Posted: 7/2/17 at 7:41pm
How Now Dow Jones (1967) and Merlin (1983)...
What were they like? Any posters care to share their opinions/memories?
Thanks.
Posted: 7/2/17 at 7:44pm
I'm not really familiar with his musicals, but I'm absolutely thrilled to hear he wrote them! His score for To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite film scores of all time. I'll definitely try to find those two now.
Posted: 7/2/17 at 7:54pm
Yeah, he's definitely one of my favorite film composers - I've been listening to the recent "essential collection" by the City Of Prague orchestra and loving it - so many classics. Hence my curiosity about his ventures into Broadway musicals. I don't expect them to necessarily be in the same league as his film scores, but they surely have some merit.
Posted: 7/2/17 at 8:16pm
I saw MERLIN. There was a song that I still kind of remember -- "He Who Know the Way" -- sung multiple times by Edmund Lyndeck, who played a wizard. Apparently no one, though, knew the way, because the show kept extending its preview period. (Lyndeck, BTW, a few months earlier, had played Nora's lover in A DOLL'S LIFE, the Hellinger's previous tenant.) Chita Rivera played an evil queen and Nathan Lane played her cowardly son. Chita had a big song "Satan Rules," which, IIRC, ended with her -- spoiler alert -- turning into stone. Doug Henning as Merlin performed various magic acts.
I think the opening number is somewhere on youtube, as is "Step to the Rear," the big song from DOW JONES.
Posted: 7/2/17 at 8:24pm
I saw both shows. HNDJ had two good songs, Step to the Rear and He's Here, a comic ditty sung by Brenda Vaccaro. 'He's here, he's here, he's here...I can't find my brassiere, brassiere, brassiere'. if Merlin had any decent songs, I don't remember them.
I guess he was more effective at movie scores. Magnificent Seven is one of the greats.
Posted: 7/2/17 at 9:11pm
You have reduced He's Here to doggerel. How Now Dow Jones is a fairly textbook flop 60s score, but one thing it has is a superb set of lyrics by Carolyn Leigh.
Here's the lyric for He's Here.
He’s here! He’s here! My long-awaited Lancelot is here, my God, he’s here.
Gadzooks! God-what? I’m trembling in my pants a lot. That far he’s not, but near.
And I complained of playing Sleeping Beauty.
And how I nagged you Lord to make it stop.
And how I hated waiting for the other shoe to drop.
So now it dropped. And oh, with dishes in the sink is it of joy I think or fear.
I dreamed someday my prince would come.
The reason’s not quite clear.
How weird. How odd.
I can’t think of a thing to say but oh my God he’s here.
Penelope am I and he’s Ulysses.
The man for whom I’ve waited and repined
Penelope am I ...
But frankly nothing comes to mind.
Except oh hell, my hose are hanging in the john
Should I go pale and wan, or cheer?
And on this magic day of days I’ve worn a torn brassiere.
Oh drat! Oh damn!
He could have sent a telegram and how was he so sure the coast was clear?
That cluck! That clod!
He’s absolutely beautiful but oh, my God...
He’s here.
Posted: 7/2/17 at 9:26pm
I did say that was one of two good songs. I actually thought that lyric was funny...I remember the audience laughing a lot during that number. The show was totally stupid.
Posted: 7/5/17 at 11:42am
Elmer's last film score was to FAR FROM HEAVEN, which is one of my all-time favorite movies. I know that Frankel/Korie tried to capture its feel with their stage adaptation. I'm curious as to how similar they sound when played consecutively.
Posted: 7/5/17 at 12:42pm
I was visiting Martin Short in his dressing room after LITTLE ME and Nathan Lane walked in. I mentioned that I had enjoyed his performance in MERLIN and Lane responded, " Well, I didn't".
