Gershwin–OK, Tommy Krasker, Act II, Sc 1
This is Monday; football is mostly over; another work week has started for those of us still working. I think I still work because it is the only way I know which day of the week it is. In a sense, I do better at staying awake when I am facing deadlines.
Today, we are going to wrap up the last three numbers from Gershwin’s Broadway success, Oh, Kay! I know that our postings have not featured lots of hit tunes; and we understand that we have not received the number of likes or loves or shares that we think this musical deserves. But we get it.
This show does not contain a list of great Gershwin tunes; it is a very pleasing score with one great song (“Someone to Watch Over Me”) and a lot of very good, sturdy numbers that would do better on stage than in a series of posts.
On the other hand, we also need to put this musical in some sort of perspective for you. George Gershwin would go on to write the brilliant symphonic piece, An American in Paris, in 1928, a glorious score for Girl Crazy in 1930 and one of the great operas, Porgy and Bess, in 1935. By 1937, Gershwin was dead, and his musical compositions were placed in archives.
For this reason, when there is a very good Gershwin score, such as the one for Oh, Kay!, we tend to over-emphasize it. We don’t feel the same way about the scores for Strike Up the Band, Funny Face or Treasure Girl. The overall quality of the music in those shows is not up to the standard produced in Oh, Kay!
And our posts stay on this page for as long as FB permits us to keep it here, giving you a chance to go back and replay songs. It is our hope that they will become more familiar over time, and you will greet them as old friends. At least we hope so.
Another reason why we are spending a great deal of time on Oh, Kay! is the fact that Tommy Krasker spent a lot of time and effort putting together this restoration recording. Trust us, pulling everything together is not easy. As Howard Pollack stated in his biography of George Gershwin, “unlike some other Roxbury cast albums, [Oh, Kay!] could not feature the original orchestrations (as hardly any survived)…” However, Pollack went on to note that this recording “proved nevertheless the best and most faithful recording of the show to date, with Upshaw delivering a particularly fine performance as Lady Kay.”
We should be very grateful to Tommy and his restoration; he is currently the driving force behind PS Classics.
Onward.
Kay has decided that she cannot permit Jimmy to marry Constance, a woman he does not love, and so persuades Shorty to impersonate a revenue officer and arrest Jimmy. Shorty plays the role well enough to convince Constance to abandon Jimmy and the nuptials; Porter rushes in to seize the contraband in the basement, and Kay winds up with Jimmy. All of this is contained in the Finaletto at the end of Act II, Scene 1.