Search - Cole Porter :: Silk Stockings (1955 Original Broadway Cast)

Cole Porter's Final Broadway Show

Gary F. Taylor | Biloxi, MS USA | 09/30/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"SILK STOCKINGS is seldom performed today--and this is really a great pity, for on stage it is a memorable show: with words and music by the legendary Cole Porter and a script by Leueen MacGrath and the legendary George S. Kauffman, everything about the play is very "high style" indeed. Recorded in stereo shortly after the play's Broadway opening in 1955 with the original Don Walker orchestrations directed by Herbert Greene and with the original cast, this soundtrack is one of the better 1950s Broadway recordings.The story, of course, is a riff on the classic Garbo film NINOTCHKA--the tale of an icy USSR agent (Hildegarde Neff) who arrives in Paris to check up on the behavior of several Soviet agents (Henry Lascoe, Leon Belasco, and David Opatoshu), only to find her communistic determinations undermined by the attentions of an American suitor (Don Ameche.) The story also contains a subplot about an American actress (Gretchen Wyler) on the loose in the City of Light, and the witty story offers considerable scope for Porter's ultra-urbane music and ultra-witty lyrics.This would be Porter's last Broadway show, and some critics consider it one of his weakest scores--but that is really only true when compared with such frequently revived Porter classics as KISS ME KATE and ANYTHING GOES. Everything one could expect from Porter is here, from elegant ballads to wickedly witty patter songs with the most convoluted lyrics imaginable. "Paris Loves Lovers" offers a memorable duet between Ameche and Neff, as he details the sensual delights of the city even while she rattles off the party line in retaliation--and then goes on to verbally body slam the entire notion of romance with the comic dryness of "It's A Chemical Reaction, That's All." And "As On Through the Seasons We Sail" is a classic, if little known, Porter ballad.But the real knock out here is Gretchen Wyler, who has three of Porter's drop-dead comic numbers in "Stereophonic Sound," "Satin and Silk," and "Josephine"--numbers that mock movie audiences, make hilarious commentary on underclothing, and bombastically present a Hollywood mythology of French history. Who would have thought Josephine was "commonly called Jo?" It's truly memorable stuff.If you're looking for the crackle of Porter's 1930s work or the sly qualities of his 1940s hits, you may be disappointed with SILK STOCKINGS--for this is very much a 1950s musical, brash, lightweight, and with everything in the shop window. But no matter how you approach it, it is still Cole Porter. And even a lesser Cole Porter jewel is still a jewel for all that.--GFT (Amazon Reviewer)--"

A must for Cole Porter fans.

Robert D. Gibney | California | 11/09/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It was Cole Porter's score that led Silk Stockings to a 478 performance run. While it is not Porter at his best it contains plenty of swell numbers. Maybe the best is "All of you" which critic Fred Lounsberry called "a lyric masterpiece>""