Loesser, Lerner & Loewe 101Class 4 • The Most Happy Fella (1956) & Greenwillow (1960)

OLLI Winter Term 2021 • Alan Teasley, Instructor

Today’s Opening Number

[3:45]

Today’s Opening Number

“Happy to Make Your Acquaintance” Robert Weede & Jo Sullivan The Most Happy Fella, 1956

Today’s Focus

You will explore two shows: The Most Happy Fella (1956) Greenwillow (1960)

You will learn about: Loesser’s influence in the business of musical theater & in mentoring others

You will appreciate: The scope and variety of Loesser’s Broadway musicals

You will hear some great music!

The Most Happy Fella

Heart & Soul: The Life and Music of

Frank Loesser

Written, Produced & Directed by Walter J. Gottlieb

(PBS, 2006)

[8:43]

The Most Happy Fella (1956) Creative Team

• Producers: Kermit Bloomgarden and Lynn Loesser

• Director: Joseph Anthony • Book, Music & Lyrics: Frank Loesser • Source: Sidney Howard’s play They

Knew What They Wanted • Choreography: Dania Krupska • Orchestrations: Don Walker • Scenery & Lighting: Jo Mielziner • Costumes: Motley • Cast: Robert Weede, Jo Sullivan, Susan

Johnson, Art Lund

The Most Happy Fella: The Story

• 1927: San Francisco, Napa Valley, CA • Tony Esposito, an older Italian grape

farmer, leaves a love note for a pretty waitress he calls Rosabella. They develop a correspondence.

• Tony proposes marriage, and she accepts without meeting him. Afraid she won’t agree if she knows how old he is, he sends her a picture of his younger foreman Joe.

Giorgio Tozzi & Sharon Daniels, 1979

The Most Happy Fella: The Story

• Rosabella meets Joe, thinking he is Tony, and immediately falls for him

• Tony’s real identity is revealed, but Rosabella agrees to marry him anyway

• At an emotional low point, Rosabella surrenders to Joe’s embrace.

• Rosabella gets pregnant. • Tony agrees to raise the child as his

own.“Encores!” 2014

“The fiery and passionate arias he has written for the husband and the wife manage to concentrate the emotions in simple, direct, powerful, musical sound, and give The Most Happy Fella great dramatic stature. . . . Mr. Loesser has caught the anguish and the love in some exalting music. Broadway is used to heart. It is not accustomed to evocations of the soul.” (Brooks Atkinson, Times)

“Frank Loesser has taken an aging play and turned it into a timeless musical. It is a masterpiece of our era. With rare magic touch, Loesser has blended comedy and feeling. His people sing their thoughts, their joys and heartbreaks, instead of talking about them. . . . one of the most gorgeous scores we have ever heard on a stage.” (Robert Coleman, Daily Mirror)

The Most Happy Fella: Reviews (1956)

“An overwhelmingly inventive new musical, a rich show drenched in song. It has so much music, so much going on, that you feel Verdi must have rewritten Oklahoma!.” (William Hawkins, World-Telegram & Sun)

“There’s a little something wrong with The Most Happy Fella: it is heavy with its own inventiveness, weighted down with the variety and fulsomeness of a genuinely creative appetite. It’s as though Mr. Loesser had written two complete musicals—the operetta and the haymaker—on the same simple play and then crammed them both into a single structure.” (Walter Kerr, Herald Tribune)

“Merely a great, great musical by a guy who likes to write a lot of music and would rather have people sing the story than talk it.” (John McClain, Journal-American)

The Most Happy Fella: Reviews (1956)

The Most Happy Fella at the 1956 Tony Awards: 6 Nominations

• Best Musical: Frank Loesser, Kermit Bloomgarden, Lynn Loesser

• Best Director: Joseph Anthony • Best Actor (Musical): Robert Weede • Featured Actress (Musical): Jo

Sullivan • Best Choreography: Dania Krupska • Conductor & Musical Director:

Herbert Greene

The Most Happy Fella as Opera

Act I, Scene 1, 1979 Revival

The Most Happy Fella: “Operatic” Songs for Tony & Rosabella

“Somebody, Somewhere” “The Most Happy Fella” “Warm All Over” “My Heart Is So Full of You”

Shuler Hensley & Laura Benanti, 2014

“Ooh! My Feet!” “Standing on the Corner” “Joey, Joey, Joey” “Big D” “I Made a Fist”

The Most Happy Fella: “Broadway” Songs for Cleo, Herman, & Joe

Jo Sullivan & Susan Johnson, 1956

The Most Happy Fella: “Italian” Songs

“Encores!” Production, 2014

“Abbondanza” “Sposalizio”

“Benvenuto” “How Beautiful the Days”

Loesser as Businessman and Mentor; Greenwillow

Heart & Soul: The Life and Music of

Frank Loesser

Written, Produced & Directed by Walter J. Gottlieb

(PBS, 2006)

[4:17]

Loesser as Businessman

• Started three companies: • Susan Publications, Inc. (1948,

rights to his own songs and scores)

• Frank Music Corp. (1950, more of his scores & those of other songwriters)

• Music Theatre International (1953, musical leasing company—with Don Walker)

• Frank Productions (1960, formed to produce Loesser’s own shows)

Frank Music Corp.’s Catalog

• Songs • “Unchained Melody” • “Cry Me a River” • The Chipmunks

• Works of Composer/Lyricist Teams (Initial List) • Wright & Forrest (Song of Norway & Kismet) • Adler & Ross (The Pajama Game & Damn Yankees) • Meredith Willson (The Music Man)

Music Theatre International

• Negotiates rights to lease shows after the initial run, beginning with: • All of Loesser’s musicals • Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Call Me Madam, High Button Shoes • Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, The Music Man • A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum • Fiddler on the Roof, The Fantasticks • Jesus Christ Superstar, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon

• Prepares, maintains, and leases materials • Librettos • Musical scores

• Website

Greenwillow (1960)

Producer: Robert A. Willey & Frank Productions, Inc. Music & Lyrics: Frank Loesser Book: Lesser Samuels & Frank Loesser Source: Novel by B. J. Chute Director: George Roy Hill Choreography: Joe Layton Orchestrations: Don Walker Cast: Anthony Perkins, Cecil Kellaway, Pert Kelton, Ellen McCown, William Chapman

Greenwillow: The Story

• Unspecified time in the enchanted village of Greenwillow.

• Gideon Briggs, a young man cursed —as the eldest son—with the “call to wander” falls in love with Dorrie, who returns his love.

• If Gideon can resist marrying, he will end the curse.

• Dorrie bakes (and bakes and bakes).Anthony Perkins

Greenwillow: The Story

• Competing ministers—Reverend Lapp (stern) and Reverend Birdsong (cheerful)—offer advice.

• There’s something about the lend of a cow, and a calf is baptized.

• An old skinflint dies unrepentant. Ministers unite in prayer for Gideon’s mother, who survives a difficult birth.

• Gideon leaves to wander, but the voice leads him back home. He marries Dorrie.

“Frank Loesser’s musical can’t make up its mind as to what it is. . . . Greenwillow has flashes of excellence, some of the music is worth re-hearing, the cast is superb.” (Frank Aston, World Telegraph & Sun)

“Having selected an enchanted fable, Frank Loesser and his associates have had the taste to preserve its humors and sweetness. . . . Mr. Loesser has provided a warm and varied score that captures the simple moods of the story. . . . There isn’t a Tin Pan Alley tune in the lot.” (Brooks Atkinson, Times)

“Do-it-yourself folklore.” (Walter Kerr, Herald Tribune)

Greenwillow: Reviews (1960) Greenwillow at the 1960 Tony Awards: 7 Nominations

• Best Actor (Musical): Anthony Perkins • Featured Actress (Musical): Pert Kelton • Scenic Design (Musical): Peter Larkin • Costume Design: Alvin Colt • Best Choreography: Joe Layton • Conductor/Musical Director: Abba Bogin • Stage Technician: James Orr

Greenwillow: The Songs

“A Day Borrowed from Heaven” “The Music of Home” “Summertime Love” “Walking Away Whistling” “Could’ve Been a Ring” “Never Will I Marry” “Faraway Boy” “Clang Dang The Bell” “What a Blessing” “He Died Good”

Anthony Perkins & Ellen McCown

About that Midterm “Exam”

Together we’re going to imagine that we’ve been asked to design two evenings in the “Lyrics and Lyricists” series at New York’s 92nd Street Y.

You’ll decide which of the course’s many songs (or scenes) should comprise these evenings and who should perform them.

Which Frank Loesser songs would you program?

More imporantly, what “points” about Loesser’s works would you want your program to make?

Recurring Themes in Loesser’s Body of Work

• He romanticizes “everyday American life”

• Lyrics are conversational—the way real people talk

• Though his lyrics are occasionally quite clever, they aren’t showy

• Each of his Broadway shows presents a different kind of challenge—as if he’s trying not to repeat himself.

Preparation for Class 5

Explore the Original Cast Recording of How to Succeed . . .

Or: Watch the movie on Amazon Prime

What worked for you as a learner? How could we make it better next time?

Use the Chat feature to share your feedback on today’s class