Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Ore Briny Foam, We Sail (And Pilfer)!



 Who knew pirates could sing,
and often dance?
Above, Tim Curry in
Muppets Treasure Island played 
"A Professional Pirate", Long John Silver,
chuckling no doubt as Kermit walks the plank. 

 A pirate theme must include
Cyril Ritchard (loving that beauty mark!),
as the original Captain Hook in Peter Pan. 
"Captain Hook's Waltz"

 Gene Kelly and Judy Garland in
The Pirate, 1948.
The song "Mack The Black"
replaced "Voodoo"
which was deemed WAAAY too sexy for movie audiences
(so much so that Louis B. Mayer had the negatives burned).
 
 Swimming from pirates to the briny deep,
Samuel E. Wright sang the part of Sebastian The Crab
in The Little Mermaid...
"Under The Sea,"
a song by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman.

 Shirley Booth and Wilbur Evans had a tunnel of love
boat ride in By The Beautiful Sea,
with music by Arthur Schwartz and Dorothy Fields.

 And then a first: Kirk Douglas sings!
"Whale Of A Tale" from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, 1954.
Stripes shirts were popular with musical comedy pirates
(and Parisian artists, I guess).
Below, the rest of the "chorus":
James Mason, Peter Lorre, and Paul Lukas
Absent: The Giant Squid. (Perhaps a Squidward ancestor!)


 We'll hear 4 "takes" of "In The Same Boat"
from Kander and Ebb's Curtains
(well, they were trying to get it right!).
Above, Jill Paice, Karen Ziemba and Megan Sikora
with boat oars. :)

 "There's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York"
from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess,
and originally sung by John Bubbles (above)
as Sportin' Life.
Below, the team of Buck and Bubbles,
the vaudeville act that started them off.


 The Apple Tree from 1966
was a Jerry Bock/Sheldon Harnick creation;
three separate plots...
Mark Twain's The Diary of Adam and Eve,
Frank R. Stockton's The Lady Or The Tiger,
and Jules Feiffer's Passionella.
 All three starred Barbara Harris, Alan Alda and Larry Blyden.
We'll hear "It's A Fish" from Act 1.
(A revival was attempted back in 2006 
with Kristin Chenowith, Bryan D'Arcy James and Marc Kudisch.
Kristen was praised, but the show proved 
"creaky" and closed after 3 months.) 


 Okay, so this is SpongeBob,
in previews on Broadway presently, 
and scheduled to open in early December.
We'll hear the 2 songs I can tolerate...
"Poor Pirate" and "I'm Not Loser"
which is seen below, with Gavin Lee as Squidward.
Note extra "legs". Nuff said.


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