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ON THE RECORD: Cast Albums of Jimmy and Let It Ride
By Steven Suskin
27 Apr 2009
LET IT RIDE [Arkiv RCA-05086]
Let It Ride was yet another forlorn musical from the time, a manufactured-by-the-numbers affair hoping to recreate the magic of a similar-seeming hit that was light years beyond its aspirations. Casting Sam Levene, Broadway's very own Nathan Detroit of Guys and Dolls, in the role of a two-bit gambler was not enough to do it; placing a Miss Adelaide-type by his side was not enough to do it; filling the stage with gamblers, touts and whatnot didn't do it. Couldn't do it, not without placing some such geniuses as Loesser, Burrows and Kaufman in the trainer's stall.
Instead we had Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, gilt-edged Hollywood hitmakers — with titles such as "Mona Lisa," "Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" and "Silver Bells" on their ASCAP racing form — but with little affinity for Broadway. Their one earlier musical, Oh! Captain!, was a 1958 mishap but infinitely superior to the present affair. Let It Ride had an inexperienced producer, an inexperienced director, and an inexperienced librettist; Sam's co-stars were new to Broadway, too, although one was a major TV star. As with the musical discussed above, the one veteran on hand was the choreographer: Onna White, who before finding fame with The Music Man and other big-time musicals had been the assistant choreographer of — you guessed it — Guys and Dolls.
Let It Ride was a new title but an old story. Three Men on a Horse had been a major Abbott farce-hit in 1935, starring Sam Levene (among others). The property traveled to Hollywood in 1936, starring Sam Levene. A group of B'way alsorans turned it into a musical comedy in 1941, under the title Banjo Eyes. An uneven affair, it was bolstered by Eddie Cantor (not in the Sam Levene role, which was played by Lionel Stander) but quickly shuttered when the star ran out of steam and stamina. Arriving back on Broadway under a new name, it was still Three Men on a Horse — a property which by this point seemed creaky, in part because of the genuine and heartwarming reality of, yes, Guys and Dolls.
The show started out with a pretty lively number, "Run, Run, Run," which Ms. White reportedly gave all the verve and sparkle of Michael Kidd's "Runyonland" opening in you-know-what. After that, though, the show did not run; it loped along, sometimes sideways and sometimes backwards. The milquetoast hero — a fellow whose innocent hobby is picking horses until Sam and his bookie buddies grab hold of him — was played by George Gobel, a homespun monologist whose immensely popular TV series held its own against the likes of Lucille Ball and Jackie Gleason. (In 1959, 1960 and 1961, all three of them came to town starring in unsuccessful musicals.) Gobel was not comfortable on Broadway, though, and quickly departed after the brief run of Let It Ride. The other star of the occasion was one Barbara Nichols, who rose to the occasion with a mock-striptease affair called "I Wouldn't Have Had To." She never returned to Broadway, but can be found on DVD giving an impressive featured performance as Rita — "what am I, a tangerine that peels in a minute?" — in the 1957 film "Sweet Smell of Success."
Ms. Nichols' solo is one of the highlights of the cast album, now suddenly appearing on CD after the LP was unceremoniously remaindered in 1962. So is that opening number, "Run, Run, Run," which seems to be orchestrated by Luther Henderson. (The show is credited to someone named Raymond Jaimes, about whom I can find barely a trace; said trace being Oh! Captain!, where eight names are credited including Ray James. The back of the Let It Ride program lists five additional orchestrators, including Jack Andrews, of Jimmy, and Luther.) Gobel has two very nice spots, which apparently sound better in the recording studio than onstage (where he was mostly inaudible). "Hey Jimmy Joe John Jim Jack" is a lovely song which is somewhat in the same tradition — thematically, not musically — as Sondheim's "Children Will Listen." And "His Own Little Island," is a tender and very nice ballad. The other high spot on a CD of lowspots is "Just an Honest Mistake," a comedy paean for sad-sack cops. Way too corny but somehow delicious. That featured singer with the high voice and the joke lines, by the way, is a fellow named Stanley Simmonds. He can also be heard on the Jimmy cast album singing the high notes in "A Nice Place to Visit." For those few of you who like to track chorus singers over the decades, Simmonds peaked as the backstage doorman who leads "When Mabel Comes in the Room" in Mack & Mabel. He is best remembered, though, for his tenor laugh-lines as Ed Peterson, the card-playing hack, in Fiorello!
(Steven Suskin is author of "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations" as well as "Second Act Trouble," "Show Tunes" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached at Ssuskin@aol.com)
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