Marco Polo (1956)

The famed Venetian traveler and explorer Marco Polo (Alfred Drake) travels from Italy to the court of Kublai Khan (Paul Ukena) in China. Co-written by Neil Simon (BAREFOOT IN THE PARK) and directed by Max Liebman. This exotic musical (performed live on television in 1956) reunites the stars of the Broadway hit KISMET where they played father and daughter. Here, they are the romantic leads. Like KISMET which adapted the music of Alexander Borodin with added lyrics for the songs, this production adapts the music of Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov with lyrics by Edward Eager. Alas, it's no KISMET. As a musical, it's rather humdrum and the songs aren't memorable although both Drake and Doretta Morrow are in excellent voice. The choreography by James Starbuck and Beatrice Kraft (which seems influenced by Jack Cole) is very good though. This being 1956 all the Asian roles are played by Caucasians though it appears very little attempt was made to make them look Asian via make up which I suppose is for the best in the long run. With Ross Martin and Arnold Moss.