Pipe Dream (musical) - Music and Recordings

Music and Recordings

Despite the poor reviews of the musical, Rodgers was given credit for an imaginative score. "Sweet Thursday" is a cakewalk, unusual for Rodgers who rarely wrote them. However, Rodgers biographer William Hyland suggests that "Sweet Thursday" was out of character for Traubel's voice. Hyland also speculates that "The Next Time It Happens", a duet for Suzy and Doc as they decide their love will not work, needed to be more melancholy, and Doc's "The Man I Used To Be" more of a lament rather than having a lively melody. According to Broadway writer Ken Mandelbaum, "Pipe Dream contains a generally fascinating score." He terms Suzy's "Everybody's Got a Home but Me", a "gorgeous ballad of yearning".

During rehearsals and even during the run of the show, the music was repeatedly revised by Rodgers in an attempt to gear the songs to Traubel's voice. According to Bruce Pomahac of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, "as she began to get cold feet about what her New York fans would think about her as a belter, the keys of each of her numbers edged upward." One of Traubel's numbers saw three different versions before being scrapped in favor of, according to Pomahac, "something that sounded like an excerpt from Traubel’s Vegas act." "All At Once You Love Her" saw some popularity when recorded, during the run of the show, by Perry Como; in what Pomahac speculates was an attempt to appease Traubel, a reprise of the song was added for her, and provided "one of the loveliest moments in all of Pipe Dream". The Organization announced that a new vocal score would be published in 2012—the existing score reflects revisions made when Nancy Andrews took over the part.

Pipe Dream's songs have been reused in other works. "The Man I Used to Be" and "The Next Time It Happens" were included in the 1996 stage version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1945 film musical, State Fair. "The Next Time It Happens" was inserted in David Henry Hwang's revised version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's later work, Flower Drum Song. Used during the show's 2001 Los Angeles run, it was cut before the show reached Broadway in 2002. According to David Lewis in his history of the Broadway musical, "The Rodgers and Hammerstein office has, it would appear, given up on Pipe Dream and Juliet ever finding an audience ... so these songs are up for grabs."

Thomas Hischak, in his The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia, stated that the original cast album is well-produced, but many of the songs came across better when other artists recorded them. The New York Times suggested that the music had echoes of the duo's earlier works, giving it "a disappointing air of familiarity". The Times praised both Tyler and Johnson for their singing on the album, and while acknowledging that Traubel had difficulty making the transition from opera singer to Broadway belter, wrote that "for the most part, she makes the transfer amiably and effectively". The original cast recording was released on compact disc by RCA Victor Broadway in 1993. A live album from the Encores! production starring Osnes and Chase was released on September 18, 2012.