Very Warm For May

[brian.klimowski]

Posted: 1/24/12 at 12:13am

Hello. I am at a loss for info about this Kern/Hammerstein flop. After countless google searches, I was only able to find a few vague summaries with varying content. Here are a few that I found.

http://www.goldstar.com/events/san-francisco-ca/very-warm-for-may

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Warm_for_May

http://www.answers.com/topic/very-warm-for-may-musical-in-2-acts

If anyone had any more info on this show, I would be very thankful.

[egghumor]

Posted: 1/24/12 at 12:41am

The 2010 biography THE HAMMERSTEINS: A MUSICAL THEATER FAMILY contains a section about the show.

http://www.amazon.com/Hammersteins-Musical-Theatre-Family/dp/B005DIDE7U/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327383360&sr=1-3

and there's also a 1939 cast recording available on DVD:

http://www.amazon.com/Very-Warm-May-Original-Broadway/dp/B000000N5J/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1327383561&sr=1-1

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/24/12 at 11:26pm

It is also considered by some Hammerstein insiders an aficionados to be Oscar's greatest work.

Sondheim saw the original production when he was 9, and said it influenced him for life.

Here are Audra MacDonald and Norm Crosby singing the exquisite "All the Things You Are":

http://youtu.be/1yvHALz5PJA


And here is the same song sung by opera diva Jessye Norman:

http://youtu.be/Wnp6r_wXNmA


And, of course, Ella:

http://youtu.be/GlVemxYC_S4

Updated On: 1/25/12 at 11:26 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 12:47am

I've read some who have said it's Kern/Hammerstein's most integrated show aside from Show boat--at least in its original libretto which was vastly changed, making many of the songs nonsensical, out of town due to many issues.. I've always wondered why K/H never really did a followup to Show Boat.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 6:26am

I've always wondered why K/H never really did a followup to Show Boat.

It wasn't for lack of trying. I think SHOW BOAT is really sui generis: it's an operetta, but the story deals with issues sufficiently American so that it doesn't seem too exotic (i.e., it isn't set in Heidelburg); nonetheless, it still manages to go to places (the show boat, the World's Fair, etc.) that allow for an unusual variety of song styles. And it has most of the elements that Hammerstein would eventually employ to revolutionize the American musical.

Perhaps most important, it deals with the two central American concerns (since we pretend we don't have social or economic classes): race and the nuclear family.

[mallardo]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 7:14am

Thank you, Pal Joey for those links - you made my morning. Has there ever been a more beautiful song than All The Things You Are? For that alone I'd want to see the show.

[D2]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 10:34am

Equity Library Theatre produced it in the mid-80s. It was terrific; fast-paced, well-sung and performed, and a helluva lot of fun.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/25/12 at 7:21pm

years gone by a gentleman by the name of Allen Jeffries hosted an evening show on WABC-FM. It was devoted to Broadway musicals. I remember sitting transfixed in front of the radio listening to the complete recording of VERY WARM FOR MAY. I never bought the recording, though. I wonder why.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/26/12 at 8:51pm

Gaveston, I guess that's kinda what I meant. I agree that Show Boat is still very much in the operetta style (though--maybe due to the source material as well as Kern's history with the more musical comedy Princess shows) it definitely is a huge bridge to what became musical theatre--and as you said dealing with heavier themes and more "normal" characters than most operettas. I guess what I really mean is, since it WAS a success, did Hammerstein and kern ever think to try to adapt another American epic, or American work in general? Their followup shows all feel (from the librettos) very much like frothy, silly plots, and the songs seem much less integrated.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 1/26/12 at 9:15pm

Eric, I'm not a good enough historian to know every Hammerstein show between SHOW BOAT and OKLAHOMA!, but I did read a doctoral dissertation on how he got from one to the other. If I remember correctly, that scholar thought VERY WARM FOR MAY an important step.

I suspect the simplest answer is that Hammerstein's idea of integrating musical theater elements was closely related to his ideas about democracy and an integrated republic. Maybe he just didn't find the right source material between Ferber and GREEN GROW THE LILACS.

[jayinchelsea]

Posted: 1/26/12 at 9:23pm

The original production featured the wonderful Eve Arden, and included Vera-Ellen and June Allyson in the ensemble. It was also filmed by MGM in 1944, with a completely rewritten script and all the original Kern/Hammerstein songs gone (not unusual for Hollywood adaptations in those days) except for "All the Things You Are," and was titled "Broadway Rhythm."