Kern–Sunny, Vocal gems 1926
Unfortunately, we have covered all of the great songs from The Vagabond King; and so we must move on to the next show. Keep in mind that we have studied No, No, Nanette, which opened on Broadway on September 16, 1925; then Dearest Enemy, which opened two nights later on September 18th; The Vagabond King, which opened on September 21st; and finally Sunny, a Jerome Kern show which opened one night later on the 22d.
Looking at Sunny, it appears on the surface to be a throwback to the early Kern shows with Guy Bolton and PG Wodehouse. However, it was both better and worse. It was better in the sense that there were real characters on the stage who faced serious personal decisions; it was worse because any coherent story had to be thrown away in order to accommodate the specialties of the cast.
Charles Dillingham, who had been a top critic before turning producer, signed Cliff Edwards, also known as Ukulele Ike; his contract called for his specialty to be performed between 10 and 10:15pm. The show’s star, Marilyn Miller, had to have her dance specialty interpolated into the show. In fact, specialty acts had to be added to satisfy Jack Donahue, the dance team of Clifton Webb and Mary Hay, the comedian Joseph Cawthorne, the comedienne Esther Howard and Paul Frawley, the leading juvenile.
Probably, the one thing that came out of this show that had true lasting value was the friendship that developed between Kern and his librettist/lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein II. The credits include Otto Harbach, but Harbach was busy on another project, so Hammerstein had to handle Sunny on his own. Kern and Hammerstein found out that they both felt that the action of the show and the music ought to spring out of the characters in the show and that contrivances should be avoided. This professional collaboration on Sunny led to many more shows between the two men, including the incredible Show Boat, on which they started to work about one year later.
Our first clip is taken from the RCA vocal gems recorded in 1926. Most of the time, the postings on youtube do not indicate the names of the performers. In this case, we are lucky, as the entire company is listed. You may recall, from previous recordings, the work of Richard Crooks and Franklyn Baur.
The numbers from the show are “Sunny,” which came in the second scene of Act One; “Two Little Bluebirds” from Scene 6, sung originally by Webb and Hay; “Do You Love Me,” which came earlier in Scene 4; and finally, “Who,” which came back in Scene 2 with “Sunny.”
“Sunny” from Sunny plus “Two Little Bluebirds” “Do You Love Me” “Who”
3 Feb 1926; Take 9: Victor Light Opera Company. Della Baker (sop), Emily Stokes Hagar (sop), Olive Kline (sop), Lucy Isabelle Marsh (sop), Elsie Baker (contr), Rose Bryant (contr), Helen Clark (sop), Franklyn Baur (tenor), Lewis James (ten), Royal Dadmun (bar), Elliott Shaw (bar), Wilfred Glenn (bass), Fred Patton (bass), Carl Mathieu (ten), Richard Crooks (ten), Millholland {?} (con), Rosario Bourdon (dir).