South Pacific - A Wonderful Guy - Some Enchanted Evening - Mary Martin

Mary Martin and Wilbur Evans sing "Some Enchanted Evening" in the 1952 London production. Mary then sings "Wonderful Guy" - one of the best examples of the deceptive simplicity of Richard Rodgers' music.

Rodgers gives the verse a driving, aggressive beat (to emphasize Nellie's determination), and then does not start the chorus on the second beat as you would expect from reading the lyric:

"i'm as CORny as kansas in AUGust."

Instead, he starts it on the first beat:

"I'M as corny as KANsas in august"

...giving the song its distinctive feel and playing up Nellie's anger while still offering a light, happy tune.

But the real genius comes in one of his favorite tricks: the repeated phrase. While it appears that "I'm in love" is simply repeated 16 times in a row, in fact the orchestra is changing chords on each "love," frantically running through the series and building to a powerful climax.

No one could pair a simple melody with complex chords better than Rodgers, and it's one of the reasons his tunes are both so accessible and so enduring.
.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• South
• Pacific
• Wonderful
• Guy
• Some
• Enchanted
• Evening
• Mary
• Martin
• Rodgers
• Hammerstein
• Broadway
• musical
• yt:quality=high

[123boink]

10,000 views and not a kind word for Mary! = (

[720Lizzy]

A legend! It's amazing that because of YouTube we can watch this. A true treasure.

[kerryincolumbus]

This brings back SO many memories... I remember singing this to my b-friend in high school, in whispers, under the covers, so that his brother and sisters wouldn't hear (his parents were gone that weekend and he snuck my into the house LOL)... it was the most romantic thing ever! THanks for posting this!

[flagler88]

Well I will say something about Mary Martin. She is such a joy to watch in everything she does. I am sure if I had been around to see her live I would have sat mesmerized by her. So natural and beautiful. Thanks for uploading and Mary Martin thank you for being such a joyous soul.

[nz166]

@namphong0612 I thought the whole thing was so natural when I saw it and Kelli couldnt have been more lovely as Nellie

[namphong0612]

I do think the direction in the Broadway Revival version is more natural, especially the dance of Nelie