Playlist for Sunday, August 2, 2015: Frogs and Fellini

Have you heard the frogs recently? The real ones, I mean. Don't know about you, but at this point in the summer, they are offering one hell of a chorus from my ditch...I mean, the lovely creek that flows in front of my house. They're a bit cacophonous, not really paying attention to any sort of rhythm or pitch...in fact they act like each and every one of them is the only one on stage.  Sorta like short-sighted divas. Well, that put me in mind of The Frogs, college-aged Stephen Sondheim's creation, first staged at Yale University's pool (yes, they boated, they sculled, they repelled the nasty frogs), revived and produced at Lincoln Center in 2004. The frogs were the most irritating part of that musical; Nathan Lane and Roger Bart (as Dionysus and Xanthius) were delightful, however, from "Dress Big" to "Hades." So that part of The Frogs will take center stage this Sunday.

Plus two musicals who show their Fellini obsessions, like petticoats showing under one's best red taffeta.  Nine's creator, Maury Yeston was enamored of 8 1/2 from age 13, when he first saw that film, and he eventually created a musical version...we'll hear Anita Morrison's "A Call From The Vatican" and Liliane Montevecchi's "Folies Bergeres"...Then there's a quick sample from All That Jazz, Bob Fosse's take on Fellini.  Artists in crisis, with all the women in their lives (in memory, in reality) showing their import (and slips). 

Muddle in Mickey Rooney, Jackie Gleason, Ragtime and Music Man classics, and you've got yourself a show...that may drown out those frogs! 


Invocation And Instructions To The Audience (Nathan Lane, Roger Bart, The Frogs)
Rock Island (Paul Reed, Ensemble, The Music Man)
Iowa Stubborn (Ensemble, The Music Man)
Till There Was You (Barbara Cook, Robert Preston, The Music Man)
Pick-A-Little, Talk-A-Little (Helen Raymond, Ensemble, The Music Man)
Sid Ol' Kid (Jackie Gleason, Ensemble, Take Me Along)
Nine O'Clock (Robert Morse, Take Me Along)
But Yours (Jackie Gleason, Eileen Herlie, Take Me Along)
Take Me Along (Walter Pigeon, Jackie Gleason, Take Me Along)
Take Off With Us (Ensemble, All That Jazz)
Snake In The Grass (Bob Fosse, The Little Prince)
Rich Man's Frug (Instrumental, Sweet Charity)
The Rhythm Of Life (Sammy Davis, Jr., Ensemble, Sweet Charity)
A Call From The Vatican (Anita Morris, Raul Julia, Nine)
Folies Bergeres (Lilliane Montevecchi, Stephanie Cotsirilos, Raul Julia, Nine)
Right Hand Man (Heidi Blikenstaff, Something Rotten!)
I Really Like Him (Ernie Sabella, Man of La Mancha)
I Wanna Be Like You (Louis Prima, Phil Harris, The Jungle Book)
Under The Bamboo Tree (Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Meet Me In St. Louis)
My Blanket And Me (Bob Balaban, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown)
With You On My Arm (Gene Barry, George Hearn, La Cage Aux Folles)
I Won't Say I'm In Love (Susan Egan, Hercules)
What A Game (Mark Jacoby, Alex Strange, Ensemble, Ragtime)
Sarah Brown Eyes (Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald, Ragtime)
Buffalo Nickel Photoplay, Inc. (Peter Friedman, Ragtime)
Let Me Be Your Sugar Baby (Female Ensemble, Sugar Babies)
A Good Old Burlesque Show (Mickey Rooney, Sugar Babies)
Cuban Love Song (Scott Stewart, Michele Rodgers, Sugar Babies)
I'm Just A Song And Dance Man (Mickey Rooney, Sugar Babies)
Dress Big (Nathan Lane, Burke Moses, The Frogs)
Ariadne (Nathan Lane, Roger Bart, The Frogs)
Hades (Peter Bartlett, The Frogs)