Sunday Classics: Frank Loesser pays his distinctive sorts of tribute to the brotherhood of man

"Brotherhood of Man" from the 1967 film version of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, with Robert Morse as J. Pierrepont Finch, Sammy Smith as World Wide Widget Corp. chairman Wally Wompers, and Ruth Kobart as Miss Jones -- all carry-overs from the 1961 Original Broadway Cast

One man may seem incompetent, another not make sense,
while others look like quite a waste of company expense.
They need a brother's leadership, so please don't do them in.
Remember, mediocrity is not a mortal sin.

-- Ponty, to World Wide Widget Corp. board
chairman Wally Wompers, in "Brotherhood of Man"

by Ken

This all started with me agonizing over whether to spend the big Broadway bucks to see the current revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying with Daniel Radcliffe as the ruthlessly ladder-climbing and ineffably charming J. Pierrepont Finch and John Larroquette as the man whose job he's after, World Wide Widget president J. B. Biggley. Though the book for the show was written by Abe Burrows (who directed the original Broadway production in 1961), Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert, for me it's inescapably lyricist-composer Frank Loesser's show.

This has led me, almost inescapably, to renewed preoccupation with How to Succeed and two earlier landmark Loesser shows, Guys and Dolls (1950) and The Most Happy Fella (1956). Most Happy Fella, for which Loesser did in fact write the book, and Leonard Bernstein et al.'s Candide, written about the same time, were the most ambitious musicals since the Gershwin brothers' Porgy and Bess. So today -- after Friday night's preview with great comic numbers from the three shows and last night's preview with the three shows' title songs -- and with (I hope) a minimum of chatter from me, we're going to listen to some more music from these ever-amazing shows.


LET'S START WITH ANOTHER OVERTURE:
THE OPENING OF GUYS AND DOLLS

Last night we heard the opening of How to Succeed, which consists of an overture that leads into young Ponty's musing over the book he sees as his ticket to the big time, his only job resource apart from his irresistible charm. The opening of Loesser's Damon Runyon-inspired Guys and Dolls (book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, the original production directed by no less than George S. Kaufman), is maybe the all-time great leader-into-er.

We've actually already heard two-thirds of this opening sequence: the "Fugue for Tinhorns," which we heard last night, in which the small-time gambling impresario Nathan Detroit's knownest associates study the daily racing form, and "Follow the Fold," which we heard Friday night, study the daily racing form; and the missionary appeal of the hardy little band of soul-savers from the Save-a-Soul Mission. Today we put those two-thirds together and add the overture, "Music from Runyonland."

LOESSER: Guys and Dolls: "Music from Runyonland" . . .
"Fugue for Tinhorns" . . . "Follow the Fold"

Stubby Kaye (Nicely-Nicely Johnson), Johnny Silver (Benny Southstreet), and Douglas Deane (Rusty Charlie), vocals (in "Fugue for Tinhorns"); Isabel Bigley (Sarah Brown) et al., vocals (in "Follow the Fold"); Irving Actman, cond. American Decca, from the Original Broadway Cast recording, 1950


FOR MORE OF GUYS AND DOLLS, PLUS MOST
HAPPY FELLA AND HOW TO SUCCEED, CLICK HERE

#