Evening Primrose
Encyclopedia
Evening Primrose is a musical
with a book by James Goldman
and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim
. It is based on a John Collier
short story
published in the 1951 collection Fancies and Goodnights.
Written originally for television, the musical focuses on a poet who takes refuge from the world by hiding out in a department store after closing. He meets a community of night people who live in the store and falls in love with a beautiful young girl named Ella. Bizarre complications arise when the leader of the group forbids their relationship.
Charles meets and is smitten with a beautiful young girl, Ella Harkins, Mrs. Monday's maid. Ella, who is now 19, has lived in the store since she was separated from her mother at age six, falling asleep in the women's hat department. Ella is unhappy and wants to leave, but is afraid of the "Dark Men." Should someone try to return to the outside world and risk revealing the group's existence, the Dark Men take them away and another mannequin
appears in the clothing department.
Charles realizes Ella has not seen the sun for thirteen years, but she replies that she remembers ("I Remember"). Charles has fallen in love with Ella; as he plays cards with members of the group, he has a quiet duet with Ella ("When"). Ella finally decides to leave with Charles ("Take Me To The World"). Charles is initially reluctant to leave his now-comfortable life, but then understands that he loves Ella more than poetry. Mrs. Monday and the others hear their plans, and they call the Dark Men, as Ella and Charles try to escape.
The ending provides a Twilight Zone
-like twist. The store opens the next morning and two new handsome bride and groom mannequins appear, eerily resembling Ella and Charles.
anthology series ABC Stage 67
, it aired on November 16, 1966. It was directed by Paul Bogart
, set design by John Ward, set decorated by Budd Gourmen, costume design by William McHone, and lighting design by Walter Urban. The cast starred Anthony Perkins
as Charles Snell, Charmian Carr
as Ella Harkins, Larry Gates
as Roscoe Potts, Dorothy Stickney
as Mrs. Monday, and Margaret Bannerman, Margaret Barker, Leonard Elliot, Mike Meola, Dorothy Sands, and Margaretta Warwick as store people. The one-hour program was taped on an early Sunday
morning
at the now-defunct Stern Brothers
department store
in Manhattan
.
The Evening Primrose telecast was in color
, but the original master tape has never been found. Black-and-white (b&w)
versions are available for viewing at the Museum of Television & Radio
branches in New York City
and Beverly Hills. A newly discovered pristine b&w 16-millimeter
copy was used for DVD
s which were released commercially for the first time on October 26, 2010.
The first professional theatrical production was staged in London as part of the Lost Musicals series. It opened at the Lilian Baylis Studio on July 3, 2005 and closed on July 24. Directed by Ian Marshall Fisher, it starred Betsy Blair
as Mrs. Monday, Michael Matus as Charles Snell, Jennifer Higham as Ella Harkins, James Vaughan as Store Doorman/Night Watchman, and Gary Raymond as Roscoe, with Sylvia Seymour, Martin Gaisford, Myra Sands, David O'Brien and Andrew Beavis in supporting roles.
On October 22, 2010, the St. George's Society in New York City had a one night only semi staged performance at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College of Criminal Justice
. The show was directed and designed by Tony Walton
, musical supervision and orchestration by Sean Patrick Flahaven, and musical director Mary-Mitchell Campbell. The cast had Carmen De Lavallade
(Mrs. Billbee) --she also directed some choreography, Jessica Grové (Ella), Sean Palmer
(Charles), Candice Bergen
(Mrs. Monday), John Cunningham (Roscoe Potts), Sondra Lee (Augusta), and William Duell
(Billy).
The DVD was commercially released for the first time on April 20, 2010, by E1 Entertainment and the Archive of American Television
.
and Bernadette Peters
for his 1990 Dress Casual album. Patinkin sang "If You Can Find Me, I'm Here," Peters sang "I Remember", and the other two were performed as duets. In 1997, Liz Callaway
and Gary Beach
recorded them for a Varèse Sarabande
release entitled Sondheim at the Movies. A studio recording with Neil Patrick Harris
as Charles and Theresa McCarthy as Ella was released by Nonesuch Records
in 2001. They recorded "If You Can Find Me, I'm Here", "I Remember", "When?", and "Take Me to the World".
"I Remember" has been recorded by Sarah Brightman
, Judy Collins
, John Pizzarelli
, Mark Murphy
, Cleo Laine
, Maureen McGovern
, Betty Buckley
, Julia Migenes
, Dianne Reeves
, Myrra Malmberg
, and Barbra Streisand
. Dawn Upshaw
included "Take Me to the World" on her 1994 musical theatre album I Wish It So.
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 James Goldman
James Goldman
James Goldman was an American screenwriter and playwright, and the brother of screenwriter and novelist William Goldman.He was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up primarily in Highland Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb...
and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
. It is based on a John Collier
John Collier (writer)
John Henry Noyes Collier was a British-born author and screenplay writer best known for his short stories, many of which appeared in The New Yorker from the 1930s to the 1950s. They were collected in a 1951 volume, Fancies and Goodnights, which won the International Fantasy Award and remains in...
short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
published in the 1951 collection Fancies and Goodnights.
Written originally for television, the musical focuses on a poet who takes refuge from the world by hiding out in a department store after closing. He meets a community of night people who live in the store and falls in love with a beautiful young girl named Ella. Bizarre complications arise when the leader of the group forbids their relationship.
Synopsis
Poet Charles Snell takes refuge from the world by hiding out in a department store after closing ("If You Can Find Me, I'm Here"). Once there he finds a secret group who have lived in the store for years. The leader of the group, Mrs. Monday, permits Charles to stay after he convinces her that he is a poet.Charles meets and is smitten with a beautiful young girl, Ella Harkins, Mrs. Monday's maid. Ella, who is now 19, has lived in the store since she was separated from her mother at age six, falling asleep in the women's hat department. Ella is unhappy and wants to leave, but is afraid of the "Dark Men." Should someone try to return to the outside world and risk revealing the group's existence, the Dark Men take them away and another mannequin
Mannequin
A mannequin is an often articulated doll used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, and others especially to display or fit clothing...
appears in the clothing department.
Charles realizes Ella has not seen the sun for thirteen years, but she replies that she remembers ("I Remember"). Charles has fallen in love with Ella; as he plays cards with members of the group, he has a quiet duet with Ella ("When"). Ella finally decides to leave with Charles ("Take Me To The World"). Charles is initially reluctant to leave his now-comfortable life, but then understands that he loves Ella more than poetry. Mrs. Monday and the others hear their plans, and they call the Dark Men, as Ella and Charles try to escape.
The ending provides a Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
-like twist. The store opens the next morning and two new handsome bride and groom mannequins appear, eerily resembling Ella and Charles.
Productions
Written specifically for the televisionTelevision
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
anthology series ABC Stage 67
ABC Stage 67
ABC Stage 67 was the umbrella title for a series of 26 weekly shows that included dramas, variety shows, documentaries, and original musicals....
, it aired on November 16, 1966. It was directed by Paul Bogart
Paul Bogart
Paul Bogart is an American television and film director. He directed episodes of the television series "Coronet Blue" in 1967 Get Smart and All In The Family from 1976 to 1979...
, set design by John Ward, set decorated by Budd Gourmen, costume design by William McHone, and lighting design by Walter Urban. The cast starred Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
as Charles Snell, Charmian Carr
Charmian Carr
Charmian Carr is an American actress and singer. She is mainly known for her role as Liesl, the eldest Von Trapp daughter in The Sound of Music where she starred with Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Nicholas Hammond, Heather Menzies, Duane Chase, Angela Cartwright, Debbie Turner, and Kym...
as Ella Harkins, Larry Gates
Larry Gates
Larry Gates was an American actor probably best known for his role as H.B. Lewis on daytime's Guiding Light and as Doc Baugh in the film version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof...
as Roscoe Potts, Dorothy Stickney
Dorothy Stickney
Dorothy Stickney was a Broadway actress best known for appearing in the long running Life with Father.Born in Dickinson, North Dakota, Stickney attended the North Western Dramatic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota...
as Mrs. Monday, and Margaret Bannerman, Margaret Barker, Leonard Elliot, Mike Meola, Dorothy Sands, and Margaretta Warwick as store people. The one-hour program was taped on an early Sunday
Sunday
Sunday is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. For most Christians, Sunday is observed as a day for worship of God and rest, due to the belief that it is Lord's Day, the day of Christ's resurrection....
morning
Morning
The word morning originally referred to the sunrise. Morning precedes midday, afternoon, and night in the sequence of a day.Morning is the part of the day usually reckoned from dawn to noon...
at the now-defunct Stern Brothers
Stern's
Stern's was a regional department store chain serving the U.S. states of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The chain was in business for more than 130 years, prior to its 2001 integration into Macy's and Bloomingdale's...
department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
.
The Evening Primrose telecast was in color
Color television
Color television is part of the history of television, the technology of television and practices associated with television's transmission of moving images in color video....
, but the original master tape has never been found. Black-and-white (b&w)
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
versions are available for viewing at the Museum of Television & Radio
Museum of Television & Radio
The Paley Center for Media, formerly The Museum of Television & Radio and The Museum of Broadcasting, founded in 1975 by William S...
branches in 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...
and Beverly Hills. A newly discovered pristine b&w 16-millimeter
Millimetre
The millimetre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one thousandth of a metre, which is the SI base unit of length....
copy was used for DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s which were released commercially for the first time on October 26, 2010.
The first professional theatrical production was staged in London as part of the Lost Musicals series. It opened at the Lilian Baylis Studio on July 3, 2005 and closed on July 24. Directed by Ian Marshall Fisher, it starred Betsy Blair
Betsy Blair
Betsy Blair was an American actress of film and stage, long based in London.Blair pursued a career in entertainment from the age of eight, and as a child worked as an amateur dancer, performed on radio, and worked as a model, before joining the chorus of Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe in 1940...
as Mrs. Monday, Michael Matus as Charles Snell, Jennifer Higham as Ella Harkins, James Vaughan as Store Doorman/Night Watchman, and Gary Raymond as Roscoe, with Sylvia Seymour, Martin Gaisford, Myra Sands, David O'Brien and Andrew Beavis in supporting roles.
On October 22, 2010, the St. George's Society in New York City had a one night only semi staged performance at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College of Criminal Justice
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice is a senior college of the City University of New York in Midtown Manhattan, New York City and is the only liberal arts college with a criminal justice and forensic focus in the United States. The college offers programs in Forensic Science and Forensic...
. The show was directed and designed by Tony Walton
Tony Walton
Tony Walton is an English set and costume designer.Walton was born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, United Kingdom. He began his career in 1957 with the stage design for Noel Coward's Broadway production of Conversation Piece. Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s he designed for the New...
, musical supervision and orchestration by Sean Patrick Flahaven, and musical director Mary-Mitchell Campbell. The cast had Carmen De Lavallade
Carmen De Lavallade
Carmen De Lavallade is a dancer, choreographer, professor and stage and film actress.-Early Years:Carmen De Lavallade was born in Los Angeles on March 6, 1931, to Afro-Creole parents from New Orleans, Louisiana. She was raised by her aunt who owned one of the first African American history...
(Mrs. Billbee) --she also directed some choreography, Jessica Grové (Ella), Sean Palmer
Sean Palmer
Sean Palmer is an actor, singer, and dancer of both stage and screen.His most recognizable role on television is that of Stanford Blatch's boyfriend, Marcus on the HBO series Sex and the City...
(Charles), Candice Bergen
Candice Bergen
Candice Patricia Bergen is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for starring in two TV series, as the title character on the situation comedy Murphy Brown , for which she won five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards; and as Shirley Schmidt on the comedy-drama Boston Legal...
(Mrs. Monday), John Cunningham (Roscoe Potts), Sondra Lee (Augusta), and William Duell
William Duell
Darwin William Duell is an American actor and singer. He is known for his roles as Andrew McNair in the musical 1776, Jim Sefelt in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Johnny the Snitch on the 1982 crime comedy series Police Squad!.He also had a small part in the film Cradle Will Rock as a...
(Billy).
The DVD was commercially released for the first time on April 20, 2010, by E1 Entertainment and the Archive of American Television
Archive of American Television
The Archive of American Television is a division of the non-profit Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation that films interviews with notable people from all aspects of the television industry....
.
Musical score
- If You Can Find Me I'm Here
- Charles Meets Mrs. Monday (instrumental)
- Charles And Ella (instrumental)
- Check List (instrumental)
- The Basement (instrumental)
- I Remember
- When
- Take Me To The World
- The Ball (instrumental)
- Roscoe And The Guard (instrumental)
- The Ball, Part 2 (instrumental)
- Escape (instrumental)
- Take Me To The World (Reprise)
- Final Credits (instrumental)
Recordings
An official soundtrack recording was never released commercially until 2008, when Kritzerland, Inc. issued it in a limited release of 3,000 copies. Previously, the four vocal selections had been recorded by Mandy PatinkinMandy Patinkin
Mandel Bruce "Mandy" Patinkin is an award-winning American actor of stage and screen and a tenor vocalist. He is a noted interpreter of the musical works of Stephen Sondheim, and is best-known for his work in musical theatre, originating iconic roles such as Georges Seurat in Sunday in the Park...
and Bernadette Peters
Bernadette Peters
Bernadette Peters is an American actress, singer and children's book author from Ozone Park, Queens, New York. Over the course of a career that has spanned five decades, she has starred in musical theatre, films and television, as well as performing in solo concerts and recordings...
for his 1990 Dress Casual album. Patinkin sang "If You Can Find Me, I'm Here," Peters sang "I Remember", and the other two were performed as duets. In 1997, Liz Callaway
Liz Callaway
Liz Callaway is an American actress and singer, famous for providing the singing voices of many female characters in films, such as Anya in Anastasia, Odette in The Swan Princess, and Kiara in The Lion King II:Simba's Pride....
and Gary Beach
Gary Beach
Gary Beach is an American actor, primarily in Broadway musical theatre.-Biography:Beach was born in Alexandria, Virginia and later went on to graduate from the North Carolina School of the Arts, the same school as Terrence Mann, his Beauty and the Beast costar.Beach and his partner, Jeffrey...
recorded them for a Varèse Sarabande
Varèse Sarabande
Varèse Sarabande is an American record label, distributed by Universal Music Group, which specializes in film scores and original cast recordings. It aims to reissue rare or unavailable albums as well as newer releases by artists no longer under a contract...
release entitled Sondheim at the Movies. A studio recording with Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris is an American actor, singer, director, and magician.Prominent roles of his career include the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D., Colonel Carl Jenkins in Starship Troopers, the womanizing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold...
as Charles and Theresa McCarthy as Ella was released by Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...
in 2001. They recorded "If You Can Find Me, I'm Here", "I Remember", "When?", and "Take Me to the World".
"I Remember" has been recorded by Sarah Brightman
Sarah Brightman
Sarah Brightman is an English classical crossover soprano, actress, songwriter and dancer. She is famous for possessing a vocal range of over 3 octaves and singing in the whistle register...
, Judy Collins
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
, John Pizzarelli
John Pizzarelli
John Paul Pizzarelli, Jr. is an American jazz guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and bandleader. He has had a lengthy career as a recording artist, performing for a variety of labels that include Telarc Records, RCA Records and Chesky Records, among others...
, Mark Murphy
Mark Murphy
Mark Murphy may refer to:*Mark Murphy , American ice hockey player who plays for the DEG Metro Stars *Mark Murphy , retired American football player, now President and CEO of the Green Bay Packers...
, Cleo Laine
Cleo Laine
Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth, DBE is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and vocal range...
, Maureen McGovern
Maureen McGovern
Maureen Therese McGovern is an American singer and Broadway actress, well known for her premier renditions of the Oscar winning songs "The Morning After" from the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure, and "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno in 1974.-Early life:McGovern was...
, Betty Buckley
Betty Buckley
Betty Lynn Buckley is an American theater, film and television actress and singer. She is a Tony Award winner and Grammy Award nominee.-Early life:...
, Julia Migenes
Julia Migenes
Julia Migenes is an American mezzo-soprano working primarily in musical theatre repertoire. She was born on the Lower East Side of New York to a family of Greek and Irish-Puerto Rican descent...
, Dianne Reeves
Dianne Reeves
Dianne Reeves is an American jazz singer. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado.-Early life:Reeves was born in Detroit, Michigan to a very musical family. Her father, who died when she was two years old, was also a singer. Her mother, Vada Swanson, played trumpet. A cousin, George Duke, is a...
, Myrra Malmberg
Myrra Malmberg
-Life:Anna Myrra Malmberg was born in Chicago, Illinois, and spent her childhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota and her teenage years in Stockholm, Sweden. She graduated the Stockholm High School of Music and immediately embarked upon a theatrical career...
, and Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra 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,...
. Dawn Upshaw
Dawn Upshaw
Dawn Upshaw is an American soprano described as "one of the most consequential performers of our time" by the Los Angeles Times. The recipient of several Grammy Awards and Edison Prize-winning discs, Upshaw is at home both in opera and art song, and in repertoire from Baroque to contemporary...
included "Take Me to the World" on her 1994 musical theatre album I Wish It So.