| Rose-Marie | |
| Music: | Rudolf Friml Herbert Stothart |
| Lyrics: | Otto Harbach Oscar Hammerstein II |
| Productions: | 1924 Broadway 1925 West End 1928 silent film 1936 film 1954 film |
Rose-Marie is an operetta-style musical with music by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart, and book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II. The story is set in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and concerns Rose-Marie La Flemme, a French Canadian girl who loves miner Jim Kenyon. When Jim falls under suspicion for murder, her brother Emile plans for Rose-Marie to marry Edward Hawley, a city man.
The work premiered on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on September 2, 1924, running for 557 performances. It was the longest-running Broadway musical of the 1920s until it was surpassed by The Student Prince (1926).[1] It was then produced at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London in 1925, enjoying another extraordinary run of 581 performances. It was filmed in 1928, in 1936 and again in 1954.
The best-known song from the musical is "Indian Love Call". It became Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy's "signature song". Several other numbers have also become standards, including the title song.
Producer Arthur Hammerstein, attempting to create popular new Broadway shows in the operetta tradition, sought exotic, unusual settings for his new productions. The Fortune Teller (1898) is set in Hungary, The Merry Widow (1907) takes place in France, and Naughty Marietta (1910) features New Orleans.[2] He sent his nephew, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Otto Harbach to Quebec, Canada, to witness a rumored magnificent ice sculpture festival. The men reported that there was not, nor had there ever been, such a festival in Quebec or any part of Canada.[3]
Arthur Hammerstein still liked the Canadian setting, and Oscar Hammerstein II and Harbach began work on the book for a new musical set in the Canadian Rockies. Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart collaborated on the score, and opera star Mary Ellis was cast in the title role.[4] British actor and singer Dennis King was cast opposite her as Jim Kenyon.[2]
It was then produced at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London in 1925, enjoying another extraordinary run of 581 performances. The original West End production had a chorus of eighty. It was London's most successful Broadway show after World War I until it was surpassed by Oklahoma!. In Paris's Théâtre Mogador, Rose-Marie ran for an unprecedented 1,250 performances.[4]
A touring company premiered the work in Canada on January 12, 1925 at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto, and the piece toured Australia and played in Paris.[6] Other Canadian productions were given by the Variétés lyriques in 1937 and another in 1945, in French, and by Theatre Under the Stars in 1940, Melody Fair in 1951, and the Eaton Operatic Society in 1959. It was produced by the Light Opera of Manhattan several times in the 1970s and 1980s, the Shaw Festival in Canada (1981), Light Opera Works of Illinois (1987), and Ohio Light Opera in 2003.
See main article: Rose Marie (film). The show has been filmed three times, including a silent film in 1928. Joan Crawford starred in this version, alongside James Murray. The best known film version was released in 1936, starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. Although the plot was changed, and most of the songs were dropped, it was a huge success and became MacDonald and Eddy's best-known film. In 1954, MGM produced an Eastmancolor version in Cinemascope, which more closely followed the original plot, but it still dropped most of Friml's songs. This version starred Ann Blyth, Howard Keel and Fernando Lamas, with Bert Lahr and Marjorie Main as comic relief. It was choreographed by Busby Berkeley.
Emile is going to take Rose-Marie with him to the trapping grounds at Kootenay Pass. He dislikes Jim and wants her to marry Hawley for financial security. Rose-Marie doesn't want to go, insisting to her brother that she is in love with Jim ("Lak Jeem"). Hawley plans to accompany Emile, but first he has to end his affair with Wanda. He plans to visit her at Black Eagle's log cabin and bribe her to stay away from him. Jim tells Rose-Marie that he will follow her to Kootenay Pass, and they will meet in an old house he calls a castle near a valley with a beautiful echo. According to legend, Indians would call down into the valley to the girls they wished to marry ("Indian Love Call").
Hawley meets Wanda at her cabin and tries to pay her off, just as Jim arrives with a map to prove his claim. Wanda sends Jim away. Black Eagle returns home and catches Wanda and Hawley embracing. He attacks Hawley, and Wanda stabs Black Eagle to save Hawley. Jim and Herman, unaware of the murder, follow Emile, Hawley, and Rose-Marie to Kootenay Pass. Jim and Rose-Marie communicate through their "Indian Love Call" (reprise). Emile tells Rose-Marie that she should marry Hawley because he could buy her all the "Pretty Things" she wants. Wanda arrives at Kootenay Pass and tells everyone that Jim is wanted for the murder of Black Eagle; his map was discovered near Black Eagle's body.
Herman continues romancing Lady Jane ("Why Shouldn't We?"). Hawley proposes to Rose-Marie, but she refuses him. He and a city girl whom he has employed, Ethel Brander, try to impress Rose-Marie with the glamour of city life in Quebec. Wanda leads an Indian "Totem-Tom-Tom" dance. Jim has received an offer from the Brazilian government to lead a mining project there. He asks Rose-Marie to come with him, even though it would be safer for her to go to Quebec and wait for him there. If she decides to come, they will meet at the "castle" and go to the United States to be married. If she does not, she should sing the Indian Love Call up the valley to him. Rose-Marie insists she will go with him; he leaves immediately, and she plans to follow twenty minutes later to avoid attracting suspicion. Sergeant Malone arrives with a warrant to arrest Jim for murder. Emile knows that Jim is hiding in the "castle". He tells Rose-Marie that he will not reveal Jim's hiding place to the Mounties if she will go to Quebec and marry Hawley. Holding back tears, Rose-Marie tells Hawley that she must sing the "Indian Love Call" to him, but she is really singing to Jim, telling him that she will not go with him.
The wedding preparations commence ("The Minuet of the Minute"), and Wanda jealously threatens Hawley. Sergeant Malone prepares to arrest Jim, who is hiding in Kootenay Pass, even though Malone is troubled by the evidence. Herman suspects Wanda and gets her to confess by pretending that Hawley has accused her of the murder. Jane interrupts them and incorrectly assumes Herman is cheating on her ("One Man Woman"). The wedding begins ("Doorway of My Dreams"), but as Rose-Marie walks down the aisle, Wanda publicly confesses to the murder and declares her love for Hawley. Everyone rushes to Jim's lodgings, and Rose-Marie goes to the pass to return Jim's "Indian Love Call". The lovers are finally united.
In Rose-Marie, Friml and Stothart emulated the late 19th-century Viennese operetta style of Johann Strauss II and American composer Victor Herbert, using lilting waltzes and sweeping romantic or sentimental passages. They added to this new dance styles, notably the foxtrot (for example in the title song of the show).[8]
The operetta has been recorded a number of times. The 1925 original London cast recorded six numbers along with an orchestral medley. These recordings have been collected on a number of LP and CD editions.[9] Al Goodman recorded the major songs in 1948 as part of his series of operetta recordings for RCA Victor. These were reissued on LP on the budget RCA Camden label in 1958.[10]
Nelson Eddy recorded eight numbers for a Columbia Records ten-inch Lp in 1950. Around the same time, singles recorded by Eddy and MacDonald in 1936, at the time of the film's release, were reissued in an extended Play 45-rpm disc by RCA Victor Red Seal as ERA 220. The sleeve featured a photo of the two of them as they appeared in the film.[11] The MGM soundtrack album of the 1954 technicolor and CinemaScope remake was released on records just prior to the film's premiere in March 1954.[12]
The most complete recording released prior to 2022 was made in 1958 by RCA Victor (LSO-1001) starring Julie Andrews and Giorgio Tozzi.[13] In 1961 EMI issued an LP of selections with Barbara Leigh, David Hughes, Andy Cole and Maggie Fitzgibbon (Cole and Fitzgibbon had appeared together in a 1961 London revival).[14] The following year, Reader's Digest included a recording of one side of highlights in their 12-record Treasury of Great Operettas set.[15] The Smithsonian Institution recorded the complete score, performed in concert in 1981, conducted by James R. Morris, starring Debra Vanderlinde and Ron Raines, but the recording was not commercially released until 2022.[16]