April 2007
"Someone in April"
Happy Spring! It's that time of year when THE PRODUCERS celebrate Springtime
with a certain Fuehrer, the Seven Brothers serenade the Seven Brides To Be with
a Spring, Spring, Spring song and lovesick teens heading to the STATE
FAIR sing It Might As Well Be Spring. On other stages, the city of Paris
is threatened with demolition by The Spring of Next Year in DEAR WORLD
while we learn that The Springtime Cometh in the flop musical FLAHOOLEY,
abetted by highly with Yip Harburg lyrics.
Keeping all this in mind, I decided to delve into Spring with a look at the
month of April, as seen on the Broadway stage.
Here goes...
The month of April has inspired many a showtune, like the optimistic April
Showers (Music by Louis Silvers, Lyrics by B. G. DeSylva) which was
introduced by Al Jolson in the 1921 musical BOMBO. Here's the ever cheerful
chorus:
Though April showers may come your way,
They bring the flowers that bloom in May.
So if it's raining, have no regrets,
Because it isn't raining rain, you know, (It's raining violets,)
And where you see clouds upon the hills,
You soon will see crowds of daffodils,
So keep on looking for a blue bird, And list'ning for his song,
Whenever April showers come along.
We've all heard the ubiquitous April in Paris, written by Vernon Duke
& E.Y. Harburg in 1932 for the musical WALK A LITTLE FASTER and featured in
films and TV shows ever since. This song proved the comic inspiration for the
humorous April In Fairbanks, sung by Jane Connell in NEW FACES OF 1956
and penned by Murray Grand. Less well known is April in Harrisburg,
written by composer Baldwin Bergersen and lyricist Virginia Faulkner for the 3
performance 1940 show ALL IN FUN. The 1963 Off Broadway musical UTOPIA! featured
a tune called April in Siberia, with music and lyrics by William Klenosky
while the one performance 1981 flop THE MOONEY SHAPIRO SONGBOOK, written by
composer Monty Norman and lyricist Julian More, featured a song called April
in Wisconsin, but only a handful of people made the trip.
In other April diversions, the musical WILDFLOWER featured a song called
April Blossoms, written by Herbert Stothart, later known for his orchestral
scores at MGM such as THE WIZARD OF OZ. The COPACABANA REVUE featured a song
called April Can't Do This To Me (Music: Irving Actman, Lyrics: Eddie
DeLange) a seeming companion piece to Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most,
the most famous tune to emerge from the initial version of THE NERVOUS SET
(Music by Tommy Wolf, Lyrics by Fran Landesman). Michael Valenti's score to the
short-lived 1976 Off-Broadway musical LOVESONG featured a song entitled April
Child (lyric by Kenneth Pressman) but only had a short 24 performance run.
The 1937 Broadway bound roadkill entitled SALUTE TO SPRING featured two
different April tunes before it closed out of town. This Frederick Loewe/Earle
Crooker flop had both Another Lovely April Day and April Day on
its way to Broadway. (Loewe would soon have another Spring titled flop with
soon-to-be partner Alan Jay Lerner entitled THE DAY BEFORE SPRING.)
The 1952 Ralph Blane musical THREE WISHES FOR JAMIE featured a tuned called
April Face while the song title April Fool was featured in two
musicals, the 1955 revue COME AS YOU ARE (Music: Arthur Siegel and Lyrics: June
Carroll) and the 1925 edition of THE GARRICK GAIETIES (Rodgers & Hart). Way back
in 1907 there was a tune called April Fool Ditty featured in the Broadway
bound musical THE LAND OF NOD, but it was cut in Cedar Rapids and never played
the 17 performance Broadway run.
In 1945, composer Sigmund Romberg and lyricist Dorothy Fields had a hit with UP
IN CENTRAL PARK, which featured a tune entitled April Snow. It ran over
500 performances and paid musical homage to Old New York. The highly anticipated
British import of 1969 was THE CANTERBURY TALES, raucously written by Composers
Richard Hill & John Hawkins and Lyricist Nevill Coghill. The show featured a
tune called April Song as well as the fair but fowl I Have A Noble
Cock! But the New York cast couldn't keep it alive, despite fine
performances by George Rose, Ed Evanko and Sandy Duncan.
A 1982 Off-Broadway show with a long title and teeny tiny run was THE DEATH OF
BARON VON RICHTHOFEN AS WITNESSED FROM EARTH, with both music and lyrics by Des
McAnuff, better known as a Director now. The show had a tune called April
Twenty One and not much more that's remembered today, despite a cast
featuring Bob Gunton, Mark Linn-Baker and Robert Westenberg.
As show titles go, there was a 1924 Broadway musical entitled PRINCESS APRIL,
which played 24 performances at the Ambassador Theater and was written by Monte
Carlo & Alma M. Sanders. And last but not least we have another show that died
on the road to Broadway in 1980, featuring the music of Mitch Leigh and lyricist
Sammy Cahn. It was entitled AN APRIL SONG, but never made it to New York.
This month's column is named for a song from the show CARMELINA, a flop musical
whose plot was largely borrowed for the megahit MAMMA MIA. In the number, the
Italian title character reminisces about three April dalliances with three
American GIs, one of whom fathered her now grown daughter. Of course she's not
sure who the father is, so complications arise. This short lived Burton
Lane/Alan Jay Lerner musical did produce a belated (mostly) original cast album,
but was not well received by critics or audiences and has been rarely produced,
despite some great tunes. Here's the complete lyric to our title tune,
Someone In April:
All alone. Seventeen.
The type that De Sica has in every scene.
A poor little sparrow in the human storm,
My hands with no other hands to keep them warm.
And then, in a way you couldn't plan,
I looked and saw a man,
And my life began
When…
Someone in April,
A stranger in April,
Said, could he come in for a while?
Somehow I knew from his smile
That he would be
Gentle with me.
Little by little my heart
Began to fill.
Soon we were never apart,
Until…
Someone in April,
One morning in April,
Before he went out of the door,
Said "Thank you for April,"
And I was all alone once more.
All alone. Just sixteen.
You'd think I was Mimi in the final scene.
I wept, I don't know, till almost four o'clock,
And then, very faintly, I heard someone knock.
"Come in," I suppose I must have said.
And when I turned my head,
All my sorrow fled,
For…
Someone in April
Was lonesome in April,
As lonesome and helpless as I.
Oh, but how bashful and shy!
Could I...? Could he...?
That is, could we...?
Holding him close for dear life,
I lived again.
Mother and sister and wife,
But then
One day in April,
My someone in April
Left roses with love at the door
That faded in April
And left me all alone once more.
All alone. Blue with cold.
My hands with no other hands for me to hold.
A child with a woman lurking in her breast,
A poor little pigeon in an empty nest,
And then out of nowhere I was blessed
With…
Someone in April,
My life became April
The moment he kneeled at my side.
Something about him implied
He hoped he might
Stay for the night.
Soon all the room in my heart
Was filled again.
Soon we were never apart,
But then
Someone in April
One evening in April
Went out to the neighborhood store,
Leaving the soup to get colder,
Leaving the wine to grow older,
Leaving me all alone once more.
Someone in April,
It had to be April,
That one little month I was with
Braddock, Karzinski and Smith.
It had to be
One of the three.
All of them came through the door
Like cavaliers.
One of them left me with more
Than tears.
Someone in April,
It happened in April
That one of those generous men
Made certain in April
I'd never be alone again.
