Meredith Wilson

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/15/03 at 6:25pm

Is it me or does it seem Meredith Wilson had one good score in him (Music Man) which he was never able to duplicate. Unsinkable Molly Brown was good but no Music Man & Here's Love was OK but no great shakes. The jury is still out on his bomb that closed out of town called 1492 ( or was it 1491). That show sailed off the edge of the world & disappeared as the earth really is flat

[Unknown User]

Posted: 8/15/03 at 6:31pm

Music Man WAS musically brilliant, and WAAAY ahead of it's time.

what was he thinking when he wrote the acopella train song, or "Trouble" what a great score, indeed!

[QueenS]

Posted: 8/15/03 at 6:52pm

I put Meredith Wilson in the same category as Lionel Bart (Oliver!). One successful show does not a genius make. They're like the one-hit-wonder song groups.

I believe that neither one could read or write music and so had to sing the melodies that they had composed to others to write down. Not too surprising, given that one of the best songs in Music Man (Trouble) is essentially spoken in time.

I find Here's Love less than OK, but I'm also not a big fan of "Miracle on 34th St."

[seabyrd]

Posted: 8/15/03 at 6:59pm

Meredith Willson most certainly could read music! He was a flautest (or flutist if you prefer) -- and musical director for a few organizations, as well as a member of the NY Philharmonic for a few years. I think it was Irving Berlin who couldnt!

[sondheimfreak]

Posted: 8/16/03 at 11:30am

Wasn't Irving Berlin the one that only wrote in flats or sharps (black keys) and the orchestrator had to transpose it? I think it was Cole Porter who couldn't read music.

[MagicRoy]

Posted: 8/16/03 at 11:32am

The one who couldn't read music is definately Irving Berlin. He used to hum/sing the songs to his secretary, who would write them down in a musical format.

[sondheimfreak]

Posted: 8/16/03 at 11:36am

Then it was Cole Porter who only wrote in flats and sharps.

[TEACHEROFTHEATER]

Posted: 8/16/03 at 11:51am

I have often wondered why the musical theater did not reap more flavorful fruits from Mr. Wilson than the wondrous The Music Man.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/16/03 at 1:38pm

TOT, why is that every one of your posts SOUNDS as though it was copied from a literary tome? Do you write novels under the name of Barbar Cartland?

I appreciated Willson's skill as a composer during the last MUSIC MAN revival. There are some brilliant musical moments in the score. Then again, maybe I felt this way because I was watching TAMrMcC up there performing the numbers so sensationally.

Irving Berlin has a special piano that transposed his music for him. It's on display at the Smithsonian. Much of his music remains in sharps and flats because the nun who was the musical director of the ANNIE GET YOUR GUN productiion I directed kept complaining about them. ("Too many sharps and flats" she kept saying and I remembered that line from AMADEUS: "Too many notes")

[MusicMan]

Posted: 8/16/03 at 3:32pm

To dismiss Meredith Willson as a one-hit wonder is ungenerous. How many other Broadway musicals have been written by one person that have been critical AND commercial successes? Three that I can think of: Rent, The Most Happy Fella and The Music Man. And the latter was not just a popular hit of its time but is an acknowledged classic in its field. We should all be so lucky to leave such a mark on posterity.

[MusicalDirector109]

Posted: 8/16/03 at 4:07pm

For the past two weekends, I have had the GLORIOUS pleasure of staging and musical directing "The Music Man" to sold out houses at my community theatre (I serve as the founder and Artistic Director). The show is pure magic and that SCORE!!!! If one should only have one hit in a career MM certainly has its place in American musical theatre. We are also the first community theatre in our area to use a live orchestra. Our show ends tomorrow 8/17!

[seabyrd]

Posted: 8/16/03 at 5:38pm

Yikes - am I seeing things? You think Frank Loesser (Most Happy Fella) is a one-hit wonder? Ever hear of Where's Charley, Guys and Dolls, and How to Succeed? Or did I misunderstand your post?

[seabyrd]

Posted: 8/16/03 at 5:46pm

Maybe I did misunderstand - I guess you meant critical and commercial successes with music and lyrics by the same person...how about Hello Dolly and Mame, courtesy of Jerry Herman? La Cage aux Folles did ok too --

[sondheimfreak]

Posted: 8/16/03 at 8:22pm

And Jonathan Larson (RENT composer) also wrote the kind-of-a-hit off-Broadway show "tick, tick...BOOM!" I just got the CD today and it is a LOT like RENT...which makes it good.

[MusicMan]

Posted: 8/16/03 at 8:51pm

Yes, seabyrd, you misunderstand my post on a number of points. I did not imply that Frank Loesser had no other credits to his name besides The Most Happy Fella. And Jerry Herman does not write the librettos (the book) for his shows. My comments were strictly concerning those American individuals who have functioned as librettist, composer and lyricist on a particular Broadway show, namely the three I mentioned.

[seabyrd]

Posted: 8/16/03 at 11:26pm

Okay MusicMan - libretto didnt jump to mind when you said "written by" in your original post -- although I guess I should have understood that if I had been in a technical frame of mind.....tsk tsk and mea culpa!

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 8/16/03 at 11:33pm

When I inevitably die and go to hell (I know laughing at all those jokes about handicapped people will come back to haunt me) my punishment will be to watch 'The Music Man' on constant loop for all eternity.

[sondheimfreak]

Posted: 8/17/03 at 11:56am

Ooooh! The ill will I'm casting on you will never end! SHAAAAAME! How can you say that about a piece of genius? You do know that you will be mobbed my Music Man lovers, like myself, for posting that, don't you? There is no doubt in my mind that you'll be punished now for dishonoring the name of the immortal Meredith Willson.

Updated On: 8/17/03 at 11:56 AM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/17/03 at 12:07pm

To Music Man

My original post was in no way meant to demean Meridith Wilson. What I meant to state is you have him & composers like Jerry Herman, Maury Yeston & Kander & Ebb who seem to be able to get up in the morning , have coffee & while doing so compose a song . Others like Wilson & Sherman Edwards were not that prolific but that is not bad. I meant to state that others seem to do it so effortlessly while others don't

I fondly remember Here's Love as it was one of the first shows I ever saw (either that or Oliver). I understand that many songs were cut from it pre Broadway & maybe there was a "Till You" amongst them

If all Meredith Wilson ever did was Music Man, it would still rank him as a Broadway giant. Thank God it was preserved relatively well on film & with Robert Preston & not their original choice (Cary Grant - he turned it down)

The same holds true for Sherman Edwards . He did one show ( 1776) but it was a classic & again was preserved relatively intact on film. It was not a great score like Music Man but it did fit the story perfectly & it made it into a classic film. I learned many things from 1776 that were not taught in school. I always thought showing 1776 to school children was a great learning tool. Get them interested in the arts at an early age & give them a history lesson in the process. Not many musicals can do that

Updated On: 8/17/03 at 12:07 PM