By Steven Suskin
05 Sep 2010
THE MOST HAPPY FELLA [Sepia 1154]
Frank Loesser's 1956 bounteously joyous abbondanza of a musical The Most Happy Fella, on the other hand, has an original cast album that is unparalleled. Columbia saw fit to record the whole thing, released in a 130-minute three-LP set which remains one of the finest and beloved Broadway cast albums on the shelf. On my shelf, at least. So what use is the 1960 London cast album, a mere 55 minutes of highlights?
That was my impression of the thing based on my memories of the monaural LP. Sepia has now brought to CD the stereo version of the LP, and there is a pretty good answer to the question "what's the difference?" Stereo, and a big difference indeed.
Let it be said that the stereo LP from London does not nearly approach the Broadway cast album. The New York cast cannot be bettered. Inia Te Wiata, a New Zealander of Maori extraction, plays Tony and does very well with the part (although I do prefer Robert Weede, who created the role). The New York Rosabella, Jo Sullivan, is head and shoulders above her U.K. counterpart, who sings the role more like an opera singer than a waitress from San Francisco tricked into becoming a mail-order bride. The U.K. Rosabella, as it happens, is the same Helena Scott from Song of Norway. Better than adequate, let us say, but every emotion seems sung rather than acted.
The third part of the triangle is sung perfectly well on both recordings; Art Lund was imported to London, one of three members of the original company to make the trip. The others are Rico Froehlich, as Pasquale; and Ralph Farnworth, a New York understudy/singer who moved up to Arthur Rubin's role of Giuseppe. (When Loesser wrote the mailbag section of the title song during rehearsals, as an inside joke he inserted the names of a handful of company members — starting with Farnworth and continuing with Jo Sullivan, Susan Johnson, Lois Van Pelt and finally conductor Herbie Greene.)
Given this set of performances, I never had much affection for the London LP. But I hadn't heard it in stereo. Stereo first came to the Broadway arena in December of 1956, starting with Bells Are Ringing and Candide — although both were originally released in monaural only, with the stereo albums coming several years later. (The first stereo cast album released by Columbia was West Side Story, which opened in September 1957.) My Fair Lady and The Most Happy Fella, in the spring of 1956, were the last major Columbia musicals to be recorded solely in mono.
Stereo makes quite a difference, especially for Loesser's most musical musical. Don Walker, who was known mostly for his brash and bright musical comedies which came to typify the Broadway sound — such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees and the 1957 The Music Man — was also capable of weaving luscious, subtle, string-filled tapestries, as in Carousel. The Most Happy Fella falls in the latter category, and Loesser himself recognized the value of Walker's work on this show filled with music. There are 25 full scale musical numbers, along with another 20 musical segments which stand on their own. (This compares with about 20 numbers in My Fair Lady and 17 in Gypsy.) Loesser thus arranged for Walker to receive an unprecedented-for-orchestrators weekly percentage payment, unheard of at the time but within ten years the norm.
The point in bringing this up is that as good as the orchestrations sound on the Columbia recording, they sound better in stereo on the His Master's Voice recording (now released by Sepia for the first time on CD). You hear it right from the beginning, with those melancholy French horns cutting through the festive Overture. You hear Walker's colors, standing out in the very same way that the wind blowin' through the bunkhouse is like a perfumed woman smellin' of where she's been. (If you don't get this last sentence, get the recording and listen to "Joey, Joey, Joey.") Walker helped Loesser transform his mass of piano music into this remarkable score, and this clearer and more defined stereo recording enhances the effect. The more advanced recording equipment also helps some of the songs; the quartet "How Beautiful the Day," is revealed to be more than just a pretty song now that you can clearly pick out the interwoven musical monologues sung by Marie and Joe.
The London singers are in no way comparable to the originals — Ms. Sullivan and Ms. Johnson especially — and the one-LP London album necessarily omits critical material. But lovers of The Most Happy Fella will want to hear this 20-song selection, with those orchestrations shining through.
(Steven Suskin is author of the recently released updated and expanded Fourth Edition of "Show Tunes" as well as "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations," "Second Act Trouble," and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached at Ssuskin@aol.com)
*
Visit PlaybillStore.com to view theatre-related recordings for sale.
