Call Me Madam

Call Me Madam
Original Broadway Playbill
Music	Irving Berlin
Lyrics	Irving Berlin
Book	Howard Lindsay Russel Crouse
Productions	1950 Broadway 1952 West End 1953 film
Awards	Tony Award for Best Score

Call Me Madam is a musical with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin.

A satire on politics and foreign affairs that spoofs America's penchant for lending billions of dollars to needy countries, it centers on Sally Adams, a well-meaning but ill-informed socialite widow who is appointed US Ambassador to the fictional European country of Lichtenburg. While there, she charms the local gentry, especially Cosmo Constantine, while her press attaché Kenneth Gibson falls in love with Princess Maria.

Background

The musical was inspired by the 1949 appointment of Washington, D.C. hostess and Democratic Party fundraiser Perle Mesta as the Ambassador to Luxembourg, although the Playbill distributed at each performance humorously noted that "neither the character of Mrs. Sally Adams nor Miss Ethel Merman resemble any person living or dead."

Productions

After a tryout period in New Haven, Connecticut, the Broadway production, directed by George Abbott and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, opened on October 12, 1950 at the Imperial Theatre, where it ran for 644 performances. The original cast included Ethel Merman, Paul Lukas, Pat Harrington, Sr., Russell Nype, Lilia Skala, and Richard Eastham, an understudy of the opera singer Ezio Pinza. Merman's own understudy, Elaine Stritch, later starred in the national tour.

The musical opened in the West End at the London Coliseum on March 15, 1952 where it ran for 486 performances and starred Billie Worth.^[1]

The City Center Encores! semi-staged concert version was presented in February 1995, and starred Tyne Daly.^[2] A regional production ran at the Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn, New Jersey, in April-May 1996 and starred Leslie Uggams.^[3]

Film adaptation

A film of the musical was released by 20th Century Fox in 1953 and starred Merman, George Sanders, Donald O'Connor and Vera-Ellen.

Song list

Recordings

In a highly unusual situation, two LP albums of the score were released. The recording rights had been granted to RCA Victor, which had invested in the show, but Merman was under contract to Decca Records, which refused to allow her to record the original cast album. Decca issued a 10-inch LP featuring Merman singing some of her songs, accompanied by arranger-conductor Gordon Jenkins and His Orchestra and Chorus, with vocalizing by Dick Haymes (who joined Merman in the show's biggest hit, "You're Just in Love", their single reaching Billboard magazine's number 30 for a week) and Eileen Wilson (who sang "It's a Lovely Day Today" with Haymes). RCA Victor went ahead with the original cast album replacing Merman with Dinah Shore. Merman was called back into the Decca studios to record additional songs from the show, and the label quickly re-released the album as a 12-inch LP under the title Ethel Merman: 12 Songs from Call Me Madam. The Victor album sold reasonably well, attaining the sixth spot on Billboards popular album charts, but the LP was out of print from 1956 until RCA Red Seal reissued it briefly in 1977. Peaking at number two on Billboards popular album charts, Merman's Decca recording, which would appear on MCA Records beginning in 1973, stayed steadily in print until the end of the LP era. Ethel's Madam album is currently available on a Decca Broadway CD, which also features Merman singing four Cole Porter tunes from the stage score of Panama Hattie (1940).

Ethel can also be heard on the film soundtrack album (with Donald O'Connor and George Sanders), issued in 1953 as a 10-inch album, also on the Decca label. Scoring fifth position on Billboard's popular albums charts when first released, the soundtrack, taken out of print in 1957, was reissued in 1981 by Stet Records on a 12-inch LP which also contained songs from the film scores of Guys and Dolls (1955) and I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955). The Merman soundtrack has not been legally updated to a CD.

A 1995 Broadway concert cast album, featuring Tyne Daly, Lewis Cleale, Christopher Durang, Ken Page, and Melissa Errico, is available on the DRG label.

The original London West End cast recording, starring Billie Worth, has been released on the Sepia label.

Awards

• Tony Award for Best Original Score
• Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical (Merman)
• Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Nype)
• Tony Award for Best Stage Technician
• Theatre World Award (Nype)

See also

• Gypsy Robe

References

External links

• Call Me Madam at the Internet Broadway Database
• Call Me Madam listing, RNH
• Call Me Madam listing at guidetomusicaltheatre.com