Comic Opera Guild offers Jerome Kern's early musical "Sally"
The Comic Opera Guild presents "Sally" April 8-11.
Most fans of musical theater probably know classic Jerome Kern works like “Show Boat,” and “Roberta.” But it’s likely fewer are familiar with Kern’s earlier work, such as “Sally,” from 1920.
The Ann Arbor-based Comic Opera Guild hopes to remedy that situation with a production April 8-11 at the Village Theater in Canton.
Originally titled “Sally in Our Alley,” the show is the Cinderella story of an orphan dishwasher who gets a chance to dance in a Ziegfield ballet. As it turned out, Kern’s songs became more famous than the show, with a score that includes “You Can’t Keep a Good Girl Down,” “The Church around the Corner,” “Whippoorwill” and “Look for the Silver Lining,” the show’s biggest hit.
Listen to “Look for the Silver Lining” :
“It’s an end product of what we’ve been doing since 2003,” explained Managing Director Thomas Petiet of the Comic Opera Guild’s mission to bring older shows — such as relatively unknown American operettas by the likes of Victor Herbert and others — to life.
“These are shows that haven’t been around much, that have been gathering dust on the shelves for some years,” he said.
In 1929, “Sally” was made into one of the first talking movies starring Marilyn Miller and Joe E. Brown, one of the era’s most famous comedians. Some plot changes from the play were made for the film, and the Comic Opera Guild has incorporated the best of these in its revival.
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“I think this one ran over 500 performances,” Petiet said of the original “Sally.” “It was pretty popular, primarily because the plot made more sense to the people of the time than the things that were done earlier. We’ve done a little bit of rewriting; the third act has been changed a bit. The original show had a huge corps de ballet … we’re doing it with some of the music from the ballet, as sort of a newsreel, where Sally becomes a big star, and we go on with the show from there.”
Julia Roth stars as Sally, with Robby Griswold as her amorous suitor, Blair. Matt Grace (Constantine) and Don Devine (the ambitious agent Otis) are known for their work with the University of Michigan Gilbert & Sullivan Society. Sonja Srinivasan, Bob Douglas, Sarah Faix and Claudia Wier are also in the cast.
The show is directed and choreographed by Guild founders Thomas and Patricia Petiet; music direction is by Dana Sadava and costumes are by Diane LaRue.
Roth, a senior at Eastern Michigan University, is making her Comic Opera Guild debut.
“We needed somebody who could not only sing, but dance, to present a good version of what ‘Sally’ should be,” said Petiet. “Marilyn Miller was quite a hoofer, sort of in the Ginger Rogers mode. Julia does a real good job. She’s got a lot of style and sings beautifully — she makes a good leading lady.”
The Village Theater has hosted Comic Opera Guild productions since 2007. Petiet said the location was chosen for the availability of good performance dates and its proximity to communities around Ann Arbor as the Guild seeks to build its audience base.
“Sally” is the fourth show the Comic Opera Guild has presented at the Village Theater.
“This was Kern’s biggest hit up until then,” said Petiet. “It was kind of a big surprise show at the time — I don’t think he had had anything of this magnitude prior to that. It was a stepping-stone for him getting involved in ‘Showboat.’ Of course ‘Showboat’ had the advantage of having (Oscar) Hammerstein as a librettist, so it was quite a bit more involved.”
Roger LeLievre is a freelance writer who covers music and theater for AnnArbor.com.