Playlist For Sunday, June 2, 2019: Shy and retiring. Well, not shy.

Well, I've just rationalized my last imaginary number. Graphed my last absolute value inequality. No more doubling formulas. Or permutations. Or if a train leaves Albuquerque at 9am going 70 mph kinda thoughts. I have retired mathematically. Maybe not in too many other ways, but that side of my brain can now take a Valium and stop number crunching. :)

So a life of leisure awaits, right? Can't quite believe that! There's still Broadway playlists to conjure, bikes to ride, boas to flaunt, and all the usual albatrosses hanging around my neck (they're much heavier and less colorful than boas, and the feathers stick to your lip gloss). I can't imagine (imaginary numbers!!!) hanging about with my feet up, eating bon bons, taking train rides (TRAIN RIDES!), and doing absolutely (absolute value!!!) nothing. That's just not me.

I think Elaine (below)

is more my "retired style"...:)

But this week has been nuts...so we'll have a Soup To Nuts edition of 2 On The Aisle. A couple of new (to me!) shows like God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and Brooklyn (the musical, not the borough), along with some old standby favorites...the floppier the better, in my book! Plus a new CD from Max Von Essen, who you may remember in An American In Paris on Broadway a couple of seasons ago (he won a Tony for that one!).

And speaking of Tony Awards...June 9th is Tony Sunday, so we'll celebrate it with songs from the nominees and past winners as well!

Now pardon me, that box of bon bons (and my Barcalounger) await!


The North Strand (Ensemble, Once)
Gold (Steve Kazee, Ensemble, Once)
Abandoned In Bandon (Andy Taylor, Once)
If You want Me (Cristin Milioti, Steve Kazee, Once)
Gold (Company, A Capella)
Not For The Life Of Me (Sutton Foster, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
Thoroughly Modern Millie (Sutton Foster, Ensemble, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
What Do I Need With Love (Gavin Kreel, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
Long As I'm Here With You (Sheryl Lee Ralph, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
On This Night Of A Thousand Stars (Max Von Essen, Call Me Old Fashioned:
      The Broadway Standard)
Chain Of Love (Audra McDonald, The Grass Harp/Sing Happy)
Cheer Up Charlie (Leslie Odom, Jr., Leslie Odom, Jr.)
Shimmy Like They Do In Paree (Max Von Essen, Call Me Old Fashioned: The
      Broadway Standard)
Thirty Miles From The Banks Of The Ohio/Look Who's Here (Santino
      Fontana, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater)
Cheese Nips (Brynne O'Malley, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater)
Since You Came To This Town (Ensemble, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater)
Heart Behind These Hands (Cleavant Derricks, Ensemble, Brooklyn
      The Musical)
I Never Knew His Name (Eden Espinosa, Brooklyn The Musical)
Love Me Where I Live (Ramona Keller, Brooklyn The Musical)
He Had Refinement (Shirley Booth, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn)
Make The Man Love Me (Johnny Johnston, Marcia Van Dyke, A Tree Grows
      In Brooklyn)
Welcome To Brooklyn (Lainie Kazan, Evan Pappas, Ensemble, My Favorite Year)
A Little More Mascara (George Hearn, La Cage Aux Folles)
Song On The Sand (Gene Barry, La Cage Aux Folles)
We Are What We Are (Ensemble, La Cage Aux Folles)
You've Got Possibilities (Linda Lavin, It's A Bird...It's A Plane...It's Superman!)
Girls Like Me (Carol Lawrence, Subways Are For Sleeping)
Steady, Steady (Michele Lee, Bravo Giovanni)
Butter Outta Cream (Aaron Tveit, Tom Wopat, Catch Me If You Can)
Stuck Together (Strange But True) (Aaron Tveit, Norbert Leo Butz,
      Catch Me If You Can)
Jet Set (Aaron Tveit, Ensemble, Catch Me If You Can)

Everything, Something, Nothing: Broadway Zen?

 "Something Good", written by Richard Rodgers 

(without a little help from his lyricist friends)

for the movie version of The Sound Of Music,

gets an Elaine Stritch turn on today's 2OTA. 

 Back in 1990, James Naughton received his first Tony for

his role as private eye Stone in

City Of Angels.

Today we'll hear his duet with Gregg Edelman from the show,

"You're Nothing Without Me." 

 

 Dorothy Loudon with "Fifty Percent"

from Ballroom,

in My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies,

produced for television back in 1998.

 "Everything About You"

is from Groundhog Day (the musical),

with Andy Karl as snarky weatherman, Phil Connors.

This Tim Minchin musical did not do well enough to 

muster a national tour!? 

 Louis Jourdan and Leslie Caron

in Gigi, 1958,

was made into a Broadway musical in 1973.

It did not do well, 

which means a revival is now in the works! 

We'll hear Lerner & Loewe's "You Do Something To Me."

 Last year's Best Musical Tony Winner,

The Band's Visit,

with Tony Shaloub and Katrina Lenk

singing "Something Different" is sublime.

I think David Yazbek's current Broadway offering,

Tootsie,

is a show (or horse) of a different color...more in The Full Monty vein.

 

When Babs thought to star in the movie version of 

Hello, Dolly!,

Jerry Herman wrote her a brand new song,

"Just Leave Everything To Me"

so she could soar a little moar (more)

than "I Put My Hand In" allowed.

Larry Kert and Carol Lawrence,

the original Tony and Maria

in West Side Story,

which Columbia Records did not initially want to record.

Who would ever want to listen to Leonard Bernstein's

complicated ("angular and beautiful") melodies?

Why bother with a cast album?

"Something's Coming", and it did!

Kelli O'Hara and Paulo Szot

in a revival of South Pacific.

A great Nellie and Emile...2008.

We'll sample "There is Nothing Like a Dame", 

and a few more selections

from this production.

Three Newbies!

Up for a Best Musical Tony

come June 9th is

Ain't Too Proud: The Life And Times Of The Temptations.

It stars James Harkness, Ephraim Sykes, Jeremy Pope,

Derrick Baskins and and Jawan M. Jackson.

Derrick, Ephraim and Jeremy are also nominated for their performances

(and Jeremy is nominated for his work in Choir Boy, as well!).

Although Ain't is a juke-box musical,

it supposedly avoids the pitfalls of other similar productions,

with a book by Dominique Morisseau,

fabulous choreography by Sergio Trujillo, 

and direction by that New Jersey Boys champ,  Des McAnuff.

Above the "Supremes": Candice Marie Woods,

Nasia Thomas, and Taylor Simone Jackson. 

Hot dresses and slick suits for days...

Launched in London in 2017,

then produced at the Public Theatre in NY,

Girl From The North Country is set in Minnesota (Dylan's birthplace)

during the Depression.

Above the West End poster, featuring Shirley Henderson who starred.

In the NY production, Mare Winingham (below) took the part. 

Because the Public is an off Broadway theatre,

this musical could not be nominated for Tony Awards,

tho Jesse Green of the Times wishes it could have been. 

Below, Jeanette Bayardelle, from the NY cast. 

The creators of the piece:

Above, Conor McPherson, director and author of this complex drama.

Below, Bob Dylan, whose songs are supposedly well 

integrated into the plot.

As the Times speaketh:

 "If you’re a hard-core Dylan fan, you’ve heard these songs before. 

But, for me at least, they’ve never sounded quite so heartbreakingly personal and universal at the same time."

I second the emotion.

Dylan's songs have never floated my boat...til now. :) 

Be More Chill,

with music by Joe Iconis,
opened in March, 2019, and as
Ben Brantley of the NYTimes put it...
"it joined the crowded field of shows about hormonally-overcharged outsiders longing for acceptance."

It stars Will Roland (center above) as nerd/geek Jeremy Heere,

George Salazar (below) as Michael (in the bathroom) Mell...

...and as the Squip (above),

the Matrix-slick technology that you swallow to "be more chill"

is Jason Tam.

Ben Brantley went on to say, "It has the goofy karaoke quality 

of kids performing boisterously for other kids. 

It doesn’t try to dazzle its audience with glossy professionalism."

Evidently not.

It's received a Tony nom for Best Score, but that's it! 

Playlist for Sunday, May 26, 2019: She worked hard for the money...

EVERTHING's coming up around here, specifically dandelions and lilacs and the errant wasps. No roses yet, and if they do show up, it won't be from any of my doing. Because I'm not really of the "Make Our Garden Grow" variety. I garden strictly out of peer pressure. In fact, I think I would rather clean my kitchen floor with a tooth brush than weed/mulch/trim/or plant. For these jobs, I would like to call on a staff. HOWEVER, the idea of a "staff" to fulfill pool, garden, or high tea requirements is rapidly becoming (as of next Wednesday) a total impossibility, as I will be (drum roll...wait, would bongos be cheaper?) Retiring. And on a (dare i say it?) Budget. Man, I can't even type that word without shuddering.

Best staff ever:

Hank Azaria in The Birdcage

So it will be a staff-less life for me! I'll have to fire the butler and discontinue my season tickets at the Met. (Yeah, right, like THAT'S happening.) An austerity diet of ice cubes and toothpicks. Well, the occasional Hendricks. And maybe some pate now and again. A girl can't live on NOTHING! But no way will I be able to curb my Broadway obsession. Case in point, we have 3 new musicals to "taste" this Sunday: Girl From The North Country, Be More Chill, and Ain't Too Proud. I can't say that they're all my new favorites (okay, my favorite of these is North Country), but we owe it to ourselves (and the hopefully Great White Way) to sample!

So that's SOMETHING to look forward to...new Broadway, a little more time on my "retired" hands, and a summer of sun and biking and Hendricks and pate and travel and ...see what I mean?


Slow Train Coming/License To Kill (Michael Shaeffer, Ensemble, Girl From
      The North Country)
There Is Nothin' Like A Dame (Danny Burstein, Ensemble, South Pacific)
Some Enchanted Evening (Paulo Szot, South Pacific)
Honey Bun (Kelli O'Hara, South Pacific)
Everything's Coming Up Roses (Ethel Merman, Gypsy)
Everything's Great (Kenneth Tobey, Paula Wayne, Golden Boy)
Everything About You (Andy Karl, Groundhog Day)
Everything Changes (Jessie Mueller, Waitress)
Fifty Percent (Dorothy Loudon, Ballroom/My Favorite Broadway: The Leading
      Ladies)
Time Heals Everything (Bernadette Peters, Mack & Mabel/Sondheim Etc.:
      Bernadette Peters Live At Carnegie Hall)
Something Good (Elaine Stritch, The Sound Of Music/Elaine Stritch At Liberty)
Be More Chill (Jason Tam, Will Roland, Be More Chill)
Michael In The Bathroom (George Salazar, Be More Chill)
Ain't Too Proud To Beg (Derrick Baskin, Jeremy Pope, James Harkness,
      Jawan M. Jackson, Ephraim M. Sykes, Ain't Too Proud: The Life And
      Times Of The Temptations)
Get Ready (Derrick Baskin, Jeremy Pope, James Harkness, Jawan M.
      Jackson, Ephraim M. Sykes, Ain't Too Proud: The Life And Times Of
      The Temptations)
Something's Coming (Larry Kert, West Side Story)
There's Something About You (David Christmas, Bernadette Peters, Dames
      At Sea)
Something Different (Katrina Lenk, Tony Shaloub, The Band's Visit)
Just Leave Everything To Me (Barbara Streisand, Hello, Dolly!)
Who Taught Her Everything? (Kay Medford, Danny Meehan, Funny Girl)
Everything Old Is New Again (Hugh Jackman, The Boy From Oz)
You Do Something To Me (Louis Jourdan, Gigi)
Do Something (David Josefsburg, Rob McClure, Honeymoon In Vegas)
Something To Point To (Company, Working)
Nothing Is New In New York (Ensemble, Breakfast At Tiffany's)
You're Nothing Without Me (Gregg Eddelman, James Naughton, City Of Angels)
Nothing (Priscilla Lopez, A Chorus Line)
Something (Douglas Bernstein, Upstairs At O'Neals)
Hurricane/All Along The Watchtower/Idiot Wind (Arinze Kene, Sheila Atim,
      Ensemble, Girl From The North Country)
Tight Connection To My Heart (Sheila Atim, Girl From The North Country)
Like A Rolling Stone/To Make You Feel My Love (Shirley Henderson,
      Ensemble, Girl From The North Country)

This is the life!

 

 Golden Boy (1964)

starring Sammy Davis, Jr., Paula Wayne, and Billy Daniels.

Music...Charles Strouse and Lee Adams,

the song-writing team that brought us Bye Bye Birdie,

All American, Applause, and It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman!

Billy Daniels played Eddie Satin, 

the fight promoter.

Billy had early vocal hits, like

"That Old Black Magic",

sang in all the top clubs, did movies, even had a television show back in 1952.

His Broadway credits include Memphis Bound,

Hello Dolly, and Bubblin' Brown Sugar.

We'll hear him and Sammy with "This Is The Life" on Sunday.

A young Lola Falana...born Loletha!

The story goes that Sammy "discovered" her and got her a part

in Golden Boy.

Lola would tour with him until 1969.

If you read Charles Strouse's account of the 

making of Golden Boy (and life as a songwriter in general)

....Put On A Happy Face...

it seemed writing for Sammy was way difficult.

He wanted songs that would show off his nightclub singing style,

and rejected many of their attempts. 

He very much controlled the production and the content of the show.

But the music that WAS kept was jazzy and urban,

the content pretty cutting edge for 60s Broadway.

In our oldies corner,

Helen Kane (the inspiration for Betty Boop
but not the voice of BB: that was furnished by Mae Questal!)

sings "I Want To Be Bad."

Helen did 7 movies between 1929 and 1931...

and then the flapper age peaked.

However, in 1950, she dubbed for Debbie Reynolds

in Three Little Words,

for the song "I Wanna Be Loved By You",

Helen's biggest hit.

Al Bowlly,

a South African/British vocalist,

who recorded over 1,000 songs!

He performed with the bands of Roy Fox 

and Ray Noble in the 1920s and 30s,

as well as his own band, The Radio City Rhythm Makers.

Al came to a rather horrible end, unfortunately...

he was killed in 1941

by a Luftwaffe parachute mine outside of his London apartment.

We'll hear his rendition of "If I Had You"

recorded with the Fred Elizalde Band in 1928.

In the 1940 Disney film, Pinocchio,

Walter Catlett voiced the part of 

Honest John Worthington Foulfellow (below)

and got to sing "Hi Diddle Dee Dee (An Actor's Life For Me)", 

written by Leigh Harline and Paul J. Smith.

You'll find Walter in character roles in

Bringing Up Baby, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Mr. Deeds Goes To Washington,

as well as Disney productions like Davy Crockett. 

From Promises, Promises (1968-72),

with Jerry Orbach and Jill O'Hara, 

we'll hear "Half As Big As Life."

Burt Bacharach and Hal David did the music,

choreography by Michael Bennett,

and produced by David Merrick.

Quite an ensemble, too:
Baayork Lee, Donna McKechnie, Kelly Bishop, 

Ken Howard, and Marian Mercer.

Just a couple of years later,

Bennett would use several of these folks for A Chorus Line.

And Sammy returns for another LIFE song,

"The Rhythm Of Life" from Sweet Charity, the movie.

Fosse choreography, Davis energy...what a duo!

Oh Captain! Oh Bobo! Oh Maud!

Here's an oddity:

Oh Captain!

Note exclamation mark.

Note the song writing team that brought us

"Mona Lisa" and "Silver Bells".

Note daring apron, which is certainly not a safe way to "stir a pot".

A Jose Ferrer production! 

You can just tell this will be a wild night in the theatre, right?

And you would be wrong. 

Oh Captain!, starring Tony Randall, Abbe Lane, Susan Johnson,

 and Jacquelyn McKeever,

opened on Broadway in 1958.

It was based on a British movie, The Captain's Paradise,

which was set in Algiers and Gibraltar...

about a sea captain who led 2 very different lives (with 2 very different wives!)

 in each of these ports. 

The movie starred Alec Guinness and Yvonne DeCarlo (below),

and you can see where they got the apron idea...

Well, for the Broadway musical, they switched venues to

London and Paris. 

At first, Danny Kaye was slated to star, then David Wayne,

but Tony ended up with it.

Critics dissed it as a "tired businessman's show",

but what WAS adored was a 5 minute ballet that

Tony got to do with Alexandra Danilova (above)...

I'll post it on my 2 on the Aisle Facebook page;

it's a hoot, tho I don't think it's supposed to be! :)

The show ran for 192 performances.

Abbe Lane played the Captain's French wife,

Bobo (above)

and Jacquelyn McKeever (below), the English wife,

Maud:

French ooh la la and English cottage pie.

The Al Hirschfeld rendition...note a two-faced Tony!

Of course prior to this,

Jay Livingston and Ray Evans

were popular song writers (with more than 700 titles to their names),

especially for movies and television.

Among their many tunes...

the themes for Bonanza and Mr. Ed

 (Jay actually sang that theme song for the show) 

and the songs "Buttons and Bows", "Que Sera Sera", "Tammy",

and "Dear Heart" (in collaboration with Henry Mancini).

Couldn't resist including this pic:

 the team rehearsing music for The Red Parasol,

with Lucille Ball wearing what looks like a bird cage

or a small jail in the middle of her hair.

Recording the cast album with 

Goddard Lieberson,

President of Columbia Records

and God of original cast recordings...

with Jay and Ray.

Interesting trivia: J&R appeared as themselves 

in the movie Sunset Boulevard, 

in the New Year's Eve party scene.