Now here’s a rarity from the vaults. Half-past Wednesday: The New Musical Version of Rumpelstiltskin (1962), featuring music by Robert Colby and lyrics by Colby and Nita Jonas, is a modern retelling of the Brothers Grimm’s Rumpelstiltskin.

The show itself was never very successful, although from the recording, I’m not really sure why this was so, the songs are pretty good, not the Broadway gold of The Sound of Music, but certainly there is nothing inherently poor about either the tunes or the lyrics. The story would have been one that all adults and most children would have been aware of.

The show is however, retrospectively interesting for having one of the earliest recorded performances by Dom De Luise, who would go on to greater things as a comic actor, especially in the Mel Brooks films. From the recording it sounds like the show would have been a great night out with the kids.

The track listing is as follows:

'Prologue - I’ve Got a Goose'
'What’s the Fun of Being King (If the King is Poor)?'
'You’re the Sweet Beginning'
'Who? Where? What?'
'The Spinning Song'
'If You Did It Once'
'How Lovely, How Lovely'
'The Spinning Song (reprise)'
'Grandfather (Ev’ry Baby’s Best Friend)'
'To Whit - To Whoo'
'What’s the Name of “What’s His Name”?
'Companionship'
'We Know a Secret Secret'
'Finale'

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Charles Packer