Welcome to a new Musical Theatre Monday! This month, my annual tribute to Ethel Merman comes in defense of one of her lesser showcases — Happy Hunting (1956), a musical that both she and I would agree is not up there with her best. But it’s not all bad, is it?

Happy Hunting was the first show that brought Ethel Merman out of her self-imposed Broadway retirement when married life in Colorado wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. After three years away, the theatrical champion’s eager hubby pushed his wife to return to her arena, the stage, with a musical that she nevertheless knew wasn’t up to snuff. At least, not in terms of its score, which was composed by relative newcomers, Harold Karr and Matt Dubey. The book, however, was more promising, penned by Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsay, the prodigious pair behind both Anything Goes (1934) and Merman’s most-recent hit, Call Me Madam (1950). Indeed, Happy Hunting and its story of international romance felt like a variation of Call Me Madam, casting Merman in a similar role — the anti-sophisticate whose access to the finer things in life didn’t come by birth, but by good luck and sheer will, allowing her to remain the outsider on the inside. It was the quintessential balance of Merman’s innate duality — an urbane woman of importance who nevertheless looks and talks like just plain folk.

In that regard, Happy Hunting had a basically correct idea about its star and how to feature her. And its story was perfectly feasible for a musical comedy of the period, with Merman as Liz Livingstone, a wealthy widow who’s denied entrance to the — how topical! – Grace Kelly-Prince Rainier wedding and then decides to put on a grander soiree of her own, matchmaking her daughter with the cash-starved but socially connected Duke of Grenada. Naturally, said daughter is in love with someone else — an American lawyer who’s more her contemporary — and that’s for the better, as Liz begins to fall for the duke herself… landing, much like Call Me Madam’s Pearl, er, I mean, Sally Adams, in a surprising foreign romance. Incidentally, the duke here was famously played by Latin hunk Fernando Lamas, a scene stealer who turned out to be one of Merman’s legendary rivals. That remains the show’s most enduring anecdote.

The other thing that endures from Happy Hunting is one particular song, the only number that Merman added to her repertoire, a “Here I Am” intro literally called “Gee, But It’s Good To Be Here.” Like the plot and this star role, “Gee” quintessentially encapsulated the plain-talking ethos of its star, so it worked. And several of her other numbers were also right on the money, like the comic “Mr. Livingstone,” where Liz recalls her courtship and life with her late husband, and the Cole Porter-esque “This Is What I Call Love,” which boasted an alluring rhumba beat evocative of past Merman hits. What’s more, mother and daughter also got a fun, bouncy duet in “Mutual Admiration Society.” So, the score certainly had its moments.

But my ability to defend the score only extends so far, for I’m afraid that I can’t pretend anything’s great, either in the context of the 1950s, or more specifically, Merman’s oeuvre. You see, despite getting her persona down pat, these songwriters simply lacked the musical exceptionalism of the Great Diva’s most memorable collaborators — geniuses like George Gershwin, not to mention Irving Berlin and the aforementioned Cole Porter, both of whom counted Merman as a muse. No ditty here, even those cited above, came close to the melodically rich and lyrically clever gems from, say, Call Me Madam. In fact, most of the songs in Happy Hunting are downright forgettable. And while I don’t loathe the ensemble and supporting players’ numbers as some do (for the record, I think the younger couple’s songs are deliberately silly in an effort to reflect both their youth and their Americanism as a contrast to their older and more European, or European-adjacent, counterparts), the score simply has a lot of mediocrity. This has kept it from being a compelling sample from Broadway’s Golden Age. (Merman was even so displeased with it that she had her friend Roger Edens sub in two songs during the run. They were credited to Kay Thompson. Here’s one of them below.)

And yet, I don’t think it’s a bad show. Heck, I like it. It’s well-tailored for Merman, and gives her a few decent songs. If not for the high-caliber work from the rest of her career — like the musical she’d do following this one, Gypsy — perhaps it wouldn’t seem so shabby. But alas, Happy Hunting merely pales in comparison — and there’s thus no good reason to do it today. The comedy, once timed to be contemporary satire, is tame, and the score doesn’t compensate… At best, we can enjoy it from afar — via the buoyant cast album, and also, for subscribers who comment below to alert me of their private, non-commercial interest, via a live audio from a 2013 production by Musicals at Mufti. Here’s Klea Blackhurst with something left off the cast album — Liz’s reprise of an earlier song called “She’s Just Another Girl,” now titled “Just Another Guy.” It’s a sample of Happy Hunting’s not excellent but perhaps underrated value, which remains of interest to Merman devotees like moi. Enjoy!

Come back next month for another gem! And stay tuned tomorrow for more sitcom fun!