A”

Cradle Will Rock, The

Crazy for You

Creatore, Giuseppe

critical reviews

Cumming, Alan

curtain calls

curtains; final; first-act; opening

Damn Yankees

dancing; choreography of; chorus; modern musical evolution of; romantic expression in; soft shoe;
see also
ballets;
specific dances

“Dancing”

Danes, Claire

Davidson, Gordon

Dean, James

Dearest Enemy

“Dear Friend”

Declaration of Independence

de Mille, Agnes

democracy

“Dentist!”

de Paul, Gene

Depression, Great

Dexter, John

Dickens, Charles

Diller, Phyllis

director-choreographers

directors; creative control of

Disney, Walt

Disney Studios

“Dites-Moi”

“Dividing Day”

Doctorow, E. L.

“Don’t Feed the Plants”

“Doodletown Fifers”

Doyle, John

“Do You Love Me?”

Drake, Alfred

drama

dramaturgy

Dreamgirls

Duck Soup
(film)

Duke, Vernon

Duncan, Todd

Dylan, Bob

Ebb, Fred

Eder, Richard

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

“Elegance”

11 o’clock numbers

Ellington, Duke

Emma
(Austen)

entr’actes

“Epiphany”

Eugene O’Neill Theatre

“Everybody Ought to Have a Maid”

“Everything’s Coming Up Roses”

Fancy Free
(ballet)

farce

Fela!

Fever, Cy

Fiddler, The
(Chagall)

Fiddler on the Roof
; direction-choreography of; music and lyrics of; opening number of; original cast and album of; story and characters of

field hollers

Fierstein, Harvey

Fifty Million Frenchmen

final blackout

finales; intimate vs. noisy; moral admonishment in; reprises as

finaletto

finale ultimo

Finian’s Rainbow

Finishing the Hat
(Sondheim)

Fink, Bert

Finn, William

Finney, Jack

flops

Flora the Red Menace

folk music

Follies

Fosse, Bob