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ON THE RECORD: Rodgers & Hammerstein's Nearly-Forgotten Allegro
By Steven Suskin
15 Feb 2009
This week's column discusses the first complete recording of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's 1947 musical Allegro.
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ALLEGRO [Masterworks Broadway 88697-41738]
If you write the score of Oklahoma! in the first year and Carousel in the third year, and then South Pacific in the seventh year and The King and I in the ninth, what matter what you did in the fifth year? It mattered to Richard Rodgers, though, and especially to Oscar Hammerstein II. Allegro, the musical that came in between the other four, was quickly forgotten by the multitudes but not by the authors. The show's failure —not ignominious, certainly, but a major disappointment considering that they came in with the biggest advance sale in the history of forever — remained in their minds and memories.
This was clearly an attempt at something different for the musical theatre, with one foot (Hammerstein's) in the world of Wilder and Saroyan and the other (director/choreographer Agnes de Mille's) in modern ballet. Which, perhaps, is one of the main problems of the piece. But we'll get back to that.
Allegro opened in the year of Finian's Rainbow and Brigadoon, two unconventional and similarly fanciful dance-heavy musicals which had a whole lot more to say to audiences than Allegro. What's more, it came the night after the lowbrow musical comedy laugh riot High Button Shoes — which not only had clowns and tunes but what might have been the most remarkable ballet yet seen in a Broadway theatre. De Mille had revolutionized dance on Broadway in four musicals since 1943, but Jerry Robbins' "Bathing Beauty Ballet" (as well as Michael Kidd's Tony Award-winning work for Finian) made Aggie's pseudo-psychological work on Allegro look, well, positively yesterday. The new R&H musical was respectfully received in a "worthily admirable" manner, but ticketbuyers — those who had not already plunked down their $4.50 in advance — were not swayed. Allegro made it through nine months, after which it packed up its aspirations and headed for an equally unsuccessful road tour.
(As an aside, what did Allegro, Saroyan's The Time of Your Life, Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, and the aforementioned 1947 musicals Finian's Rainbow and High Button Shoes have in common? Similarly-designed artwork by Don Freeman, that's what.)
Oscar and Dick carried the failure of Allegro with them for the rest of their days. Hammerstein was talking about revising the piece when he died in 1960, and Rodgers continued to mention it from time to time. No work was ever done, though, and the piece has languished as being pretty much nonstageable. A concert version presented in 1994 as part of the initial season at City Center Encores! reinforced the notion that the show was still worthily admirable but unworkable.
All of which has left those interested in musical theatre of the Golden Age with a pair of unanswered Allegro questions. What does the show sound like? (The original cast album was truncated, abbreviated, and sounds like it was recorded in the Holland Tunnel.) And, is the score any good? Given that the R & H blockbusters continue to blockbust (i.e. rake in royalties, year after year), and given that the heirs have demonstrated a willingness to spend some of those dollars on the preservation and enhancement of the legacy, the families have celebrated Allegro's 60th anniversary by underwriting a deluxe restoration of Dick and Oscar's long-overlooked score. Under the supervision of the R&H Organization's executive director Ted Chapin and director of music Bruce Pomahac, we suddenly — after an ambitious three-year labor of love — have a full and complete two-disc recording of Allegro. Contemplate Audra McDonald and Nathan Gunn singing "A Fellow Needs a Girl"; that alone should be enough to send you to the CD mart.
This first modern recording of Allegro sounds simply wonderful. Russell Bennett's orchestrations for this music-intensive score are rich and whimsical. (He did most of the show himself, with four minor charts by Menotti Salta and one by Ted Royal.) Conductor Larry Blank gets full value from the score, pulling out numerous nuances and touches that were inaudible on the original recording. Choral direction comes from Ben Whiteley, and the work is impeccable. Allegro has what might be the most complex choral work of any Broadway musical, with arrangements from Crane Calder. Here, we have a 24-person singing chorus, plus six children. It all — musical instruments and vocal work — has turned out remarkably well, under the overall musical direction of Mr. Pomahac.
Due to the lengthy production time and the lack of pressing deadlines, Chapin and associates were able to assemble an impressive cast. Allegro is a musical without starring parts, which might have been one of the things that worked against it. (The nominal lead, Joseph Taylor, Jr., is a somewhat hollow role; by my count, he has one major solo, a one-third share of the title song, and two minor song fragments.) Patrick Wilson sings the role here, and well, too; but there simply isn't that much of it. Norbert Leo Butz plays his sidekick, Charlie, and brings plenty of character to his songs, while Liz Callaway — as the girl in love with the married, golden boy hero — has the best of it as the third part of this central triangle. She also has the show's one knockout showstopper, "The Gentleman Is a Dope," which she delivers most effectively. (If this tangled web seems to forecast aspects of the 1981 musical Merrily We Roll Along, there are reasons which need not be revisited here.) Laura Benanti, as the hero's unappreciative wife, only gets one full song; a passing-by ingenue, meanwhile, gets one of Rodgers & Hammerstein's brightest contributions, "So Far," and Judy Kuhn takes full advantage. Continued...
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