The Billy Barnes Revue
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| The Billy Barnes Revue | |
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| Cover of Original Cast Recording | |
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| Music | Billy Barnes |
| Lyrics | Billy Barnes |
| Book | Bob Rodgers |
The Billy Barnes Revue is a 1959 musical comedy revue with music and lyrics by Billy Barnes and sketches by Bob Rodgers that transferred from a successful run in Los Angeles to the off-Broadway York Playhouse on June 9, 1959 and subsequently opened on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre on July 13, 1959. After 87 performances, the show played three additional weeks at the Lyceum Theatre and then reopened off-Broadway for another six weeks at the Carnegie Hall Playhouse.
The show is best remembered for its acclaimed cast of newcomers, including Bert Convy, Ken Berry, Ann Guilbert, Jackie Joseph, Len Weinrib and Joyce Jameson. Later cast replacements included Jo Anne Worley, Charles Nelson Reilly and Larry Hovis. One of the show's songs, "Too Long At The Fair" was recorded by Barbra Streisand, Sue Raney and Patti Page, among others.
A follow-up revue, The Billy Barnes People, opened at the Royale Theatre June 13, 1961 and closed four days later after only seven performances. Barnes continued to produce successful revues in Los Angeles, but none of his later shows moved to Broadway.
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[edit] Background
In 1952, actress Joyce Jameson graduated from UCLA and married songwriter Billy Barnes. Their first collaboration was a new musical comedy called Baby Face O'Flynn, for which she wrote the book and played the lead role and he wrote the music and lyrics. The show opened in the summer of 1952 at the Gallery Stage Theatre in Los Angeles. The run of the show was cut short when Jameson became pregnant.[1] For the next few years, Jameson found work, first by writing television scripts, and then by playing small parts in films and on television shows. She and Barnes were divorced during this period, but would continue to work together into the 1960s.
[edit] Los Angeles Production
In 1956, Barnes and sketch writer/director Bob Rodgers opened The Billy Barnes Revue at the "hole-in-the-ground" Cabaret Concert Theatre in Los Angeles. According to Barnes, "It's a nightclub, and people said that’s where we belonged. We were advised not to get ambitious." [2] Producer Paul Gregory planned to bring the production to New York in January of 1957 under the title Focus No. 1, but the transfer did not happen.[3]
At one point, some producers decided to tour the show throughout California with just the music and no sketches, a venture which was quickly dropped. Meanwhile, the original show continued performances at the Cabaret Concert Theatre for nearly two years. It then played briefly at the Mocambo and the Crescendo in Los Angeles and at the hungry i in San Francisco. In 1958, Jameson, who had left the show to pursue her television career, returned to Los Angeles from New York City (where she had been appearing as the "honey girl" on The Steve Allen Show and as a regular on Spike Jones' NBC series, Club Oasis),[4]). She rejoined the cast of the show when it opened at the Las Palmas Theater in October 1958.[5] When the original cast took the show to New York City eight months later, a new cast, including Jo Anne Worley, continued the run for a total of 48 weeks.
[edit] Off-Broadway Production
The Billy Barnes Revue, with original cast members Joyce Jameson, Bert Convy, Patti Regan, Ken Berry, Ann Guilbert, Jackie Joseph, Len Weinrib and sketch writer/director Bob Rodgers, opened at the York Playhouse (First Avenue and East 64th Street) in New York City on June 9, 1959.[6] The production was produced by George Eckstein (Ann Guilbert's husband) in association with Bob Reese. Billy Barnes was the musical director, with Armin Hoffman on the second piano.
The New York Times review by Lewis Funke started out well ("A crisply played and highly polished little entertainment called The Billy Barnes Revue arrived at the York Theatre on First Avenue last night), but found the material lacking ("...the trouble is that they have not given the material the edge, sharpness and point of view that would have made it truly comic"). Although Funke had high praise for the cast, he added "...Too often are the performers superior to the writers and the composers."[7] Overall, however, the reviews were largely positive, and 35 additional investors contributed the extra money needed to move the show from the York Playhouse to Broadway.[8]
[edit] Broadway Production
The Billy Barnes Revue moved to the John Golden Theatre on July 13, 1959. Barnes was so unknown in New York, that many people confused him with the actress Binnie Barnes. "It's discouraging to stand in front of the theatre before the show," Barnes told a reporter, "and hear people say, 'I'm looking forward to seeing Binnie Barnes again. I haven't seen her in years.'"[9]
Decca Records released an Original Cast Album of the production in September.
To make way for the British revue, At the Drop of a Hat, the show closed on September 26th at the Golden and transferred on September 28 to the Lyceum Theatre, where it had to close on October 17th to make way for a new play, The Flowering Cherry.[10]
[edit] Off-Broadway Again
Following its three week run at the Lyceum Theatre, rather than closing down for good, the showed moved off-Broadway again to the Carnegie Hall Playhouse on October 20, 1959. Producers George Cayley, George Brandt and Samuel J. Friedman acquired the rights[11] from Eckstein, who remained with the production as stage manager and performed the role vacated by Bert Convy (who had recently gotten married).[12]
A controversy erupted when Barnes, Guilbert, Berry, Joseph, Regan, Rodgers, Weinrib and Eckstein flew to Chicago to tape an episode of ABC-TV's Playboy's Penthouse, produced by Hugh Hefner's Playboy Magazine, and failed to make their flight back to New York in time for the Tuesday, October 27th performance. As a result, the Tuesday night performance was cancelled and $800 had to be returned to the ticket holders.
Eckstein sent a telegram to the producers stating that the cast had made a "frantically conscientious effort to return to New York by curtain time as numerous impartial witnesses can testify; a dispatching error resulted in misconnections," but rather than simply recognizing the value of the network television publicity, the management filed a complaint with Actors Equity Association and the American Federation of Musicians (of which Barnes was a member). "There’s no excuse for missing a show," declared the producers' lawyer, Benjamin Schankman. "They shouldn't have gone to Chicago if they could not arrange to get back in time. An agreement is an agreement."[13]
Although one of the producers, Samuel J. Friedman, denied that their decision was a retaliatory action, two weeks later, the entire cast (except Virginia de Luce, who had replaced Jameson) was replaced by Ronnie Cunningham, Arlene Fontana, Jane Johnston, Larry Hovis, James Inman, Tom Williams and Charles Nelson Reilly.[14]
The cast change proved to be a major mistake and the show closed on Saturday, November 28th after just six weeks at the Carnegie Hall Playhouse. Ironically, the promotional appearance on Playboy's Penthouse by the original cast members did not air until Saturday, December 5th, one week after the show had closed.[15]
A few months later, Charles Nelson Reilly would get his first Broadway credit as stand-by to Dick Van Dyke in Bye Bye Birdie. Several of the original cast members (Berry, Joseph, Jameson and Regan) returned to Los Angeles and began work on a new show, The Billy Barnes People, which would play only seven performances on Broadway in June of 1961. Jackie Joseph and Ken Berry were married on May 29, 1960 (they divorced in 1976). Bert Convy appeared in the movie Susan Slade and on several TV shows, then returned to Broadway as Perchik in Fiddler on the Roof (1964) and Cliff in Cabaret (1966). Ann Guilbert played next-door-neighbor Millie Helper on The Dick Van Dyke Show from 1961 to 1965. Ken Berry would later star as Captain Wilton Parmenter on F Troop and Sam Jones on Mayberry RFD.
[edit] Songs on the Cast Album
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[edit] References
- ^ Kansas City Star, April 20, 1958, "Her Comedy Is Based On Actions Of Real People", pg 10D
- ^ Kansas City Star, August 30, 1959, "Billy Barnes Plays the Long Shots – and Wins" by Jim Morse, pg 4E
- ^ Press Telegram (Long Beach, CA), September 19, 1956, "New York to See Delightful Hollywood Revue"
- ^ Internet Movie Database Spike Jones' NBC series, Club Oasis
- ^ Lima (Ohio) News, August 13, 1960, Entertainment Section page 11, "Joyce Jameson Is A Girl Of Many Faces"
- ^ The New York Times, Sam Zolotow column, May 15, 1959
- ^ The New York Times review by Lewis Funke, Singing Revue; Billy Barnes' Show Opens at the York, Wednesday, June 10, 1959, Page 42
- ^ The New York Times, Sam Zolotow column, "Revue Will Move To Golden Theatre" July 22, 1959
- ^ Kansas City Star, August 30, 1959, “Billy Barnes Plays the Long Shots – and Wins” by Jim Morse, pg 4E
- ^ The New York Times, September 21, 1959, "Barnes Revue Gets Home"
- ^ The New York Times, October 15, 1959, "Billy Barnes To Move"
- ^ The New York Times, Photo caption, October 8, 1959, "Cupid's Partner"
- ^ New York Times, October 29, 1959, "Revue Producers Censure Its Cast"
- ^ The New York Times, November 12, 1959, Sam Zolotow column, "New Cast Signed for Barnes Revue"
- ^ The New York Times, November 30, 1959, "Revue Members To Appear On TV"
