ENCHANTED EVENINGS ENCHANTED EVENINGS The Broadway Musical from Show Boat to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber SECOND EDITION Geoffrey Block Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 1997, 2009 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Block, Geoffrey Holden, 1948– Enchanted evenings: the Broadway musical from Show Boat to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber / Geoffrey Block.—2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-538400-0 (pbk.) 1. Musicals—New York (State)—New York—History and criticism. I. Title. ML1711.8.N3B56 2009 782.1′4097471—dc22 2009003980 Visit the companion website at: www.oup.com/us/enchantedevenings 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper First Edition To the beloved memory of JOHN EASTBURN BOSWELL (“JEB”), 1947–1994 Best friend, best man, Godfather to Jessamyn and (in spirit) to Eliza Second Edition To the memory of my beloved parents RUTH BLOCK (1913–2007) AND STANLEY BLOCK (1906–2008) Devoted wife and husband to each other, in-laws to Jacqueline, and grandparents to Jessamyn and Eliza CONTENTS Preface to the First Edition A New Preface Acknowledgments Using the Enchanted Evenings Website www.oup.com/us/enchantedevenings Overture 1. Introduction: Setting the Stage Act I: Before Rodgers and Hammerstein 2. Show Boat: In the Beginning 3. Anything Goes: Songs Ten, Book Three 4. Porgy and Bess: Broadway Opera 5. On Your Toes and Pal Joey: Dance Gets into the Act and “Sweet Water from a Foul Well” 6. The Cradle Will Rock: A Labor Musical for Art’s Sake 7. Lady in the Dark and One Touch of Venus: The Broadway Stranger and His American Dreams 8. Stage versus Screen (1): Before Rodgers and Hammerstein Act II: The Broadway Musical after Oklahoma! 9. Carousel: The Invasion of the Integrated Musical 10. Kiss Me, Kate: The Taming of Cole Porter 11. Guys and Dolls and The Most Happy Fella: The Greater Loesser 12. My Fair Lady: From Pygmalion to Cinderella 13. West Side Story: The Very Model of a Major Musical 14. Stage versus Screen (2): After Oklahoma! Epilogue: The Age of Sondheim and Lloyd Webber 15. Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Sunday in the Park with George: Happily Ever After West Side Story with Sondheim 16. The Phantom of the Opera: The Reigning Champion of Broadway Selected Bibliography Index Available online at www.oup.com/us/enchantedevenings Synopses Discography and Filmography: Selected Original, Revival, Film, and Studio Casts Appendix A: Sources, Published Librettos, and Vocal Scores Appendix B: Long Runs: Decade by Decade 1920s–2000s Appendix C: The Forty Longest-Running Musicals on Broadway 1920–1959 and 1920–2008 Appendix D: Show Boat: 1927–1994 Broadway 1927 Principal Changes in Selected Stage Productions and Films (1928–1994) Manuscript Sources for Ravenal’s Entrance and Meeting with Magnolia Appendix E: Anything Goes: 1934, 1962, and 1987 Broadway 1934 Off-Broadway Revival 1962 Vivian Beaumont Revival 1987 Appendix F: Porgy and Bess: Songs, Arias, and Themes (1935) Appendix G: On Your Toes: Broadway 1936 and Broadway Revival 1983 Appendix H: Pal Joey: Broadway 1940 and Broadway Revival 1952 Appendix I: The Cradle Will Rock (1937) Appendix J: Lady in the Dark (1941) Appendix K: One Touch of Venus (1943) Appendix L: Carousel (1945) Appendix M: Kiss Me, Kate (1948) Spewack Libretto Draft (May 28, 1948) Appendix N: Guys and Dolls (1950) Appendix O: The Most Happy Fella (1956) Appendix P: My Fair Lady (1956) Appendix Q: West Side Story (1957) Libretto Drafts 1 (January 1956) and 2 (Spring 1956) Appendix R: Follies: Broadway 1971 and London Revival 1987 Broadway 1971 London Revival 1987 Appendix S: Sweeney Todd (1979) Thematic Reminiscences in Sweeney Todd Final Sequence Beginning with “City of Fire!” Appendix T: Sunday in the Park with George (1984) Appendix U: The Phantom of the Opera (1988) Outline of The Phantom of the Opera, Act I, Scenes 5 and 6 Outline of The Phantom of the Opera, Act II, Scene 7 Notes PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION In many ways the preparation of this book brings me back to my childhood, where Rodgers and Hammerstein as well as Bach and Beethoven were frequent and compatible visitors. I cannot remember a time when my father, a professional jazz violinist and part-time lawyer (before he metamorphosed into a full-time attorney and part-time classical violinist), was not playing Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes” on the piano, invariably in the key of E . Like many Americans in the 1950s, our family record library included the heavy shellac 78 R.P.M. boxed album of South Pacific with Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza and the lighter 33 R.P.M. cast album of Carousel with Jan Clayton and John Raitt. A major event was the arrival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! and South Pacific in their newly released film versions. Keeping in tune with Rodgers and Hammerstein mania, I played every note and memorized many words of the songs contained in The Rodgers and Hammerstein Song Book and read Hammerstein’s librettos in the (then) readily obtainable Modern Library edition of Six Plays by Rodgers & Hammerstein.1 My family was one of the eighteen million to purchase the cast album of My Fair Lady, and my sister quickly mastered the dialect and memorized the lyrics for all the roles. With the dawn of the stereo era in the late 1950s, we purchased The Music Man to test out our new portable KLH record player.2 My parents, transplanted New Yorkers who settled near San Francisco, would see the traveling versions of Broadway shows, and by the early 1960s they began to take their offspring along. Musicals created before the era of Rodgers and Hammerstein and Lerner and Loewe were less known. Only
