Deconstruction # 6--Lee Remick Singing "There Won't Be Trumpets" From "Anyone Can Whistle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                        For years, it was known that the song was recorded, but did it still exist?  I first heard "There Won't Be Trumpets" sung by Millicent Martin, in the 1977 revue "Side By Side By Sondheim," and fell in love with it.  I think the next person I heard do it was Alice Playten on the "Sondheim--A Musical Tribute Album."

                        "Anyone Can Whistle" is commonly known as the musical that launched that phase of Angela Lansbury's career.  People noticed here she had presence and could sing, and this paved the way for "Mame," at the Winter Garden, and what was to follow.

                           Lee Remick I had always known as a first rate dramatic actress. Could she actually sing a song like this?    It was in some boxed set--I remember the color grey--that I first got to hear Lee Remick's rendition.  It was extraordinary, because, while Lee's voice might have been limited, her clarion diction and the orchestra combined to make this a compelling moment.

                         When the orchestra starts up, the almost discordant voice of Lee admonishes, "You smug little men, with your smug little schemes...." and we are off and running.  When she gets to "wait and see," holding it just a bit, and the luscious underscoring comes in, this tells us we are in for something special.  Then Lee quietly intones, "There won't be trumpets, or bolts of fire, to say he's coming...."  As the music goes up, so does her voice, to a soft belt, on "But not with trumpets, or lightning flashing...." varying dynamics, here and there, and finishing for a build-up no one expected on the final downbeat section of "Don't look for trumpets, or whistles tooting, to guarantee him!"  Oh, my God, when I played this for friends, and told them who this was, none of them said Lee Remick. It never occurred to them.  And how about her finish--"Who needs trumpets?"  If Merman had done it, piece of cake. But Lee Remick is just amazing.  She did not  enjoy the star studded musical career that Angela did, but her rendition here indicates she was more than musically up to what she did take on.

                           But don't take my word for it--listen to Lee. Note her enunciation on "tooting" and "shooting," plus how elongates the ends of her phrases. Simply brilliant, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                            Marvel at the marvelous Lee Remick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!