09/08/2024
SO LONG, 174TH STREET
So Long, 174th Street has a book by Joseph Stein and lyrics and music by Stan Daniels. It is based on the 1958 semi-autobiographical novel Enter Laughing by Carl Reiner. There was a 1963 stage adaptation of the same name by Joseph Stein. The play opened on March 13, 1963 and ran for 419 performances and included a title song by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock. It was also the basis for a 1967 film. The Broadway musical’s director was Burt Shevelove and the choreographer was Alan Johnson.
The story is of David Kolowitz, a nice Jewish teenager from the Bronx who wants to be an actor despite the objections of his parents who insist he become a druggist. The musical emphasized David’s fantasies of being a famous movie star, a sexual stud with a butler who screens his many calls.
The musical opened on April 27, 1976 and ran for 16 performances.
The cast included Robert Morse, George S. Irving (his photo in the role is below); Kaye Ballard and Loni Ackerman.
The songs include THE BUTLER'S SONG; Un******ng Girls with My Eyes; My Son the Druggist; You Touched Her; Men; Boy Oh Boy; If You Want to Break Your Father's Heart; and So Long, 174th Street.
This is a link to 30-second segments of songs from the OCR: https://archive.org/details/cd_so-long-174th-street_robert-morse-kaye-ballard-loni-ackerman-la
The critics were not kind.
Martin Gottfried felt Joseph Stein’s underlying play hadn’t been “anything special,” and now his book for the musical adaptation was “the shell of what was once mediocre”; Stan Daniels’s score consisted of “one bland, stereotyped number after another”; and Robert Morse was a “non-Jewish middle-aged adolescent” who “managed to even out-mug himself”.
Howard Kissel said there was “no honest feeling” in the plot and the evening was “totally synthetic” and “absolutely without character.”
Clive Barnes couldn’t resist the temptation to say “So Long!” to the musical, a “formula show” that “thudded” onto Broadway.
The Wall Street Journal found the evening “too coy and cute,” and to expect the “appealing” Morse to play a seventeen-year-old was “too much to ask.”
Jack Kroll said the “manic schlock” of a musical was “dated, d***y and vulgar,” and he pounced on the “Butler’s Song” (he found it “tasteless”, while Kissel had thought it “clever”).
WABC-TV7 was disappointed with the “thin” score, “belabored” comedy, and the lack of “style or imagination.”
Douglas Watt liked the “irresistible” musical, and although there wasn’t “much” in the way of a book or a score, but the evening “bubbled” along because it was “a plain, honest-to-goodness musical comedy.” Morse was “deft and utterly charming,” the dances were “lively,” and “The Butler’s Song” was “hilarious.”
My love affair with So Long, 174th Street started with my endless playing of the LP – it was yet another show I could not afford to see when I was growing up. When I decided that it should be Musicals Tonight’s second show, I wondered who I could find to take the roles played by George S. Irving.
Then someone suggested I actually call George, who was listed in the phone book. When I asked George to reprise his Broadway role for our revival, I apologized for offering him a measly $100 - for the entire run (under an AEA Showcase Agreement). He was a TONY Award winner after all (for Irene). But he magnanimously said, “I’ve been singing The Butler’s song for free for decades.” (here’s a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU-4-mK7fV8&list=OLAK5uy_ntFM53pUsfZIvy514h715zdJ3ZEwFmwlE)
George ultimately did five other shows for us. He was already 76 when he did this one. I am honored to have known someone so talented, so generous and so beloved.
Then there is Joseph Stein and his gracious wife Elisa Loti Stein who invited the cast to their home to rehearse. Joe Stein self-deprecatingly claimed that “The show was so bad, they tore down the theater.” In fact The Harkness Theater was razed in 1977. With two TONY Awards and three TONY nominations, Joe still took the time to introduce me, a fellow Bronx boy, to my long-time director, Thomas-Sabella Mills.
And last but not least is Stan Daniels (the composer). There were enough naughty references in the show to make even his charming wife, Alene, blush. But her un-blushing support contributed to his writing of Same Time, Next Year – the Musical. And our un-blushing admiration of the man who wrote and produced The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi prompted Musicals Tonight to revive this show as well.
