Broadway Revisited
(02/23/10): 10-09; February 27, 2010
The season's new books, records, and videos.
Gypsy overture-- 1; fades under)Hi, this is Art Hilgart and this is Broadway Revisited, a weekly exploration of the songs and shows, composers and lyricists, and performers who created the American musical theater.
(Music up, then fade)
Another three months have elapsed and it's time for another look at a season's new paper and plastic-- the winter's new books, records, and videos.
Warner Archive has made a lot more old movies available on their custom label-- you order them from the website WarnerArchive.com and they custom make a dvd and mail it to you. Twenty of the latest batch are musicals. We'll sample just three. I Dood It was a 1946 comedy starring Eleanor Powell, Lena Horne, and the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra. Here's one of the new songs from the film.
1. Star Eyes (Raye & De Paul) (Warner Archive) 3:37
From the soundtrack of I Dood It, we heard the Jimmy Dorsey band with Bob Eberle and Helen O'Connell, who introduced that song by Gene De Paul and Don Raye.
You probably know that the first sound feature picture was The Jazz Singer, in 1927. It was mostly a silent picture, with a few Al Jolson numbers and a little dialogue. It used the Vitaphone process, in which theaters played amplified disc recordings synchronized with the picture. It was a sensation, and Warners immediately followed it the next year with another mostly silent Vitaphone Jolson picture, The Singing Fool. Here's one of the sound sequences from it, with a song by DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson.
2. I'm Sitting on Top of the World (Warner Archive) 1:41
The Singing Fool, from 1928, set the record for box office receipts, which wasn't topped until 1939 and Gone with the Wind.
By the next year, 1929, Warners was using Vitaphone for all-talking pictures, and one was a film of the 1920 Jerome Kern musical, Sally. The original star was Marilyn Miller, and she also starred in the 1929 movie. We're playing Look for the Silver Lining (with lyrics by Buddy DeSylva) from the soundtrack, to give you an idea of the singing style common in 1920.
3. Look for the Silver Lining (Warner Archive) 4:01
Marilyn Miller was in fourteen shows between 1914 and 1934, and she was the highest-paid star on Broadway. There are more Marilyn Miller and Al Jolson movies among the winter releases from Warner Archive, and we've listed all sixteen of them on broadwayrevisited.com, along with a link to Warner Archive, where you can order them. (Scroll down for link and list.)
Al Jolson and Marilyn Miller are also in a new book-- I'm the Greatest Star, by Robert Viagas. The oversize volume contains engaging biographies of thirty-nine of the top Broadway stars from 1900 until now. The biographies are well-written and cover most of what you might like to know. The title, again, is I'm the Greatest Star.
Another old-time star was Sophie Tucker. Archeophone records has issued a compact disc with 24 of her recordings between 1910 and 1922. Here's one of her greatest hits, recorded in 1911.
4. Some Of These Days (Archeophone) 4:10
That was Sophie Tucker, with one of the songs on the Archeophone cd, Origins of the Red Hot Mama.
Let's move forward a hundred years to the latest batch of original cast compact disks. Love, Linda is Stevie Holland's one-woman off-Broadway show in which she impersonates Cole Porter's wife Linda, and illustrates her story with appropriate Porter songs.
5. Porter Medley (150 Music) 2:16
That Cole Porter medley was sung by Stevie Holland, from the cast album of her show Love, Linda.
Another of this season's off-Broadway show is a production of Twelfth Night, with music by the traditional ensemble H.E.M. Here's one of Shakespeare's songs as performed by them.
6. O Mistress Mine (Netwerk) 1:59
That performance of a Shakespeare song is from the cast album of this season's off-Broadway revival of Twelfth Night. An on-Broadway revival this season is Hair. Here's a song from the new revival cast album.
7. Electric Blues (Ghostlight) 2:51
That number from Hair is on the Ghostlight recording of the current revival. Another of this season's Broadway revivals is Finian's Rainbow. In this number from the psClassics cast album, the leprechaun who is becoming mortal discovers love-- and the Sears catalog.
8. Something Sort of Grandish (ps Classics) 3:59
Christopher Fitzgerald played the leprechaun with a pot of gold in the revival of Yip Harburg and Burton Lane's Finian's Rainbow.
A new show on Broadway this season is Memphis, a tribute to the creation in the 1950s of Afro-American rock, in Beale Street night clubs. Here's a number from the cast album.
9. Underground (Delray) 3:47
That was a track from the original cast album of the current Broadway hit, Memphis
Another new off-Broadway show is Vanities, in which three women portray their friendship from high school to middle age. Here they are as cheerleaders.
10. I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing (Ghostlight) 3:17
Those cheerleaders' song is from the Ghostlight original cast recording of Vanities.
There are three new compact discs from Scott Siegal's "Broadway by the Years" series of Town Hall Concerts-- these cover the years 1930, 1956, and 1968.
Here are three songs from Broadway Musicals of 1930. As you listen to the verse, guess the song. It's followed by two rare songs about failed love affairs.
11. On The Sunny Side Of The Street / He Came Along / Right At The Start Of It (Original Cast) 10:18
On The Sunny Side Of The Street was written by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh. He Came Along was by Vincent Youmans and Harold Adamson. Right At The Start Of It is from a Dietz and Schwartz revue. All three are from the new cd Broadway Musicals of 1930. Here are two songs you've probably never heard before from Broadway Musicals of 1968.
12. Panache / Love in a New Tempo (Original Cast) 5:39
Jule Styne and Yip Harburg wrote Panache for their show Darling of the Day, and Ronny Graham wrote The Unrequited Lovers March. Bill Nolte sang them both on the new cd Broadway Musicals of 1968.
Our final new release of the season is the compact disc of the soundtrack of the Disney film, The Princess and the Frog. It's set in New Orleans in the 'twenties. Here are the princess and two friends, all three of whom have been changed by a voodoo wizard into a frog, a firefly, and an alligator. They're singing about what they'll do when the curse is lifted.
13. When We're Human (Walt Disney) 2:21
With that song by Randy Newman from the soundtrack cd of The Princess and the Frog, we come to the end of our review of the winter's new paper and plastic.
(Gypsy overture-- 2; to end)
To refresh your memory of them, please go to broadwayrevisited.com, where you'll find all the details. Or you can write me at Art@broadwayrevisited.com. And please join us again next week for another Broadway Revisited. National distribution is funded by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and it's produced with our engineer, Martin Klemm, in the WMUK studios of Western Michigan University. I'm Art Hilgart.
Total music: 52:07; Estimated talking: 7:55; Intro/outro: :30; Estimated total: 58:22.
Promo (14): Al Jolson's second talking picture is just one of the new videos, books, and records we'll review this week. The winter's new paper and plastic, on Broadway Revisited.
Al Jolson
The Singing Kid (Arlen & Harburg)
The Singing Fool (DeSylva, Brown & Henderson)
Wonder Bar (Harry Warren)
Go into Your Dance (Warren & Dubin)
Big Boy (Various)
Say It with Songs (DeSylva, Brown & Henderson)
Marilyn Miller
Sunny (Kern & Hammerstein/Harbach)
Sally (Kern & De Sylva/Wodehouse)
Look for the Silver Lining (1946 biopic, June Haver as Miller)
Hard to Get (Warren and Mercer)
I Dood It (Various)
Holiday in Mexico (Various)
Flying High (Fields & McHugh)
George White Scandals (1945) (Fain & Yellen)
Everybody Sing (Gus Kahn, various)
Small Town Girl (Brodsky & Cahn)
Shipmates Forever (Warren and Dubin)
Strawberry Blonde (Various)
Rosalie (Cole
Porter)