KEEP THE BELLS RINGING By Peter Filichia
Jonathan Groff’s brilliant performance in JUST IN TIME got me listening to a recording that I hadn’t heard in some time.
And I was reminded that BELLS ARE RINGING – which includes “Just in Time” – is a sensational cast album.
Give a listen, and you may wonder why composer Jule Styne and bookwriter-lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green didn’t win the 1956-1957 Best Musical Tony.
The three-word answer: MY FAIR LADY.
And yet, that legendary musical didn’t see leading lady Julie Andrews or featured actor Stanley Holloway win the Tony.
Sydney Chaplin beat out Holloway through the Tonys’ peculiar policy in those days. If you were billed under the title, you were considered featured, even if you were actually a leading man with more than a half dozen songs.
But as surprising as Judy Holliday besting Andrews might seem, you might understand the decision when you feel her warmth as Ella Peterson. She’s a dedicated switchboard operator, who – in those pre-answering machine days – was one of those real live human beings who took messages.
Ella had been doing that job at the fancifully named Bonjour Tristesse Brassiere Company. There, however, “it was just hello, goodbye” to businesspeople. Then her cousin Sue offered her the same position at her company Susanswerphone. Here, though, Ella’s interacting day after day with the same people gets her emotionally involved with them. She wants to help.
So, when an actor has made himself into a mere Marlon Brando imitation, she encourages him to rebrand himself. As for Dr. Kitchell, who hates being a dentist but desperately wants to be a songwriter, she spurs him to follow his dreams.
And then there’s Jeffrey Moss, who’d been half of a Kaufman-and-Hart-like writing team until the partnership ended. Now, it’s said, he’s a playwright who “plays and never writes.”
Ella maintains (in one of the best opening songs for a musical theater heroine) that “It’s a Perfect Relationship.” She’s “in love with a man” but knows little more about him than his phone number: “Plaza O, double-four, double-three.”
(Today, 212-750-4433 belongs to Hightech Backup, a technology company on 42nd Street that specializes in providing data duplicating solutions.) Although Ella does wonder “What does he look like?”, she acknowledges that “I’ll never meet him, and he’ll never meet me.” After all, “He calls me Mom; he thinks I’m 63” because she assumes a shaky voice when he calls. “He needs a mother,” she tells a co-worker. (Interesting that the 2001 revival of BELLS ARE RINGING added 30 years to Mom’s age. Guess that 93 is the new 63.) As for ”What does he look like?” right now, Jeff doesn’t look good. He claims that he’s happy now that he’s “On My Own.” It’s a briskly confident song, but the way that Chaplin barrels through it, we can hear that Jeff is making a concerted effort to convince himself that he’s in good shape. Luckily, Jeff will soon be singing “I Met a Girl” once Ella comes into his life. But she can’t admit that she’s “just” a switchboard operator, so she identifies herself as Melisande. That she’s so mysterious and evasive makes her even more attractive to Jeff. Both are grateful when they recall how dull life was “Long Before I Knew You,” one of Broadway’s favorite ballads. Better still, Jeff is doubly grateful that Melisande came into his life “Just in Time” to inspire him to continue writing The Midas Touch. For their next date, they’ll go dancing. Carl, a delivery man, helps Ella learn the latest dance craze: not just the cha-cha, but one mucho steps above: “Mu-Cha-Cha.” Three Tony winners for choreography participated. Jerome (FIDDLER ON THE ROOF) Robbins and Bob (DAMN YANKEES) Fosse collaborated on all the show’s dances, and Peter Gennaro, who later staged the numbers for ANNIE, portrayed Carl. But Ella and Jeff aren’t going dancing after all. Jeff is forced to attend a party for The Midas Touch’s leading man. Ella feels out of place in the company of such lofty luminaries who are on a first-name basis with celebrities. Ella, too, will learn to “Drop That Name.” See how many of the dozens of real-life personalities of the day you’ve heard of. Those who see GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK will certainly recognize the first name listed. Because Ella knows she’s been living a lie, she realizes that “The Party's Over” and disappears from Jeff’s life. She decides in one of the greatest eleven o’clock numbers: “I’m goin’ back where I can be me – to the Bonjour Tristesse Brassiere Company!” As it turns out, Ella won’t be goin’ back. While Jeff is in a nightclub, he’s surprised to hear a song called “The Midas Touch.” Is it a coincidence that someone has written a tune that has the same name as his play? As it turns out, this song – one of those so-bad-it’s-good ones – gets Jeff to question its writer: Dr. Kitchell. Jeff gets the answers that result in him and Ella having a happy ending. For such a Cinderella story, can it be an accident that Comden and Green chose the last two syllables of that fairy tale heroine’s name for their character?But wait! There are two subplots. First, Police Inspector Barnes suspects that Susanaswerphone might be a front for a criminal enterprise. Ella rebuts: “Is It a Crime” that she’s involved in the lives of the customers? Holliday is terrific in making her voice bass-deep to bellow the song’s best line – that if she’d been taking messages for Romeo and Juliet, “Those two kids would be alive today!”
The second subplot has Sue smitten with Otto Sandor, ostensibly president of Titanic Records, but actually a bookie. In “It’s a Simple Little System,” he explains that bettors will be able to circumvent the law by using classical musicians’ names as a substitute for racetracks: Beethoven is Belmont Park; Puccini is Pimlico; Rachmaninoff is Rockingham.
What luck that the composer of the “Hallelujah Chorus” had a name that started with “H.” Otherwise, one of the great lyric jokes of all time – “What is Handel? Hialeah! Hialeah!” – wouldn’t have worked. But, oh, it does, it does…
As it turns out, Otto’s system is a little too simple. Suddenly he’s in deep financial trouble and begs money from Sue, assuring her it’s a short-term loan. He promises to soon take her to “Salzburg,” which, he notes, is “by the sea.”
In truth, Salzburg is a good 250 miles away from the Adriatic, but Sue is blinded by Otto’s declarations of love to even question his claim that the place has gondolas, bullfights and geishas.
A listen to the original cast album makes clear why BELLS ARE RINGING closed as the 10th longest-running book musical in Broadway history. After a listen, you may cry out “I’m goin’ back!” to hear it again.
Peter Filichia can be heard most weeks of the year on www.broadwayradio.com. His calendar – A SHOW TUNE FOR TODAY: 366 Songs to Brighten Your Year – is now available on Amazon.
