By Steven Suskin
17 May 2009

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NEW FACES OF 1956 [Arkiv RCA-04443]
The success of New Faces of 1952 inevitably brought forth New Faces of 1956. This one had some especially bright New Faces, one knockout and two especially droll numbers, and holds a certain amount of interest for musical theatre fans. But while 1952 had a handful of songs so charming that you can't help smiling your way through the cast album, the charm songs in 1956 fall flat one after another. What was magical in the first turned mundane in the second. To accentuate the problem, Sillman prevailed upon RCA to record 21 tracks; this gives us six previously-unreleased tracks, and let's just say that they only serve to drag down an already spotty affair.

Now, those of us who like our cast albums certainly need New Faces of 1956. To begin with, we have New Faces Maggie Smith, Jane Connell, Virginia Martin, John Reardon, and Inga Swenson — quite a group. (There are some secondarily pleasing folk too, like Tiger Haynes and Billie Hayes. Sillman miscalculated in his attempt to manufacture a second Eartha Kitt; Bombay-native Amru Sani is simply puzzling, and has some dreary material including a song about life back in the Sultan's harem.)

Ms. Smith's solo, "One Perfect Moment" (Dean Fuller-Marshall Barer-Leslie Julian-Jones), doesn't come across as well on recording as it did on stage; the scene was an extended sight gag. (A stage manager friend of mine, the late Morty Halpern, told me that Peter Larkin's scenery for the show was intricate and phenomenal — but that the various scenic tricks rarely worked properly more than six or seven times a week.) Ms. Connell, who went on to create Agnes Gooch in Mame as well as other memorable roles, serenades us with a lovely ditty about "April in Fairbanks" (Murray Grand), where "the air is perfumed with the smell of blubber frying." "The Greatest Invention" (Sid Silvers-Harold Karr-Matt Dubey) is an infectiously toothsome duet for Billie Hayes and Johnny Haymer. But it is Virginia Martin, who graduated to Hedy LaRue in How to Succeed and Belle Poitrine in Little Me, who purloins the proceedings in Paul Nassau's "Talent." This is a jab at Marilyn Monroe, who had just caused a stir by taking some classes at the Actors' Studio.

Things do go downhill from there. Tallulah Bankhead had headlined the Ziegfeld Follies of 1956, which folded during its pre-Broadway tryout five weeks before New Faces of 1956 arrived. Sillman's grand idea was to bring in Tallulah, in the person of female impersonator T.C. Jones, to introduce the acts.

Katharine Hepburn comes along too, when Tallulah has "zipper trouble"; Bette Davis as well. If this sounds hysterically funny, it apparently wasn't. The Arkiv release includes the original liner notes, adding full-page photos of Ms. Connell and Ms. Smith in the above-mentioned numbers.

New Faces of 1956 ran for 220 performances. Sillman's seven post-1956 offerings did worse and worse, culminating in 1970 with a three-week run for Shirley Booth in a dreary production of Noel Coward's Hay Fever. I met with Leonard a few times in the mid-1970s, when I was drafted into doing a few budgets for a proposed Best of New Faces. Never got paid, needless to say, but the experience was worth the time expended. Sillman owned one of the finest townhouses in New York, quite a feat considering that he never had money for cab fare; by that point I suppose he was 20 years behind on his mortgage, somehow managing to evade eviction by charming his banker and various benefactors. (Leonard seems to have served as Mel Brooks' prime model for Max Bialystock, with something of the je ne sais quoi of Roger DeBris mixed in.) The bank no doubt collected royally when they sold the house on East 79th; the current inhabitant was recently named by Forbes as the richest man in town, and is planning to run for a third term as Mayor of our town.

(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)