"Three Sisters"
as reviewed by in Variety Magazine, November 27 - December 3, 1995 by Dennis Harvey
as reviewed by in Variety Magazine, November 27 - December 3, 1995 by Dennis Harvey
In 1934, Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II ventured overseas to create "Three Sisters". The original production featured U.K. faves Adele Dixon, Stanley Holloway, Esmond Knight and beloved U.S. comedienne Charlotte Greenwood. It also evidently sported an onstage Thames (complete with boats and geese), among other spectacle elements.
Though the musical won praise for its beautiful score, Brit crix took umbrage at Yanks crafting such an English show. Audiences followed suit, and a U.S. transfer failed to follow that disappointing 72-performance run at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. The score subsequently disappeared (some individual songs preserved via recordings and published sheet music); a final production script surfaced just this year in the London Censors Office archives.
S.F.'s 42nd St. Moon Productions has won a devoted following in the last few years for its "Lost Musical Series" of semi-staged revivals, and their current salvage effort may be this group's most notable coup to date in reviving materials. "Three Sisters" is still just a partial reconstruction. But what has survived is very charming. This drama-with-songs seems more in line with the fabled team's earlier "Show Boat" - while hardly an epic, innovative or consequential - than their more frivolous '30s vehicles.
Hammerstein's book is unusually complex and melancholy for the period. It traces the romantic travails suffered over a few years in the lives of itinerant photographer Will Barbour's three daughters. Tiny, the eldest, anticipates a placid married life with dullish fiancee Eustace, but she's waylaid by antic St. busker George. His partner Gypsy is a serial Romeo distracted from the chase by youngest sis Mary. Only middle sib Dorrie wants out of this scrape-along, carnival-to-circus lifestyle. Her social ambitions attract attention from upper-crust dreamboat Sir John. The rediscovered text ran an impossible 200 pages, necessitating cuts here (including an epilogue). In 42nd St.'s version, the narrative runs at a pleasant, leisurely pace until Act 2 when various last-minute conflicts and resolutions provide little climatic satisfaction. Still, there's a real sincerity and sweetness to the "Three Sisters" storyline, one that largely bypasses mawkish sentiment.
But the prize here is Kern's extant music. This material was ideal for his way with a wistful ballad, and several are gorgeous: Gypsy's "Now That I Have Springtime," Tiny's lullaby "Somebody Wants to Go to Sleep" and Eustance's disarmingly plain "Hand in Hand." (Another memorable ditty, "When I've Got the Moon," is the sole interpolation here, taken from an unproduced Kern-Hammerstein film of the same period.) Other numbers include several bows to English music hall styles and the anthemic "You Are Doing Very Well." Only "Lonely Feet" and "I Won't Dance" went on to lasting fame via reuse in later projects. Five tunes are presumed permanently lost; musical director Sam Schieber has written a serviceable melody for one (the soldiers-in-drag novelty "The Gaiety Chorus Girls"), using Hammerstein's original lyrics. Elsewhere, his from scratch choral arrangements are quite beautiful. As usual with 42nd St. efforts, Greg MacKellan's bare-bones interp scarcely dampens the work's appeal. The cast is vocally and dramatically assured. Barbara Bernardo contributes suitably modest choreography. There would be numerous hurdles to jump should any enterprising group attempt a full staged "Three Sisters". But after 60 years wait, the effort might be worth it.
Website ©1996 - 2003 by Eric P. Letourneau for 42nd St. Moon. All graphics, prose, text and any other material presented here is ©42nd St. Moon (or its respective author / composer / lyricist) and may not be duplicated by any means without express written permission from 42nd St. Moon or other appropriate copyright holder. Public relations materials graciously provided by Carla Befera & Co..
Technical website comments can be directed to: info@flashlight.org
All other comments should be referred, as appropriate, to contacts listed on the Contacts Page
Website comments can be directed to: