About 100 years ago in university a friend of mine (Greg K.) gave me the photocopied sheet music to the song "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever", neatly protected by a plastic sleeve. Through all the years and moves I've managed to keep that song safe. At the time I liked the song well enough, although I was deep in love with Kander and Ebb's Chicago, so I sort of dismissed it.

I had seen and liked the movie version with Barbara Streisand, but for some reason the musical had never really stayed central on my radar.

Recently my generous husband gave me the original 1965 Broadway cast recording to On A Clear Day You Can See Forever so I've been listening to it over and over in the car.

Written by Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane, it starred Barbara Harris and a very young John Cullum (of "Don't Be The Bunny" fame in Urinetown).

OK, so now I'm loving the score! And not just the title song! My two favorite songs are "What Did I Have, That I Don't Have" and "Come Back to Me". The music is catchy and fun and the lyrics are brilliant.

But the best part is the information in the liner notes. This show had a number of false starts before it hit Broadway on October 17, 1965 with an unprecedented top ticket price of $11.90. Since Loew had retired, Lerner first teamed up with Richard Rogers on a new musical about a young woman with ESP entitled I Picked a Daisy. Gower Champion was to direct and choreograph the show, Barbara Harris and Robert Horton to star, and an opening was scheduled for March 1963. Rodgers, however, found Lerner far too slow in his work habits. After postponing the show several times, they split and Daisy was called off.

In its second incarnation, Lerner asked Burton Lane to write Daisy with him, this time with Barbara Harris and Louis Jourdan to star and Bob Fosse to direct. The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre was booked, but Lerner again procrastinated and the project was again halted.

The third incarnation was still a Lerner-Lane collaboration but this time Robert Lewis (who had directed Brigadoon) was to direct. Jourdan was let go in the Boston tryout and replaced by John Collum (over Jourdan's standby, Hal Linden) and Barbara Harris stayed on. However the producers were required to pay Jourdan for the next 18 months and while Collum played the role for $1200/week, "Jourdan did not play it for $2,700/week when otherwise employed and $4,000/week when at liberty."

When it opened, Harris was hailed by the critics as an utterly irresistible new star, and most of them also praised the score. But many felt that the book was uneven or flat.

According to these liner note, Some of the show's shortcomings, and even Lerner's erratic behavior, can be attributed to Lerner's "secret". During this period, Lerner, along with many other figures in the arts and politics, had become dependent on the injections of Dr. Max Jacobsen, who was soon dubbed "Dr. Feelgood", and ultimately barred from practicing medicine.

The show might not have even been nominated for a Tony that year, but the cast recording did win a Grammy in 1966.

You can't make this stuff up!

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