Radio personality Jonathan Schwartz talks about the amusing period when this song was brand new. Before recordings had widely been disseminated, some UK personalities recorded this song, learning it just from the sheet music, and not realizing the irony in the differing pronunciations of the key words. Without which, of course, the song makes little sense!
There is also the joke about the clewless audition singer who does the same thing with the song - repeating "tomato, tomato" and "potato, potato." The audition panel cuts her off: "That will be all, Miss Levine." [Luh-veen] She then curtly corrects them: "That's LEVINE!" [Luh-VINE].
Well, I don't think I've ever played the song for a Miss Levine, but I have had singers who've come in and not realized what they were supposed to be singing.
My two favorite mispronunciations are:
From "Broadway Bay"
Working for a nice man
Like a Ziegfeld
Or a Weissman-with "Weissman" pronounced as "WEESE-man". -Come on, at least realize there's supposed to be an internal rhyme there.
And from "Carnival"
I come from a town called Mira-with "Mira" pronounced as "Myra". Boy, did it take a lot of "strength" to keep a straight face during the audition.
Although, I also "like" it when singers announce that their songs are by:
-StephAn Sondheim
and
-StephAn Schwartz