Customer Reviews

Oh Captain! (1958 Original Broadway Cast)

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4 star:		(2)
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I was lucky enough to have seen this extremely funny show on Broadway with the original cast. I have never understood why it was not a huge hit. The cast was magnificent!!! Tony Randall was absolutely perfect as the ship's captain who had a mousey wife in Londan and a sexy night club singer mistress in Paris (who yearns to be a normal house wife) played by the wonderful Abbe Lane. Due to her contract with RCA records she was unable to record her role in the cast album. Eileen Rodgers is a wonderful singer and does well by the songs, but is simply not Miss Lane.

One of the most delightful numbers in the show was one that can not be appreciated on a recording - the song (Hey Madam) is great, but it turned into a wonderful dance number featuring Mr. Randall and Prima Ballerina Alexandra Danilova.

A terrific young actress with a lovely voice, Jacquelyn McKeever, played the English wife. Unfortunately she only did one or two other shows and Broaday lost a wonderful leading lady.

Susan Johnson is a performer in a class by herself. When she walked on the stage, you forget everyone else and when she sang, she made Ethel Merman sound as if she was whispering. Her voice was also more melodic than Merman's. Again, she only did a few shows and should have been a major star.

There was one number featuring Abbe Lane singing one of her night club numbers ("Keep It Simple")with the male chorus dressed as monkeys that was so funny it was impossible to hear the lyrics as the audience was laughing too hard. On the recording, it is a good song, but anyone who saw the show has to remeber "monkeys".

This is an extremly melodic score and almost every number will stick in your mind. "All The Time" is one of the loveliest songs from almost any show hit or not.

This is one of my favorite "lost" shows along with "It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman" and "High Spirits". For sheer enjoyment it is a wonderful CD for any collection.

A hilarious concept for a show & wonderful songs by Livingston & Evans, that are alternately operetta-inspired & semi-raunchy. Tony Randall is delightful, and the divine Susan Johnson is superb, as always. This must have been
hot-stuff for 1958!

This show SHOULD have been a hit! It wasn't anything earth-shaking, but it had really good songs, wonderful performers, including the great Susan Johnson and it's just a pleasure to listen to. Adapted from the film The Captain's Paradise, Tony Randall has the title role here and has a really nice singing voice. Johnny Mathis had a hit with the tune All the Time --a beautiful song---and almost every number in this show is a winner! Check out Oh, Captain!

OH CAPTAIN! is a delightful musical with Tony Randall, the underrated belter Susan Johnson (DONNYBROOK!, THE MOST HAPPY FELLA), Jacquelyn McKeever (the television version of WONDERFUL TOWN), Edward Platt, Paul Valentine and Stanley Carlson.

However, the musical is still best-remembered for a dance number featuring Alexandra Danilova and Randall. The zippy score is from Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.

Standout numbers include Susan Johnson's delicious belt in "Give It All You Got/Love is Hell", and the lovely "You're So Right for Me".

Abbe Lane also starred as Bobo in the musical, but was signed to another label and couldn't record her role for the Columbia cast album. On disc the role is played by Eileen Rodgers (FIORELLO!, ANYTHING GOES), and Lane was later replaced on Broadway by Dorothy Lamour, making her Broadway debut. [DRG 19030]

1958 was a tough year at the Tony's. The Music Man won pretty much everything in the musical categories except best actress and best choreographer. Other runners up that year included West Side Story and New Girl in Town. So it may be logical that Oh Captain! faded into obscurity especially when Tony Randall (1920 - 2004) left the show after 192 performances. Logical, but quite a loss.

Oh Captain! is a musical version of the 1953 Alec Guinness film, "The Captain's Paradise." It's a workable plot. Captain Henry St. James has three paradises: his ship, his wife in Surrey, and his mistress in Paris. When his wife and mistress discover each other, they both leave him. Full of remorse, he gives his ship to his first mate and mistress, and his forgiving wife returns. This is, after all, the Eisenhower era.

Admittedly, the lyrics and rhymes are unsophisticated by Broadway standards. The first two lines of the first song set a relatively low standard for the rest of the show: "This is a very proper town it is. / One of the jewels of the crown it is."

There are some embarrassing struggles for rhyme: "We gave the world our tweet and the Churchill victory sign / The Jaguar, and the crumpet, and the Scotch of Ballantine." Ouch.

However, there are some successes:

"I'll visit churches, L'Opera Comique / I'll go on searches for things unique" or

"How can I enjoy the city if I wander on my own / Say, you're might pretty and you seem to be alone," or

"There's a word for you, you tainted saint / But as a lady of restraint / I can't tell you what that certain word is." or

"When you want a raise and you need the dough / And the boss looks up and he hollers, `No'! / When you tell him where to go, / Give it all you've got."

But the music is wonderful. Yes, Jay Livingston (1915 - 2001) is the same man who wrote "Buttons and Bows," "Que Sera Sera," "Mona Lisa," and - good grief - "Tammy," but he rises far above Hollywood for this show. There are light atmospheric numbers ("Surprise," "The Morning Music of Montmartre"), terrific comic numbers ("Femininity," "Give It All You've Got"), and rousing chorus songs ("Captain Henry St. James," "Life Does a Man a Favor When It Leads Him Down to the Sea"). But the ballads ("It's Never Quite the Same," "You Don't Know Him," "You're So Right for Me," "All the Time") absolutely soar.

(Interestingly, "Life Does a Man a Favor" is repeated, not reprised, twice in the show with different lyrics and also serves as the finale. The opening of "Three Paradises" returns in the second act as "All the Time." )

The cast is terrific. The Internet Movie Database quotes Tony Randall as saying, "I have a nice healthy tone, but it's not terribly musical. If beautiful voices are golden, mine is aluminum." What he may lack in tone he more than makes up for in these songs with the character and inflection of the smug captain. Jacquelyn McKeever (1934 -) was only 24 when she played the middle-aged Maud and has a lovely voice. Susan Johnson (1927 - 2003) belts "Give It All You Got" out of the park. Edward Platt (1916 -1974), yes the Chief in "Get Smart," actually trained for opera and was a vocalist with Paul Whiteman in the late `30's and early `40's. His is a great voice for the world-weary first mate. Eileen Rodgers (1930 - 2003) records Bobo and her earthy voice is perfect for the earthy role. Platt and Rodgers have a duet - what a pair of voices!

I saw this show when I was [...] and of course I don't remember it. But the family had the Columbia Original Broadway Cast album (mono only), and I've been humming these tunes in the shower every week now for almost 50 years. You will do the same.

Thank DRG for re-releasing this recording - and in stereo. But remember this is 1958 stereo: strings are fully left, brass is fully right, woodwinds and vocals are dead center. Otherwise, the remastering is a great success - it sounds as good as any current recording.

Now if only Jerry Zak ("Guys and Dolls") or Kathleen Marshall ("Pajama Game") would revive the show.

OH CAPTAIN! was a 192-performance failure in 1958 starring Tony Randall. The score by songwriters Jay Livingston and Ray Evans is tuneful while never demandingly memorable. The standout track is the lovely Act II opening "The Morning Music of Montmartre" sung caressingly by Susan Johnson.

Abbe Lane, then under contract to RCA Victor recorded her two solos as a single for that label. Columbia used Eileen Rogers as a fill in and she sounds just fine. (It would have been nice if DRG had included Lane's singles as bonus tracks but their agreement with SONY precludes adding any additional material to these releases.)

In the cast is an actor named Edward Platt. TV fans will know him as Maxwell Smart's long-suffering chief on the 60's sitcom GET SMART.

Columbia originally taped this album in mono and stereo. As was common at the time, the mono release came first but when the show folded after 8 months, the label elected not to release the stereo version on Lp (there was a 4-strack tape release.) It was not until 1977 when Columbia Special Products reissued the album that the stereo version was finally made available for record collectors. That Lp stayed around through the end of the vinyl era but now the score is available on CD (with the original LP synopsis by George B. Dale reprinted inside.)

While OH CAPTAIN may not be an essential cast album, at a $9.98 list price it makes for an affordable and enjoyable addition to any Broadway fan's collection of original cast discs.

I got this on vinyl about forty years ago, and have loved it. I was on the stage crew for the show at Stanford in 1962, and heard that we did better than Broadway. Our star was Lawrence Guittard, who has later starred as Curly in "Oklahoma!" on Broadway (CD available here at Amazon), and as the Captain in "Sound of Music".

Not a *great* show, but a very good one.

One of the greatest, forgotten Broadway scores ever. Wishing and hoping for someone to discover Oh Captain! and stage a revival.

Not a great musical, indeed. It might be interesting to collectors of old musicals but not interesting for the common people. The songs are quite conventional, forgetable and uninspired. I simply did not care much about it.