DVDs: Taking a Chance on Love

"Perhaps Cabin in the Sky could be better than it is, but this correspondent cannot imagine how...original and joyous in the imaginative vein that suits the theatre's special genius." So wrote drama critic Brooks Atkinson in The New York Times the morning after the October 25, 1940 opening of the Broadway musical at the Martin Beck Theatre.

With an all-black cast, Cabin in the Sky was a fantasy and a folk play whose hero, the no-account Little Joe Jackson, is fatally wounded in a brawl. "The Lawd's General" played by Todd Duncan, the original Porgy in Porgy and Bess and "Lucifer Jr." arrive to do battle for Joe's soul. To help settle matters, Joe is given six more months on earth to right all the wrongs he has done in his life. But Joe remains torn between his loving wife, Petunia, and the devil's own beauty, Georgia Brown a theatrical cousin to Lola, similarly deployed by devil Applegate in Damn Yankees.

This story was warmly concocted by librettist Lynn Root. Composer Vernon Duke was writing his first book musical, and it would prove to be his most successful, to be followed by such flops as The Lady Comes Across, Jackpot, Sadie Thompson, Zenda, and The Pink Jungle. Duke initially sought Ira Gershwin for the lyrics, but Gershwin was busy with Lady in the Dark. E.Y. Harburg also turned the show down, so the job went to John Latouche, who would also have his biggest Broadway success here. Subsequent Latouche shows: Beggar's Holiday, The Vamp, The Golden Apple, and Candide. The choreographer and co-director was dance great George Balanchine.

Dooley Wilson, who would go on to figure prominently in Harburg's Bloomer Girl, was Little Joe. But the unquestioned star of the evening was Ethel Waters as Petunia, stopping the show cold with her big solo, "Taking a Chance on Love." The latter was, in fact, a song from Duke's trunk that had originally had a lyric by Ted Fetter that Latouche would revise.

Waters recorded four songs from the show, but there would not be a full-length cast album until 1964, when Cabin in the Sky got an off-Broadway revival at the Greenwich Mews Theatre. It featured Rosetta Le Noire, Tony Middleton, and Ketty Lester, and lasted only forty-seven performances. It used eight numbers not in the original score, including several cut songs, some new Duke numbers, and one from the Latouche-Duke Banjo Eyes.

Cabin in the Sky hasn't had a major revival since, and the reason may be indicated by New York Times critic Howard Taubman's response to the '64 revival: "A fantasy in which the Negro is treated like a simple child of nature, moving and talking and sinning and shouting in ways that have become annoying stereotypes, is not so palatable as it was in the seemingly more innocent year of 1940."

But years earlier, similar questions had been raised about the property when MGM purchased the film rights to the Broadway show. True, the purchase price, $40,000, made up for the fact that the Broadway production had played only 156 performances and lost $25,000. But the black community and press were concerned about a film of Cabin in the Sky, chiefly because of the 1936 film version of the Broadway hit The Green Pastures, which included what some considered to be unfortunate racial stereotypes. To allay concerns about the Cabin in the Sky film, MGM producer Arthur Freed issued a statement: "More than ever before we are aware of the Negro problem and are daily moving toward a better understanding. One that in the end will result in a dignified presentation of a peace-loving and loyal people."

Released in 1943, Cabin in the Sky was the first all-black Hollywood musical since 1929's Hallelujah. Cabin in the Sky, Hallelujah, and The Green Pastures were recently released on DVD on the same day. Hired to make his directorial debut with Cabin in the Sky was the gifted Vincente Minnelli, who would go on to direct eleven pictures for Freed's unit at MGM.

Playing Little Joe in the film was Eddie Anderson, best known as valet and foil to Jack Benny on radio. He was billed as Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, after his Benny character. On Broadway, the role of Georgia Brown was a dance part conceived for Katherine Dunham. In the film, it was given to a top-notch singer, the sultry Lena Horne.

The best news about the film, though, is that it retained from Broadway the star, Ethel Waters, taking her only leading role in a Hollywood musical. It has been said that Waters detested Horne, whom she considered strong competition, especially with the Georgia Brown role built up for the younger performer. But such a rivalry was entirely appropriate to the characters the two actresses were playing.

Also retained from the Broadway Cabin cast was Rex Ingram, playing the devil's son, Lucifer Jr. Seen in the brief acting role of the Devil's Trumpeter is music giant Louis Armstrong, while another scene features jazz great Duke Ellington and his orchestra. Also in a signficant role was John Bubbles, the original Sportin' Life of Porgy and Bess, who gets a big song-and-dance number called "Shine." Recently of Gone With the Wind, Butterfly McQueen plays Petunia's friend Lily.

Only three of the original Broadway songs were used in the film: "Taking a Chance on Love," "Honey in the Honeycomb," and the title number. Seven numbers were added, four of them by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, who had recently collaborated on the songs for MGM's The Wizard of Oz. One of the Arlen-Harburg songs for the Cabin in the Sky film, "Happiness Is Just a Thing Called Joe," would become well-known. The team's other new contributions were "Li'l Black Sheep," "Life's Full O' Consequences," and "Ain't It the Truth." The latter number was sung by Horne in a bubble bath, but the Breen Office and its production code intervened and the number was cut from the film. Arlen and Harburg recycled "Ain't It the Truth" in their 1957 Broadway musical Jamaica, where it was again sung by Horne. Also cut from the film was "I Got a Song," which Arlen and Harburg put into their stage hit Bloomer Girl the following year.

Joseph Schrank's screenplay radically altered the ending of the story: In the film, everything turns out to be a dream, with Joe and Petunia not really dead. The film was well-received, with the New York Times critic calling it "every inch as sparkling and completely satisfying as was the original stage production."

Anderson is a delightful Little Joe, and Horne is scintillating in "Honey in the Honeycomb" and "Consequences." But the film is above all valuable for its preservation of another wonderful singer, Waters, in her greatest musical role. Waters was a performer with enormous warmth and conviction, and Cabin in the Sky allows one a fine opportunity to take in this special talent.

Preceding the film on the new Cabin in the Sky DVD is a disclaimer, warning that the movie may reflect some of the prejudices of its time. But if the film's depiction of black culture has inevitably dated, the movie of Cabin in the Sky is hard to resist for its treasure trove of talent.

The DVD bonuses include a short subject called "Studio Visit" which features an outtake of Horne in "Ain't It the Truth," along with an audio-only outtake of Armstrong's version of the same number. Six speakers share the audio-commentary track. Dr. Todd Boyd admits that the film represents the racial politics of the '40s, but emphasizes that it also features a number of the top black performers of the period. Dr. Drew Casper, author of a book on Minnelli, discusses the integration of the songs and how World War II provoked a string of film fantasies. Tap great Fayard Nicholas and the wife and daughter of Eddie Anderson recall some of the personalities involved in the film. And all too briefly heard is Horne herself, who talks about how she got the film and why it's the only thing she did at MGM that she liked.