Happy Hunting

Well, any excuse to spend my night off in Greenwich Village, of course, and here was a perfect one. The tiny stage of the legendary Duplex cabaret in Christopher Street was playing host to the first New York revival of the 1956 Ethel Merman vehicle HAPPY HUNTING.

This company called Opening Doors has already produced 12 such flopolas as BRING BACK BIRDIE, SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING, FADE OUT-FADE IN, SUPERMAN and WHOOP-UP under similar conditions over the past five years. One piano, the show adapted to 80 minutes running time, no set, minimal costuming and a lot of goodwill. The plot of HAPPY HUNTING is simple: Mega-rich but common as muck widow Liz Livingstone arrives in Monaco with daughter Beth for the wedding of Princess Grace. Turns out they weren't invited but Liz meets the handsome Duke of Granada and decides to marry him off to Beth and eclipse the "official" Royal Wedding. She falls for the Duke herself, natch, but discovers he is penniless and fears he only wants her for her millions. I shall not bore you with further details. The script is surprisingly smutty and Merman's character Liz seems to be an amalgam of Annie Oakley, Molly Brown, Dolly Levi and Auntie Mame (she even has a whole subplot about having to ride in a foxhunt to impress the Duke when she can't ride a horse.). Still, I was surprised by how flavorful some of the score is with "Mutual Admiration Society", "New Fangled Tango" and "Mr. Livingstone" in the mix and some uncredited contributions by Kay Thompson & Roger Edens including "Gee, But it's Good to be Here". There are a couple of very jolly novelty numbers for a trio of photographers, "The Wedding-of-the Year Blues" and "Everyone Who's 'Whos Who'", and the title song is very jaunty.

Lovely performances from Sarah Lilley as daughter Beth and Warren Freeman as society playboy Sanford Stewart who falls for her. His ballad, "She's Just Another Girl", was my fave of the night.

Leading lady Elizabeth Loos was of the "stand and yell your lines while pulling faces" school but she nailed the songs and any reservations I had about anything else fell away when the entire cast crowded on to that stage in tap shoes for the title song and I found myself beaming like a fool. Why they were wearing tap shoes for a foxhunt doesn't bear thinking about...

HAPPY HUNTING is probably best remembered these days for the feud between Merman and her leading man Fernando Lamas, a movie matinee idol who had never appeared on the Broadway stage. My favourite story involves the first day of rehearsal when the director was blocking their first scene together. After a few minutes Lamas stopped the rehearsal and said in his charming Argentinian accent, "Excuse me, but is this how it is going to be?"
"What do you mean, Fernando?" asked Abe Burrows.
"I mean, will I always address my lines to Miss Merman and then she will deliver her lines out front to the audience?"
There was shocked silence. Everyone held their breath to see what would happen next. Merman rose up to her full height. "Mister Lamas", she said frostily, "I have been delivering my lines on Broadway the same way for the past twenty five years."
"That doesn't make you right", replied Fernando. "It just makes you old."

As far as Merman was concerned war had been declared. Fernando felt there was no way he could compete with her talents onstage so he ordered all his costumes altered to accentuate his renowned and considerable "manhood". Opening night in Philadelphia there were audible gasps when he walked onstage and soon he was the talk of the town. Merman was outraged and demanded the costumes be returned to their original state. Lamas compounded the injury by joking on a tv talk show about having to kiss Merman every night and she stopped speaking to him.

That's Estelle Parsons in the white hat second from right. She was in the chorus, as was Betty McGuire, soon to be Australia's Hedy La Rue in HOW TO SUCCEED. This shot of the curtain call reminds me that on the last night of the show Merman ripped the back of her dress in the final scene. She knew that the last moment of the show required her and Lamas to walk upstage and she hissed to Fernando, "If you turn me around, I'll kill you." Lamas grinned broadly, obviously enjoying her discomfort, then at the very last second he took off his overcoat, draped it over Merman's shoulders in a sweeping gesture to conceal the damage and walked her upstage as the curtain fell. I'm told it only made her more furious.

Thank heavens GYPSY was just around the corner.