OLIVER! REVIEWING THE SITUATION By Peter Filichia
As soon as I returned home from seeing the London revival of OLIVER!, I reached for the original American cast album.
Yes, original American cast, not original Broadway cast. Throughout 1962, producer David Merrick believed that the musical that had been the biggest hit of the 1960-61 London season would soon become the biggest hit of the 1962-63 Broadway season, too. Thus, he didn’t want to wait a second longer than necessary to get that score into record stores.
So, in July, while the show was trying out in Los Angeles, the performers went into a studio and made that American cast album – so called because Michael Goodman, who was playing The Artful Dodger, couldn’t dodge that he was aging out of the role. By Broadway, Goodman was replaced by David Jones – better known as Davy Jones after he made a Monkee out of himself when joining a rock group by that name.
Keeping their jobs were Bruce Prochnik as Oliver Twist, the orphan boy who suffers greatly before luck finally finds him; Clive Revill as Fagin, the ne’er-do-well who encourages him, the Artful Dodger and a bevy of other boys to steal for him; Georgia Brown as Nancy, Fagin’s former “pupil” who still occasionally helps him as well as her nefarious beau Bill Sikes, who was portrayed by former pro boxer Danny Sewell.
Merrick had originally planned to open OLIVER! on Dec. 27, 1962. Alas, a New York newspaper strike started on Dec. 8, 1962, so Merrick, assuming that OLIVER! would get strong reviews that he wanted everyone to read, postponed. January 6th would now be the official opening.
Alas, the strike was still on then, and, in fact, would not end until
March 31. So, Merrick reluctantly honored his second date. The critics did attend, and through hastily published handouts and radio coverage, their mostly positive reviews wended their way into the public’s consciousness.
Merrick took no chances, though. He wrote his own review and read it on the radio
It was quite the rave.
But the critics and word of mouth helped the show to run 774 performances. While that figure wouldn’t seem to be enough to break records, OLIVER! indeed became the British musical that amassed the most performances on Broadway.
(Little did we know then that THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA would eventually run nearly 18 times longer.)
More often than not, the Tony winner for Best Musical also wins Best Score. It didn’t happen this time; although Lionel Bart won for OLIVER’s music and lyrics, the Best Musical medallion went to A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM.
What FORUM couldn’t deliver that OLIVER! did was a hit song:
“As Long As He Needs Me,” as Nancy sings of Bill. During the entire 1962-63 season, TV variety shows (and there were plenty then) featured some female singer doing it, when a male crooner wasn’t above singing “As Long As She Needs Me.”
It’s a fervent declaration of love and commitment which has always come across that way on the cast album and pop recordings. But in the musical, Nancy sings it after Bill hits her. For much of the first act, we assume that Fagin is the show’s villain, but once we meet Bill, we see a real skunk. In fact, even in the jolly “It’s a Fine Life,” Nancy mentions abuse at the hands of a man.
The sound on the American cast album should appeal to those who are now being drawn to vinyl; it has the warmth that’s associated with long-playing records. CDs have often been both praised and criticized for their crisp sound, and RCA Victor cast albums had it even in days of yore. Webster Hall, still on East 11th Street, contributed to that, but OLIVER! was in a studio that seemed to lean on the side of warmth.
In 2003, this album became part of Sony’s Deluxe Collector’s Edition series, which included bonus tracks. One was another recording made in Los Angeles: Patti LuPone’s 1993 rendition of “As Long As He Needs Me,” which she did in concert.
LuPone had already sung the song on Broadway in the 1984 revival. Nancy, a woman of questionable virtue, is the type of role that she’s often asked to play. THE ROBBER BRIDEROOM, WORKING, EVITA, SWEENEY TODD, GYPSY, THE ANARCHIST, COMPANY, THE ROOMATE… they’re adding up…
In that revival, Fagin was Ron Moody, replicating the role that he had originated in London in 1960 and reprised in the 1968 Oscar-winning film that had nabbed him an Oscar nomination, too.
To get a sense of how Moody handled the role, Sony’s Deluxe Collector’s Edition includes him doing “You’ve Got to Pick a Pocket or Two” and “Reviewing the Situation.” Compare him with Clive Revill’s Broadway performance, and you’ll hear a difference.
Donald Pippin, who won a Tony for conducting and musical directing the original production, reveals why during his 10 minutes of bonus tracks. Pippin believed that Merrick felt Moody’s performance was, to use that unfortunate expression, “too Jewish” for the Broadway audience, which was then highly Jewish. Revill toned it down.
Broadway was mighty surprised when the 1984 revival shuttered after 13 previews and 17 performances. Who expected that short a run with original director Peter Coe and original set designer Sean Kenny repeating their assignments? In 1963, Coe had been Tony-nominated, and Kenny had won a well-deserved Tony for his ingenious set. And yet, two of the four weeks that this OLIVER! played, it couldn’t even fill 40% of its seats.
Could it be that Moody’s interpretation sunk the show?
There’s one other valuable cut in the Collector’s Edition: “That’s Your Funeral,” sung by the character of Mr. Sowerberry, an undertaker who takes on Oliver when orphanage director Mr. Bumble sells him. It was in the Broadway production, but didn’t make the American cast album.
Was it because so-called long-playing records didn’t always have enough room for everything … or did that record producers Joe Linhart and Charles Gerhardt – not RCA Victor’s usual New York cast album impresarios – didn’t want to pay an extra salary? Actors get a week’s wages for recording a cast album, and Barry Humphries, who played an undertaker, only had that one song.
Recognize the name? Soon after OLIVER! closed, Humphries created an alter ego whom he named Dame Edna Everage. And that brings me to the time that I interviewed her.
Indeed, her, not he. The Dame never met the press as Barry Humphries; that person didn’t exist. Every interviewer had to swear in advance that while facing the Dame, he or she would never mention Barry Humphries. Just try to sneak it in, and the Dame would immediately depart.
So, while I faced the Dame (who wore a dress that was made to resemble the Chrysler Building), I abided by the rules – until the very end of the interview when I cheated. In a matter-of-fact voice, I asked “Dame Edna, have you ever thought of playing the great musical theater roles? Mame? Dolly?”
She started to answer, but I interrupted with “The Undertaker in OLIVER!?”
There was a sudden silence. And then, after the Dame glared at me, she said in a very low, icy, no-nonsense voice, “The Undertaker in OLIVER! is not a great role.”
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.
