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Stagestruck By Peter Filichia
Having Our Say, Darling
He’s speaking of Say, Darling, the 1958 show that played at the ANTA into 1959, but closed in the red. “If you listen to the original cast album,” concedes Armin, “you’d think it was a terrible musical. But those songs that sound so awful are supposed to be awful. That’s part of the fun of the show.” Armin figured it out after he found a hardbound script at the Gryphon Bookshop. “I’ll buy any lost libretto, though, like everybody who collects show albums, I’d always assumed that Say, Darling was bad. Once I started reading, I found that it’s a wonderful three-act comedy. Now Armin’s has decided to stage it. You can see it starting next week at the West End Theater, a space at the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew on 86th near Broadway. “When word got out I was doing it, I got a call from a librettist who asked, ‘Do you need someone to rewrite?’ ‘No,’ “ he stresses. “Abe Burrows, Richard and Marian Bissell wrote a really funny script.” They adapted their libretto from Say, Darling, the novel by Richard Bissell. He’s known to the stagestruck as the co-librettist of The Pajama Game, and the author on 7 1/2 Cents, the novel on which the Adler-Ross musical was based. But Say, Darling, of course, was Bissell’s novel about what it’s like to endure having your novel turned into a musical. “And though,” Armin says, “for years people have assumed that his novel was adapted as another musical, it wasn’t. The songs were orchestrated only for twin pianos, sometimes a bass and guitar. That’s the way they were done in this comedy. “Rudy Lorraine—Johnny Desmond—introduces the songs he’s writing for this new musical. One, ‘It’s Doom,’ is not a big three-minute number like it is on the album, but a quick song just sung once through. Most of the songs aren’t sung more than once through; there’s no ‘musical interlude’ or ‘reprise’ of the last chorus. “‘The Husking Bee’ on the album has all this clapping and dancing, but in the show, it was just a quick joke to end Act One. Richard Hackett—‘the George Abbott character’—says he wants to start the show with a husking bee”—(That does sound like George Abbott, doesn’t it?)—”and because it’s not in his novel, Jack Jordan, the writer—‘the Richard Bissell character’—is opposed. But Rudy Lorraine is already saying, ‘Hey, what a great idea, I can do a hoedown number.’ And while Jack calls his wife to tell her how it’s going, we hear Rudy and the cast in the background working on the song. But that’s all it was.” Armin’s a Say, Darling authority for good reason: His day job is that of Inventory Analyst for BMG, whose RCA Victor division had recorded the cast album. One day he scurried through the masters to see if anything had been recorded but left off the cast album. Alas, no additional songs had been waxed—”but what I did find,” he grins, “is that five introductions were recorded to let you know that these songs are put-ons. Eventually someone decided to leave them off the album, which was a mistake. The listener wasn’t informed that the songs weren’t to be taken seriously.” The first introduction, just before “Try to Love Me,” is started by Robert Morse. (Amazing, when you think that this legendary performance Morse gave as Ted Snow—read Hal Prince—can’t be heard on the cast album, for he had no songs. But had this intro been included, at least we would have heard Morse’s trademark voice state, “Jordan, the score of our show is going to be written by the great Rudy Lorraine.” “Who’s that?” asks Jordan—David Wayne. “What?” booms Horace McMahon (later more famous as a Naked City detective), “you never heard of Rudy Lorraine’s big rock ‘n’ roll song hit, ‘Chief of Love?’” “‘Chief of Love,’” explains Armin, “is a song title that Richard Bissell invented in the novel. The joke is that it’s supposed to be the worst song of all time.” (Though, as we can all attest, it has been eclipsed many times.) “In the scene where Jack Jordan first comes to the office, they play Rudy’s recording of ‘Chief of Love.’ Hackett cringes, because he absolutely hates it. He’s assured that this is not representative of what Rudy will write. But later, when big star Irene Lavelle comes in to audition for them, they ask, ‘What are you going to sing, Irene?’ and she responds, ‘I’m no fool, I’m going to sing Rudy Lorraine’s big hit song ‘Chief of Love.’ That’s another unreleased intro. “Anyway, when the show was in Philadelphia, Sid Ramin was called in to do a full orchestration just for the album. Though he did wonderful work, it was severely damaging to the show, as he’ll tell you today. It’s given us all the impression that this was a full-fledged musical.” And who knew that one song on the Say, Darling album isn’t a Styne-Comden-Green song? Armin and Religious fundamentalists, that’s who. ‘Let the Lower Lights Be Burning,’” informs Armin, “is an actual hymn. What happens in the show, Jack Jordan is watching auditions, and so distracts the brass that they ask if he wants to sing something. Jack asks the pianist if he knows ‘Let the Lower Lights Be Burning,’ and when he says he does, they do it. But it’s a real hymn. I’ve even heard a 1941 recording that Ozzie Nelson’s Orchestra made of it.” Of course these days, any revival is subject to the whims of the director taking it on. While Armin’s hand will be apparent, he promises that it won’t be heavy. “Jack Jordan won’t smoke.” A sign of the times? “No, we can’t smoke in church. “Although all of the original Say, Darling songs will be preserved, I’ll interpolate from Styne-Comden-Green’s Two on the Aisle three songs that were originally sung by Dolores Gray. ‘If’ and ‘Hold Me, Hold Me, Hold Me’ will be sung by Irene Lovelle, and ‘Give a Little, Get a Little Love’ by Rudy Lorraine.” Armin recently finished casting. “As Jack Jordan, I chose Bill Tatum, who married Karen Ziemba in this very church in which Say, Darling will now play. As Richard Hackett, I cast David Vogel, who was a chorus boy in the original Broadway production of Jule Styne’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. What’s even more interesting is that during the ‘50s, he also worked as a back-up singer on records—including, believe it or not, a Perry Como recording of ‘Dance Only With Me’ from the show.” Turns out that that wasn’t the only cover version of a Say, Darling song. “Dinah Shore did ‘It’s the Second Time You Meet That Matters.’ Tony Martin recorded the title song on one side of a 45, and ‘Try to Love Me’ on the other. Bob Scobey’s Frisco Band, whomever they were, did ‘Something’s Always Happening on the River.’ Jule Styne,” Armin explains, “had it in his contract that the company that recorded his cast album would also have to release five covers of the show’s songs.” And what does Say, Darling mean? Armin clears his throat before answering. “It’s just my theory, you understand, but I have a feeling it’s the parallel song to ‘Hey, There,’ from The Pajama Game. But what I’m sure of is that Bissell’s earlier novel, A Stretch on the River, inspired the musical-within-a-musical that’s being produced in Say, Darling. Hence, ‘Something’s Always Happening on the River.’” Yes, Robert Armin’s given Say, Darling a lot of thought. Call (212) ------- for tickets. Peter Filichia is the New Jersey drama critic for the Star-Ledger. |
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DAILY NEWS • Friday, June 7, 1996 Revival of ‘Say, Darling' Is a Jule In this '58 play, Comden, Green & Styne's songs are the thing By HOWARD KISSEL Daily News Drama Critic SAY, DARLING. Book by Richard Bissell, Abe Burrows and Marian Bissell. Songs by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne. With Bill Tatum, Steve Gibbons, David Vogel, Lynn Bowman, Paul Amodeo and others. Set by Kevin Ash. Directed by Robert Armin. At the West End Theater. AS DIRECTOR ROBERT ARMIN explains in a fascinating program note, the 1958 "Say, Darling" has been undeservedly neglected for nearly 40 years. In part, this stems from a misperception— "Say, Darling," which was subtitled "A Comedy About the Making of a Musical," was precisely that, a play with songs. There aren't enough to make it a full-scale musical, but it wasn't intended to be. The songs that Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne wrote for it, however, are splendid (especially the title number, "It's the Second Time You Meet That Matters," and "Dance Only With Me"). Armin has added a few songs from their equally forgotten revue, "Two on the Aisle," one of which, "If You Hadn't But You Did," is a great novelty number; another, "Give a Little, Get a Little," should have been a standard. The result is very enjoyable. If the comedy doesn't always work, it's because Bill Tatum, who plays a hick who comes to New York to see his novel made into a musical, seems devoid of humor. So does David Vogel, who plays a crusty producer. Paul Amodeo, however, is marvelous as an egotistical composer, and Lynn Bowman is extremely appealing as his ex-wife, an ambitious actress. The action moves fluidly on Kevin Ash's ingenious set, and discovering "new" songs by Comden, Green and Styne makes the evening a pleasure. |
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'Say [G'night], Darling' "Say, Darling," the revival of the comedy with songs by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne, will give its final performances this weekend and Monday at the Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew, 263 W. 86th St. For reservations, call (212) --------. — Howard Kissel
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It
had a script with Abe Burrows’s name on it, music by Jule Styne, and
lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green