A Tree Grows in Brooklyn “A New Musical”

Another musical set in Brooklyn centered on Cissy, a blowsy and slighted faded woman of easy virtue who shares her bed with a succession of different men, all of whom she calls “Harry” in honor of the first man she ever lived with. Hers is a raucous, carefree life, and even when the first Harry and the current Harry accidentally meet, all ends well for Cissy, who never really has bad luck. In one of the comical plot twists, she even manages to simulate giving birth to a baby who is already four days old. The trouble with these two stories is that both were combined into one musical, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Librettists George Abbott and Betty Smith weren’t able to satisfactorily blend the stories, and so the tragic musical drama and the musical comedy played against one another. Worse, Cissy’s story overwhelmed the evening, due in part to the delightful and galvanic performance by Shirley Booth and her carefree songs and comic situations. Katie was the leading female character, but she faded into the background each time the plot twists brought Cissy to the fore. By the time the musical reached Broadway, Cissy had four songs and Katie two. For all purposes, Katie lost her lead status and became a supporting player in her own musical. Think Carrie Pipperidge and not Julie Jordan as the focal point of Carousel, and you get the idea. The musical enjoyed generally favorable notices. Brooks Atkinson in the New York Times said it was a “darlin’” show with Arthur Schwartz’s “richest” score in years (he singled out the “Brooklyn jubilee” of “That’s How It Goes” and the “rhapsodic” beauty of “I’ll Buy You a Star”); Richard Watts in the New York Post conceded there was “occasional book trouble,” but noted the evening was “warm and engaging,” “agreeable,” and “at its best” in the “unashamed tunefulness” of Schwartz’s score (he singled out six numbers); Chapman said the musical was “splendid” (but quickly admitted it was really two musicals in one) and the songs “grand”; Robert Coleman in the Daily Mirror liked the “salty, colorful, heart-warming” musical and noted the “Halloween” ballet was “expressionistic,” “eerie,” and “stopped the show cold”; and William Hawkins in the New York World-Telegram and Sun said the evening was “an experience of real honesty, taste and ingenuity,” and noted Schwartz had “dreamed up a sprightly, delicate, atmospheric score.” But Otis L. Guernsey in the New York Herald Tribune noted there were “two shows” on stage. He found the serious one “monotonous” in the telling of its “mildly pathetic story,” which was a “gloomy, flat piece of work,” and said Shirley Booth “shaded off” the main story with her “grand” performance. The entire show was “listless” except when Abbott stirred up the company in a choral number or dance, or when he cleared the stage for Booth to go into her “delightful” comic turns. John McClain in the New York Journal-American warned his readers they’d be “disappointed” with the “mildly pleasant” musical. He wasn’t stirred by the plight of the Nolan family, and noted that when the “incomparable” Booth was on stage one didn’t care what her character’s presence was “all about or why” because she “simply” dominated the musical. The critics felt Booth could do anything. Watts suggested she could even play Juliet; and Chapman went further, saying she could sign with the Met and play the female lead in Tristan and Isolde. As for the simulated birth scene, Atkinson said it was “the most fantastic bit of horseplay the season has produced.” As for the other cast members, the critics were glad to see old-timer Harland Dixon back on stage, and they praised Marcia Van Dyke in her Broadway debut. She had first been seen in New York at Carnegie Hall as a member of the first violin section of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and later appeared in a supporting role in the 1949 MGM musical In the Good Old Summertime (her program biography noted she “lost Van Johnson but won a Stradivarius”). It was her good fortune to introduce the two best songs in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: the haunting ballad “Make the Man Love Me” and the joyous “Look Who’s Dancing.” Johnny Johnston, who was married to Kathryn Grayson at the time, was also making his first Broadway appearance; in films, he had introduced two numbers from two 1942 film musicals which became enduring hits (Frank Loesser and Jule Styne’s “I Don’t Want to Walk without You” from Sweater Girl and Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen’s “That Old Black Magic” from Star-Spangled Rhythm). Sadly, stage newcomers Van Dyke and Johnston never again appeared in another Broadway musical. The musical played on Broadway for nine months, but lost money. There was a brief national tour, but no London production and certainly no film version. The musical never found its place in summer stock and regional theatre, and the New York City Center Light Opera Company never revived it. But with its inherently touching story and its great score, one feels the

Music

Arthur Schwartz

Lyrics

Dorothy Fields

Book

Betty Smith and George Abbott