IT'S ALL OVER - MANIC MONDAY

Just looking at today's Manic Monday word made me start thinking of song titles. This led to an earlier contest on the blog. Feel free to drop down and play some more if you like. In any case, the first song that popped into the frontal lobe was, "The Party's Over".

Bells Are Ringing seems dated now with its libretto centered on the switchboard of an answering service that brings together a whole host of misfits through the actions of one good intentioned operator played on both stage and screen by the incomparable Judy Holliday.

At the "Girl loses boy" point in the musical, Judy sings, "The Party's Over". Its delightful intelligent lyrics are a perfect fit for anyone who has been higher than high, in love with love, only to come crashing down in the wreckage of shattered hopes and dreams. Despite this lovely if unhappy song, you will be happy to know that "Girl gets Boy" by act III.

Since the Broadway musical and movie, the song has become a standard for virtually every female pop singer with any claim to a voice simply because of the opportunity for a fairly easy melody and meaningful lyric combined with some emoting on the side.

Here is the Doris Day hit version



Then if you like power ballads, here is the even more dramatic version by Shirley Bassey version. You have to click her name because it doesn't allow embedding.

The party's over
It's time to call it a day
They've burst your pretty balloon
And taken the moon away
It's time to wind up the masquerade
Just make your mind up the piper must be paid

The party's over
The candles flicker and dim
You danced and dreamed through the night
It seemed to be right just being with him
Now you must wake up, all dreams must end
Take off your makeup, the party's over
It's all over, my friend

The party's over
It's time to call it a day
They've burst your pretty balloon and taken the moon away
Now you must wake up, all dreams must end
Take off your makeup, the party's over
It's all over, my friend

It's all over, my friend

The Party's Over

Over the months, you have all become aware how much I love musical theater. Recently, I wrote about the revival of A Chorus Line. Unfortunately, there are musicals that it would be almost impossible to bring back without major changes unless it is darn fast simply because the audience wouldn't understand the premise of the story.

How long has it been since you have seen a phone answering service advertised? For the younger readers, in this age of cell phones and voice mail, do you even know exactly what they are/were or how one works? We are not so far removed that younger readers might not have seen the 1960 movie version on one of their parent's DVD's, but the last professional production of Bells Are Ringing was a less than successful broadway revival in 2001. At the time of it's original 1956 production, it was a collaboration of Broadway legends: Jule Styne, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Jerome Robbins, and Bob Fosse, and starred the brilliant, luminous and lost too soon, Judy Holliday. Now I have a real soft spot for this musical since my first job out of high school while going to college was as a telephone operator.

If an answering service weren't enough, there is a subplot about police pursuing illegal bookies. Now "Off Track betting" may still be illegal in some states, but your access is fairly simple via your home computer, but the comic lyrics of "A Simple Little System" sung the bookies mentions some race tracks that no longer exist. What makes this dating of material unfortunate is that songs get lost. A few of the songs from Bells Are Ringing have become standards and will show up when good singers are looking for material such as the duet below with Tony Bennett and Michael Buble singing Just In Time, but can you hum "Long Before I Knew You" or "The Party's Over"?

Do you have a favorite musical that you would like to see brought back in revival? Are there ones that you think would require major rewrites or have production problems because their premise is so dated?