Not to derail the thread, but there are also songs sung by one character, dropped in tryout, and given to a completely different sort of
character in a different show, with a very different effect.
The classic example is Jerome Kern's "Bill," first sung, in Oh, Lady! Lady!!, by a happy bride on her wedding day as a kind of joke, dropped on the road,
then re-used in Show Boat for a demoralized woman whose happiness is long over, turning the song (with very slight alterations
in words and music) into a dirge.
It seems odd that such a wonderful number would be dropped, and the usual explanation--that it denigrates the groom unnecessarily--
isn't convincing. Again, the lyrics are meant as silly, not denigrating. And they could have been changed. Further, Kern was so keen on
the music--he knew it was too good to waste--that it is listed in all four of the out-of-town playbills (though it might have been
cut after the third stand). . He didn't want to give it up, and even
slipped it into Zip Goes a Million with new lyrics about the dollar bill, which actually does waste the music.
It worked out well in the end, though, because it's impossible to imagine the second act of Show Boat without "Bill." |
