I Can Get It for You Wholesale
Encyclopedia
I Can Get It for You Wholesale is a musical
with music and lyrics by Harold Rome and a book by Jerome Weidman
based on his 1937 novel of the same title. It marked the Broadway
debut of 19-year-old Barbra Streisand
, who was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
. The story is set in the New York City
garment district
in 1937, during the Great Depression
, and the songs utilize traditional Jewish harmonies evocative of the setting and the period of the show.
". They asked me to come back and gave me "Miss Marmelstein
" to learn for my second audition a few hours later." Harold Rome said, "The 'Miss Marmelstein' number was written before the casting of Barbra Streisand in the role, but her part was then enlarged. Somebody is that good ... you try to use them as much as possible."
on March 22, 1962. Directed by Arthur Laurents
and choreographed by Herbert Ross
, it starred Elliot Gould as Harry Bogen. In addition to Streisand in the small role of Bogen's secretary, Miss Marmelstein, the supporting cast included Lillian Roth
as Mrs. Bogen and Marilyn Cooper
as Ruthie Rivkin, with Harold Lang
, Bambi Linn
, Ken LeRoy, and Sheree North
. On October 1, it transferred to The Broadway Theatre
, where it closed on December 9 after a total run of two previews and 300 performances. Gould and Streisand later married and divorced.
In 1991, the American Jewish Theatre staged a revival directed and choreographed by Richard Sabellico. The production starred Evan Pappas as Bogen, Carolee Carmello
as Ruthie, Jim Brachitta as Teddy, and Vicki Lewis
as Miss Marmelstein. It was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award
as Best Revival, and Best Actor in a Musical for Pappas.
In 2002, Arcola Theatre in London, a former clothes factory, produced the show for its second anniversary. The director was Mehmet Ergen with co-director William Galinsky.
The 1951 film with the same title
is based very loosely on the original novel.
Act II
. According to Gary Marmorstein, "Columbia badly wanted Harold Rome's I Can Get it For You Wholesale. As an inducement to Rome [Goddard] Lieberson offered to record the twenty-fifth anniversary version of his International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union show Pins and Needles."
Goddard Lieberson
, who produced the Wholesale cast album for Columbia Records, signed Streisand to a contract, and her first solo album was released two months after the show closed.
noted, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
had opened five months earlier with a similar, but more palatable, story. J. Pierrepont Finch is a much more "cuddly betrayer... and audiences were less willing to confront Wholesale's unflinching portrayal of Harry's little world of "men and ulcers on parade"... that shouldn't detract from the fact that it was a daring and distinctive musical.".
Howard Taubman
of The New York Times
wrote that the show generated a "lot of momentum" and added, "It is spirited in its appreciation of the garment-trade milieu, and both winning and tearfully sentimental in its treatment of Jewish folks and some of their Bronx folkways." He thought the score was pleasant, using "folklife motifs to distill the flavor of Jewish life." Saving the most lavish praise for last, he wrote that Streisand was the "evening's find... a girl with an oafish expression, a loud iracible voice and an arpeggiated laugh. Miss Streisand is a natural comedienne."
The Time
critic observed, "Wholesale relies heavily on Jewish folk and speech ways. But as comedy, Jewish dialect is in awkward transition, no longer funny and not yet English. Harold Rome's score is drab and his lyrics resemble either singing dialogue or nursery rhymes... Harold Lang and Sheree North make a scorching sex rite out of 'What's In It for Me?'... Barbra Streisand trips the show into stray laughs. For the rest, Wholesale is as quiet as Seventh Avenue on Yom Kippur
."
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 music and lyrics by Harold Rome and a book by Jerome Weidman
Jerome Weidman
Jerome Weidman was an American playwright and novelist. He collaborated with George Abbott on the book for the musical Fiorello! with music by Jerry Bock, and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick...
based on his 1937 novel of the same title. It marked the 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...
debut of 19-year-old 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,...
, who was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
This 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....
. The story is set in the 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...
garment district
Garment District
Garment District has several uses including:*Garment District, Manhattan - in New York City*Garment District - in Cambridge, Massachusetts*Los Angeles Garment District, also known as the Fashion District*Garment District...
in 1937, during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, and the songs utilize traditional Jewish harmonies evocative of the setting and the period of the show.
Background
In the album For the Record..., Streisand recalls, "My first audition for the show was on the morning after Thanksgiving in 1961. Since the action took place in the 1930s, I showed up in a '30s fur coat that I'd bought in a thrift shop for $10. I sang three songs, including my new standby "A Sleepin' BeeA Sleepin' Bee
"A Sleepin' Bee" is a popular song composed by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Arlen and Truman Capote. It was introduced in the musical House of Flowers by Diahann Carroll.The signature line is "When a bee lies sleeping In the palm of your hand ..."...
". They asked me to come back and gave me "Miss Marmelstein
Miss Marmelstein
"Miss Marmelstein" is a song composed by Harold Rome, first introduced in the musical "I Can Get It for You Wholesale" by Barbra Streisand in the minor role of secretary Miss Marmelstein. In the number Miss Marmelstein laments that no one calls her by her first or second name...
" to learn for my second audition a few hours later." Harold Rome said, "The 'Miss Marmelstein' number was written before the casting of Barbra Streisand in the role, but her part was then enlarged. Somebody is that good ... you try to use them as much as possible."
Productions
The musical premiered on Broadway at the Shubert TheatreShubert Theatre (Broadway)
The Shubert Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 225 West 44th Street in midtown-Manhattan, New York, United States.Designed by architect Henry Beaumont Herts, it was named after Sam S. Shubert, the second oldest of the three brothers of the theatrical producing family...
on March 22, 1962. Directed by Arthur Laurents
Arthur Laurents
Arthur Laurents was an American playwright, stage director and screenwriter.After writing scripts for radio shows after college and then training films for the U.S...
and choreographed by Herbert Ross
Herbert Ross
Herbert Ross was an American film director, producer, choreographer and actor.-Early life and career:Born Herbert David Ross in Brooklyn, New York, he made his stage debut as Third Witch with a touring company of Macbeth in 1942...
, it starred Elliot Gould as Harry Bogen. In addition to Streisand in the small role of Bogen's secretary, Miss Marmelstein, the supporting cast included Lillian Roth
Lillian Roth
Lillian Roth was an American singer and actress.-Early life:Roth was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She was only 6 years old when her mother took her to Educational Pictures, where she became the company's trademark, symbolized by a living statue holding a lamp of knowledge...
as Mrs. Bogen and Marilyn Cooper
Marilyn Cooper
Marilyn Cooper was an American actress, known primarily for her work on the Broadway stage.-Biography:Born in New York City, Cooper made her Broadway debut in 1956 in the chorus of Mr. Wonderful...
as Ruthie Rivkin, with Harold Lang
Harold Lang
Harold Lang was an American dancer and actor.-Biography:Lang began his professional career as a ballet dancer, making his professional debut with the San Francisco Ballet in 1938 and then going on to perform with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo two years later and American Ballet Theatre in 1943...
, Bambi Linn
Bambi Linn
Bambi Linn is an American dancer, choreographer, and actress.Linn trained extensively with noted choreographer Agnes de Mille. At the age of seventeen, she made her Broadway debut in the original production of Oklahoma!...
, Ken LeRoy, and Sheree North
Sheree North
Sheree North was an American actress, singer, and dancer. She was known for being 20th Century Fox's answer to Marilyn Monroe from 1954 to 1956...
. On October 1, it transferred to The Broadway Theatre
The Broadway Theatre
The Broadway Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 1681 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan....
, where it closed on December 9 after a total run of two previews and 300 performances. Gould and Streisand later married and divorced.
In 1991, the American Jewish Theatre staged a revival directed and choreographed by Richard Sabellico. The production starred Evan Pappas as Bogen, Carolee Carmello
Carolee Carmello
Carolee Carmello is an American actress best known for her performances in Broadway musicals.She made her Broadway debut in a small role in City of Angels...
as Ruthie, Jim Brachitta as Teddy, and Vicki Lewis
Vicki Lewis
Vicki Lewis is an American film, stage, television and voice actress best known for her role as Beth in the NBC sitcom NewsRadio.-Personal life:...
as Miss Marmelstein. It was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award
Outer Critics Circle Award
The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on and Off-Broadway and were begun during the 1949-1950 theater season. The awards are decided upon by theater critics who review for out-of-town newspapers, national publications, and other media outlets...
as Best Revival, and Best Actor in a Musical for Pappas.
In 2002, Arcola Theatre in London, a former clothes factory, produced the show for its second anniversary. The director was Mehmet Ergen with co-director William Galinsky.
The 1951 film with the same title
I Can Get It for You Wholesale (film)
I Can Get It for You Wholesale is a 1951 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Gordon. The screenplay by Abraham Polonsky is based on Vera Caspary's loose adaptation of the 1937 novel of the same title by Jerome Weidman.-Plot:...
is based very loosely on the original novel.
Plot
Harry Bogen is an ambitious, unscrupulous young businessman in the 1930s New York City garment industry. He will stop at nothing to get to the top: he lies to his mother and girlfriend, Ruthie Rivkin, who try to help him become a better person, but he embezzles company funds from Apex Modes and betrays his friends and partners. Harry leaves Ruthie to take up with Martha Mills, a dancer in Club Rio Rhumba, but when he loses his friends and goes bankrupt, his mother and Ruthie stand by him.Songs
Act I- Overture
- I'm Not a Well Man - Miss Marmelstein and Mr. Pulvermacher
- The Way Things Are - Harry Bogen
- When Gemini Meets Capricorn - Ruthie Rivkin and Harry Bogen
- Momma, Momma, Momma - Harry Bogen and Mrs. Bogen
- The Sound of Money - Harry Bogen, Martha Mills, Mitzi, Mario and Eddie
- The Family Way - Mrs. Bogen, Harry Bogen, Ruthie Rivkin, Teddy Asch, Blanche Bushkin and Meyer Bushkin
- Too Soon - Mrs. Bogen
- Who Knows? - Ruthie Rivkin
- Have I Told You Lately? - Blanche Bushkin and Meyer Bushkin
- Ballad of the Garment Trade - Miss Marmelstein, Ruthie Rivkin, Blanche Bushkin, Harry Bogen, Teddy Asch, Meyer Bushkin and Company
Act II
- A Gift Today - Sheldon Bushkin, Harry Bogen, Mrs. Bogen, Blanche Bushkin, Meyer Bushkin and Ruthie Rivkin
- Miss MarmelsteinMiss Marmelstein"Miss Marmelstein" is a song composed by Harold Rome, first introduced in the musical "I Can Get It for You Wholesale" by Barbra Streisand in the minor role of secretary Miss Marmelstein. In the number Miss Marmelstein laments that no one calls her by her first or second name...
- Miss Marmelstein - The Sound of Money (Reprise) - Harry Bogen
- A Funny Thing Happened - Ruthie Rivkin and Harry Bogen
- What's in It for Me? - Teddy Asch and Martha Mills
- What Are They Doing to Us Now? - Miss Marmelstein, Buggo, Tootsie Maltz, Manette, Gail, Miss Springer and Creditors
- Eat a Little Something - Mrs. Bogen and Harry Bogen
- Epilogue - The Company
Recording
The original cast recording was released by Columbia RecordsColumbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
. According to Gary Marmorstein, "Columbia badly wanted Harold Rome's I Can Get it For You Wholesale. As an inducement to Rome [Goddard] Lieberson offered to record the twenty-fifth anniversary version of his International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union show Pins and Needles."
Goddard Lieberson
Goddard Lieberson
Goddard Lieberson was the president of Columbia Records from 1956 to 1971, and from 1973 to 1975. He was also a composer, and studied with George Frederick McKay, at the University of Washington, Seattle....
, who produced the Wholesale cast album for Columbia Records, signed Streisand to a contract, and her first solo album was released two months after the show closed.
Response
The musical garnered mixed reviews and lost money despite a run of 300 performances. As theatre historian Ken MandelbaumKen Mandelbaum
Ken Mandelbaum is an American columnist, critic, and author whose primary field of expertise is musical theatre.Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Mandelbaum was introduced to Broadway musical theatre by his parents and grandparents at an early age...
noted, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert, based on Shepherd Mead's 1952 book of the same name....
had opened five months earlier with a similar, but more palatable, story. J. Pierrepont Finch is a much more "cuddly betrayer... and audiences were less willing to confront Wholesale's unflinching portrayal of Harry's little world of "men and ulcers on parade"... that shouldn't detract from the fact that it was a daring and distinctive musical.".
Howard Taubman
Howard Taubman
Hyman Howard Taubman was an American music critic, theater critic, and author.-Biography:Born in Manhattan, Taubman attended DeWitt Clinton High School and then won a four-year scholarship to Cornell University, from which he graduated, as a Phi Beta Kappa member, in 1929.He then returned to New...
of The New York Times
The 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...
wrote that the show generated a "lot of momentum" and added, "It is spirited in its appreciation of the garment-trade milieu, and both winning and tearfully sentimental in its treatment of Jewish folks and some of their Bronx folkways." He thought the score was pleasant, using "folklife motifs to distill the flavor of Jewish life." Saving the most lavish praise for last, he wrote that Streisand was the "evening's find... a girl with an oafish expression, a loud iracible voice and an arpeggiated laugh. Miss Streisand is a natural comedienne."
The Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
critic observed, "Wholesale relies heavily on Jewish folk and speech ways. But as comedy, Jewish dialect is in awkward transition, no longer funny and not yet English. Harold Rome's score is drab and his lyrics resemble either singing dialogue or nursery rhymes... Harold Lang and Sheree North make a scorching sex rite out of 'What's In It for Me?'... Barbra Streisand trips the show into stray laughs. For the rest, Wholesale is as quiet as Seventh Avenue on Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur , also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue...
."