Cy Coleman Carolyn Leigh Sid Caesar - Little Me 1962 Original Broadway Cast (16 tracks) +Album Reviews

ArkivMusic Brings a Wonderful Coleman/Leigh Musical Back fro

J. T Waldmann | Carmel, IN, home to the fabulous new Regional Perf | 08/08/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Long before the advent of Anna Nicole Smith and Paris Hilton (1961, to be exact), there "lived" another shapely blonde of dubious talent whose claim to fame consisted primarily of her notoriety. Her life story was the subject of Patrick Dennis' (author of "Mame") literary happening entitled "Little Me: The Intimate Memoirs of that Great Star of Stage, Screen and Television, Belle Poitrine (as told to Patrick Dennis)." "Considered pretty risqué at the time (several of [the] photographs were rejected by censors), LITTLE ME tells the rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-riches, etc. story of Maybelle Schlumfert, an overdeveloped and self-deluded girl who rises to become Belle Poitrine, (French for 'Pretty Bosom,' aka 'Gorgeous . . . '). (To fill in the blank, go to wikipedia.com, the source of these quotes.)

Belle's colorful - yet inspiring - story is the stuff of which Broadway musicals are made, and the authoress chose the young, up-and-coming playwright Neil Simon to transform her memorable prose (with help from Patrick Dennis) into a dramatic opus. However, at one point during their collaboration, Ms. Poitrine and Mr. Simon simultaneously shouted: "Let's rent a theater and do a musical!" When the news was broadcast on the front page of "Variety," Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh, great fans of Ms. Poitrine's memoir, practically broke down the door of Mr. Simon's suite at the Plaza in their eagerness to supply the music and the lyrics. And that, my friends, is how LITTLE ME, the musical, was born.

Well, maybe it didn't happen exactly that way. But it could have, were not Belle Poitrine merely a figment of Patrick Dennis' fertile imagination.

LITTLE ME opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 17, 1962 and ran for 257 performances. Sid Caesar, (7 Emmy nominations, 2 wins) gave bravura performances "in multiple roles with multiple stage accents, playing all of Belle's husbands, each of whom comes to a propitiously untimely end." Nancy Andrews won a Tony for portraying Old Belle, and Virginia Martin was her ditziest best as Young Belle. Swen Swenson, as one of Belle's suitors, oozes sex and sleaze with his show-stopping "I've Got Your Number."

LITTLE ME boasts one of Cy Coleman's most tuneful scores and some of Carolyn Leigh's most witty lyrics. (From "I Love You"): "Though other girls are so far above you./To show you I am democratic,/Considering you're riff-raff/And I am well-to-do." (From "The Other Side of the Tracks"): "And the muscles keeping your nose up/Are the only muscles you tax./Oh, I envy someone who grows up/On the other side of the tracks." And my personal favorite, "Real Live Girl," a waltz sung by World War I sad sack Fred Poitrine when he first sets eyes on Belle: "Pardon me, miss, but I've never done this/With a real live girl./Straight off the farm with an actual arm/Full of real live girl./Pardon me if your affectionate squeeze/Fogs up my glasses and buckles my knees,/I'm simply drowned in the sight and the sound/And the scent/and the feel/Of a real live girl."

LITTLE ME is a premier example of the kind of musical designed to do nothing more than entertain, and it does so in grand fashion. David Barbour ("The TheaterMania Guide to Musical Theater Recordings"), in giving the original RCA recording a 5-star rating, writes: "The album starts with one of the most exciting overtures ever and takes off from there, thanks to orchestrator Ralph Burns. With Cy Coleman's tough, sophisticated melodies perfectly matched to Carolyn Leigh's mind-bending word games, the entire score of LITTLE ME is a treat. . . . " Amen.

My only complaint is the sound quality. ArkivMusic writes this about it CDs-on-Demand: "The music on the disc is exactly the same as the original and has not been processed or altered in any way." Pity, because this one suffers from RCA's notoriously bad 1990s digital transference. Although we should all be grateful to ArkivMusic for this and other re-issued RCA shows, they really deserve the kind of superb remastering Sony/BMG has lavished upon the Sondheim reissues.

In spite of the sound quality, I'm giving LITTLE ME five stars. It's a show I will return to again and again. You will too. Highly recommended."

My very 1st Time!

George F. Schmalz | Howell, NJ, USA | 08/11/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Little Me was the very 1st Broadway Show that I had gone to! I remember it was a High School Band trip from Saddle Brook, NJ, into NYC. A very short distance by bus, a wonderful day in the city. Dinner was at the lamented 'Blue Ribbon' restaurant. If I recall correctly, there were several popular European eateries at that time. i.e. The Stockholm, Voison, Luchow's.

Having no idea was the story was, I do remember that marvelous Sid Ceasar! He was like a horse in a very hot race!! He never stopped singing, clowning AND acting. Laughed until it hurt and then some more. This CD has reminded me of that wonderful experience, and of the happier days of the early sixties. Nice to think back. And laugh!"

Five Stars for Carolyn Leigh

steve lowenthal | NYC | 12/26/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Despite complaints about sound quality, and whatever one's opinion regarding vocal talent (I for one would rather listen to Gwen Verdon than to Sarah Brightman) -- anyone with a taste for sharp, witty songwriting MUST own "LITTLE ME"! With all due respect, that's a no-brainer.

Laugh-out-loud funny."

Lost Broadway Treasure

David Cady | Jersey City, NJ USA | 11/07/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"OK, so maybe "Little Me" isn't quite lost -- there have been two Broadway revivals, the last of which won Martin Short a Tony -- but it's certainly a treasure that too few people know about. Perhaps that's because the show doesn't quite work onstage. No such worries here; this cast album is an absolute delight, one I never tire of listening to. Most of the credit goes to Carolyn Leigh, for her remarkably clever lyrics. "No man is a true pariah deep down inside.../No-one is a true Uriah Heep down inside" has to be one of the wittiest lyrics ever written. Who knows why Leigh isn't remembered as one of the greats -- she died prematurely, and is rumored to have been a little nuts -- but on the basis of "Little Me," she should be. Cy Coleman's music is, as always, tuneful and fun, and the performances are superb. The show was written for Sid Caesar, who was at the pinnacle of his career, and his performance on the album makes you long to see it live; it's wacky, silly and altogether hilarious. If you don't know "Little Me," and you're a fan of traditional musical theater, this is a must buy."

A JOYOUS TRIP BACK INTO TIME WITH BELLE POITRINE

Alan W. Petrucelli | THE ENTERTAINMENT REPORT (ALAN W. PETRUCELLI) | 06/02/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Based on the hysterical Patrick Dennis novel, Little Me is the musicalization of the fictional biography of that great star of stage, screen, television and the tabloids, Belle Poitrine. If your French isn't up to it, her name translates as her two best features. In the course of the story, La Belle goes through husbands, fortunes and careers while trying to remain true to herself. The CD of this musical, recorded more than 45 years ago and long out-of-print, has been re-issued by ArkivMusic, to whom praise, kudos, and lots of business should be given. It is a brassy, bouncy, bodacious score---music and lyrics by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh, and it weathers the years admirably. As a matter of fact, it sounds a hell of a lot better than a spate of recent Broadways shows. There are some standards ("Real Live Girl," "Here's to Us"), a song or two that was popular ("I've Got Your Number," "The Other Side of the Tracks") and a few really funny and really touching sleepers that deserve to be remembered. The show's star was Sid Caesar, an incredibly popular television comic, but the supporting players were all Broadway musical stalwarts of the period, and this reissue is like taking a time capsule back to the `60. Unpretentious, touching, rollicking and bold, this score deserves a listen. And a relisten."

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