This isn't the music you remember from Mary Martin or Sandy Duncan or Cathy
Rigby or even Walt Disney's version of the story of "The Boy Who Wouldn't
Grow Up." No, this first ever recording of the music that Leonard Bernstein
wrote for a musical version of J. M. Barrie's play features music you
haven't heard before as well as a few songs only true Broadway Musical
aficionados already know. Here are lush orchestral interludes, the
incredibly pure voice of Linda Eder singing songs intended for Wendy, and a
humorous rendition by baritone Daniel Narducci of some material written for
Capt. Hook. Bernstein intended to compose a full score for the show, but
that plan was dropped when the stars playing the leads proved
incapable of pulling off the trick of singing on stage. The production was a
hit in 1950, but only five songs and none of the instrumental music
Bernstein wrote was used. Now Alexander Frey, a classical music conductor,
has pulled the material from the archives, had the previously
un-orchestrated portions prepared for full orchestra and recorded it all. |
Storyline: Peter Pan has flown
in from Neverland to hear Wendy tuck in her brothers in the London home of
the Darling family. He teaches them all how to fly so they can come back
with him and Wendy can be the mother for the lost boys who spend their time
fighting pirates and Indians. When Peter saves the Indian princess, Tiger
Lily, from the pirates a truce is arranged. The Pirates' leader, Capt. Hook,
however, is still on the hunt for Peter who had cut off his hand in a sword
fight. Hook has to be careful, however, because a crocodile ate the hand and
decided he liked it so much he's searching for the rest of the Captain. Hook
tries to poison Peter but the fairy Tinker Bell consumes the poison to save
him. He implores all the children in the world who believe in fairies to
applaud and the sound saves Tinker Bell's life.
Bernstein only wrote seven songs before the
project was reduced from "musical" to "a play with music" and two of these
weren't used in the final production. He also wrote a significant amount of
background music, underscoring and preludes to each of the play's three
acts. That orchestral music was not used, either as a supporting score by
Alec Wilder was substituted for Bernstein's work. Just who were the stars
who couldn't pull off the normal duties of a star of a Broadway musical?
Jean Arthur, who is now best remembered as the "hard boiled, worldly wise
girl" opposite Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" and Boris Karloff, Hollywood's Frankenstein Monster. Karloff
was able to handle patter material but Arthur, who played the title role,
had no songs at all. Three lovely songs and a patter piece for Wendy are here preserved in
marvelously unmannered performances by Linda Eder. (She also sings a "bonus
track" of a song Bernstein composed for use in a production of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth).
That Bernstein wrote the lyrics as well as
the music for the songs gives this package a rather unique place in the
catalogue of recordings of Bernstein's work for the stage. He came up with a
number of lovely expressions for Wendy's softer moments ("...build my
house of love / and paint my house with trusting / and warm it with the
warmth of your heart. / Make the floor of faith. / Make the walls of truth.
/ Put a roof of peace above. / Only build my house of love") as well as
humorous turns of phrase for both Hook and the pirates ("The evilist
creatures in all the earth! / We are eviler far than the tenors are / it is
true that the basses have eviler faces / but we are more evil inside").
The preludes, underscoring, scene change
music and interludes are recorded in full orchestrations. Some seem to be
the original orchestrations by Trude Ruttman (who, incidentally, composed
the dance music for the subsequent Mary Martin full musical version of Peter
Pan) and Hershy Kay while, where necessary, new orchestrations have been
produced by long-time Bernstein orchestrator Sid Ramin as well as Garth
Edwin Sunderland and conductor Alexander Frey. It is a shame that the
booklet accompanying the recording doesn't give details of what the status
of the music was when each piece was discovered in the archives and who had
to do what to bring the project to fruition. It could also have benefited
from a few pictures from the original production rather than the uncaptioned photos from the recording session where just who is who is
unclear.
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