The Golden Apple

Bobby, you should have a drink with Ken Mandlebaum.

Every ENCORES! season he puts in a dig at "Gee...I'm still WAITING for GOLDEN APPLE guys...hint hint nudge nudge"

A wonderfully literate and haunting score. And "Boola-Boola Lagoon!", too!

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You didn't mention "Windflowers", a truly haunting ballad which Judy Kaye has also recorded on one of her solo albums.

If you get TAKING A CHANCE ON LOVE, the York Theater's revue of John LaTouche lyrics, you can hear Eddie Korbich sing the opening number from GOLDEN APPLE, "Nothing Ever Happens in Angel's Roost", which is not on the cast album.

A planned concert version at New York's Town Hall in 1977 was advertised but did not open. It was to have featured George Rose, Margaret Whiting, Laurence Guittard, Muriel Costa-Greenspon and Marsha Bagwell. Instead a televised version was broadcast in two half hour segments featuring Whiting, Bagwell, Swen Swenson, Ed Evanko, Sally Jo Anderson, Anita Darian and Orrin Reily.

The Playbill for THE GOLDEN APPLE for the week of May 3, 1954 (it transfered to the Alvin Theatre on April 20th after premiering on March 11 at the Pheonix Theatre), says that:

* the husband and wife team of Eddie Albert and Margo were appearing in their first hotel engagement at the Empire Room, to be followed beginning on May 6th by George Gobel, in the Waldorf-Astoria

* Constance Towers was appearing at The Maisonette of the Hotel St. Regis

* One could fly coast to coast for only $99 on TWA ; and to Chicago for $33

* Lou Walters' Latin Quarter was presenting a "Gay French Revue - Dozens of Stars - Ezquisite Girls" for no cover charge

* Jane Froman was playing at Jules Podell's Copacabana, at 10 E 63rd Street

* Guy Lombardo was giving everyone a chance to punish the parquet at The Roosevelt Grill of Hotel Roosevelt on 45th Street

* "Some of the heartiest laughs we've ever heard in the theatre,"
* Singing star Dorothy Sarnoff was headlining at the Cotilion Room of the Hotel Pierre, where theatre dinner was served from 6 to 8pm for $5

and

* Sylvia Syms was singing for lovers from 10pm till dawn at The Bonfire Room on Lexington Avenue at 58th Street

I wanna go see The Golden Apple with my lover, then listen to Sylvia Syms singing till dawn at The Bonfire Room on Lexington Avenue at 58th Street...

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The 1990 production by The York Theatre Company used piano, synthesizer, percussion and string bass.

It might be that full orchestrations do not exist. I've never explored that.

Writing of that 1990 production, Stephen Holden, in The New York Times wrote,

"...has a dazzling first act, bit its story doesn't quite add up once the momentum of the plot accelerats to the breaking point in Act II. But despite a hurried conclusion, it is still one of the more delightful musical comedies of the era, and its cynically irreverent attitudes toward literature, history, patriotism, and show business have a decidedly contemporary ring. The score--a jaunty pastice of country tunes, music-hall turns, rustic folk dances and marches all filterd through sensibilities attuned to Gilbert and Sullivan--also remains remarkably fresh.

Because 'The Golden Apple' is a continuous sequence of fast-paced production numbers with almost no spoken dialogue, it is difficult to perform. And its conceit of turning Homer into a tongue-in-cheek parody of 'Li'l Abner' is so broad that any production must be staged with a very firm control of the tone lest everything deteriote into campy farce..."

Updated On: 7/9/05 at 05:20 PM

I saw a video last year of a recent regional production which used the original William and Jean Eckart designs and was fully orchestrated.

Worked very well in the productions I saw, in my opinion.

Apparently it worked for these theatre critics in 1954, too. Out of the 7 New York critics, a mixed review was the lowest level of review it recieved.

The Daily News, An off-beat, off-rhyme, off-harmony musical which lifts our Broadway song-and-dance theatre right off the comfortable seat of its pants and then gives it a kick in said pants. The Golden Apple is the best thing that has happend in and to the theatre in a very long time. Every part of it--music, lyrics, staging, scenery, costumes, and compnay--is refreshing, tangy, delightful, and intelligent.

Daily Mirror It's a magnificnet achievement. A sensational success.

Journal American Register herewith an unqualified rave for The Golden Apple. althought singularly unheralded, this is easily the most satisfactory and original song and dance effort of the past several seasons and, in my opinion, can be classed as an American Gilbert and Sullivan. Here is one of those rare and gratigying experiences in the theatre--

Post It is certainly no exaggeration to describe it as the best new musical comedy of the season. It is even an understatement. The Golden Apple is a thorough delight in its freshness, imagination, charm and brightness.

At least that what 4 of the the critics of the time said.

But why did it last only less than 6 months after its transfer to Broadway, when it was a solid hit in its very brief off Broadway premiere?

Tell us, Enchanted, where have you seen THE GOLDEN APPLE in performance?

Jonathan Tunick will be conducting a concert version at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, NY with the American Symphony Orchestra on Sunday August 28th.