I Married an Angel (1938)

Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
Book by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart
Based on the play by Janos Vaszary

Dates

October 13, 1995 – October 29, 1995
New Conservatory Theatre Center

Cast & Crew

Spencer Aste – Peter Mueller
Alison Bloomfield – Olga, Madayn/Clarinda
Elisa Camahort – Anna Murphy
Lori Leigh Gieleghem – Magda Szabo, Modiste, Hannah, Lucinda
John Gilbert – Harry Mischka Szigetti
Lesley Hamilton – Countess Peggy Palaffi
Joseph Lustig – Count Willy Palaffi
L.J. Mitchell – General Lucash, Anton, Janos
Marcia Pizzo – Angel
Judy Rae Whiting – Duchess of Holsten-Kuhoff, 1st Vendeuse, Arabella

Greg MacKellan – Director
Peggy Gorham – Musical Director
Patrick Michael Dukeman – Choreographer
Tom Head-Elliot – Stage Manager

History

From 1935 through 1940, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were responsible for a remarkable string of Broadway musical comedy hit, including such shows as Jumbo, On Your Toes, Babes in Arms, The Boys from Syracuse, and Too Many Girls. The most popular and longest-running of these musicals were Pal Joey (in 1940) and I Married An Angel (in 1938). I Married An Angel – based on an earlier Hungarian fantasy by Janos Vaszary – had originally been conceived in 1933 as a film musical, a follow up to the team's innovative 1932 film Love Me Tonight. Although the movie was never made, Rodgers and Hart had enough faith in the project to buy the screen rights back from MGM, and five years later turned it into a stage vehicle.

Providing their own libretto this time out, Rodgers and Hart tailored the part of Countess Peggy Palaffi specifically for Larry Hart's good friend, the luminous musical star, Vivienne Segal. (Miss Segal, tired of her reign as one of Broadway's leading ingenues, had refused to return to the stage until someone wrote her a good comedy part. Peggy Palaffi was the part, and it revitalized her career – although she insisted on making it clear that she had been in Blossom Time!)

The casting of Vera Zorina, one of the great beauties of the day, in the part of the angel necessitated deleting virtually all of the Angel's singing material, as Miss Zorina, a brilliant dancer, was not a singer. The show became the first Broadway musical in which the leading lady didn't sing a note.

As the project developed, the show became more of an intimate musical play than a standard musical comedy, and only two songs (the title number and the "Bath and Dressmaking" Modiste sequence) remained from the original film score. The critical reception was rapturous–the New York Times announced that "Musical comedy has met its master, and they have reared back and passed a Forty-Fourth Street miracle" while the Journal-American proclaimed the show "a gay and capricious delight...a winged wonder-work from the musical theatre heavens of Rodgers and Hart." Three songs immediately became popular hits–"I Married an Angel," "I'll Tell the Man in the Street," and the wondrous "Spring is Here"–and "At the Roxy Music Hall" enjoyed great popularity in the theatre. The show ran for almost a year (an extremely long run for the Depression-era) and then toured until early 1940–finally closing at San Francisco's Curran Theatre.

Although a rewritten version of I Married An Angel had some success on the summer stock circuit in the mid-60's and early 70's, the 42nd Street Moon production is the original 1938 version of the show. The one difference is that we have restored some of the Angel's original singing sequences, including the lovely–and previously lost–song "Tell Me I Know How To Love." We hope you will enjoy this unusual and sophisticated musical fantasy as much as Broadway–and San Francisco–audiences did fifty-six years ago!

Synopsis

Wealthy Budapest banker, Count Willie Palaffi is love-weary. He ends his engagement to Anna Murphy, swearing that the only girl he could marry would be an angel. A real angel soon flies into his life, and he marries her. It turns out, however, that she is free of the human failings that permit people to tolerate each other. In particular, she is unable to fib. Her honesty alienates Willie's high society acquaintances and his biggest customer and causes a run on the bank. His sister, Countess Palaffi saves the day by teaching the angel about the real world. She also bribes taxi drivers to make Willie's creditors late, so that he has time to save his bank. Willie and his now Earthier angel live happily ever after. (Wikipedia)

Press Release

SAN FRANCISCO (19 September 1995) – 42nd Street Moon presents a bit of Heaven on Earth with I Married an Angel, a Rodgers and Hart screwball comedy from 1938, and the 5th of 42nd Street Moon's six-show HAMMERSTEIN & HART FESTIVAL. I Married an Angel will be presented in a concert version October 13 – 29, 1995 (Preview: October 12) at San Francisco's New Conservatory Theatre.

I Married an Angel contains some of Rodgers and Hart's best-loved songs, including "Spring is Here," "I'll Tell the Man in the St." and the title song. The show ran for 338 performances on Broadway before beginning a national tour that ended at San Francisco's Curran Theatre in January of 1940.

An immediate hit, I Married an Angel was unanimously lauded by the press: "From the top shelf of the Rodgers and Hart music cabinet," praised the New York Times. "Extraordinarily beautiful score. Musical comedy has met its masters." The New York Post enthused, "The most delightful score Rodgers and Hart have ever written – altogether intoxicating," and the New York Sun hailed the show as "A bubbling oasis in a springtime desert." Written originally in 1933 as a film to follow up the successful "Love Me Tonight," I Married an Angel was abandoned by MGM, so Rodgers and Hart bought the rights and turned it into a stage production.

The original production featured Dennis King, Vivienne Segal and the stunningly beautiful ballerina Vera Zorina as the Angel. While Zorina could mesmerize a crowd with her looks and her dancing, she was not a songbird. Hence, I Married an Angel occupies a unique place in musical theatre history as one of the only (perhaps the only) musical not to have any songs for its leading lady.

While there was a revised version that toured in 1964, 42nd Street Moon will present the original Broadway score plus songs written for the film, which include the largely unheard songs of the Angel, such as the ballad "Tell Me I Know How to Love." Based upon a play by Hungarian playwright Janos Veszary, I Married an Angel follows the romantic exploits of a rich playboy who, fed up with sophisticated women, vows never to marry unless an angel comes down from Heaven. Angel, or Brigitta, hears his plea and fulfills his wish, marrying him and then inadvertently wreaking havoc through her fastidious dedication to telling the truth.

Portraying Angel will be Marcia Pizzo, with Joseph Lustig as her hapless husband, Count Willy Palaffi. Lustig has been seen in 42nd Street Moon productions of A Connecticut Yankee and Something For the Boys. Elisa Camahort will play a young American woman trying to win the heart of Count Palaffi, and Spencer Aste will hit the boards as the count's secretary, Peter Mueller. Lesley Hamilton will portray Count Palaffi's sister, Peggy Palaffi, who attempts to teach Angel the womanly ways of the world, with John Gilbert portraying Harry Szigetti, an old flame of Peggy's. The cast is rounded out by Alison Bloomfield, Lori Leigh Gieleghem, L.J. Mitchell and Judy Whiting. Greg MacKellan will direct and Peggy Gorham will provide musical direction and accompaniment.