Remembering VERY GOOD EDDIE on its 100th Anniversary

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 12/23/15 at 4:22am

It opened 100 years ago today, at the famous (though now demolished) Princess Theatre. It ran for an impressive 300+ performances, and was the first in a chain of successful small-scale musicals dubbed "The Princess Theatre Musicals" that are said to have been a turning point in the development of the American musical.

 

It is one of the oldest shows to have a modern commercial recording, coming in the form of a revival cast album from the 1975 Goodspeed/Broadway revival, making it one of the only shows of the period readily available for modern listeners. It is also the earliest score available by theatre legend Jerome Kern.

 

Did anyone see the revival in 1975/76? 

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 12/23/15 at 11:25am

thanks mr nowack for your passion for the classsic composers and shows ( i think you may have been a theatre promoter in a past life during the 20s and 30s)

this youtuber has the entire album up here: this is "isnt it Great to be MArried"

https://www.youtube.com/watchv=jYRJvqbCyJw&index=6&list=PLUSRfoOcUe4bKbSyCRTu7JbTN7hAJ7AO9

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 12/23/15 at 6:16pm

An interesting theory! Maybe I saw the original productions in another life...

 

I do really enjoy the recording, it's not completely accurate to the 1915 score but has all the major numbers. The most significant additions I think are two songs from Kern's 1920 show THE NIGHT BOAT ("Left All Alone Blues" and "Good Night Boat".

 

I wish more of the Goodspeed revivals of the '70s and '80s had been recorded, they put on a vast array of pre-OKLAHOME/pre-SHOW BOAT shows that have still to this day never been recorded.

[NoName3]

Posted: 12/24/15 at 5:59am

I saw the 1970s revival on Broadway. I don't remember the performance specifically but I do remember enjoying it tremendously and thinking it was a tuneful and fun show and very well performed. Really, the main thing I remember was what an enjoyable evening it was. Not much to contribute I guess but it was 40 years ago.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 12/24/15 at 2:32pm

As the Man in Chair would say, it did what a musical is supposed to do! I think such remembrances are underrated, you don't have to remember ever detail just that it was a good time.

[NoName3]

Posted: 12/25/15 at 4:44am

Very well put, Mr. Nowack.

And to add some trivia I have remembered, the show starred Charles Repole in his Broadway debut and he was justifiably a big hit that season, receiving a Tony nomination and I think a Theater World award. Later he starred in a revival of Whoopee!, which had originally starred Eddie Cantor. I'm not going to google it but I think he had a successful career with a lot of regional work and teaches now.

I liked the show enough to buy the cast album which I used to listen to a lot, but most of my vinyl collection is packed away now where it isn't easily accessible and for some reason I never rebought it on CD.

(And now this gets weird or silly or both: Yesterday on another forum a poster asked people to list classic torch songs and their singers and I mentioned, among others, Ruth Etting singing Love Me or Leave Me. Etting introduced the song in Whoopee! In over 20 years of posting on the net I'm sure I've never mentioned Etting or Love Me or Leave Me or Whoopee! and here I am posting about them 2 days in a row on different forums in threads about different subjects.)

Updated On: 12/25/15 at 04:44 AM

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 12/25/15 at 11:25pm

Weird things like that happen to me all the time, some random thing will pop up during my day for the first time then pop up again later that day or the next. Funny how that happens!

 

I've heard a bootleg of the WHOOPEE! revival, I think it was also done by Goodspeed. Wish there was an album of it.