Gershwin–Funny Face, How Long Has This been going on, A. Hepburn

Last week we listened to the seventh and last song from Act Two of the Gershwin show, Funny Face. However, it is not the last song written for the show. Today we are going to discuss a song written for Funny Face but never used in the show. This song was bumped from the show to make a spot for “My One and Only.” It was eventually placed in the 1928 show, Rosalie.

The song is exquisite, can be sung in any number of tempo’s and tears at our emotions. It is a shame that it never had a spot in a properly constructed musical play. But that is a subject for another time.

The song was returned to the 1957 movie, Funny Face, and is more spoken than sung by Audrey Hepburn. No one will ever accuse her of having a good singing voice; nevertheless, she was able to convey such tender emotion in that facile face of hers that we feel the song very keenly. When she tells us that she could “cry salty tears,” we believe her and want to run to her rescue. This is the secret of any musical–engaging the audience and getting the audience to root for one or both protagonists.

We are going to present four versions of the song, sung by Audrey in the movie, Judy Garland in a live 1961 performance at Carnegie Hall, Rosemary Clooney and Sarah Vaughan.

Here is the video clip of Audrey from the movie.