The Grass Harp
The Grass Harp
#0The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 11:04am
How great is this score?
I just got the cd and love it. Favorite songs of mine are "Yellow Drum" "Dropsy Cure Weather" and of course, "The Babylove Miracle Show" which is 12 minutes of pure genius with the great Karen Morrow. I can't get the song out of my head.
Updated On: 7/25/05 at 11:04 AM
#1re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 11:11amI love the score to THE GRASS HARP, even the numbers that sound like 1971 Lite FM radio. Though the script and the show as a whole doesn't really work, it would be fun to see Encores do the show.
#2re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 11:13am
"There's a hootin' and holerin' at the Babylove Miracle Show!"
Yeah, I even like "Floozies".
#3re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 11:14am"Floozies" is a terrible number. Just awful. But I like it too.
#4re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 11:16amAnd why didn't Karen Morrow do more shows? And Barbara Cook is pure joy on that recording.
wildcat
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/04
#5re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 11:20am
I saw the L.A. production with Susan Watson (BYE BYE BIRDIE), Candy Brown (PIPPIN) and Bill Mullikin (NEW FACES OF 1952). It was an almost empty matinee house and the performers appeared to have lost heart...
I seem to remember that Collin's two songs, "Floozies" and "This One Day", were in reverse order onstage.
Karen Morrow was brought in to replace Celeste Holm when that Babylove song cycle took its final form. And there was an earlier version which played somewhere like Provincetown in 1966 with Barbara Baxley and Elaine Stritch in the cast.
#6re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 11:22amYeah Celeste Holm wouldn't have been able to sing the final version of the Babylove song. It's so complicated. Morrow is a genius.
wildcat
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/04
#7re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 11:25amKaren Morrow talks about her Broadway career in the wonderful collection of interviews SING OUT, LOUISE!, saying that the pressure of a new show opening in New York isn't worth the stress. She still works a lot on the West Coast in shows like FOLLIES and HELLO, DOLLY! I think her last Broadway credit was EDWIN DROOD.
#8re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 11:27am
The role of Babylove was originally tailored for Mary Martin, though it seems unlikely that by 1966 she would have been able to handle that big song cycle either.
When you listen to "archival" recordings of the show in performance, "The Babylove Miracle Show" isn't quite the breathless piece it is on the recording. It's broken up with some dialogue and Karen has a chorus of children with her who sing some of it.
#9re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 11:28amThanks Wildcat. I wondered why she didn't do more shows. She's so great. I love her numbers on "I Had a Ball" too.
#10re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 11:30amYeah Martin couldn't handle it. Yeah I've heard the show plays much better on disc than live.
wildcat
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/04
#11re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 11:37amMy favourite Morrow performances are on the 1960 off-Broadway cast album of THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE. And playing the same role (Luce) in the London cast recording a few years later, wait till you hear an Australian singer named Maggie Fitzgibbon!
#12re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 11:54amI actually saw the early version that was done in Providence RI with Elaine Stritch. "Yellow Drum" ran through my head for months after that - probably because it was done about a hundred times during the performance. I believe that when the show finally reached Broadway several years later, it was intermissionless - quite a change (and a lot of cutting) from the three-act production back in Providence.
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#13re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 11:55am"Yellow Drum" is hard to get out of the head. I love it.
wildcat
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/04
#14re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 12:00pmI know five songs were dropped before the New York opening, and three of them were recorded by Elaine Stritch, Max Showalter and George Rose on Ben Bagley's Painted Smiles label.
#15re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 12:02pmAre those the 3 songs at the end of the Varese version of the Cd?
#16re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 12:03pmDamn it! After reading this thread I now have "Yellow Drum" stuck in my head as well! Guess, what I will be listening to later on tonight?
"For me, THEATRE is an anticipation, an artistic rush, an emotional banquet, a jubilant appreciation, and an exit hopeful of clearer thought and better worlds."
~ an anonymous traveler with Robert Burns
wildcat
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/04
#17re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 12:05pm
Brazil, I Trust the Wrong People and The One and Only Person in the World.
BTW, the orchestral tracks for GRASS HARP were recorded in Europe with the vocals added in the U.S. later.
#18re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 7/25/05 at 12:06pmI always wondered...The Cast Recording was recorded long after the show closed right? How long after? Was it months or years?
wildcat
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/04
#21re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 8/6/05 at 11:58amSo, I still can't get enough of this score. It's very beautiful and haunting. My new favorite song is "Chain of Love". So perfect. Barbara Cook is truly amazing.
wildcat
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/04
#22re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 8/6/05 at 12:13pmShe sang it at Carnegie Hall but they didn't put it on the album.
#24re: The Grass Harp
Posted: 8/6/05 at 1:11pm
I played Dr. Ritz in 2000 in Oregon. The score is lovely, but yes there are clinkers. Claibe Richardson sent the director two new numbers from the then recent production at 42nd Street Moon; they didn't quite measure up to he rest of the best.
The script is awful.
The role of Catherine is actor-proof. Our Catherine sang well, but dropped entirely out of character whenever she wasnt talking orsinging and simply watched the rest of us act. At the end of the season she won an award. God.
I love the score, and the recording. "Brazil" was a hoot to perform.
Updated On: 8/6/05 at 01:11 PM
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