No¿¿l Coward: The Girl Who Came to Supper [Original Broadway Cast]

by Girl Who Came To Supper / O.B.C.

Overview

Based on Terence Rattigan's 1953 play The Sleeping Prince (which also was the source for the 1957 film The Prince and the Showgirl, starring Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe), The Girl Who Came to Supper is set in London in 1911, but the major characters are the Prince Regent of Carpathia, who is in town for the coronation of King George V, and an American chorus girl with whom he becomes involved. The story of an older aristocratic man and a younger female commoner is reminiscent of My Fair Lady, the previous success for the show's producer, Herman Levin, and there are other echoes of that musical in Noel Coward's score, including the seemingly irrelevant medley of Cockney songs that features Tessie O'Shea and runs nearly 11 minutes. (It's sort of like "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," "With a Little Bit of Luck," and "Get Me to the Church on Time" all mixed together.) Jose Ferrer, as the Prince Regent, sings to a diplomat of his dispassionate sense of how women should behave in "Curt, Clear and Concise," much as Henry Higgins sang "A Hymn to Him" to Colonel Pickering in My Fair Lady. "Coronation Chorale," the second-act opener, is similar to "Ascot Gavotte." And Ferrer's final wistful song, "I'll Remember Her," is this show's "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face." Not much like Eliza Doolittle, however, is Florence Henderson's chorus girl, Mary Morgan. She's too lively for that, particularly in her love song "Here and Now" and in her own lengthy second-act showpiece, the eight-minute "The Coconut Girl," in which she explains the plot of the show she's in and sings all the songs. There is some typical Coward wit in the lyrics, and O'Shea and Henderson turn in strong performances, even if The Girl Who Came to Supper is not the most original Broadway musical ever written. When this album was released in December 1963, the sequence of songs differed from the order in which the songs were performed in the show, probably for technical reasons having to do with how the LP tracked. For the 1992 reissue on CD and cassette, the sequence was altered to conform to the on-stage running order. ~ William Ruhlmann

Product Details

Release Date:	11/24/1992
Label:	Sony Broadway
UPC:	0074644821024
Rank:	141440

Tracks

1. The Girl who came to supper~Act 1. Introduction / Carpathian National Anthem (Yasni Koskolai) / My Family Tree
2. The Girl who came to supper~Act 1. I've Been Invited To A Party
3. The Girl who came to supper~Act 1. When Foreign Princes Come To Visit Us
4. The Girl who came to supper~Act 1. Sir Or Ma'am
5. The Girl who came to supper~Act 1. Soliloquies
6. The Girl who came to supper~Act 1. Lonely
7. The Girl who came to supper~Act 1. London Is A Little Bit Of All Right / What Ho, Mrs. Brisket / Don't Take Our Charlie For The
8. The Girl who came to supper~Act 1. Here And Now
9. The Girl who came to supper~Act 2. Coronation Chorale
10. The Girl who came to supper~Act 2. How Do You Do, Middle Age?
11. The Girl who came to supper~Act 2. Curt, Clear And Concise
12. The Girl who came to supper~Act 2. The Coconut Girl: Welcome to Pootzie van Doyle / The Coconut Girl / Paddy MacNeil and His Au
13. The Girl who came to supper~Act 2. This Time It's True Love
14. The Girl who came to supper~Act 2. I'll Remember Her

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Girl Who Came To Supper Cast Ensemble   Primary Artist,Choir/Chorus
Roderick Cook   Primary Artist,Vocals
Carey Nairnes   Primary Artist,Vocals
Sean Scully   Primary Artist,Vocals
Jose Ferrer   Primary Artist,Vocals
Florence Henderson   Primary Artist,Vocals
Tessie O'Shea   Primary Artist,Vocals
Jeremy Broun   Vocals
Irene Browne   Vocals
Donna Monroe   Vocals
The Girl Who Came to Supper Chorus   Choir/Chorus
Jay Blackton   Conductor,Musical Director
Jack Rains   Vocals
Kellie Brytt   Vocals
Maggie Worth   Vocals
Ruth Shepard   Vocals
Barney Johnston   Vocals
Lucie Lancaster   Vocals
Jack Eddleman   Vocals
Art Matthews   Vocals
Murray Adler   Vocals
John Felton   Vocals
Girl Who Came To Supper Pit Orchestra   Orchestra
Mitch Taylor   Vocals
Bruce Peyton   Vocals

Technical Credits

Girl Who Came To Supper Cast Ensemble   Performer
Genevieve Pitot   Dance Arrangement
Irene Sharaff   Costume Design
Don Hunstein   Photography
Teo Macero   Assistant Producer,Associate Producer
Fred Plaut   Engineer
Didier C. Deutsch   Reissue Producer
Noel Coward   Composer,Lyricist
Murray Zimney   Engineer
Robert Russell Bennett   Orchestration
Goddard Lieberson   Producer
Ted Brosnan   Engineer
Joe Layton   Stage Production
Jay Blackton   Vocal Arrangement
Oliver Smith   Scenery
Wolfgang Steuhl   Liner Note Translation
Ken Mandelbaum   Liner Notes
Friedman-Abeles   Photography
Peggy Clark   Lighting
Tim Tiedemann   Remixing,Digital Remixing,Digital Mastering,Digital Remastering
Curtis F. Brown   Synopsis
Harry Kurnitz   Book
Curtis Brown   Synopsis,Liner Notes
Anna Saxon-Forti   Translation,Liner Note Translation
Jean Gallia   Translation,Liner Note Translation