Rodgers–Dearest Enemy, Overture from Brophy

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We are ready to tackle the second major show in September 1925. It was the first major musical from the newcomers, Richard Rodgers and Larry Hart. On May 17, they had launched their careers on Broadway with the revue, The Garrick Gaieties. We listened to the first of their many hit songs, “Manhattan,” just a few weeks ago. Now they worked with Herb Fields to create a book musical, called Dearest Enemy. It had a long and winding route to get to Broadway, but it finally did open on September 18, just two days after the premiere of No, No, Nanette; and it ran for 286 performances.

The score for Dearest Enemy was not a typical Rodgers and Hart score; the show was based on an event that allegedly occurred during the revolutionary war on Manhattan Island. Thus, the score may have been modeled to match the music of the invading British. It has been said by more than one reviewer that Rodgers created a score that was very similar to a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.

The show’s libretto was loosely based upon the legend that a colonial woman, Mrs. Murray, entertained the invading British army’s top General and by doing so permitted General Putnam to escape capture. The facts are really quite different. Here is a draft of liner notes that I wrote a few years ago for our restoration recording of Dearest Enemy for the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization. As a side note, I wrote the liner notes with my colleague, Larry Moore, under my Irish Pen Name, Sean “O’Donoghue, in honor of my dear friends Nancy and Joseph O’Donoghue.

Now, let’s look at historical fact.

George Washington chose to fight on the flat plains of Long Island, rather than from his vantage point on Brooklyn Heights. By doing so, he surrendered a superior position and engaged the British Army on August 25, 1776 on terrain that favored the British regulars. In the defeat that followed, Washington’s men retreated back to Brooklyn Heights. For some reason, the British forces did not advance for a number of days, perhaps to give their fleet time to establish positions around Brooklyn. Fearful of being cut off from reinforcements by the British fleet, Washington chose to retreat. He turned to sailors, John Glover and Israel Hutchinson; and, with the combination of skill, weather and divine intervention, Washington’s troops escaped by boat to Manhattan during the night of August 29, 1776.

As the Hessian Major Baurmeister noted in his dispatch: “We had no knowledge of this [move] until four o’clock in the morning of the 30th.” Then, in error, he estimated that: “The entire American army has fled to New England, evacuating New York…”

This opinion was reinforced by Tory spies, who told British General Howe, in charge of the British forces, that the entire American force was well north of 59th Street.

In fact, on August 29th, the American forces were stretched from the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan to King’s Bridge in the north. Feeling no sense of urgency, Howe moved cautiously from Long Island.

On September 15, 1776, barges filled with British troops were ferried from Long Island, while the fleet bombarded the shore from the East 20’s to the East 40’s. The British troops landed on East 34th Street and were initially opposed by American militiamen; but within moments, the Americans scattered and ran northwest for the shelter of Harlem Heights, where the bulk of the American forces were massed. The attackers pushed as far north as East 42nd Street and then halted. More troops followed and soon Generals Howe, Clinton and Cornwallis were installed at the Murray house. He rested most of his men in the meadows that stretched south from the present day Grand Central Station.

Unbeknownst to Howe, Generals Putnam and Knox were just starting to evacuate the Battery (the southern tip of Manhattan) on September 15th with 4,000 troops and mounds of priceless ordnance and supplies, guided by Aaron Burr. Luckily for them, they were taking the western approach to Harlem Heights, known as the Bloomingdale Road. They were west of a rolling, wooded area, known today as Central Park.

On the eastern boundary of the woods was the Boston Post Road, and bright red British soldiers were marching smartly north on this approach at the same time. Neither the Americans nor the British knew of the other, separately as they were by Central Park. But, if the marching soldiers were unaware of the two columns marching north, the American lookouts on their high posts were not. Starring in disbelief, they were able to see both forces moving north.

Luck smiled for the second time on the American forces, as Burr, Putnam and Knox made it safely to the American lines. With nightfall coming and a major, physical hurdle to get over, the British troops halted just before McGowan’s Pass on the eastern side of the Heights. As he had done on Long Island, after his massive victory, Howe waited until morning to press his attack.

This proved to be a major error, for in the early hours before dawn on the 16th of September, Lt. Col. Thomas Knowlton, a veteran of Breed’s Hill victory against the British, took 100 of his Connecticut Rangers and engaged the British infantry, standing their ground with British regulars in the open field, until they heard the sound of approaching bagpipes. Carefully, the Rangers broke off the fight and retreated in an orderly fashion. The British infantry followed, sure that the Americans were taking flight once again. As they moved forward without regard for their safety, the British were met by a number of attacking American forces: Nixon’s Massachusetts brigade, the 3d Virginia riflemen, Beall’s Maryland militia, and finally the same militia who had run for their lives the day before. As young Tench Tilghman of Pennsylvania wrote: “The pursuit of a flying enemy was so new a scene that it was with difficulty that our men could be brought to retire.”

Washington had had his small victory, had given his troops hope and then had called them back to fight another day. (The American Heritage Book of The Revolution, pp178-185; American Heritage Publishing Company, 1958.)

In Manhattan, there is a plaque at the corner of Park Avenue and 37th Street, erected by the Mary Murray Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and commemorating Mary Lindley Murray:

This tablet marks the geographic center of the farm known in revolutionary days as “Inclenberg,” owned by Robert Murray whose wife, Mary Lindley Murray (1726-1782), rendered signal service in the Revolutionary War.

The myth associated with Mrs. Murray is that she delayed Howe at Inclenberg, giving Putnam his chance to escape capture. While the actions of Mrs. Murray were no doubt commendable, Gen. Putnam was already heading north on the Bloomingdale Road at the time of Mrs. Murray’s tea party and a goodly number of Gen. Howe’s troops were heading north as well. It is fortunate for America that the columns of troops were on opposite sides of Central Park.

Let’s start our exploration of the score with the Overture. It was recorded in Dublin by David Brophy and will give you a feel for the music written for the show.