Take Me Along
Encyclopedia
Take Me Along is a musical based on the Eugene O'Neill
play Ah, Wilderness, with music and lyrics by Bob Merrill
and book by Joseph Stein
and Robert Russell
.
came through St. Louis with the original production of the O'Neill play. (It was rare of Merrick to mention his hometown, as he hated it, and once he refused to fly TWA
to the coast because it flew over St. Louis). While directing The Matchmaker
in 1955, he began working on Connecticut Summer. Things came to a halt when lyricist/librettist John La Touche died suddenly. But in 1957, an adaptation of another O'Neill play, Anna Christie
, came to town, called New Girl in Town
. Merrick decided to ask the composer, Bob Merrill
, to take another stab at it. On May 30, 1959, it was announced that Jackie Gleason
was cast in Connecticut Yankee. Even though Merrick was sacrificing artistic compromise for the seat-selling Gleason, he was willing to give it up.
, production designed Oliver Smith
, lighting Jean Rosenthal
, costumes by Miles White
, musical director and vocal arranger Lehman Engel
, dances and musical numbers staging Onna White
, ballet and incidental music Laurence Rosenthal
, orchestrations Philip J. Lang
, and produced by David Merrick
. It opened on Broadway
at the Shubert Theatre
on October 22, 1959 and closed on December 17, 1960 after 448 performances.
A revival opened on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theater in April 1985 closing after seven previews and one performance.
The musical opened at the The Irish Repertory Theater, New York City, in a limited run, from February 28, 2008 through April 13, 2008.
Act I
Act II
The score of Volunteer Firemen's Picnic has been borrowed twice by the writers of Family Guy
, firstly for the episode PTV as The Freakin' FCC. The song then returned for a special appearance at the Emmy Awards as If You Want It You Can Find It On TV, taking potshots at Desperate Housewives, Two and a Half Men and The Sopranos amongst others.
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
play Ah, Wilderness, with music and lyrics by Bob Merrill
Bob Merrill
Bob Merrill was an American songwriter, theatrical composer, lyricist, and screenwriter.Merrill was born Henry Merrill Levan in Atlantic City, New Jersey and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Following a stint with the Army during World War II, he moved to Hollywood, where he worked as a...
and book by Joseph Stein
Joseph Stein
Joseph Stein was an American playwright best known for writing the books for such musicals as Fiddler on the Roof and Zorba.-Biography:...
and Robert Russell
Robert W. Russell
Robert Wallace Russell was an American writer for movies, plays, and documentaries. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Writing, Original Story and Best Writing, Screenplay on the 1943 film The More the Merrier.He died in 1992 in New York City, shortly after his 80th birthday.-...
.
Background
The idea to musicalize Ah, Wilderness came to David Merrick when George M. CohanGeorge M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan , known professionally as George M. Cohan, was a major American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, and producer....
came through St. Louis with the original production of the O'Neill play. (It was rare of Merrick to mention his hometown, as he hated it, and once he refused to fly TWA
Twa
The Twa are any of several hunting peoples of Africa who live interdependently with agricultural Bantu populations, and generally hold a socially subordinate position: They provide the farming population with game in exchange for agricultural products....
to the coast because it flew over St. Louis). While directing The Matchmaker
The Matchmaker
The Matchmaker is a play by Thornton Wilder.The play has a long and colorful history. John Oxenford's 1835 one-act farce A Day Well Spent had been extended into a full-length play entitled Einen Jux will er sich machen by Austrian playwright Johann Nestroy in 1842...
in 1955, he began working on Connecticut Summer. Things came to a halt when lyricist/librettist John La Touche died suddenly. But in 1957, an adaptation of another O'Neill play, Anna Christie
Anna Christie
Anna Christie is a play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. It made its Broadway debut at the Vanderbilt Theatre on November 2, 1921. O'Neill received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his work.-Plot summary:...
, came to town, called New Girl in Town
New Girl in Town
New Girl in Town is a musical with a book by George Abbott and music and lyrics by Bob Merrill based on Eugene O'Neill's 1921 gloomy play Anna Christie, about a prostitute who tries to live down her past. New Girl, unlike O'Neill's play, focuses on the jealousy of the character Marthy and on...
. Merrick decided to ask the composer, Bob Merrill
Bob Merrill
Bob Merrill was an American songwriter, theatrical composer, lyricist, and screenwriter.Merrill was born Henry Merrill Levan in Atlantic City, New Jersey and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Following a stint with the Army during World War II, he moved to Hollywood, where he worked as a...
, to take another stab at it. On May 30, 1959, it was announced that Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The...
was cast in Connecticut Yankee. Even though Merrick was sacrificing artistic compromise for the seat-selling Gleason, he was willing to give it up.
Productions
Take Me Along was directed by Peter GlenvillePeter Glenville
Peter Glenville , born Peter Patrick Brabazon Browne, was an English film and stage actor and director.-Biography:...
, production designed Oliver Smith
Oliver Smith (designer)
Oliver Smith was an American scenic designer.Born in Waupun, Wisconsin, Smith attended Penn State, after which he moved to New York City and began to form friendships that blossomed into working relationships with such talents as Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Carson McCullers, and Agnes de...
, lighting Jean Rosenthal
Jean Rosenthal
Jean Rosenthal is considered a pioneer in the field of theatrical lighting design. She was born in New York City to Romanian-Jewish immigrants....
, costumes by Miles White
Miles White
Miles E. White was a top costume designer of Broadway musicals for 25 years. He is known in the entertainment industry for his well rendered, prolific, imaginative and witty designs. He won recognition, including four Donaldson Awards and two Tony Awards.The Donaldson Award was established in 1944...
, musical director and vocal arranger Lehman Engel
Lehman Engel
Lehman Engel was an American composer and conductor of Broadway musicals, television and film.-Work in theatre, television and films:...
, dances and musical numbers staging Onna White
Onna White
Onna White was a Canadian choreographer and dancer nominated for eight Tony Awards.-Career:Born in Inverness, Nova Scotia, White began taking dance lessons at the age of twelve, and eventually her studies took her to the famed San Francisco Ballet Company, where she danced in the first full-length...
, ballet and incidental music Laurence Rosenthal
Laurence Rosenthal
Laurence Rosenthal is an American composer, arranger, and conductor for theater, television, and films.Born in Detroit, Michigan, Rosenthal attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he studied piano and composition...
, orchestrations Philip J. Lang
Philip J. Lang
Philip J. Lang was an American musical arranger, orchestrator and composer of band music, as well as a musical educator...
, and produced by David Merrick
David Merrick
David Merrick was a prolific Tony Award-winning American theatrical producer.-Life and career:Born David Lee Margulois to Jewish parents in St. Louis, Missouri, Merrick graduated from Washington University, then studied law at the Jesuit-run Saint Louis University School of Law...
. It opened 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...
at the Shubert Theatre
Shubert 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 October 22, 1959 and closed on December 17, 1960 after 448 performances.
A revival opened on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theater in April 1985 closing after seven previews and one performance.
The musical opened at the The Irish Repertory Theater, New York City, in a limited run, from February 28, 2008 through April 13, 2008.
Original Broadway cast
Sources:- Nat Miller - Walter PidgeonWalter PidgeonWalter Davis Pidgeon was a Canadian actor, who starred in many motion pictures, including Mrs...
- Sid Davis - Jackie GleasonJackie GleasonJackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The...
- Essie Miller - Una MerkelUna MerkelUna Merkel was an American Tony Award-winning stage and film actress.-Life and career:Una Merkel was born in Covington, Kentucky, and grew up in Philadelphia and New York City. She bore a resemblance to actress Lillian Gish and began her career as a stand-in for Gish, most notably in the 1928...
- Lily - Eileen HerlieEileen HerlieEileen Herlie was a Scottish-American actress.-Life and career:Eileen Herlie was born Eileen Isobel Herlihy to a Catholic father and a Protestant mother in Glasgow, Scotland, and was one of five children. Herlie was trained as a theatre actress. Among her West End London theatre successes were The...
- Art Miller - James Cresson
- Richard Miller - Robert MorseRobert MorseRobert Morse is an American actor and singer. Morse is best known for his appearances in musicals and plays on Broadway. He has also acted in movies and television shows. His best known role is that of J. Pierrepont Finch in the 1961 Broadway musical, and 1967 film How to Succeed in Business...
- Mildred Miller - Zeme North
- Tommy Miller - Luke HalpinLuke HalpinLuke Halpin is an American actor. Beginning a prolific career as a child actor at the age of eight, Halpin is perhaps best known for his role as Sandy Ricks in the feature films Flipper and Flipper's New Adventure, as well as for reprising his role for the television series adaptation, also...
- David Macomber - Fred Miller
- Muriel Macomber - Susan Luckey
- Wint - Peter Conlow
- Belle - Arlene GolonkaArlene GolonkaArlene Golonka is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for playing Millie Swanson on the television comedies The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry R.F.D., and often portrayed bubbly, eccentric blondes in supporting character roles on stage, film, and television.-Early years:Golonka was...
- Bartender - Jack CollinsJack Collins (actor)Jack Collins, , is a stage, film, and television actor. He played Mike Brady's boss, Mr. Phillips, in the television series The Brady Bunch, and Peter Christopher's boss, baby-food manufacturer Max Brahms, in the short-lived sitcom Occasional Wife.-Filmography:*The Brady Bunch * The Other * The...
- Salesman - Bill McDonaldBill McDonaldBill McDonald is an Australian journalist and news presenter.McDonald is currently the presenter of Brisbane's Ten News at Five with Georgina Lewis....
- Lady Entertainers - Valerie HarperValerie HarperValerie Harper is an American actress, known for her role as Rhoda Morgenstern on the 1970s television show The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and for her starring roles on the sitcoms Rhoda and Valerie.-Early life and career:Harper was born at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, Rockland County,...
, Diana Hunter, and Rae McLean - The Drunk - Gene Varrone
- Beardsley Dwarf - Charles Bolender
Songs
Source:Act I
- The Parade - Nat Miller and Townspeople
- Oh, Please - Nat Miller, Essie Miller, Lily Miller and Family
- I Would Die - Muriel Macomber and Richard Miller
- Sid, Ol' Kid - Sid Davis and Townspeople
- Staying Young - Nat Miller
- I Get Embarrassed - Sid Davis and Lily Miller
- We're Home - Lily Miller
- Take Me Along - Sid Davis and Nat Miller
- For Sweet Charity - Sid Davis, Nat Miller, Lady Entertainers and Townspeople
- Volunteer Firemen's Picnic - Sid Davis
- Pleasant Beach House - Wint
- That's How It Starts - Richard Miller
Act II
- The Beardsley Ballet - Richard Miller, Muriel Macomber, The Beardsley Dwarf, Salome and Ensemble
- Oh, Please (Reprise) - Nat Miller and Essie Miller
- Promise Me a Rose - Lily Miller and Sid Davis
- Staying Young (Reprise) - Nat Miller
- Little Green Snake - Sid Davis
- Nine O'Clock - Richard Miller
- But Yours - Sid Davis and Lily Miller
- Take Me Along (Reprise) - Lily Miller, Sid Davis and Townspeople
The score of Volunteer Firemen's Picnic has been borrowed twice by the writers of Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
, firstly for the episode PTV as The Freakin' FCC. The song then returned for a special appearance at the Emmy Awards as If You Want It You Can Find It On TV, taking potshots at Desperate Housewives, Two and a Half Men and The Sopranos amongst others.
Original Broadway production
| Year | Award Ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | 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... |
Best Musical Tony Award for Best Musical This 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... |
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| Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical The 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... |
Jackie Gleason Jackie Gleason Jackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The... |
|||
| Robert Morse Robert Morse Robert Morse is an American actor and singer. Morse is best known for his appearances in musicals and plays on Broadway. He has also acted in movies and television shows. His best known role is that of J. Pierrepont Finch in the 1961 Broadway musical, and 1967 film How to Succeed in Business... |
||||
| Walter Pidgeon Walter Pidgeon Walter Davis Pidgeon was a Canadian actor, who starred in many motion pictures, including Mrs... |
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| Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical | Eileen Herlie Eileen Herlie Eileen Herlie was a Scottish-American actress.-Life and career:Eileen Herlie was born Eileen Isobel Herlihy to a Catholic father and a Protestant mother in Glasgow, Scotland, and was one of five children. Herlie was trained as a theatre actress. Among her West End London theatre successes were The... |
|||
| Best Direction of a Musical Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical This 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... |
Peter Glenville Peter Glenville Peter Glenville , born Peter Patrick Brabazon Browne, was an English film and stage actor and director.-Biography:... |
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| Best Choreography Tony Award for Best Choreography -1940s:* 1947: Agnes de Mille – Brigadoon / Michael Kidd – Finian's Rainbow* 1948: Jerome Robbins – High Button Shoes* 1949: Gower Champion – Lend An Ear-1950s:* 1950: Helen Tamiris – Touch and Go* 1951: Michael Kidd – Guys and Dolls... |
Onna White Onna White Onna White was a Canadian choreographer and dancer nominated for eight Tony Awards.-Career:Born in Inverness, Nova Scotia, White began taking dance lessons at the age of twelve, and eventually her studies took her to the famed San Francisco Ballet Company, where she danced in the first full-length... |
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| Best Conductor and Musical Director Tony Award for Best Conductor and Musical Director The Tony Award for Best Conductor and Musical Director was first presented in 1948, and later discontinued after 1964.-1940s:* 1948: Milton Rosenstock – Finian's Rainbow* 1949: Max Meth – As the Girls Go-1950s:... |
Lehman Engel Lehman Engel Lehman Engel was an American composer and conductor of Broadway musicals, television and film.-Work in theatre, television and films:... |
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| Best Costume Design Tony Award for Best Costume Design These are the winners and nominees for the Tony Award for Best Costume Design. The award was first presented in 1947 and included both plays and musicals... |
Miles White Miles White Miles E. White was a top costume designer of Broadway musicals for 25 years. He is known in the entertainment industry for his well rendered, prolific, imaginative and witty designs. He won recognition, including four Donaldson Awards and two Tony Awards.The Donaldson Award was established in 1944... |
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| Best Stage Technician Tony Award for Best Stage Technician The Tony Award for Stage Technician was first given in 1948 and was last presented fifteen years later in 1963.-1950s:* 1950: Joe Lynn, master propertyman – Miss Liberty... |
Al Alloy | |||