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Do Re Mi (musical)
Encyclopedia
Do Re Mi is a musical with music by Jule Styne
, lyrics by Betty Comden
and Adolph Green
, and a book by Garson Kanin
, who also directed the original 1960 Broadway
production. The plot centers on a minor-league con man who decides to go (somewhat) straight by going into the business of juke boxes and music promotion. The musical introduced the popular songs "Cry Like the Wind" and "Make Someone Happy".
Design elements
The musical was notable for its elaborate scenic design by Boris Aronson
, who conceived the set as an enormous pop art
jukebox and used extremely novel forms like collage
in his design. The curtain of juke boxes "evoked a cathedral's stained glass effect." In a scene in a night club, the tables had drawn figures instead of actors, and the actors would talk with these drawings. And in the "Fireworks" number, black light is used to reveal shooting stars and roman candles as Tilda and John's love affair explodes in song.
Act II
on December 26, 1960, transferred to the 54th Street Theatre on December 25, 1961 and closed on January 13, 1962 for a total of 400 performances. Scenic design was by Boris Aronson
, costume design by Irene Sharaff
with assistance from Florence Klotz
, and choreography was by Marc Breaux
and Dee Dee Wood
.
The London West End
production opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre
on October 12, 1961 and ran for 169 performances. It starred Max Bygraves
, Maggie Fitzgibbon
, Steve Arlen and Jan Waters
.
Encores!
at New York's City Center presented a concert version in 1999, starring Nathan Lane
, Brian Stokes Mitchell
, Heather Headley
and Randy Graff
.
The 42nd Street Moon theatre company, San Francisco, California
production ran in August 2001.
was released in January 1961 by RCA. The 1999 Encores! cast recording was released on September 21, 1999 by DRG.
called the musical "fast, loud and occasionally funny." It noted that "a team of expensive talent has turned out some lively songs, set them in motion in feverishly paced production numbers and has managed to overcome, at least part of the time, the cheapness of a machine-made book." It commented that Phil Silvers was cast against type, here playing "the fall guy, the poor sap who ends as the victim.... Betty Comden and Adolph Green have written sprightly lyrics, and Jule Styne has contributed some attractive as well as some ear-shattering tunes. The loveliest is "Cry Like the Wind" which has the keening quality of a folk song of lamentation."
According to Stanley Green, the musical had "an average score that is worth the price just to hear Miss Walker describe her life of 'Adventure'". Ethan Mordden wrote that the song "Adventure" is "one of the grandest comedy songs ever.... Here we learn that she, at least, already knows that it's a wonderful marriage, because it's never boring ... then came a Mad Scene - a bolero complete with trumpets pealing out like the band in the Plaza del Toro on corrida day and woodwinds tripping up the scale with the flash of a hundred capes."
In reviewing the 1999 "Encores!" production for The New York Times, Ben Brantley
wrote that, despite its famous creators, "the show still has the incomplete feeling of a work that never quite meets its own aspirations...A tale of buffoonish gangsters trying to muscle in on the music industry." He further suggested that the show was like a "shotgun marriage" of Bye Bye Birdie and Guys and Dolls with parts of the television sit-com The Honeymooners
.
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:...
, lyrics by Betty Comden
Betty Comden
Betty Comden was one-half of the musical-comedy duo Comden and Green, who provided lyrics, libretti, and screenplays to some of the most beloved and successful Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows of the mid-20th century...
and Adolph Green
Adolph Green
Adolph Green was an American lyricist and playwright who, with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for some of the most beloved movie musicals, particularly as part of Arthur Freed's production unit at MGM, during the genre's heyday...
, and a book by Garson Kanin
Garson Kanin
Garson Kanin was a prolific American writer and director of plays and films.-Film and stage career:...
, who also directed the original 1960 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...
production. The plot centers on a minor-league con man who decides to go (somewhat) straight by going into the business of juke boxes and music promotion. The musical introduced the popular songs "Cry Like the Wind" and "Make Someone Happy".
Synopsis
Hubie Cram is "a loser endlessly scheming to win big." His long-suffering patient wife Kay urges him to "Take a Job," while he plots. He finds three pals, Fatso O'Rear, Brains Berman and Skin Demopoulos, and they scheme to enter the juke-box business ("It's Legitimate"). Soon they have 300 juke-boxes, which they plan on selling to John Henry Wheeler, a record producer. Hubie discovers a naive singer, Tilda Mullen, and they plan their future ("Ambition"). At a fancy nightclub Hubie explains, and demonstrates, gangster's behavior that he learned from watching the Late Late Show. Kay compares her abandoned comfortable existence with the insecurity of life with Hubie ("Adventure"). Tilda and Wheeler fall in love ("Make Someone Happy"). In the end Hubie realizes that he has nothing except a wonderful marriage.Design elements
The musical was notable for its elaborate scenic design by Boris Aronson
Boris Aronson
Boris Aronson was an American scenic designer for Broadway and Yiddish theatre. He won the Tony Award for Scenic Design six times in his career.-Biography:...
, who conceived the set as an enormous pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
jukebox and used extremely novel forms like collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
in his design. The curtain of juke boxes "evoked a cathedral's stained glass effect." In a scene in a night club, the tables had drawn figures instead of actors, and the actors would talk with these drawings. And in the "Fireworks" number, black light is used to reveal shooting stars and roman candles as Tilda and John's love affair explodes in song.
Songs
Act I- "Waiting, Waiting" – Kay Cram
- "All You Need Is a Quarter" – The Swingers
- "Take a Job" – Hubie and Kay Cram
- "It's Legitimate" – Hubie, Fatso O'Rear, Brains Berman, Skin Demopoulos and the Loaders
- "I Know About Love" – John Henry Wheeler
- "The Auditions" – Marsha, Lou and Gretchen
- "Cry Like the Wind" – Tilda Mullen
- "Ambition" – Hubie and Tilda Mullen
- "Success" – The Tilda Mullen Fans, Tilda Mullen, Hubie, Fatso O'Rear, Brains Berman and Skin Demopoulos
- "Fireworks" – Tilda Mullen and John Henry Wheeler
- "What's New at the Zoo" – Tilda Mullen and Animal Girls
- "Asking for You" – John Henry Wheeler
- "The Late, Late Show" – Hubie
Act II
- "Adventure" – Hubie and Kay Cram
- "Make Someone Happy" – John Henry Wheeler and Tilda Mullen
- "Don't Be Ashamed of a Teardrop" – Hubie, Fatso O'Rear, Brains Berman and Skin Demopoulos
- "V.I.P." – The Public and Hubie
- "All of My Life" – Hubie
- Finale – Hubie, Kay Cram and Company
Original Broadway cast
- Hubert Cram – Phil SilversPhil SilversPhil Silvers was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah." He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S...
- Kay Cram – Nancy WalkerNancy WalkerNancy Walker was an American actress and comedienne of stage, screen, and television. She was also a film and television director...
- Brains Berman – David BurnsDavid Burns (actor)David Burns was an American Broadway theatre and motion picture actor and singer.Burns was born on Mott Street in the Manhattan Chinatown of New York City. He made his Broadway debut in Face the Music in 1932, Cole Porter's Nymph Errant was his London debut, and he appeared in many comedies and...
- Tilda Mullen – Nancy Dussault
- Skin Demopoulos – George Givot
- Fatso O'Rear – George MathewsGeorge MathewsGeorge Mathews may refer to:*George Mathews , Governor of Georgia*George Mathews Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court*George A...
- John Henry Wheeler – John Reardon
- Moe Shtarker – Al Lewis
Productions
The show opened on Broadway at the St. James TheatreSt. James Theatre
The St. James Theatre is located at 246 W. 44th St. Broadway, New York City, New York. It was built by Abraham L. Erlanger, theatrical producer and a founding member of the Theatrical Syndicate, on the site of the original Sardi's restaurant. It opened in 1927 as The Erlanger...
on December 26, 1960, transferred to the 54th Street Theatre on December 25, 1961 and closed on January 13, 1962 for a total of 400 performances. Scenic design was by Boris Aronson
Boris Aronson
Boris Aronson was an American scenic designer for Broadway and Yiddish theatre. He won the Tony Award for Scenic Design six times in his career.-Biography:...
, costume design by Irene Sharaff
Irene Sharaff
Irene Sharaff was an American costume designer for stage and screen. Her work earned her five Academy Awards and a Tony Award.- Background :...
with assistance from Florence Klotz
Florence Klotz
Florence Klotz was an American costume designer on Broadway and film.-Biography:Originally named as Kathrina Klotz, she later changed her name to "Florence" and was often nicknamed "Flossie"....
, and choreography was by Marc Breaux
Marc Breaux
Marc Breaux is an American choreographer and occasional film director best known for his work on musical films of the 1960s and 1970s. Most of his well known work was in collaboration with Dee Dee Wood to whom he was married for many years...
and Dee Dee Wood
Dee Dee Wood
Dee Dee Wood is an American Choreographer best known for her work on musical films of the 1960s and 1970s. Most of her well known work was in collaboration with Marc Breaux, to whom she was married for many years. Much of Wood's most recognized work was also in collaboration with the songwriting...
.
The London West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
production opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre
Prince of Wales Theatre
The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre on Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in the City of Westminster. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner...
on October 12, 1961 and ran for 169 performances. It starred Max Bygraves
Max Bygraves
Max Bygraves OBE is an English comedian, singer, actor and variety performer. He appeared on his own television shows, sometimes performing comedy sketches between songs...
, Maggie Fitzgibbon
Maggie Fitzgibbon
Maggie Fitzgibbon, an Australian actress and singer, was born in Melbourne on 30 January 1929. Coming from a show-business family, Maggie is the sister of the late Smacka Fitzgibbon. She began her career as operatic soprano Margaret Fitzgibbon with the Tivoli Circuit in 1946 before graduating to...
, Steve Arlen and Jan Waters
Jan Waters
Jan Waters is an English actress of the theatre, television, and film. She was particularly active in the London theatre scene during the 1960s and 1970s, notably appearing in the original West End productions of Jule Styne's Do Re Mi and Noel Coward's High Spirits...
.
Encores!
Encores!
Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert is a program that has been presented by New York City Center since 1994. Encores! is dedicated to performing the full score of musicals that rarely are heard in New York City...
at New York's City Center presented a concert version in 1999, starring Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane is an American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to...
, Brian Stokes Mitchell
Brian Stokes Mitchell
Brian Stokes Mitchell is an American stage, film and television actor. A powerful baritone, he has been one of the central leading men of the Broadway theatre since the early 1990s...
, Heather Headley
Heather Headley
Heather Headley is a Trinidadian-American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She has won one Tony Award and one Grammy Award.-Personal life:...
and Randy Graff
Randy Graff
Randy Graff is an American actress. Graff has been in feature films such as Keys to Tulsa and Rent as well as being in television shows such as NBC's Law & Order a number of times. In addition to film and television, Graff has been in several Broadway shows...
.
The 42nd Street Moon theatre company, San Francisco, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
production ran in August 2001.
Recordings
The Original Broadway cast recordingCast recording
A cast recording is a recording of a musical that is intended to document the songs as they were performed in the show and experienced by the audience. An original cast recording, as the name implies, features the voices of the show's original cast...
was released in January 1961 by RCA. The 1999 Encores! cast recording was released on September 21, 1999 by DRG.
Response
The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called the musical "fast, loud and occasionally funny." It noted that "a team of expensive talent has turned out some lively songs, set them in motion in feverishly paced production numbers and has managed to overcome, at least part of the time, the cheapness of a machine-made book." It commented that Phil Silvers was cast against type, here playing "the fall guy, the poor sap who ends as the victim.... Betty Comden and Adolph Green have written sprightly lyrics, and Jule Styne has contributed some attractive as well as some ear-shattering tunes. The loveliest is "Cry Like the Wind" which has the keening quality of a folk song of lamentation."
According to Stanley Green, the musical had "an average score that is worth the price just to hear Miss Walker describe her life of 'Adventure'". Ethan Mordden wrote that the song "Adventure" is "one of the grandest comedy songs ever.... Here we learn that she, at least, already knows that it's a wonderful marriage, because it's never boring ... then came a Mad Scene - a bolero complete with trumpets pealing out like the band in the Plaza del Toro on corrida day and woodwinds tripping up the scale with the flash of a hundred capes."
In reviewing the 1999 "Encores!" production for The New York Times, Ben Brantley
Ben Brantley
Benjamin D. "Ben" Brantley is an American journalist and the chief theater critic of The New York Times.-Life and career:...
wrote that, despite its famous creators, "the show still has the incomplete feeling of a work that never quite meets its own aspirations...A tale of buffoonish gangsters trying to muscle in on the music industry." He further suggested that the show was like a "shotgun marriage" of Bye Bye Birdie and Guys and Dolls with parts of the television sit-com The Honeymooners
The Honeymooners
The Honeymooners is an American situation comedy television show, based on a recurring 1951–'55 sketch of the same name. It originally aired on the DuMont network's Cavalcade of Stars and subsequently on the CBS network's The Jackie Gleason Show hosted by Jackie Gleason, and filmed before a live...
.
Make Someone Happy
The song "Make Someone Happy" has been recorded by:- Aretha FranklinAretha FranklinAretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
for her album "Laughing on the OutsideLaughing on the OutsideLaughing On The Outside is the fourth studio album recorded by soul singer Aretha Franklin for Columbia Records. The album was recorded at Columbia Recording Studios in New York and Hollywood, and released in late 1963.-Release:...
" (1962) - Barbra StreisandBarbra StreisandBarbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
for her album "Love Is the AnswerLove Is the Answer (album)Love Is the Answer is an album of jazz standards by Barbra Streisand released on September 29, 2009. The album was produced by Diana Krall and features Krall on piano. Orchestral arrangements are by Johnny Mandel, Anthony Wilson and Alan Broadbent. A deluxe edition contains a bonus disc featuring...
" (2009) - Judy GarlandJudy GarlandJudy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
- Sergio FranchiSergio FranchiSergio Franchi was an Italian tenor.Franchi was born in Cremona, Italy. His father wanted him to become an electrical engineer, so he studied both music and engineering simultaneously. The family moved to South Africa in 1952, where Sergio worked part-time as a draftsman, while continuing to study...
for his 1963 RCA Victor Red Seal album Broadway, I Love You
Awards and nominations
- Tony Award for Best MusicalTony Award for Best MusicalThis is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Musical, first awarded in 1949. This award is presented to the producers of the musical.-1940s:* 1949: Kiss Me, Kate – Music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Samuel and Bella Spewack...
(nominee) - Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a MusicalTony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a MusicalThe Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical is awarded to the actor who was voted as the best actor in a musical play, whether a new production or a revival...
(Phil Silvers, nominee) - Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Nancy Walker, nominee)
- Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a MusicalTony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a MusicalThis is a list of the winners and nominations of the Tony Award for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical. The award, introduced in 1950, was previously named as Best Performance by a Featured or Supporting Actress in a Musical until 1976....
(Nancy Dussault, nominee) - Tony Award for Best Direction of a MusicalTony Award for Best Direction of a MusicalThis is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. Prior to 1960, category for direction included plays and musicals.-1950s:Note: this category was for both dramatic and musical productions...
(Garson Kanin, nominee) - Theatre World AwardTheatre World AwardThe Theatre World Award, first awarded for the 1945-46 season, is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or off-Broadway.-History:...
(Nancy Dussault, winner)