Too Marvellous for Words

Synopsis

A musical based on the life and works of songwriter Johnny Mercer. Johnny Mercer wrote more than 1000 popular songs. This glittering entertainment depicts a songwriter's journey through 'the sunshine and shadows' of life. Johnny Mercer was born in Savannah Georgia 1909. A hick. A hayseed. Not part of that wonderful explosion of urban talent like Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, The Gershwins etc. But he went on to be nominated for academy awards no less than 18 times. And he won four times. No wonder he was called The Poet Laureate of America.

Our Review:

3 January 2003

After recently hosting Dorothy Fields Forever, the King's Head now usefully reminds us of the talents of another legendary Broadway and Hollywood lyricist, Johnny Mercer, even if it's rather uselessly put together (I'm loathe to use the word 'written') by Alvin Rakoff, credited with the book and direction.

These biographical revues are a difficult challenge, I'll allow. Trying to thread examples of the work through anecdotes of the life that created them is a well-worn path, and now that a waspish narrator - in the style of Ned Sherrin, say, for one of the most successful of this genre, Side by Side by Sondheim - is no longer considered sufficient, there seems to be a need to impose some other arbitrary structure.

But you'll actually find out more about Mercer's life, reputation and influence from the brief note on the back of the programme than you'll get from the clunky, between-song scenes that, here, attempt to re-enact, blandly and b...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (217.154.44.162) - 6 January 2003:

You're right - this show is not supposed to be entertainine and sung well. And it wasn't. The script was laughable - unintentionally - and the direction truly poor. Don't bother with this show....

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