On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965)
On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965)
Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Music by Burton Lane
Directed by Wayne Bryan
Musical Director: Michael Horsley
Choreographer: Jayne Zaban
Playbill Notes
In today's theatrical climate it is hardly unusual for new Musicals to take several years before reaching Broadway. In the mid-sixties, however, such a situation was so exceptional that most of the reviews for On a Clear Day You Can See Forever made note of the long and tortured journey the show took before arriving at the Mark Hellinger Theatre. Some found Clear Day's "back story" at least as interesting as what was on stage.
Librettist/lyricist Alan Jay Lerner had long been interested in the idea of past juxtaposed with the present (e.g., Brigadoon). The mid-50's scandal in which a young woman under hypnosis supposedly regressed to a past life as an 18th-century Irish lass named Bridey Murphy gave Lerner the idea of a musical about reincarnation; following the agonizing birth of Camelot in 1960, he determined to start work on the new idea. His regular partner, Frederick Loewe, having had enough of the theatre (and Alan Jay Lerner), was not interested in the show which was then called I Picked A Daisy.
One theatrical giant was interested, though. Richard Rodgers, newly-bereft of his long time collaborator Oscar Hammerstein, was enthusiastic and signed on as composer. Rodgers was a highly disciplined person when it came to work and has been bedeviled by erstwhile partner Larry Hart's erratic (and alcohol-impinged) writing habits. Even the dependable Hammerstein was too lax for Rodgers when it came time to settle down to work. It didn't take long for the veteran composer to realize Lerner was more unpredictable than either of his past associates, and work went very slowly. After a year, Rodgers regretfully bowed out.
Burton Lane, Lerner's composer on the film Royal Wedding, agreed to join the project. In the summer of 1965-four years since its inception-the show finally went into production with a new title-On A Clear Day You Can See Forever. Barbara Harris was cast as ESP-endowed heroine, Daisy Gamble and Louis Jourdan was the doctor who uncovers her past life as Miranda Welles. During the out-of-town try-out Lerner, fighting numerous personal demons, struggled to reduce the show's four-hour playing time (in the process deleting several songs), and composer Lane insisted on the substitution of ensemble member John Cullum for the vocally-unreliable Jourdan.
When Clear Day finally opened in New York, critics hailed Harris as a new star and rhapsodized about the beautiful score, but many found fault with Lerner's book. (As it happened, My Fair Lady would prove to have been the last time Lerner would garner acclaim as a librettist.) On a Clear Day modestly held its own against such popular holdovers as Hello, Dolly! and Fiddler on the Roof, but the new year brought more formidable competition in Man of La Mancha, Sweet Charity, and Mame, and Harris and company were out of work before the summer of '66 was over.
Lerner persevered, however, and Clear Day did not die; he rewrote the book for several small scale tours (variously starring Tammy Grimes, Linda Lavin, and Nancy Dussault). In 1969, Barbra Streisand and Yves Montand starred in an unsuccessful, completely re-written film version that did little to enhance the piece's reputation, but a 1980 tour with Robert Goulet and Joanna Gleason (and still more rewrites) proved successful.
We are thrilled that cabaret and concert luminary Andrea Marcovicci has agreed to star in the lastest "reincarnation" of Clear Day (tonight's version being a blending of the Broadway and tour scripts), and we relish the chance to hear her sing the wonderful songs Lane and Lerner gave to Daisy (and Melinda). We are also delighted to welcome Broadway veteran Michael DeVries and Los Angeles performer Gordon Goodman, as well as noted Producing Director of the Music Theater of Wichita, Wayne Bryan, who takes the reins for tonight's production.
Thrity-four years after the Broadway run the story of On a Clear Day reamins compelling, and the score is certainly one of the finest of the post-Rodgers and Hammerstein era. Therefore, we happily add one more "life" to the show's wayward history and are confident that you'll find the Misses Gamble, Welles, and Marcovicci fascinating company.
--Greg MacKellan
Plot Summary
Quirky Daisy Gamble sees herself as an unremarkable person and has low self-esteem, even though she can (1) make plants grow remarkably, (2) predict when a telephone will ring or someone will drop in, and (3) tell where to find an object that someone else is looking for. Her current problem, though, is her nasty smoking habit, which will interfere with the chances of her fiancé, Warren, for a job with great benefits. She seeks help from a psychiatrist, Dr. Mark Bruckner, to stop smoking. When he hypnotizes her, she describes living a previous life in late 18th century England as "Melinda Wells", who died in her late twenties from circumstances beyond her control. Free spirited Melinda was in love with portrait painter Edward Moncrief. Mark keeps to himself what Daisy has revealed to him, and he tells her that she should not be ashamed of her ESP.
At their next session, Daisy, under hypnosis, relates scenes from the salacious London Hellrakers' Club where Melinda met Edward. Melinda and Edward eventually marry, but the painter is unfaithful to her, making love to his subjects. Mark, the psychiatrist, finds himself falling for "Melinda" and becomes convinced that Daisy is really the reincarnation of Melinda. Melinda finally left Edward and set sail for America, but the ship never reached Boston. Before Mark can save Melinda from shipwreck, Daisy wakes up.
Mark reports on the case to his fellow psychiatrists, who ridicule his findings. Greek shipping magnate Themistocles Kriakos learns of Mark's belief in reincarnation and offers to finance a study of the events of Melinda's life in exchange for Mark's help in discovering who he will be in his next life, which will allow him to leave his fortune to his future self. Daisy accidentally discovers that she is the "Melinda" at the center of the growing controversy and that Mark prefers Melinda to herself. In her angry confrontation with the psychiatrist about the matter, she tells him that she is "through being a go-between for you and your dream girl. You're not going to go on using my head for a motel."
Daisy goes to the airport, ready to return home. Her ESP powers warn her that the plane on which she plans to travel will crash. She realizes at last how special she really is. She leaves her starchy fiancé, and she and Mark unite to explore their extraordinary future. (wikipedia)
Press Release
SAN FRANCISCO (29 July 1999) -- San Francisco's award-winning "lost musical" company, 42nd Street Moon, presents a special treat when cabaret sensation Andrea Marcovicci and Broadway veteran Michael DeVries star in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. 42nd Street Moon's production, performed for one week only with a small orchestra, will showcase Marcovicci's incomparable voice in such lilting songs as "Hurry! It's Lovely Up Here," "S.S. Bernard Cohn," and "What Did I Have That I Don't Have?" On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, directed by Wayne Bryan with music direction by Michael Horsley, plays September 8 (press opening: September 9) through 12 at the Gershwin Theatre in San Francisco. For tickets ($25-32).
Written by Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner in 1965, this compelling musical follows Daisy Gamble, a New Yorker unaware of her gift of ESP, and the psychiatrist who guides her through flashbacks to her previous life as an 18th century noblewoman. At its opening, the World-Telegram & Sun praised it as "a happy wonder and a bewitching, beguiling musical play," and the New York Times applauded the score, with its "bright, charming lyrics by Lerner and a sheaf of new tunes by Lane that have more melodic grace and inventive distinction than has been heard in years." Originally starring Barbara Harris and John Cullum, the show later was made into a film with Barbra Streisand, Yves Montand, Bob Newhart, and an unknown Jack Nicholson.
In retrospect, it is impressive that On a Clear Day ... reached the stage at all. The project began auspiciously enough, with a creative team composed of Lerner, Richard Rodgers, and famed choreographer Gower Champion. Originally titled I Picked a Daisey, the show was scheduled to open in March, 1963. Lerner, however, had by this time become a devoted patient of Max "Dr. Feelgood" Jacobsen, who treated his many society patients with injections of methedrine, to which Lerner was now deeply addicted. Frustrated at the almost complete lack of progress, Rodgers quit the team. Burton Lane was enlisted to replace him, and as a lesser partner, simply endured the long delays in silence. Co-star Robert Horton was let go (and went into the already-in-rehearsal 110 In the Shade, causing Hal Holbrook to be fired); Champion left the project, taking up David Merrick's Hello, Dolly!, and the production date was put off to 1964. Yet even then the book and lyrics weren't ready, and the show didn't reach Broadway until 1965, with Dr. Max in constant attendance on Lerner.
Described by New York Magazine as "the most throbbingly irresistible voice in cabaret," and by Stephen Holden of The New York Times as a singer with "an incandescent enthusiasm and a masterly balance between poignancy and wit," cabaret sensation Andrea Marcovicci has made fans worldwide with her enchanting, intense and intelligent performances. She made her Carnegie Hall solo debut with the American Symphony Orchestra before a sold-out audience, and has performed at the White House. In 1994 she made her London cabaret debut, where she sold out a one-month engagement in the Music Room of London's popular jazz venue Pizza On The Park. Marcovicci's talent undoubtedly appeals to an ever-increasing audience; as the San Francisco Chronicle puts it, when "introduced to her music, people become immediate fans."
Marcovicci began her career as an actress in both theater and movies, making her Broadway debut with Howard Keel in Ambassador, the musical adaptation of the novel by Henry James, and appearing off-Broadway in The Wedding of Iphegenia, Variety Obit, and The Seagull. She has performed as Ophelia in Hamlet for Joseph Papp's Shakespeare in the Park, and has received rave reviews for her performances in the leading roles of the American Conservatory Theater productions of St. Joan, Burn This, and Cat On a Hot Tin Roof. Marcovicci has also appeared in a number of films, including Woody Allen's The Front, and Twentieth Century Fox's Jack The Bear with Danny De Vito, as well as multiple television appearances.
Michael DeVries has appeared in multiple Broadway productions including Grand Hotel (directed by Tommy Tune), Hello Dolly! with Carol Channing, Secret Garden, Cats, and King David. He was in the national tours of Annie Get Your Gun with Cathy Rigby, Hello Dolly! with Carol Channing, Carousel directed by James Hammerstein, and Phantom of the Opera directed by Hal Prince. Not limited to the live stage, DeVries has appearanced on television's Sex and the City, Law & Order, and All My Children. Local audiences may remember him as Sky Masterson in Woodminster Summer Musicals' production of Guys & Dolls (he received his Equity card 17 years ago in that company's production of South Pacific).
