Light Opera of New York

Light Opera of New York presents JEROME KERN’s SSSally Emma Grimsley Alex Corson Bryan Elsesser Adam Cannedy Claire Kuttler Richard Holmes Natalie Ballenger Rachael Braunstein Gerald Steichen conductor Sally PROGRAM NOTE.................................John Ostendorf Music.......................... ....Jerome Kern Butterfly Ballet...........Victor Herbert The historical context in which Jerome Kern’s Sally Book..................................Guy Bolton was written and presented is fascinating. America’s Lyrics...P.G. Wodehouse, B.G. DeSylva, involvement—and its cost in lives—in the Great War Anne Caldwell, Clifford Grey (WWI) was nothing like that of the European combat- Conductor..................Gerald Steichen tants (17 million dead). But after a half-century of relative Director..............................Gary Slavin peace, the United States was still jolted by this global Stage Manager...................Angel Vail event. We lost 100,000. Worse, in terms of fatalities, was Produced for LOONY by Carol Davis and the horrid “Spanish” Flu epidemic of 1918. It accounted David Kelleher-Flight. for more than half the U.S. military deaths in Europe and CAST: Sally............................Emma Grimsley also took another 50,000 lives in this country. Blair..................................Alex Corson Post-War America was, on the one hand, emerging Connie..........................Bryan Elsesser as a global Super-Power—President Woodrow Wilson was Otis............................Adam Cannedy hailed a hero by the European masses. On the other, our Rosie....................... ......Claire Kuttler people wanted a period of quiet, of “Normalcy,” the Pops...........................Richard Holmes slogan which elected little-known Ohio senator Warren Marsha....................Natalie Ballenger Harding to the White House in 1920. Americans turned Mrs. Tenbrock.......Rachel Braunstein their backs on Wilson’s League of Nations and the rest of Europe’s affairs. They were aggravated by the Prohibition of alcohol and by a brief but potent national financial crisis in 1920-21. Corruption in government, even within the President’s own cabinet, was rampant, gangsterism beginning to flourish. The giddy Jazz Age, also called ”The Roaring Twenties,” was the nation’s reaction: a rush to Fun and Flappers, an escape from harsh realities. On Broadway a move away from operetta began, to Playbill for a Vaudeville’s mindless pratfalls, to the exhilaration of jazz. 1921 London production Simply put, the Age of Victor Herbert was giving way to of Sally. that of Jerome Kern. Sally bridges the two—it coinciden- ✧2✧ tally involves both composers. The show boasted a roster of collaborators including the legendary New York producer Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. (1867-1932). New York-based musicologist and drama- turg Maya Cantu has made a fascinating study of the musicals of this period; her lengthy presentation in 2012 at the New York Public Library’s “Musical of the Month” series offered a good look at Kern’s 1920 Sally. More recent- Sally’s original creative trio (l. to r.) P.G. Wodehouse, Guy ly, Dr. Cantu has published a study—American Bolton and Jerome Kern. Cinderellas on the Broadway Musical Stage—examining the history of the “Rags-to-Riches hero- ine” who inspired composers from Sally’s time down to our Mid-Century. Sally was among the first of her genre. Cantu shines a light on the historical emergence of Women’s Rights as depicted in these early stage works—she links the “Glass Slipper” with the “Glass Ceiling”—and she also provides a source for everything one needs to know about the delightful Kern score we have recorded here. Sally’s history is complicated. Let us begin by stating that Jerome Kern’s show opened at the New Amsterdam Theater on Broadway a few days before Christmas 1920 and played for an astounding 570 packed performances, grossing millions in ticket sales. Like the show’s title character, Sally enjoyed a Cinderella-like evolution from modest small-house musical in its original conception to extravaganza, once Ziegfeld got involved. Jerome Kern (1885-1945) regularly collaborated with British librettist Guy Bolton (1884- 1979)—he supplied the spoken dialogue which moved the musical’s plot along—and Bolton’s countryman, the celebrated P.G. Wodehouse (1881-1975), who contributed the clever song lyrics. This trio originally planned a modest musical work for New York’s intimate Princess Theatre: The Little Thing. Centered around a Downtown orphan girl whose ambitious nature takes her Uptown and beyond, the show didn’t really get off the ground and the three turned to another, Oh Boy, which proved a big hit. A few seasons later, Bolton and Wodehouse encountered Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. in Florida. The Follies producer was looking for a starring vehicle for one of his dancers whom ✧3✧ Composer Jerome Kern Producer Florenz Ziegfeld Lyricist P.G. Wodehouse Book Author Guy Bolton he’d elevated from the chorus to the spotlight. he used Wodehouse lyrics for two of Sally’s Marilyn Miller (1898-1936) from Evansville, most popular numbers (“Joan of Arc” and “The Indiana, was herself a sort of New York Cin- Church ‘Round the Corner”). Other words in the derella. The writing pair proposed A Little show came from regular Kern lyricists—Anne Thing for Miller, who, though primarily a Caldwell (1867-1936) and the young B.G. De- dancer, also acted and sang. Ziegfeld was Sylva (1895-1950) who supplied “Look for the enthusiastic, but insisted that the show’s waif Silver Lining,” Sally’s most enduring tune. Happily, not only leave behind her dishpans and orphan while almost all the songs were transplanted from doggie Custard, but end up a genuine Zieg- other Kern musicals, somehow they all seem to feld Follies star—a hefty transformation in a work smoothly in this one show. single evening. Kern was soon on board, but Producer Ziegfeld wasn’t interested in the by the time Ziegfeld’s many demands were Princess Theatre: too small. Sally needed to spot- met, multiple re-writes later, Wodehouse, light Miss Miller in a big-time way. And he was opting to concentrate on Jeeves and Bertie the boss. One wonders how composer Kern Wooster, had left the collaboration for Eng- accepted Ziegfeld’s insertion of a ballet score by land. His replacement was Clifford Grey (1887- rival Victor Herbert into Sally. The Act III “Butterfly 1921), who contributed lyrics, notably the Act Ballet” is musically delightful (and has been re- II ”Wild Rose” sequence. Kern borrowed liber- corded here). It involved a huge corps of Follies ally from his own shows for musical numbers: girls, elaborate costumes, sets, lights, as its ✧4✧ Composer Victor Herbert Lyricists: Anne Caldwell B. G. DeSylva Clifford Grey dancing star, Miller, metamorphoses from moth notable. Her fame was short-lived when she to bejewelled butterfly (no mention in Herbert’s died, mysteriously, during a routine medical anatomically-specific score of the caterpillar procedure on her sinuses. While her voice, if stage, but science was hardly the point). In a reports of critics from the day are to be be- further spasm of spectacle, the ballet gives way lieved, was thin and only serviceable, it was her to a quick-change Finale Ultimo at the church dancing and physical beauty that had caught ‘round the corner from New York’s fashionable the attention of Flo Ziegfeld. She was described Madison Square, where Sally trades her toe at the time as “a perfect joy, a perfect talent, shoes for a $10,000 wedding gown (Ziegfeld let a perfect beauty, and perfectly earthy!” everyone know) toted by fifty dazzling Follies Sally was also presented in 1921in London, bridesmaids! to great success. An old-timey recording of Marilyn Miller was a blonde “bombshell” excerpts from that production, while primitive, of considerable talent; she entranced Ziegfeld, gives a feel for Kern’s music, despite a deci- whose personal attentions she may or may not dedly “G&S” approach to the lyrics. A 1929 have welcomed. Nevertheless, under his tutel- film of the show survives, and an unsuccessful age, Miller skyrocketted to fame and wealth— 1948 Broadway revival comprise Sally’s oddly she was one of the highest-paid stars on the sparse history after her spectacular beginnings. Broadway stage for a time—and appeared in a Kern’s show, if indeed he felt it was com- number of musicals, Sally the first and most pletely his, did enjoy that huge 1920 success, ✧5✧ but it was a far cry from the intimate work the composer and his original collaborators intended with The Little Thing. The work proves apt for CD recording. Sally (aside from the visual), however diverse its sources, is charming and has surprisingly consistent musical character. Since a listener must imagine and cannot actually see the extensive dancing, our presenting organization, Light Opera of New York (LOONY), did not have to hire a star ballerina nor a choreographer for the project, but rather could concentrate more on vocal talent. Ziegfeld’s Act III spectacle can easily be imagined when listening, without the cast of thousands at hand. The aim of LOONY officers Carol Davis and David Kelleher-Flight was to remain as true as possible to the Kern-Bolton-Wodehouse smaller-scale, original concept for Sally. To that end, an intimate orchestral ensemble and a tight cast of singer-actors deliver the material. Guy Bolton’s snazzy, pun-filled book is abridged here for recording, but most of Kern’s score is offered by music director Jerry Steichen. He omits some musical repeats, and is faithful to the score’s orchestra parts, reproduced lovingly (for their most recent 1940s performances!) by Tams-Witmark, the New York publisher responsible for the preservation of so many 20th-century American musicals. Our show was semi-staged in May 2016 by Gary Slavin, then recorded for Albany Records downtown at the historic Theatre 80 on St.

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