THE OTHER WISH YOU WERE HERE By Peter Filichia
I blinked when I read the news.
WISH YOU WERE HERE is the Number One album in the United Kingdom?
That an original cast album from 1952 would make such a spectacular renaissance astonished me.
No, it’s Pink Floyd’s album WISH YOU WERE HERE that’s made a remarkable comeback 50 years after its original release.
Granted, it isn’t the precise recording that has sold upwards of 20 million copies. Its 26-minute, nine-part signature song, “Shine On, You Crazy Diamond” originally couldn’t fit on one side of a vinyl record and had to be split across two. Now it’s as complete as Sweeney Todd after being reunited with his razor.
As you’ve probably surmised, Pink Floyd had nothing to do with the musical WISH YOU WERE HERE, for which Harold Rome provided the score. That was 15 years after his PINS AND NEEDLES and 10 before his I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE.
(Barbra Streisand is shown to excellent advantage on the former’s 25th anniversary studio cast album and the latter’s original cast album.)
Those were so-called “Jewish shows,” as was WISH YOU WERE HERE. It took place in the Catskills. From the ‘20s through the ‘60s, its dozens of resorts offered kosher dining, dancing, swimming and entertainment ranging from genuine stars to a tummler – the Yiddish word for the full-time employee who was part emcee and part jester.
(Joel Grey occasionally tummled in his pre-CABARET days.)
New York City residents who made the three-hour drive to the Catskills were also looking for love, always a prime ingredient of any musical.
And imagine a musical that would have a real swimming pool on stage! Actually, those who caught any of VIVA O’BRIEN’s 20 performances in 1941 didn’t have to imagine, for that quick flop had one, as well. The swimming-pool set for WISH YOU WERE HERE was too complicated to move, even for one out-of-town break-in. So, previews would have to do, and WISH YOU WERE HERE followed suit with 26 of them.
In olden days, if you debuted in a faraway city and your show stunk, word-of-mouth wasn’t poisonous because comparatively few New Yorkers crossed state lines to spread the word. But in the 1970s, when Broadway previews began replacing out-of-town tryouts, audiences were filled with fans who soon were on the phone telling everyone when the news was bad.
The New York Post’s actual review of WISH YOU WERE HERE on June 26, 1952 substantiates this: “It’s been no secret since June 2, when the musical comedy began playing a series of previews,” wrote Vernon Rice, “that there was trouble. Hourly bulletins were generally forthcoming… the patient was languishing.”
Rice did conclude that the show was “not that bad,” but those aren’t words a producer cares to quote in ads.
Not that Rice was exaggerating. Three cast changes had been made; the leading lady who was replaced saw her replacement replaced, too.
So, how did this show become the 18th longest-running book musical in Broadway history at a then-impressive 598 performances?
First, director/co-librettist/co-choreographer Joshua Logan returned after opening night to rework and presumably improve the show. But, as Logan told me decades later, although Broadway observers gave credit to the additional work, the swimming pool and the hit title song, they overlooked that the musical also succeeded “because of its very fine cast.”
Some went on to solid levels of fame, such as Florence Henderson. In 2012, when I interviewed her, I asked about THE GIRL WHO CAME TO SUPPER, FANNY and WISH YOU WERE HERE. “I had only one line – ‘Can I still see the game?’ But I loved singing in all the ensemble numbers.”
See if you can pick out her voice on the cast album. Then listen for Larry Blyden (later of THE APPLE TREE), Phyllis Newman (Tony winner for SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING), Reid Shelton (the original Daddy Warbucks) and Sammy Smith (who’s heard in HOW TO SUCCEED’s “Company Way” and “Brotherhood of Man”).
You’ll have no problem hearing Patricia Marand, the leading lady who replaced someone named Mardi Bayne who had in turn replaced someone named Christine Matthews. Getting just as many songs as Marand (five) was Sheila Bond, who’d win a Best Featured Actress in a Musical Tony.
Here’s 25-year-old Jack Cassidy in his first Broadway musical lead. Amazingly, he’d already been in eight Broadway musicals in as many years, starting at 17 as an ensemble member in SADIE THOMPSON in 1944.
Cassidy would do six more musicals, including his Tony-winning stint in SHE LOVES ME, and finishing with MAGGIE FLYNN (with his then-wife Shirley Jones, who told me how much they enjoyed singing the show’s many optimistic songs).
In between, Cassidy played a nefarious Daily Planet reporter in IT’S A BIRD, IT’S A PLANE, IT’S SUPERMAN. And when that musical was in Philadelphia and the Lois Lane wasn’t working out, Cassidy suggested that Patricia Marand be brought in; once again, she replaced a leading lady. Marand received a Tony nomination, but nobody in that season was going to beat Bea Arthur’s Vera Charles in MAME.
You’d recognize Ray Walston’s voice, thanks to his later Tony-winning stint in DAMN YANKEES and the film of SOUTH PACIFIC. But you won’t have the opportunity because he, as the tummler, was also replaced. Why cast a Gentile in a markedly Jewish role? Enter Sidney Armus.
That brings us to a story I’d like to tell about Sidney Armus.
I learned his name during the Boston tryout of NEVER LIVE OVER A PRETZEL FACTORY.
When I went to buy a ticket, I was able to get a seat in the first-row orchestra. No, there wasn’t much demand for NEVER LIVE OVER A PRETZEL FACTORY, a comedy by the unknown Jerry Devine starring the not much better-known Dennis O’Keefe and Robert Strauss.
Before the show, I bought a newspaper and read that Strauss had “artistic differences” and had left. Sidney Armus, his understudy, would assume the role.
I shuddered. In my previous 27 trips to Broadway and Boston theaters, I’d never seen an understudy. This will be awful! He won’t know his lines! Or where to walk! If he has to wear a wig, it’ll probably fall off!
Once in the theater, I was given a Playbill that proved management had hard feelings towards Strauss. While he’d been pictured on the cover, a little white rectangle of paper had been pasted over his face on each and every program. Pity the production assistant who had to cut them to size and rubber-cement one on each program for the 200 or so patrons who attended (in a theater that seated 1,727).
The Playbill showed that of the 18 (!) performers, Strauss would have been the tenth to appear. I had to wait what seemed an interminable amount of time and then he finally entered.
I swear that our eyes met as he saw this front-row teenager wringing his hands, eyes ever-widening with fright. I truly believe he gave me a look that said, “Kid, don’t worry. I’m fine.”
And that night I learned that understudies usually come through.
Three years later, I was working as a desk clerk in a suburban hotel, and guess who was occupying Room 506?
I immediately phoned him. “Mr. Armus, this is the front desk. We must move you to another room.”
“Why?” he said, astonished. “There’s nothing wrong with my room.”
“No, but,” I said, dramatically pausing, “Room 406 is a pretzel factory.”
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.
