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By Jupiter [Masterworks Broadway]
The 27th and final new Rodgers & Hart musical came along in 1942. By Jupiter enjoyed a 427-performance Broadway run, the longest of any musical by the pair (other than two revivals produced after Hart's death in 1943). Longest running, but under special circumstances: the boys' best musicals — arguably On Your Toes, Babes in Arms, and The Boys From Syracuse — were produced in the depths of the Depression, when it was a feat to get to 300.

By Jupiter came along when wartime audiences were streaming into New York, hungry for Broadway entertainment. The prime element on tap was Ray Bolger. The song-and-dance man first made a name for himself in R&H's early Heads Up! (1929); attained stardom in On Your Toes (1936); and achieved what turned out to be celluloid immortality in "The Wizard of Oz" (1939). From all we hear, Bolger was at his best in By Jupiter. The show only closed when Bolger wouldn't extend his contract because — says Rodgers — he wanted to go entertain the troops on the Pacific front. Which doesn't sound quite right, but that's the story.

What they did have was Bob Dishy, who was (and is) a talented and distinctive comedian who can deliver a song. But By Jupiter called for something more. Or perhaps this pre-Oklahoma! musical was, by 1967, simply unworkable. Although without Bolger, it might have been deemed unworkable even in 1942. Which is why the original production shuttered when he left, and — unlike nine other R&H musicals — this biggest hit of theirs didn't have a road tour. Or visit London or the silver screen.

Tied up with the revival was a first-time librettist named Fred Ebb, who was credited for "additional material" (but who wrote a pre-opening piece taking credit for revising the book). By the time this By Jupiter opened, Ebb needed neither the credit nor the money, thanks to the 1966 hit Cabaret. But Cabaret reached town just before Jupiter went into rehearsal; if that "Wilkommen" show had failed, this would have at least been a job. Ebb's presence explains the involvement of Dishy, whom few would think to cast in a Ray Bolger role. Ebb had written for Dishy in Flora, the Red Menace and knew what he could do.

I stored away my By Jupiter LP years ago, and have never been much interested in hearing it again. I remembered it as having a collegiate tone, which in some ways matched the nature of the material. Jupiter was surely an attempt by the boys to mine the same field as Syracuse. While the later show ran almost twice as long, the material pales in comparison for a variety of reasons. Starting with the absence of George Abbott, who produced, directed and wrote the book for Syracuse. (Abbott also did On Your Toes and Pal Joey; Jupiter was directed by Josh Logan, with a book from R&H themselves.)

The score has some beauteous spots, fittingly so for the men who had given us all those exquisite songs in Syracuse (headed by "Falling in Love with Love" and "You Have Cast Your Shadow on the Sea"). "Careless Rhapsody" and "Nobody's Heart" are prime R&H, as good as it gets. And there are two especially effective comedy numbers, "Life with Father" — a slightly paler retread "The Heart Is Quicker than the Eye," which Bolger introduced in On Your Toes — and the insult duet "Ev'rything I've Got."

Otherwise, though, the score is not up to standards, perhaps in part because the lyricist seems to have been on a nonstop bender. The tone is set in the very opening number, in which the soldiers sing "Agamemnon, Achilles and Ajax / We would rather have stayed home and played jacks." R&H, as librettists, kept plugging away at what critic Abel Green (one of my predecessors at Variety) called "the monotone of masculine females and effeminate men." The plot told of a bevy of Amazon warriors, fighting the Greeks; Bolger played a war bride, or rather war husband.

The 1967 LP of By Jupiter, from RCA, has never been a personal favorite. So much so that while I revisited the album when DRG released it on CD some years ago, I gave it a quick listen and totally forgot about it. This time around, though, the album has finally won me over. Those aforementioned beautiful songs remain perfect; the comedy songs still pack a wallop; and items like "Jupiter Forbid" offer exceedingly high spirits. The orchestration comes from Abba Bogin, a talented all-round musician who died on Aug. 25. Bogin worked closely with Frank Loesser during the creation of The Most Happy Fella and Greenwillow (for which he served as musical director), and provided the especially lovely orchestrations for Riverwind.

Dishy is supported by Sheila Sullivan and Robert R. Kaye. Collegiate, yes, and somewhat ragtag, without the deep beauties of Syracuse or the various charms of On Your Toes, Babes in Arms, or Pal Joey. But By Jupiter is fun, by Jove!