| High Tor | |
|---|---|
 Poster for Federal Theatre Project presentation ofHigh Tor at theBelasco | |
| Written by | Maxwell Anderson |
| Date premiered | January 9, 1937 |
| Place premiered | Martin Beck Theatre New York City, New York |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | sections of High Tor |
High Tor is a 1936 play byMaxwell Anderson. It received theNew York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play of the 1936–37 season. Twenty years after the original production, Anderson adapted it into a television musical withArthur Schwartz.
The play is named for a summit overlooking theTappan Zee portion ofNew York'sHudson River, near where Anderson lived inRockland County.[1] The story was inspired by the real life controversy overquarrying thepalisades along the lower Hudson.[2] The play also shares the plot element of a ghostly crew of Dutch sailors on the Hudson withWashington Irving's short storyRip Van Winkle.
Anderson began writing the play in May 1936.[3] It was first presented onstage inCleveland, Ohio, in December 1936, withBurgess Meredith (Anderson's neighbor in Rockland County)[4] andPeggy Ashcroft in the lead roles.[5][6]Thomas W. Ross was also in the production as Judge Skimmerhorn. The production moved toBroadway ten days later in January 1937, where it played 171 performances.[7]
High Tor received theNew York Drama Critics' Circle Award for the Best American play of the 1936–1937 season. The award included this citation:
In 1942, Anderson helped organize and served as the chairman of the Rockland County Committee To Save High Tor, which helped raise money to purchase the property in 1943 for the creation of a public park.[10]
The play was broadcast as an episode ofThe Philco Television Playhouse onNBC, September 10, 1950, withAlfred Ryder and Felicia Monteleagre in the lead roles.[11]
Anderson first considered a musical adaptation ofHigh Tor for television in 1949.[12] He andJohn Monks Jr. adapted the play as a made-for-televisionmusical fantasy in 1955, with music byArthur Schwartz and lyrics by Anderson.High Tor was filmed in November 1955 byDesilu Productions at theRKO-Pathé Studio.[13][14] Filming took only 12 days[15] and the show was broadcast March 10, 1956 on theCBS television network, as a 90-minute episode of the seriesFord Star Jubilee.Bing Crosby,Julie Andrews,Nancy Olson,Hans Conreid, andEverett Sloane starred in the film, produced by Arthur Schwartz, and directed byJames Neilson.
Bing Crosby had seenJulie Andrews in herBroadway debut inThe Boy Friend, and invited her to appear inHigh Tor.[citation needed] It was Andrews' first work in a filmed production, and her American television debut.[16] Because Crosby was uncomfortable with the exigencies oflive television, he insisted that it be filmed instead.[17] For this reason,High Tor is sometimes considered the firstTV movie.
Maxwell Anderson had little interest in television, and considered his adaptation a "potboiling job".[18] Julie Andrews later wrote that she thought her performance was "very stilted", and, "Alas,High Tor was not a memorable piece, and received only lukewarm reviews."[19]
Thesong score of the show, with story narration by Bing Crosby, was released byDecca Records in 1956.[20]
The youngStephen Sondheim also set a musical version, but the author refused permission, so the musical was never produced. Subsequent copyright extension acts mean the music will be illegal until 2042.
Van Van Dorn (Crosby) owns a summit ("High Tor") overlooking the Hudson River in New York. Van Dorn is under pressure to sell his real estate, and, at the same time, is having doubts about his impending marriage to Judith (Olson). Judith leaves him because she feels that he should sell High Tor, as the profits would provide for their future. A freak rock slide traps Van Dorn and the real estate agents on High Tor; as Van searches for help, he meets the spirit of a Dutch girl by the name of Lisa (Andrews). Lisa and the spirits of Dutch sailors have inhabited High Tor for over 300 years since they were killed in a shipwreck. Lisa then falls in love with Van. Songs include "Once Upon a Long Ago", a duet for Crosby and Andrews, "Sad is the Life of a Sailor's Wife", a solo for Andrews, and "When You're in Love".[21]
See alsoHigh Tor (album)
The reviews were not good although the show did achieve a rating of 29.4 against the competition of aJimmy Durante show (13.7).Daily Variety opined, inter alia: "Somewhere in the double translation - from stage to tv-pix terms and from dramatic to musical comedy form - much of what made ‘High Tor’ a Broadway success seems to have got lost. What emerges on the home screens in this film, said to have cost upwards of $500,000, is essentially, a listless exercise, with rather undistinguished musical and murky philosophising, leavened only by the stingiest pinches of comedy."[23]Jack Gould writing inThe New York Times said, "Bing Crosby badly miscast himself in undertaking a filmed musical version of Maxwell Anderson’s fantasy, “High Tor,” presented on Saturday evening over Channel 2. The motion picture, especially made for television use, was embarrassingly awkward and inept, a dismaying “quickie” unworthy of the Old Groaner’s time and talents.[24]
The trade journal Broadcasting-Telecasting gave production costs as “approximately $250,000” and wrote, “If anything was proved [by this production], it was that someone was mistaken in his judgment of what is satisfying entertainment….Maybe the play originally made sense. Saturday’s musical version did not. Its fantasy was all right, and so was its slapstick. Bing Crosby and the cast are all first rate artists. But the ingredients just wouldn’t blend. Music, if there had been more of it, could have carried the senseless action along. But this weird comedy was neither musical nor play. Whatever it was, it was unworthy of Mr. Crosby and colleagues.”[25]
High Tor was presented onLux Summer Theatre June 1, 1953. The one-hour adaptation starredWilliam Holden.[26]
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