Jump to content

Wildcat


Recommended Posts

(I always try to add a new comment to an existing thread instead of starting a new one. I can't believe we don't have a thread specifically for "Wildy")

 

I listened to the entire Wildcat album in the car on a road trip.  Always been one of my favorites.  I collected Original Broadway Cast albums (and later CDs of course).  My favorite era is mid- 50s to about 1966 when Broadway started to go a different direction (downhill IMO).  What impressed me this time abound about Wildcat is the wonderful fidelity of the sound.  RCA and Columbia were the two main OBC issuers.  RCA had just come up with "Living Stereo" and for a time, had quality over Columbia.  I think Wildcat is the best-sounding album of a Broadway show up to that time.  (I'm talking about quality/fidelity).   Secondly the orchestrations are absolutely superb, made all the more exciting by the "Living Stereo" recording.  I usually skip past the non-Lucy numbers, but "Corduroy Road" is really a great number.  Orchestration of note: the repeated horn blasts between the phrases that begin with "Corduroy Road, the highway to hell"....."the whiskey is rotten and so is the smell...".   I'm not sure what a Corduroy Road was, however, and why they're singing about it. 

 

And in 1912 in a small town in New Mexico, just what do yo do with the oil after you drill a gusher?   Reading the liner notes of the plot as a kid, I thought it was possible they killed off Wildcat at the end because (paraphrasing) "Joe is desperate to get Wildcat off the soon to explode derrick and confesses that he loves her.  Just then, the derrick explodes and blows in a gusher."  They didn't actually say Wildcat got off the derrick before it exploded! 

 

The one thing Wildcat lacks is a good "11:00 number" for Lucy.   My interest in the songs descends (slightly)  as the show goes on.  Though "What Takes My Fancy" is out of order, being a close 2nd favorite after "HLMO".  WTMF is why Broadway musicals were invented.  The orchestration adds to the excitement.

 

I believe Wildcat is the only show with an overture that retains a number ultimately cut from the show, the title tune.  Published scores for productions kept it in and both songs were permanently deleted.   Don't know why "Wildcat" wasn't re-inserted.  If the cut was made to lighten Lucy's workload, why not have the townspeople sing it TO her.   For the record, "That's What I Want" was cut first and then "Wildcat": I would have guessed the opposite.   They were both gone by New Years 1961.  Am thankful they both made the OBC recording

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't realize that "That's What I Want for Janie" was cut before the "Wildcat" number. Although "That's What I Want" is Lucy's only number that's a complete solo, it seems like the less vocally taxing and I can't imagine there being any difficult choreography for this number. I think this number is Lucy's best vocally on the cast recording. "That's What I Want for Janie" is a very important song for the show. Musicals typically have a "want" song for the main character and this is a good one because it shows that Wildcat's motivation is to help Janie. The semi-staged production of Wildcat I saw a few years ago got permission to include "That's What I Want for Janie," but did not include the title number.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll check my notes but I'm pretty sure I'm right in that "Janie" was cut before "Wildcat".  (Looked through Playbills).  Always thought the "Janie" cut was strange too for the same reason.  There's a perfect place in Act 2 for a tearful reprise of "Janie".  Everyone is mad at her or deserted her.   In the production I saw, Wildcat is on stage for the entire "Tall Hope" but is doing nothing.  (Why not let Lucy rest off stage?).  However since she's part of the stage action, it would have been effective to have her do the "Overhead, the stars are....." (forgot rest of lyrics) counterpoint melody adjusted to her key with the men singing the main melody.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll check my notes but I'm pretty sure I'm right in that "Janie" was cut before "Wildcat".  (Looked through Playbills).  Always thought the "Janie" cut was strange too for the same reason.  There's a perfect place in Act 2 for a tearful reprise of "Janie".  Everyone is mad at her or deserted her.   In the production I saw, Wildcat is on stage for the entire "Tall Hope" but is doing nothing.  (Why not let Lucy rest off stage?).  However since she's part of the stage action, it would have been effective to have her do the "Overhead, the stars are....." (forgot rest of lyrics) counterpoint melody adjusted to her key with the men singing the main melody.   

You're a regular David Merrick, aren't ya?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...

On 60 minutes last night they had a feature on the new Broadway musical smash "Hamilton" with a score that is hip-hop and rap.   

****SIGH****

Is this the Broadway music of the future?

 

Are the rousing entire-company brassy show-stopping musical numbers a thing of the past?

 

Why couldn't "Hamilton"'s  title song be like "Wildcat"?

"Who's the face on the ten-dollar bill?

ALEX

(chorus)" ZANDER HAM'LTON!

Who's the guy Aaron Burr wants to kill?

ALEX

ZANDER HAM'LTON!!"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well...maybe "Hazel" will turn things around! :peachonthebeach:

With a singing/dancing Don Defore and a chorus line of chunky, middle-aged maids high kicking to the title tune, how could it miss?

 

On the 60 minutes piece, the composer/lyricist/star was talking about his painstaking efforts to write intricate rhymes within the raps of "Hamilton".  Well, fine.....but if the presentation of "Hamilton" is like other shows I've seen recently, the singers are so over-amplified that you can't really hear the words.   The production I saw of "Rent" was particularly hard to understand. 

And with most rap, the words are spit out so rapidly that you can tell there's an internal rhyme (or more likely NEAR rhyme) and maybe it's clever but as a whole incomprehensible. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

And the price!  Dinner show and dancing "From" $5.95!   I assume that includes dinner.  

And dancing?  Do they get audience participation for the El Sombrero number?

 

I didn't know they were using "from" in ads that far back.  The same person who invented "from" must have also invented "co-pay" (which begat the one that really gets under my skin: "co-insurnace").  When you think of it, "from $5.95" makes no sense grammatically, yet we all know what it means:  You ain't-a gettin' much of a meal for $5.95, probably stale bread sticks left over from the "lunch show". 

 

Martha Raye, Gale Storm, Peggy Cass, Dorothy Loudon: so MANY women did Wildcat but Mamie is the youngest one I've head of.  

"It isn't her lips.....it sure ain't her hips"......Mamie's Wildy: it's somewhere in between.

I don't know if other "flop" shows had this much after-Broadway life.  Pretty impressive that it's still a draw over a year after it closed.

 

Lotus, I want you to do a little research down under.  There was an Australian production mounted but I don't know who the star was.  Since Carole Cook did the official Aussie tour of "Hello Dolly", maybe Mary Wickes did Wildcat.

Carole toured Australia for a YEAR in 'Dolly'!  How many big cities are there in Australia?  (I was sick the day my geography class covered Australia). 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 Lotus, I want you to do a little research down under.  There was an Australian production mounted but I don't know who the star was.  Since Carole Cook did the official Aussie tour of "Hello Dolly", maybe Mary Wickes did Wildcat.

Carole toured Australia for a YEAR in 'Dolly'!  How many big cities are there in Australia?  (I was sick the day my geography class covered Australia).

 

Max was able to uncover some information. It launched in Australia in 1963, produced by Garnet H. Carroll. Toni Lamond starred and Gordon Boyd played Joe Dynamite. You can find some info on this website: https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/17391

 

I haven't checked out Helly, Dolly specifically, but the major cities theatre productions tend to tour are Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Hobart and Adelaide. New Zealand cities like Auckland are often included on these tours, and more famous titles tend to move on to Asia as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Max was able to uncover some information. It launched in Australia in 1963, produced by Garnet H. Carroll. Toni Lamond starred and Gordon Boyd played Joe Dynamite. You can find some info on this website: https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/17391

 

Very interesting! Thanks! Toni Lamond is the sister of Helen Reddy and the mother of current Broadway star Tony Sheldon.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Max just made an incredible discovery:

 

24bu9oo.jpg

 

Sadly, it doesn't appear anything ever came of this. Live stage recordings were extremely rare in those days. If it was recorded, it never received a commercial release, and will probably remained locked in a vault for some time. Most Australian cast recordings that were released on LP have never even been re-released.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Max just made an incredible discovery:

 

24bu9oo.jpg

 

Sadly, it doesn't appear anything ever came of this. Live stage recordings were extremely rare in those days. If it was recorded, it never received a commercial release, and will probably remained locked in a vault for some time. Most Australian cast recordings that were released on LP have never even been re-released.

Cool Brian! Thanks Max! So Brian do you have any used record stores or Goodwill-type thrift stores over there to look for this possibly-released, long out of print gem?? Ya never know what'll turn up in places like that, you know?? Start digging!! :blink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cool Brian! Thanks Max! So Brian do you have any used record stores or Goodwill-type thrift stores over there to look for this possibly-released, long out of print gem?? Ya never know what'll turn up in places like that, you know?? Start digging!! :blink:

 

I'm sure I can find a vintage music store somewhere in the city, absolutely, but this title definitely never got released (probably never even recorded). Max was able to check the EMI catalogue's archive and there wasn't a trace of it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...