Loewe: Camelot - original Broadway cast

Perhaps there's something to be said for more circumspect times. Today, all tabus are virtually gone, despite the misapplied and misguided efforts of those (screaming banshees called) extreme right-wing conservatives. Truly, when nearly anything and everything, no matter how outrageous and crass, can be sung or spoken or presented on the stage, where's the need for imagination and resourcefulness, clever lyrics and naughty innuendo in today's plays?
...and lyrics were written by American lyricist Alan Jay Lerner. Unlike the bland texts of such hits as 'Phantom of the Opera,' 'Miss Saigon,' 'Jesus Christ, Superstar' and their kin, 'Camelot' virtually oozes sly and happy and not-so-happy wit through every phrase. Anyone still remember what comprised genuine wit-the kind which one rarely hears on the stage these days? But back to the irony of my premise: yet why is there still so much mediocrity in ... more

Perhaps there's something to be said for more circumspect times. Today, all tabus are virtually gone, despite the misapplied and misguided efforts of those (screaming banshees called) extreme right-wing conservatives. Truly, when nearly anything and everything, no matter how outrageous and crass, can be sung or spoken or presented on the stage, where's the need for imagination and resourcefulness, clever lyrics and naughty innuendo in today's plays?

Which brings me to 'Camelot,' whose book and lyrics were written by American lyricist Alan Jay Lerner. Unlike the bland texts of such hits as 'Phantom of the Opera,' 'Miss Saigon,' 'Jesus Christ, Superstar' and their kin, 'Camelot' virtually oozes sly and happy and not-so-happy wit through every phrase. Anyone still remember what comprised genuine wit-the kind which one rarely hears on the stage these days? But back to the irony of my premise: yet why is there still so much mediocrity in the lyrics to so many plays today, despite the lifting of many bans on artistic licence?

As for 'Camelot,' I find its strength to reside largely in its words. At times I wonder if Mr Lerner may have taken his cue from one of the greatest writers in the English language, George Bernard Shaw himself, perhaps influenced by his earlier work on the musical version of Shaw's 'Pygmalion,' known the world over as 'My Fair Lady.'

Like all good musical theatre, the songs also give insight into the characters, besides advancing the plot. 'Camelot' was based on T. H. White's wonderful novel on the legend of King Arthur, 'The Once and Future King,' which in turn drew upon Sir Thomas Malory's 'Le Morte D'Arthur' written some 500 years ago. The musical covers the shattering of the utopian kingdom (a very small one, really) of Camelot, destroyed by utterly human frailty, nothing more. The doomed romantic triangle comprise King Arthur, Queen Guenevere and Sir Lancelot du Lac, respectively played in the original Broadway production by Richard Burton, Julie Andrews (fresh from her success in 'My Fair Lady') and Robert Goulet. This recording dates from 1960, and while times have changed since then, the musical today still charms and pleases.

The characters.

King Arthur.

At the beginning we meet the lighter side of King Arthur, a man who is supposed to be a courageous knight. His royal knees 'banging together,' he goes to his wedding 'terrified with fright,' a medieval case of prenuptial nerves in 'I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight.' He adores Guenevere, and hopes he does right by her in love, when he sings the elegant yet sentimental, 'How to Handle a Woman.'

''How to handle a woman?
Mark me well, I will tell you, sir.
The way to handle a woman is to love her,
Simply love her, merely love her, love her, love her.''

Arthur, poor fellow, is the idealist in all this, caught between a friend and a wife, both of whom he loves dearly, and who have now painfully betrayed his trust. After he learns of the illicit love affair, he is obliged to follow his own rules on the matter and sentence his own wife to the stake. At the same time, he also hopes she is snatched away to safety in the nick of time by Sir Lancelot.

Yet Arthur's gesture at the tale's end speaks highly of his magnanimity, even in defeat. In the finale, the 'Camelot Reprise' will break your heart with Arthur's palpable sadness at how things have gone so horribly wrong in the end, leaving his kingdom in tatters, his queen gone, with his best knight, too. The sun has now set upon Camelot, a place once known to be perfect for 'happ'ly-ever-aftering.'

Guenevere.

When we first meet Guenevere, she is a petulant and mischievous young lass. She expresses her mixed feelings of defiance and supplication towards her patron saint, Genevieve, in 'The Simple Joys of Maidenhood,' when she is about to be wed, apparently against her will, to King Arthur. She complains about not having had these 'joys' before marriage, fun little things that are her birthright for being a princess and all, and wonders if 'these sweet, gentle pleasures [are] gone for good?' To which 'harmless, convivial joys,' exactly, does she refer, you ask? For starters, Guenevere queries her patron saint,

'Shan't I have the normal life a maiden should?
Shall I never be rescued in the wood?
Shall two knights never tilt for me?
And let their blood be spilt for me?
Oh, where are a maiden's simple joys?'

Still in the sunny days of Camelot, Guenevere enthusiastically leads the celebration of springtime in the bold, brash, gay (in the old sense of the word) and occasionally risqué 'The Lusty Month of May.' It's the month 'for every frivolous whim/ Proper or im-!' as a certain perfume wafts through the air. What is it? Just 'that dear forbidden fruit!'

Her slyness comes forth on 'Then You May Take Me to the Fair,' wherein she aims cannily for the wounded pride of three knights in persuading them to challenge and best the newly arrived French braggadocio, Sir Lancelot du Lac. When she asks Sir Sagramore about inviting the Frenchman instead of him to sit beside her at the next ball, he exclaims,

'I beg of you ma'am withhold your invitation,
I swear to you this challenge will be met!
And when I have finished up the operation,
I'll serve him to Your Highness au brochette!

Guenevere: 'You'll pierce right through him?'

Sir Sagramore: 'I'll barbecue him!'

G: 'A wicked thrust?'

SS: ''Twill be dust to dust!'

G: 'From fore to aft?'

SS: 'He'll feel a draft!'

Sir Lancelot.

One thing's for sure: when he comes to Camelot to serve at the Round Table, the fine knight from France does not lack for confidence. He boasts shamelessly of his heroic exploits in the gleefully, guilelessly proud 'C'est Moi,' introduced by rousing trumpet fanfare. Lancelot holds forth on the qualities of a Knight of the Round Table:

'No matter the pain he ought to be unwinceable!
Impossible deeds should be his daily fare.
But where in the world is there in the world
A man so extr'ordinaire?'

His prompt and simple answer: 'C'est moi!'-'It is I!' How can such humility not endear the man to anyone?

He unwittingly foretells of Camelot's future downfall when claiming that he can resist 'the ways of the flesh' and

'If I'd been made the partner of Eve,
We'd be in Eden still!'

Famous last words, eh? Lancelot's purity of thought and deed will not last long in Camelot even as he flees the object of his desire for two years only to find that he, like so many others, is not spared the 'allure of the flesh.' On his return, he finally succumbs to the temptation presented by his good friend Arthur's beautiful queen. Love, or perhaps, lust, will win the day and shatter a marriage, destroy a friendship, and bring the once blissfully happy kingdom to rack and ruin.

Mordred.

Although his role is small, Arthur's sinister illegitimate son Mordred will put into motion events that will precipitate the ultimate collapse of Camelot. He makes no apologies for being a blackguard in 'The Seven Deadly Virtues,' which he says 'were made for other chaps who love a life of failure and ennui.'

'Take courage: now there's a sport!
An invitation to the state of rigor mort!
…

I find humility means to be hurt.
It's not the earth the meek inherit-
It's the dirt!'

When I first heard this album as a kid of seven, I found this wicked, wicked ditty of Mordred to be my secret favorite of all the songs. Ah, the innocence of childhood!

Nimue.

Finally, the nymph, Nimue, sings just one song, the dreamy 'Follow Me.' It's meant to lure Merlin (Arthur's mentor and teacher) away from his lair. I still fail to see why many have found this tune to be an odd man out amid the rest of the tracks. It evokes a faraway land with its hypnotic harp, and properly enhances the scene as seen in my mind.

The cast.

It's the rare and happy convergence of momentous talent that makes this version of 'Camelot' great musical theatre.

As King Arthur, Richard Burton is in very fine form. His sonorous Shakespearean speaking voice translates well to singing, with an occasional Henry Higgins-like speech-song. I have only the songs here by which to judge his performance, but I'll wager that his Arthur was kingly ('Camelot') yet kind ('How to Handle a Woman') and human ('I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight.') His obvious virility notwithstanding, Mr Burton can bring one to the brink of tears when he sings wistfully of the old Camelot at the Reprise of the title track.

Like the great performer that she is, Julie Andrews makes singing Frederick Loewe's music and Alan Jay Lerner's words seem as effortless as breathing. She is in full command of that pristine, sparkling vocal: her five-octave voice is fluid and flexible as a rubber band, her enunciation agile and flawless as an Olympic gymnast. Her distinctive phrasing matches Mr Lerner's very wordy songs. Once more she carries the heaviest load, singing six of the 14 vocal tracks (exclusive of orchestral and choral pieces). Ms Andrews was the darling of Broadway then, and it makes you wonder how her vocal cords held up during those murderous 8 performances per week on Broadway. (The opera singer Maria Callas was astounded to learn of this and once asked Ms Andrews how she could do all that singing all the time, since she herself could hack no more than two gigs a week.) Be that as it may, Ms Andrews is given very little to emote with on her songs other than the tinge of regret in 'I Loved You Once in Silence.'

Robert Goulet's beautifully rich baritone is showy and majestic but well-suited to the role of egotistical Sir Lancelot. Mr Goulet's casting as the French knight was a major coup for Mssrs Lerner and Loewe, and a grand debut for the Canadian lad with the hunky good looks and a real baritone to go with it! The self-mocking seriousness of 'C'est Moi!' and the knight-in-shining-armor who's madly in love in 'If Ever I Would Leave You' might be a tad heavy-going for some, but the nuance in Mr Goulet's renditions remains true to Lancelot's constant self-absorption.

Finally, Roddy MacDowall's sharp and reedy vocal and speech-singing does excellently for the ill-intentioned Mordred. His flat delivery rightly emphasizes Mordred's uncaring, nonchalant and reckless nature.

The music.

Frederick Loewe's score for this play has some inspired moments, but his 'Camelot' does not equal his 'My Fair Lady' in freshness and invention. Ludwig van Beethoven gets a nod in the first few bars of Guenevere's rueful 'I Loved You Once in Silence' and it doesn't surprise me that this track is one that I cherish. Of course, Mr Loewe fleshed out the rest of it on his own, but the inspirational source explains a lot. Treading nearly the same rut as 'I Loved You…' is the dark track, 'Guenevere,' sung by the company in a slightly modified metre. 'Guenevere,' it seems, was a song describing events offstage (that is, Lancelot's rescue of Guenevere from the flames) and tossed in during one of the play's many rewrites in an attempt to shorten the overly long, three-hour running time.

The blissful life in pre-Lancelot days is evoked by the lively and cheerful 'Camelot,' 'The Lusty Month of May' and 'The Simple Joys of Maidenhood,' songs that lend themselves to sing-along fun, due largely to the delightfully wicked lyrics. A grayer mood pervades the already mentioned 'I Loved You Once in Silence' and the frightening, almost vicious 'Fie on Goodness!' sung by the knights who by then have had enough of Camelot's call for virtue and duty above all.

Of course, Mr Goulet's unabashedly romantic 'If Ever I Would Leave You' would go on to become a pop hit. I find it too musically facile to bear repeat listenings, and often skip the track. The same problem plagues Arthur and Guenevere's later duet, 'What Do the Simple Folk Do?' in which they wonder how non-royals deal with marital ennui such as theirs. It's deceptively lighthearted in tone, ends on a sombre note, and suggests the beginning of the end for Arthur and Guenevere.

My fondness for 'Camelot,' especially this original Broadway cast recording, may stem from my childhood exposure to it. Having now understood many of the situations portrayed in the play, I've come to appreciate the plot more. Yet, I've grown more critical of the music, too, beautiful as some of it remains. The spare and skeletal orchestrations serve only to shadow the singing lines, without offering any interesting emotional or musical counterpoint in the harmony, unlike the music of that towering genius on Broadway, Richard Rodgers ('The Sound of Music,' 'Carousel,' etc.).

My final assessment is limited by the fact that I've yet to see the musical on the stage (I haven't seen the maligned screen version since it aired on teevee decades ago and may rent it out of sheer curiosity.). On its own, this recording has some true gems to recommend it, boasts some very pretty and polished singing and dryly witty lyrics, and is excellent introductory material to American musical theatre. It's a must, of course, for any fans of Mr Burton, Ms Andrews, Mr Goulet, Mr Lerner, Mr Loewe, and perhaps of Arthurian legend.

………………………..

'Each evening from December to December,
Before you drift to sleep upon your cot,
Think back of all the tales that you remember of Camelot.

Ask every person if he's heard the story
And tell it strong and clear if he has not
That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory called Camelot.
…

Where once it never rained till after sundown.
By 8 am the morning fog had flown.
Don't let it be forgot.
That once there was a spot,
For one brief shining moment
That was known as Camelot.'

…………………………

Track List:
1 Overture
2 March
3 I Wonder What the King Is Doing Tonight - Richard Burton
4 Simple Joys of Maidenhood - Julie Andrews
5 Camelot - Richard Burton
6 Follow Me - Mary Sue Berry
7 C'est Moi - Robert Goulet
8 Lusty Month of May - Julie Andrews
9 Then You May Take Me to the Fair - Julie Andrews
10 How to Handle a Woman - Richard Burton
11 Before I Gaze at You Again - Julie Andrews
12 If Ever I Would Leave You - Robert Goulet
13 Seven Deadly Virtues - Roddy McDowall
14 What Do the Simple Folk Do? - Richard Burton
15 Fie on Goodness
16 I Loved You Once in Silence - Julie Andrews
17 Guenevere
18 Finale Ultimo (Camelot Reprise) - Richard Burton

NOTE : The CD can be had for GBP 10.99 on amazon.co.uk. Please copy and paste:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000007OHW/qid=1114150166/sr=8-3/ref=pd_ka_2/026-4776807-3939644 

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