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papermoonloveslucy · 1 year

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CURTAIN UP!

Lucy On Stage ~ Act 1

Lucille Ball’s dream was always to appear on Broadway. That dream didn’t become reality until 1960. In the meantime, if Lucy couldn’t go to Broadway, Broadway would come to Lucy - on her radio and television shows!

“The Milkmaid’s Dilemma or The Lady’s Not For Turning”

“Liz Substitutes in a Club Play” (1951) ~ In this episode of Lucille Ball’s radio sitcom MY FAVORITE HUSBAND, Liz (Lucille Ball) is determined to play the lead in the women’s club play, even if she has to keep the leading lady from showing up. There’s only one problem: Liz has learned the lines for the wrong play!

The title of the play is a pun on the play “The Lady’s Not for Burning” by Christopher Fry. It opened on Broadway just two months before this episode aired starring Richard Burton and John Gielgud, who also directed. Coincidentally, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would say “the lady’s not for turning” in a now famous speech in October 1980.

“John’s Other Whistler”

“Liz’s Radio Script” (1951) ~ Liz's entry is a finalist in a playwriting contest, and the Coopers and the Atterburys perform it on the local radio station.

The title of Liz’s play combines two of the most popular radio shows of the time: “John's Other Wife” and “The Whistler”. Liz has retyped the script so quickly that there are some misspellings that lead to on-air goofs!

GEORGE: You’ve got a face like a camel. LIZ: That’s ‘cameo’!

IRIS: I don’t care. I’ve got another liver. LIZ: That’s ‘lover’! IRIS: At my age, I’d get more use out of another liver!

GEORGE: ...And your nose is continued on the next page!

This dialogue was later rewritten and recycled into...

“The Perils of Pamela” / “A Tree Grows in Havana”

“Lucy Writes a Play” (1952) ~ Playwright Lucy pens a drama with a Cuban locale. She figures Ricky for the star. The hitch: he refuses the part. So she changes her play from Cuba to England and has Fred take Ricky’s spot. However, Ricky has decided to surprise Lucy and appear in the play… only problem is he has the wrong script!

Voice from the Audience: I think it stinks!

The title “A Tree Grows in Havana” was inspired by A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which was a book and a film in the mid-40's. There was even a Broadway musical of the same title starring Shirley Booth that closed two weeks before the episode filmed. Lucy rewrites the script into an English comedy titled "The Perils of Pamela", a nod to several films titled The Perils of Pauline directed by Lucille Ball’s friend George Marshall. Some sample dialogue from her rewritten opus:

LUCY: What's the mater, Matter? Uh, what's the matter, Mater?

LUCY: Pater won't be down for tea. We just buried him. Had to. Dead, you know.

FRED: Would you pour me a spot of tea, my dear louse? [looks at script closer] I mean Louise.

“The Pleasant Peasant”

“The Operetta” (1952) ~ The Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League is putting on an operetta and Lucy is in charge. As treasurer, she has no money in the club account so she has to write the show herself! Needless to say, Ricky and the Mertzes are in the cast as well.

Because the repo men come to take back the unpaid scenery and costumes, we never see the end of the operetta. According to Lucy’s description of the show, there were two acts, with 18 scenes in the first act alone. The plot involved Lily being kidnapped by highway men because their leader had been turned into a frog by a wicked witch. Lily is really the frog / leader’s long-lost sister, separated from him when they were tadpoles. Later the Prince (who thinks he’s a peasant but is really a frog) goes to work for Squire Quinn at the Inn on the River Out.

These are references to composers Sigmund Romberg and Rudolf Friml, as well as Charles John Thomas, a popular baritone of the time. In 1915 Thomas starred on Broadway in a Friml operetta called The Peasant Girl which included a song called “The Gypsy” sung by 'Celeste and Chorus.’ “The Pleasant Peasant” even includes a parody of “The Drinking Song” from Romberg’s The Student Prince.

The operetta contains an original score by Eliot Daniel that features “The Pleasant Peasant Girls", "The Good Squire Quinn", "Lily of the Valley", "Queen of the Gypsies", "The Troops of the King", and "Good Prince Lancelot". Lucy plays Camille, the snaggle-toothed crone. Ethel is cast as Lily (of the Valley), Ricky is (the good) Prince Lancelot, and Fred is (what else) Friar Quinn of the Inn on the River Out. The ladies of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League (including Myra Marsh and Betty Jaynes) are the chorus.

“The Professor and the Co-Ed”

“Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined” (1953) ~ A new Broadway musical is casting and Lucy and the Mertzes want to land parts. Unfortunately, Lucy’s eye exam leaves her a nearsighted mess just before the big audition.

Ethel translates the Variety headline for Lucy: “Parker Preps Prod for Pitts Preem” as “Parker Prepares Production for Pittsburgh Premiere.” The article goes on to say “William Parker, formerly legit prod, currently top pic exec, seeks thesps for flesh tuner.” Ethel doesn’t translate this section, but it means that “William Parker, formerly a theatrical producer, currently a top motion picture executive, is casting actors for a live stage musical.”

Although we never see the musical itself (just the auditions) it is a musical comedy set in the 1920s titled “The Professor and the Co-Ed” and it sounds reminiscent of Good News, a real-life 1927 legit tuner (Varietyese for 'stage musical’) also set on a college campus in the roaring '20s. Good News was made into a film in 1930 and then remade in 1947.

All three versions of Good News include the song "The Varsity Drag,” which Fred and Ethel sing in this episode. A musical about college co-eds must have been familiar territory to the Arnazes. Too Many Girls was Desi Arnaz’s 1939 Broadway debut and the 1940 film version introduced (literally) Desi to Lucy.

“Gay ‘90s Revue”

“Mertz and Kurtz” (1954) ~ Fred's old vaudeville partner (Charles Wininger) is in town, so the Mertzes pretend to be wealthier than they really are to impress him. But it turns out that he has been doing some pretending as well!

Perhaps not strictly a stage musical, this revue has a bit of a story and characters, so it qualifies. Set in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Fred and Barney play dairymen attending a convention, Lucy and Ethel are bathing beauties, and Ricky is the handsome lifeguard. The score includes classics from the theatre and popular music.

"Peach on the Beach" by Vincent Youmans and Otto Harbach was originally written for the 1925 Broadway musical No, No, Nanette which (coincidentally) starred Charles Winninger.

"By the Beautiful Sea" by Harry Carroll and Harold R. Atteridge. The song topped the early American music charts in the summer of 1914, during the outbreak of World War I. By the Beautiful Sea was also the title of a 1954 musical that was on Broadway when the episode was filmed.

“They Go Wild Over Me” by Fred Fisherin, who also wrote the lyrics for the 1919 Broadway show Irene.

"On the Boardwalk to Atlantic City" by Josef Myrow and Mack Gordon for the 1946 film Three Little Girls in Blue, about three sisters from Red Bank NJ who spend their inheritance on a trip to Atlantic City, where they hope to snare rich husbands.

“Over the Teacups”

“Ethel’s Birthday” (1954) ~ It's Ethel's birthday and she gets two memorable presents: Hostess Pants and tickets to the theatre. An argument with Lucy over the former threatens to spoil the latter.

The fictional play is said to be “the biggest hit in town.” The tickets cost Ricky $6.60 each! Although we never see the actors in the play, we hear Mary Lansing as the weepy Cynthia. English actor Richard Kean voices the character of John, who breaks the news to Cynthia about the death of their mutual friend.

“Kildoonan!”

“Lucy Goes to Scotland” (1956) ~ While in London, Lucy dreams of going to her ancestral home in Scotland. Although not strictly a stage show, Lucy dreams in the musical comedy format!

The inspiration for this episode is clearly Lerner and Loewe's 1947 musical Brigadoon. The name of the village in the musical is the similarly-sounding Kildoonan; and the two-headed dragon appears once every 30 years, just as the village of Brigadoon appears once every 100 years. Both also feature a sword dance and bagpipes. Although the show had closed in London several years earlier, the film version was released in 1954, a little over a year before this episode's filming. It was produced by MGM (the Arnazes studio of choice) and featured Van Johnson, who Lucy danced with in “The Dancing Star”.

The dream has five original songs by Eliott Daniel and Larry Orenstein (who also played the Mayor of Kildoonan): "'Tis Nae a Braw Bricht Nicht", "A McGillicuddy Is Here", "I'm in Love with a Dragon's Dinner", "Two Heads Are Nae Better Than One", and "The Dragon Waltz".

The Townspeople of Kildoonan include Betty Allen (who was a background singer for the 1954 film of Brigadoon), Betty Noyes, Norma Zimmer, John Gustafson, John Hynd, Robert E. Hamlin, Ann Ellen Walker, Dick Byron, and Chuck Schrouder.

“The Enchanted Forest”

“LIttle Ricky’s School Pageant” (1957) ~ Little Ricky is cast as the lead in his school play, with Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel also getting into the act.

The scenery and choreography for the pageant were designed by Desi’s fishing buddy and friend Pepito Perez (aka Pepito the Clown) and his wife Joanne, who ran a nearby Dance Academy. For years afterward, Joanne used the Enchanted Forest backdrops for their productions of “Hansel and Gretel.” Their school also provided the two dozen other students for the pageant. Candy Rogers (Susie Brown) was their prize pupil so was rewarded with the female lead. Lucy played the Wicked Witch, Ricky played a Hollow Tree, Ethel plays the Fairy Princess (she fit the costume) and Fred is Hippity Hoppity the Frog. The pageant also features 12 gnomes, 12 bunnies, 3 dancing owls, and a skunk!

“The Most Happy Fella”

“Lucy’s Night In Town” (1957) ~ Lucy has tickets to a big Broadway musical, but she mistakenly got seats for the matinee instead of the evening show.

FRED (seeing the title of the play): I’ll bet he wasn’t married!

This episode takes the foursome to the Broadway musical The Most Happy Fella. Because the Arnazes were investors in the show the original cast album and show poster were used in the filming. The Frank Loesser musical was simultaneously playing at New York’s Imperial Theatre, although except for an establishing shot of the theatre’s exterior, the episode was filmed entirely in California. Coincidentally, the Imperial was where Desi Arnaz made his Broadway debut in Too Many Girls (1939). In 1979, his daughter Lucie Arnaz also made her Broadway debut at the Imperial in They’re Playing Our Song. Vivian Vance appeared there in 1941’s Let’s Face It! starring Eve Arden. The 1,443 seat theater opened in 1923 and is still in operation today.

The episode utilized the Frank Loesser songs “Standin’ on the Corner,” “Big D,” and “Don’t Cry” - all sung by the original cast: Susan Johnson, John Henson, Alan J. Gilbert, Shorty Long, Roy Lazarus, and Art Lund. Although Robert Weede is billed on the marquee, he is not heard in any of the songs, nor is leading lady Jo Sullivan, the composer’s wife, although both were nominated for 1956 Tony Awards. This is not the first Frank Loesser musical to be featured on “I Love Lucy.” A clip from the 1955 film Guys and Dolls was inserted into the MGM executives show in “Lucy and the Dummy”, but was cut for syndication and the DVD.

“The Queen’s Lament”

”The Celebrity Next Door” (1958) ~ Stage and screen star Tallulah Bankhead has moved in next door to the Ricardos and Mertzes! Once Lucy discovers that a celebrity is in her midst, she has gotten Bankhead and the entire gang involved with the local PTA show.

The fictional play “The Queen's Lament” is probably a hold-over from when Bette Davis was intended to be the 'celebrity next door', as she had recently played Queen Elizabeth on film in The Virgin Queen in 1955 as well as in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex in 1939.

The cast and crew of the play includes: The Queen ~ Miss Tallulah Bankhead; Her Lady in Waiting ~ Lucy Ricardo; The Duke of Farthington ~ Ricky Ricardo; Genevieve, the Royal Cook ~ Ethel Mertz; A Knight ~ Fred Mertz; Musical Entertainment by the Westport Glee Club; Directed by Mrs. Ida Thompson; Written by Mr. Thompson; Costumes by Mrs. Wilson.

“Western Frolics”

“MIlton Berle Hides Out at the Ricardos” (1957) ~ Lucy wants Milton Berle to perform in the PTA play so she secretly offers her home for him to finish his latest book in peace.

“Western Frolics” consists mostly of the musical number “Them There Days” composed by Arthur Hamilton especially for this show.

CURTAIN DOWN on Act 1

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