UNITED WE STAND IN MUSICAL THEATER NATION By Peter Filichia
So, last week marked the 75th anniversary of the opening of the first United Nations building.
And given that each member nation gets one vote, we’ll pick one song from a musical that’s set in a country that was a member in 1951. In alphabetical order:
Argentina: Something from EVITA would be a logical choice, but let’s go with a song from a different musical that also spends time in B.A.: CANDIDE’s “My Love.”
Many musical theater savants are quick to praise this score’s “Glitter and Be Gay” or “Make Our Garden Grow.” Take note that “My Love” is a Leonard Bernstein melody to be equally cherished.
Canada: ANNE OF GREEN GABLES (set on Prince Edward Island) has a song that will resonate with everyone who hated to return to school each September.
(And who didn’t?)
“Where Did the Summer Go To?” the kids wonder, as one returning student mourns, “I think that all that Latin will flatten my brain.”
Chile: Ever been? If not, perhaps you should go, for Sir Francis Beekman assures us in GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES that “It’s Delightful Down in Chile.” He mentions a hacienda to Lorelei Lee; she brings up a different Spanish word: pesos.
And in case he can’t translate, she’ll tell him in good ol’ fashioned English the amount she has in mind: millions.
Should you opt for Carol Channing on the original cast album or Megan Hilty in the 2012 Encores! revival? Both have their gold-digging charms.
Colombia: MAGDALENA is named for the largest river in this South American country. One song has become a concert-hall favorite since the musical’s 1948 debut: “Pièce de Résistance.”
And when you consider that the definition of “pièce de résistance” refers to an item’s “most important or remarkable feature,” it’s only fitting that this should be the score’s most important and remarkable song.
England: Lots of choices here, but let’s select a song from the currently running OPERATION MINCEMEAT. The musical follows the tradition of British farces and sprints along at a furiously dynamic pace. However, it does make time for one serious ballad when members of England’s Secret Intelligence Service get to London.
At the performances I’ve attended both on Broadway and in the West End, comedy and up-tempo songs certainly pleased the theatergoers, but none could match the applause that “Dear Bill” received in each country.
If you can’t get to the Golden Theatre where Jak Malone performs it eight times a week, he’s also on the London cast album. His tender declaration to a lost love is what cemented his winning the 2024-25 Tony as Best Featured Actor in a Musical.
France: There are no shortage of musical theater songs that deal with Paris – 123 by ibdb’s count – but here, too, we’ll go to a recent one: “Paris” in LEMPICKA. It certainly offers a different look at the City of Light, for it admits it’s not a paradise… but it’s still, after all, Paris.
Greece: One thing’s for sure: E.Y. Harburg (of THE WIZARD OF OZ fame) didn’t have any trouble working with his composer, because Jacques Offenbach had been dead for more than 80 years before Harburg brought THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD to Broadway in 1961.
We’d like to think that Offenbach would have said “Eureka!” when he heard what Harburg did with his melodies – especially the one he’d repurposed as “Eureka!”
India: This is the setting for CHRISTINE, in which a woman goes to Calcutta to meet her daughter and winds up marrying her husband.
(Frankly, it’s not as salacious as it sounds, as the liner notes will explain.)
I’ll suggest CHRISTINE’s title song, in conjunction with the 1959 film Pillow Talk. Rock Hudson played Brad Allen, a composer-lyricist who romances a woman by writing a song specifically for her.
Or so each one woman thinks. When Marie’s around, the opening lyric is “You are my inspiration, Marie”; when Eileen visits, Brad warbles “You are my inspiration, Eileen.” And when Yvette comes to call, the first four words again stay the same, but the last one is – yes, yes – “Yvette.”
Over the years, rumors were rife that a real-life songwriter did just this when in the quest of women. Dare we think that it might have been CHRISTINE’s lyricist Paul Francis Webster? His title song goes “Don’t run away from love, Christine. Don’t turn away from love, Christine… I need you by my side, Christine. My arms are open wide, Christine.”
(You get the point.)
Israel: MILK AND HONEY features the first funny song that Jerry Herman wrote for a Broadway show. “Chin Up, Ladies” gives us Clara, who’s brought a group of American Jewish widows to Jerusalem in hopes they’ll each return with husbands. See if you can catch the single line that manages to reference not one but two songs in the Rodgers and Hammerstein canon.
(Listening to the whole score will whet your appetite for the upcoming MILK AND HONEY revival that J2 Productions will bring to the AMT Theatre from April 16-26.)
Turkey: Ephesus is the city that THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE visit in Rodgers and Hart’s musical. True, we’ve passed December 21, known as “The Shortest Day of the Year” but any time is a good one to discover Lorenz Hart’s witty words that follow that title.
As for Rodgers, he always enjoyed writing what came to be known as a “wrong note,” meaning one that he purposely made flat and yet produced unexpected tantalizing results. The one here is as delicious as bittersweet dark chocolate.
Union of South Africa: SARAFINA takes place in a Soweto school. Of all these albums, this is one where you’ll probably need to follow along with the liner notes, unless you speak Zulu.
But the provided English translation reveals in the title song that our heroine has many admirers, one of whom is very frustrated: “You smile for another gentleman, but when I send you chocolate and flowers, you say I make you vex. You give your junior sister the chocolate; you throw out me pretty flowers for your window.”
Well, we’ve all had those experiences. And if you haven’t, congratulations…
Oh, yes, another country that was a charter member of the United Nations was the United States of America. Off the top of your head, you can probably think of dozens of musicals that have been set in the U.S. of A. So, how can we pick one singular sensation out of the thousands upon thousands from which to choose?
Do we choose a song set in Alabama (REGINA), California (BACK TO THE FUTURE), Connecticut (TAKE ME ALONG), Georgia (PURLIE), Illinois (CHICAGO), Indiana (THE PROM), Iowa (THE PAJAMA GAME), Ohio (BYE BYE BIRDIE), Louisiana (MARIE CHRISTINE), Maryland (HAIRSPRAY), Mississippi (SHOW BOAT), New Jersey (STEEL PIER), Oklahoma (guess what musical), Pennsylvania (GROUNDHOG DAY), South Carolina (PORGY AND BESS), Texas (110 IN THE SHADE), Vermont (HAZEL FLAGG), Virginia (SHENANDOAH), Washington (THE GOLDEN APPLE), not to be confused with Washington, DC (DAMN YANKEES)? And if you’re feeling a little silly, add in FINIAN’S RAINBOW’s Missitucky.
Instead, I’ll recommend my all-time favorite musical theater song, one whose message I’ve tried to live by: “Yes” from 70, GIRLS, 70. The musical about senior citizens in New York City reminds us that “life keeps happening every day,” and we should “Say ‘Yes!’ when opportunities come our way.”
So, in that spirit, say “Yes” to all these songs…
Peter Filichia can be heard most weeks of the year on www.broadwayradio.com. His new day-by-day wall calendar – A SHOW TUNE FOR TODAY – 366 Songs to Brighten Your Year – is now available on Amazon and The Drama Book Shop.
