AMG Review of Saratoga

William Ruhlmann
All Music Guide

Both members of the on-and-off songwriting team of composer Harold Arlen and lyricist Johnny Mercer had spotty records on Broadway, finding much greater success in Hollywood and on the hit parade. But in 1959, when the two were in their mid-fifties, they were both coming off theatrical successes with other collaborators, Arlen with E.Y. Harburg on #Jamaica, Mercer with Gene de Paul on #Li'l Abner. Reuniting, they embarked on a musical adaptation of Edna Ferber's best-selling 1941 novel -Saratoga Trunk, about a pair of fortune hunters traveling from New Orleans to Saratoga, NY, in 1880. Rock Hudson was first announced for the male lead, but dropped out and was replaced by Howard Keel, who was well known for movie musicals but relatively inexperienced onstage. The female lead was Carol Lawrence, who was coming off her success in #West Side Story. In what was probably the key mistake of the production, Morton DaCosta, a veteran director but a novice writer, not only staged the show, but also wrote the libretto. Oscar Hammerstein II demonstrated with #Show Boat in 1927 that it was possible to construct a successful show out of one of Ferber's rambling novels, but DaCosta could not follow his example. The result was a run of only ten weeks, sadly marking the last Broadway opening night for either Mercer or Arlen in their lifetimes.

Other shows by these writers, notably #St. Louis Woman, their other collaboration, and Arlen's #House of Flowers, have lived on among theater buffs due to the cast albums that demonstrated the quality of their scores. #Saratoga too was recorded, but a similar cult has not formed around it. It is clearly the work of talented, craftsmanlike writers and bears many of the characteristic traits of Arlen and Mercer, including Arlen's feel for bluesy, jazzy melodies and Mercer's often clever turns of phrase. Curiously, the best songs are given to singers other than the principals, among them the witty "Gettin' a Man," sung by Odette Myrtil and Carol Brice; the caustic "The Men Who Run the Country" (a song that remains disturbingly timely), sung by a male chorus; and "Goose Never Be a Peacock," which is reminiscent of "A Sleepin' Bee" from #House of Flowers, sung by Brice. But there are no real breakout songs, and the score comes off more as a bunch of good numbers that never quite add up to a coherent show. Thus, this is an album for completists -- aficionados of Arlen, Mercer, Keel, or Lawrence, or those who collect cast albums -- but not general music fans.