I’m never sure how much to cross-post between here and Tumblr

[moon_custafer]

...but some people over here might find this relevant to their interests.

I decided a while back that in the unlikely event I ever get access to time travel, I will only use it for frivolous purposes. Specifically, for seeing long-ago theatrical performances that I only know from descriptions because they weren’t filmed or recorded. Even by those standards, Sitting Pretty is a show that fell into a black hole, so I will just have to listen to this recording of a remount in the early 1990s and try to imagine what it would have been like to see and hear this song performed by Dwight Frye (!) and Frank McIntyre.

https://youtu.be/EXKkLElsCWse

Comments

[sovay]

Even by those standards, Sitting Pretty is a show that fell into a black hole, so I will just have to listen to this recording of a remount in the early 1990s and try to imagine what it would have been like to see and hear this song performed by Dwight Frye (!) and Frank McIntyre.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

[moon_custafer]

Frye wasn’t yet typecast at the time, but he was sufficiently well-known as a dramatic character actor that the reviews he got were all along the lines of “wow, he can do musical comedy too? Cool!”

The show’s history, unfortunately, serves as a cautionary tale about excessively strict copyright — a musical by Jerome Kern and P. G. Wodehouse ought to have done quite well (the two had worked together before); but Kern, who was apparently upset about his music being adapted by jazz bands, had clauses put in that no song from the show could be recorded or played on its own.This pretty much ensured no song in the show would ever be the kind of breakout hit that would get attention for the original show, which thus never took off, despite critical acclaim.

I only ever heard of it because someone recorded an album in the 1990s, and I woke up one morning to the sound of one of the songs on CBC radio, and then spent a couple of decades wondering what it had been until the internet had developed to the point where I could successfully do a search with the lyrics I was able to remember. Up until then, I couldn’t be sure I hadn’t dreamt it — which has also happened to me at least once: years ago I woke up with a song ringing in my ears, and went to check through the house to see if a radio was on. None were, and I have to assume that “When Vienna and I Were Young” is not a song that exists in our waking world.

[sovay]

he was sufficiently well-known as a dramatic character actor that the reviews he got were all along the lines of “wow, he can do musical comedy too? Cool!”

I just want to be able to hear him sing!

(Honestly, I kind of assume Dwight Frye could do anything, but most of it wasn't on film. Like seeing Elisha Cook Jr. in his cute fresh-faced dork phase.)

None were, and I have to assume that “When Vienna and I Were Young” is not a song that exists in our waking world.

. . . It may not be, but it chimes really closely with something I have heard, which I will try to remember well enough to run down for you.