ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 43 | February 2000
Sail Away to New York
A publicity shot from the Australian production of Sail Away; Maggie Fitzgibbon with a sailor from the P.&O. cruise ship StrathmoreJ.C. Williamson Collection; from the Pictorial Collection
Last year saw the centenary celebration of the birth of Noel Coward. As could be expected of such a celebration, there was a revival of many of Cowards plays and musicals. The National Library played a small part in one such production: the concert performances of Cowards Broadway hit, Sail Away, at the Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, in November 1999.
Sail Away was first staged on Broadway in 1961, starring Elaine Stritch. In earlier out-of-town performances of the show, its central theme had focused on an unhappily married woman who takes a cruise to decide what to do with her life. She has a brief shipboard romance, and then attempts suicide, but is ultimately re-united with her husband. The rest of the action was taken up with the exploits of cruise director Mimi (Stritch). It is perhaps not surprising that this love story was found too depressing and was dropped for the Broadway opening, with Stritchs part built up to compensate so that she carried both the romantic and comedy leads.
One particular number, Bronxville Darby and Joan, although cut from the Broadway production, was restored for the London opening and was one of the shows hits. A piece of tart nostalgia shared by two elderly passengers, the producers wished to include the song in its original orchestration in the Carnegie Hall performance, in which Elaine Stritch was once again to star; however, neither parts nor score could be found. Orchestrations for the original show were found in Denverbut minus Bronxville Darby and Joan. London had no record of its own orchestrations.
But Sail Away had moved on to Australia, opening in Melbourne in May 1963 and running in Sydney through July and August, produced by J.C. Williamson and with Maggie Fitzgibbon as its star. So the search moved to Australia, with Carnegie Hall contacting Warner/Chappell, Noel Cowards publisher. As Sail Away remains unpublished, they contacted the National Library, via their Sydney office, because it was known that the J.C. Williamson archives are held here.
Along with company records, an important component of the J.C. Williamson Collection is the performance materials that related to the Companys production of operas, operettas, musical comedies, reviews and pantomimes. The Company had archived a mixture of material relating to most of its stage productions (there are in all 365 sets). While all performance sets are incomplete, they may contain orchestral or band parts, libretti, scripts and vocal scores, lighting and stage production scripts, or conducting scores. There is also a pictorial component of stage and costume designs.
Sail Away was indeed part of this Collection, and handwritten copies of the conducting score and parts for piano/vocal (with words), first and second violins and cello were located: not the complete set for performance, but sufficient to recreate the original orchestration. Once written clearance was received from the Noel Coward Estate, copies were sent by urgent courier to Carnegie Hall. They were received just in time to be incorporated into the production. Bronxville Darby and Joan was at last re-united with Sail Away. The program for this Carnegie Hall production mentions the part the National Library played in this reunion.
Above: From the opening scene of the Australian production of Sail Away J.C. Williamson Collection; from the Pictorial Collection
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: tford@nla.gov.au