This Sunday will have its share of Flops, and please note the capital F! I love those little doomed musicals that lasted 7 or 8 performances...and back in the day, they STILL made a recording of almost everyone of them! So we can sit back, relax, and enjoy the likes of The Happiest Girl in the World...and Nick & Nora. The former was a musical version of Lysistrata, with Cyril Ritchard both starring and directing. Doomed! The latter, Nick & Nora...of course based on Nick and Nora Charles, those canny detectives from The Thin Man series. Doomed, again! It didn't help that both of those shows had well-reputed composers and lyricists. I mean, Nick & Nora had Charles Strouse, who brought us Annie, for lord's sake.
Another goodie is Saturday Night, a musical written by a 23 year old Stephen Sondheim. If you screw your ears around, you can almost hear that Sondheim "flavor" in some of the songs, but it's definitely his infancy stage...It went unproduced til 1997.
I also get to play two of my favorite ballads: Elaine Stritch singing I Never Know When (boozy, smoky, and alone, what a trifecta!) from Goldilocks, and Bea Arthur doing Where Do You Start?, from her one-woman show.
Hope you can join me!
You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile (Donald Craig and ensemble,
Annie)
Let's Misbehave (Eileen Rodgers, Kenneth Mars, Anything Goes)
Wall Street (Tamara Long, Dames at Sea)
Real Live Girl (Ensemble of Doughboys!, Little Me)
That'll Be the Day (Ensemble, The Happiest Girl in the World)
I Remember That (Mark Haddigan, Tracie Bennett, Saturday Night)
Isn't It? (Anna Francolini, Saturday Night)
Don't Look Now (John Lithgow, The Sweet Smell of Success)
Dirty Rotten Number (John Lithgow, Norbert Leo Butz, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)
You Took Advantage of Me (Elaine Stritch, On Your Toes)
I Never Know When (Elaine Stritch, Goldilocks)
Where Do You Start? (Bea Arthur, Just Between Friends)
That Terrific Rainbow (Barbara Ashley, Pal Joey)
Zip! (Jo Hurt, Pal Joey)
Boom Chicka Boom (Faith Prince, Nick & Nora)
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