CDs: Come Rain or Come Shine

On the list of Broadway musical flops with top-notch scores, St. Louis Woman 1946 ranks high. An unusually troubled show, it was based on Arna Bontemps' 1931 novel God Sends Sunday, concerning the black horse-racing set in turn-of-the-century St. Louis. Bontemps and Countee Cullen had already adapted the novel into a non-musical play when they were asked to collaborate on the book for a musical version.

The songwriters were from the highest echelon, the music by Harold Arlen, the lyrics by Johnny Mercer. St. Louis Woman would be just one of numerous Arlen musicals to feature major black characters Jamaica, House of Flowers, Bloomer Girl, Saratoga. Mercer was primarily a lyricist and the occasional composer of popular songs, but his Broadway work would include Li'l Abner, Texas, Li'l Darlin', Top Banana, Foxy, and Saratoga, the latter also with Arlen.

Prior to production, a blow was struck against St. Louis Woman by Walter White, director of the N.A.A.C.P., who, recalling the subject matter from the novel, condemned the notion of bringing it back again, claiming that it offered "roles that detract from the dignity of our race." It was at that point that Lena Horne, the star for whom the show was being created, pulled out.

Just two days before rehearsals began, Cullen died, leaving Bontemps alone to revise the book. During the tryout, the original director, set designer Lemuel Ayers, was replaced by Rouben Mamoulian. Although Mamoulian had guided such extraordinary productions as Porgy and Bess, Oklahoma!, and Carousel, he came in too late to salvage St. Louis Woman. The tryout also saw the replacement of ballet choreographer Anthony Tudor by Charles Walters, and the firing and when the cast rebelled rehiring of leading lady Ruby Hill.

With an all-black company, St. Louis Woman opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on March 30, 1946 to extremely divided reviews. It told of Della Green Hill who, although already in a relationship with saloon owner Biglow Brown, falls in love with a jockey named Li'l Augie Harold Nicholas, whose brother and dance partner, Fayard Nicholas, also appeared in the show. Brown is eventually shot by Lila June Hawkins, his rejected mistress, but before he dies, Brown curses Augie, thus jinxing his career at the track.

As was her habit, supporting lead Pearl Bailey, here playing the role of Butterfly, stole the reviews and the show, stopping the proceedings with two choice numbers, "Legalize My Name" and "A Woman's Prerogative." The most celebrated numbers in the score were the classic "Come Rain or Come Shine" and "Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home." But it also boasted such superb items as the art song "I Had Myself a True Love," "Leavin' Time," and "Ridin' on the Moon."

Although it had Bailey to lead the show's comic elements, St. Louis Woman was mostly serious, and had trouble finding an audience. It lasted only 113 performances, but left a cast album that was the first one recorded by Capitol Records. In 1957, Arlen arranged an orchestral suite from the score and called it Blues Opera. Two years later, a revised version of the show, called Free and Easy and interpolating other Arlen songs, played Amsterdam and Paris but failed to return the show to the U.S.

In spite of several attempts, St. Louis Woman wasn't heard from again until 1998, when it was superbly mounted by New York's City Center Encores! series. Starring Vanessa Williams, the production featured new orchestrations by Ralph Burns and Luther Henderson replacing the lost originals. The Encores! mounting was also recorded, released on CD first by Mercury and subsequently by Decca Broadway.

Originally a set of five 78s, Capitol's 1946 cast album of St. Louis Woman runs only twenty-nine minutes, and lacks such songs as "I Feel My Luck Comin' Down," "Least That's My Opinion," "Come On, Li'l Augie," and "I Wonder What Became of Me," the latter eventually cut from the show but restored at Encores! So the Encores! recording ranks as the first comprehensive recording of the score.

But if it's brief, the '46 recording of St. Louis Woman is among the most vivid cast albums of its time, featuring three superb leading ladies in Hill, Bailey, and Hawkins. This original recording was reissued by Capitol on LP in 1967, then became a Broadway Angel CD in 1992. It's now back on CD courtesy of DRG, and if one must rely on the Encores! disc to hear all of the music, the original St. Louis Woman recording is not to be missed.

Because the '46 St. Louis Woman cast recording is so brief, there was more than enough room on the new CD to include another complete Capitol Records album, Harold Arlen and His Songs, featuring the St. Louis Woman composer performing his hits, backed by the arrangements of Peter Matz, who also conducts the orchestra.

Few songwriters are able to summon up as much voice and performing style as Arlen; indeed, he must be one of the very best vocalists among great songwriters. His bluesy, jazzy performances of twelve of his classics, including "Stormy Weather," "Over the Rainbow," "Blues in the Night," "Come Rain or Come Shine," and "The Gal That Got Away" the male version of A Star Is Born's "The Man That Got Away," also recorded by Frank Sinatra make a fine CD bonus.

SWEET CHARITY DRG

Having released the cast album of the 2005 Broadway revival of Sweet Charity, DRG has gone into competition with itself by reissuing the long-deleted EMI America cast recording of the previous Broadway revival of Sweet Charity, the twentieth-anniversary production from 1986.

Unlike the most recent revival, the '86 production boasted a precise recreation of Bob Fosse's original direction and choreography, and the original and highly distinctive Robert Randolph set and lighting designs were also brought back. Simply because of its scrupulous reproduction of a great staging, the '86 revival was a treat. Neither the '86 nor '05 Charity revivals was financially profitable.

The '86 cast album represents several musical changes made for the first revival, including the replacement of the original Cy Coleman-Dorothy Fields stage title song for the one the team wrote for the film version, and a revised version of "I'm the Bravest Individual."

Leading lady Debbie Allen's singing is fine, certainly stronger than that of Christina Applegate in last year's production, but the recording cannot, of course, capture Allen's real strength, her dynamic dancing. As Nickie, there's Bebe Neuwirth, winning her first attention and a Tony Award. The best vocals are those of leading men Michael Rupert Oscar and Mark Jacoby Vittorio.

Unfortunately, the original Ralph Burns orchestrations also revived in '86 were here and there tampered with for the cast recording. And like DRG's 2005 Charity cast album, the '86 recording is not equal in pleasure to the '60s Broadway Gwen Verdon and London Juliet Prowse Charity cast albums.

DRG has supplied better packaging than that featured on the original EMI release of this '86 recording. Too bad they didn't restore the missing third of "Rich Man's Frug" which I believe was also recorded. But in addition to remastering the recording, DRG has added two bonus tracks not on the EMI version, '60s recordings of Cy Coleman at the piano, with chorus and orchestra, in "The Rhythm of Life" and "Big Spender."