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It's a story Elaine Stritch loves to tell. In 1957, during the run of the disastrous Broadway musical "Goldilocks", Stritch was visited backstage by the one and only Noel Coward, who assured her that the problems in "Goldilocks" had absolutely nothing to do with her, and promised that the next musical she'd star in would be written by him - and it would be a hit.
Three years later, Noel Coward made good on that promise, and Elaine wowed the critics and audiences as Mimi Paragon in SAIL AWAY, which boasts a fantastic score that has now been reissued on compact disc by DRG. There are several bonafide gems in this score, most notably the tour-de-force "Why Do the Wrong People Travel?", but even better in my opinion is the aching 11 o'clocker "Something Very Strange", easily one of my all-time favourite Coward songs.
While Coward originally intended the musical for two co-starring leading ladies (operatic soprano Jean Fenn starred alongside Stritch for the out-of-town tryouts); producers decided the show simply would not work that way; and Fenn was quietly dismissed after the Philadelphia previews.
Stritch subsequently starred in the London production (cast album available on the Fynsworth Alley label), where the reception for the show was even more rapturous than in New York. SAIL AWAY was written by Coward with Stritch in mind, so it's hard to imagine a production without her, simply because the role of Mimi is so perfectly tailored to Stritch in voice, manner and personality.
This reissue of SAIL AWAY comes with a bonus disc of Noel Coward performing the songs from the show.
[DRG 19083]
