Lerner was the playwright and lyricist, while Loewe composed the music.
Alan Jay Lerner was born on August 31, 1918, one of three sons of Joseph Lerner, the founder of Lerner Stores, Inc. He had a good education, which took him to Harvard, and he studied at the Juilliard School of Music during his vacations from Harvard. He had done sketches and lyrics for two Harvard Hasty Pudding shows. He graduated Harvard in 1940 and wrote advertising copy and scripts for such radio shows as the Philco Hall of Fame.
“Fritz” Loewe was older, having been born on June 10, 1904, in Vienna, Austria, the son of Edmund Loewe, a well-known operetta tenor. (Operetta, best known for the works by Gilbert & Sullivan, was the forerunner of American musicals.) A precocious youth, Loewe was playing piano at 4 and had by 9 composed the tunes for a music hall sketch with which his father toured Europe. At 15 he had a hit song with “Katrina,” which sold three million copies in Europe. In 1924 he came with his father to America, but his initial engagements at New York’s Town Hall and the Rivoli Theatre did not lead to follow-up bookings. The following decade saw him struggling with a variety of jobs, from cafeteria busboy to boxing, gold mining, cowpunching, and riding instructor. But in 1935 his song, “Love Tiptoes Through My Heart,” was used in the musical Petticoat Fever. Emboldened, he presented his own musical, Salute to Spring, in St. Louis in 1937. In 1938 his Great Lady got to Broadway, but had only 20 performances.
The two met by chance at the Lambs Club in New York City in 1942. And began to make history. Their first collaboration was Life of the Party, in 1942 – an adaptation of Barry Conner’s farce, The Patsy – for a Detroit stock company. It ran for nine weeks, and they followed it with a musical comedy, What’s Up?, which ran for 63 performances on Broadway in 1943. In 1945 they did The Day Before Spring.
But these were just warm-ups for what was to come. On March 13, 1947 the curtain went up for the first time on Brigadoon. This one was a solid hit. Based on Germelshausen, by Friedrich Gerstacker, it concerns a mysterious, now Scottish, town which reappears to the outside world for only one day each century. The original production at the Ziegfield Theatre ran for 581 performances, and led to the 1954 movie adaptation, which featured Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse and Van Johnson. The New York Drama Critics Circle voted it the “best musical” the year it opened and it has been revived frequently over the years.
During the next few years Lerner was busy, writing Love Life, with music by Kurt Weill, which was selected one of the best plays of the 1948-49 Broadway season. And he wrote the story, screenplay and lyrics for the film Royal Wedding, and the story and screenplay for An American in Paris, winning him an Oscar in 1951. He also did the story, screenplay and lyrics for the movie version of Brigadoon.
In 1951 Lerner & Loewe were back on Broadway with Paint Your Wagon, which opened at the Shubert Theatre on November 12th. It had a respectable run of 289 performances, and was made into the 1969 film which featured Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin and Jean Seberg.
Then came My Fair Lady. This was one of the biggest and most spectacular successes in American theater. The musical opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on March 15, 1956. It broke all existing world records, playing 2,717 performances over a period of more than nine years. Oddly, Lerner & Loewe got a shot at doing this adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s 1914 play, Pygmalion, only after Noel Coward and Rodgers & Hammerstein had passed it up. Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews starred on Broadway, but when the 1964 movie was made Andrews was rejected by the movie’s producers in favor of Audrey Hepburn, while Harrison kept his role.
The team collaborated on the film, Gigi, based on the novel by Colette, released in 1958. When first announced, the project was seen by some as a transparent attempt to repeat the team’s success with My Fair Lady – which, for contractual reasons, could not be filmed for years yet. Such doubts were dispelled when the film was released, and it subsequently won the Oscar for best picture of 1958. (A stage version of Gigi was mounted in 1973.)
Lerner & Loewe’s last Broadway hit was Camelot, which opened at the Majestic Theatre on December 3, 1960 and ran for 873 performances. In many minds it will always be linked with the presidency of John F. Kennedy, whose brief time in the White House has been compared with and likened to Camelot. The movie version was released in 1967. Loewe suffered a heart attack in 1958 and after Camelot went into retirement.
Lerner said in a tribute to Loewe, “There will never be another Fritz. Writing will never again be as much fun. A collaboration as intense as ours inescapably had to be complex. But I loved him more than I understood or misunderstood him, and I know he loved me more than he understood or misunderstood me.”
Alan Jay Lerner died June 14, 1986. Frederick Loewe died February 14, 1988.
A vast amount of memorabilia, theater programs, sheet music, posters, etc. exists from Lerner & Loewe’s Broadway hits and their subsequent movies. A quick search of eBay turned up only 18 items related to Brigadoon, but 167 items related to My Fair Lady and 186 items related to Camelot, with prices ranging from a few dollars to over one hundred dollars for rarer items. Original cast albums and movie soundtrack albums are also available.
The Chase
Lerner & Loewe Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Harry Beaton! Harry Beaton!
Run an' get 'im! Get 'im!
Run an' get 'im! Get 'im!
Run, ye men, or ye will never see another morning'.
Go an' stop 'im! Stop 'im!
Go an' stop 'im! Stop 'im!
Run, ye Highland men, or ye won't ken another day.
MacGregor
Beaton sure came this way, an' we canna be too far behind 'im, laddie.
Ye there, head for the brae! Keep your eye ope' or ye winna find 'im,
laddie!
Stuart
I'll go down to the creek, an' by God, if I see 'im I'll throw 'im in it.
macGregor
Search the hill to the peak!
Find 'im, lads, or tomorrow will never, never come!
Male Chorus
Run an' get 'im! Get 'im!
Run an' get 'im! Get 'im!
Run an' get 'im now, or ye won't plough another meadow!
Go an' stop 'im! Stop 'im!
Go an' stop 'im! Stop 'im!
Run, ye Highland man, or ye won't ken another day!
Tommy
Jeff!
Jeff
Yeh?
Tommy
Let's separate. You go right,
I'll go left. He can't be too far from here.
If he comes into sight, hold him fast! Many lives are depending on it!
This must not end tonight! They must know that tomorrow is really gonna
come!
Male Chorus
Run an' get 'im! Get 'im!
Run an' get 'im! Get 'im!
Spread your human net, but don't forget that time's agin ye!
Go an' stop 'im! Stop 'im!
Go an' stop 'im! Stop 'im!
Run, ye Highland men, or ye won't ken another day!
The Chase is a song from the musical "Brigadoon" by Lerner & Loewe, which tells a story of a Scottish village that only appears once every hundred years. In this scene, Harry Beaton, a young man from the village, is trying to flee because he had fallen in love with a woman from the outside world and wants to leave Brigadoon to be with her. However, if he leaves, the village will disappear forever. The male chorus, made up of Highland men, are tasked with stopping Harry from leaving.
The lyrics express urgency and desperation, as the male chorus repeatedly urges each other to run and get Harry before it's too late. They sing about the consequences of not stopping him, such as never seeing another morning or ploughing another meadow. The chorus also emphasizes that time is against them and that they must act quickly. The stakes are high, as the fate of the entire village rests on their ability to stop Harry.
The song also highlights the conflict between tradition and love. Harry's love for an outsider threatens to disrupt the tradition of Brigadoon's existence. However, the Highland men understand the importance of maintaining tradition and are willing to do whatever it takes to protect it, even if it means stopping one of their own.
Line by Line Meaning
Harry Beaton! Harry Beaton!
Attention! We need to find Harry Beaton!
Run an' get 'im! Get 'im!
Quickly chase after him and catch him!
Run, ye men, or ye will never see another morning'.
Hurry up or you won't survive to see another day.
Go an' stop 'im! Stop 'im!
Try to intercept him and prevent him from escaping.
Run, ye Highland men, or ye won't ken another day.
Move swiftly or you won't live to see the dawn.
Beaton sure came this way, an' we canna be too far behind 'im, laddie.
Harry Beaton definitely came through here, and we can't be far from him, my friend.
Ye there, head for the brae! Keep your eye ope' or ye winna find 'im, laddie!
Hey, you there, go towards the hill and be vigilant, or you won't locate him, young man.
I'll go down to the creek, an' by God, if I see 'im I'll throw 'im in it.
I'll descend to the creek, and if I happen to spot him, I'll make sure he doesn't get away.
Search the hill to the peak! Find 'im, lads, or tomorrow will never, never come!
Explore every inch of the hill, from the base to the summit! Capture him, guys, or there will be no tomorrow for any of us!
Run an' get 'im now, or ye won't plough another meadow!
Move with alacrity or you won't live long enough to cultivate another plot of land.
Let's separate. You go right, I'll go left. He can't be too far from here. If he comes into sight, hold him fast! Many lives are depending on it! This must not end tonight! They must know that tomorrow is really gonna come!
Let's divide and conquer. You go to the right, and I'll go left. He shouldn't be too distant. When you see him, grab him immediately! Numerous individuals are counting on us! This conflict must not conclude until we secure him. They must comprehend that there is a future!
Spread your human net, but don't forget that time's agin ye!
Surround the area and don't ignore the fact that time is running out!
Run, ye Highland men, or ye won't ken another day!
Sprint, men from the Highlands, or you won't live long enough to experience another sunrise!
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind