| re: Merrily We Roll Along November 23 NYTW |
| Posted by: AlanScott 08:14 am EST 11/26/22 |
| In reply to: re: Merrily We Roll Along November 23 NYTW - Chazwaza 11:21 pm EST 11/25/22 |
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But the Follies overture that includes "That Old Piano Roll" and "Can That Boy Fox Trot!" (which you didn't mention) isn't really an overture in the traditional sense, even though it is sometimes called one. It accompanies stage action. It's really incidental music. There is often applause during it. People don’t listen to it in the way that they (at least sometimes) listen to overtures.
And the prologue that uses "All Things Bright and Beautiful" similarly accompanies stage action. It’s a mix of dance music and incidental music.
"That Old Piano Roll" and "All Things Bright and Beautiful" never made rehearsals, never came close to making rehearsals. They weren't kept in after they were cut. The melodies were used in sequences for which the music was devised long after they were cut. Using cut songs in dance music and underscoring is not all that uncommon. Composers have given cut songs to the dance and incidental music arrangers so that there is something new sometimes in such sequences. Sondheim (he also did it in Forum and Night Music) and Cy Coleman are among the composers who have done this.
It’s not unheard of although rare for true overtures to retain songs that were during a tryout. Show Boat and The Unsinkable Molly Brown are two examples, but although I think “Rich and Happy” should not have been cut from Merrily (certainly not if the replacement is the lame “That Frank”), once it was cut, it would have been very odd for it to stay in the overture given the prominence it had there. |
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