Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon–Part Three

As we mentioned in the last post, we have often discussed the work of Lerner and Loewe in previous posts; but, as we look back, the comments were fragmented over many posts. We thought it would be best to go back and look again, this time in a unified manner, much like we did for Annie Get Your Gun, The Band Wagon and Kiss Me, Kate.  Please click on the following link to learn more about Lerner and Loewe’s first great hit, Brigadoon, with singing by Rebecca Luker, Frank Porretta and Susan Johnson.

Brigadoon opened on Broadway in 1947 and was turned into a movie and released in 1954, with a wonderful cast that included Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse. It has become an icon of the musical movie heritage from MGM; however, from the standpoint of our Broadway heritage, we will rely heavily on the John McGlinn restoration recording in 1992 and the Cassidy/Jones studio recording from 1957. While these are audio only, we think they will provide great listening pleasure.

In the musical Brigadoon, two Americans, Tommy and Jeff, are lost in Scotland and stumble on the “lost” town of Brigadoon. As they wander through the town, they are surprised by the ancient styles of the clothing and the friendliness of the people. Tommy falls in love with a girl in the town, named Fiona, but decides at the end of the day that he is not prepared to give up his life in New York to stay with Fiona in Brigadoon.

However, once Tommy returns to New York, he finds his life and the lives around him to be inconsequential and without meaning. He packs his bags and drags Jeff back to the spot in the forest where they got lost. Of course, nothing is there. Jeff can’t believe the village ever existing, while Tommy discovered something: he found that sometimes “what you believe in becomes more real to you than all the things you can explain away or understand. God! Why do people have to lose things to find out what they really mean?”

Of course, the musical doesn’t end here, for Tommy’s love of Fiona is so strong that it wakes up Mr. Lundie from his sleep; the chorus starts to sing Brigadoon; and Tommy is welcomed back to Brigadoon, where he crosses over the bridge into the eternal mist.

In the last post we started the music from Act One, Scene 2; it included “Down on MacConnachy Square,” “Waitin’ for My Dearie” and “I’ll Go Home with Bonnie Jean.” In this post, we start with the budding romance between Tommy and Fiona. He admits that he is not madly in love with his fiance at home and begs Fiona to let him come to gather heather for the wedding that night. We pick up with the McGlinn recording clip No. 2 (15 minutes) and which covers the songs: “The Heather on the Hill,” “Jeannie’s Packin’ Up” and “Come to Me, Bend to Me” (both the song and the gorgeous instrumental dance).

“The Heather on the Hill” (sung beautifully by Brent Barrett and Rebecca Luker in the McGlinn recording) ends the music for Scene 2. We would like to provide the duet from the movie but we can only find the dance; so, we are going to provide Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones, singing “The Heather on the Hill.”

We cannot control the McGlinn clip, but it jumps over Scene 3 to the music from Scene 4, leaving out the the rollicking song in Scene 3 by Meg Brockie, entitled “The Love of My Life.” We happen to be very, very partial to the Susan Johnson version from the 1957 Cassidy/Jones studio recording.

In Scene 4, the women’s chorus sings “Jeannie’s Packin’ Up” but are interrupted when Charlie comes by. He cannot see her on her wedding day, but he can serenade her. He does so with one of the most beautiful lyric, tenor songs, “Come to Me, Bend to Me.” We have already included the version from the McGlinn recording, but we have two more to share with you. The first is an outtake from the 1954 movie that was never seen.

The second is the Frank Porretta version from the 1957 Cassidy/Jones studio recording.

Stay with us, because we are about to present the last set of songs.