Richard Rodgers: Something Wonderful at King's Place
The grand finale of Jewish Book Week at King's Place, and I once again fangirl over Laura Pitt-Pulford
A few Sunday evenings ago, I attended the final event of Jewish Book Week at King’s Place, titled ‘Richard Rodgers: Something Wonderful’.’ I don’t need any convincing regarding the statement that Rodgers is ‘the greatest popular melodist of all’ and am always delighted to celebrate his talent. When waiting to go in beforehand, a lady asked what had brought me there. I replied that I was a Musical Theatre journalist. Which is still true, isn’t it?
Despite the name of the festival, there was no book to promote and Rodgers’s Jewishness wasn’t spotlighted. His father changed the family name from Rogazinsky and, as far as I’m aware, they didn’t deny their Judaism but weren’t particularly religious. To what extent can Rodgers be considered a ‘Jewish composer’? Discuss!1
[I don’t know about the Hart shows, but I don’t think there are any ‘openly’ Jewish characters in the ones with Hammerstein (Hart and Hammerstein were Jewish and half-Jewish respectively). I’m inclined to think that Ali Hakim in Oklahoma! could be Jewish masquerading as Persian (making him doubly ‘other’), and Uncle Max in The Sound of Music is heavily coded according to certain stereotypes – he’s camp, urbane and very keen to monetise the von Trapps, though that’s all tempered with a heart of gold. He isn’t worried about the Nazis, however... Unless I imagined it, I think I once heard about a production of the show that was framed by Max being interrogated following the concert, which sounded fascinating.]2
Anyway, the event was hosted by Radio 3’s Petroc Trelawny with my former Musicals colleague Edward Seckerson as the expert commentator, plus Jason Carr (also a wonderful former columnist) on piano, and Laura Pitt-Pulford (one of my favourite performers and interviewees) singing. Unfortunately, Julian Ovenden, who was also meant to be performing, was taken ill during rehearsals earlier in the day, but I did have the pleasure of seeing his solo show at Cadogan Hall in the autumn and I do hope he’s in something else soon. (I had my heart set on doing a cover interview with him for Musicals at some point but that won’t happen now. Sigh)
Edward (in this piece I will use first names as that’s what feels right) talked about working with Julie Andrews on her Rodgers album and made everyone very jealous indeed (full details are in the final issue of Musicals, if you can get your hands on a copy). I wasn’t previously familiar with ‘Glad to Be Unhappy’ from On Your Toes, which is apparently Adam Guettel’s favourite of all his grandfather’s songs, and I’m so glad to have made its acquaintance. Such a distinctive lyric. And I let out a small whoop when Edward was asked about the film versions of the shows and he said that the ‘peerless’ Gordon MacRae’s performances are the highlights of Oklahoma! and Carousel (especially Carousel, according to Edward. I’d say especially Oklahoma! where he’s so gorgeous and natural and relaxed – but I do think he should have been Oscar-nominated for Carousel on the strength of his ‘Soliloquy’ alone).
I’ll brag to anyone who will listen that I saw Laura Pitt-Pulford play the non-singing role of the jealous Mrs Mullin in Carousel at the Bridewell Theatre (directed by the brilliant Matt Ryan) when she was at Mountview and I was a teenager – I’d been musicals-obsessed for a few years by that point but hadn’t seen many on stage. I like to think I was very discerning even at a young age and it’s hard to overstate the impact that that production of my favourite musical had on me. Laura gave the most compelling and devastating depiction of that character that there’s ever been (that’s a fact), and the chemistry between her and Jeff Nicholson’s Billy was electrifying.3 No other production has nailed that relationship anything like as thrillingly. Hearing her sing ‘What’s the Use of Wond’rin’’ (a great favourite of mine) was incredibly special. Laura would have been the most beautiful Julie Jordan (she still could be), and yet I wouldn’t have missed her Mrs Mullin for the world. Laura also sang ‘The Gentleman is a Dope’ from Allegro (some of Hammerstein’s sassiest lyrics) and it occurred to me that, with a few tweaks, it could be an excellent solo for Mrs Mullin.
And yes, the title of the event did inspire the name of this Substack, even though The King and I is actually the show I like the least out of the ‘Big Five’. I recently stumbled across this bit of kitsch featuring Shirley Jones (the only artist ever to have been under personal contract to Rodgers and Hammerstein and who will always have a special place in my heart) and Herschel Bernardi performing ‘Shall We Dance’ on The Ed Sullivan Show – while Shirley sings beautifully as always, those are some of the most horrendous wigs, costumes and sets I’ve ever seen. I’d say they must have been sourced from a bad panto but Americans don’t have panto. Oy vey.
Apparently Rodgers told Patricia Routledge that he wished he’d written Fiddler on the Roof, a ‘proper Jewish musical’…
According to family lore, my Austrian Jewish Holocaust survivor grandfather was very grumpy about having to take my aunt to see the film but by the end, the tears were flowing.