| Greenwillow | |
|---|---|
 Original Recording | |
| Music | Frank Loesser |
| Lyrics | Frank Loesser |
| Book | Lesser Samuels Frank Loesser |
| Basis | Novel by B.J. Chute |
| Productions | 1960 Broadway |
Greenwillow is a musical with a book by Lesser Samuels and Frank Loesser and music and lyrics by Loesser. The musical is set in the magical town of Greenwillow. It ran on Broadway in 1960.
Based on the novel by B. J. Chute, the musical is a fantasy, set in the magical town of Greenwillow. In Greenwillow, the eldest in each generation of Briggs men must obey the "call to wander", while the women they leave behind care for the home and rear their children in the hope that some day their husbands will return. Gideon loves his girlfriend, Dorrie, and would like nothing better than to settle down with her, and finds in the town's newest inhabitant, the Reverend Birdsong, an ally who will try to help him make his dream come true. [1]
The musical had a pre-Broadway try-out at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia. The musical opened on Broadway on March 8, 1960, at the Alvin Theatre, and closed on May 28, 1960, after 97 performances. The director was George Roy Hill and choreographer was Joe Layton, scenery by Peter Larkin and costumes by Alvin Colt. The cast included Anthony Perkins as Gideon Briggs, Cecil Kellaway, Pert Kelton, Ellen McCown as Dorrie Whitbred, William Chapman, Marian Mercer and Tommy Norden. [2] [3]
The show was hampered by mixed reviews. The New York Times described the production as “an enchanted fable” in a very positive review: “an ideal libretto”....”warm and varied score that captures the simple moods of the story”....”the makers of ‘Greenwillow have never faltered”....”winning cast”...joyous ballets”....”these are some of the elements of a musical play that brings distinction to the stage and pleasure to the people out front.” [4]
Reviewer Ward Morehouse wrote, “Frank Loesser retains his standing as a composer but he is lost as a librettist….the book that he has written in collaboration with Lesser Samuels is hopelessly stodgy.” Morehouse, however, thought Perkins “ingratiating” and a capable singer, and McCown “an attractive heroine,” and had compliments for Larkin’s sets and Layton’s “imaginative dance routines. But ‘Greenwillow’ is a lost cause.” [5]
The Philadelphia Inquirer handily excerpted opening-week reviews from several New York papers: “The new musical is do-it-yourself folklore, which means that it is spun right out of someone’s head instead of out of somebody else’s past…In the theater…Greenwillow is nowhere—not in Brigadoon, not in Glocca Morra, not in the valley just below Old Smoky. Being neither Irish nor Dutch, Scotch nor good Broadway, it is forced to invent a language of its own that is a mélange of all four but with the special delights, rhythms and authenticities of none (Walter Kerr, NY Herald Tribune).” “[It] has moments of fresh charm, but it also turns out to be upsettingly flat, stodgy and lacking in emotional effectiveness...scenes and characters that possessed touching or humorous charm in the novel become excessively whimsical and uncomfortably coy, when not simply dull, on the stage (Richard Watts, Jr., New York Post).” “[It] brings heart and hope to a season that has not been distinguished by either...It is not, perhaps, what the trade regards as a ‘sockoo success,’ like ‘Guys and Dolls,’ but it is musically more ambitious, and is loaded with the sort of homespun pathos and humor which should keep it running until the scenery quietly comes apart (John McClain, New York Journal-American).” [6]
This musical was being rehearsed in New York while Anthony Perkins was simultaneously filming the Alfred Hitchcock classic shocker Psycho (1960) in Los Angeles. He had a stand-in for the shower scene in that film. [7] Stephen Rebello in his book "Alfred and the Making of Psycho" documented that because the filming of the movie's now-iconic shower scene did not "require the services of Anthony Perkins", Hitchcock allowed him to attend play rehearsals in New York. [8]
The musical was presented by the York Theatre Company (New York City) in its "Musicals-in-Mufti" series in 2004. Peter Filichia described the score as "grand" and mentioned Brooks Atkinson's glowing 1960 appraisal of Loesser's music. [9]
Source: Internet Broadway database; [10] AllMusic [11]
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The musical received 1960 Tony Award nominations: [3] [12]
Cecil Kellaway won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical. [3]
Bing Crosby recorded "The Music of Home" on January 28, 1960, [13] and it was issued on a 45rpm disc by RCA Victor. [14]
Barbra Streisand recorded "Never Will I Marry" for The Third Album in 1964, [15] and sang it live in her early club act.
Nancy Wilson recorded "Never Will I Marry" on Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley (1962). [16]
Judy Garland performed "Never Will I Marry" frequently in the 1960s, including for her aborted 1962 album "Judy Takes Broadway" and on "The Judy Garland Show".
Caterina Valente performed both "Summertime Love" and "Never Will I Marry" in 1963 for her album "Valente In Swingtime" (on CD in, for instance, 2005). [17]
Linda Ronstadt recorded "Never Will I Marry" on her twenty-fourth and final solo studio album Hummin' to Myself in 2004. [18]
Psycho is a 1960 American horror film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The screenplay, written by Joseph Stefano, was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The film stars Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin and Martin Balsam. The plot centers on an encounter between on-the-run embezzler Marion Crane (Leigh) and shy motel proprietor Norman Bates (Perkins) and its aftermath, in which a private investigator (Balsam), Marion's lover Sam Loomis (Gavin), and her sister Lila (Miles) investigate her disappearance.
Frank Henry Loesser was an American songwriter who wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musicals Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, among others. He won a Tony Award for Guys and Dolls and shared the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for How to Succeed. He also wrote songs for over 60 Hollywood films and Tin Pan Alley, many of which have become standards, and was nominated for five Academy Awards for best song, winning once for "Baby, It's Cold Outside".
Anthony Perkins was an American actor, director, and singer. Perkins is known for his role as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's suspense thriller Psycho, which made him an influential figure in pop culture and in horror films. He often played distinctive villainous roles in film, but he was most renowned for his romantic leads. He distinguished himself by playing sensitive young men.
Peter Hess Stone was an American screenwriter and playwright. Stone is perhaps best remembered by the general public for the screenplays he wrote or co-wrote in the mid-1960s, Charade (1963), Father Goose (1964), and Mirage (1965).
Guys and Dolls is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories, such as "Pick the Winner". The show premiered on Broadway in 1950, where it ran for 1,200 performances and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. The musical has had several Broadway and London revivals, as well as a 1955 film adaptation starring Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, and Vivian Blaine.
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a 1961 musical by Frank Loesser and book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert, based on Shepherd Mead's 1952 book of the same name. The story concerns young, ambitious J. Pierrepont Finch, who, with the help of the book How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, rises from window washer to chairman of the board of the World Wide Wicket Company.
Burton Lane was an American composer and lyricist primarily known for his theatre and film scores. His most popular and successful works include Finian's Rainbow in 1947 and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever in 1965.
Harvey Lester Schmidt was an American composer for musical theatre and illustrator. He was best known for composing the music for the longest running musical in history, The Fantasticks, which ran off-Broadway for 42 years, from 1960 to 2002.
The Most Happy Fella is a 1956 musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Frank Loesser. The story, about a romance between an older man and younger woman, is based on the 1924 play They Knew What They Wanted by Sidney Howard. The show is described by some theatre historians and critics as operatic. The original Broadway production ran for 14 months and it has enjoyed several revivals, including one staged by the New York City Opera.
Peter Filichia is the former New York-based theater critic for The Star-Ledger newspaper in Newark, New Jersey and New Jersey's television station News 12, as well as for The Asbury Park Press.
Walter Francis Kerr was an American writer and Broadway theatre critic. He also was the writer, lyricist, and/or director of several Broadway plays and musicals as well as the author of several books, generally on the subject of theater and cinema.
Your Own Thing is a rock-styled musical comedy loosely based on Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. It premiered off-Broadway in early 1968. The music and lyrics are by Hal Hester and Danny Apolinar with the book adaptation by Donald Driver, who also directed the original production. Dorothy Love was the show's producer. The show was a success, running for 937 performances Off-Broadway and then touring and playing in London and Australia.
Joe Layton was an American director and choreographer known primarily for his work on Broadway.
Stuart Ostrow is an American theatrical producer and director, professor, and author.
"I've Never Been in Love Before" is a song written by Frank Loesser, published in 1950.
King of Hearts is a 1978 musical with a book by Joseph Stein, lyrics by Jacob Brackman, and music by Peter Link, orchestrated by Bill Brohn. It is based on the 1966 anti-war cult film of the same name.
George Michael Cohan was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer.
Helon Blount was an actress and singer who appeared in the original Broadway productions of such musicals as The Most Happy Fella, Woman of the Year and Follies.
Donald Ragan Stephenson IV, known as Don Stephenson, is an American actor and stage director. He has numerous credits on both television and in the theatre.
Larry Grossman is an American composer for theatre, television, film, concerts, and cabaret.