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[0:00] David Armstrong: Hi, this is David Armstrong welcoming you to another episode of Broadway Nation. My guest again today is Albert Evans, who once again joins me as we go in search of lost Broadway. This is an occasional series of podcasts in which Albert and I try to discover smash hit Broadway musicals from the past which today are almost entirely unknown to us and forgotten. And this is the third episode that takes us in search of the 1934 smash hit musical The Great Waltz, one of the longest running shows of the 1930s. If you missed the earlier episodes in this series, you may want to go back and catch up with them before listening to this one.

[0:41] David Armstrong: Before we begin, I want to thank the patrons of Broadway Nation, such as Kelly Allen, whose generous support helps to make this podcast possible. If you would like to join their ranks, there'll be information at the end of the episode about how you, too, can become a patron. Now, here we go! So, Albert, welcome back to another discussion about The Great Waltz. Who knew we would go on so long with this? It's a very rich topic, apparently. What hasn't ceased to amaze me as we've gone through this is how many versions of it there are for a show that literally almost never gets talked about. It was a giant property in the 20th century.

[1:22] Albert Evans: It was, and this will be our third episode.

[1:25] David Armstrong: And there'll be a number four. And I gotta admit that it's still kind of a mystery to me the longevity that this show had in all these different versions. Why did people keep remaking this? Is it just because it's some of the most popular pop's concert music ever written? People just kept attempting to craft it into a musical. And some versions were extremely successful, and others are kind of baffling. But they continued to spend millions of dollars to create new versions of it. Today, we're going to talk about two versions of the show that were done a year apart in the 1950s. The first is a radio version, and the second is a live television version.

[2:04] Albert Evans: The same way as, like, Cinderella and Aladdin and all these shows were done live.

[2:10] David Armstrong: Yeah, this was that era of the 1950s where they did Broadway shows live on television as big extravaganzas that earned some of the highest ratings of any shows of the period. So the first one, as I said, was on the radio from a show called The Railroad Hour. So what was The Railroad Hour, Albert?

[2:27] Albert Evans: Well, The Railroad Hour was sponsored by, I believe, the Railroad Association of America. And railroads were big as, like, you know, passenger transportation, and brought you all the products you use in the home, from soup to nuts. Ladies and gentlemen, The Railroad Hour.

[2:49] Albert Evans: And here comes our star-studded show train. Tonight, the Association of American Railroads presents the enchanting operetta The Great Wall, starring Gordon MacRae and his lovely guest Lucille Norman. Our choir is under the direction of Norman Luboff, and the music is prepared and conducted by Carmen Dragon. Yes, tonight another memorable musical success is brought to you by the American Railroads. The same railroads that bring you most of the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the fuel you burn, and all the other things you use in your daily life. And now here is our star, Gordon MacRae.

[3:44] David Armstrong: Yes, it was the Association of American Railroads was the sponsor. And I actually think the reason they're sponsoring a radio show, because usually they were sponsored by products like Kraft or Maxwell House and things like that. Chesterfield and cigarettes were big sponsors. So the Railroad Association is an odd one to be sponsoring because they don't really sell anything.

[4:08] Albert Evans: No. This is just representing all the various railroads, railroad companies of the time. And I think what they're doing is they're trying to convince people to keep the railroads going and how valuable the railroads are to their lives at this time in American history, where the oil companies were literally paying cities and counties and states to get rid of rail transport and replace them with gasoline. And this is the beginning of the end, I think, of this incredible railroad system that we had in America back in the day, and replacing it with freeways and interstates. That all came about in this post-war period.

[4:49] David Armstrong: Exactly. The whole interstate system was built. And this was all the oil companies lobbying and paying people off to make it happen. It's a really interesting aspect of American history that doesn't get talked about very often. So I think that's why the railroad is trying to have an impact with a big radio show. The Railroad Hour will run from the late 1940s into the mid-1950s. And it's a fairly successful show. What did they do on the Railroad Hour?

[5:14] Albert Evans: They did basically very shortened versions of musicals and operettas. What we might call a tab version. Cut down to initially 45 minutes for the first half of the life of the Railroad Hour. And then they were cut down to 30 minutes for the last several years of the Railroad Hour. And these are really entertaining. If people have not listened to this, most of these are available on YouTube. They're also available as podcasts.

[5:41] David Armstrong: Yeah, if you just search for old-time radio broadcasts, you can find probably all of them.

[5:47] Albert Evans: Yeah, I think there are some that are missing, like a lot of radio shows. And they seem to be in public domain or nobody copyrighted them or the copyrights elapsed. Because you can find them on many different sites and many different places. But it shows like No No Nanette and The Student Prince and the whole, what I call the Silver Age of Broadway. And some of the Golden Age is represented in these shows. And I always enjoy listening to them, partly because the host of the show was Gordon McRae. Who was the perfect voice to do these shows because he could do operetta. He could do musical comedy. He could sing anything as long as it was fairly legit. I mean, he wasn't really a great pop singer or song stylist, but he had a beautiful voice.

[6:32] David Armstrong: I agree with you. It sounds perfectly natural doing a jazzy show like No No Nanette or one of the Gershwin shows. And of course, he can sing amazingly when he's The Student Prince or The Desert Song or something like that. I have to say that growing up, I was never tuned into Gordon McRae very well, even though, of course, he's Curly in the movie of Oklahoma and Billy Bigelow in the movie of Carousel. And I saw him a million times listening to these radio hours over the last few years. I've become so impressed with him. He really just has such range and such talent. And his acting is really natural and charming. And he can play all these different roles. He's a sort of unsung talent for somebody who was a big movie star.

[7:10] Albert Evans: On the Railroad Hour in 1954, they did The Great Waltz, with Gordon McRae playing the role of Johann Strauss Jr. And there will always be a guest star on these shows to play opposite Gordon McRae. The Hollywood, Broadway, and recording stars who appeared on the radio hour included Doris Day, Jane Powell, Gene Kelly, Dinah Shore, Margaret Whiting, Victor Moore, Eddie Bracken, and even Eddie Cantor, recreating his starring role in Whoopi. But then, also, there would often be opera singers of that period, emerging, sort of rising opera singers. In this case, it's Eileen Farrell, who was very well known at the time.

[7:51] David Armstrong: Yeah, and had a very long career after this.

[7:54] Albert Evans: Exactly. They seem to choose young opera stars who would equip themselves very well in the acting part of this and in the singing. They don't sound overly produced. They sound very natural in the material. And, of course, in the operettas, they can sing even more legitimately than if they were in the musical comedy versions. But I'm always impressed by them, and Eileen Farrell's quite good on this. Anyway, I highly recommend listening to The Railroad Hour and catching up on these shows, because one of the things that you do get from them, and why I think it's important here for our discussion of The Great Waltz, as we're trying to get as close as we can to the original Broadway production, is they were adapted from the original Broadway librettos, from the original scripts of these shows.

[8:38] Albert Evans: And they were adapted by theater people, people who knew shows. Yeah, Lawrence and Lee didn't do all of them, but they seem to have been employed by The Railroad Hour to be the adapters of these shows. And, of course, their main job is to cut it down from three hours to 30 minutes and have a coherent plot that would still give you an idea, make you feel like, oh, now I know what that show's about, even though you may not know every character in it or every scene. You kind of get the idea of what the show was. And they feel complete. They have a beginning, middle, and end. And you feel like you got a complete experience.

[9:16] David Armstrong: Some of them, I have to say, are not very successful. The version of Showboat that they do on The Railroad Hour is quite embarrassing, actually.

[9:24] Albert Evans: That's hard to do in a half hour.

[9:26] David Armstrong: It's hard to do in a half hour. And they also cut out all of the Black characters. There are no Black characters in Showboat in this version that they do. Which, of course, is embarrassing, really. They just focus that one down to the love story of Magnolia and Gaylord. That's all they do. And I think Gordon McRae sings Old Man River. So I don't recommend that one. But many of the others, and this one especially, I do recommend. Because I think we're getting a large dose of the plot and the original dialogue, Mosshart's dialogue from The Great Waltz, in this version.

[10:00] Albert Evans: Excuse me. Would you tell Fräulein Therese, please, that Herr Strauss is here?

[10:05] Eileen Farrell: Are you Herr Strauss?

[10:07] Albert Evans: Oh, I just love your music.

[10:10] Eileen Farrell: I'm afraid you're thinking of my father. You see, there are two of us.

[10:14] Albert Evans: Do you compose, too?

[10:16] Eileen Farrell: Well, sometimes, a little.

[10:18] Albert Evans: Johnny, you're early.

[10:20] Eileen Farrell: Crazy. I've got news. Great news. Herr Strauss has just been telling us that he is a composer.

[10:26] Albert Evans: A very good composer.

[10:27] Eileen Farrell: Oh, it must be awfully difficult to find new melodies out of your head.

[10:33] Albert Evans: Music doesn't come from the head. From the heart. It's always there, waiting for something to let it out. A morning like this, for instance, or a look in a woman's eyes. And a tune is born.

[10:40] Eileen Farrell: Dark roads or fair, you are my songs leading me where music belongs. Dark as the night, fair as the morn. Whene'er I see you, music is born. Bright eyes from wind, harmonies from star. Tunes from the sea, singing in my heart. Beautiful to me, everywhere you display. I plan you all in my waltzes. Dark roads or fair, you are my songs.

[11:37] David Armstrong: I don't know how much book there was in the original, but I feel like we're getting the gist of the story. At least the main story thread, which is the story of Strauss Jr., Strauss Sr., and then the two women. We get the part of their story that's related to the relationship between the two Strausses.

[11:55] Albert Evans: Exactly. We'll talk a little bit about that in a second. What we don't get is the rivalry between the two women and the love triangle aspect of it. In this particular version, the Countess and Strauss Jr. do not have any romantic relationship. She's just there to help Rezi, the romantic interest, help Strauss become famous and foil the sabotage of Strauss Sr.

[12:20] David Armstrong: The other thing we get here is we get five of the 14 songs that were in the original Broadway version of The Great Waltz with those original lyrics performed here and performed very well, and in the context, at least roughly, that they were in the show. They seem to be in the similar order, although there's, of course, songs that are missing that were in between them, but they're functioning the way they functioned in the story originally to a great extent. Now, these songs are fairly generic and fairly general in their lyrical content, so, of course, they're easy to move around. A love song is a love song is a love song.

[13:01] David Armstrong: So there's the waltz. Exactly. And how great the waltz is. The four songs that we hear are You Are My Songs, Like a Star in the Sky, Only One Hour, With All My Heart, and of course, it ends with the Blue Danube. All of these songs can be heard on the studio album that we talked about last time of Waltzes in Vienna from the original score of the London production, which seems to have transferred over directly to the Broadway version and now transferred again, at least large parts of it, to this radio production. The book, even though it's trimmed presumably from three hours down to less than 30 minutes, again, the dialogue for this show is adapted by Lawrence and Lee, but I think we can assume it's what we hear is pretty much intact.

And at the end of the show, they say the production is made possible by special arrangement with Tams Whitmark, which of course was the licensing company that would have licensed the show to theaters all across America, to the Muni, to the other theaters that were doing it during the 1940s and 50s. And so that's the beginning place for Lawrence and Lee. And I assume that in the week that they have to work on this show, I don't know how far in advance they did the scripts, but they're going to use as much as they possibly can. They're going to make up as little as they can along the way.

[14:53] Albert Evans: It has always been one of my ambitions to play at the court of your country. I think I can arrange that with my ambassador. My countrymen will be enchanted by the music of the Waltz King. It's curious how a title spoken in jest many years ago pleased one. It is richly deserved. At any rate, I have never had to defend the title. What was that play? That, my dear Herr Strauss, is my surprise. He is a young man who may one day be your rival. You may yet have to fight for the title of Waltz King. This is very interesting. I should like very much to meet you. Right through this door, Herr Strauss. Shani! Father, your ladyship. Herr Strauss. Hello, Lacey. What was that you were playing, Shani? Oh, I was just improvising, father.

Don't be so modest, Shani. It's a new waltz composed by your son, Herr Strauss. It has a lovely quality, don't you think? You have a kind heart, madame. But let me see that music. What? Why, this is just a jump move against every established rule and form. I thank you, Countess, for speaking in my behalf. But this is an old argument between my father and me. I maintain you must write the music you feel. But my father is a traditionalist who feels one must write according to all the established rules. But this beautiful melody... Madame, about a great many things I know nothing. About one thing I know a great deal. That thing is music. I was writing successful waltzes before this boy was born.

Nevertheless, my dear young man, I shall be there on your opening night to applaud you. What opening night? I haven't had a chance to tell you, father. But Steinbrook has offered me a chance to conduct at the Peterhof Gardens. You're not sufficiently equipped to conduct. Why, they tear you apart. I forbid you. Father, I'm going to conduct. Are you going to force me to go to Steinbrook and tell him you're incompetent to conduct? Father. Herr Strauss, you wouldn't do that. If my opinion means so little to my son that I must regard him as just another musician. And since he bears my name, I will not have him make a fool of himself on the platform. It is my duty to tell them that what I believe.

Listen. Listen to this music. Shani, play it. This is music that will live when every stuffy thing you've ever written is dead and forgotten, Herr Strauss. Listen. Listen to some great music by the great Johann Strauss.

[17:54] David Armstrong: They do seem to have invented one important thing here. One scene that I think was entirely invented by them for good reason, which we'll talk about in a minute. In this version, the character names follow the character names in the Broadway production. Rezzi, which is short for Teresa, although they pronounce it Rezzi in the radio version, works together with the Countess. They join forces early on to help Strauss to stand up to Strauss Sr. and in the end play this trick. The Countess makes sure that Strauss Sr. is not able to show up for his concert, so that Strauss Jr. has to take his place and debut the Blue Danube Waltz. Shani, they're all calling for your father. Where is he? I don't know, Rezzi.

Has anybody seen Herr Strauss? Countess? Yes, Herr Steinbruck? Herr Strauss was last seen entering your carriage. Well, all I know is the ambassador from my country suddenly wished to extend an invitation to the Waltz King. I was good enough to lend him my carriage. Is it a very slow carriage, Countess? My coachman will take hours through the back streets of the city. Meanwhile, Vienna will get a chance to hear some wonderful new music. Countess? What can I do? They want Strauss, Herr Steinbruck. Give them Strauss. This young man is ready to conduct the Waltz. A brilliant idea, brilliant. Is it all right, Shani? Oh, yes, yes, Herr Steinbruck. Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please. The Waltz King has been unavoidably delayed, so we have asked his son, Johann Strauss the Younger, to conduct. I entrust him to your kindness. Ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to play a new waltz of my own. It is called The Blue Danube.

[20:40] Albert Evans: Oh, Countess, this is really the great waltz. Yes, Gracie, yes.

[21:10] David Armstrong: In the review that I read the last time about the original production, it talks about the end of the show during the big, incredible waltz scene that everyone talked about, with hundreds of people on the stage, that there seems to be a little sort of a dumb show, a story told without any dialogue, because the waltz is probably playing full blast, with Strauss Senior showing up at the concert, showing up on the stage with everyone, and bowing to his son, somehow acknowledging, giving his blessing to Strauss Junior, riding the Blue Danube, taking over conducting the orchestra to resolve that story. That, of course, is not going to work very well on the radio, because it was all visual. You had to see it.

So what Lawrence and Lee seem to have done is written a deathbed scene following the Blue Danube for Strauss Senior, where there's the reconciliation between the father and son, which works very well on the radio, of course, because it's an intimate, small scene, and it has a little, very soft reprise of the Blue Danube waltz as part of it. It's perfect for the intimacy of the radio. So again, smart people creating a version of the great waltz that's going to work in the medium that they're working on to try to replicate what was done on Broadway would have been foolish, obviously. Anything else you want to add about the radio hour?

[23:03] Albert Evans: No, except again, I would recommend that anyone who's interested in older musicals and operettas, go listen to these, because all of a sudden, you'll know what Madame Rosal Medice is all about.

[23:14] David Armstrong: Exactly. And I think it's one of the closest ways you can get to the great waltz, because you're hearing the original lyrics, you're hearing parts of the original book, you're getting a real sense of the main story. Yeah, you get two or three of the most essential plot points to understand what the great waltz really was about. And that's probably, even if you saw the great waltz, that's all you would remember in two or three months, were those two or three plot points. So I think you're getting a real sense of what Mosshart contributed to this. So now let's move on to talk about the following year, which was the 1955 television version of the great waltz. Don't go away. Albert and I will be back with more Broadway Nation right after this quick break.

[24:03] David Armstrong: Hi, this is David Armstrong, and if you're enjoying this episode, I strongly suspect that you will want to read my new book, Broadway Nation, How Immigrant Jewish Queer and Black Artist Invented the Broadway Musical. On sale now wherever books are sold, and I'm very happy to report that the early reviews have been terrific. The esteemed author Jeffrey Bloch says that Broadway Nation is a fascinating, comprehensive, and timely gem of a book that more than lives up to its promise of delivering no less than five books in one. Kudos to David Armstrong. And Tony Award-winning lyricist David Zippel says that David Armstrong's insightful history of the evolution of the Broadway musical and its creators is captivating and comprehensive, as well as indispensable.

The book is, of course, available on Amazon, but I recommend that you go to the publisher's website, bloomsbury.com, where you will currently receive a 10% discount. Again, like the podcast that inspired it, the book is titled Broadway Nation, How Immigrant Jewish Queer and Black Artist Invented the Broadway Musical. Now, back to the show.

[25:08] Albert Evans: So, let's move on to talk about the 1955 television version of The Great Waltz. Now, I have a confession. I had not watched that until this very afternoon that we're recording, so I'm probably still confused about the plot. So, David, you're going to have to cue me a lot in this, but it was a very interesting version in that they tried to do what they could to turn it into a 1950s musical comedy.

[25:40] David Armstrong: Absolutely. It feels like they know they're in the heart of the golden age of Broadway, whether anybody called it that or not. They understood what was going on in this world. And as we said, it's part of this wave of television musicals happening at the time where the golden age is coming to television. And so they're crafting the show. They're trying to push it in that direction. And in fact, in the process, they create an entirely new book and an entirely

[26:03] David Armstrong: ...new set of lyrics. We'll talk about how that happened along the way. They take great pains at the beginning to tell you this is a Max Liebman production, and Max Liebman was a big television producer, and he produced many of these Broadway adaptations during the period, like a dozen of them. And I think he put together sort of a company to make these happen in terms of the creative team. So at the very beginning of this, you see a big S.H.I.E.L.D. logo that has a big M, L, on it. You just know that at least he thinks he's a big deal.

[26:36] Albert Evans: Right. And the voiceover artist thinks he's a big deal, too, because this is a Max Liebman production. It seems to be a vehicle for Patrice Munsel. Talk about who was Patrice Munsel.

[26:47] David Armstrong: Well, she was, again, a crossover opera operetta star, and she does a number of these things. Later in her career, I actually worked with her on—I don't know how many of you know about the Ben Bagley series of albums. It's always, This Broadway Composer Revisited. And she was on one of them, and I had to go interview her and prep her at her—where was it she lived? She lived in some fancy hotel in her very elegant hotel suite. One of these residential hotels that people lived in at the time.

[27:11] Albert Evans: Yeah, residential. And it was just all so beautiful, and I was terrified. I was so cowed by this. I felt like I had walked into a Hollywood movie, and I was just there to sort of deliver music and say, What key do you want this in?

[27:32] David Armstrong: And you had grown up seeing her at Kenley Players, hadn't you?

[27:35] Albert Evans: Yeah, yeah. She was in a number of Kenley Players, the summer theater circuit that David and I grew up with in Ohio. But she was always lovely Patrice Munsel in whatever. And she was lovely. Of course, when we saw her and when you worked with her, this was later in her career. This is being produced at the height of her career, when she was a surprisingly big star for an opera singer.

[27:58] David Armstrong: Yeah, but she, like Gordon MacRae, was someone who was known to the wider television audience. They knew her. They would come see her. And she gets top billing. I mean, she's Patrice Munsel in The Great Waltz. And then the other stars who are of note as well are billed below her. And those are Keith Andes, who is a very handsome, very talented baritone, who some people may remember. He had a number of television credits, but also I think for musical theater fans, he played opposite Lucille Ball in Wildcat.

[28:31] Albert Evans: Exactly, in Wildcat. And he's a big, hunky guy who can really sing and is quite charming.

[28:40] David Armstrong: Can sing really well. Yeah, yeah, but is not affected in any way. He's sort of the ideal 1950s leading man. And Burt Lahr.

[28:52] Albert Evans: And Burt Lahr, of all people, yeah, in his older Burt Lahr stage, where he does Waiting for Godot, and he does this.

[28:59] David Armstrong: Exactly. They're the stars of this. And let's talk a little bit about who wrote it, which took us a little while to figure out. I mean, there are credits that roll at the end, but you have to pay really attention to figure out. It's a little hard to tell because it was still under copyright. They had to credit primarily the original writers from the 1930s, because they still owned the copyright. They were still getting royalties from this.

[29:26] Albert Evans: Exactly. And they all get credited. The original writers from the London version and Moss Hart all receive credit. But then it scrolls down and it says television play by William Freedley and Neil Simon.

[29:38] David Armstrong: Interesting. But Neil Simon was writing a lot of television at that time. And you can kind of tell because a lot of it is very jokey. There are these sort of anachronistic, not references, but just the style of the jokes can get a little borscht-filled at times in this particular version of The Great Waltz. And you go, wait a minute, you know, people are saying smart-alecky things to each other.

[30:05] Albert Evans: Yeah. Again, trying to make it feel like a 1950s musical comedy. And in fact, it does feel that way. It's not one of the A-list ones, but a B-list one.

[30:11] David Armstrong: Let's then talk about the score. The music is adapted by Erwin Kostal. Tell us a little about who Erwin Kostal was.

[30:16] Albert Evans: Erwin Kostal was one of the top guys, the top arrangers in Broadway and Hollywood. And I'm talking about top. It's like he co-orchestrated West Side Story, the Broadway production, not the movie, with Leonard Bernstein. Leonard Bernstein picked him to help him bring this show to the stage. He orchestrated the original Music Man, which has some very elaborate, very clever dance music. The library dance just goes on and on. It's very like, whoa, this sounds very modern. And yet, period, at the same time. And you started to say the dance at the gym, but both shows do have a dance in the gym.

[31:00] David Armstrong: They do. So that's not wrong. Put him in the gym, he'll write background music. He'll write great dance music for it. And he was big in television at the time. And in fact, he worked with Max Liebman on most of these Broadway adaptations. And then he did the Gary Moore show. He did the Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall orchestrations, Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett. Actually, to me, they're legendary. They're great arrangements.

[31:23] Albert Evans: That is a great show. Even the album, the cast album of that is so enjoyable to listen to. And how many TV shows have a cast album number one? And I grew up with that cast album before I ever saw. I was too young to see the show originally. And then it wasn't until years later when they reissued it that I actually saw the TV version of it. So Erwin Kostal is a major player, and he does heavy adaptation of these, including turning one of the Strauss songs into a tango.

[31:51] David Armstrong: Yeah, I figured it's 1950s. We have to have a tango.

[31:55] Albert Evans: Oscar putting these Latin songs in Pajama Game, Damn Yankees. We need a tango.

[32:00] David Armstrong: And my darling, you're much too close to me. Just a touch too close to me.

[32:17] ♪ Musical number: "I Hate the Waltz" — performed by Burt Lahr ♪

[33:08] ♪ Musical number: "I Hate the Waltz" — performed by Burt Lahr ♪

[34:10] David Armstrong: You kind of hear this. But what is impressive is that I don't know how much time they had to put these shows together. Months, I would assume at the most. And he writes an entirely new set of lyrics for many more songs. Quite a few other Strauss pieces that are adapted for this and given new lyrics, including Burt Lahr has a song. In this version, Rezzy's father is a baker, as he was in the Hitchcock movie, and he's also a cafe owner, as he is in most every version. But he is given, because it's Burt Lahr, he's a big musical comedy star. You're not going to sit there for 90 minutes and not have him have a song. And they adapt the laughing song from Die Fledermaus to give him a song called I Hate the Waltz.

[34:52] Albert Evans: Which lets him do his, like, I hate the Waltz.

[34:56] David Armstrong: Exactly. You know, the cowardly lion. He does that. He gets to do all his Burt Lahr shtick in that and throughout. And he's pretty funny. He doesn't have the best material he's ever had in the dialogue, but he does it. He says, I'm Burt Lahr. I'm going to make this funny.

[35:12] Albert Evans: Exactly. And he does. The Countess in this version is reduced to just being a madam. By that, I mean, she doesn't run a whorehouse, but she is just madam so-and-so. But she's still a very similar character. She's very grand. She's trying to put the moves on Strauss Jr. And she's in conflict with Rezzy. There's a love triangle, conflict going on between them, as in the original version.

[35:37] David Armstrong: And isn't she from Budapest or someplace?

[35:39] Albert Evans: Yes.

[35:40] David Armstrong: She has mysterious money from Budapest. And she's always threatening to, well, if I can't make you a star here, come back with me to Budapest.

[35:48] Albert Evans: Yeah. She's working her wiles. She, again, eventually works with Rezzy to manipulate the situation so that Strauss...

[36:00] David Armstrong: She's not a terrible person. She's just, she's an older woman and she picks up these handsome men. And she has a romance for like nine months. And then they're going to get married and they have a big wedding cake. But instead, the wedding cake becomes the, we're breaking up cake.

[36:12] Albert Evans: Exactly. And she has a song at the very beginning about how she loves him and leaves him, basically. There's a couple of very odd pieces of material in the show. Young Strauss is rehearsing his orchestra and has sort of this very odd piece of what feels like special material as he's encouraging the orchestra, telling them how to play the music and what they should be thinking about and what the music means. And it's quite long.

[36:39] David Armstrong: It's quite too long.

[36:42] Albert Evans: But it's interesting. I've never seen anything quite like it. It's clearly there to give Keith Andes a big moment because Patrice Munsel is going to sing the Blue Danube at the end, and he's going to wave his arms. So I think this was his moment. What are we going to give Keith Andes to shine? And during that musical monologue, there's these cleaning women scrubbing the floor behind him the whole time. You're like, what is that cleaning woman doing back there? Scrubbing the floor. It's very distracting, number one.

[37:09] David Armstrong: And there seems to be no payoff for this. It's just like, I guess, just to show that it's during the day. It's not a performance.

[37:15] Albert Evans: Then what does pay off, I guess, if that's the word, is that then Rezzy comes in. They have a fight. She ends up singing a song. And that cleaning woman and a whole chorus of cleaning women just sort of show up around her like, well, there's only one. Now, all of a sudden, there's six of them. And they're advising Rezzy about how to deal with men.

[37:35] David Armstrong: They're like the I'm not at all from Pajama Game.

[37:38] Albert Evans: Totally. I'm going to wash that man right out of my hair. And I think they're telling her scrub your troubles away or something like that. That's not exactly the title, but that's the idea.

[37:48] David Armstrong: And then the tango has a verse to it, which I said to Albert during, well, that seems like we just stepped out of The Most Happy Fella now. It was very reminiscent of the comedy characters in The Most Happy Fella. Interestingly, Strauss Sr. actually doesn't show up in this version till two thirds of the way through. I wasn't sure he was going to show up at all. But there he is. And the conflict is played out in a very similar manner to the way it was in the original.

[38:16] Albert Evans: And as in most versions, Rezzy stands up to him. She's the one who sees that he's jealous and unfair and is willing to tell him off and stand up for some reason. This time it works.

[38:30] David Armstrong: She does it twice. And the first time he says something snotty to her and leaves. This time she does it. And he suddenly picks up a piece of his son's music, looks at it and goes, hmm, this is really very good. And what?

[38:44] Albert Evans: Exactly. And then the show ends with the debut of an operetta written by Strauss Jr. called The Great Waltz, which features, of course, the Blue Danube. And that's staged in a scene that I think is, again, hearkening back to what people would have in their mind from the original broadcast.

[39:05] David Armstrong: Welcome back to Broadway Nation. Today, we're continuing our exploration of "The Great Waltz" on radio and television.

[39:29] Albert Evans: Yes, it's fascinating to see how this musical was adapted for different media.

[39:53] David Armstrong: Absolutely. The original stage production was such a hit in 1934, and it's interesting to see how it translated to radio and TV.

[40:17] Albert Evans: The radio adaptation, for instance, featured Gordon MacRae, which was a big draw for audiences at the time.

[40:45] David Armstrong: Right, and the live television version had an impressive cast as well, including Patrice Munsel and Burt Lahr.

[41:13] Albert Evans: Both adaptations brought their own unique flair to the material, which is part of what makes them worth discussing.

[41:33] David Armstrong: Exactly. It's a great opportunity to rediscover these performances that many people may not be familiar with today.

[41:53] Albert Evans: And it's interesting to think about how the medium changes the way we experience the story and music.

[42:13] David Armstrong: Yes, the intimacy of radio versus the visual spectacle of television creates different connections with the audience.

[42:33] Albert Evans: Plus, the technology of the time influenced how these adaptations were produced.

[42:53] David Armstrong: That's a great point. The limitations and possibilities of radio and television in the 1950s shaped these performances significantly.

[43:13] Albert Evans: And let's not forget the cultural context. The 1950s were a different era for musical theater and entertainment.

[43:43] David Armstrong: Indeed, and "The Great Waltz" was a reflection of that time, even as it looked back to the earlier 20th century.

[44:03] Albert Evans: So, should we dive into the specifics of the radio adaptation first?

[44:15] David Armstrong: Yes, let's start with that. The radio version aired on "The Railroad Hour," which was quite popular.

[44:35] Albert Evans: It was a great platform for musical adaptations, and Gordon MacRae was a perfect fit for this material.

[44:55] David Armstrong: His voice really brought the romantic elements of the story to life.

[45:15] Albert Evans: And the way they adapted the score for radio was quite clever, making it accessible to listeners.

[45:43] David Armstrong: Right, they had to be mindful of the storytelling without the visual elements.

[45:45] Albert Evans: Exactly, and that required a different approach to the dialogue and music.

[45:51] David Armstrong: So, what were some standout moments from the radio adaptation?

[46:20] Albert Evans: There were several, but the way they handled the big musical numbers was particularly impressive.

[46:28] David Armstrong: Yes, they really captured the essence of the show, even without the staging.

[46:36] Albert Evans: And the performances were top-notch, which helped convey the emotion of the story.

[46:56] David Armstrong: Now, moving on to the television adaptation, it was quite a spectacle, wasn't it?

[47:16] Albert Evans: It really was! The live aspect added an exciting energy that you don't get with radio.

[47:36] David Armstrong: And the visuals allowed for a more dynamic interpretation of the musical.

[47:56] Albert Evans: Plus, the cast brought their own charisma to the roles, which was a treat for viewers.

[48:16] David Armstrong: Absolutely, and the production values were impressive for the time.

[48:36] Albert Evans: They really went all out to create a memorable experience for the audience.

[48:56] David Armstrong: So, in comparing the two adaptations, what do you think stands out the most?

[49:16] Albert Evans: I think the radio version excels in its storytelling through sound, while the television version shines in its visual presentation.

[49:44] David Armstrong: That's a great way to put it. Each medium has its strengths and weaknesses.

[50:04] Albert Evans: And both adaptations serve as a reminder of the enduring appeal of "The Great Waltz."

[50:24] David Armstrong: Definitely. It's a fascinating piece of Broadway history that deserves to be remembered.

[50:44] Albert Evans: I hope our listeners feel inspired to seek out these adaptations and experience them for themselves.

[51:04] David Armstrong: Yes, and if you missed our earlier episodes in this series, be sure to check those out as well.

[51:24] Albert Evans: There's so much to uncover in the world of lost Broadway musicals.

[51:44] David Armstrong: Thank you for joining us today as we explored "The Great Waltz" on radio and television.