| Prettybelle | |
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| Original Cast Recording | |
|---|---|
| Music | Jule Styne |
| Lyrics | Bob Merrill |
| Book | Bob Merrill |
| Basis | Prettybelle by Jean Arnold |
| Productions | 1971 Boston |
Prettybelle is a musical with a book and lyrics by Bob Merrill and music by Jule Styne.
Adapted from the Jean Arnold novel of the same name, its central character is a Southern woman who, long abused by her recently deceased law officer husband, turns to alcohol for comfort, becomes a nymphomaniac prostitute, and eventually is institutionalized as a schizophrenic.
Contents |
History
Bob Merrill and Jule Styne met with director Gene Saks for several weeks to work on the musical, but Saks eventually decided not to do the show. Merrill then suggested Gower Champion, who agreed to tackle the project because "It grabbed me." Angela Lansbury liked the idea of an intimate show for a small theatre.[1]
The show was plagued with problems from the start. Merrill's and Champion's intent to bring to the stage the techniques and abstractions of avant-garde films never was fulfilled. Producer Alexander H. Cohen was dissatisfied with director/choreographer Champion's approach to the material and his dictatorial treatment of the cast, and the latter ultimately banned him from rehearsals. Leading lady Angela Lansbury pledged to boycott a move to Broadway unless everything was fixed during the out-of-town tryout in Boston.
Production
Cohen scheduled the Broadway opening at the Majestic Theatre for March 15, 1971, the last day of Tony Award eligibility, in order to get publicity for the show.[2] The Boston tryout opened on February 1 at the Shubert Theatre. In addition to Lansbury, the cast included Jon Cypher, and Charlotte Rae. Scenic design was by Oliver Smith.
Those in the increasingly angry audiences who didn't walk out loudly derided Prettybelle, hissing at the end of each musical number and booing at the curtain calls. The critics were brutal and, much to Lansbury's relief, Cohen closed the show within a week.
The original cast recording on the Varese Sarabande label is considered a collector's item among musical theatre buffs.[3]
Song list
- "Prettybelle"
- "Manic-Depressives"
- "You Ain't Hurtin' Your Ole Lady None"
- "You Never Looked Better"
- "To a Small Degree"
- "Back from the Great Beyond"
- "How Could I Know?"
- "I Never Did Imagine"
- "In the Japanese Gardens"
- "Individual Thing"
- "I Met a Man"
- "God's Garden"
- "The No-tell Motel"
- "I'm in a Tree"
- "When I'm Drunk I'm Beautiful"
References
- ^ Gilvey, John Anthony, Before the Parade Passes By: Gower Champion and the Glorious American Musical. Macmillan 2005. ISBN 0-312-33776-0, pp. 208-211
- ^ Chapin, Ted, Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies. Hal Leonard Corporation 2005. ISBN 1-557-83653-1, p. 127
- ^ Prettybelle Boston cast recording at castalbum.com
Additional reading
- Gottfried, Martin, Balancing Act: The Authorized Biography of Angela Lansbury. Little, Brown and Company 1999. ISBN 0-316-32225-3
External links
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