The Greatest Overture in Broadway History

Saw Gypsy. Liked it quite a bit. Felt I was in the theater for seven, maybe eight minutes. Loved what Sam Mendes did with the scene in the bedroom when Tulsa gives Louise her birthday present: She went all gawky and geeky, letting us know long before “All I Need Now Is the Girl” that she has a thing for him.

Thought Bernadette Peters did a fine job. Physically, I felt that she greatly resembled Angela Lansbury in the role, albeit smaller in size. (Like you see in those Franklin Mint ads in TV Guide: “This figure is 5/8 regular size.”) Yet Peters isn’t smaller in other ways. All those who said she wouldn’t be able to handle this part obviously didn’t tell her, for she’s out there giving a helluva performance. One lyric goes, “Now all we need is someone with nerve,” and this production has that someone. To the people who say “She’s a kewpie doll, and Rose is no kewpie doll,” I say this: Maybe Rose did at one time resemble a kewpie doll, which is why she directs her daughter to perform that way. This production showed me the greatest familial resemblance between a Rose and a Baby/Dainty June that I’ve ever seen.

So what didn’t I like? The way the overture sounded. Granted, my advance knowledge that we’d endure a reduced orchestra may have primed me to dislike it, but this fantastic piece of music just didn’t have the force it has on the original cast album or that it had in the two previous Broadway revivals. This is supposed to be The Greatest Overture in Broadway History, isn’t it?

Let’s re-examine. It sure starts out like gangbusters, with that cymbal roll and then a flourish of trumpets on that delicious, four-note “I Had a Dream” fanfare. The tension builds beautifully, thanks to both brass and strings, before a slide-whistle suddenly reminds us that this show has a burlesque background — right before a spirited rendition of “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” begins. And oh, what those trumpets do during the B-section of that song! Relatively few overtures offer a complete A-A-B-A rendition of any one song, but Gypsy does. And “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” is well worth the listen, even if it is a second-hand show tune — musically, at least. You see, Gypsy‘s composer, Jule Styne, originally wrote it for High Button Shoes in 1947. Sammy Cahn wrote the lyric and titled the song “Betwixt and Between.”

Let’s get back to that overture, though. The orchestra next segués into a complete refrain of “You’ll Never Get Away From Me” — which is, incidentally, a third-hand show tune. As every schoolchild knows (I wish!), Styne and Cahn originally wrote this as “Why Did You Have to Wait So Long?” for Pink Tights, a movie that never got made. Then Styne and lyricist Leo Robin used it as “I’m in Pursuit of Happiness” for a TV-musical version of The Ruggles of Red Gap. Both songs are genuine and important parts of Gypsy, but I feel compelled to note that two-and-a-half minutes into The Greatest Overture in Broadway History, we haven’t yet heard a full statement of a melody originally created for the show.

Aside from that issue, is “You’ll Never Get Away From Me” that good a tune? Yes, the shining brassiness of the final section of the song as heard in the overture is winning and absolutely shouts “Broadway!” Still, if anyone were asked to list his favorite numbers from Gypsy in order of preference, I do think it would take a while before he got to “You’ll Never Get Away From Me.” Shouldn’t The Greatest Overture in Broadway History contain its score’s Greatest Songs?

After that, there’s a segué during which a bit of “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” is reprised — never a bad idea — before we head into the show’s big ballad: “Small World.” Fine song, but there’s something a bit lightweight about the orchestration during the A-section, perhaps because of those plucked strings. Still, I adore the moment when strings lushly and completely take over the B-section. The brass players are quiet here, but that’s okay, because they’re going to need a rest for their upcoming moment that’s the biggest in the overture — that no-holds-barred section of “Rose’s Turn” wherein a trumpeter goes wild. (How wild? Well, many of us know that his name was Dick Perry, and we wouldn’t have bothered to learn that if he hadn’t gone so wild. Those who saw the original 1959 production still talk about Perry standing in the orchestra pit and blaring away.)

Next comes a free-wheeling slice of “Mr. Goldstone” — another song that may not finish in the first division of anyone’s list of the best Gypsy songs though, again, it does sound marvelous here and that’s what’s important. Then the brass returns to the “I Had a Dream” motif before ending with a series of serious bass notes. Is this a stunning overture? Naturally. Phenomenal? Of course. The Greatest Overture in Broadway History? Maybe. But I’d like to take some time to examine another overture that may be just as good or, dare I say, better than that of Gypsy. I’m not sure that composer Jule Styne would take terrible umbrage at that statement because he’s responsible for the other one, too. (Are you surprised? A “Jule Styne Overture” was a Broadway trademark from the late ’40s through the early ’70s. That’s why the overtures from his both hits and flops were issued as an album of not one but two discs. Damn few composers even get one disc for their overtures.)

So before we once again anoint Gypsy as The Greatest Overture in Broadway History, let’s give another listen to what Funny Girl gave us in 1964. It may not start with a cymbal roll but it does offer a powerful tympani attack. It then goes into its own marvelous fanfare on the “Nicky Arnstein, Nicky Arnstein” theme. Next the strings take over, complemented by the brass and even a xylophone, as the notes and the excitement escalate for many measures before we hear a sample of one of Broadway’s most beautiful 11 o’clock numbers, “The Music That Makes Me Dance.” Here, the terrific trumpeter Perry (again!) shows that his lip has not atrophied in the five years since the Gypsy recording.

Then it’s off to the races with “I’m the Greatest Star,” as the brass and woodwinds show their mettle. While it’s true that part of this song is also recycled Styne (the “Who is the pip with pizzazz” section was originally written for Subways Are For Sleeping), it’s not included in the overture. What is there — and what I love — is the perfect blend of brass, woodwinds, and strings. I’ll go out on a limb and say that the mix is more satisfying than the Gypsy mix.

Once “I’m the Greatest Star” concludes, there are some additional measures that build and build to another terrific climax before the “Nicky Arnstein” theme is repeated, now wistfully played. Then we’re led into this show’s big ballad: “People.” I’m going to suggest that “People” is a better and more beloved song than “Small World.” (Via Johnny Mathis’s 1959 recording, “Small World” reached as high as #20 on the charts and stayed there for five weeks. Streisand’s 1964 version of “People” hit #5 and lasted for 12 weeks on the charts — this at a time when the Beatles were white-hot and were dominating the music world.) Yes, I know, it’s how the song is used in the overture that counts; but I still think that “People” comes out ahead because its orchestration is more lush than the one afforded “Small World.” Credit to Ralph Burns for his overture here and to Sid Ramin and Robert Ginzler — I guess we’ll never know who did what — for Gypsy‘s.

Once “People” concludes, there’s the most elaborate embellishment yet of the “Nicky Arnstein” melody, which builds more thrillingly than ever before going into “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” Oh, does this rendition catch fire and swing! Three sections of the songs are played before the xylophone takes over, and then all the instruments join in for a big finish during which Perry gets in one more impressive lick. This big finish sounds more exciting to me than Gypsy‘s, which I’ll confess has always struck me as a tad opera-bouffe.

Of course, if we’re going to speak of opera-bouffe, I guess we should start assessing Candide‘s claim as the Greatest Overture in Broadway History…

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[To contact Peter Filichia directly, e-mail him at pfilichia@aol.com]