Sam Levene sang “Sue Me” with such a wonderful Runyonesque flavor that his singing had been easy to forgive, in fact it had been quite charming in its ineptitude." "Musically, Sam Levene may have been tone-deaf, but he inhabited Frank Loesser's world as a character more than a caricature", says Larry Stempel, a music professor at Fordham University and the author of Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theater. The son of a cantor, Sam Levene was fluent in Yiddish: "Alright, already, I'm just a no-goodnick alright, already, it’s true, so nu? So sue me." Frank Loesser felt "Nathan Detroit should be played as a brassy Broadway tough guy who sang with more grits than gravy. Levene's lack of singing ability is the reason the lead role of Nathan Detroit only has one song, the duet "Sue Me".Ĭomposer and lyricist Frank Loesser specifically wrote "Sue Me" for Sam Levene, and structured the song so he and Vivian Blaine never sang their showstopping duet together. Frank Loesser agreed it was easier adjusting the music to Levene's limitations than substituting a better singer who couldn't act. GUYS AND DOLL SPRESS RELAEASE THEATER MOVIEAlthough Broadway and movie veteran Sam Levene was not a singer, it was agreed he was otherwise perfect as Nathan Detroit indeed, Levene was one of Runyon's favorite actors. I knew the rhythm of their speech and it helped make the dialogue sharper and more real". In “Honest, Abe: Is There Really No Business Like Show Business?”, Burrows recalls "I had the sound of their voices in my head. Ībe Burrows specifically crafted the role of Nathan Detroit around Sam Levene who signed for the project long before Burrows wrote a single word of dialogue, a similar break Burrows said he had when he later wrote Cactus Flower for Lauren Bacall. Well, we accomplished that but we did it in reverse. The word integration usually means that the composer has written songs that follow the story line gracefully. Later on, the critics spoke of the show as 'integrated'. Burrows later recalled:įrank Loesser's fourteen songs were all great, and the had to be written so that the story would lead into each of them. Loesser had already written much of the score to correspond with the first version of the book. When the first version of the show's book, or dialogue, written by Jo Swerling was deemed unusable, Feuer and Martin asked radio comedy writer Abe Burrows to rewrite it. Frank Loesser, who had spent most of his career as a lyricist for movie musicals, was hired as composer and lyricist. Runyon was known for the unique dialect he employed in his stories, mixing highly formal language and slang. These stories, written in the 1920s and 1930s, concerned gangsters, gamblers, and other characters of the New York underworld. Guys and Dolls was conceived by producers Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin as an adaptation of Damon Runyon's short stories. 4.12 2015–2016 West End revival and UK/Ireland tour.4.5 New York City Center 1955, 19 revivals.4.4 1965 Fifteenth Anniversary production.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |