Today’s Wall Street Journal brought a long review of a new book about Frank Loesser, and, since my antennae always home in on articles about the great songwriters, I dove into the story expecting enrichment. Instead, I was left wondering how a reviewer, presumably knowledgeable about the subject, could spend 1000 words or so on the musical achievements of Frank Loesser – a giant among American composers – without once mentioning the Loesser masterpiece, The Most Happy Fella. Instead, what we got was a lot of gushing about Loesser’s pop tunes, “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” “A Slow Boat to China” and “What Are You Doing New Year’s?” Good songs all, but they are mere footnotes in the illustrious biography of Frank Loesser.
To those in the know, Loesser gave Broadway two masterpieces: Guys and Dolls and The Most Happy Fella, and if he never wrote another musical or another song, that would qualify him for the Pantheon. Yes, How to Succeed…”won a Pulitzer, but its score is second rate. He also wrote Where’s Charley? and Greenwillow, but most of his 700 or so songs were written as singles, many of them becoming standards.
But let’s return to the two masterpieces. Guys and Dolls and The Most Happy Fella are so different that it is hard believe they are the works of the same composer. The opening of Guys and Dolls marks the show as an instant classic. Three “guys” sing about their favorite horses in today’s race. Nicely-Nicely likes Paul Revere, Benny is betting on Valentine, and Epitaph is Rusty Charlie’s choice. The “Fugue for Tinhorns” develops into a contrapuntal trio that sets the tone for the show. In the title song, we learn that “when you see a gent paying all kinds of rent for a flat that would flatten the Taj Mahal, call it sad, call it funny, but it's better then even money that the guy's only doing it for some doll.” Can lyrics get any better than that?
The Most Happy Fella is operatic, with Loesser pouring out one beautiful melody after another – enough for three musicals, really. The story, based on Sidney Howard’s 1924 play They Knew What They Wanted, centers on Tony, a middle-aged, Italian wine grower from the Napa Valley who falls in love with a San Francisco waitress, courts her by mail, and, when it comes time to swap pictures, sends her a photograph of his handsome foreman, Joe. When she travels to Napa and discovers the deception, she is enraged at Tony, seeks solace in Joe’s arms, and becomes pregnant. But when kind-hearted Tony is injured in an accident, she decides to stay on and take care of him. She falls in love with Tony, Joe packs up and leaves, singing that he’s had “all I want of the ladies in the neighborhood.” Tony is more than happy at the prospect of serving as the father of Rosabella’s baby.
It is a rich, warm love story, whose Napa Valley setting seems to cry out for a Puccini score. And we get it, with no compromise, from Frank Loesser, complete with festival songs (“Abbondanza”, “Sposalizio”) and dramatic arias (“My Heart is So Full of You,” “A Long Time Ago”). But for all its operatic soul, at heart this is a Broadway musical as well, so Loesser gives us “Big D” and “Standing on the Corner.”
I saw the Broadway original production in 1956, buying standing room at the sold-out Imperial. And I would do it again, even with my creaky knee. Tony was played by Robert Weede, Rosabella by Jo Sullivan (later Mrs. Frank Loesser). That amazing production was captured – not just the songs, but the whole play – in a three-LP recording, which is one of my most prized possessions. You don’t have a turntable? Not to worry: Sony has issued the entire original-cast album on a two-CD set. This is musical theater the likes of which you just don’t find anymore, because they aren’t making Frank Loessers anymore.
