| re: Can SUTTON sing THE MUSIC MAN as written? | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 05:20 pm EST 02/13/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Can SUTTON sing THE MUSIC MAN as written? - Chromolume 04:02 pm EST 02/13/20 | |
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| I think that the published and licensed Gypsy keys for Rose's songs represent what Merman sang starting a few months into the run, after a blood vessel in her throat hemorrhaged during a performance and she had to miss seven performances. I think I've been told that the keys in the published and licensed materials are generally a half-step lower than what is heard on the cast recording except for "Some People," which is a full step lower. If that's true, it suggests at least the possibility that "Some People" was lowered a second time. Of course, we've discussed here many times the fact that published and licensed materials often reflect changes made during a run or during a post-Broadway tour rather than what was performed on opening night. On June 10, 1957, it was mentioned in the Times that Barbara Cook was under serious consideration to play Marian, at which time the producers were waiting to hear back from an offer made to Andy Griffith to play Harold Hill. I would think that even if keys for Marian's songs (and the songs in general) were not definitively decided till after the casting was done or not even till rehearsals, it was expected that Marian's songs would be in Broadway-soprano keys. Of course, some of the score was trunk material, and the first recording of what was then called "Till I Met You" (linked) was in a lower key. But I feel pretty confident that whoever was cast as Marian was going to be a soprano. In musical-theatre terms, the character is a soprano Having said that about a character being a "soprano character," it's interesting that Dolores Grey was an early possibility for Eliza Doolittle, but that was several years before My Fair Lady finally happened. Also, Ethel Merman was offered Sarah Brown, but again that was in a very early projected version of the show that was probably closer to the source material. It's not all that hard to imagine Merman as the Sarah Brown of "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown." |
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| Link | Eileen Wilson: Till I Met You |
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| Previous: | re: Can SUTTON sing THE MUSIC MAN as written? - Chromolume 04:02 pm EST 02/13/20 |
| Next: | re: Can SUTTON sing THE MUSIC MAN as written? - Michael_Portantiere 05:03 pm EST 02/14/20 |
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