Lovely to Listen to

New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 872, 20 April 1956, Page 17

Lovely to Listen to

EROME KERN'S Roberta — will be heard. next Saturday night in YA Theatre of Music, Listeners will hear again such nostalgic old favourites as "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes," "I Won't | Dance," "The Touch of Your Hand," "Yesterdays" and "Lovely to Look At," recorded by an all-star Broadway cast, including Joan Roberts, Jack Cassidy, Kaye Ballard, Portia Nelson, Stephen Douglass and Frank Rogier. When

Roberta, the tale of ; an American foot- + baller who inherits a Parisian’ dress establishment, was ‘ first produced in. New York in 1933, ° its cast included the Russian singer Ta- | mara, Lyda Roberti, Fred MacMurray, « Geerge Murphy, * Bob Hope and the veteran Fav Temple-

ton. The surprise hit song of the show was undoubtedly "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes," Kern’s: own favourite number, but the producer did not think enough of it even to have it included among the numbers from the show originally published. However, "Yesterdays" is considered by Sigmund Spaeth, the popular music historian, to be a far more appealing tune, and one of Kern’s very best, But if it had not been for the popularity of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" and the addition of some ‘spectacular ballets, notably a "Shadows in Silver" sequence, Roberta would have been a failure. The critics were kind but un-| interested, audiences appreciative but. slim, and in its fifth week the shew: lost 5000 dollars. Suddenly, in the sixth week, the takings picked up miraculously and the show gwas a "hit." Inevitably, Roberta. was made into a film, starring Irene Dunne, Ginger . Rogers and Fred Astaire, and it was for this | that the two numbers "I Won’t Dance" and. "Lovely to Look At" were added. Fairly recently the film was re-made under the title Lovely to Look At, with Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel and Marge and Gower Champion. |