Together With Music
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Together With Music was a one-off programme, broadcast live in 1955 on American television, starring Noël Coward and Mary Martin. Described as "an entertainment", the show was directed by Coward, who wrote most of the featured material, some of it written for the broadcast. Songs by Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Rodgers and Hammerstein and others were also included. A kinescope recording of the live broadcast survives, and an audio recording has been published on LP and CD.
The show was Coward's début on American television; Martin had appeared in several earlier TV broadcasts. As it was to be transmitted live, Coward insisted on exceptionally thorough rehearsal to ensure as far as possible that nothing went wrong on the night. There was no chorus, there were no elaborate sets. The two stars performed the entire ninety-minute show, separately and together. Reviews were enthusiastic.
By the mid-1950s Mary Martin was an established Broadway star. She had appeared in leading roles in shows including One Touch of Venus (1943) and South Pacific (1949).[1] Coward had been a successful dramatist, song-writer and performer since the 1920s.[2] The two had worked together on Pacific 1860, a musical written and directed by Coward, which ran in London at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1946–47.[3] Although they got on well socially, their working relationship proved difficult, and after the show closed, Martin concluded, "Professionally, Coward and Martin just don't have anything more to offer each other".[4] There was a rapprochement in the 1950s. When Martin was appearing in the West End production of South Pacific in 1951–52 Coward found an opportunity to renew their professional association. Asked to stage and appear in a fund-raising show for charity at the Cafe de Paris, where he starred as a cabaret entertainer, Coward recruited Martin as his sole co-performer in a two-and-a-half hour musical revue in January 1952. It was so successful that they repeated it the following year.[5] Gertrude Lawrence, the singer and actress with whom Coward was most closely associated, died in 1952, and when offered $500,000 to make three coast-to-coast television broadcasts for CBS in 1955 Coward chose to co-star with Martin in the first of the three, a show based on his songs.[6][n 1]
Because the show was to be broadcast live Coward insisted on rigorous rehearsals, of which there were forty-one. Martin had performed on American television before, but this was Coward's début. At an early stage Martin found fault with one of the two new numbers, "Together With Music", the title song Coward had written for the show. He rewrote it, noting in his diary, "'Together with Music', second version, is finished. It is better than the first really but it was bloody hell to do. However, now it is done, and Mary's delighted and everyone's delighted.[9] There were last-minute problems with the sponsors of the show. CBS had sold the airtime to the Ford Motor Company for its "Ford Star Jubilee" series. Executives at Ford took exception to some of Coward's lyrics such as (in "Nina") "that sycophantic lot of sluts/For ever wriggling their guts", which they said would offend the Bible Belt. Coward refused to make the changes they sought.[10]
This was CBS's first live colour production. In the middle of rehearsals Coward learned that it was common studio practice to kinescope live broadcasts for archival purposes. He suggested that CBS should kinescope a rehearsal, so that all concerned could learn from their mistakes and correct them before the broadcast. In viewing the result, even a newcomer such as Coward could see that the camera techniques were inadequate. His life partner, Graham Payn, wrote: "the production was sloppy; the sound balance was frequently off, most of it was in long shot, and the 'point' numbers were made pointless. It was terrible!"[11] Coward took control. He re-blocked the show to ensure that most of it was seen in close-up, and he marked the script in precise detail, instructing cameramen when to zoom in on the performer.[12]
Show
Together With Music was broadcast live on 22 October 1955. Coward directed the staging (Jerome Shaw was the director for television).[13] The nationwide audience was estimated at thirty million.[14] There were no elaborate sets. The two performers were seen coming out of their dressing rooms, bickering mildly:
I haven't hooted in years.
You haven't been over E-flat in years.[14]
Coward felt that Martin's sweet nature somewhat undermined the effect of their supposed squabbling:
Songs
As the broadcast was live on commercial television there had to be advertisement breaks, during which the performance in the studio stopped.[13] The programme consisted of the following numbers, all of which have words and music by Coward except where indicated:[13][16]
The show ended with the two performers waltzing to "Shall We Dance?" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I and finally turning their backs to the cameras and strolling away arm in arm.[14]