Word: camelot
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...right, so it isn't as good as My Fair Lady. But a musical doesn't have to match My Fair Lady to be good, and Lerner and Loewe's latest effort, Camelot, is a fortuitous combination of wonderful music, snazzy sets, and fine performances that is sure to be a hit in its own right...
Lerner's book, based on the novel The Once and Future King by T. H. White, renders the Arthurian legend in humorous, gentle, and somewhat modern style. It traces the history of Camelot from its formation to its breakup on account of Guinevere's attraction for Lancelot, with just the right proportions of boisterousness and pathos...
...sings the poignant and beautiful "If Ever I Would Leave You" to Guinevere with powerful feeling, but the best song of the show, in two separate renditions, matches both the mournful sadness of this number and the vivacity of "The Lusty Month of May." This is the title song, "Camelot," and when Arthur sings it to Guinevere in the play's first scene, it holds all the promise and joy of the new city in its melody and lyrics...
Proudly, Lerner points out that he avoided rhyming "Camelot" with "swam a lot" or "Lancelot" with "dance a lot" but he did bring off such a rhyme in My Fair Lady when he lined up "Budapest" and "ruder pest" (it had to be changed after Soviet tanks in 1956 made the line less amusing). At his worst, his pudding is awfully hasty...
...Loewe's music, his emotional temperament has yielded some of the best popular tunes of his day (7 Could Have Danced All Night; On the Street Where You Live). They spill over the battlements of Camelot. His present score is as melodious as any he has done, from brightly lighted marches (Then You May Take Me to the Fair) to pastels of love (If Ever I Would Leave You) and the gules-and-argent portrait of Camelot itself...