"A Fellow Needs a Girl" from Allegro ***PLEASE READ***

[bwayboi0101]

Posted: 5/14/06 at 11:27am

Hi everyone, I have to sing "A Fellow needs a girl" from Allegro for an upcoming school jury. After I am done singing it I have to tell them about the song and why the charecter is singing it. But I do not have a script and I do not know anything about this show. Can someone PLEASE tell me about this song and why the charecter is singing it?

This is much appreciated! Thank you :)

[bwayboi0101]

Posted: 5/14/06 at 11:35am

anyone please :)

[Babyboomer]

Posted: 5/14/06 at 12:34pm

Check out this link:
http://www.nodanw.com/shows_a/allegro.htm

[daredevil]

Posted: 5/14/06 at 12:47pm

The song is sung by the doctor father of a boy growing up in a wholesome county somewhere in the midwest. The father is singing it as a hymn to his own wife. I suppose he is also trying to let his son see the value of a warm and happy (for that time) marriage. Ironically, later in the play, the son, now a doctor himself, sees his own marriage fall apart. But there is no irony in the moment; it is simply an incredible hymn to fidelity, sung by a man who has had a caring marriage and believes deeply in the institution. Allegro though not know, is a fascinating if deeply flawed musical with some wonderful songs.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 5/14/06 at 3:33pm

The son (Joe) is actually upstairs in his room, ready to leave for college the next day, and in love with the girl Jenny he will marry. He overhears his parents talking, His mother is a little depressed (her only son moving away from home), his father is worried about a patient. Mother has faith...the Dr. will find the right solution, She believes in him. They talk of their son's decision to become a Dr. like his father, and try to envision the kind of girl he will marry. (The mother already has misgivings about Jenny and expects Joe will a lot of new girls at college.) The father comments that he hopes Joe "doesn't pick a lemon. It's only dumb luck when a boy picks the right girl - the way I did." That leads into the song.

ALLEGRO has some darker edges.

Later Jenny decides it would be better if Joe gave up medicine and tris to persude him to take over her father's lumber business and gets into a fierec argument with Joe's mother, who soon after suffers a major heart attack and dies. (There is a touching underscored scene here: Joe arrives home from college finding his father looking sad, confused and lost. The father gestures Joe to sit in the empty chair where his mother used to sit. Joe does and after a moment tentatively reaches over and places his hand on his father's hand - just the way mother used to. And the scene fades out.)

The mother proves to be right: Jenny is ambitius - wants to be rich and pushes Joe to become a big city doctor. He becomes increasingly unhappy and when he discovers Jenny is unfaithful he returns home to help his father in his practise.

The is more subtext to ALLEGRO than any other R&H show. Unfortunately the execution is fumbled and the script never quite reaches its goals. But it is a fascinating show and was considerably ahead of its time in 1947.

Hope all this helps!

[bwayboi0101]

Posted: 5/14/06 at 5:03pm

OMG Thank you guys so much! I really appreciate it!

[jv92]

Posted: 5/14/06 at 6:23pm

Allegro is a wonderful show and one of the first concept musicals believe it or not. If you haven't you should give the script a look at. It's in a collection of scripts by R&H.