Opening Night at 'Promises, Promises'

Burt Bacharach and Hal David

Burt Bacharach and Hal David were the pre-eminent songwriters of the 1960s, but they were neophytes on Broadway when their Promises, Promises opened in late 1968.

That debut was highly anticipated and did not disappoint, with reviews that ranged from respectful to ecstatic, and a subsequent run that lasted for more than three years. Even so, Promises, Promises did not win the 1969 Tony for Best Musical - that honor went to 1776, with a score by Sherman Edwards, another Brill Building veteran who had written songs with Hal David. 

Promises, Promises was a hot property, so an original cast album was rushed to market by United Artists Records. That company also sent well-known disk jockey Fred Robbins to the opening night and the cast party to interview the production principals and theatre nobility who turned out for the occasion. The result was a one-hour promotional LP sent out to DJs around the country. 

This post combines the original cast album and that promotional album, adding the demo tracks that Bacharach and studio vocalists recorded in advance of the production.

The Cast Album

While I love the score and the performers immoderately, I have to admit that I've never seen Promises, Promises on stage, nor have I watched the Billy Wilder-I.A.L. Diamond film The Apartment, which formed the basis of Neil Simon's Promises, Promises book.

Jerry Orbach

Going on the aural evidence, the musical was well cast, starting with Jerry Orbach as protagonist Chuck Baxter. Orbach made his name in the enormously long-running off-Broadway musical, The Fantasticks, where in 1960 he introduced Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt's "Try to Remember." He had recently finished a long run in Bruce Jay Friedman's off-Broadway comedy Scuba Duba. 

Some critics complained about Orbach's singing in Promises, Promises, and in truth it is not note-perfect. Bacharach's music is not easy to sing - even the supposedly folk-style "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" (which is actually a straightforward pop song).

Orbach did have a strong, appealing voice, and more importantly he was experienced in comedy and could make sympathetic the morally-ambiguous character of Chuck Baxter. This everyman quality was to become his most famous attribute later in life in his role as Detective Lennie Briscoe on the long-running television program Law & Order.

In contrast, the excellent actor Edward Winter played the all-too-caddish J.D. Sheldrake, whose own self-doubts are only revealed in the superb song "Wanting Things." Winter, too, was a fallible singer, but emotion is key to his performance, and he is skillful in that regard.

Edward Winter and Jill O'Hara

Female lead Jill O'Hara, who played Fran Kubelik, was a strong singer who made her name in the landmark off-Broadway production of Hair. Like Orbach, she had introduced an iconic song: "Good Morning, Starshine." In Promises, Promises she sings two of the finest numbers, both sadly overlooked these days - "Whoever You Are (I Love You)" and "Knowing When to Leave." Her powerful and passionate singing is immensely appealing. Painfully shy, O'Hara later withdrew from the Broadway stage into regional theatre and cabaret performances. Her older sister Jenny, in contrast, has been a consistently busy actor - including as a successor to Jill in the original run of Promises, Promises.

Promises, Promises was the first big success for the 25-year-old choreographer Michael Bennett, one of the most important figures in the musical theatre of the time. Fortunately, his frenetic staging of the song "Turkey Lurkey Time" was reproduced for the 1969 Tony Award show and can be seen on YouTube, as danced by Baayork Lee, Julane Stites and the illustrious Donna McKechnie, who was later briefly married to Bennett.

Turkey Lurkey Time

The download includes the Playbill from the original production, several reviews of both the staging and the cast album and many additional production photos. There also is a fascinating article about how Bacharach recording engineer Phil Ramone reproduced the sound of the composer's recordings in the theater. Considering how meticulous Bacharach is about sound, it's surprising that one of the more recent reissues of this recording went so far as to correct the pitch of some vocal passages. I wonder if that was necessary. Bacharach himself is hardly a virtuoso vocalist. He perhaps is more concerned with feeling than accuracy.  

The young Jonathan Tunick is credited with the orchestrations for the show, which ate similar to the ones that Bacharach himself produced for his pop recordings. Tunick of course later went on to a distinguished career, including a close association with Stephen Sondheim.

Jerry Orbach, Jill O'Hara, director Robert Moore, Neil Simon, producer David Merrick, Edward Winter with Burt Bacharach at the piano

Opening Night at the Shubert Theater

Fred Robbins

The promotional LP, Opening Night at the Shubert Theatre, was primarily taped at the cast party held at the El Morocco night club on the East side of Manhattan. Longtime disc jockey Fred Robbins interviewed the celebrities on hand, who apparently were exclusively friends of the principals, along with Bacharach's parents and then-wife, actor Angie Dickinson.

Three of the interviewees were identified with Hello, Dolly!, producer David Merrick's greatest hit: the original Dolly Levi, Carol Channing, her successor, Pearl Bailey, and Cab Calloway, who had taken over the role of Horace Vandergelder.

El Morocco

Also caught on mic were Neil Simon, Herb Alpert, Milton Berle, director Sidney Lumet, columnist Leonard Lyons, and actors George Segal and Ben Gazzara.

In sending the record to radio stations, United Artists hoped they would play it as an hour-long special. The download includes the instructions to program directors as to how this could be accomplished, along with timings of the various interview blocks and excerpts from the cast album.

My copy of the promo LP was apparently unplayed, but still had a few pressing faults that I hope won't be too distracting.

The download also includes an article on the musical's opening night and cast party.

The Demo Recordings

In June 1968, Bacharach engaged several of the best studio vocalists to make demo recordings of his Promises, Promises score. The resulting 10-song set is particularly interesting because it includes three numbers that did not make it into the Broadway production. Two were cut in the out-of-town tryouts: "Tick Tock Goes The Clock" and "What Am I Doing Here?" Another was not used at all: the curiously odious "Let's Pretend We're Grown Up."

Kenny Karen

Two of the singers have appeared on this blog before, if tangentially: Rose Mary Jun and Bernie Knee. Both are fine talents, and Jun is very convincing in "Whoever You Are (I Love You)." The other principal vocalist is the young Kenny Karen, later a prolific singer of ad jingles. When you listen to Karen, you may notice pre-echoes of B.J. Thomas' vocal approach on the slightly later Bacharach hit, "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head."

The vocal sound is good, but the piano is not in great shape and is too loud.

Burt on Stage

Considering the immense success of Promises, Promises, it may be surprising that Bacharach has never attempted another Broadway book musical - although there have been revues using his songs, including a planned musical staging of My Best Friend's Wedding. He and Hal David did compose the songs for the 1973 film musical of Lost Horizon, a failure that broke up Bacharach and David's partnership. (You can read Roger Ebert's evisceration of the film here.) 

But then, it may have been difficult to reproduce Promises' success, considering that the talents working on that production were among the best the theatre had to offer. We can be grateful that they did come together for this one notable achievement.