Search - Sheldon Harnick :: Fiorello! (1959 Original Broadway Cast)

The musical that tied with "The Sound of Music" for the Tony

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 02/13/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Fiorello!" is one of those Pulitzer Prize winning musicals that is now pretty much forgotten. But would you believe "Fiorello!" TIED for four Tonys with "The Sound of Music" in 1959? Look it up: Best Musical, Authors, Composer, and Producers. In the title role Tom Bosley won the Tony as Best Featured Actor while the legendary George Abbott (then 72 years old ) picked up the award for Director. The idea of making a musical about a New York Mayor (who had only been out of office 13 years at that point) might seem strange, but since "Fiorello!" there have been shows on Broadway about Gentleman Jimmy Walker and an off-Broadway one about Edward Koch. But this show is about how an honest politician became Mayor rather than about La Guardia's three terms in office. The story line in the first act follows La Guardia's career from lawyer cleaning up the sweat shops, to his surprising election to Congress, and his military service in the Great War. The second act, which has long stretches of dramatic action without any songs, focuses on his unsuccessful run against Walker and then his ultimate election as Mayor. What might be most surprising is that along with the politics there is romance. Although his secretary Marie (Patricia Wilson) is clearly in love with him, La Guardia falls in love with Thea (Ellen Hanley), the leader of the sweatshop workers. Although La Guardia marries Thea, Marie does get a second chance at love. The music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick (best known for "Fiddler on the Roof") are certainly not spectacular (can you name a single song from this show off the top of your head?), but are entirely enjoyable and several tunes do a nice job of capturing the musical stylings of the time. For example, the "Gentleman Jimmy" number is clearly a Roarin' Twenties tune. All of the best songs belong to Howard Da Silva and his chorus of Politicians: "Politics and Poker," "The Bum Won" and the showstopper "Little Tin Box." This was the show that brought Da Silva back from being blacklisted, although his greatest triumph in a musical would come years later when he played Ben Franklin in "1776." Even thought this is the show that turned Bosley from a journeyman into a star, there are only two songs where he does any of the singing. "Fiorello!" is not a great Broadway musical, but it is certainly a good one, worth remembering. Abbott did some fairly innovative work, using newsreel clips of the war and the real Fiorello H. La Guardia reading the comics over WNYC radio during a 1945 newspaper strike to move the story along. This 1959 recording, which remained on the Billboard charts for 89 week and peaked at #7, even manages to avoid a lot of the technical problems we have come to associated with records from the 1950s represented in CD format."

"Fiorello"- A Great Underrated Musical

revictoria | Columbia, MD United States | 04/10/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I don't know why there aren't more productions of this show in local and regional theatres. If you think that Bock and Harnick's only great contributions were "Fiddler on the Roof" and "She Loves Me," treat yourself to an hour or so with this disk. Tom Bosley has a rather strange vocal interpretation of the diminutive mayor, but Pat Hanley, Howard DaSilva and other cast members more than make up for that. Don't miss smoky-voiced belter Eileen Rodgers' rendition of "Gentleman Jimmy" or the classic men's show-stopper, "Politics and Poker." There are some great audition songs for all vocal types in this score, and you won't have to worry that the director has heard the number performed twenty times already. For an ironic reminder of the tradition of sexism in the American musical theatre, listen to "I Shall Marry the Very Next Man" ("and if he likes me/ what does it matter if he strikes me/I'll wear his slippers with my arm in a sling/just for the privilege of wearing his ring"). Despite these lyrics, this show is terrific."