Good morning, all! My two tasks today are my church job and THE MOST HAPPY FELLA, such a coincidence!
When I first heard the OBC, around 1963 or so, I disliked the show. I had always loved "Standing on the Corner" from its days as a pop hit, and "Happy To Make your Acquaintance," but a lot of the score left me completely cold; I kept thinking, why isn't it as good as GUYS AND DOLLS or WHERE'S CHARLEY? I wasn't helped in that the first production of the show I ever saw was a Cincinnati Opera production around 1977 with Louis Quilico, who was quite good, and a soprano who seemed to be telling everyone "am I not pretty and talented?" with everything she did. I think I finally fell in love with the show around 1992, with the Goodspeed revival, which was so wonderfuly staged by Gerry Guitierrez, although I missed the great orchestrations, and suddenly six years later, just before Christmas, I was in London recording a complete edition of the show with Louis Quilico, and Frank Loesser's daughter and widow, after spending the previous four months preparing the cut materials, and cleaning up the orchestra scores. I'd spent half of 1997 working with Jo Loesser on GREENWILLOW, the first half of 1998 on WHERE'S CHARLEY? and a Symphony space Wall-To-Wall Frank Loesser event, and spending a week in London with her and Emily was one of the best Christmas gifts I've ever had.
My memory is that the New York cast overdubs happened in early 1999, after John Yap had finished mixing the sessions from London, and I remember several days in the studios getting the cast to react to things in the dance music, talking to friends who were in and out to record (my goddaughter Charlotte and her mother both have small roles, as do I), and spending a lot of time chatting with Emily, Jo, and Karen Ziemba, whom I adore. I remember a playthrough later in the year at MTI for the entire cast and how moved I was by it.
As to the "aren't I talented and pretty" soprano I didn't like much as Rosabella? Her name is Nancy Shade, a wonderful singer and actress who became a friend during GREENWILLOW, where she played a wonderful mother to Gideon Briggs and her brood, and she plays Tony's manipulative sister Marie on the recording of MOST HAPPY FELLA. I think she's a fantastically fierce and committed performer, and I blame the director of that Cincinatti performance for everything.
