Sherry!

Some musicals eclipse their source material. Others just add songs. The Man Who Came to Dinner remains a delightful comedy while Sherry! is rightfully forgotten. In 2004 an all star cast was assembled for a studio cast album of the score. The problems were laid clear. The three act play was squished awkwardly into two acts and the generic songs never quite fit the characters. The secretary got ingenue ballads (Elizabeth Allen /Bernadette Peters), the diva got the belty numbers (Dolores Gray / Carol Burnett), but poor Sheridan Whiteside (George Sanders / Clive Revill / Nathan Lane) was stuck with dull Henry Higgins patter and a bizarre dream ballet.

A fuzzy recording remains of Dolores Gray belting the title song. Critics agreed she was the best thing in the show but she wasn't onstage long enough to carry the show.

Marc Miller's review of the recording ended with: "The deluxe presentation and drop-dead cast seem a little silly under the circumstances; you can take hamburger, dress it up with spices and fancy cheeses, flip it onto a silver platter and call it steak haché au gorgonzola, but it'll still be hamburger."

The Opposite Sex

By most accounts the 2008 remake of The Women was bad. The sexual politics of 1939 did not sit well in the 21st century. The sharp banter was replaced with flat sitcom humor.

The 1956 remake of The Women isn't bad per se... merely unnecessary. The mediocre songs don't comment on the plot or characters. Adding a male cast removes a gimmick and leaves the actors nothing to do. They are just sort of there. The female cast holds there own. Joan Collins is an ideal Crystal, setting a template for future roles. Dolores Gray provides a fresh take on Sylvia, standing apart from Rosalind Russell. June Allyson gives the leading lady some spine, improving in some ways on Norma Shearer's dewy performance.

Crystal is upgraded from shop clerk to fashion model allowing for some gorgeous gowns and catwalk strutting. Allyson gets a sexy nightclub number to establish that she's no naive ingenue. Gray throws herself gamely into every scene including a brawl with Ann Miller! Sadly the film lost money, providing Gray with yet another flop.

Edit: And here's Jeanette Winterson's marvelous analysis of the 1939 film. 

It's Always Fair Weather

Why hello pen and ink! It's been a while. Yes I still love you. No you aren't as easy to correct as digital art.

Betty Comden described this cynical follow up to On The Town as a study of "the corrosive nature of time on friendship." This forgotten musical flopped in 1955 but fascinates in 2016. Several of the creatives hate each other off screen as well as on and the tension is palpable.

Dolores Gray plays Madeline Bradville, the self-absorbed host of a reality television show. She's introduced with a bland ballad titled "Music is Better than Words," than vanishes. The story isn't about her. It's about the three unhappy soldiers and Gene Kelly's romance with Cyd Charisse. Then, at the last minute Dolores Gray re-appears to sing the bizarre and fascinating 11 o'clock number "Thanks a Lot but No Thanks." Any fan of musical theatre and/or camp should click the link and watch it right now. Gray complained that the role was "an ageless, sexless caricature" but she scorches the screen in this song.

Carnival in Flanders

I'm a big fan of Dolores Gray. She had the voice, the looks, and the talent to become a star. She had delightful comic timing which she could dial up to camp when required. Sadly she also had a penchant for flops. She's the highlight of several dull films and energized several flop musicals.

Dolores claims the choice to retire from show biz was hers. She left  to start a family. In an interview she said "I'd been working since I was a youngster,.. I loved show business, but it became everything to me. I wanted to have a normal life, to get married, and I waited a long time to choose the man."

Not much remains of Carnival in Flanders. Do a search on YouTube and you get a dance clip from the Ed Sullivan show and renditions of the breakout ballad "Here's That Rainy Day." There was no cast recording and there have been no Encores revivals. The show has a footnote in musical theatre books for Dolores Gray's Tony. As of 2016 she sets the record for the shortest lived show (6 performances) to win a Tony Award. It was her first leading role on Broadway.

In Kevin Madelbaum's book, Not Since Carrie, he writes "(The film) La kermesse heroique had musical possibilities, but Carnival in Flanders' flat plodding book, full of lame jokes, destroyed them. The score was considerably better, with a lot of opportunities for Gray to unfurl one of the theatre's best voices."

In 2005 Peter Filichia reported some backstage gossip from John Raitt and understudy Susan Johnson.

EDIT: Thank you to the gentlemen who pointed me towards two more songs from the score.
Lena Horne singing the opening number, Ring the Bell.
Bobby Short singing I'm One Of Your Admirers.

Kismet

Our palaces are gaudier,
Our alley ways are bawdier,
Our princes more autocratic here,
Our beggars more distinctly aromatic here!

I love the score to Kismet! The original production was a success and Dolores Gray brings the fun in an uneven film, but the show's parade of sexy stereotypes make it a tougher sell than Disney's Aladdin to a modern audience.

Destry Rides Again

All this talent and labor has been squandered on a conventional Western story written by Leonard Gershe and based on a story by Max Brand. There are times when it seems to be a cartoon on the Western stencil. It seems to be poking fun at itself, hoping to have its cake and eat it also. ~ Brooks Atkinson. New York Times.

Destry Rides Again is a comedy and could easily be played for full blown camp, ala Blazing Saddles. Still Deputy Destry and the two unfortunate sheriffs carry a kernel of drama. Jimmy Stewart’s Destry refused to carry a gun… until he did… in the 1939 film. Andy Griffith’s Destry tricks the villain into betraying his henchmen, who take swift revenge. 

While Destry drives the plot the redemptive arc goes to Frenchy. Legend has it that the diva-tastic Dolores Gray’s temper kept her from achieving full stardom. In Destry Rides Again she got a dandy vehicle that featured her in nine songs. Marlene Dietrich died in Stewart’s arms but Gray got to walk with him into the sunset.