Overtures/Musicals 1950-70 (Lil Abner)

[Steve C.]

Posted: 1/28/16 at 8:25pm

Even with all the great shows being produced on Broadway today, I just can't imagine what it must have been like to go to a show and hear these wonderful orchestrations played by a 30+ piece orchestra. Those must certainly have really been worth the $6.60 front row seat.

I'm discovering so many of these unbelievable gems on itunes and youtube etc. I've seen the movie of Lil Abner and enjoyed it but these cut songs and energetic orchestrations and choruses really make my jaw drop. It's like a treasure hunt when you find shows like these. These Goddard Lieberson recordings are Gold. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDR7JoM34So&index=1&list=PLUSRfoOcUe4aaBN3Wb3X9444hh8fafP2z

[After Eight]

Posted: 1/28/16 at 10:08pm

"I just can't imagine what it must have been like to go to a show and hear these wonderful orchestrations played by a 30+ piece orchestra."

 

It was beyond wonderful--- and so were the shows that followed the overtures.

 

I'll never forget the euphoria I felt in the theatre as I heard the Dear World overture. To quote from two other Broadway musicals, "my heart took flight," and I felt "a'tingle and a'glow." I've never felt anything like it in any theatre since.

[yfs]

Posted: 1/28/16 at 10:26pm

Check out Wildcat -- a show without much profile today, but what an overture! Robert Ginzler at his best. If the tunes were as good as the tunes in Gypsy, this would be the best overture, in my mind. 

It was a great time to go to the theater, but back then a lot of patrons just chatted through the overtures, which, even as a kid I found shocking. They could have heard them all, and now it's too late. But I remember them with great fondness. And, of course, you can still hear them live at Encores, although 1776 doesn't have much of an overture. 

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/28/16 at 10:32pm

I grew up on overtures in  the 60's

[Steve C.]

Posted: 1/28/16 at 11:07pm

Thanks for all these new suggestions. I haven't really heard or seen Dear World even though I know Angela Lansbury is in it. I came across Drat The Cat and wow, that is really good. Even if you just playlist the overtures, and you hear the basses, horns, tubas, timpani, strings...still still wonderful.  

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/28/16 at 11:13pm

Look for the following Jule Styne musicals with his trademark overtures

 

Fade Out Fade In

Hallelujah Baby

Sugar

Gypsy

Bells Are Ringing

Funny Girl

Do Re Mi

Subways Are For Sleeping

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

High Button Shoes

Darling Of The Day

 

Updated On: 1/29/16 at 11:13 PM

[Steve C.]

Posted: 1/29/16 at 5:54am

It's fun to see clips of older movies or Broadway shows and see people pop out of the ensemble or chorus who later on, become familiar actors or dancers. In this song from Lil Abner both Valerie Harper and Donna Douglas are dancing and singing in the ensemble in their earlier careers.

I wonder if Donna Douglas got the role of Elly Mae after casting or producers saw this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TfcJ82FAhw  

Stubby Kaye sure had a style all his own and must have been fun to see on stage too.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 1/30/16 at 4:15pm

I didn't spot Donna Douglas or Valerie Harper but I did spot

Beth Howland  from Company (stage) and Alice (TV)

[Steve C.]

Posted: 1/30/16 at 5:42pm

Hi GB, Valerie Harper is in an orange short frock with hat and bouncy pigtails. She dances all around usually being placed at one end of the line or the other. Donna Douglas is harder to pick out but toward the last chorus when Stubby Kaye is by a large rock, she's on the right side of the screen. 

 

(Youtube is such a BigBlackHole Broadway style, did you know Lee Remick played Lola in Damn Yankees)

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/30/16 at 6:36pm

Remick also teamed with Hal Linden for I Do I Do. It was recorded. I had an old VHS which I previously burned to a dvd

[Demitri2]

Posted: 1/31/16 at 9:40pm

I always appreciated growing up in New York in the sixties just because of the theatre. Even the flops (BAJOUR, FLORA THE RED MENACE, BAKER STREET) were thoroughly enjoyable. And yes, hearing a full orchestra in the pit was something I sorely miss today. I recall one of my all time favorites, HIGH SPIRITS, offered balcony seats for as little as $3.50. So back then live theatre was affordable to anyone and everyone. When orchestra seats were at a $9.95 top back then, the original cast recording LP retailed for $6.99. Compare what a show CD/download costs today in comparison to an orchestra seat. Something went wrong somewhere. 

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/31/16 at 9:51pm

You got it right

 

Saw Bajour & Baker . Bajour & High had great overtures as did I Had A Ball

Updated On: 1/31/16 at 09:51 PM

[Steve C.]

Posted: 1/31/16 at 11:00pm

Hi Mr and D I'll have to check them out if they are online or youtube. 

Thanks

Updated On: 1/31/16 at 11:00 PM

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 2/1/16 at 4:52pm

In the late 1950s Columbia records issued an Lp called CURTAIN GOING UP with Lehman Engle conducting 10 Broadway Overtures.  It is out on CD with 2 bonus tracks:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00418BCKY/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp

 

This album was unique in that it used the original scores. The KISS ME KATE OVERTURE had not been recorded at all at that time. Both the Broadway cast album (Columbia) and the stereo remake (Capitol) used the Entr'acte to lead into "Another Op'nin' Another Show."  Also the original albums of BLOOMER GIRL, ON THE TOWN, and CALL ME MADAM did not include overtures. (Deccas CALL ME MADAM album with Merman had no Overture, just 12 songs.Victor's cast album with Dinah Shore had an Overture but it was not the one used in the theatre, which is the one on this album.) The Engle Overture for BELLS ARE  RINGING ends with Long Before I Knew You  while the overture on Columbias cast album ends with The Partys Over.

Another CD of Jule Styne Overtures is available on the JAY label including the Overture from HIGH BUTTON SHOES not included in the OCR.

 

[Steve C.]

Posted: 2/1/16 at 6:16pm

Thank you FRC2 I'll certainly check out those recordings. Is the radio show podcast or online radio only? There are just so many hours to peruse this stuff and then work and perform...etc..very grateful for all the responses from everyone. I learn more everyday.

[Steve C.]

Posted: 2/2/16 at 1:55am

I found the Engle overtures and I'm buying it.

I also found something that sounds so unbelievable to me. There is a show called Flahooley with get this, Barbara Cook, Yma Sumac (!) Louis Nye...?  There's even a "Fred Waring" tv show that's about 30 minutes long. That must have been super rare. Did Broadway audiences really appreciate Yma Sumac?

(Today's lesson is...)   

 

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 2/2/16 at 3:28am

<i>Is the radio show podcast or online radio only?</i>

 

It is carried by Toronto Gay/Lesbian radio station PROUD FM and the on-air feed is carried on the website (www.proudfm.com). There is no podcast as yet but as soon as teh music rights can be sortede out theer will be an archive of previous programs.

 

FLAHOOLEY is  gem. See my review on AMAZON.com. Yma Sumac's songs can be skipped over as they are not in English and have nothing to do with the plot. The show ran just 40 p.

A few other Fabulous Flops worth checking out:

WHOOP UP (Polydor CD - originally an M-g-M Lp)

OH CAPTAIN! (DRG CD -originally a Columbia LP)

TAKE ME ALONG (DRG CD - originally RCA Victor Lp)

SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING (Fynsworth Alley CD - originally Columbia Lp)

SAIL AWAY (Broadway Angel CD - originally on Lp from Capitol)

 

 

 

[Steve C.]

Posted: 2/2/16 at 6:58am

FRC2,

Thanks for all the homework! I PM'd you.  

[FrontRowCenter2]

Posted: 2/2/16 at 7:16am

OBCR Overtures are a playlist on my iPhone and never get tired of listening to them!

[Vectorbabe]

Posted: 2/2/16 at 10:06am

Best overture I ever heard was the opening for Fiorello! The fire siren joke may have been lost on younger audiences, but older people got it and loved it!

Also, at Broadway Con, one of the guys on the making a cast album panel told us that he had an overture written for the cast album of a show. (Name escapes me.) He just felt that the album needed a special opening that the first number didn't provide.

That was one of the tidbits of info that made that panel exceptional. (God I wish I remembered the name of the show.)

[Vectorbabe]

Posted: 2/2/16 at 10:08am

I remember sitting in the orchestra for the original Gypsy and listening to the overture. I told my mother that the music from the show was going to be a big hit. She disagreed. My mother was wrong!!!

[daredevil]

Posted: 2/2/16 at 11:36am

just to correct: I don't think you can count Take Me Along as a flop. It ran for over a year, and I am sure while Jackie Gleason was in it (the first year) played to very large houses. An interesting sidelight: in 1959 when Sound of Music opened, Richard Rodgers in his interviews kept talking about how pleased he was that the show had no overture---he felt that by beginning the musical with the services in the convent he was strengthening its vision.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 2/2/16 at 11:39am

Superman had a great one. Shots followed by "Bullets Won't Hurt Me" was a great touch. The recent Encores was the closest to the original production  I have ever seen . To hear a full orchestra again brought me back to Broadway's Golden Age.

Updated On: 2/2/16 at 11:39 AM

[Jarethan]

Posted: 2/2/16 at 6:19pm

My favorite overtures are Mame, Candide and Gypsy.  I think all others pale in comparison to those three.  

Per earlier comments, I remember seeing the original production of Sweet Charity (I was 16) at a Wednesday matinee and literally not being able to hear the overture because of all the talking.  It was really frustrating...also an indication that theatre rudeness is nothing new.

The cynic in me thinks one of the reasons that so many shows stopped having overtures...(1) there is nothing worse than an overture with a weak score...it can put you in a bad place before the curtain even goes up; and (2) the people who created the great ones are long gone...even the lesser Jule Styne shows had great overtures; how much was him and how much was his orchestrator?  Don't know.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 2/2/16 at 7:48pm

10 to 15 seconds into an overture & you  could tell if it was a Jule Styne one. They were really that distinctive.