In 1863 with America in the throes of the Civil War, Maggie Flynn is a ballsy Irish American woman who runs a New York orphanage for disposed Negro children. Her husband, Phineas, whilst kind hearted is a bit of a slacker and runs off to the circus. Believing that her husband is dead Maggie falls in love with Colonel John Farraday only for her husband, now known as ‘The Clown’ to return to win back the love of his wife. Events in the wider world have an unexpected and tragic impact on Maggie and the orphanage when they get caught up in the New York Draft Riots of 1863 resulting in the orphanage being burned to the ground…

Maggie Flynn (1968) is another Broadway recording from Sony. The original show ran for a total of eighty-two performances and starred real life husband and wife team of Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy who was nominated for a Tony award.

The original show garnered mixed reviews, often being unfavourably compared to The Sound of Music, mostly because of the ensemble of nine children which spend much of their time singing with Jones and certain story elements which were similar.

Now, in retrospect, we can see that the music of the show has a charm of its own, though certainly not in the same league of The Sound of Music. There is much that sounds like the usual staple of the American musical, including the inevitable ‘I Am Who I Am’ type song which seems to have appeared in every show in this era. Add in the upbeat numbers with the children, you can almost see the cast dancing around the stage to its mawkish sentimentality. Occasionally, the show does provide a stand out number, especially the rousing love song ‘Look Around Your Little World’, which is a duet between Maggie’s two suitors, very reminiscent of ‘I Know Him So Well’ even down to its structure.

There is some of the music missing from the show, especially at the end of the production, which would have covered the riot and the burning down of the orphanage, I’m not sure whether these were never committed to a recording or if they have been left off to make this dark story sound a little lighter.

The recording, as per usual, from Sony, is amazingly clear; there is almost no background noise evident. There is a little lack of clarity in the higher end of the sound spectrum, but this is more about how recordings were made in the sixties, rather than any inherent fault of the tracks, the fulsome sound will be familiar to any fan of sixties American crooning music.

The track listing is as follows:

Act I

'Overture'; 'It's a Nice Cold Morning'; 'I Wouldn't Have You Any Other Way'; 'Learn How to Laugh'; 'Maggie Flynn'; 'The Thank You Song'; 'Look Around Your Little World'; 'Maggie Flynn (Reprise)'; 'I Won't Let It Happen Again'; 'How About a Ball?'; 'Pitter Patter'.

Act II

'Never Gonna Make Me Fight (Reprise)'; 'Why Can't I Walk Away?'; 'The Game of War'; 'Mr. Clown'; 'Pitter Patter (Reprise)'; 'Finale'.

The show deserves more than one listen - after a couple of play through the music really did start to grow on me, with my stand out personal favourite being 'Look Around Your Little World'.

7

Charles Packer