Broadway Orphans

Notes on the Program

by Steven Blier

The popular songs that emerged from Broadway during the years between the two World Wars belong to America's proudest musical heritage.  They have become our own slouchy, evocative folk music, heard in myriad forms-- in fact, I can't think of another kind of music that has worn as many disguises as American popular song.  Many of us grew up hearing Gershwin and Porter as the basis for wild jazz improvisations from hot to cool; I got be-bopped, scatted, and swung.  Pops concerts have taken the cushy, symphonic approach so beloved in elevators and the frozen food section of the supermarket.  In truth, this music got "updated" every ten years or so, to fit in with the prevailing styles in pop music.  Some of it was marvelous, and some wasn't-- there was a disco version of "I Got Rhythm" in the 70's that I would have to consider the nadir of Gershwin performance.  A few  years ago, a passel of rock stars took on Porter's's music on a big TV special, doing some justice to the darker and more subversive side of his vision, but mangling the intricate, sophisticated lyrics and melodies beyond repair.

Recently, there has been a movement afoot to restore the works of Gershwin, Porter, Arlen, Weill, and Rodgers to their original style.  The search for authenticity is one of our era's hallmarks, and some of the same ardor and scholarly care that motivates the original instrument crowd has captured advocates in the field of vintage musicals.  One of the things that made this possible was the discovery, in a Warner Brothers warehouse in Secaucus, New Jersey, of a stockpile of songs, orchestrations, and lyrics that had been given up for lost.  Many experts actually knew the material existed and had a pretty good idea of where it was, but the publishing house seemed to feel no particular urgency to search it out.  When it was all found in 1982, however, the discovery made national headlines.  The publicity itself seemed to spawn a renewed interest in our theatrical past; what had begun as a cursory look through some boxes in a building marked for demolition turned out to be King Tut's Tomb for Broadway musicologists.  Works which had only existed as fragments could now be re-constructed.  Of course, many orchestrations and scripts are still lost-- back in the twenties, no one seems to have felt the need to give the equivalent of Köchel numbers to what was considered disposable popular entertainment.

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