Steve Newport
2004-04-29 03:34:18 UTC
Ken Mandelbaum: In the 1940s, Walter and Jean Kerr met as teacher and
student at Washington's Catholic University. As director of the drama
department, Walter Kerr wrote and directed several productions, and in
1944, about six years before Kerr became a drama critic, one of his
university shows moved to Broadway. It was called Sing Out, Sweet Land!,
and, like the previous year's Oklahoma!, Sing Out, Sweet Land! was
produced by the Theatre Guild, had Alfred Drake in its leading role, and
got an original cast album on the Decca label. Although he was more
interested in playing Shakespeare or Shaw after Oklahoma!, Drake chose
Sing Out, Sweet Land! as his next show, with the stipulation that the
Guild would then allow him to direct or act in a classic play.
Co-starring in Sing Out, Sweet Land! was Burl Ives, who had appeared in
two Rodgers and Hart musicals, I Married an Angel and The Boys from
Syracuse, but was already on his way to establishing himself as the
country's most popular singer of folk ballads. Also in the cast of Sing
Out, Sweet Land! were belter Bibi Osterwald, from the Catholic
University production, and Jack McCauley, who would go on to Broadway
musicals like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and High Button Shoes. A
self-described "salute to American folk and popular music," Sing Out,
Sweet Land! featured only three original songs. Otherwise, the score
consisted of pre-existing American music, ranging from folk ballads,
work songs, spirituals, and blues to hymns and railroad, riverboat, and
war songs. It was the music of the American people, most of it by
unknown authors. Around this material, Kerr fashioned a book which he
also directed. The published text reveals that Sing Out, Sweet Land! was
something of a concept musical, one with direct links to later pieces
like Love Life, Hallelujah, Baby!, and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The
show begins in Puritan New England, where a young man named Barnaby
Goodchild (Drake) is put in the stocks for singing and dancing. Barnaby,
who remains the same age throughout the show, escapes to colonial
Virginia, where, twenty years later, he gets in trouble for chopping
down a tree. (A young boy named George takes the blame.) After
independence has been won, Barnaby brings his music to the Illinois
wilderness, and the people like it so much that they force Barnaby to
stay and marry. With the help of an Indian maiden, Barnaby escapes to
the Oregon Trail, where a tough prospector is melted by Barnaby's songs
and gives him his gold. He journeys to the south, where he hears
spirituals, led by Juanita Hall (South Pacific, Flower Drum Song) as the
Watermelon Woman. On a Mississippi riverboat, Barnaby plays cards with
some gamblers in an attempt to lose some of the gold that weighs him
down. The saga of "Frankie and Johnny" plays out for real and the
sheriff blames Barnaby for instigating the tragedy, forcing Barnaby to
flee. Act Two opens at a Civil War campfire, where Barnaby's music
allows him to sympathize with both North and South. At a railroad
station in Texas, the widow of Casey Jones (zesty belter Osterwald,
later of The Golden Apple and A Family Affair) sings the saga of her
late husband's demise. Ostensibly hired to keep bums off the trains,
Barnaby instead teaches the bums to sing songs, then sends them off on
various train routes to spread the music around. In a city park, an
1890s melodrama is acted out, complete with hero, heroine, and villain,
with Barnaby saving the day for the young lady. At a '20s speakeasy,
Barnaby is hired by a gangster to sing to his girlfriend and soften her
up. The published version eliminates the next sequence, set on an
aircraft carrier and bringing the action up to the present and World War
II. At the end, the Puritan girl from the first scene appears to bring
Barnaby back to where it all started. He will stay forever in the Big
Rock Candy Mountains, singing his songs and having them carried by the
winds.
Sing Out, Sweet Land! is about the changes in American life from pioneer
days to the present, and how those changes are reflected in the
country's music. And it's about the power of music to change lives and
history. The performers played different characters in each sequence,
with Barnaby the only constant. It's a mammoth role, one that Drake must
have relished playing.
This is an intriguing work, one clearly intended to remind a wartime
audience of the values that were being fought for. When Sing Out, Sweet
Land! opened at the International Theatre at Columbus Circle on December
27, 1944, it received mixed reviews, with several raves from major
critics, but others liking the music but not the script. No doubt the
show's episodic, revue-like format and ever-shifting time frame made it
tricky for audiences, and Sing Out, Sweet Land! managed only 102
performances, without returning its investment. Decca's cast recording
has never been among the titles that fans have most clamored to get on
CD. And that's because much of it sounds like a random collection of
traditional folk material --from "Big Rock Candy Mountain" to "Blue Tail
Fly" and "Frankie and Johnny"-rather than a show album. But the new
songs, all performed by Drake, are lovely, from Barnaby's opening
number, "As I Was Going Along," by Edward Eager and Elie Siegmeister
(the latter the show's arranger and conductor) to Eager and John Mundy's
two contributions, "Where" (on the aircraft carrier) and the closing
"More Than These" (which also functions as a title song). Drake, whose
Decca recordings also included Roberta and Down in the Valley, is at his
vocal best. Ives shines in "Frankie and Johnny," while Hall is effective
in "Trouble, Trouble" and "Basement Blues." And Osterwald's "Casey
Jones" might just be reason enough for Decca Broadway to consider
reissuing the cast album of Sing Out, Sweet Land!
---------------------------
Yes, I have it on Lp.
student at Washington's Catholic University. As director of the drama
department, Walter Kerr wrote and directed several productions, and in
1944, about six years before Kerr became a drama critic, one of his
university shows moved to Broadway. It was called Sing Out, Sweet Land!,
and, like the previous year's Oklahoma!, Sing Out, Sweet Land! was
produced by the Theatre Guild, had Alfred Drake in its leading role, and
got an original cast album on the Decca label. Although he was more
interested in playing Shakespeare or Shaw after Oklahoma!, Drake chose
Sing Out, Sweet Land! as his next show, with the stipulation that the
Guild would then allow him to direct or act in a classic play.
Co-starring in Sing Out, Sweet Land! was Burl Ives, who had appeared in
two Rodgers and Hart musicals, I Married an Angel and The Boys from
Syracuse, but was already on his way to establishing himself as the
country's most popular singer of folk ballads. Also in the cast of Sing
Out, Sweet Land! were belter Bibi Osterwald, from the Catholic
University production, and Jack McCauley, who would go on to Broadway
musicals like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and High Button Shoes. A
self-described "salute to American folk and popular music," Sing Out,
Sweet Land! featured only three original songs. Otherwise, the score
consisted of pre-existing American music, ranging from folk ballads,
work songs, spirituals, and blues to hymns and railroad, riverboat, and
war songs. It was the music of the American people, most of it by
unknown authors. Around this material, Kerr fashioned a book which he
also directed. The published text reveals that Sing Out, Sweet Land! was
something of a concept musical, one with direct links to later pieces
like Love Life, Hallelujah, Baby!, and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The
show begins in Puritan New England, where a young man named Barnaby
Goodchild (Drake) is put in the stocks for singing and dancing. Barnaby,
who remains the same age throughout the show, escapes to colonial
Virginia, where, twenty years later, he gets in trouble for chopping
down a tree. (A young boy named George takes the blame.) After
independence has been won, Barnaby brings his music to the Illinois
wilderness, and the people like it so much that they force Barnaby to
stay and marry. With the help of an Indian maiden, Barnaby escapes to
the Oregon Trail, where a tough prospector is melted by Barnaby's songs
and gives him his gold. He journeys to the south, where he hears
spirituals, led by Juanita Hall (South Pacific, Flower Drum Song) as the
Watermelon Woman. On a Mississippi riverboat, Barnaby plays cards with
some gamblers in an attempt to lose some of the gold that weighs him
down. The saga of "Frankie and Johnny" plays out for real and the
sheriff blames Barnaby for instigating the tragedy, forcing Barnaby to
flee. Act Two opens at a Civil War campfire, where Barnaby's music
allows him to sympathize with both North and South. At a railroad
station in Texas, the widow of Casey Jones (zesty belter Osterwald,
later of The Golden Apple and A Family Affair) sings the saga of her
late husband's demise. Ostensibly hired to keep bums off the trains,
Barnaby instead teaches the bums to sing songs, then sends them off on
various train routes to spread the music around. In a city park, an
1890s melodrama is acted out, complete with hero, heroine, and villain,
with Barnaby saving the day for the young lady. At a '20s speakeasy,
Barnaby is hired by a gangster to sing to his girlfriend and soften her
up. The published version eliminates the next sequence, set on an
aircraft carrier and bringing the action up to the present and World War
II. At the end, the Puritan girl from the first scene appears to bring
Barnaby back to where it all started. He will stay forever in the Big
Rock Candy Mountains, singing his songs and having them carried by the
winds.
Sing Out, Sweet Land! is about the changes in American life from pioneer
days to the present, and how those changes are reflected in the
country's music. And it's about the power of music to change lives and
history. The performers played different characters in each sequence,
with Barnaby the only constant. It's a mammoth role, one that Drake must
have relished playing.
This is an intriguing work, one clearly intended to remind a wartime
audience of the values that were being fought for. When Sing Out, Sweet
Land! opened at the International Theatre at Columbus Circle on December
27, 1944, it received mixed reviews, with several raves from major
critics, but others liking the music but not the script. No doubt the
show's episodic, revue-like format and ever-shifting time frame made it
tricky for audiences, and Sing Out, Sweet Land! managed only 102
performances, without returning its investment. Decca's cast recording
has never been among the titles that fans have most clamored to get on
CD. And that's because much of it sounds like a random collection of
traditional folk material --from "Big Rock Candy Mountain" to "Blue Tail
Fly" and "Frankie and Johnny"-rather than a show album. But the new
songs, all performed by Drake, are lovely, from Barnaby's opening
number, "As I Was Going Along," by Edward Eager and Elie Siegmeister
(the latter the show's arranger and conductor) to Eager and John Mundy's
two contributions, "Where" (on the aircraft carrier) and the closing
"More Than These" (which also functions as a title song). Drake, whose
Decca recordings also included Roberta and Down in the Valley, is at his
vocal best. Ives shines in "Frankie and Johnny," while Hall is effective
in "Trouble, Trouble" and "Basement Blues." And Osterwald's "Casey
Jones" might just be reason enough for Decca Broadway to consider
reissuing the cast album of Sing Out, Sweet Land!
---------------------------
Yes, I have it on Lp.