Marc Blitzstein "Reuben Reuben" Patrice Munsel Evelyn Lear "Song of the Arrow" Rare Acetate

This is the acetate demo recorded by Patrice Munsel with composer Marc Blitzstein on the piano of the remarkable coloratura aria "Song of the Arrow" from his lost-in-Boston Broadway-intended musical "Reuben Reuben". Cast included Eddie Albert, Kaye Ballard, George Gaines, and Evelyn Lear who was completely unknown just out of Juilliard when Blitzstein cast her, much as he cast Carol Channing, Vivian Vance, Shirley Booth, and discovered Leonard Bernstein as a junior at Harvard before her. Lear sang this in the show. This recording is cleaned of very heavy noise, and is part of my collection of recordings comprising a demo of the full score, which is extraordinary and which should be completely and newly recorded (see Dawn Upshaw's "I Wish It So" CD for another song from it). Besides "Blitzstein Strikes Back" (a biographical musical drama) I also wrote a scenario for "Reuben", as MB never revised the book he also wrote; the problems with it considered the reason Cheryl Crawford closed it in Boston. As is, an amazing mix of opera, comedy vaudeville, bar ditties and ballads. A great lost score, and almost unknown in part because so much of it only exists in nearly unlistenable sound (until now). As is typical of MB's work, this beautiful aria is about Nina standing on the Manhattan Bridge and spitting loogies ('arrows') at passers-by. As Anna Russell used to say, "I'm not making this up you know." Each character sings in his or her own genre, including a passing street quartet.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Mark Blitzstein
• Reuben Reuben
• Eddie Albert
• Patrice Munsel
• Leonard Bernstein
• Blitzstein
• Flops
• Broadway
• Lost Broadway
• Cheryl Crawford
• Kaye Ballard
• Musical Comedy
• American Opera

[jonthesYT]

PS The version performed in the show was simplified and lowered in the last half of the song, probably because singing this for a Broadway schedule of seven times a week (as it would have been at the time) would have been very hard on anyone's voice. Nina also has two really lovely lullabies in the score as well.

[jonthesYT]

You are welcome. That whole score is amazing, widest range of any score I know of, including "Candide". See other RR song posts. Working with new MB biographer, hope to see more come of this. We are debating if this is off-speed slightly, she is a bit helium sounding. The pitch is accurate.

[PavlovsStepson]

Amazing, beautiful song. Thanks for the extensive information about it.