Okay, it's time. Last night I popped in my DVD of the holiday gem Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol for my annual viewing, so it's only fitting that today we offer its wonderful songs. (And a joyous addendum to follow as a bonus.) The classic show was the first-ever animated holiday special, made in 1962 and for eight years it got repeated annually through 1969. But its simplistic animation finally caught up and alas it went out of the rotation. A shame since it's such a terrific production. For all its being Mr. Magoo and only 52 minutes long, it's a very nice adaptation of the story. And the score...well, it's Broadway quality and probably the best musical score for an animated TV special, and one of the best for TV, period. The music is by Jule Styne (Gypsy, Bells are Ringing) and the lyrics by Bob Merrill (Carnival, Take Me Along) who -- while writing this -- were, in fact, in the middle of working on Funny Girl. Though no longer on network TV, for a long time the show could be found every year on syndication. But unfortunately even that has largely faded away, though occasionally it pops up. But on its 50th anniversary in 2012, NBC brought it back to prime time, and happily its DVD release gave the show new life. Here are several of the wonderful songs. With, as noted, a bonus at the end. The first, "Ringle Ringle" introduces us to Scrooge and Bob Cratchit. When Scrooge visits the Crachit house in Christmas Present, the family sings the rousing showstopper, "The Lord's Bright Blessing." In Christmas Past, Scrooge returns to an almost-empty schoolhouse of his youth and sings a duet of himself as a young boy, "I'm All Alone in the World." In Christmas Future, Scrooge visits a junk shop run by thieves who have ransacked the now-empty house of a man who was died -- which he doesn't realize yet is him -- and they explain with very amusing glee that "We're Despicable." As I mentioned, here is the bonus addendum. For those who were skeptical of me calling this a Broadway-quality score, It turns out (aside from the reality that it is) that the show did play on Broadway -- sort of. In 2014, the Actors Fund did a benefit concert with a fairly elaborate staged reading of the TV show, with full costumes, limited sets and even some choreography. And since it was successful, they repeated it with a new production in 2019. This is a 4-minute montage of the 2019 production. (I use this in large part because it includes the wonderful Sierra Boggess who starred on Broadway in The Little Mermaid, and in currently starring there in Barry Manilows's musical Harmony. Here, she sings "Winter Was Warm.) And the production looks absolutely wonderful. And sounds like they used the original music arrangements. (At the end of the 2014 video are some credits, and it notes being done with DreamWorks Animation and Margaret Styne. I'm going to guess that the former hold the rights to the TV special and the latter may hold some rights since she was the wife of composer Jule Styne.) Since the show is only about 52 minutes, it's much too short to mount a full production, but I suspect it could be paired with another one-act show or also done in community theaters. By the way, their adaptation of the thieves' song, "We're Despicable," is scary-good how close they came with the casting and even the animated choreography. Even down to the tiny details, at one point, of the comically-weird, twisty hand movements.
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For several years now as part of the Holiday Music Fest, including this year, I’ve played some song from a 1956 TV musical production of A Christmas Carol, that was called The Stingiest Man in Town, which was done for The Alcoa Hour. I had the cast album, and as far as I knew that was all that existed. But as another of those major treats, I just found a video of the entire 80-minute TV production! And if anything qualifies as “little-known” for the Holiday Music Fest, this is it. Normally, I’d post it on Christmas Eve as befits the story, but that spot is reserved for my favorite adaptation of the story, a BBC radio version with Sir Ralph Richardson and Paul Scofield, so we’ll post this ahead of time. It's very early television, so the production and video quality is a bit creaky. But it comes through fine enough and is a respectably done version of the story – and is fun, as well, seeing something from early days of TV…and done live. when maneuvering around a soundstage wasn’t as simple as today. The cast is part of the treat here. Though many of the names are not well-known today, they were for the time. It’s all led by Basil Rathbone as Scrooge, easily the most famous name in the cast today for his years playing Sherlock Holmes in the movies. Marley's Ghost is played by Robert Weede, a major Metropolitan Opera star who later moved into more popular culture productions, most notably as the star in Frank Loesser’s Broadway musical, The Most Happy Fella. And Bob Cratchit is played by Martyn Green, one of the leading stars of the renowned D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, a group famous for being considered the home of Gilbert & Sullivan productions. There’s another Metropolitan Opera star here, as well – Patrice Munsel, who made a few movies and TV shows, and plays Belle in this production. The show also features two popular singers of the era – Johnny Desmond as Scrooge’s nephew Fred, and Vic Damone as Young Scrooge. And the popular singing group The Four Lads perform as a sort of travelling Greek Chorus, filling in some narration. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention one of my favorite character actors, John McGiver, even in just a very small role. Here, he plays the first of two gentlemen who come to Scrooge’s office asking for a Christmas donation. The score is serviceable, as the expression goes, though there are a few solid numbers, like “Mankind is My Business” and "Birthday Party for the King." The music is by Fred Spielman, with lyrics by Janice Torre, who wrote the teleplay. And definitely worth noting is that it’s directed by Daniel Petrie, who had a long career directing movies and TV. His most famous movie was A Raisin in the Sun, and for TV he did the film Sybil for which Sally Field won an Emmy as Best Actress and established her as a serious actress. (SIDE NOTE: If you stick around to the end credits, they announce next week's show -- which sounds tremendous! It's Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced ...which has a seriously impressive cast: Jessica Tandy, Roger Moore, and the legendary Gracie Fields, as 'Miss Marple'. And no, alas, I can't find a video of it online.) Which brings us to Christmas Eve, the very night that Jacob Marley died seven years ago… Since it is now officially 12 days to Christmas, I figured what better time to post the song "Twelve Days to Christmas" from the 1963 musical, She Loves Me. The show has a score by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, who (among their many shows) the next year wrote Fiddler on the Roof. She Loves Me is based on the Hungarian play (and its subsequent Hollywood movie, Shop Around the Corner) which were the foundation of the movie You've Got Mail. If you've seen any of those, this song comes near the end to show the passage of time as Mr. Novak tries to build up his relationship with Amelia Balish, with whom he had long been sniping, but only recently discovered has been his pen pal with who he's in love. While on the album here the song is only a chorus number, on stage it's interwoven with snippets of that developing relationship. I used to post footage from the 1993 Roundabout Theatre Broadway revival that starred Judy Kuhn and Boyd Gaines, however that video doesn't seem to be available anymore. But -- good news, I found a montage reel with six songs from that production, plus the curtain call, and it included "Twelve Days to Christmas"...so I edited it to get the song, finale and curtain call and can offer them here. This isn’t a little-known holiday song – actually, it’s a very well-known one. But I’m including it in our Holiday Music Fest for other somewhat lesser-known reasons. And that requires a story. In the past, I wrote here about the TV series, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. The show got cancelled recently after two seasons, but due to massive fan support, the Roku Channel ordered a movie, which reunited the entire cast and premiered in 2021 – and which the Roku Channel made free to stream by everyone, whether subscribers or not – Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas. (Up in the air is whether Roku will order future movies, or even bring back the series. Though so far they haven't.) The premise of the series is that for whatever reason, the main character Zoey (played wonderfully by Jane Levy) has developed the ability to hear what people are thinking at particularly emotional moments in their lives, which they express through song, what she refers to as "heart songs." And she's grown to hate her "power," as she calls it. It's not only intrusive in her life -- having people break into passionate songs, often with full choreography, that no one else can see -- but also she's realized that whatever is going on in that person's life, she has to help resolve it, or the songs will continue until she does. As for this song, it comes at the very opening of the movie. She’s in a mall with her friend Mo, explaining why Christmas this year is so difficult for her, because it’s her family’s first since her father passed away. (Which was a major storyline in the second season.) And so, she isn’t in the Christmas spirit at all. In order to be understanding, Mo says she’ll do her best to put aside her own feelings and be low-kay, so as to not cause any problems for Zoey. And so, the two of them walk through the holiday mall all quiet and matter-of-fact. But of course, no matter how much her friend is sedate on the surface, Zoey can hear her heart song – and those of everyone else in the mall. Which leads us to this song. But – almost more than all that is something that stands out seriously impressively, even if unobtrusively unless you’re looking for it. And it’s that the huge, extravagant production number that goes all over the mall, up and down the levels…is all done in just one take! Any mistake or error in the meticulous timing, hitting their marks exactly, and they’d have to do it all over again. And just to give themselves an even bigger challenge (beyond filling the number with lots of little kids who have to get their timing right), the very end of the lavish scene deals with properly balancing a bunch of Christmas gift packages. If just one of them fell over (and one almost does)…yes, back to the start and do it all again. And after all that, they still have to get the very last, difficult shot right! It's a seriously impressive undertaking. And all the more so when you realize that they had a short production schedule -- including only four days to rehearse the dancing for all the songs, and there were at least half a dozen songs in the movie, probably more. It wasn't just a case of "Okay, we have to learn this one production number only in just four days and get it right." (Incidentally, the way you can tell this is the opening, is because the show always begins with Zoey frustrated over something, and blurting out a swear word…that gets cut off by the title of the show slamming in.) Minor fun fact: another nice thing to look out for is that around the :25 second mark, you'll see a white-haired woman in an untucked, brown shirt and black baseball cap dancing around Mo. That's the show's choreography Mandy Moore. (No, not the pop singer-actress. Same name, different person.) For those who want to see the full movie (for free), you can stream it here. And now, onto the one-take wonder. It's worth watching a second time (or more) to catch all the people getting in place, spotting the details even in the far background, and seeing all the meticulous movements of how they pulled it of – To continue the fest, this is a Christmas recording that blends two worlds -- totally unknown, yet hugely-well-known and wonderful. How can that be, you ask??! I'll explain. The main song here is from the musical, Here's Love, by Meredith Willson, who of course wrote The Music Man. It's based on the classic film, Miracle on 34th Street. The show wasn't terribly successful, though didn't flop and had a respectable run of 334 performances -- just under a year -- in 1964. The score is inconsistent, but half of it is quite wonderful. (I've actually tried, half-heartedly, I must admit, to get a TV production of it made for several years. I think it would be a terrific Christmas special. Hey, who knows, maybe one year NBC will do it live...) The song is called "Pine Cones and Holly Berries," sung by Laurence Naismith who plays Kris Kringle. It's very charming and a lovely Christmas holiday song, though is pretty much unknown. Now, as you may recall, Meredith Willson likes counterpoint. He used it a great deal, to much good effect in The Music Man, most notably with "Lida Rose" sung counter to "Will I Ever Tell You?", but also famously with "Pick-a-Little, Talk-a Little," sung in counterpoint with an already-existing song, "Goodnight, Ladies." Well, he used the technique again in Here's Love. He created "Pine Cones and Holly Berries" to be sung counter to an already-existing, very famous Christmas song -- one which (I am sure most people will be shocked to learn) he himself wrote. When I say it's very famous and completely well-known -- trust me on this. It's very famous. And yes, it's actually written by, of all people, Meredith Willson. I won't tell you want it is, but let you have the fun of discovering it when it comes in halfway through. (Though if you've read this pages during past Holiday Music Fests, you likely know it by now...) The counterpoint, very famous song is performed here by Janis Paige and -- are you ready? -- Fred Gwynne! Though he hated being typecast in his famous TV role, since it almost ruined his career (I worked with him on the movie, Pet Sematary, and we briefly talked about it), I feel compelled to identify him in this context for the sheer incongruity of it, as yes, 'Herman Munster,' whose TV series came along soon thereafter. He comes in the song here most-clearly at the 1:14 mark, singing (and really well) "Christmas, Christmas. Christmas Day. Bells ring, and hearts sing, every day..." So, here then is a lovely, sweet Christmas song you don't know, sung in counterpoint to an extremely famous one you absolutely do, both by Meredith Willson. As a bonus, we'll throw in a couple of other good -- and lesser-known -- Christmas songs from the show. This first (with video from a community production) is during the courtroom scene and W.H. Macy is called to the stand and has to say under oath whether he believes that there is actually a Santa Claus. And we'll conclude things with an absolutely lovely song that the lawyer (the fellow who ends up defending Kris at the end, played by Craig Stevens) sings to the daughter of his neighbor, the cynic who hired Kris but sees it all as just business (played by the aforementioned Janis Paige). The young daughter has picked up much of her mother's cynicism, but their neighbor Fred slowly starts to bring some holiday cheer into the girl's life. We have a longer version of the Fest today. Bear with me a bit and let me explain. I've posted this all before and I find it a fun story of sorts to repeat. When the movie musical Scrooge was released in 1970, I remember reading an article about the film's composer-lyricist-screenwriter (and executive producer) Leslie Bricusse (who earlier had teamed with Anthony Newley to write the stage musicals Stop the World - I Want to Get Off and The Roar of the Greasepaint - the Smell of the Crowd, and the next year would write the score to the movie musical Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory). In the piece, Bricusse said that they'd done research and discovered that among all the Christmas carols written, there had never been one actually titled, "A Christmas Carol." So, he wrote one, which begins the film over the wonderful opening credits by the great artist, Ronald Searle (who also did the credits for, among other films, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.) I mention all this, though, for a specific reason. Bear with me. Here's that song first, however, and those wonderful opening credits. As I said, I mentioned all of that above for another reason entirely. It's that as good a film as Scrooge is, Bricusse's research staff was lousy. Because 14 years before, in 1956, there was a live TV musical version of A Christmas Carol that was called The Stingiest Man in Town and starred the legendary film actor, best known as playing Sherlock Holmes, Basil Rathbone as Scrooge. And the very first song in the show was called -- yes, you guessed it -- "A Christmas Carol." The music for the show was written by Fred Spielman, with lyrics by Janice Torre. It's not remotely distinguished or memorable, but has quite a few very nice things in it. And there, right at the top, first thing, is a song, "A Christmas Carol." A live musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol on American television doesn't seem like a terribly challenging thing to track down for a research staff working on a movie musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol. So, continuing our holiday theme of unknown Christmas songs from musicals, here is the earlier song, "A Christmas Carol," sung by The Four Lads. It's short, less than a minute, but whatever its length the name of the song is "A Christmas Carol." That the researchers couldn't find. But we think you fine folks deserve better... Which is why this also isn't the end of the post here. Because there's another one coming. And it's a joy. But here's that other song first -- Note: Though the person posting this put up a screen shot that say's "A Christmas Carol," it is from The Stingiest Man in Town. And yes, there's more... In 1959, which is only 11 years before the movie musical Scrooge was made (and three years after the TV musical above), the wonderful Tom Lehrer released his classic comedy album, An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer -- which included a song titled...yes, you guessed it -- "A Christmas Carol." And again, Tom Lehrer was not remotely an unknown entertainer and songwriter. It fact, as popular as An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer was when it was released, he was probably around the height of his popularity in 1970 when the film Scrooge hit the theaters. His huge hit album, That Was the Year That Was had been released in 1965, only five years before Scrooge. So, how on earth those researchers missed these two songs -- and for all I know there are more, and even high-profile ones -- I have no idea. Happily, we have this song to enjoy, as well... |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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