Little Mary Sunshine (1959 Original Off-Broadway Cast)
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Music CD Cover
Composer: Rick BesoyanPerformer: Eileen Brennan
Performer: William Graham
Performer: Elmarie Wendel
Performer: John McMartin
Performer: Mario Siletti
Performer: Elizabeth Parrish
Performer: John Aniston
Edition: Music CD
Format: Cast Recording
CD Release Date: 2007-02-13
Music Label: Drg
Soundtracks:
- Overture
- The Forest Rangers
- Little Mary Sunshine
- Look For A Sky Of Blue
- You're The Fairest Flower
- In Izzenschnooken On The Lovely Essenzook Zee
- Playing Croquet
- Swinging/How Do You Do?
- Tell A Handsome Stranger
- Once In A Blue Moon
- Every Little Nothing
- Colorado Love Call
- Such A Merry Party
- Naughty, Naughty Nancy
- Mata Hari
- Do You Ever Dream Of Vienna?
- Coo Coo
- Finale
Free Music Notes for Little Mary Sunshine (1959 Original Off-Broadway Cast)
Free Music Review: Brilliant Satire, Catchy Melodies, Funny as the Dickens
Hit: 5 Stars
Rick Besoyan's Little Mary Sunshine's songs brilliantly satirize earlier operettas and Broadway musicals--plus a ballet. Here's how:
* The Forest Rangers - alludes to "heroic fighting team" songs, notably "The Mounties," from Rudolf Friml's Rose Marie; "Stout Hearted Men," from Sigmund Romberg's The New Moon; "The Riff Song," from Romberg's The Desert Song; "Song of the Vagabonds," from Friml's The Vagabond King; and arguably even "March of the Toys," from Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland. The line "For there's always one more hill beyond the hill beyond the hill . . . [six "hill" mentions]" apes the title of "There's a Hill Beyond a Hill," from Jerome Kern's Music in the Air. "The Forest Rangers" also gives the rangers nine of the twelve virtues from the Boy Scout Law.
* Little Mary Sunshine - mimics the title song from Rose Marie. Both songs are title songs, and both use the name of the musical's heroine as the song title.
* Look for A Sky of Blue - alludes to "Look for the Silver Lining," from Kern's Sally. "When e'er a cloud appears" is the first five words of both the first line of the chorus of "Sky of Blue" and the second line of the chorus of "Silver Lining."
* You're the Fairest Flower [". . . An American Beauty Rose"] - alludes particularly to two Friml operetta songs with "Rose" in their titles--the title song from Rose Marie and "Only a Rose" from The Vagabond King--but also alludes generally to other boy-serenades-girl love songs such as the title song from Romberg's The Desert Song; "Serenade," from Romberg's The Student Prince; and "Yours Is My Heart Alone," from Franz Lehar's The Land of Smiles.
* In Izzenschnooken on the Lovely Essenzook Zee - alludes generally to nostalgia songs like "Golden Days," from Romberg's The Student Prince; "Will You Remember," from Romberg's Maytime; "I'll See You Again," from Noel Coward's Bitter Sweet; and "When I Grow too Old to Dream," from Romberg's The Night is Young. But more particularly, "Izenschnooken" pays tribute to "In Egern on the Tegern See," another tune from Music in the Air.
* Playing Croquet + Swinging + How Do You Do? - These three songs salute Irving Berlin and Meredith Willson. Sung first separately, then simultaneously, the songs display counterpoint one-upsmanship. Counterpoint, in the context of popular music, is the simultaneous singing of separate songs, each with its own lyrics and each designed to harmonize with the other(s). Berlin's "Play a Simple Melody," from Watch Your Step, and "You're Just in Love," from Call Me Madam, both had an initial tune and a counterpoint tune and verse that were sung simultaneously after first being sung independently; so did Willson's "Lida Rose" + "Will I Ever Tell You?," from The Music Man. Rick Besoyan did Berlin and Willson one better by combining THREE songs.
* Tell a Handsome Stranger - alludes generally to boy-meets-girl songs such as "Kiss Me Again," from Herbert's Mlle. Modiste; "I'm Falling in Love with Someone," from Herbert's Naughty Marietta; "Marianne," from Romberg's The New Moon; and "Make Believe," from Kern's Showboat; but the title particularly alludes to "Tell Me Pretty Maiden," from Leslie Stuart's Floradora. The line "I'm falling--I'm falling in love with you" once more suggests Herbert's "I'm Falling in Love with Someone." The words "Oh, joy!" apparently reflect the song "Oh Joy, Oh Rapture Unforeseen," from Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore. And the words "You make my little heart go pitty-pat" paraphrase the words "Your heart goes pitter-patter," buried in "You're Just in Love," from Call Me Madam.
* Once in a Blue Moon - alludes to Romberg's The New Moon and to its song "Lover Come Back To Me." The antecedent tune's opening lines are "The sky was BLUE, and high above, the MOON was NEW, and so was love." "Blue Moon" not only rhymes with "New Moon," it incorporates the word "blue" from the lyrics of "Lover Come Back to Me." And both songs display the theme of interrupted love. Viewed from the comedy angle, "Once in a Blue Moon" evokes the lyrics of "All Er Nuthin," from Rogers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma. Both lyrics have two lovers--secondary characters--arguing about the girl's flirtatious (and possibly promiscuous) ways.
* Colorado Love Call - alludes conspicuously to "Indian Love Call," from Rose Marie.
* Every Little Nothing - alludes, again conspicuously, to "Every Little Movement," from Karl Hoschna's Madame Sherry. The first five notes (sung with "ev-ry lit-l moe/nuth) of both songs are identical. The words "every little moment," sung later, reinforce the parallelism by substituting "moment" for "movement"--a clever play on words.
* Such a Merry Party - alludes to "This Was a Real Nice Clambake," from Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel; perhaps also to "Drinking Song," from Romberg's The Student Prince; and maybe even to "I Could Have Danced All Night," from Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady.
* Say "Uncle" - Sung by General Fairfax, who brings gifts for the ladies, "Say `Uncle'" alludes not to Broadway but to ballet and to Uncle Drosselmeyer, who brings gifts for the children in Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.
* Naughty, Naughty Nancy - alludes obviously to the title of Herbert's Naughty Marietta.
* Mata Hari - alludes to comedy songs sung by operetta soubrettes. The best examples are "I Cain't Say No," from Oklahoma, and "Life Upon the Wicked Stage," from Kern's Showboat. The former song's lyrics, sung by Nancy's prototype, Ado Annie, have the same general theme--a man-hungry girl--as "Mata Hari." The "Wicked Stage" lyrics also have a touch of that man-hungry theme: "I got virtue, but it ain't been tested/I can't find nobody in-ter-est-ed."
* Do You Ever Dream of Vienna? - another nostalgia song like "Izzenschnooken." "Vienna" pays homage to "Vienna Mine," from Emmerich Kalman's Countess Maritza. It may also hint at "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" from Burton Lane's Finian's Rainbow.
* Coo Coo - earlier song uncertain, but "Coo Coo" apparently alludes to "Bluebird of Happiness," a 1934 non-Broadway song popularized by Metropolitan Opera tenor Jan Peerce. Both title birds, according to their songs' lyrics, bring cheer to sad listeners.
These wonderful, funny, melodic songs belong in your collection.
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