Your Daily Showtune: From the Miss Clairol Collection

Another jingle I learned before the song.

Song: "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair"
Show: South Pacific
Music: Richard Rodgers
Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II

This has been your daily showtune.

OK! at 65

Sixty-five years ago tonight, Oklahoma! opened at the St. James on Broadway and musical theatre was never the same again. Eveyone who has ever been connected with theatre in one way or another probably has an Oklahoma! story. Our high school did the show when I was eleven, and I vividly remember watching the cast perform a sneak preview of "The Farmer and the Cowman" and "All 'Er Nuthin'" at a choral concert in a gymnasium. I saw the complete show when it actually went up and can still close my eyes and see the staging of "Kansas City," the dream ballet at the end of the first act," and "It's a Scandal! It's an Outrage!" I remember being disappointed when I saw the movie and the latter wasn't in it.

In 1993, to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary, Agnes de Mille (who died later that year) appeared on the Tony Awards. Gregory Hines - who has also left us - brought her on stage in her wheelchair. She got a standing ovation and then read a speech about the show that has stayed with me ever since. Last year, I got out my tape of the '93 Tonys (which has sadly not weathered the test of time very well) so I could hear that lovely speech again, which I have transcribed below. Enjoy.

Rodgers and Hammerstein gave us their tale of a light and brilliant calibre that has not been surpassed. And yet, Oklahoma!! was not a hit opening night. I was there. I've been present at hits, and this wasn't one. The audience was the regular Theatre Guild opening night: Spotty. Dull. Jaded. [this got an enormous laugh] I had eight front row balcony seats and I couldn't fill them. And the [advance] press wasn't that good, it was - mixed.

Four days later, I found myself in the middle of a volcano. 'What happened?' A New York reporter told me, 'The biggest hit of the twentieth century!' And I believe, taking into consideration all its translations and international companies and recordings, it still is.

But what's its appeal? First, of course, its extraordinary score. But then the subject, which is the love of our native land. Home. Roots. During the war, I remember the triple row of enlisted men standing every night at the back of the theater, pitched and laughing at this pleasant comedy. Standing and watching with their tears streaming down their cheeks. They were going out to die. And this play meant what they were dying for. This was home.

Oklahoma.

New York, Oregon, Utah, Texas, Georgia, Vermont, Oklahoma. Home.

Home. O.K.

Hundreds of Broadway musicals have come and gone in the past 65 years. Some have had an extraordinary impact on the form, but there has never been another Oklahoma!

Yeeow!

Brisk, lively, merry and bright

We spin and we spin and we spin and we spin,
Playing a game no one can win.

I've had a lot on my mind lately. A couple of things in my life may be in for some major changes, and I think that this sense of suspended animation is having a domino effect on my unconscious, stirring up a lot of other neuroses in turn.

I'd like to go into everything that's bothering me. I'd fucking love to go into everything that's bothering me, but part of the problem is that, despite the insomnia, I don't have enough time to do anything. So you're going to have to settle for this incredibly - and increasingly - vague post. In a week, I'll probably re-read it and not know what the hell it is I meant. Or at least I would if I ever re-read any journal entry in any of the various diaries I've kept in my life. But I don't.

Last night, while trying to fall asleep, I found myself rationalizing my love of musical theatre. Or maybe it was this morning on the train. I have no idea. One of the conclusions I came to was the abundance of truths to be found in great lyric-writing. The above is a perfect example of how I've been feeling lately. It's from the title song of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Allegro (1947) (the title of this post comes from same.) The spinning isn't just the chaos of living, but the cycle of life, the spinning of the globe on its axis and around the sun. Calling life "a game no one can win" reveals a cynicism not usually found in the work of Hammerstein.

He revisited this same idea in The Sound of Music (1959). In the show, Max and Baroness Schrader have two songs that were both cut from the film. In "No Way to Stop It," Elsa and Max explain to Georg their laissez-faire philosophy towards life, politics and, um, the Nazis:*

MAX
While somersaulting at a cock-eyed angle,
We make a cock-eyed circle 'round the sun.
And when we circle back to where we've started from,
Another year has done.

And there's no way to stop it.
No, there's no way to stop it,
If the earth wants to roll around the sun.
You're a fool if you worry.
You're a fool if you worry
Over anything but little number one.*

The same world, still spinning, and there's not a damn thing we can do about it. It's the polar opposite of the cock-eyed Nellie Forbush's sang about in South Pacific. Both can exist and should, in the same world and in the same person.

Of course, theory and practice are nodding acquaintances at best.



*The other song, "How Can Love Survive," is a droll number about Georg and Elsa's relationship being doomed from the start because they're both rich and therefore have nothing to overcome. (Elsa: "You're fond of bonds and you own a lot. / I have a plain and a diesel yacht. / Max: Plenty of nothing you haven't got. / Both: How can love survive?) Buy the cast recording.

Showtunes of the Day: February 18, 2008

The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart: 1967. Haley, these Chocodiles, Oh my God. These Chocodiles, Oh my God. Oh my God, Haley, these Chocodiles.

George M!: 1968 original Broadway cast (Cohan): It goes well with Don't Know Much About History, the book I'm reading. It's no secret that we did horrible things to the Native Americans when we got here, but what everyone conveniently forgets is that they were totally stealing cable. Also, it has Bernadette Peters.

Company: 2001 Brazilian cast. (Sondheim) I don't speak a word of Portugeuse. And yet, I know that the actress playing Amy overplayed the "suicide note" line in "Getting Married Today." Yes, dear, your chatacter is neurotic. We get it.

Now if only I could get my hands on Diana Ross and The Supremes Sing and Perform Funny Girl...

Showtunes of the Yesterday

I tried listening to the non-existent live recording of the 2001 Encores! A Connecticut Yankee. Didn't really work. I don't know the script at all, and couldn't pay attention to the dialogue since, y'know, I was working. Eh, bien.

Musicals of the Day

I can listen to my ipod at work, which is pretty danged awesome. With the trading and downloading of OOP cast albums that I don't do because that would be wrong, I've gotten really behind in my show tunes. So, while I theoretically could listen to non-theatre music, I probably won't. Hence, "Musicals of the Day," instead of "On the iPod Today" or "Arts & Crafts with Linnea Quigley."

Pacific Overtures: Original Broadway cast recording (1976, Sondheim) This isn't a new one, I just needed something to wash the taste of the 1987 ENO recording out of my mouth.

The Madwoman of Central Park West: Original Broadway cast (1979, various) The OBC was composed entirely of Phyllis Newman. I've been looking for this one for a long time, so me happy.

State Fair: 1962 Film soundtrack (Rodgers/Hammerstein) Ann-Margret.

Scrooge: Film soundtrack (1970, Bricusse) I listened to this last week, but can't remember a single song, which either means it was really boring, I was actually paying attention to my work, or both. Figured I should give it another whirl before burning and shelving. (update: boring)