Has anyone seen "Sail Away"?

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 12:57am

While watching my "Elaine Stritch: At Liberty" video...I fell in love with the song that Elaine sings from "Sail Away." I adore all of her stories about Noel Coward and thought the song she sang was quite funny.

I checked out the info on IBDB and it got a few TONY noms (no wins) and it only lasted 4 months on Broadway. Did anyone see it, or know someone who saw it? How was it critically recieved? Has any company ever tried to restage it? Encores!,for example. I would love to know a lot more about this show and its potential to ever be brought back.

Any thoughts/responses?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 1:04am

There was a concert reading at Weill Recital Hall a few years ago and Stritch played her old part. The piece is a little creaky but she made it lots of fun.

If you like the title song, look for Judy Garland's rendition of it. Very exciting.

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 1:28am

Coward initialy wrote the song "Sail Away" for the moderately succesful British Musical--ACE OF CLUBS--which never played in America.

In 1961, he decided to build an entire satirical musical about the fads and fobiles of people traveling--and engaged Elaine Stritch to play a caustic cruise hostess.

It was THE first Coward musical to open on Broadway BEFORE playing in the West End.

Out of town reviews were DREADUL--the only things people liked were Stritch, and the Coward wit that was evident in a couple of the Coward songs, like "Why Do The Wrong People Travel?"

To "heighten its changes"--the character Stritch played was given a love interest--a man ten years her junior.

Well, that hardly "helped"--and the show opened to poor notices--and folded its tent after only a couple of months.

Coward tried to remount the show--AGAIN with Stritch in the West End in 1963 (I believe one song was dropped and one added)--but the show BOMBED even quicker.

Belter Maggie Fitzgibbon starred in an Australian Production--which I believe enjoyed moderate success.

I find the OBC of SAIL AWAY to be fairly ordinary--except for the afore-mentioned "Why Do The Wrong People Travel?" Strich does what she can--but she's forced to sing LITERALY UNSINGABLE numbers like "Go Slow, Johnny" and the horribly unfunny "The Little One's ABC" with the ship's kids.

According to my research, SAIL AWAY is currently NOT available for licensing for performance in the U.S.A.--but it may be that you have to contact the Coward Estate directly for performing rights.

I have NEVER heard of an American local or regional production of SAIL AWAY since it was first produced on Broadway in 1961.

[eslgr8]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 2:14am

Sail Away was presented just a few weeks ago as a concert staged reading, a total of four Equity performances done by Musical Theater Guild (in Glendale, Thousand Oaks, and Long Beach, CA). (Only the second American production since its Broadway run.) The cast included Mary Van Arsdel (Mimi) as well as Broadway's Kevin Earley (shown with me after the Long Beach performance in my current avatar) as love interest Johnny and Susan Watson (the original Kim in Bye Bye Birdie!) as his mother. It was an excellent production which received a rave review from the LA Times. By the way, it was licenced by Bonard Productions, Inc. (The CD is available through Amazon.com.)

Here are the program notes by Les Traub:

After runs in Boston and Philadelphia, Noel Coward's "Sail Away" docked at the Broadhurst Theater in New York on October 3, 1961. During most of its out of town run the show had two leading ladies-a romantic and a comic one. Coward felt that the plot revolving around the romantic lead wasn't working and that the audience seemed to perk up during numbers by the comic lead, Elaine Stritch. While in Philadelphia, within a few short weeks of the Broadway opening, Coward dismissed leading lady, operatic soprano Jean Fenn. He proceeded with a major rewrite of the book while still in performance, combining the two leads into one. Now Stritch got the ballads, later remarking that it was the first time she ever got the laughs and the guy.

The title song "Sail Away" was actually taken from a 1950 Coward musical called" Ace of Clubs." The show was originally called "Later Than Spring," but the new title reflected the attitude of all of the musi­cal's principal characters. This was the first Coward musical to be staged in America prior to its London run. Garnering mixed reviews, the show ran for 167 performances in New York and then went on to a London run of about six months. Stritch and Grover Dale repeated their roles in the London production.

America's first revival of "Sail Away" was a concert version at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in 1999, for Noel Coward's centenary. Elaine Stritch recreated the role that made her a star. Tonight's production is the second. Apparently its only other worldwide productions were a 1963 Australian one in Melbourne and a 1998 revival in Woking, England. Tonight's script is from the Carnegie Hall concert version which restores a song cut from the Broadway run called "Bronxville Darby and Joan." It was felt that the Darby and Joan reference (a devoted couple in an 18th century ballad) would not be understood by an American audience.

The show's Broadway and London cast albums have been released on CD, as well as a recording of Noel Coward singing the "Sail Away" score accompanied by Peter Matz on piano. Coward was unhappy with the Broadway cast album and asked Matz to quickly do arrangements so he could record the score to his liking. One of his complaints had to do with censorship. In today's world of CD parental guidance labels as to lan­guage, it is difficult to think back to a time when the line from the song "Why Do the Wrong People Travel?" '...up to its ass in molten lava' comes out on the recording as 'up to its (blip) in molten lava.' This evening presents "Sail Away" with every delicious Coward lyric. It's quite a feast.



Updated On: 5/9/05 at 02:14 AM

[wildcat]

Posted: 5/9/05 at 3:40am

Maggie Fitzgibbon was sensational in the Australian production back in the 60s with Kevin Colson as Johnny (and "The Little One's ABC" was hilarious: it's the misbehaviour of the dreadful little Alvin that makes the number), but the piece itself was very creaky indeed.