WHAT THE F**K WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?
HOW NOW DOW JONES by The Original Cast (RCA, 1967)
This is the second Broadway soundtrack that Captain Billy has covered, the first being Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot, and even though as a small child I had memorized my parent’s Oliver, The Sound of Music, and My Fair Lady albums, after Rock, Folk and Soul music entered my life, I lost interest in the musicals of the Great White Way completely. As I explained in previous episodes, many of the carts in my collection were not chosen by me; they arrived in big lots, and the experience of discovering some of these hidden treasures is akin to sticking one’s hand into a bag of….. (fill in the blank).
Despite its catchy title, this show was totally unknown to me, although it did run for 220 performances. It was produced and directed by Broadway titans David Merrick and George Abbott. It was film scorer Elmer Bernstein’s only Broadway composition; the book was by Max Shulman, of Dobie Gillis fame, and the lyrics were by Carolyn Leigh — a totally respectable crew. The cast included Woody Allen’s avatar, Tony Roberts, and the whiskey throated Brenda Vaccaro in the leads, and there was even a Tony awarded to featured actor Hiram Sherman for his turn as a crusty stock broker. Yet, somehow the collective memory of this musical was lost to the ozone pretty quickly.
Maybe it’s the complicated plot- (It was always part of the charm of these albums to try and imagine the story as I listened) - but here the labyrinthian plot and convoluted conjunction of characters - (tycoons, stock brokers, government officials, suicidal, mismatched lovers, tour guides, and “the voice of Wall Street”) - had my Pandemic-addled brain yearning for a YouTube training video.
There was a hit that emerged from the chaos, “Step to the Rear”, which you might recognize: it was even used in a Lincoln-Mercury campaign, and there is a charming video of Tony Roberts with a stage full of investor ladies from the suburbs marching around the stage to the song.
Give this recording a try, and see if you can figure it all out.
