Rick Besoyan Eileen Brennan William Graham - Little Mary Sunshine 1959 Original OffBroadway Cast (18 tracks) +Album Reviews

Welcome back, Little Mary!

Byron Kolln | the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood | 02/14/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"LITTLE MARY SUNSHINE, a delicious parody of the Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy style of operetta, was the biggest Off-Broadway success of 1959. It had the critics running out of superlatives, and launched the career of celebrated character actress Eileen Brennan, starring in the title role. The show also made history as the first Off-Broadway musical to be recorded for the Capitol label.

As a patische of the flowery operettas from a bygone era, LITTLE MARY SUNSHINE hits the mark beautifully. The score by Rick Besoyan hilariously apes the genre (without insulting or degrading operetta fans). Eileen Brennan's voice is a little more meatier than the standard operetta ingenue's would be, and she adds a great deal of heft to her numbers.

Ms Brennan won an Obie Award for her performance; and the show itself went on to run for 1,143 performances at the Orpheum Theatre. The talented cast also includes John McMartin as Billy Jester, William Graham as Captain Jim, and Elmarie Wendel as Mary's maid, "naughty naughty" Nancy Twinkle.

The actual production did not feature a full orchestra (only piano), however Capitol producers decided to bring in a complete orchestra for the recording.

Four years later, Eileen Brennan would originate the role of Mrs Molloy in "Hello Dolly!" on Broadway, before focusing her talents on a burgeoning film career ("The Last Picture Show", "Daisy Miller", "Private Benjamin"). She also became a favourite on television's "Laugh-In". An entirely new generation of viewers would know her best as Jack's eccentric acting coach on "Will & Grace".

The subsequent 1962 London production starred Patricia Routledge in the title role, and hopefully DRG might want to consider reissuing that cast album later down the track.

You'll be humming "Coo Coo" and "Colorado Love Call" for weeks!

[DRG 19099]"

A MOST-WELCOME REISSUE OF A LONG-TIME FAVORITE SHOW . . . .

J. T Waldmann | Carmel, IN, home to the fabulous new Regional Perf | 02/16/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Shades of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy!!!

LITTLE MARY SUNSHINE is the perfect recording for rainy days and Mondays - and all the other days - that always get you down. It's virtually impossible to listen to this CD and not have a huge smile appear with the first tympani notes of the overture and stay there throughout the show and long after the last notes of the finale have faded away. After its long absence, it's good to have this show back with us, an hilarious and affectionate send-up of the type of operetta ". . . Singmund Romberg and Victor Herbert were turning out circa 1910-'20s." (David Finkle, "The TheaterMania Guide to Musical Recordings") Mr. Finkle neglected to mention Rudolph Friml, whose ROSE MARIE appears to be the most obvious subject of Rick Besoyan's gentle lampoon. A chorus of forest rangers replaces the Royal Mounted Police and this show's "Love Call" is a Colorado one rather than an Indian one. Hero Jim Kenyon becomes Captain Jim and Rose Marie LaFlamme appears here as - who else? - the perpetually "rosy" Mary Sunshine.

Finkle continues: "Throughout the narrative about forest rangers, finishing-school maidens, and a few Native Americans, the clever author lines up every cliché of the art form as if setting ducks in a row, then shoots every one down with great delight. There's the love chant ('Colorado Love Call'), the cheer-up ditty ('Look for a Sky of Blue'), the marching song ('The Forest Rangers'), the fun-time contrapuntal choral pieces ('Playing Croquet,' 'Swinging,' 'How Do You Do?'), the salute-to-the-old-country tune ('In Izzenschnooken on the Essenzook Zee'), the novelty number ('Mata Hari'), and a darling title song."

LITTLE MARY SUNSHINE grew out of a 1957 revue, "In Your Hat," that Rick Besoyan wrote for Jim Paul Eilers. The Act 2 finale was "Gems from Little Mary Sunshine." Expanded to its present form, the show opened with little or no fanfare at the Off-Broadway Orpheum Theatre on November 18, 1959, where it ran through September 2, 1962 for a total of 1143 performances, earning the author the 1960 Drama Desk Award/Vernon Rice Award for Outstanding Theatrical Achievement. Dom DeLuise joined the cast as Gen'l Oscar Fairfax, Ret. in 1961.

Unfortunately, Mr. Besoyan was unable to duplicate LITTLE MARY SUNSHINE's success. His 1961 Broadway outing, THE STUDENT GYPSY - or - THE PRINCE OF LIEDERKRANZ (starring Eileen Brennan as Merry May Glockenspiel and Dom DeLuise as Muffin T. Ragamuffin D.D., Ret.), lasted for only 16 performances. BABES IN THE WOODS, his 1964 musical based on "A Midsummer Night's Dream," played at the Off-Broadway Orpheum (home of LITTLE MARY SUNSHINE) for only 45 performances. Neither show was recorded. At the time of his death from internal hemorrhages in 1970, Besoyan was working on a musical version of "Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris" It was never produced.

Thank you, DRG, for this wonderful reissue. I'm still smiling.

Very highly recommended."

Another Broadway Angel title is restored to the catalogue by

Mark Andrew Lawrence | Toronto | 02/14/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"After having been out-of-print for more than 10 years now, Capitol's original off-Broadway cast recording of Rick Besoyan's delightful operetta spoof returns to active service today.

This was Capitol's first off-Broadway cast album, although the 2-piano accompaniment heard in the theatre was replaced by a full orchestra for the recording.

Eileen Brennan shot to stardom as the winsome Little Mary. John McMartin (later in FOLLIES, SWEET CHARITY, HIGH SOCIETY and dozens of TV shows) was her co-star.

Not all of it works on record. Without the exaggerated staging it might come across as just another operetta.

Some of it didn't work in the theatre: "Do You Ever Dream of Vienna" only made people sad.

But then there's the lively title song, the delightful "Look for a Sky of Blue" and the silly (but fun) 3-part sequence: Playing Croquet/Swinging/How DO You Do?" all make for enjoyable listening, and thanks to DRG for the reissue.

At one time (1992-1997) DRG had the London cast album in their catalogue. It's worth tracking down since it contains the First Act Finale "What Has Happened"; as well as "Say uncle" and "Heap Big Injun" all of which were left off the American album. (The London cast does drop 3 other songs, so you really need both Cd's to get the full score!)

"

Brilliant Satire, Catchy Melodies, Funny as the Dickens

Leonard F. Wheat | Alexandria, VA United States | 08/27/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rick Besoyan's Little Mary Sunshine's songs brilliantly satirize earlier operettas and Broadway musicals--plus a ballet. Here's how:

* The Forest Rangers - alludes to "heroic fighting team" songs, notably "The Mounties," from Rudolf Friml's Rose Marie; "Stout Hearted Men," from Sigmund Romberg's The New Moon; "The Riff Song," from Romberg's The Desert Song; "Song of the Vagabonds," from Friml's The Vagabond King; and arguably even "March of the Toys," from Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland. The line "For there's always one more hill beyond the hill beyond the hill . . . [six "hill" mentions]" apes the title of "There's a Hill Beyond a Hill," from Jerome Kern's Music in the Air. "The Forest Rangers" also gives the rangers nine of the twelve virtues from the Boy Scout Law.

* Little Mary Sunshine - mimics the title song from Rose Marie. Both songs are title songs, and both use the name of the musical's heroine as the song title.

* Look for A Sky of Blue - alludes to "Look for the Silver Lining," from Kern's Sally. "When e'er a cloud appears" is the first five words of both the first line of the chorus of "Sky of Blue" and the second line of the chorus of "Silver Lining."

* You're the Fairest Flower [". . . An American Beauty Rose"] - alludes particularly to two Friml operetta songs with "Rose" in their titles--the title song from Rose Marie and "Only a Rose" from The Vagabond King--but also alludes generally to other boy-serenades-girl love songs such as the title song from Romberg's The Desert Song; "Serenade," from Romberg's The Student Prince; and "Yours Is My Heart Alone," from Franz Lehar's The Land of Smiles.

* In Izzenschnooken on the Lovely Essenzook Zee - alludes generally to nostalgia songs like "Golden Days," from Romberg's The Student Prince; "Will You Remember," from Romberg's Maytime; "I'll See You Again," from Noel Coward's Bitter Sweet; and "When I Grow too Old to Dream," from Romberg's The Night is Young. But more particularly, "Izenschnooken" pays tribute to "In Egern on the Tegern See," another tune from Music in the Air.

* Playing Croquet + Swinging + How Do You Do? - These three songs salute Irving Berlin and Meredith Willson. Sung first separately, then simultaneously, the songs display counterpoint one-upsmanship. Counterpoint, in the context of popular music, is the simultaneous singing of separate songs, each with its own lyrics and each designed to harmonize with the other(s). Berlin's "Play a Simple Melody," from Watch Your Step, and "You're Just in Love," from Call Me Madam, both had an initial tune and a counterpoint tune and verse that were sung simultaneously after first being sung independently; so did Willson's "Lida Rose" + "Will I Ever Tell You?," from The Music Man. Rick Besoyan did Berlin and Willson one better by combining THREE songs.

* Tell a Handsome Stranger - alludes generally to boy-meets-girl songs such as "Kiss Me Again," from Herbert's Mlle. Modiste; "I'm Falling in Love with Someone," from Herbert's Naughty Marietta; "Marianne," from Romberg's The New Moon; and "Make Believe," from Kern's Showboat; but the title particularly alludes to "Tell Me Pretty Maiden," from Leslie Stuart's Floradora. The line "I'm falling--I'm falling in love with you" once more suggests Herbert's "I'm Falling in Love with Someone." The words "Oh, joy!" apparently reflect the song "Oh Joy, Oh Rapture Unforeseen," from Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore. And the words "You make my little heart go pitty-pat" paraphrase the words "Your heart goes pitter-patter," buried in "You're Just in Love," from Call Me Madam.

* Once in a Blue Moon - alludes to Romberg's The New Moon and to its song "Lover Come Back To Me." The antecedent tune's opening lines are "The sky was BLUE, and high above, the MOON was NEW, and so was love." "Blue Moon" not only rhymes with "New Moon," it incorporates the word "blue" from the lyrics of "Lover Come Back to Me." And both songs display the theme of interrupted love. Viewed from the comedy angle, "Once in a Blue Moon" evokes the lyrics of "All Er Nuthin," from Rogers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma. Both lyrics have two lovers--secondary characters--arguing about the girl's flirtatious (and possibly promiscuous) ways.

* Colorado Love Call - alludes conspicuously to "Indian Love Call," from Rose Marie.

* Every Little Nothing - alludes, again conspicuously, to "Every Little Movement," from Karl Hoschna's Madame Sherry. The first five notes (sung with "ev-ry lit-l moe/nuth) of both songs are identical. The words "every little moment," sung later, reinforce the parallelism by substituting "moment" for "movement"--a clever play on words.

* Such a Merry Party - alludes to "This Was a Real Nice Clambake," from Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel; perhaps also to "Drinking Song," from Romberg's The Student Prince; and maybe even to "I Could Have Danced All Night," from Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady.

* Say "Uncle" - Sung by General Fairfax, who brings gifts for the ladies, "Say `Uncle'" alludes not to Broadway but to ballet and to Uncle Drosselmeyer, who brings gifts for the children in Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.

* Naughty, Naughty Nancy - alludes obviously to the title of Herbert's Naughty Marietta.

* Mata Hari - alludes to comedy songs sung by operetta soubrettes. The best examples are "I Cain't Say No," from Oklahoma, and "Life Upon the Wicked Stage," from Kern's Showboat. The former song's lyrics, sung by Nancy's prototype, Ado Annie, have the same general theme--a man-hungry girl--as "Mata Hari." The "Wicked Stage" lyrics also have a touch of that man-hungry theme: "I got virtue, but it ain't been tested/I can't find nobody in-ter-est-ed."

* Do You Ever Dream of Vienna? - another nostalgia song like "Izzenschnooken." "Vienna" pays homage to "Vienna Mine," from Emmerich Kalman's Countess Maritza. It may also hint at "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" from Burton Lane's Finian's Rainbow.

* Coo Coo - earlier song uncertain, but "Coo Coo" apparently alludes to "Bluebird of Happiness," a 1934 non-Broadway song popularized by Metropolitan Opera tenor Jan Peerce. Both title birds, according to their songs' lyrics, bring cheer to sad listeners.

These wonderful, funny, melodic songs belong in your collection.

"

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