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.
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Date: 2018-04-25 10:12 am (UTC)From: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.