“The
Party’s Over”
Jule
Styne, Adolph Green and Betty Comden, Bells
Are Ringing, 1956
Performer:
Judy Holliday
Jule
Styne, Adolph Green and Betty Comden, Bells
Are Ringing,1956
Performer:
Doris Day, 1956
Jule
Styne, Adolph Green and Betty Comden, Bells
Are Ringing, 1956
Performer:
Nat King Cole
Jule
Styne, Adolph Green and Betty Comden, Bells
Are Ringing, 1956
Performer:
Johnny Matthis, 1960
Jule
Styne, Adolph Green and Betty Comden, Bells
Are Ringing, 1956
Performer:
Judy Garland, 1962
Jule
Styne, Adolph Green and Betty Comden, Bells
Are Ringing, 1956
Performers:
Mel Torme and July Garland from her 1963 TV show
Jule
Styne, Adolph Green and Betty Comden, Bells
Are Ringing, 1956
Performer:
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Jule
Styne, Adolph Green and Betty Comden, Bells
Are Ringing, 1956
Performer:
Shirley Bassey, 1976
Jule
Styne, Adolph Green and Betty Comden, Bells
Are Ringing, 1956
Performer:
Peggy Lee
I’ve
always been somewhat frustrated when people today call the Jule Styne, Betty
Comden, and Adolph Green 1956 musical, “old fashioned” and “out of date,” terms
abundantly used to describe its 2001 revival with Faith Prince and Marc
Kurdisch. Certainly this charmer of a work, about the great new technology of
the day, the telephone and answering services, might be easily be transformed
into a piece about meeting through cellphone or Facebook encounters! People
still want to find their mysterious callers or on-line admirers, that is at the
heart of Bells Are Ringing.
This musical was also about international
celebrity fashion and behavior, which seems to me as current today as it was
back in 1956. So, what’s the problem? Somebody simply needs to imagine an
marvelously updated version, that re-contexualizes its wonderful songs. Maybe
not “bells,” but “ring signals” and “emojis.”
Certainly songs such as “It’s a Perfect
Relationship” is even more appropriate to today’s on-line Facebook and
Instagram relationships; and “Drop That Name” just needs a little dusting off.
Judy Holliday’s plaintive plea should
become a standard of the musical theater genre itself—even though her
relationship with pretty-boy Sydney Chaplin does end happily; he wants her all
to himself!
The
party's over
It's
time to call it a day
They've
burst your
Pretty
balloon
And
taken the moon away
It's
time to wind up
The
masquerade
Just
make your mind up
The
piper must be paid
The
party's over
The
candles flicker and dim
You
danced and dreamed
Through
the night
It
seemed to be right
Just
being with him
Now
you must wake up
All
dreams must end
Take
off your makeup
The
party's over
It's
all over
My
friend
Holliday sings the song, sung to herself,
so brilliantly that she might have, metaphorically speaking, “owned it,” until
hundreds of other brilliant interpreters came along, including several male
ones. What I find utterly fascinating is that Nat King Cole and Johnny Mathis
sang it as it was originally written, keeping the male “him” and talking about
taking off “your makeup.” Singing with Garland, Mel Tormé (on matching
motorcycles) pretended they were at the end of an all-night spree on New
Year’s. Eve, in which the “he” became “we.” Sammy Davis, Jr., on the other hand,
determined, given his macho “Rat Pack” identification, to turn the male
designation to “her” and muttered over the “makeup” line.
So many brilliant women singers,
including Doris Day, Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey, and Peggy Lee, reinterpreted
the work to fit their own vocalist stylings. And who might blame them given the
simple beauty of its music and lyrics.
Old-fashioned? Well, if such great songs
are out of fashion, I’m terrified for the fact.
Los Angeles,
August 30, 2017
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