Greenwillow (1960 Original Broadway Cast) [Cast Recording]

Bruce MacKay, Anthony Perkins, Dortha Duckworth, Lee Cass, William Chapman, Grover Dale, Frank Loesser | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 23, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Cast Recording
• Label: Drg
• ASIN: B000000PIL
• Also Available in: Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #161,938 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Overture/A Day Borrowed From Heaven - Orchestra

2. The Music of Home - Ensemble/Anthony Perkins

3. Dorrie's Wish/Gideon Briggs, I Love You - Bruce Mackay, Anthony Perkins, Chorus

4. Summertime Love - Anthony Perkins, Ellen McCown

5. Greenwillow Walk - Orchestra

6. Walking Away Whistling - ellen McCown

7. The Sermon - Cecil Kellaway, William Chapman

8. Greenwillow Christmas (Carol) - Chorus

9. Could've Been A Ring - Pert Kelton, Lee Cass

10. Never Will I Marry - Anthony Perkins

11. Faraway Boy - ellen McCown

12. Clang Dang the Bell - Anthony Perkins, Pert Kelton, Lynn Brinker, Jan Tucker, Brenda Harris, John Megna

13. What A Blessing - Cecil Kellaway

14. He Died Good - The Villagers

15. Summertime Love (Reprise) - Entire Company

16. Finale - Entire Company

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Greenwillow is a little-known Frank Loesser gem in the Broadway bucolic mode, a genre that includes his own Most Happy Fella, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma, and Lerner and Loewe's Brigadoon. This recording has become something of a cult classic, perhaps because it stars Anthony Perkins (yes, the Psycho guy) in the lead role of Gideon Briggs. Perkins has a light but pleasant tenor that he uses to great effect, especially on his haunting solo "Never Will I Marry." Greenwillow has a lovely score with some particularly fine ensemble singing. This is a surprisingly subtle show that is sometimes dismissed by critics as a bit of pastoral fluff, but if you listen to it carefully you will discover that it is one of Loesser's finest works. --Michael Simmons

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FRANK LOESSER'S LYRICAL, POETIC GEM . . . ., September 16, 2006

By 

J. T Waldmann "yaakov98" (Carmel, IN, home to the fabulous new Regional Performing Arts Center.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Greenwillow (1960 Original Broadway Cast) (Audio CD)

To be honest, I've long avoided GREENWILLOW, partially because I was apprehensive about hearing Tony Perkins sing, but mostly because it was the great Frank Loesser's only Broadway failure. Obviously - so I surmised - the score wasn't up to the standards of WHERE'S CHARLEY?, GUYS & DOLLS, THE MOST HAPPY FELLA, and HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS. How wrong I was.

Loesser's score for GREENWILLOW is a major achievement, weaving lovely ballads like "Summertime Love" (recorded by the likes of Eddie Fisher, Harry Belafonte, Bud & Travis), "Never Will I Marry" (Linda Ronstadt & Barbra Streisand, to name a few), and "Faraway Boy" with clever novelty numbers like "Could've Been a Ring," "The Sermon," and "Clang Dang the Bell (Baptism of a Calf)" and the pastoral "The Music of Home." Loesser also takes a stab or two at organized religion with "He Died Good" and "What a Blessing," sung by the Rev. Birdsong (Cecil Kellaway): "What a blessing to know there's a devil, and that I'm but a pawn in his game/That my impulse to sin doesn't come from within, and so I'm not entirely to blame."

Based on the popular novel by B.J. Chute, GREENWILLOW is a ". . . lyrical and poetic fable . . . [that] tells of the romance between young Gideon Briggs, who walks in the shadow of a family curse and vows never to marry, and Dorrie, the orphan girl he loves." (Amazon.com's Book Description) If the whimsical town of Greenwillow reminds you of BRIGADOON or the folk-like melodies recall THREE WISHES FOR JAMIE or FINIAN`S RAINBOW, what the heck. All I can say is that GREENWILLOW is a true original and, next to MOST HAPPY FELLA, Loesser's finest score.

Ellen McCown (SEVENTEEN) is a delightfully sweet Dorrie; William Chapman (CANDIDE) an operatic Rev. Lapp; Pert Kelton (THE MUSIC MAN) a hilarious Gramma Briggs; Lee Cass (THE MOST HAPPY FELLA) a humorous Thomas Clegg; and the aforementioned Cecil Kellaway (Oscar nominee for "Luck of the Irish" & "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner") a spry and earthy Rev. Birdsong. But the major surprise is Anthony Perkins. He's actually very, very good. (Incidentally, he was filming "Psycho" while GREENWILLOW was in rehearsal.)

Additional praise for Don Walker's lush orchestrations and the uncredited choral arrangements. It's unfortunate that the present economic reality of Broadway prohibits orchestras and choruses of the size common in the 60s. Today's musicals suffer because budgets dictate only 16 singer/dancers on stage and synthesizers instead of "real" instruments in the pit - a major reason why most modern revivals seldom sound as good as the originals.

Anyway, GREENWILLOW is a musical gem, and I heartily recommend it.

PS. An interesting side bar: Although GREENWILLOW was released as an RCA Victor LP, my copy is by Columbia Special Products. Just how long has the merger of the two giants been in the works? Let's hope Sony/BMG re-releases the complete MOST HAPPY FELLA as part of their Masterworks/Broadway series, far superior to the 1992 revival currently in its catalogue.

And when in the world will there ever be a release of WHERE'S CHARLEY?

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A delightful surprise, December 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Greenwillow (1960 Original Broadway Cast) (Audio CD)

All I could recall, musically at least, of Tony Perkins was his bit of froth "Moonlight Swim" which was on the hit parade when I was a teenager in the 1950s. Certainly, I had never heard of "Greenwillow" until I read Winecoff's biography of Perkins. It rather whetted my curiosity and, I have to say, I was not disappointed with the CD when it arrived. The music is a lovely, rather nostalgic glimpse (for me at least) of the musical genre of the late 50s. A worthwhile addition to my collection.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Frank Hoffman, April 28, 2000

By 

"fhoffman86" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greenwillow (1960 Original Broadway Cast) (Audio CD)

Interesting in large part for the performance by Tony Perkins, fresh from his career-defining (in both the good and bad senses) role in Hitchcock's "Psycho" -- a very different work than "Greenwillow," obviously. At the time, apparently, many considered this play to be more of a lesser gem than a "Loesser gem" -- and this recording was not held to be as good as the best live performances. Some fascinating background and history of this show can be found in Charles Winecoff's biography of Perkins, titled "Split Image" -- including the reaction of his fellow cast members to seeing "Psycho" all together one evening and how that affected the next performance of "Greenwillow." Also worth noting that it was during this production that Perkins met Grover Dale, with whom he subsequently had a mostly closeted romantic relationship for about six years.