From February 6 through March 3, 1951 (28 "forced" performances), a right wing semi-religious organization called Moral Re-Armament (MRA - years later they would back a bland answer to pop singing groups, "Up With People," with some success) tried to flog an inadequate musical called JOTHAM VALLEY, first at the 48th Street Theatre (razed in 1955) through Feb. 17, and when, in the face of accurate reviews their grosses fell below the theatre's "stop clause" (it was an "interim booking" but might have extended had the theatre been willing - the 48th Street took another interim show instead before their main booking, STALAG 17, in May!) the group moved their show to the Coronet (now the O'Neill) Theatre for a final futile week and a half from Wed. eve., Feb. 21 to Sat., March 3. The following year, MRA, which continued to tour their indiscretion, apparently with most of the same cast - few of whom would ever appear on Broadway again - got this movie of the show released in England. It was filmed on stage with almost all the Original Broadway Cast and production (the record books claim it was filmed in England a year after it closed in New York, but it could just as easily have been filmed on stage in New York and the records fudged for union fee reasons). The filming - with the sole exception of the artificial curtain added later ("raised" at the beginning and "lowered" at the end of the show - with intermission and curtain calls discretely omitted - surely there was *some* applause at the end of the stage production out of simple courtesy to the performers) seems to reflect an actual performance faithfully. At least as laid out by the IBDB, all the musical numbers are there.
As a musical theatre piece, JOTHAM VALLEY was less than competent, but it was filmed somewhat more smoothly than that fall's *hit* musical, TOP BANANA, which was similarly filmed as it had been done on stage at the end of its tour a couple years later. Imagine an amateur show written for your church's Sunday School pageant about brothers in the American West (the credits claim it was a true story) feuding over water rights and the effect that feud has on their community. To complicate matters further, one brother got drunk a year before the play starts and wrecked the car carrying the doctor coming to save the other brother's sick child - but after marking time for 83 minutes, for no particular reason other than 11 o'clock drawing near, the former drunk apologizes and makes up with his brother and the pouting brother lets others share in "his" water. Lots of theoretically uplifting but fairly generic songs fill the time but don't illuminate the potentially challenging plot much more than the prosaic dialogue (one gets the impression Broadhurst is trying for a "Father Knows Best" dialogue style but isn't quite up to it).
Of COURSE, the people behind the show thought it was as good as the then eight year old OKLAHOMA! without the dirty bits. In the face of accurate reviews (George Jean Nathan called it "a little nightmare" but may have also given it the highest praise I could find from anyone in classing it "derivative"; Brooks Atkinson in the Times called it "below professional standards" and "most of its comic interludes...embarrassing"), the producers screamed that they were battling nothing but "commies and degenerates" and their show was an important part of a "great contest between good vs. evil." They apparently thought they represented good although they weren't above "pulling" quotes badly out of context from the Times review for their ads. The critics who deigned to notice it - several ignored the amateur effort - and reasonable audiences seem to have disagreed, despite a cast that *almost* made up for limited acting skills with pleasantly trained voices, but nothing could make up for the lack of professional material to be performed. It didn't stop the producing organization from mounting the limited set show repeatedly in Europe and India, garnering anecdotal quotes from their members whose lives were supposedly "changed" by the experience. They presumably had never heard of challenging concepts like apologizing for mistakes or "The Golden Rule" before.
The film IS a chance to see what a full blown Broadway flop looked like in 1951 - distressingly like what a full blown Broadway hit on tour in 1954 looked like if TOP BANANA is any indication. The technical credits were not bad; just the writing, acting and direction. Author/co-star Cecil Broadhurst (a distant relative of the producer George Broadhurst who built the Broadhurst Theatre) could write some near-pleasant melodies (and occasionally, "When I Point My Finger at A Man...three come pointing back at me," a catchy one or in "Somewhere In The Heart of Man" one that almost soars) but his generic lyrics were never a threat to any of the new professional "book musicals" that had opened to that point in the 1950-51 season: Irving Berlin's CALL ME MADAM (644p.), Langston Hughes' THE BARRIER (4p.), Frank Loesser's GUYS AND DOLLS (1,200p.) or Cole Porter's OUT OF THIS WORLD (157p.). If THESE are "commies and degenerates" we should only have more like them.
In 1992 the original producing organization seems to have finally issued the film on DVD. Although the distribution has been limited to the point of invisibility it is possible to find it with a little web searching. As a historical curiosity it's worth the search.
As a musical theatre piece, JOTHAM VALLEY was less than competent, but it was filmed somewhat more smoothly than that fall's *hit* musical, TOP BANANA, which was similarly filmed as it had been done on stage at the end of its tour a couple years later. Imagine an amateur show written for your church's Sunday School pageant about brothers in the American West (the credits claim it was a true story) feuding over water rights and the effect that feud has on their community. To complicate matters further, one brother got drunk a year before the play starts and wrecked the car carrying the doctor coming to save the other brother's sick child - but after marking time for 83 minutes, for no particular reason other than 11 o'clock drawing near, the former drunk apologizes and makes up with his brother and the pouting brother lets others share in "his" water. Lots of theoretically uplifting but fairly generic songs fill the time but don't illuminate the potentially challenging plot much more than the prosaic dialogue (one gets the impression Broadhurst is trying for a "Father Knows Best" dialogue style but isn't quite up to it).
Of COURSE, the people behind the show thought it was as good as the then eight year old OKLAHOMA! without the dirty bits. In the face of accurate reviews (George Jean Nathan called it "a little nightmare" but may have also given it the highest praise I could find from anyone in classing it "derivative"; Brooks Atkinson in the Times called it "below professional standards" and "most of its comic interludes...embarrassing"), the producers screamed that they were battling nothing but "commies and degenerates" and their show was an important part of a "great contest between good vs. evil." They apparently thought they represented good although they weren't above "pulling" quotes badly out of context from the Times review for their ads. The critics who deigned to notice it - several ignored the amateur effort - and reasonable audiences seem to have disagreed, despite a cast that *almost* made up for limited acting skills with pleasantly trained voices, but nothing could make up for the lack of professional material to be performed. It didn't stop the producing organization from mounting the limited set show repeatedly in Europe and India, garnering anecdotal quotes from their members whose lives were supposedly "changed" by the experience. They presumably had never heard of challenging concepts like apologizing for mistakes or "The Golden Rule" before.
The film IS a chance to see what a full blown Broadway flop looked like in 1951 - distressingly like what a full blown Broadway hit on tour in 1954 looked like if TOP BANANA is any indication. The technical credits were not bad; just the writing, acting and direction. Author/co-star Cecil Broadhurst (a distant relative of the producer George Broadhurst who built the Broadhurst Theatre) could write some near-pleasant melodies (and occasionally, "When I Point My Finger at A Man...three come pointing back at me," a catchy one or in "Somewhere In The Heart of Man" one that almost soars) but his generic lyrics were never a threat to any of the new professional "book musicals" that had opened to that point in the 1950-51 season: Irving Berlin's CALL ME MADAM (644p.), Langston Hughes' THE BARRIER (4p.), Frank Loesser's GUYS AND DOLLS (1,200p.) or Cole Porter's OUT OF THIS WORLD (157p.). If THESE are "commies and degenerates" we should only have more like them.
In 1992 the original producing organization seems to have finally issued the film on DVD. Although the distribution has been limited to the point of invisibility it is possible to find it with a little web searching. As a historical curiosity it's worth the search.
