Fiorello!
Fiorello! is a musical about
New York City
New York City mayor Fiorello H.
LaGuardia, a reform Republican who took on the
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall political
machine. The book is by
Jerome Weidman and George Abbott, drawn
substantially from the 1955 volume Life with Fiorello by Ernest
Cuneo,[1] with lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock. It
is one of only nine musicals to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Contents
1 Productions
2 Synopsis
3 Background and analysis
4 Songs
5 Critical response
6 Original cast album
7 Awards and nominations
7.1 Original Broadway production
8 References
9 External links
Productions[edit]
Fiorello!
Fiorello! opened on Broadway at the
Broadhurst Theatre
Broadhurst Theatre on November 23,
1959, moved to
The Broadway Theatre
The Broadway Theatre on May 9, 1961, and closed on
October 28, 1961,[2] after 795 performances. It was directed by George
Abbott, with choreography by Peter Gennaro.
Tom Bosley
Tom Bosley originated the
title role opposite
Howard Da Silva
Howard Da Silva as the Republican machine boss Ben
Marino. The cast featured
Ellen Hanley as Thea,
Pat Stanley as Dora,
Patricia Wilson as Marie, Nathaniel Frey as Morris, and Broadway's
future Superman, Bob Holiday, as Neil.
The 1962 production opened at the
New York City
New York City Center on June 13, and
closed after 16 performances, on June 24, 1962. The show was directed
by Jean Dalrymple, staged by Dania Krupska, choreography by Kevin
Carlisle, scenery and lighting design by William and Jean Eckart,
costume supervision by Joseph Codori, musically directed by Jay
Blackton, and press by Lilliam Libman. The cast included Sorrell Booke
(Fiorello LaGuardia),
Art Lund
Art Lund (Ben Marino), Lola Fisher (Thea), Dody
Goodman (Dora), Barbara Williams (Marie),
Paul Lipson (Morris),
Richard France (Neil), Dort Clark (Floyd), and Helen Verbit (Mrs.
Pomerantz). One of the singing ensemble included Rosalind Cash.
A staged concert production of
Fiorello!
Fiorello! was performed at the first
Encores! at the
New York City
New York City Center concert series in February 1994.
Directed by Walter Bobbie, the cast featured
Jerry Zaks
Jerry Zaks as LaGuardia,
Philip Bosco as Ben Marino,
Faith Prince as Marie, and Elizabeth
Futral as Thea.[3]
To celebrate the 20th season of the series,
Fiorello!
Fiorello! was presented by
the
New York City
New York City Center
Encores! as a staged concert in January 2013.
With direction by Gary Griffin and choreography by Alex Sanchez, the
cast starred
Danny Rutigliano as La Guardia,
Shuler Hensley
Shuler Hensley as Marino,
Erin Dilly as Marie and
Kate Baldwin
Kate Baldwin as Thea. The production included
a new Bock/Harnick song during Act II, as part of "The Name's La
Guardia" reprise.[4]
The Berkshire Theatre Group (BTG) production of
Fiorello!
Fiorello! is expected
to open
Off-Broadway at the East 13th Street Theater on September 4,
2016, directed by Bob Moss.[5] The BTG production ran at The Unicorn
Theatre in
Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge, Massachusetts in June and July 2016.[6][7]
Synopsis[edit]
The story follows the life of
Fiorello H. La Guardia
Fiorello H. La Guardia during World War
I and ten years later. As Mayor of
New York City
New York City La Guardia reforms
city politics by helping end Tammany Hall's vaunted political machine.
Act I
Mayor
Fiorello H. LaGuardia
Fiorello H. LaGuardia is reading the comics over the radio
because there is a newspaper strike. As he does so, the time changes
to 1915 and the law office where clients are eagerly waiting to speak
to LaGuardia. His law clerks assure the crowd that he will help one
and all, regardless of their ability to pay ("On the Side of the
Angels"). Fiorello's secretary Marie and her friend Dora discuss a
crisis. Thea Almerigatti, the leader of the women shirtwaist strikers,
has been arrested.[8] LaGuardia promises to help the strikers. As the
district leader Ben and his political buddies play poker ("Politics
and Poker"), Marie introduces LaGuardia as a potential Congressional
candidate. They want to beat the corrupt machine of Tammany Hall.
While helping the women strikers, Fiorello asks Marie to dinner, but
Thea, newly released from prison, arrives. She asks Fiorello to dinner
to plan strategy, and he breaks his date with Marie. Marie feels
foolish for caring while he cares so little ("Marie's Law").
Next year Fiorello is campaigning for Congress, and Thea introduces
him. Fiorello promises to break the stranglehold of
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall ("The
Name's LaGuardia!"). LaGuardia wins the election ("The Bum Won"). In
another year, LaGuardia enlists in the Air Force and proposes to Thea.
He and Marie say their farewells as he is about to leave for the war
("Till Tomorrow"). LaGuardia's participation in the war is presented
as a series of montages, staged and on film.[9] With the war over,
Fiorello returns home ("Home Again"), with both Marie and Thea waiting
for him. He goes to Thea, who has agreed to marriage. Morris, the
office manager, comforts Marie.
Act II
In 1929 LaGuardia runs for mayor of New York, after he and Thea are
married. Thea, home from a visit to the doctor, exclaims her love
("When Did I Fall In Love"). At Dora and her husband Floyd's (who has
retired from the police force) home, the corrupt backers of Jimmy
Walker, Fiorello's competitor for mayor, meet. As one of the gang
wants to have Fiorello killed at his public speech, Dora rushes to
secretly warn Marie. However, Fiorello's campaign is in turmoil, with
Ben being fired and his worry over Thea's deteriorating health. At
LaGuardia's speech the gang's plan to kill him is foiled. But Thea
dies, and Marie, Morris, and Neil have to tell Fiorello. The race for
mayor is won by Jimmy Walker. Fiorello is inspired by tragedy to
continue his campaign.
In 1933 Ben and his political friends are again playing poker ("Little
Tin Box"). Marie arrives and announces that she is quitting her job
and will marry "The Very Next Man" who asks her. She convinces Ben to
return to Fiorello to help him win the upcoming mayoral election. She
then helps Fiorello to overcome his fears of losing and run again. He
runs with Ben's help, and also asks Marie to marry him. She accepts
and Fiorello finally becomes the mayor.
Background and analysis[edit]
The musical contains several songs built around a group of machine
politicians. In "Politics and Poker", Republican machine politicians
try to pick a congressional candidate in a district they consider
hopeless, while playing a game of poker, and compare politics to
poker.[3] The lyric is set to waltz tempo "to underscore the frivolity
of their cynicism."[10] In "The Bum Won", these same politicians
commiserate with one another after LaGuardia has won the election
without their support. In "Little Tin Box", they imagine a series of
Tammany politicians attempting to explain to a judge that their wealth
came from their scrupulous habits of saving ("I can see Your Honor
doesn't pull his punches/ And it looks a trifle fishy, I'll admit,/
But for one whole week I went without my lunches/ And it mounted up,
Your Honor, bit by bit./ Up Your Honor, bit by bit.")[3]
In "I Love a Cop", woman factory worker describes her hapless
situation of having fallen in love with a policeman who was called out
against a strike by her union; "The Name's La Guardia" has LaGuardia
campaigning in English, Italian and Yiddish.[11] There is also a
ragtime number, "Gentleman Jimmy" about bon vivant mayor James J.
"Jimmy" Walker, and the comic "Marie's Law", in which Marie proposes a
"law" about how husbands should treat their wives.[3] ("Every girl
shall have a honeymoon, which will last at least a year,/ During which
aforesaid honeymoon, every care shall disappear…".)
Besides the invention of some peripheral characters, the musical
changes some basic facts of LaGuardia's life. LaGuardia's first wife,
Thea, died after only three years of marriage, but the fictional Thea
lives another eight years, so that her death can be one more calamity
during LaGuardia's unsuccessful 1929 mayoral campaign; also, the
script downplays LaGuardia's generally successful congressional career
to make him seem more of an outsider and increase the triumph of his
eventual mayoral victory in 1933.
Songs[edit]
Act I
"On the Side of the Angels"
"Politics and Poker"
"Unfair"
"Marie's Law"
"The Name's LaGuardia"
"The Bum Won"
"I Love a Cop"
"I Love a Cop (reprise)"
"Till Tomorrow"
"Home Again"
Act II
"When Did I Fall in Love"
"Gentleman Jimmy"
"Gentleman Jimmy (reprise)"
"The Name's LaGuardia (reprise)"
"Little Tin Box"
"The Very Next Man"
"Politics and
Poker
_and_Carrier_Air_Wing_(CVW)_3_compete_in_a_Texas_Hold_'Em_Poker_tournament_aboard_Harry_S._Truman.jpg/600px-thumbnail.jpg)
Poker (reprise)"
"The Very Next Man (reprise)"
"The Name's LaGuardia (reprise)"
An additional song, "Where Do I Go from Here?" (originally written for
Marie to sing in Act I) was cut out of town; it can be heard on the
Liz Callaway album Lost in Boston (Varese Sarabande VSD-5475). "Till
Tomorrow" and "Unfair" were written "on spec" before Bock and Harnick
were hired for the show. "Little Tin Box" was added on the road in
Philadelphia.[12]
Critical response[edit]
In his review for The New York Times,
Brooks Atkinson
Brooks Atkinson wrote: "...It is
exciting; it is enjoyable and it is decent ...
Jerry Bock
Jerry Bock has set ...
a bouncy score ... [A]s the writer of lyrics,
Sheldon Harnick
Sheldon Harnick is in an
unfailingly humorous frame of mind ... [U]nder Mr. Abbott's invincible
stage direction, the whole show comes alive with gusto ... [T]he cast
could not be more winning or in better voice."[13]
Louis Calta wrote: " 'Fiorello!' is the town's latest stage hit ...
the attraction earned flowery praise from all of the New York drama
critics."[14]
Original cast album[edit]
The original cast recording of
Fiorello!
Fiorello! was made by Capitol Records
on November 29, 1959, just six days after the show opened, and was
released on December 14. The album debuted on Billboard's best-selling
albums chart January 11, 1960, peaked at #7 and remained on the charts
for 89 weeks. It has been reissued on CD twice, first by Capitol and
then later in a much improved release on EMI's Broadway Angel label
(CD #ZDM 7 65023-2).
Awards and nominations[edit]
Original Broadway production[edit]
Year
Award
Category
Nominee
Result
1960
Tony Award
Best Musical
Won
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical
Tom Bosley
Won
Howard Da Silva
Nominated
Best Direction of a Musical
George Abbott
Won
Best Choreography
Peter Gennaro
Nominated
Best Conductor and Musical Director
Hal Hastings
Nominated
Best Scenic Design
William and Jean Eckart
Nominated
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Won
References[edit]
^ "Ernest L. Cuneo, 82; Owned Newspaper Service", The New York Times,
March 5, 1988. Accessed April 23, 2010.
^ Esterow, Milton. "Bosley Can Boast A Perfect Record", The New York
Times, October 28, 1961, p. 12
^ a b c d Holden, Stephen."Review/Theater; La Guardia Administration
In a Dramatic Comeback", New York Times, February 11, 1994
^ Gans, Andrew and Jones, Kenneth. "Pulitzer Prize-Winning 'Fiorello!'
Returns to City Center Jan. 30; "New" Song Added" Playbill, January
30, 2013
^ Clement, Olivia. "Acclaimed '
Fiorello!
Fiorello! 'Revival to Arrive
Off-Broadway" Playbill,
August
August 2, 2016
^ Viagas, Robert. "The Name's LaGuardia: 'Fiorello!' Musical Headed
Off-Broadway This Fall" Playbill, July 6, 2016
^ Plemmons, Chesley. "A CurtainUp Berkshire Review. 'Fiorello!'"
curtainup.com, accessed
August
August 3, 2016
^
Fiorello!
Fiorello! c. 1960, Popular Library Edition, Random House, pp. 16, 42
^ "Fiorello!". The Guide to the Musical Theatre. Retrieved December 9,
2010.
^ Ostrow, Stuart. "Present at the Creation" (2006). Hal Leonard
Corporation. ISBN 1-55783-646-9, p. 31
^ Shea, Tom. "Broadway's Most Wanted" (2004). Brassey's.
ISBN 1-57488-596-0, pp. 123–124
^ Frank Kelly, Unofficial
Jerry Bock
Jerry Bock and
Sheldon Harnick
Sheldon Harnick Appreciation
Page, accessed January 1, 2010.
^ Atkinson, Brooks. New York Times, "Little Flower Blooms Again",
November 24, 1959, p. 45
^ Calta, Louis. New York Times, "
Fiorello!
Fiorello! Gets Landslide Vote",
November 25, 1959, p. 19
External links[edit]
Fiorello!
Fiorello! at the Internet Broadway Database
Fiorello!
Fiorello! at the
Music Theatre International website
Tony Awards listing for 1960, Musical
Pulitzer Prize Winners by
Category - Drama
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Musicals by
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Fiorello!
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