01-June-18 Because It's Jooooaaaaannnnn!!!!!!!

[DiveMilw]

[Leighton]

Glorious 

[scenicdesign71]

In Ms. Uggams's defense -- and irrespective of cue-card mishaps -- the lyrics Hammerstein wrote were already a string of strenuously whimsical tongue-twisters, each more astoundingly inane than the last.  To me, what's always been most surprising and funny and awesome about this video is how little the song is really affected (apart from becoming hugely more entertaining) by rendering them as literal gibberish.

The melody, gleefully cartwheeling up and down the octave, has an undeniable exuberance -- especially in the context of Carousel, where it makes a splendid excuse for the choreographer to go nuts once the chore of singing it is blessedly over and done with.  But those tooth-grindingly coy lyrics always make me feel, on multiple levels, sorry for anyone saddled with the task of trying to put them across; in the few productions I've seen, Nettie and friends always seem to be singing them through painfully labored smiles.

In this context, with that same dynamic cranked up to 11, the effect is unexpectedly invigorating: Uggams's bloodcurdling panic -- and her sheer brute-force will to grin and babble her way through it -- lend the song more genuine, crazed vitality than it has probably ever had before or since.