Enchanted Evenings:The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber (116 page)

85
. Note that Peter’s melody which follows Bess’s recitative is rhythmically identical to “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’” (Vocal score, 329–30).

86
. To complete the cycle of reminiscence motives that began this scene Gershwin returns one last time to Jake’s motive (Vocal score, 357–58) before new storm music takes over to conclude the scene (359–64). The short-long rhythm of the dirge that opens act III, scene 1 (“Clara, Clara”), might also be interpreted as an augmentation of Porgy’s loneliness theme.

87
. H. Wiley Hitchcock,
Music in the United States
, 205, and Charles Hamm,
Music in the New World
, 450.

Chapter 5:
On Your Toes
and
Pal Joey

1
. David Ewen,
Richard Rodgers
, 236 and 254.

2
. Richard Rodgers,
Musical Stages
, 262.

3
. Ibid., 71.

4
. Ibid., 91. Stanley Green summarizes other innovations in
Peggy-Ann:
“No songs were sung within the first fifteen minutes, the scenery and costumes were changed in full view of the audience, and the first and last scenes were played in almost total darkness.” Stanley Green,
Broadway Musicals Show by Show
.

5
. Rodgers,
Musical Stages
, 118.

6
. Ibid., 118.

7
. Pandro Berman, the man who dismissed the vaudeville-Russian ballet idea, produced in
Shall We Dance
(1937) a movie musical starring Astaire and Rogers (with a score and lyrics by the Gershwins) that bears more than a passing resemblance to Rodgers and Hart’s rejected conception.

8
. Brooks Atkinson, “‘On Your Toes,’ Being a Musical Show with a Book and Tunes and a Sense of Humor,”
New York Times
, April 13, 1936, 14.

9
. Atkinson, “On Your Toes,”
New York Times
, October 12, 1954, 24.

10
. Rodgers,
Musical Stages
, 175.

11
. Ethan Mordden,
Better Foot Forward
, 143.

12
.
On Your Toes
, 1936 libretto, I-4–22. Special thanks to Tom Briggs of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Theatre Library for allowing me to examine the librettos of the 1936 and 1983 productions.

13
. Ibid., I-4–30.

14
. Ibid., II-2–13; 1983 libretto, 46.

15
. 1936 libretto, I-5–34.

16
. Ibid., II-2–13. In the 1983 libretto (30), Junior explains further: “I admit that basic off-beat appears in many cultures—but I would think that all would have to agree that American jazz has a very individual sound”; also, in the 1983 version Sergei expresses artistic as well as commercial motives for staging “Slaughter” when he acknowledges to Peggy that he finds the work “admirable.” His primary question is “can we dance it?” The problem facing the Russian ballet in 1983 is not that jazz is demeaning but whether a classical ballet company can master the stylistic nuances and comparable challenges of an alien form.

17
. Frank Rich, “Theater: ‘On Your Toes,’ A ‘36 Rodgers and Hart,”
New York Times
, March 7, 1983, C13; reprinted in Rich,
Hot Seat
, 213–16.

18
. Helen Dudar, “George Abbott Dusts Off a Broadway Classic.”

19
. Theodore S. Chapin,
On Your Toes
(vocal score) (New York: Chappell 1985), 4.

20
. Quotation in George Abbott,
“Mister Abbott,”
177; see also, Rodgers,
Musical Stages
, 174.

21
. Abbott,
“Mister Abbott,”
177–78, and Rodgers,
Musical Stages
, 174.

22
. Dudar, “George Abbott Dusts Off a Broadway Classic.”

23
.
On Your Toes
, 1936 libretto, I-4–32.

24
. Ibid., I-6–39.

25
. Ibid., I-3–10.

26
. 1983 libretto, 4.

27
. 1936 libretto, I-3–8 and I-2–9.

28
. The professor reveals the limitations of his own education and refinement, since it is he who mispronounces Schubert’s name. Professor Dolan also assigns the words “Dein ist mein Herz” to the wrong song (“Ständchen”). The correct answer is “Ungeduld” from Schubert’s
Die schöne Müllerin
. It should also be noted that as late as 1983 the possibility that Schubert was gay was more of a conjecture than a scholarly argument. Thus Frankie in both 1936 and 1983 is most likely referring to Junior, not one of Schubert’s male lovers. See Maynard Solomon, “Franz Schubert and the Peacocks of Benvenuto Cellini,”
19th Century Music
12 (Spring 1989), 193–206.

29
. The opening of “Goodnight Sweetheart” by Ray Noble, Jimmy Campbell, and Reg Connelly, published in 1931, also bears an unmistakable resemblance to the opening of
Les Préludes
.

30
. By a twist of fate, in 1943 Hart collaborated with Kálmán on an unproduced musical about the French underground in World War II,
Miss Underground
. See Dorothy Hart and Robert Kimball,
The Complete Lyrics of Lorenz Hart
, 291.

31
.
On Your Toes
, 1936 libretto, I-3–16 and 17. In 1983 the conclusion to the exchange that precedes “It’s Got to Be Love” is as follows (7–8):

JUNIOR:
I’ll tell you something—and I shouldn’t say it—it’s terribly personal—I’m very fond of you.

FRANKIE:
You are? Even with my derivative song?

JUNIOR:
Yes, Miss Frayne.

FRANKIE:
Well, in that case, why don’t you call me Frankie?

JUNIOR:
All right—and you can call me Junior.

FRANKIE:
All right. Yesterday some of the kids were dancing to my song and they thought it was pretty good.

JUNIOR:
Well, gee Christmas, I’d like to hear it again.

FRANKIE:
(Goes to bench. Gets music): O.K. That’s a fair exchange.

32
. Rodgers’s sinking melody also conveys a new harmonic interpretation of an identical (albeit more extended) descending melody from the verse of the song (mm. 9–13) on the words, “color, Aquamarine or em’rald green. And …”

33
. John Mauceri, Notes to
On Your Toes
.

34
. By the time the audience witnesses the entire “Slaughter,” one of its principal tunes has been heard on several previous occasions, always in an appropriate context, e.g., in act I, scene 3, when Junior’s private rehearsal is interrupted by Frankie.

35
. 1983 libretto, 19.

36
. Richard Rodgers, “‘Pal Joey’: History of a Heel.”
New York Times
, December 30, 1951, sec. 2, 1+.

37
. Rodgers,
Musical Stages
, 202.

38
. O’Hara’s letter was reprinted with Rodgers’s jacket notes for the 1950 recording (Columbia 4364). Rodgers recalls receiving the letter in Boston in October 1939 during the try-outs of
Too Many Girls
(Rodgers, 198). The letter, however, is dated “early 1940.” See
Selected Letters of John O’Hara
, ed. Matthew J. Bruccoli (New York: Random House, 1978), 158–59.

39
. Stanley Green, in his
Rodgers and Hammerstein Fact Book
(217), provides more comprehensive information on
Pal Joey’
s unusual initial New York run in three theaters: Ethel Barrymore Theatre (December 25, 1940—August 16, 1941), Shubert Theatre (September 1—October 18, 1941), and St. James Theatre (October 21—November 29, 1941). Tryouts were held at the Forrest Theatre, Philadelphia, December 16–22, 1940.

40
. Brooks Atkinson, “Christmas Night Adds ‘Pal Joey’ to the Musical Stage,”
New York Times
, December 26, 1940, 22; reprinted in Block, ed.,
The Richard Rodgers Reader
, 68–70.

41
. Burns Mantle, “‘Pal Joey’ Smart and Novel,”
Daily News
, December 26, 1940, reprinted in
New York Theatre Critics’ Reviews
, vol. 1, 172.

42
. Rodgers,
Musical Stages
, 201.

43
. John Mason Brown, “‘Pal Joey’ Presented at The Ethel Barrymore,”
New York Post
, December 26, 1940; reprinted in
New York Theatre Critics’ Reviews
, vol. 1, 172.

44
. Sidney B. Whipple, “Pal Joey Is a Bright Gay, Tuneful Novel Work,”
New York World-Telegram
, December 26, 1940; reprinted in
New York Theatre Critics’ Reviews
, vol. 1, 173.

45
. Brooks Atkinson, “At the Theatre,”
New York Times
, January 4, 1952, 17; reprinted in
New York Theatre Critics’ Reviews
, vol. 13, 399.

46
. Lehman Engel,
The American Musical Theater
, 35–36.

47
. Ibid. Engel places another four Rodgers musicals with Hammerstein among his top fifteen (
Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific
, and
The King and I)
.

48
. “Plant You Now, Dig You Later,” another duet between Gladys and Lowell in 1940—rendered by Harold Lang (Joey) on the pre-revival recording—is sung solely by Gladys in 1952 (Gladys’s verse is not, however, included in the 1952 published libretto). Consequently, the comically sinister blackmailer Lowell becomes as ineffectual musically as he is dramatically (for example, his confrontation with Vera and her powerful police allies). One final change deprived Gladys of a fifth musical number (one less than Joey’s six songs) when she is excluded from “You Mustn’t Kick It Around.” But unlike Lowell, Gladys as played by Helen Gallagher in 1952 remains as she was when played in 1940 by June Havoc (sister of the famous stripper Gypsy Rose Lee), i.e., third in musical prominence after Joey and Vera and the lead show singer both in Mike Spears’s second-class nightclub in act I (“That Terrific Rainbow”) and the chic Chez Joey in act II (“The Flower Garden of My Heart”). In this last named song the character Louis (the tenor), who sings the verse, first chorus, and recitations, was added in 1952.

49
. For example, in O’Hara’s Broadway typescript Joey does not sing the opening song, “Chicago,” the first song of 1952. Similarly, Joey’s audition number is nowhere to be found in the earlier script, only the words, “Joey has just finished singing.” When it appears later in the show, slightly altered as “Morocco,” it is sung by Michael Moore. See Hart and Kimball,
The Complete Lyrics of Lorenz Hart
, 271. I am grateful to Chicago’s Goodman Theatre for allowing me to see the unpublished typescripts of O’Hara’s 1940s Broadway libretto and the preliminary script.

50
. Gone from “Take Him” (act II, scene 4) in 1952 are both Linda’s and Vera’s verses. Vera’s verses appear in the O’Hara Broadway typescript. See also Hart and Kimball,
The Complete Lyrics of Lorenz Hart
, 275.

Revisions in the 1952 book are more modest than those for the lyrics, although the absence of a reprise of “I Could Write a Book” from O’Hara’s 1940 Broadway transcript must be considered a significant change. The dialogue that separates the refrains in “You Mustn’t Kick It Around” was not present in 1940, and the transition lines to “Plant You Now” and “Do It the Hard Way” would later exclude Lowell. Perhaps the most substantial change in the 1952 book is the deletion of a page of dialogue between Joey and the manager of the apartment house, who dispassionately informs the anti-hero that he has until 6:00 P.M. to leave the building. Other changes in the 1952 book: Vera is now “over twenty-one” instead of “thirty-six,” Gladys’s interpretation of Lowell’s brand of humor is an old lady hit by a trolley car (rather than a truck), and Joey no longer gets a good meal at the home of Linda’s sister.

51
. Abbott,
“Mister Abbott,”
194–95.

52
. In O’Hara’s early typescript Joey meets Linda English, generically named Girl, at Mike Spears’s club where she performs as a singer. Like other performers at the club, Linda is initially repelled by Joey and what he stands for. In the final 1940 libretto, where Joey wins her over in front of the pet store with his fictitious story of his childhood dog Skippy, Linda acquired more sweetness. She also acquired more dialogue as a guest rather than a performer in Mike Spear’s joint in act I, scene 3, and in a telephone exchange in scene 4.

Some additional distinctions: In O’Hara’s original draft Lowell and Gladys actively solicit Linda’s help in their plan to blackmail Vera, which in the later libretto Linda merely overhears. In both versions the generous Linda warns her rival. Nevertheless, the earlier and tougher Vera thwarts the blackmail attempt without the help of Police Deputy Commissioner O’Brien when she reproduces a photograph that shows her husband and Gladys in
flagrante delicto
. Not present in the earlier typescript are the angry final words between Joey and Vera following Vera’s lie (that Joey frightened away the blackmailers), an exchange that credibly prepares Vera’s reprise of “Bewitched.”