I LOVE MY WIFE

[CastAlbumFan]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 6:39pm

Just listening to the CD of the score. Very contemporary in 1977, but very, VERY dated now! It has a typical wonderful Cy Coleman score (Has there ever been a Broadway composer more versitile than Sweet Cy? My God, it seemed like that man could write ANY style of music!) My favorite songs are "By Threes", "Lovers on Christmas Eve" and "Someone Wonderful I Missed". I should mention again the show is VERY dated (Listen to "Sexually Free", "Love Revolution" and "Married Couple" to hear what I'm talking about), so don't expect to see a revival of a musical about wife-swapping on the Rialto any time soon.

BTW, bonus points to anyone who can name the actors who were "stunt casted" a the male leads near the end of the run of this show.

[yipper]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 6:44pm

I don't know the show.... any singing hookers? Cy loved his singing ladies of the evening!

[Kringas]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 6:53pm

The Smothers Brothers

[CastAlbumFan]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 6:54pm

Nope. Just four leads and a quartet of musicians clled "The Band" who acted sort of like a Greek chorus during the show.

[CastAlbumFan]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 6:55pm

And Kringas gets the bonus points!

[Kringas]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 7:07pm

Should I cash out now or is there a lightening round?

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 8:29pm

Trust me, I LOVE MY WIFE was dated in 1977.

Tilde Kooeck
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

[magruder]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 9:02pm

But if you do the show as a period piece, setting it very firmly in the '70s in design and attitude, it still works like gangbusters. Audiences EAT IT UP.

[justme2]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 11:49pm

Is James Naughton on this CD?

[alterego]

Posted: 9/10/05 at 12:37am

I saw it in 1978 and yes, it seemed like it was from a different time then.Wife swapping oooooooo!

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 9/10/05 at 3:53am

Yes James Naughton was in it and on the OCR. Also as his wife was Joanna Gleason!

I saw this show my first time in NYC and it was fun. Not so much dated but a satire very firmly rooted in its time. (The joke was that two guys in Trenton NJ men decide to exchange wives for Christmas.)

The score is lively fun with great variety. My Program Director at the radio station used to love to play "Eveybody Tday is Turnin' On" I always loved the jaunty "Hey There Good Times."

[CastAlbumFan]

Posted: 9/10/05 at 4:01am

Yes, James "I'm a Pepper!" Naughton was in this show. So was Lenny Baker (He won a Best actor Tony), Joanna Gleason (Glad to see she's still on Broadway!), and Ilene Graff (Before she starred on T.V.s "Supertrain" and "Mr. Belvedere". Is she related to Randy?).

True, wife-swapping was "old hat" by the time this show came out. It was done on T.V. on "All in the Family" (with Rue McClanahan before she was on "Maude"), and two New York Yankees made headlines in 1973 for swapping their wives.

Have to agree it works well as a period piece.

Updated On: 9/10/05 at 04:01 AM

[justme2]

Posted: 9/10/05 at 11:48pm

thanks for the Naughton and Gleason info...I can always count on frontrowcenter for recording insights!

and thanks also to castalbumfan...but I believe it was DAVID Naughton that was the Dr Pepper man...I think that he is James' brother.

[CastAlbumFan]

Posted: 9/11/05 at 3:36pm

Bumping this for the love of Sweet Cy.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 9/11/05 at 3:49pm

As "dated" as the show's topic may be--(and everyone who says it was even "old Hat" by the 70s is correct!)--I still loved it. The score is terrific, and how could you go wrong with that cast? The band/chorus was also hilarious.

The show wasn't even really "risque." I mean, my parents, who were dyed-in-the-wool Catholics went back to see it about 9 times!

I have the cd and, to this day, truly enjoy the eclectic variety of Cy's score. He was so great. I was so saddened by the news of his sudden death.

Anyway, I wish someone would do something with it.

And justme2 is right...DAVID Naughton IS the Dr. Pepper guy, not James. David also starred in the film "An American Werewolf in London."

Updated On: 9/13/05 at 03:49 PM

[alterego]

Posted: 9/12/05 at 8:47pm

The thing I remember most about the show was David Mitchells set.
At the time he was designing shows left right and centre. He had ANNIE, I LOVE MY WIFE, BARNUM to name a few and then he seemed to disappear. What happened to him?

[CastAlbumFan]

Posted: 9/12/05 at 8:53pm

Thanks fo the correction, guys. I ALWAYS got those two confused (James was the one who did the TV show "Makin' It", right?)

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 12:51am

James now does a commercial for some medication, I think. Very serious, very somber. Nothing like those Dr. Pepper extravaganzas his younger bro, David, got to do! Does anyone remember when SCTV parodied the Dr. Pepper commercials???

I do adore James Naughton though. I wished I'd been able to see his cabaret act. I would have sat there all moony-eyed, sighing while my husband critiqued every note James sang or the band played or the selection of songs, etc. Hey, maybe that's why I never went.

[justme2]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 1:13am

James was doing a Cialis ad campaign, which I haven't seen for a while now. He also did Prilosec and Nasalcrom commercials.

I love the man. I love the voice. However, hearing Naughton say things like "side effects may cause diarreha" is wrong. Very wrong.

He was also in "The Cosby Mysteries" with Rita Moreno and Bill Cosby a few years back. I watched EVERY episode and was pissed when it was cancelled.

No, I didn't say it was any good. But JAMES was in it and I watched it.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 1:27am

That's how I feel about him, too. That voice, that hair, those yes, that smile.

I guess he needs to make a living like the rest of us, and those commercials probably paid him a lot more than Democracy did.

It was startling when I saw first it, but then I figured only a handful of people in this country will even recognize him: we theatre geeks!

[justme2]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 1:32am

Damn right! You gotta get the money somehow...

mmmm...that voice of James' is like honey of the finest grade. I listen City of Angels cast recording and love it every time.