It was in the show for two reasons: (1) Mr. Robbins just loved that number and (2) he knew that a show with one big ballet after another needed variation. He was always aware of the dynamics of an individual number and the dynamics of an entire evening.
So Debbie's smoldering solo gave the show a single-spotlight focus, as well as an earthy sexiness that was unlike the other numbers.
People are shocked, because they think he stood for art for art's sake, but Jerry Robbins was always a showman. He learned showmanship from Mr. Abbott, and he valued it as much as he valued the artistic integrity he learned from ballet choreographers, especially Mr. Balanchine.
Remember that Jerry Robbins was the one who took the boys out of the dance that Peter Gennaro created for the "America" number in West Side Story. He wanted to make it more of a display of virtuosity for Chita Rivera, but he also thought that a show that featured the deaths of so many of the main characters could use a "girly" number to keep the "tired businessmen" interested. And he was only half-joking when he said that.
The song had been cut from the MGM film Easter Parade, and the cut footage of Judy Garland performing it can still be seen. The first time Robbins choreographed it was in Irving Berlin's Miss Liberty, for for Allyn Ann McLerie, who had starred with Ray Bolger in Where's Charley and had been a guest artist for Robbins at his Ballet Theatre.
That version wasn't a solo: McLerie performed it with two of Robbins's favorite male dancers, Tommy Rall and Bill Bradley, both of whom were very virile, very sexual creatures. Robbins staged it so that both of them were seducing Allyn Ann.
The show opened in Philadelphia and the song stopped the show. Kitty Carlisle Hart described it as the only song in the show to receive "thunderous applause." But Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein came to see the show, and afterward they told Berlin and director Moss Hart that the song had to be cut, because the sudden sexiness was "bad for the girl's character."
So Moss Hart had to tell Jerome Robbins that the number was cut. He took the news better than anyone thought, because despite his temper, he always had tremendous respect for people he thought knew things he didn't.
Removing the number didn't save the show. It got terrible reviews, the worst reviews Irving Berlin ever received. Allyn Ann McLerie's husband, actor George Gaynes, called it "proof that five geniuses can make a turkey."
Four years later, Irving Berlin put it into a score again. This time it was Call Me Madam. This time, Robbins staged it as a solo. And again it was cut, this time by George Abbott.
So it made perfect sense to put "Mr. Monotony" into JR Broadway. This time, there was no one around to cut it!
Updated On: 5/31/12 at 12:27 AM
