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Past Articles What's New on the Rialto The Musicals of Cole Porter: Broadway, Hollywood, Television
by Bernard F. Dick Book Review by Mark Dundas Wood
However, as Bernard F. Dick acknowledges in his recent study, The Musicals of Cole Porter: Broadway, Hollywood, Television, Porter wrote scores for only two book musicals that have been revived with any real frequency in the decades since Porter's passing: Kiss Me, Kate (from 1948), his unequivocal masterpiece, and Anything Goes, a property whose revivals have been jukebox-y shows, relying on the interpolation of well-known songs from lesser-known Porter vehicles to fortify the original 1934 song list. Dick's primary intent with this book is to examine all the shows and films that Porter took part in scoring. He covers some of these more thoroughly than others. For 1928's Paris (the first Broadway hit for Porter, albeit as one of the show's multiple song contributors) and its subsequent film version, Dick gives us a 2½-page analysis that includes a summary of librettist Martin Brown's storyline, plus information about the leading lady of both the stage and film versions: Irène Bordoni (who introduced Porter's "Let's Misbehave" in Paris as well as its later, even-better-remembered replacement, "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love"). We're left with questions about the creation of this show. Who, exactly was Martin Brown? How closely did he work with Porter and the show's other songwriters, if at all? How did critics respond to this show? Writer William McBrien, in his 1998 book Cole Porter: a Biography, included more information on how Porter came to write songs for Paris than Dick does here. The author's analysis of some other early shows–such as 1936's Red, Hot, and Blue–is more detailed. And once Dick gets around to writing about Anything Goes and (especially) Kiss Me, Kate, he has more stories to share, and the result is, naturally, more satisfying. The chapter on Kate is a full 20 pages, including a (perhaps unnecessary) synopsis of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, the comedic play that inspired the musical. Dick makes it clear that he's not writing a Cole Porter biography, and for the most part he doesn't. Porter's devastating 1937 horse-riding accident, for instance, is scarcely mentioned, though it certainly impacted his creative life. Dick does spend some time dealing with Porter's homosexuality and his marriage with Linda Lee Thomas–and how being semi-closeted affected his artistry. It turns out, however, that the author has more tasks in mind for this book than just recording the history of shows Porter helped create. He also intends to analyze Porter's poetic sensibility. In the book's introductory chapter, he explains how he will proceed. Referring to an anthology called A Cole Porter Companion (2016) that analyzes Porter's musical compositions, he writes: "I have chosen to do the opposite and treat Porter's lyrics as poetry, prior to their musical incarnation. Porter was more than a songwriter; he was a poet who told stories in song." True enough. But is it even possible (or desirable) to disentangle Porter's talents as lyricist from his prowess as composer? Are we to believe that Porter would write words for a new song on a Monday and then sit down and conjure a melody for it on Tuesday? Dick outlines the complicated way he will present his two agendas:
That's a lot to keep track of. And it lands the reader in a rather tangled thicket. At the top of Chapter 2, Dick, as he promised, discusses list songs from throughout Porter's career, including "You're the Top" from Anything Goes and the title song from Can-Can. But then he picks up where he left off in Chapter 1 with his show-chronology task, analyzing the early musicals Wake Up and Dream, Fifty Million Frenchmen, and The New Yorkers. He provides no real insights about list songs within these three musicals, though he spots one in Wake Up and Dream ("Which Is the Right Life?," aka "Which?"). So, why are these musicals even discussed in this chapter? Why couldn't an editor have helped Dick find a less convoluted way of organizing his material? The book is not without merit. Dick clearly cares about his subject. His admiration for Porter's lyrical mastery is obvious. "He values the depth of feeling in the best of the love ballads and the sharp wit in the comedic numbers. You may disagree with some of his bolder conclusions (for instance, that "Night and Day" clearly bests "Begin the Beguine" in terms of artistic profundity). But you don't doubt that he's in thrall with Porter's wordsmanship. (He's not shy, however, about calling out Porter when a lyric falls short. He notes, for example, that in "Let's Not Talk About Love," Adolf Hitler's cited "inhumanities" should not have been characterized as mere "inanities" just for the sake of a good rhyme. Dick himself knows how to turn a clever phrase. Writing of Don Ameche's Broadway introduction of the Silk Stockings song "All of You" and its lyric about loving "the east, west, north, and the south of you," he notes, "Ameche's suave delivery kept the number from sounding like a cartographer's sexual fantasy." Nice. Some of his observations have the clarity and confidence of a rock-solid maxim. Especially good is his take on various Porter-ian attitudes toward love: "Porter is at his best either celebrating imperfect love or questioning its permanence. He can describe its effects, treat it playfully, take it seriously, or view it cynically." At other times, however, his points don't land. Writing of Porter's punctuation of the song title "Dream-Dancing," Dick writes: "That Porter chose to hyphenate the song title suggests that the dancers can only partner in a dream, where the dancers and the dance are inseparable." How so? More explanation of how that wee hyphen makes such a difference seems necessary. As for glaring typographical or factual errors, there seem to be very few. There's at least one garden-variety typo ("hint if strain" instead of "hint of strain"). Dick takes Porter to task for a forced rhyme of "Walt Whitman" with "Paul Whiteman" in "Which Is the Right Life?" but Porter actually rhymes "Whiteman" with "right man" not "Whitman." At another point, a crucial word ("not") has been left out of a line from "Just One of Those Things," undermining the very point Dick is making about a rash love affair that's "too hot [not] to cool down." In fact, many of the book's most puzzling missteps are errors of omission. Praising New York's now-defunct Musicals Tonight series for staging lesser-known musicals by Porter and other pioneering composers and lyricists, Dick wishes for a similar series that will fill the gap and continue resuscitating forgotten shows. Why does he not mention such institutions as New York City's ongoing Encores! series, which has resurrected multiple Porter titles over the years: DuBarry Was a Lady, Out of This World, Can-Can, The New Yorkers. Perhaps even more prolific has been the 42nd Street Moon company in San Francisco, which has exposed audiences to a roster of Porter shows, including multiple presentations of Jubilee and Something for the Boys. In his epilogue, Dick writes of films that have helped preserve the legacy of Porter and his peers (including the 2004 biopic De-Lovely). But what of the numerous stage revues–The Decline and Fall of the Entire World as Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter (1965); Cole (1974); Red, Hot, and Cole (1989), etc.–that have helped keep Porter's songs (if not the shows in which they originally appeared) in the public ear over the decades? The book's 10 pages of plates with photos (not glossy) seem a bit perfunctory. They include production shots of such iconic performers as Merman, Sinatra, Astaire, and Crosby. Three pages listing all shows with Porter content, including films and TV and radio plays, are a useful resource. They're followed by end-note pages and, finally, an index that seems far from complete. Some song titles mentioned in the text are indexed. Others are not. The index will send you to page 99 to find out about "Let's Not Talk About Love," but a good share of the discussion of that song happens on pages 97 and 98. These deficiencies may not prove deal-breaking for avid purchasers of books about musical theatre. Still, and especially considering the author's keen enthusiasm for his subject matter, more care might have been taken to get such things right.
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The Musicals of Cole Porter: Broadway, Hollywood, Television