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Darling of the Day (musical)
Encyclopedia
Darling of the Day is a musical
with a book by Nunnally Johnson
, lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, and music by Jule Styne
. It is based on Arnold Bennett
's novel Buried Alive and his play The Great Adventure. The show closed after only 31 performances on Broadway
in 1968.
run was plagued by difficulties, with three directors and five librettists attempting to resolve perceived problems.
The musical finally reached New York City
where, following three previews, it opened on January 27, 1968 at the George Abbott Theatre and closed after only 31 performances. Choreography was by Lee Theodore, staging by Noel Willman, scenic design by Oliver Smith
, costumes by Raoul Pene Du Bois
, and lighting by Peggy Clark. Johnson, upset with all the changes, demanded his name be removed from the credits. The musical starred Vincent Price
(in his first and only Broadway musical) as Priam Farll and Patricia Routledge
as Alice Challice. Also featured were Brenda Forbes and Peter Woodthorpe
. Routledge won the 1968 Tony Award
for Best Actress in a Musical. Reviews were mixed. The show was Price's first singing role since the 1940 film The House of Seven Gables. Price had once been a member of the Yale Glee Club and proved to have an adequate singing voice. Harburg and Styne considered the piece their best work.
An original cast recording was released by RCA Victor.
Attempts at major revival have made little headway, although there have been several staged concerts and one fully staged revised version. 42nd Street Moon in San Francisco, California, presented the musical as a staged concert in 1994. The York Theatre Company, in New York, presented the musical in two staged concerts, in 1998 and 2005. Their 2005 concert starred Beth Fowler
, Rebecca Luker
, Simon Jones and Stephen Mo Hanan. Light Opera Works
, in Evanston
, Illinois, presented a fully staged version in 2005 revised by Erik Haagensen based on his earlier work for the York Theatre Company concerts. This was the first complete staged production since the musical closed on Broadway..
In 2010, the London Discovering Lost Musicals series presented the show in concert at the Oondatje Wing Theatre - National Portrait Gallery, starring Nicholas Jones
as Priam and Louise Gold
as Alice.
hood.
Appalled by "society's" expectations of its "darling of the day" (a common Victorian
/Edwardian term meaning something like "fashionable celebrity
") Farll seizes the chance to "get out of the world alive" when his faithful butler
Henry Leek suddenly dies, and their identities are confused by an official. Instead of correcting the error, Farll quietly assumes the identity
of the deceased, and Leek's corpse is officially buried in Westminster Abbey
as the famous artist.
He soon finds himself married to Alice Challice, a bright, well-to-do widow who had been corresponding with the real Henry Leek - and settles down to a happy "upper working class" existence. Farll continues to paint, and when his wife runs into financial difficulties he sells a few paintings. Complications naturally ensue, and his "cover" becomes increasingly flimsy. Just as it looks as if he will be compelled to resume his real identity, a piece of truly Gilbertian
nonsense brings all to a satisfactory conclusion, and he is allowed to stay plain Henry Leek after all.
Act II
Walter Kerr
wrote that "the score is one of the very best Jule Styne has ever composed for the theater", that Harburg's "lyrics are much more fun than the cloddish rhyming we're accustomed to" and the book "is full of pleasant surprises." He praised Routledge:"the most spectacular, most scrumptious, most embraceable musical comedy debut since Beatrice Lillie and Gertrude Lawrence came to this country as a package."
According to theatre writer and historian John Kenrick
, many critics felt that Vincent Price was "woefully miscast". There was, however, unanimous praise for Routledge. The book is criticized as having a "hopelessly silly plot and an endlessly chatty libretto..." but "the score is a lost musical gem that is well worth hearing".
Kenrick wrote that "One can only hope that this all too brief run will inspire someone in the New York area to give this show the fully staged revival it richly deserves."
Ethan Mordden
wrote that Vincent Price was blamed by some for the failure of the show; however, "he played the role quite well and even held his own in eight numbers." The score was blamed by others: "...it hasn't one potential hit...It's halfway back to operetta, and this was not a time that admired the style." Finally, wrote Mordden, "It needed a strong director. It needed a director, period."
Alice Chalice – Louise Gold
,
Priam Farll – Nicholas Jones
,
Clive Oxford – Michael Roberts,
Henry Leek/ Pennington – Paul Stewart,
Lady Vale – Vivienne Martin,
Cabby/ Constable/ Mrs Leek – Myra Sands,
Doctor/ Bert – Lee William-Davis,
Daphne – Nicola Bryan,
Alf – Adam Dutton,
Rosey – Cristin Curtin,
Sydney/ Judge – Michael Storrs,
Duncan Farll – Chris Stanton,
Attendant – Emma Hatton
Mark Warman – Musical Director & piano
Ian Marshall Fisher – Director
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
with a book by Nunnally Johnson
Nunnally Johnson
Nunnally Hunter Johnson was an American filmmaker who wrote, produced, and directed motion pictures.Johnson was born in Columbus, Georgia. He began his career as a journalist, writing for the Columbus Enquirer Sun, the Savannah Press, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and the New York Herald Tribune...
, lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, and music by Jule Styne
Jule Styne
Jule Styne was a British-born American songwriter especially famous for a series of Broadway musicals, which included several very well known and frequently revived shows.-Early life:...
. It is based on Arnold Bennett
Arnold Bennett
- Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the...
's novel Buried Alive and his play The Great Adventure. The show closed after only 31 performances on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in 1968.
Production history
In spite of a score still admired by many critics, the show's pre-BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
run was plagued by difficulties, with three directors and five librettists attempting to resolve perceived problems.
The musical finally reached New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where, following three previews, it opened on January 27, 1968 at the George Abbott Theatre and closed after only 31 performances. Choreography was by Lee Theodore, staging by Noel Willman, scenic design by Oliver Smith
Oliver Smith
Oliver Prince Smith was a General in the United States Marine Corps and a highly decorated combat veteran of World War II and the Korean War...
, costumes by Raoul Pene Du Bois
Raoul Pene Du Bois
Raoul Pene Du Bois was an American costume designer and scenic designer for the stage and film. He was nominated for two Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction.-Career:...
, and lighting by Peggy Clark. Johnson, upset with all the changes, demanded his name be removed from the credits. The musical starred Vincent Price
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
(in his first and only Broadway musical) as Priam Farll and Patricia Routledge
Patricia Routledge
Katherine Patricia Routledge, CBE is an English character comedy actress and singer. She is best known for her role as character Hyacinth Bucket in the British television series Keeping Up Appearances and Hetty Wainthropp in the British television series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates...
as Alice Challice. Also featured were Brenda Forbes and Peter Woodthorpe
Peter Woodthorpe
Peter Woodthorpe was an English film, television and voice actor who is best known for supplying the voice of Gollum in the 1978 Bakshi version of The Lord of the Rings and BBC's 1981 radio serial...
. Routledge won the 1968 Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for Best Actress in a Musical. Reviews were mixed. The show was Price's first singing role since the 1940 film The House of Seven Gables. Price had once been a member of the Yale Glee Club and proved to have an adequate singing voice. Harburg and Styne considered the piece their best work.
An original cast recording was released by RCA Victor.
Attempts at major revival have made little headway, although there have been several staged concerts and one fully staged revised version. 42nd Street Moon in San Francisco, California, presented the musical as a staged concert in 1994. The York Theatre Company, in New York, presented the musical in two staged concerts, in 1998 and 2005. Their 2005 concert starred Beth Fowler
Beth Fowler
Beth Fowler is an American actress and singer.Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Fowler was a teacher with a fondness for Broadway theatre when she decided to audition for Gantry in 1970. She was signed for the chorus and as understudy for the lead, but the show unfortunately closed on opening night...
, Rebecca Luker
Rebecca Luker
Rebecca Luker is an American musical theatre actress and soprano who has appeared in several prominent Broadway productions.-Life and career:...
, Simon Jones and Stephen Mo Hanan. Light Opera Works
Light Opera Works
Light Opera Works is a resident professional not-for-profit musical theatre company in Evanston, Illinois. It was founded in 1980 by Philip Kraus, Bridget McDonough , and Ellen Dubinsky....
, in Evanston
Evanston
Evanston may refer to locations:in Australia:* Evanston, South Australiain Canada:* Evanston, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Calgary, Alberta* Evanston, Nova Scotiain the United States:...
, Illinois, presented a fully staged version in 2005 revised by Erik Haagensen based on his earlier work for the York Theatre Company concerts. This was the first complete staged production since the musical closed on Broadway..
In 2010, the London Discovering Lost Musicals series presented the show in concert at the Oondatje Wing Theatre - National Portrait Gallery, starring Nicholas Jones
Nicholas Jones (actor)
Nicholas Jones is an English character actor. His older sister is actress Gemma Jones. They are the children of actor Griffith Jones....
as Priam and Louise Gold
Louise Gold
Louise Gold is an English singer, actress and puppeteer whose career has spanned almost four decades.From 1977, Gold was a puppeteer and voice actress for The Muppet Show and Sesame Street, and she has performed voice and puppet work on various other Muppet films and specials...
as Alice.
Synopsis
In 1905 London, Priam Farll is an artist, brilliant, unconventional and shy, although he can be violently outspoken. He once offended Queen Victoria and was exiled to the South Pacific (shades of Gauguin), but Edward VII has succeeded to the throne, and Farll has been recalled to London to receive a knightKnight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
hood.
Appalled by "society's" expectations of its "darling of the day" (a common Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
/Edwardian term meaning something like "fashionable celebrity
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
") Farll seizes the chance to "get out of the world alive" when his faithful butler
Butler
A butler is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its...
Henry Leek suddenly dies, and their identities are confused by an official. Instead of correcting the error, Farll quietly assumes the identity
Identity (social science)
Identity is a term used to describe a person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations . The term is used more specifically in psychology and sociology, and is given a great deal of attention in social psychology...
of the deceased, and Leek's corpse is officially buried in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
as the famous artist.
He soon finds himself married to Alice Challice, a bright, well-to-do widow who had been corresponding with the real Henry Leek - and settles down to a happy "upper working class" existence. Farll continues to paint, and when his wife runs into financial difficulties he sells a few paintings. Complications naturally ensue, and his "cover" becomes increasingly flimsy. Just as it looks as if he will be compelled to resume his real identity, a piece of truly Gilbertian
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
nonsense brings all to a satisfactory conclusion, and he is allowed to stay plain Henry Leek after all.
Song list
Act I- Mad For Art
- He's A Genius
- To Get Out Of This World Alive
- It's Enough To Make A Lady Fall In Love
- A Gentleman's Gentleman
- Double Soliloquy
- Let's See What Happens
- Panache
- I've Got A Rainbow Working For Me
- Money, Money, Money
- That Something Extra Special
Act II
- What Makes a Marriage Merry
- He's A Genius (Reprise)
- Not On Your Nellie
- Sunset Tree
- Butler In The Abbey
- Not On Your Nellie (Reprise)
Response
The New York Times review called the musical bland and stale, but praised Routledge, who "...really can sing." "The high point of 'Darling of the Day' is a thumping good production number in the local pub ("Not on Your Nellie") in which Miss Routledge, somewhat sozzled, kicks up her heels with a bunch of the boys." Price plays with "friendly blandness...he sings, too, and not badly." The score is as slight as it is consonant."Walter Kerr
Walter Kerr
For the RN admiral see Lord Walter KerrWalter Francis Kerr was an American writer and Broadway theater critic. He also was the writer, lyricist, and/or director of several Broadway plays and musicals.-Biography:...
wrote that "the score is one of the very best Jule Styne has ever composed for the theater", that Harburg's "lyrics are much more fun than the cloddish rhyming we're accustomed to" and the book "is full of pleasant surprises." He praised Routledge:"the most spectacular, most scrumptious, most embraceable musical comedy debut since Beatrice Lillie and Gertrude Lawrence came to this country as a package."
According to theatre writer and historian John Kenrick
John Kenrick (theatre writer)
John Kenrick is an American author, teacher and theatre and film historian. Kenrick is an adjunct teacher of musical theatre history at New York University, Brind School – University of the Arts and The New School, and lectures frequently on the subject elsewhere...
, many critics felt that Vincent Price was "woefully miscast". There was, however, unanimous praise for Routledge. The book is criticized as having a "hopelessly silly plot and an endlessly chatty libretto..." but "the score is a lost musical gem that is well worth hearing".
Kenrick wrote that "One can only hope that this all too brief run will inspire someone in the New York area to give this show the fully staged revival it richly deserves."
Ethan Mordden
Ethan Mordden
Ethan Mordden is an American author.-Biography:Mordden was raised in Pennsylvania, in Venice, Italy, and on Long Island, and is a graduate of Friends Academy in Locust Valley, New York, and the University of Pennsylvania...
wrote that Vincent Price was blamed by some for the failure of the show; however, "he played the role quite well and even held his own in eight numbers." The score was blamed by others: "...it hasn't one potential hit...It's halfway back to operetta, and this was not a time that admired the style." Finally, wrote Mordden, "It needed a strong director. It needed a director, period."
Cast and crew of 2010 revival
Complete cast list includesAlice Chalice – Louise Gold
Louise Gold
Louise Gold is an English singer, actress and puppeteer whose career has spanned almost four decades.From 1977, Gold was a puppeteer and voice actress for The Muppet Show and Sesame Street, and she has performed voice and puppet work on various other Muppet films and specials...
,
Priam Farll – Nicholas Jones
Nicholas Jones (actor)
Nicholas Jones is an English character actor. His older sister is actress Gemma Jones. They are the children of actor Griffith Jones....
,
Clive Oxford – Michael Roberts,
Henry Leek/ Pennington – Paul Stewart,
Lady Vale – Vivienne Martin,
Cabby/ Constable/ Mrs Leek – Myra Sands,
Doctor/ Bert – Lee William-Davis,
Daphne – Nicola Bryan,
Alf – Adam Dutton,
Rosey – Cristin Curtin,
Sydney/ Judge – Michael Storrs,
Duncan Farll – Chris Stanton,
Attendant – Emma Hatton
Mark Warman – Musical Director & piano
Ian Marshall Fisher – Director