Welcome to a new Musical Theatre Monday! This month, I’m celebrating the 130th anniversary of Oscar Hammerstein’s birth with a spotlight on another 1950s show that’s soon to celebrate its own 70th birthday later this year — the charmingly flawed Pipe Dream (1955).

Notable as a rare Rodgers & Hammerstein musical to lose money, Pipe Dream was a timid adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel Sweet Thursday, about the unlikely romance between a marine biologist and a prostitute. Steinbeck wrote it as a sequel to his successful Cannery Row with the intention of it being made into a musical. After Frank Loesser passed on the project (he was busy with The Most Happy Fella), Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein came aboard — with reluctance, given the adult themes in the source material. But Hammerstein was drawn to the idea of an attraction between a pair of complicated opposites, and the songsters set to work, with opera star Helen Traubel quickly set for the role of the bordello owner. Apparently, the show had a bumpy development, as the book kept getting cleaner and cleaner, with only the vaguest of allusions to the leading lady’s profession making it to Broadway — a sanitization that has since been used to excuse the whole production’s failure, along with the basic fact that, well, this maybe wasn’t a great idea for Rodgers & Hammerstein in the first place.

Pipe Dream has seldom been performed since 1955. The only show in the R&H cannon it’s managed to outflank is Me And Juliet (1953), which actually made a small profit initially despite earning the reputation of a flop due to its lesser score and subject matter. Indeed, Pipe Dream has the richer tunestack and the Steinbeck novel is a sturdier dramatic foundation. The problem, as far as I’m concerned — having read the script and seen the 2012 Encores! concert production — isn’t just that it cleans up Sweet Thursday, it’s that the piece lacks too much of the detailed specificity that colors the pair’s best musical efforts, like Carousel and South Pacific. That is, there’s not a lot of individuality to the characters or the theatrical storytelling, and the romance between two seeming opposites ultimately seems like any ol’ romance one might find in a play from this period. It’s, in other words, a little too generic. And narratively, whether she’s a hooker or not, it just feels underbaked — and sometimes even dull.

However, again, the score is persuasive, boasting a few of the richest melodies in Rodgers’ cannon and some of the most poetic, contemplative lyrics Hammerstein ever offered. From the leading lady’s melancholy “Everybody’s Got A Home But Me” to her fella’s introspective “The Man I Used To Be” to their tender breakup in “The Next Time It Happens” (below) — these are songs that break through the unsure story and speak to the human condition.

All the numbers initially given to Traubel’s character are fun as well — like the bouncy “Sweet Thursday” (below) — and even if the opera diva proved to be strange casting for the madame role in performance, she’s a delight on the cast album. Of course, if she’s not your cup of tea, the 2012 Encores! production also produced a live cast album with Leslie Uggams, who delivers the numbers in her trademark style. It’s an invaluable recording that I enjoy almost as much as the original, with even more of the score on display. I recommend both.

And speaking of Encores!, for subscribers who comment below to alert me of their private non-commercial interest, I’ve got a treat. It’s a video (and an untracked audio rip from said video) of this concert production — one of the few major stagings of Pipe Dream since 1955. Now, you’ll note that it trims the book — everything’s streamlined, and all of the racial jokes and comments are removed — which makes the romance feel even slighter than it did originally. Yet this further puts the focus on the score, which is glorious and, truthfully, the only thing that makes Pipe Dream worth remembering today. Here’s an excerpt — Will Chase and Laura Osnes at the end of the first act with a semi-standard: “All At Once You Love Her.” Enjoy!

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