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Decent Quality Since 1847

The Name's LaGuardia -- Part 10

11/20/2016

7 Comments

 
As the plot heads to its conclusion, we're coming towards the end of this Second Elisberg Industries Film Festival presentation of the prize-winning musical, Fiorello!  I'm guessing that the show itself will likely be 12 parts (barring any other last-minute discoveries -- there's been one remarkable new piece I just found the other day) with perhaps a few bonus finale postings to follow.

These next two parts will be quite special.  (Actually, come to think of it, these final three all have something special about them.)  Today's, in fact, will be new to even those who are huge admirers of the show.  No matter how many times you've listened to the cast album, you haven't heard it.  In fact, if you've even been one of the comparatively rare number of people (for a Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning show) who have seen Fiorello!, you likely haven't even heard it.

Here's why.


Despite the show's significant awards and acclaim, lyricist Sheldon Harnick always thought something was missing in the show.  It centered on the fact that although the title character and star of the musical, the role of Fiorello LaGuardia has almost nothing to sing in the second act.  (That was one thing that had made it difficult to attract a big name star to help mount a revival.)  Additionally, there also was a very dramatic point in the second act that seemed to be crying out for a song, but one didn't exist.  For years, Harnick thought that that might be the place to address both concerns.  And so, 40 years after he and Jerry Bock had won the Tony Award as Best Musical and Pulitzer Prize, as a new concert version of the show was being readied for the Reprise series in Los Angeles...he had an idea how to fix things, and wrote the words to a new song.  And then sent it to composer Jerry Bock to see if he thought it should be musicalized and if Bock would do it.

It's important to note that, despite their huge success as a team, Harnick and Bock had broken up their partnership around 1970, 30 years earlier.  They hadn't written together since -- although (it's important to add) they'd remained good friends and in regular touch.  And Jerry Bock liked the new addition to their show and agreed to write music for it.  At its core, the new lyric was largely a reprise of the song, "The Name's LaGuardia," though it's more than that with significant alternations, and is not a strict reprise, but closer to a soliloquy.

(I believe there have been three different versions of it, as Harnick has worked it out, and oddly I've seen two of them.  The first version was readied in time for the aforementioned 1999 Reprise concert version in Los Angeles that I attended, starring Tony Danza, of all people -- he was extremely good, but woefully miscast as the short, dumpy Fiorello.  Then an unsatisfied Harnick edited the number some more, and it made it into a wonderful and ultimately long-running production done at the Timeline Theater in Chicago, which I went to with my dad.  Still not completely content, Harnick finalized the piece on his own after Jerry Bock passed away in 2010, and it was used in the 2102 NYU production which we've been highlighting here.  It's now the version in the official, authorized musical.)

And so, back to the show.


At this point in the story, LaGuardia's life is fraying.  During his campaign for mayor, pressure from the dangerous Tammany  Hall grows, and threats by their flunkies are made against his life​ which he barely escapes.  Then, the voters rejects him in favor of Tammany's figurehead mayor, the corrupt playboy Jimmy Walker, and he loses the election.  But worst of all, throughout all this, his wife's has found her energy low, making surreptitious trips to the doctor to resolve the problem with her health.  But to the shock of all, most especially the unsuspected Fiorello, Thea suddenly dies.

Left alone, all his hopes and plans spun out of control, and the love of his life gone, Fiorello is left alone on stage.  Which brings us to the new reprise of "The Name's LaGuardia."  The song features Kenny Francouer as LaGuardia -- and is a moving number on its own but which surprisingly holds a prescient and eerie connection to the world of politics today.

7 Comments
Lisa Kadonaga
9/29/2019 02:30:25 am

Hi -- I just wanted to let you know how much I've been enjoying reading your insights into "Fiorello!". Although I'd heard a few of the songs over the years, I have yet to see an entire performance. (Unfortunately, living up here in Canada makes it harder to find a group that will put on a show about a US politician on the other side of the continent, who died back in 1947.) So your series of articles is the next best thing, and much appreciated.

I had heard a bit about Fiorello the man, even though I've never been to New York City ... but I didn't really start reading up on him until this year, when I started writing a (fiction) book about another politician from his era, Huey P. Long. And it occurred to me that it would make things much more interesting if, after becoming a Senator, Huey encountered someone in DC who had a very different cultural background, yet was similar enough that they could have disagreements, but still end up becoming friends. Just by chance, I found a photo of Fiorello online that some archive had misidentified as Huey. It was really a stroke of luck because that got me thinking. (And what really clinched it was finding out that Huey loved spaghetti and meatballs ... which I found out was one of Fiorello's special meals that he'd cook for friends.)

I read Fiorello's memoirs (sadly, he was unable to finish his whole life story before he died). I also found the "Life With Fiorello" book by Ernest Cuneo, and when I learned that it had helped inspire the musical, of course I had to look into that. But then I was frustrated to find that there was no movie available. How could that be, when so many other popular and award-winning shows from that era had made it onto film? As you noted in your blogs, that's a major omission.

I was glad to see that there are still productions of "Fiorello!" being made -- and if anything, the themes brought out by the show are even more relevant today, with concerns about political empowerment and how to deal with corruption in the system. I have learned firsthand how messy the candidate selection process can be -- "Politics and Poker", indeed. Right now I'm helping run a federal election campaign, and also the union at my workplace is dealing with a possible strike, so honestly I could use some encouragement from Fiorello himself right now!

It's wonderful that Bock and Harnick kept working on the show, with things like this additional song for Fiorello in Act II. (They sound like exceptional people, great guys besides being dedicated artists. I was reading Patricia Wilson's autobiography recently, and she emphasizes how kind they both were to her.)

It makes a lot of sense to me, that Fiorello would express his emotions at a time like this. Besides the practical constraints of not having a song for him in Act II, he's been through so much -- the stress of challenging Tammany, the shocking loss of Thea -- that to not have him show some kind of vulnerability really doesn't do his character justice. To have him admit that he's lonely and discouraged ... it helps give some context to his decision to marry Marie. Even if George Abbott told Sheldon Harnick that he was opposed to any addition that would have Fiorello seeming to feel sorry for himself, bravo to Sheldon for persisting. I watched the clips of Kenny Francoeur and Danny Rutigliano, and I think that this is now one of my favourite songs in the show.

Speaking of favourites -- Patricia Wilson's book describes what it was like to work on the show, and she says that "Where Do I Go From Here?" was the number she liked best. I ended up making an iTunes playlist where I inserted Liz Callaway's cover of it into the original cast recording, right after "Marie's Law" -- it seems that a couple of productions have tried putting it back into the show there, as a way for Marie to turn to the audience and express her true feelings about Fiorello, after she's vented to Morris about being stood up. (I also put in the full patriotic WWI number that Sheldon sings in the Hidden Treasures album, in front of "Home Again".) I am still waiting for my copy of the show's book to arrive in the mail, but I suspect that what Howard DaSilva suggested to Pat Wilson is true ... that the song fills in things about Marie's true feelings that her spoken lines omit.

After reading that George Abbott lived to 107, I am really hoping that we have Sheldon around for at least that long. I'm inspired that he would care so deeply about the characters in this story, that he'd still be thinking of ways in which to help the audience connect with them -- like the new lines in "The Very Next Man". I thought the "one little flower" zinger really got the point across.

Reply
Robert Elisberg
9/29/2019 12:48:08 pm

Lisa, thanks much for your very nice and exceedingly thoughtful note. I can't say that I'm "friends" with Sheldon Harnick, but it's one of my treats to have become friendly acquaintances with him. (And all the more whimsical that he grew up with my aunt and went to Northwestern with her.) And I can say that, yes, he really is a very gracious nice guy -- and meticulous on his work, not just working to improve "Fiorello! (which won both the Tony Award *and* Pultizer Prize), but some of his other shows, as well, most notably "Rex" which he wrote with Richard Rodgers, and reworked it to the point that the Rodgers & Hammerstein organization include it in their official portfolio for productions.

The thing about "Fiorello!" not having a movie or even a PBS TV production isn't only that it's such a good show, but at the time it was only the third musical ever to win the Prize. And except for the few musicals in very recent years that have won the Putlizer, it is the ONLY musical to win the Pulitzer Prize to *not* have a movie or TV production. A shame, because indeed it's about much more than just a NYC mayor, and is very timely today about honest government amid corruption. Let alone a double love-story.

All the more reason I was glad to be able to put together as many videos of songs from the show so that there could at least be a slight semblance of the production.

Thanks again.

Reply
Lisa Kadonaga
9/29/2019 10:57:51 pm

Oops -- I just realized that I gave the wrong source for Bock and Harnick's Irving Berlin style WWI song. It's in this album, not the Hidden Treasures one.
https://www.amazon.com/Behind-Curtain-Broadway-Composers-Lyricists/dp/B07NHQRS15/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=behind+the+curtain&qid=1569822787&s=music&sr=1-1

Reply
Lisa Kadonaga
10/4/2019 08:27:35 pm

I thought your readers might like to see a transcript of the lyrics for the added Act II Reprise of "The Name's LaGuardia". One of the easiest transcriptions I've ever done -- Kenny Francoeur's diction is so clear. I also double-checked with the partial version by Danny Rutigliano in the Encores! video on Vimeo.


(“The Name’s LaGuardia”, Reprise, Act II)
--newly added for 2012

(Fiorello sings)
The name's LaGuardia: L-A-G-U-A-R-D-I-A!
(speaks over music)
That name used to mean something in this town.
It meant something to me too.
(sings)
It used to stand for pride and confidence
It used to stand for guts and gallBut once the ballot count got underway
I sure as hell found out today
LaGuardia means nothing at all
(speaks over music)
Just a little wop in a big hat.

Okay, New York. You didn’t want me. But HIM? Shame on you!
(sings)
Hey New York! How could you do it?
How could you vote for him – Gentleman Jim?
That two-dimensional fashion plate from Vanity Fair
That imitation Fred Astaire!

(speaks over music)
Hey New York! Why did you do it? You think that he’ll work for you? Well, think again!
He’ll be going to ball games, and he’ll go to the fights
He’ll have his picture took
At Broadway opening nights
(sings)
Hey New York! You hear that laughter?
That’s every crook and every petty grafter
They’re laughing ‘cause they know they’ll soon be raking in the bucks

(speaks over music)
Jimmy’s not gonna stop ‘em – that might wrinkle his tux!
Hey New York! You’ve hit rock bottom.
You wanted him? You got him!

(strains of “Til Tomorrow”)
(speaks over music)
Thea. You’re right, honeybunch. This isn’t about Jimmy Walker. It’s not the election. It’s you. My beautiful Thea. Sweetheart, I miss you so much …
I know. Work. That’s the answer – at least it will be, if I can set my mind to it. Nothing has ever been this hard. I’ll get past this. I will – I’m a fighter. You know that. Didn’t I fight a whole war for you? Now I have to fight another one. And this time – this time, I won’t have you to come home to.
(sings)
I see a long hard fight ahead of me.
Just as tough as it can be
For now the battlefield’s not over there
The battlefield is over here
[gestures at self]
And this time round the enemy’s – me.

(sings)
I pray the day will come when pride and confidence
Will blaze once more within me when I say:
The name’s LaGuardia. LaGuardia! L-A-G-U-A-R-D-I-A!

Reply
Robert Elisberg
10/5/2019 11:16:49 am

Lisa, thanks for taking the time for that. In fact, I re-posted the video itself a couple days ago because of how the words related to politics today --

http://www.elisbergindustries.com/blog/the-names-still-laguardia

Reply
Lisa Kadonaga
10/19/2019 11:45:08 pm

I didn't have a chance to see how well Sheldon Harnick's new scene fits in with the entire story until I obtained a copy of the book. (It was published by Popular Library Inc. in 1960, and it looks like there were multiple printings, hardcover and paperback, which I suspect wasn't something that was routine for musicals, even back then.)

Harnick refers back to events in the first act -- the "little wop in the big hat" was a direct quote from Scene 2 with Ben Marino and the party hacks. Fiorello hears one of the men say this about him when Marie is trying to get him in to see Ben about running for Congress.

This is only my guess, but I suspect that the new lines (and the reprise of "The Name's LaGuardia") are somewhere in Scene 6, when Jimmy Walker wins re-election and his supporters are celebrating. Possibly after Fiorello sends his dejected team home, saying he wants to be alone.

When Fiorello is addressing his deceased wife Thea -- his lines tie in well with the events of Scene 10 (and 11) where he makes it clear to her that he's "going to capture [Trieste] for you, personally". As he's preparing to leave with the American forces, she realizes that he's sincere about this. "Didn't I fight a whole war for you", indeed.

The new scene became even more poignant to me when I realized that it's the flip side of Act 2 Scene 1, where we see a glimpse of their home life. Things started our so well ... Fiorello was happily occupied with Thea and his campaign ... and now he's lost both. He's not just being sentimental now that she's gone, or because people are expecting him to be in mourning. It comes across as perfectly natural that he would still be talking to her, because that earlier scene implies that did it all the time when they were together. (And it wouldn't surprise me a bit if Sheldon Harnick and his own wife Margery have also had a close relationship like that, all these decades.)

The "imitation Fred Astaire" seems to be Fiorello's scathing echo of the Astaire reference in "Gentleman Jimmy", Scene 2 Act 2. The character takes us down -- if not to "rock bottom", to a darker side of his personality than has been evident. But I think that Harnick shows Fiorello starting to find a way out. I don't believe that he crosses the line into the "self-pity" that George Abbott warned against. Reading the real Fiorello's memoirs, and Ernest Cuneo's book (I think that Neil is the closest match to Cuneo in the story), the new lyrics of the reprise seem to be a pretty good match ... LaGuardia wasn't naive about politics, and he knew that sheer idealism wasn't enough to fix difficult problems. By Scene 8, when Marie confronts him with her "you're afraid" speech, she doesn't have to pull him all the way out on her own. But we get the feeling that she clinches it for him, and he's ready to move on to a new life with her (and political victory).

I like the new addition -- I think it gives Act 2 more emotional depth and richness, besides developing Fiorello's character. (And it fixes an issue with the original Scene 6, where he seems to move on from his losses with almost-inhuman speed ... not even mentioning Thea. It gives the audience a chance to say goodbye to her too.)

Reply
Robert Elisberg
10/20/2019 11:05:26 am

Lisa, thanks for your comments. Yes, the new addition is very good. And yes, in general the best writing flows from what was said and done earlier and builds on that..

Reply



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    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.

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