By the Beautiful Sea “The New Musical”

Unlike A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which had perhaps too much plot, Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields’ wispy storyline for By the Beautiful Sea was hardly enough to fill a mini-musical. The short-changed story centered on Coney Island boarding-house owner and vaudeville performer Lottie Gibson (Shirley Booth) and her love for down-and-out Shakespearean actor Dennis Emery (Wilbur Evans), a divorced man whose teenage daughter takes an instant dislike to her. But of course Lottie successfully wins over the girl. (The situation was somewhat similar to Herbert Fields and Buddy G. DeSylva’s book for Cole Porter’s 1940 musical Panama Hattie, in which the title character is romantically involved with a divorced man and has to win over his reluctant daughter.) The absence of plot resulted in a revue-like musical in which Shirley Booth acted as tour guide for the pleasures to be found in turn-of-the-century Coney Island, including beer-garden quartets, acrobats, a visit to the Old Mill’s tunnel-of-love-cum-spook-house (replete with luminous flying skeletons and monsters), a Fourth of July celebration, a stop at the midway for spicy pictures magically animated by Helen Tamiris’s dancers, a visit to a casino, a trip in a hot-air balloon, and theatre seats for a round of vaudeville turns. Brooks Atkinson in the New York Times said the musical “restores the era of good feeling to music on Broadway” and so far “nothing” in the season had been so “hospitable and sunny.” The show was no “masterpiece,” but it offered a “Coney Island holiday” in its “gaiety and splendor.” He praised Schwartz’s “melodious” score with its “good picnic song numbers” (he singled out six songs). He also liked a parody hornpipe in “Throw the Anchor Away” and the penny-arcade vignettes in “Good Time Charlie.” As for Shirley Booth, she was a “doll” having a “royal good time” up there on the Majestic’s stage. The other critics weren’t quite as enthusiastic as Atkinson, but all found things to like in the new musical, and they tossed bouquets at Shirley Booth. John Chapman in the Daily News praised the score (“a lusty Coney racket”) and singled out the evening’s two musical highlights (both performed by the “perfect entertainer” Booth), one the risqué comedy song “I’d Rather Wake Up by Myself” and the vaudeville sequence “Lottie Gibson’s Specialty” in which Booth performed a Baby Snooks–like routine as a demanding little girl who wants to keep her status as an only child. But Chapman was tired of musicals set at the turn-of-the-century, and requested a moratorium (“there should be a period to a period”). Robert Coleman in the Daily Mirror reported Booth “hoofed, canaried, wisecracked, malaproped and romanced” her way through the “so-so” musical which nonetheless had many “hilarious” moments; and he along with the other critics also singled out Mae Barnes for two upbeat songs, “Happy Habit” and “Hang Up”; John McClain in the New York Journal-American noted the musical was short on plot and seemed to completely lose steam in the second act, but he nonetheless urged his readers to see it; the score was “first class,” the dances had “humor and ingenuity,” the scenery and special effects were “lavish,” and in Shirley Booth the musical had the “immaculate services” of a “superb” performer; Richard Watts in the New York Post asked what happened to the show’s book (“scanty to non-existent”), and suggested its remnants be tossed in favor of a revue-like “period vaudeville show”; he praised the “bright and charming” score and loved Shirley Booth’s “warm, genuine and immensely moving” qualities and her dazzling comic abilities as she sang “I’d Rather Wake Up by Myself” or got herself in gear to take a hot-air balloon ride; and William Hawkins in the New York World-Telegram and Sun said Shirley Booth was “stellar” in her “remarkable” and perhaps “unique” performance, and suggested if his readers wanted to know what constituted star quality they should see her performance; he also praised Mielziner’s “festive candy jar” décor of a long-ago Coney Island. Walter Kerr in the New York Herald Tribune liked Mielziner’s “splendid” balloon which sailed off the ground, but regretted that the book never did. Between the “airborne” scenery and the “earthbound” book, Shirley Booth stood “four-square against the world,” and by the end of the evening there was no doubt she was the champ. He also liked the “attractively melodic” score, noting Booth tore down the house with “I’d Rather Wake Up by Myself” and the pièce de résistance Baby Snooks routine. Further, he singled out six other songs. During the tryout, director Charles Walters and choreographer Donald Saddler were succeeded by Marshall Jamison and Helen Tamiris, respectively; Ray Malone was replaced by Richard France, Maria Karnilova was replaced by Carol Leigh, and Peter Gennaro and his role of Pete were dropped from the script. The tryout programs credited Genevieve Pitot for composing the dance music, but no such cr

Music

Arthur Schwartz

Lyrics

Dorothy Fields

Book

Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields