Posted: 11/9/15 at 11:51am
wow, fantastic additions!
"Love Look Away" from the flower drum song revival with Lea Salonga got several well deserved listens last night... really like the revival OCR much more than the OBC....
Posted: 11/10/15 at 3:43pm
Love look away by lea salonga flower drum song
nice performance!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcMlYK8YAHw
Posted: 11/10/15 at 9:10pm
I like Sweet Thursday from Pipe Dream. Not a deep song, (Not many deep songs in that show; maybe one of the reasons not a hit.) but infectious and hummable after after one listen. The operatic treatment given in the OBCA completely wrong (maybe another reason not a hit), but Leslie Uggams nails it in Encores.
I also liked the two "adult" songs removed from Sound of Music for the film, "How Can Love Survive," and "No Way to Stop It." Clever lyrics from Oscar, good tunes from Dick, and a break from all the children's songs.
Posted: 11/11/15 at 6:47am
"I like Sweet Thursday from Pipe Dream. Not a deep song, (Not many deep songs in that show; maybe one of the reasons not a hit.)"
There is some truth to that. It's a lighter musical version of a book that was light to begin with. R&H were not who audiences went to for lightness. But it's a lovely score all the same. I am very glad to have seen the Encores production.
I love How Can Love Survive? and No Way To Stop It, and think Ernest Lehman erred in removing them from the film version of The Sound of Music.
Posted: 11/11/15 at 10:48pm
I didn't see the production, although I wanted to, but I have the recording which is actually a recording of one of the actual performances. Not a studio job.
A lot of good in that show. Makes you wonder what could have been done differently.
A lot of the songs really grew on me, leaving me to wonder if they were just as good as many of the songs from the hit shows, but that they just didn't get heard enough, or if I would react the same way to the other R & H non-hit shows if I just listened to them enough. Familiarity.
Actually, I also really like the 1982 film Cannery Row, which puts me in a minority. Nick Nolte and Debra Winger starred, before they were major stars, and Audra Lindley was Fauna. The hidden star of the film was John Huston, who was the laconic narrator.
Posted: 11/12/15 at 11:35am
I find a lot of the post-KING AND I scores plodding and pedestrian (mostly on Rodgers' part), but I do think "I Am Going to Like it Here" from FLOWER DRUM SONG is lovely, and a very inventive experiment of a lyric. (Hammerstein wrote a "Pantoum", an Indian form of poetry, which he tried to use in ALLEGRO, but eventually cut.)
Posted: 11/12/15 at 11:59am
A Fellow Needs a Girl from Allegro.
The Man I Used To Be from Pipe Dream.
Updated On: 11/12/15 at 11:59 AM
Posted: 11/13/15 at 1:41am
It has always puzzled me that R & H between 1943 and 1951 produced four of their "big five" in which almost every song became a "standard," but in the last nine years of their collaboration (excluding Sound of Music right now), so few of their songs reached that status. "I Enjoy Being a Girl" and "No Other Love," from which the melody was taken from Rodgers score from the World War II documentary Victory at Sea had to be dug up to be featured as hit songs from that period.
Maybe they were just burned out after three decades of writing musicals. It is still hard to believe that the same Richard Rodgers wrote "The Lady is a Tramp" and "Climb Every Mountain."
I consider Sound of Music to be a last return to greatness in their last show, ended by Hammerstein's death. Others think that it is too saccharin. The last song for which Oscar ever wrote the lyrics, as he was literally dying, "Edelweiss", is so sweet and lovely that many think it is Austria's national song.
Posted: 11/13/15 at 1:53am
Another vote for "So Far" from Allegro.
Posted: 11/13/15 at 8:34am
I've always loved "Boys and Girls Like You and Me," which was cut from Oklahoma! but made it into some stage versions of Cinderella. Also "There's Music in You" from Cinderella's Broadway production just moves me to tears every time- it holds a personal significance...
Posted: 11/13/15 at 10:13am
I do really enjoy "Boys and Girls Like You and Me", and even though it wasn't a favourite of Oscar Hammerstein, I do really like "An Ordinary Couple" from The Sound of Music.
Posted: 11/13/15 at 11:07am
The Next Time It Happens from Pipe Dream
Posted: 11/13/15 at 11:21am
OlBlueEyes said: "It has always puzzled me that R & H between 1943 and 1951 produced four of their "big five" in which almost every song became a "standard," but in the last nine years of their collaboration (excluding Sound of Music right now), so few of their songs reached that status.
Maybe they were just burned out after three decades of writing musicals. It is still hard to believe that the same Richard Rodgers wrote "The Lady is a Tramp" and "Climb Every Mountain." I consider Sound of Music to be a last return to greatness in their last show, ended by Hammerstein's death
I agree with you completely about the mystery of the gap in genius musicals between King and I in 1951(loved loved loved the new revival) and Sound of music in 1959 (also agree this is a fantastic musical). Would love to know what was going in in their lives during that period
Of course they did do cinderella for tv, and the recent revival of that show was also fantastic and made me look more seriously at this work as a really well written musical as well. Ive never seen flower drum song performed(the movie was awful) and in listening to the OCR revival with Lea Salonga, started to appreciate this show more and would like to see a new revival by bartlett sher that may finally polish it up to show its best side as well
I study genius in one of my businesses, and its a funny thing, It can run in streaks, stop suddenly, and never return, or return many years later. Stephen Schwartz went 31 years between Pippin and Wicked, after having three hit shows running concurrently on broadway (with Godspell and Magic Show)
Thats why im enjoying this thread and my research right now, mining for gems by R&H during this eight year period...
thanks for your great contributions
What are your favorite Sinatra renditions of R&H songs?
Are you enjoying Sinatra at 100 as much as I am? (the HBO special was awesome!!!)
Posted: 11/13/15 at 7:14pm
Since we're including songs from THE SOUND OF MUSIC (surely one of their major hits), I feel it's fair to list "Many a New Day", a song well-known to OKLAHOMA! album lovers but not covered to death as a single. The final four lines:
"Many a new day will dawn,
Many a red sun will set,
Many a blue moon will shine
Before I do."
...is Oscar Hammerstein at his most poetic, yet still true to action and character. I'm not big on legit sopranos, so it took me awhile to appreciate the song; but in a way it's like "In Buddy's Eyes" -- all the more moving because we know the character is partially lying.
"It Might as Well Be Spring" is one of the greatest songs ever written by anybody, so I don't know how it can be included here. My favorite version comes from a young Ann-Margret, sitting in a rocking chair and singing the song simply for a Hollywood screen test that is probably on YouTube.
Updated On: 11/13/15 at 07:14 PM
Posted: 11/13/15 at 7:25pm
broadwaysfguy, Oscar Hammerstein wrote the book and lyrics for ROSE-MARIE, SUNNY, DESERT SONG and SHOW BOAT (the latter considered one of the greatest musicals of all time, of course) and then had a couple of minor hits and a lot of flops throughout the late 1920s and all of the 30s. He and Kern had a popular, but "old-fashioned", hit with VERY WARM FOR MAY in 1940; and then Hammerstein with Rodgers blew up Broadway with OKLAHOMA! in 1943.
After the overwhelming initial response to OKLAHOMA!, Hammerstein took out a full page ad in VARIETY that listed all his flops with the following message at the bottom: "I've done it before and I can do it again."
So I think he understood very well your idea of genius arriving in streaks. (It's also fair point out that Hammerstein was a producer of the works of others and even a director for some shows, so it may have been that he was just busy, not blocked. Managing the umpteen productions and revivals of what we are calling "the Big Five" would be a full-time job for most people.)
Updated On: 11/13/15 at 07:25 PM
Posted: 11/13/15 at 8:08pm
hi gavestonPS
Far point about Hammerstein may have just been super busy doing all the follow up those successes bring
Genius coming in streaks isnt my idea, its well established from modelling very successful people
The length and breadth of hammersteins career and impact on musical theatre is extraordinary.
Would love to see professional productions of some of these musicals from the 1920s and 1930s which mostly do not have cast recordings
thanks for the tip on ann margrets might as well be spring...ill look for it!
ive just compiled my 100 favorite rodgers and hammerstein songs playlist based on everyones suggestions and my own listening...will be accessing this a LOT
Posted: 11/14/15 at 7:31pm
I'm a little surprised at the lack of love for Flower Drum Song. Maybe it's because I grew up with it but, while I'd never call the show GREAT, I find the score charming and sometimes beautiful pretty much from start to finish.
Posted: 11/14/15 at 9:30pm
Maybe it's the fault of the film version, Eric. I'm sure I'm not the only one who knows FLOWER DRUM SONG mostly from seeing the movie. My husband loves the show, but it was one of the first stage musicals he ever saw.
Posted: 11/14/15 at 9:52pm
I haven't seen the film since I first got seriously into musicals--so prob on VHS when I was 11 or 12, but I already knew the cast album by heart. In that book about Flower Drum Song (blanking on the title--it talks about the various versions including the revisal,) the author DOES say that he feels the film has hampered opinions of the original show feeling that it plays up the stereotypes and other elements--although they do use much of the same cast IIRC (but it is a Ross Hunter production--he's not known for his sublety or for his musicals--witness Lost Horizon...)
The 15 minute Ed Sullivan segment of it is charming though--especially Carol Haney's complete Sunday fantasy ballet (her choreography was not used in the movie--) though I think youtube currently only has the I Enjoy Being a Girl performance clipped out of that full segment.
Posted: 11/14/15 at 10:21pm
Flower Drum Song is not exactly a world beater, which was most certainly intentional and the reason it is usually held in less regard, but the score is beautiful and flawless. Many feel "The Big Five" should be changed to "The Big Six".
Posted: 11/15/15 at 12:45pm
Now I'm going to have to get the OBC for Flower Drum Song and listen to it at least ten times to see if it grabs me.
I saw Rodgers in an old clip of a television appearance, (maybe Ed Sullivan) He gave everyone a little lesson in composing by sitting at the piano, relaying the words from the second line of "It Might As Well Be Spring" -- I'm as restless as a puppet on a string -- and then playing the melody on the piano to show everyone how the music jumping up and down fit the lyrics perfectly.Sinatra is really better known for Rodgers and Hart: "The Lady is a Tramp," "Where or When," "It Never Entered My Mind," "Dancing on the Ceiling," Spring is Here" and "I Wish I Were in Love Again."
Some wonder whether Rodgers and Hart helped to make Sinatra or Sinatra helped to make Rodgers and Hart so timeless by recording so much of their work. Sinatra would record any popular song, even if it were owned by another performer of the other sex. Two of the great songs that Judy Garland sang, with heartbreaking sincerity, were "Little Girl Blue" from Jumbo and "The Man That Got Away" from the remake of A Star is Born. Sinatra was not phased at all by this and soon recorded his versions with "man" replaced by "gal."
At the climax to the MGM biopic on Jerome Kern, Sinatra sang "Ol' Man River." A young skinny white kid with nothing resembling a bass voice. I thought it was awful. Paul Robeson? But Sinatra respected the hell out of that song and continue to sing it in concerts until he did a reasonably creditable version.
I'm hoping to get my centennial satisfaction at the New York Philharmonic's production of "SINATRA" Voice for a Century on December 3rd.
The eclectic line up of talent includes Bernadette Peters, Sutton Foster, Sting, Christina Aguilera, Chris Botti and Seth MacFarlane.
Updated On: 11/17/15 at 12:45 PM
Posted: 11/15/15 at 12:59pm
"The Tide Pool" from PIPE DREAM...a refreshingly cynical lyric from Hammerstein, especially compared to "All Kinds Of People" from the same show.
Posted: 11/15/15 at 3:20pm
wow ol blue eyes
the sinatra ny phil celebration sounds incredible. wish i could be there!!!
I just did my own top 100 sinatra songs. do you have your own top 100?
I also am doing a much deeper listen to Flower drum song
I think the revival with Lea salonga runs circles around the original cast recording, and has more modern production and recording quality, so you may want to fall in love with FDS with this recording, and lets hope for a revival since its been 20 years+
Posted: 11/15/15 at 7:12pm
Sinatra may have been instrumental in making his generation aware of Rodgers and Hart (just as Linda Ronstadt later did for Baby Boomers), but Rodgers and Hart were among the most successful songwriters in the country nearly 20 years before Sinatra hit it big in the early 1940s. By then, Hart was dead.
This is not to say Rodgers and Sinatra didn't make a lot of money for each other. They did.
Posted: 11/15/15 at 8:08pm
There are recordings of Music in the Air the Kern and Hammerstein and while not deep in subject matter, creatively continues some of Show Boat's innovations. Well worth hearing. Unfortunately I don't think the best recording made with the Encores cast is commercially available
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