The theological "gradualism" being talked about in the Vatican has nothing to do with (shudder) "political" change -- ha-ha!

With "The Company Way" update (see below)


"The Company Way": "Whoever the company fires, I will still be here." (That's Sammy Smith as mail-room chief Mr. Twimble and Bobby Morse as newly assigned mail-room flunky J. Pierrepont Finch, both holdovers from the 1961 Original Broadway Cast, in the 1967 film version of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, music and lyrics by Frank Loesser.) For more of "The Company Way," see the Update below.

by Ken

Let's say you're in charge of a big old church and you love the ancient dear but you've got the feeling that in some ways it's kind of stuck in, you know, the Dark Ages. Now you have a shot at doing something about it, and not that large a window. You have to know that one of your problems -- heck, probably your biggest problem -- is your large cohort of faithful insiders, for whom "the company way" is working just fine, thank you. After all, they're faithful insiders.

Okay, so maybe I'm not speaking entirely hypothetically, and have in mind the latest wrinkle in Pope Francis's apparent wish to shake his church out of its reflexively medieval ignorance and bigotry. That wrinkle is some indication of possible doctrinal "flex," not from the pope himself this time, but from what the Washington Post's Michelle Boorstein the other day, in "Church must show more compassion, respect for same-sex couples, Vatican document says," called "a top Vatican panel assisting Pope Francis." That panel, Synod 14, Boorstein wrote,

went further than the Church has gone before in affirming non-traditional relationships, saying Monday that the Church must “turn respectfully” to couples such as those who live together unmarried or are of the same-gender and “appreciate the positive values” those unions may have.

The comments blew away some longtime Vatican experts because they put the Catholic Church – the world’s largest – squarely in the middle of the mainstream public discussion about sexuality and marriage, rather than in one corner focused mostly on unchanging doctrine. What changes to doctrine or practice might follow from the suggestions, if any, weren’t at all clear.

The comments came in a document a small handful of clergy — including DC’s Archbishop Donald Wuerl — prepared to summarize what has happened during the first half of a two-week long “synod” Francis called in order to confront the Church’s most contentious issues. The document was the first real information the Vatican has released on what’s gone on in the rare high-level meeting of 190 top clergy, who are launching a deeper look at church teaching and practice around family issues. It’s meant to guide further talks for this week and in coming months.

"The document," Boorstein noted, "reaffirmed that traditional teachings are the 'ideal' but was remarkable to some in its openness and lack of emphasis on condemnation of untraditional relationships."

The Rev. James Martin, a Catholic writer with the Jesuit magazine America, wrote that the document was “stunning.”

“The Synod said that gay people have ‘gifts and talents to offer the Christian community.’ This is something that even a few years ago would have been unthinkable, from even the most open-minded of prelates–that is, a statement of outright praise for the contribution of gays and lesbians, with no caveat and no reflexive mention of sin,” Martin wrote. “That any church document would praise same-sex ‘partners’ in any way (and even use the word ‘partners’) is astonishing.”

On that, the document said “Without denying the moral problems connected to homosexual unions it has to be noted that there are cases in which mutual aid to the point of sacrifice constitutes a precious support in the life of the partners.”

But Boorstein also quoted Fordham University Theology Department Chair Patrick Horbeck sounding a note of caution:

Some questions were asked here that have never been asked publicly by bishops: What good can we find in same-sex unions? In many ways for the first time in a long time the Catholic Church is saying it wants to ask really hard questions about how people truly live their lives. But the fact that the question is being asked doesn’t mean the answer will be what progressive and liberal Catholics want it to be . . .it would be a mistake to see this document as in any way definitive or significantly revolutionary.

Then came a press conference yesterday when, ThinkProgress's Jack Jenkins reported, "the Vatican reversed course."

[O]fficials announced the release of an edited English version of the report that alters passages that affirm gay people. For example, the new version changes the translation of the Italian phrase “Accogliere le persone omosessuali,” which was initially rendered in the English version as “to welcome homosexual persons,” a literal interpretation of the text. Although the original Italian document remains unchanged, Thursday’s revision edited the English version to read, “providing for homosexual persons,” a shift that Thomas Reese of the National Catholic Reporter said was “clearly … not an accurate translation.”

The new document includes other subtle alterations as well, although virtually all of the edits deal with the Catholic church’s position on homosexuality. Thursday’s version of the report, for instance, changed a phrase that previously referred to same-sex unions as “precious support in the life of the partners” to “valuable support in the life of these persons.”

The revisions appear to be an attempt by the Vatican — or at least English-speaking bishops — to control the media narrative surrounding the release of the original document. After various outlets and reporters heralded the inclusive stance of Monday’s document, conservative Catholics began publicly lambasting the report, with one South African Cardinal condemning some of its statements as “irredeemable.” Although there is speculation that Francis hinted at the release of the document during Mass on Monday morning, the Vatican quickly backtracked on Tuesday, explaining the report was a “working document” and saying that they did not want to give “the impression of a positive evaluation” of homosexuality, according to CNN.

Oops!

I don't think you have to be Kreskin to intuit that there's some fairly fierce political infighting going on inside church ranks, and American Catholics must be proud to know that their very own U.S. bishops are once again in the thick of the fight to keep the Church safely mired in the medieval muck.

Wait! Did I just say "political"? "Politics" inside the Church of Rome? What could I have been thinking of.

At least that's what a gentleman named David Cloutier, who we're told "is on the theology faculty at Mount St. Mary’s University and is the editor of the blog 'Catholic Moral Theology,' " is here to tell us, with an absolutely straight face, in a WaPo op-ed piece whose title asks and answers its own question: "Is the Vatican evolving on sex and marriage? Not the way politicians do." Normally I wouldn't go out of my way to make fun of a person's faith. (Usually you don't have to. It comes pre-made-fun-of.) But when the person mounts his high horse spinning bullshit into pseudo-moral and pseudo-philosophical jibber-jabber, well, sometimes you have to take the shot.

"In American politics," says our man, " 'evolution' has become the term of choice to describe shifting attitudes, especially toward same-sex marriage."

President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are among those who have talked about their views evolving or having evolved.

At the Vatican this past week, “gradualism” was the term emphasized by the bishops and cardinals from around the world meeting to discuss issues of sexuality and family that have divided the church.

The bishops and cardinals didn’t use the term to describe a shift in their thinking. Rather, in the provisional report of the Synod on the Family, they invoked gradualism in recognition that even those who strive toward a moral ideal tend to fall short; for all of us, morality takes time and practice. They urged appreciation of the good in relationships that don’t meet the church ideal of monogamous, til-death-do-us-part marriage.

In accordance with the “law of gradualness,” unmarried couples living together might be encouraged to find deeper commitment in a relationship that has obvious value. Individuals who have remarried after divorce may perhaps be able to take Communion if, for example, the second marriage is stable and clearly benefits the children. Some of the church leadership talked about affirming long-term, committed same-sex relationships in the same way the Catholic Church affirms the virtue in other religious traditions. “One simply cannot say that a faithful homosexual relationship that has held for decades is nothing,” Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich elaborated to a reporter. . . .

Our David goes on, and on, but you can read that for yourself. Let's fast-forward to where he really puts his finger on it. "Clearly, something is happening within the church."

Church leaders and members, like the members of any other community, have been influenced by the experience of having friends, relatives and neighbors who are living admirable lives after divorce, or who are in committed, loving same-sex relationships. The pope and the bishops meeting in Rome are also acutely aware of increasing secularization and decreasing membership.

But this is not the same as what happens when individuals or societies “gradually” change their views on a given issue.

You see, "Unlike secular political movements, the church is not staking out positions on social issues with the goal of effecting — or blocking — legal or cultural change."

It does not see social change (however important) as an end in itself. Instead, the goal is to facilitate the encounter with God, in the person of Jesus and the community of the church. The deliberations of the synod make clear that Francis and many other bishops worry intensely that a focus on certain moral ideals, especially when they sound like a simple “no” to many people, constitutes a barrier to that fundamental spiritual encounter.

Thus, unlike secular advocacy of this or that stance on an issue, gradualism rests on the more important theological conviction that God is really at work in the world. . . .

At this distinction I imagine the all-Catholic bloc of thug-justices on the U.S. Supreme Court would nod sagely. They too would never engage in "secular advocacy of this or that stance on an issue." It just comes out looking this way -- the, er, "company way."

And you know how they're always portrayed as bad guys when they have to once again just say no when they have benighted appellants asking for what might be called "the comfort of a little extra personal freedom and liberation"?

You could say that, in highlighting gradualness, the synod is saying something very, very old, and not all that political: We are all sinners, and we must rely on God’s grace, not just our own resources. That’s not a gradual realization on the part of the church but something ancient. And it arises not out of a kind of laxism, but out of a recognition of how demanding and challenging Christianity is. I myself need gradualism whenever I read about loving enemies, forgiving people over and over, letting go of the illusory security and charm of possessions. How fortunate we would be if we applied gradualism toward high ideals of sustainable energy use, care for the poor and the immigrant, and sexual respect and discipline — all of which are vigorously proclaimed by the church. Instead, we often sacrifice such ambitious ideals, perhaps for the comfort of a little extra personal freedom and liberation.

The church wants much more than these private victories. God wants nothing less than love out of us. But God also knows: It takes a long time.

This actually sounds strikingly like the kind of gradualism one of the small band of remaining non-thug-justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, was talking about not long ago when she spoke the virtues of, well, gradual change in the area of same-sex marriage as opposed to, say, the thunderbolt of Roe v. Wade on the issue of abortion. Of course Justice Ginsburg was talking about gradual change in law, not religion, and in any case not being, you know, Catholic, she probably wouldn't understand. Probably Justice Scalia or Alito could explain it to her.

And of course the suggestion that there might be politics in the inner workings of the Church, why, that must seem practically blasphemous -- assuming, that is, that you know nothing whatsoever about the inner workings of the Church. Some people would say that it's one of the most intensely and viciously political institutions on the planet. Perhaps Justices Scalia and Alito can explain it to them when they finish explaining to Justice Ginsburg.


UPDATE: "THE COMPANY WAY" REPRISED (WITH REPRISE)



As I mentioned up top, Sammy Smith (doubling Mr. Twinble and World Wide Wicket Company board chairman Wally Womper) and Bobby Morse (J. Pierrepont Finch) were in the Original Broadway Cast of How to Succeed. Here they are in 1961, along with the reprise of "The Company Way" sung by Ponty's new archrival, Bud Frump (the nephew of WWW president J. B. Biggley), played on Broadway by the one and only Charles Nelson Reilly.

"The Company Way": Mr. Twimble (Sammy Smith) and Ponty (Robert Morse)

"The Company Way" reprise: Bud Frump (Charles Nelson Reilly), Sammy Smith, and company

Original Broadway Cast recording, Elliot Lawrence, cond. RCA-BMG, recorded Oct. 22, 1961

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Bye-bye, Bert! Or: RIP, Bert Cooper [CAUTION: like-mad "Mad Men" spoiler alert]

The stars in the sky,
the moon on high,
they're great for you and me,
because they're free.

The moon belongs to everyone.
The best things in life are free.
The stars belong to everyone.
They gleam there for you and me.
The flowers in spring,
the robins that sing,
the sunbeams that shine,
they're yours, they're mine.
And love can come to everyone.
The best things in life are free.
The moon belongs to everyone.
The best things in life are free.

-- lyrics by Lew Brown and Buddy DeSylva,
music by Ray Henderson (1927)

"The moon mission connects to the story in various ways. People are reaching, and technology is reaching, but it's also become this kind of ironic turn that we're all sharing that together and yet it's also a sign of how separate we are."

-- Mad Men mastermind Matthew Weiner, about "Waterloo,"
Episode 7 of Season 7 (the "midseason finale")

"It was just a lovely way, a sweet way, for dear Matt to send me off."

-- Robert Morse, about Bert Cooper's unusual Mad Men adieu

"Finch is very smart, but let's not forget that he's now in advertising, and that does something to men's brains."

-- Bud Frump, about his nemesis J. Pierrepont Finch, in How to
Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (see clip below)

by Ken

I knew when I wrote about it originally that eventually we would have a clip of Bert Cooper bursting into song and dance in "Waterloo," the Season 7 "midseason finale" of Mad Men. And while I did my best to tiptoe around the crucial reality of the charming little production number that ensues, the crucial reality being that Bert has died -- shortly after watching with rapt fascination as Neil Armstrong landed on the moon -- and poor Don Draper, for whom things are not going at all well, is hallucinating this parting message from his now-departed boss-and-partner.

In an AMC blog Q-and-A posted following Bert's passing, Robert Morse tells how he got the news of his impending demise.

Matthew Weiner came to me and said, “Bobby, I want to talk to you… You’re going to pass away in this episode. I’m sorry.”

I said, “I perfectly understand.”

And he said, “By the way, I’ve always wanted to have you sing. That’s what I remember you from, all your Broadway and theater days. When I hired you, always, in the back of my mind, I wanted you to sing a song, but there was never a place to do it.” And then he came up with this idea. He said, “I am going to make you come back in the last shot in the picture and sing a song to Don.”

[Morse sings] “The moon belongs to everyone. The best things in life are free.”

They had this wonderful choreographer, Mary Ann Kellogg, whom I knew very well, and hired four or five beautiful dancers who would play secretaries… I dance with them and also sing to Don, and it’s a whole production. I went and learned the song, and I went into the studio and we recorded it with a huge orchestra. Then we rehearsed it on the set for a couple of days, away from everybody else.

Nobody knew what was going on… It was just a lovely way, a sweet way, for dear Matt to send me off.

Robert spoke in more detail in a Vanity Fair interview, including this (with the interviewer in boldface):

. . . We shot it on a Sunday, for six or seven hours. And I must say watching Jon Hamm watching Bobby—me—was incredibly touching.
Hamm was there while you were shooting it, for the reaction shots?
Absolutely. He was on the other side of the camera. He was who I was singing to. You’re singing the song to somebody, not just a warm body.
For me, it came across in the performance. I felt you connecting to Don—and to me, and presumably lots of other people in the audience.
Well that makes me feel good. [Laughs] Because that’s what it’s about—connecting. I really felt like the whole thing was a love letter, from Matt.
Maybe this is a silly question, but was it hard dancing in socks?
I wasn’t concerned about it, but other people were. They said, “Are you going to be able to dance in socks? That’s a pretty slippery floor up there, blah blah blah.” I said, “No problem.” I went up there one day and just walked around, slid, and it was not a problem.
Did they put some kind of no-skid material on the bottom of your socks, just in case?
They brought some, but I didn’t need it.
I particularly liked the last wave you gave, kind of a salute, as your office door shut. That was a sweet bit of business.
I must say, that was my touch. [Laughs]

There's an interesting "inside look" at "Waterloo" from Matthew Weiner and the Mad Men cast (it's the source of the "moon" quote from MW at the top of this post. I tried to embed it, and as happens often when I try to embed a non-YouTube clip, it proceeded to destroy the draft of this post, stripping out the line breaks. I once found a workaround for this, but I don't remember it, so you can catch it at the link, and while I try to fix the wounded post, I'll be cursing everyone involved, wishing them the most hideous, lingering deaths available to members of our species.


THE AMC INTERVIEWER FOLLOWED
UP WITH A GREAT QUESTION

Q: What’s it been like keeping Cooper’s death a secret?
A: For the past seven years, I haven’t been able to come home to my family and say anything about the show, because I’m not allowed and because they do not want to know! They want to see it every Sunday night. So think of this, my wife is going to be watching it this coming Sunday night with no idea and she’s going to see me pass away and she’s going to wonder what I’ve been doing for the last few weeks since we filmed it! Actually, I’ve been going down to visit the set because Matt said, “Please do. You’re going to get a script every week. You’re going to keep coming to the readings.”

Asked whether he's ever had an acting job last as long as his seven-year Mad Men run, Robert is momentarily taken aback.

Ohmygosh, you know, I never thought about it. But I doubt it. I’m very fortunate that I’ve had long runs on Broadway and dinner theater and stages across the country and at the Old Vic. But I’ve never had what might be called a seven-year run in any of it.

Asked about his own memories of the moon landing, Robert says:

Q: Do you remember watching the moon landing yourself? A: I think I was in New Hampshire at a friend’s cottage on Newfound Lake. We watched it on TV, just like everybody else. You know, I am the oldest one, I think, in the cast. I lived during all those years. At 80-plus years [if we go by Wikipedia, Robert turned 83 last month -- Ed.], I go back to the ’40s, the ’50s and the ’60s. I remember Madison Avenue. I remember all the advertising. I remember all of that.

IT'S HARD NOT TO BE HOPELESSLY
SENTIMENTAL ABOUT BOBBY MORSE

He has had what is by any standard, I think, a terrific career, and Matthew Weiner should be blessed for creating such a glorious late-career role to sort of book-end that career. But incredibly he was already 30 -- and hardly unknown in theatrical circles -- when How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying opened on Broadway in October 1961 and made him an instant megastar.

"Incredibly," because he looked maybe 20, as he did in the 1967 film version of How to Succeed, and as he did for maybe the next 30 or so years of that career. I could have seen him How to Succeed on Broadway, in the sense that it would have been physically possible, since we had just moved to NYC. But, well, I didn't. (Who knows that at age 12 you're going to make foolish decisions you'll regret all your life? When the film version opened, at Radio City Music Hall, you better believe I got to it. I loved Radio City Music Hall as a movie theater.) Luckily, the film captures a good deal of what must have been one of the immense performances since, well, since there have been theatrical performances.

We already saw the film rendering of the stupendous "Brotherhood of Man" production number in my earlier post -- and heard more of Bobby Morse as J. Pierrepont Finch in an April-May 2011 series of tributes to the great Frank Loesser (start with "Frank Loesser pays his distinctive sorts of tribute to the brotherhood of man"). You would have thought that Bobby-as-Ponty would be one of those performances that would intimidate future contenders, but that combination of eerie innocence sitting atop all-consuming corruption turns out to be easier to make work than I at least would imagine; Matthew Broderick and Daniel Radcliffe have made a fine thing of the role on Broadway.

But it's not the same. Bobby M was a superhero of a stage performer and also a great singer, not an actor who can sort of get through a tune, and Loesser bequeathed Ponty a handful of great songs. So I thought we'd go out with this one.

FRANK LOESSER: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying: "I Believe in You"


Robert Morse, vocal; Original Broadway Cast recording, Elliot Lawrence, cond. RCA-BMG, recorded Oct. 22, 1961

Now I've done some blunt editing here, though by "editing" all I mean is that I've isolated the song from its context. And I don't think there's any question that it's a stupendously great song, and a uniquely inspiring one. Except that, as written, it doesn't aim for quite the sort of inspiration one might imagine. Here it is from the film:

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TV Watch: In the "midseason finale" of "Mad Men," Bert Cooper sings and dances!

"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."

-- J. Pierrepont Finch (Robert Morse), in How
to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

by Ken

Okay, so it wasn't "Brotherhood of Man." (Composer-lyricist Frank Loesser, wherever you are, would you please stand up and take a quick bow?) It was still special.

"The Best Things in Life Are Free," sings Bert.

I don't feel at liberty to go into the detail of Bert's song and dance, so as to avoid piling on spoilers for people who haven't yet watched last night's Mad Men "midseason finale." And think on that a moment: a "midseason finale." We all know that this was the last of the seven episodes that make up "the first half" of Season 7, with the remaining seven episodes, the "second half" of the season, promised for . . . well, 2015. Actually, since Mad Men has been doing 13-episode seasons, the two halves of Season 7 really do add up to a single season, more or less -- but a two-year "season"?

Anyway, in order to steer clear of further spoilers, I'm not going to go into the circumstances of Bert's rendering of "The Best Things in Life Are Free." But let's face it, isn't this what we've been waiting for ever since we met Mad Men's advertising éminence grise? A song, a dance, maybe a full-fledged production number?

I tried to figure a way to get in a picture that includes a pair
of Bert's trademark socks. We can't get everything we want.
(Wait! Look at the "Best Things in Life Are Free" shot above.)

I was happy to be caught up with Season 7 in time for last night's "finale." As I believe I've mentioned, my re-viewing of the first six seasons of Mad Men was interrupted partway through Season 6 by an unexpected televisual hijacking. I started watching the DVDs of Gilmore Girls, a show I'd never paid any attention to, figuring that esconced on the WB it must be a show for teenage girls. But within a couple of episodes I found it taking over my life, and I hardly came up for air until I'd downed all 153 episodes spread over seven seasons (which ended in 2007).

Then, thinking it might be interesting to look again at the first episode or two, I did that, and quickly knew there was no point fighting it. There was no possibility of stopping until I reached Episode 153 again. At least in theory, a test I used to apply to possible DVD acquisitions was whether I could count on watching them more than once. In fact, especially during my recent DVD (and Blu-ray) acquiring binge, I've stockpiled a huge quantity of stuff I have yet to watch even once. Gilmore Girls has already passed its two-viewings mark, and I realize I'm in constant peril of stumbling into viewing no. 3.

(For some time now I've had a future post called "A love letter to Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino" in "draft" status atop the DWT working-posts list, which I expect has been driving Howie just the least bit crazy, though by now he's familiar with the phenomenon of posts that, over a long period, I aim to write, and sometimes eventually do.)


From Season 3, Episode 7, "Seven Twenty Three": "Would you say I know something about you, Don?" asks Bert, who of course knows most of the terriblest thing there is to know about Don.


HAPPILY, THE DVR DID ITS JOB WITH MAD MEN

So by the time I polished off Gilmore Girls 153 the second time, I was able to go back to the start of Season 6 of Mad Men, then zip right through Episodes 1-6 of Season 7. Or should I say zap my way through Season 7? After going through the 78 episodes of Seasons 1-6 blissfully commercial-free, I experienced quite a jolt returning to the real world of basic cable. I went so far as to watch last night's episode in real time, with unzappable commercial breaks!

And the almost-immersive viewing of the 85 Mad Men episodes to date has been an invaluable experience. I was stunned by how much I didn't remember, or remember completely, and how much I probably never really grasped the first time through, for all sorts of reasons. One obvious reason is that preknowledge of the characters made it a lot easier to sort out developments as they developed, and to appreciate how carefully they were developed, and consequently to follow all sorts of plot lines more accurately than before.

One thing that intrigued me is that the progress of the series no longer seemed to me the steadily downward, darkening movement it had seemed taken in season by season. Mostly it seems to me that the first time through, we just knew less about the characters. The second time through, for example, the marriage of Don and Betty Draper (Jon Hamm and January Jones) seems clearly doomed almost from the time we meet them. And the second time through, what had seemed so clearly a descent into meltdown on Don's part didn't seem to me any such thing, really. Yes, some of the pieces of his puzzle were rearranging themselves -- for him as well as us. But even his supposed hitting of bottom, in the famous Hershey's presentation, where he actually tells a true story from his early life, is not just an instance of truth-telling (albeit under not ideally appropriate circumstances) but an act that enables the even-more-desperate-to-get-away Ted Chaough (Kevin Rahm) to have the suddenly and improbably coveted Los Angeles job.


THE ULTIMATE SIN: NOT FITTING IN

Who picked out Harry's glasses?

Here I have to give series mastermind Matthew Weiner all kinds of credit for the direction(s) he has chosen to take Mad Men so far in the final season. I know a lot of people have been expecting Don to have to pay for the past sins of his we learned about gradually in the early seasons. Now in fact he is being undone by what appear to be much more serious sins -- not just telling the truth, but not fitting in. Weiner and his team have given us two characters in particular who live by the crucial importance of fitting in: Harry Hamlin in his creepily empty-suited performance as Jim Cutler (the first "C" of CGC, the agency with which SCDP merged so suddenly and unexpectedly in Season 6 that it was ages before the new agency even got a name; whoever picked out those glasses for Jim should get an Emmy just for that), and Allan Havey giving a performance that somehow manages to be simultaneously vaguely comical and understatedly savage as Lou Avery, Don's singularly uncreative SCP replacement as creative director during his forced "leave."

It's not until after Don has attempted his comeback that all-knowing Bert Cooper points out, exasperatedly, that no one comes back from leave. And when someone has committed a sin like Don's, the sin of not fitting in, he should surely know that any future he may have should be someplace else.




UPDATE: TO SEE AND HEAR BERT SING AND
DANCE, CHECK OUT THIS FOLLOW-UP POST

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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

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[5/1/2011] Sunday Classics: Frank Loesser pays his distinctive sorts of tribute to the brotherhood of man (continued)

LET'S LISTEN TO ANOTHER PERFORMANCE
OF THE OPENING OF GUYS AND DOLLS

In 1982 Britain's prestigious National Theatre staged a wildly successful production of Guys and Dolls. Their version of the opening underscores the startling juxtapositions, not to mention making a decidedly ragtag musical bunch of the Save-a-Soul evangelizers. Pretty darned funny, I think.

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

David Healy (Nicely-Nicely), Barrie Rutter (Benny), and Kevin Williams (Charlie), vocals (in "Fugue for Tinhorns"); Julie Covington (Sarah Brown) et al., vocals (in "Follow the Fold"); Tony Britten, cond. Chrysalis, from the Original National Theatre Cast recording, April 1982


STICKING WITH G&D, WE'VE ALREADY MET
MISS ADELAIDE. NOW LET'S HEAR HER LAMENT

One of the three deliriously wonderful comic songs we heard Friday night was a number performed by Miss Adelaide at the Hot Box Cafe, "A Bushel and a Peck." As I mentioned, Adelaide is an all but invariable charmer. Despite the tendency of productions to camp up her funniness, notably her funny-voicedness (which you'll notice is noticeably less extreme in the case of the original Adelaide, Vivian Blaine), it's a good bet that any performance of Guys and Dolls will have the audience eating out of her hand.

Whereas it's a good bet that, unless you have extraordinarily charismatic and vocally well-endowed performers of the Save-a-Soul missionary Sarah Brown and Sky Masterson, the charmer who seduces her on a bet, the show's nominal central relationship will have less of a hold on the audience than the chronically troubled one of Adelaide and Nathan. I promised Friday night that we would hear Adelaide lamenting her nonmarital plight, and here it is, one of Broadway's great solo turns.

Guys and Dolls: "Adelaide's Lament"

Vivian Blaine (Adelaide), vocal; Irving Actman, cond. American Decca, from the Original Broadway Cast recording, 1950
Julia McKenzie (Adelaide), vocal; Tony Britten, cond. Chrysalis, from the Original National Theatre Cast recording, April 1982


CREATING CHARACTERS BY THE TRIO:
MHP'S PASQUALE, CICCIO, AND GIUSEPPE

Preparations are under way at the Napa Valley grape farm of Tony Esposito, "the most happy fella," for the boss's wedding to his soon-to-arrive "correspondence" bride, Amy, whom he has dubbed "Rosabella." Preparations are overseen by Pasquale, Tony's cook and paymaster; Giuseppe, the watchman; and Ciccio, the handyman. Loesser specifies: "It is obvious that [Pasquale] is the head servant and a notch superior to the other two." Note that Pasquale is a baritone, Giuseppe and Ciccio tenors; we'll come back to this in a moment.

The Most Happy Fella: "Abbondanza"

Rico Froehlich (Pasquale), Arthur Rubin (Giuseppe), and John Henson (Ciccio), vocals; Herbert Greene, cond. Columbia/CBS/Sony, from the Original Broadway Cast recording, May 1956
Stephen Davis (Pasquale), Alfred Boe (Giuseppe), and Joseph Shovelton (Ciccio); National Symphony Orchestra, John Owen Edwards, cond. Jay/TER, recorded 1997-99

We're not going to go into all the plot contortions, but in due time "Rosabella" duly appears. The "dear spouse" is welcomed by the trio.

The Most Happy Fella: "Benvenuta, cara sposa"

Rico Froehlich (Pasquale), Arthur Rubin (Giuseppe), and John Henson (Ciccio), vocals; Herbert Greene, cond. Columbia/CBS/Sony, from the Original Broadway Cast recording, May 1956
Stephen Davis (Pasquale), Alfred Boe (Giuseppe), and Joseph Shovelton (Ciccio); National Symphony Orchestra, John Owen Edwards, cond. Jay/TER, recorded 1997-99

PUCCINI'S TRIO OF MANDARINS

It's hard to imagine that Loesser wasn't thinking of the trio of mandarins from Puccini's last opera, Turandot, set in ancient China. In Act I, the "gran cancielliere" (grand chancellor) Ping, "gran provveditore" (grand purveyor) Pang, and "gran cuciniere" (chief cook) Pong -- appear, determined to dissuade the Unknown Prince, intoxicated by the beauty of the Princess Turandot, from submitting himself to the surely-suicidal challenge of her three riddles, for which the prize is her hand in marriage, and the punishement for failure, already suffered by countless suitors, death. Note that the clearly superior Ping is a baritone, Pang and Pong tenors.

PUCCINI: Turandot: Act I, Ping, Pang, and Pong, "Fermo! Che fai? T'arresta!" ("Halt! What are you doing? Stop!")

Mario Sereni (b), Ping; Piero de Palma (t), Pang; Tommaso Frascati (t), Pong; Jussi Bjoerling (t), Calaf; Rome Opera Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded July 3-11, 1959

In Act II, Puccini had librettists Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni give the three mandarins a little scene to themselves, as they prepare for the two possible outcomes of Calaf's trial by riddle: Pong for a royal wedding If the stranger wins, Pong for a funeral in the likelier event that he loses. Ping laments what China has sunk to after its "70 thousand centuries," then reflects on his house in Hunan "with a little pond so blue, all surrounded by bamboo." This is the first half of the scene.

PUCCINI: Turandot: Act II, Scene 1, Ping, "Olà, Pang! Olà, Pong!" ("Ho there, Pang! Ho there, Pong!") . . . "Ho una casa nell'Honan" ("I have a house in Honan")

Mario Sereni (b), Ping; Piero de Palma (t), Pang; Tommaso Frascati (t), Pong; Rome Opera Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded July 3-11, 1959

THEN THERE ARE LOESSER'S HANDSOME CHARMERS:
G&D'S SKY MASTERSON AND MHF'S JOEY, JOEY, JOEY

Guys and Dolls: "Luck, Be a Lady Tonight"

As I suggested, the music Loesser wrote for G&D's Sky Masterson really needs more charismatic performance than it's apt to get, but Sky has one all-but-surefire number, which entered the pantheon of the world's best-known songs.

Robert Alda (Sky Masterson), vocal; Irving Actman, cond. American Decca, from the Original Broadway Cast recording, 1950
Ian Charleson (Sky Masterson), vocal; Tony Britten, cond. Chrysalis, from the Original National Theatre Cast recording, April 1982

The Most Happy Fella: "Like a perfumed

woman" . . ."Joey, Joey, Joey"

In MHF, Joe is actually written quite sympathetically -- he's as much a victim as Rosabella in the epistolary confusion. (Tony has sent Amy Joe's picture, which works fine until she actually arrives in Napa Valley.) He resolutely stands by and stands up for Tony. Yet Loesser did a bang-up job of musicalizing his roaming, restless, unable-to-settle-down quality, and in the process got a hit song.

Art Lund (Joe) and Robert Weede (Tony) in the spoken dialogue; Art Lund, vocal; orchestra, Herbert Greene, cond. Columbia/CBS/Sony, Original Broadway Cast recording, May 1956
Richard Muenz (Joe), vocal; National Symphony Orchestra, John Owen Edwards, cond. Jay/TER, recorded 1997-99


BUT THERE'S NO CHARMER MORE CHARMING THAN
HTS'S PONTY, AND HE'LL TELL YOU SO HIMSELF

How to Succeed in Business Without Really

Trying: "I Believe in You"

Robert Morse (Ponty) and company, vocals; Elliot Lawrence, cond. RCA/BMG, Original Broadway Cast recording, 1961
Matthew Broderick (Ponty) and company, vocals; Ted Sperling, cond. RCA/BMG, 1985 Broadway Cast recording, Apr. 2, 1995

How to Succeed in Business Without Really

Trying: "Rosemary"

Still, somewhere inside him -- buried deep in a character who seems mostly surface -- even Ponty has a redeeming touch of magic. Here he suddenly hears music in the name of his ever-loyal, mostly taken-for-granted girlfriend -- and Loesser made magic of the name.

Robert Morse (Ponty) and Bonnie Scott (Rosemary), vocals; Elliot Lawrence, cond. RCA/BMG, from the Original Broadway Cast recording, 1961
Matthew Broderick (Ponty) and Megan Mullally (Rosemary), vocals; Ted Sperling, cond. RCA, from the 1995 Broadway Cast recording, Apr. 2, 1995


AND NOBODY WROTE SHOW-STOPPINGER
SHOW-STOPPERS THAN LOESSER

Guys and Dolls: "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat"

Here's our old friend Nicely-Nicely stopping the show.

Stubby Kaye (Nicely-Nicely) and company, vocals; Irving Actman, cond. American Decca, from the Original Broadway Cast recording, 1950
David Healy (Nicely-Nicely) and company, vocals; Tony Britten, cond. Chrysalis, from the Original National Theatre Cast recording, April 1982

The Most Happy Fella: "Big D"

You remember Shorty? We last heard him with his pals on Friday night, "Standing on the Corner Watching All the Girls Come By." Now the pathologically shy fellow meets Amy (Rosabella)'s friend Cleo, and . . . well, you'll hear.

Shorty Long (Herman) and Susan Johnson (Cleo), vocals; Herbert Greene, cond. Columbia/CBS/Sony, from the Original Broadway Cast recording, May 1956
Don Stephenson (Herman), Karen Ziemba (Cleo); National Symphony Orchestra, John Owen Edwards, cond. Jay/TER, recorded 1997-99

How to Succeed in Business Without Really

Trying: "Brotherhood of Man"

This grand number eventually erupts into a full-fledged gospel anthem, lifted to even higher heights by Lillias White as Miss Jones in the 1995 recording.

Robert Morse (Ponty), Sammy Smith (Wally Wompers), Ruth Kobart (Miss Jones), and company, vocals; Elliot Lawrence, cond. RCA/BMG, from the Original Broadway Cast recording, 1961
Matthew Broderick (Ponty), Gerry Vichi (Wally Wompers), Lillias White (Miss Jones) and company, vocals; Ted Sperling, cond. RCA, from the 1995 Broadway Cast recording


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