''Carnival in Flanders'' is a
musical
Musical is the adjective of music.
Musical may also refer to:
* Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance
* Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...
with a
book
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...
by
Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges (; born Edmund Preston Biden; August 29, 1898 – August 6, 1959) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. In 1941, he won the Academy Awards, Oscar for Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, Best Origina ...
,
lyrics
Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, a ...
by
Johnny Burke, and music by
Jimmy Van Heusen
James Van Heusen (born Edward Chester Babcock; January 26, 1913 – February 6, 1990) was an American composer. He wrote songs for films, television and theater, and won an Emmy and four Academy Awards for Best Original Song.
Life and care ...
.
Based on the 1934
French comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
''
La Kermesse Héroïque'', it is set in 1616 in the small
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
village of Flackenburg, where a
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
duke
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...
and his entourage descend upon the community. The mayor plays dead, hoping that his ruse will force the visitors to depart, but the duke sets his sights on the man's "widow" and begins to woo her. The musical had a brief run on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
in 1953.
The musical is the source of the song "
Here's That Rainy Day
"Here's That Rainy Day" is a popular song with music by Jimmy Van Heusen and lyrics by Johnny Burke that was published in 1953. It was introduced by Dolores Gray in the Broadway musical '' Carnival in Flanders''.
Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra ...
", which has become a standard.
Background
Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film ...
was approached to write the score, but the task ultimately fell to Van Heusen and Burke.
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...
was providing much of the financing for the production and had great faith in the songwriting team,
["'Carnival in Flanders' History"]
TCM.com
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...
, accessed March 12, 2012 who had written several of his hits, despite the fact that their previous theatrical collaboration, ''Nellie Bly'' (1946), had been a critical and commercial flop.
George Oppenheimer
George Seligman Oppenheimer (February 7, 1900 in New York City – August 14, 1977) was an American screenwriter, playwright, and journalist.
Career
In 1925, Oppenheimer cofounded The Viking Press, but becoming more interested in writing than pu ...
, one of the book's original co-writers, withdrew from the project during pre-Broadway tryouts in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, and
Dorothy Fields
Dorothy Fields (July 15, 1904 – March 28, 1974) was an American librettist and lyricist. She wrote over 400 songs for Broadway musicals and films. Her best-known pieces include "The Way You Look Tonight" (1936), "A Fine Romance" (1936), "On th ...
joined her brother
Herbert
Herbert may refer to:
People Individuals
* Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert
Name
* Herbert (given name)
* Herbert (surname)
Places Antarctica
* Herbert Mountains, Coats Land
* Herbert Sound, Graham Land
Australia
* Herbert ...
to help with rewrites. Eventually all their work was discarded by Sturges, who replaced
Bretaigne Windust
Ernest Bretaigne Windust (January 20, 1906 – March 19, 1960) was a United States-based French-born theater, film, and television director.
Early life
He was born in Paris, the son of English violin virtuoso Ernest Joseph Windust and singer ...
as director and completely reworked the book before the show reached California for a series of stagings by light opera companies prior to the New York City opening.
Choreographer
Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...
Jack Cole was replaced by
Helen Tamiris
Helen Tamiris (born Helen Becker; April 24, 1905 – August 4, 1966) was an American choreographer, modern dancer, and teacher.
Biography
Tamiris was born in New York City on April 23, 1902. She adopted Tamiris, her stage name, from a fragment ...
, and several cast changes were made before the troubled production finally opened on Broadway.
Broadway production
''Carnival in Flanders'' opened on September 8, 1953 at the
New Century Theatre
The New Century Theatre was a Broadway theater in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, at 205–207 West 58th Street and 926–932 Seventh Avenue. Opened on October 6, 1921, as Jolson's 59th Street Theatre, the theater was desig ...
, where it ran for only six performances. The cast included
John Raitt
John Emmet Raitt (; January 29, 1917 – February 20, 2005) was an American actor and singer best known for his performances in musical theatre.
Early years
Raitt was born in Santa Ana, California, United States. He got his start in theatre as ...
,
Dolores Gray
Dolores Gray (born Sylvia Dolores Finkelstein; June 7, 1924 – June 26, 2002) was an American actress and singer. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical twice, winning once.
Early life
She was born as Sylvia ...
, and
Roy Roberts
Roy Roberts (born Roy Barnes Jones, March 19, 1906 – May 28, 1975) was an American character actor. Over his more than 40-year career, he appeared in more than nine hundred productions on stage and screen.
Life and career
Born in Tampa ...
. Critics were enchanted by
Oliver Smith's sets and
Lucinda Ballard
Lucinda Ballard (April 3, 1906 – August 19, 1993) was an American costume designer who worked primarily in Broadway theatre.
Born Lucinda Davis Goldsborough in New Orleans, Louisiana, Ballard studied at the Art Students League in New York City. ...
's costumes, inspired by Brueghel paintings, and Gray's lively performance,
[ but universally panned every other aspect of the production. In his review for '']The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', Brooks Atkinson
Justin Brooks Atkinson (November 28, 1894 – January 14, 1984) was an American theatre critic. He worked for ''The New York Times'' from 1922 to 1960. In his obituary, the ''Times'' called him "the theater's most influential reviewer of his ...
wrote "As an actress olores Grayis authoritative enough to bring down the house with some of the maudlin songs...In the version prepared for the stage by Preston Sturges it is laborious and banal... As usual, the theatre has lavished a lot of wealth and talent on this hokum. Lucinda Ballard has dressed everybody to the nines... Although Oliver Smith's scenery is cluttered and rather desperate, there is certainly a lot of it."
According to Sturges, the available rehearsal time prior to the Broadway opening was not sufficient for the actors to be comfortable with the changes, and he attributes this as the reason for the play's commercial and critical failure.[, p.325] If remembered at all, it is primarily as the source of the Van Heusen-Burke standard "Here's That Rainy Day
"Here's That Rainy Day" is a popular song with music by Jimmy Van Heusen and lyrics by Johnny Burke that was published in 1953. It was introduced by Dolores Gray in the Broadway musical '' Carnival in Flanders''.
Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra ...
."[Oliver, Myrn]
"Dolores Gray, 78; Stage and Screen Singing Star"
''Los Angeles Times'', July 2, 2002
Songs
Act I
*Ring the Bell
*The Very Necessary You
*It's a Fine Old Institution
*I'm One of Your Admirers
*The Plundering of the Town
*The Stronger Sex
*The Sudden Thrill
*It's an Old Spanish Custom
*A Seventeen Gun Salute
Act II
*You're Dead!
*Here's That Rainy Day
"Here's That Rainy Day" is a popular song with music by Jimmy Van Heusen and lyrics by Johnny Burke that was published in 1953. It was introduced by Dolores Gray in the Broadway musical '' Carnival in Flanders''.
Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra ...
*Take the Word of a Gentleman
*A Moment of Your Love
*How Far Can a Lady Go?
Awards and honors
Dolores Gray won the Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...
for Best Actress in a Musical.[ It remains the shortest-lived Tony-honored performance ever.][
]
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Mandelbaum, Ken, ''Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops''. New York, St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...
, 1991. pages 169-71
External links
*
*
{{Preston Sturges
1953 musicals
Broadway musicals
Musicals based on films
Plays by Preston Sturges
Tony Award-winning musicals