Take Me Along

Take Me Along.

Take Me Along is a musical based on the play Ah, Wilderness by Eugene O'Neill.

Cast

• Jackie Gleason - Sid Davis
• Walter Pidgeon - Nat Miller
• Una Murkel - Essie Miller
• Eileen Herlie - Lily Miller
• Robert Morse - Richard Miller
• Susan Luckey - Muriel Macomber
• Peter Conlow - Wint

Plot

Take Me Along takes place in Centerville, Connecticut, in 1906 and its story begins with a triumph in journalism. Nat Miller, publisher of the Centerville Globe, has won a new fire engine for the town and its citizens celebrate its purchase by cheering him. Somewhat overcome by the honour, Nat wonders if he is truly as great as the people claim. His wife Essie, his sister Lily and the rest of his family insist, over his objections that he is.

But while Nat is basking in praise, his middle son Richard is getting into serious trouble. Plighting a passionate-but-pure troth to Muriel Macomber Richard reads her passages from classics which her starchy father overhears and finds extremely erotic. He drives Richard from his home, confines Muriel for a month, and announces his intention to withdraw a sorely needed advertisement from Nat's newspaper.

At that moment all is gay at the town trolley station, for the word has spread that Sid Davis is arriving from Waterbury. While Sid is being welcomed by his old cronies his sister Essie is coaching Lily on how to trap Sid into marriage and reform him at the same time. But the patient Lily doubts that she can ever change him. Sid comes home, but before he gets a chance to say sweet things to Lily, Muriel Macomber's father storms into the house and demands that Richard be properly punished. Nat, the proud father, refuses to believe his son is bad, and throws Macomber out of the house, ad and all. Macomber, he decides, is growing old and Nat is the only one of the old crowd to keep his youth.

Sid proposes to Lily - his first such offer while sober. Though she accepts she makes it clear that he must stay sober, particularly at the Fourth of July picnic. She describes how happy their married life will be if he promises to behave.

Nat and Sid set off for the picnic where revelry and high jinks are the order of the day. Although the whole town is enjoying the celebration, Richard is despondent, for he receives a note in which Muriel rejects him and breaks their engagement. Richard is invited by an older friend, Wint, to visit a dive that night. Richard goes in to dinner, where the family is awaiting the return of Nat and Sid. Nat comes in merely tipsy, but Sid is uproarious — too drunk to keep his date with the disillusioned Lily. Sid goes upstairs to sleep it off, and Richard, convinced that all love is faithless, is now ready to embark on a life of sin.

The second act opens at the Pleasant Beach House where Richard is carousing. He drinks too much, barely avoids the clutches of a harlot, and falls into a nightmarish sleep compounded of all the things that perplex him. At home, while the family is anxiously awaiting his return, a sober Sid tries to make up to Lily. Again he promises to behave, but Lily can no longer believe in him. Richard comes home frightfully drunk and when he has had time to sober up it is a serious but still whimsical Sid who undertakes to tell him a few things about drinking.

Richard learns that Muriel was forced to write the letter breaking their engagement, still loves him, and wants to meet him secretly. They are reunited on a beach and Richard is happy enough even to accept four years at Yale.

Sid realises that he is unworthy of Lily. Nonetheless, she agrees to give him one more chance provided he makes good on his promise to return to his newspaper job in Waterbury. Sid starts for the trolley, determined to make good this time and win Lily. When he is about to depart he sees Lily, her bags packed, ready to go with him after all. The whole town cheers as they embrace and set out on their new life.

Musical numbers

Act I

• "The Parade" - Nat Miller and Townspeople
• "Oh, Please" - Nat Miller, Essie Miller, Lily Miller and Family
• "I Would Die" - Muriel Macomber and Richard Miller
• "Sid, Ol' Kid" - Sid Davis and Townspeople
• "Staying Young" - Nat Miller
• "I Get Embarrassed" - Sid Davis and Lily Miller
• "We're Home" - Lily Miller
• "Take Me Along" - Sid Davis and Nat Miller
• "For Sweet Charity" - Sid Davis, Nat Miller, Lady Entertainers and Townspeople
• "Volunteer Firemen's Picnic" - Sid Davis
• "Pleasant Beach House" - Wint
• "That's How It Starts" - Richard Miller

Act II

• "Oh, Please" (Reprise) - Nat Miller and Essie Miller
• "Promise Me a Rose" - Lily Miller and Sid Davis
• "Staying Young" (Reprise) - Nat Miller
• "Little Green Snake" - Sid Davis
• "Nine O'Clock" - Richard Miller
• "But Yours" - Sid Davis and Lily Miller
• "Take Me Along" (Reprise) - Lily Miller, Sid Davis and Townspeople