First Nighter: Encores! "Most Happy Fella" Mostly Happy

Perhaps more than any of his Broadway songwriting peers Frank Loesser disliked repeating himself. When he produced book, music and lyrics for The Most Happy Fella in 1956, now this week's Encores! series entry at City Center, he decided to go operatic. Not all the way, but more than he ever had before--"My Time of Day" from Guys and Dolls, notwithstanding. The score overflows with melodies that sound as if they could be sailing across the Metropolitan Opera footlights, songs like "Somebody Somew...