Playlist For Sunday, April 5, 2021: I'm putting all my musicals in one basket!

And it's time for one BIG HUZZAH! In just 3 days, the dreary 90-day slog from New Year's to April Fool's will be over (I probably should make that FOOL plural). I have survived another winter. But get this: this next week will be filled with snow, shorts, sandals, boots, parkas, shoveling ANNNNND possible biking. WOW. NYS does it again weather-wise, so keep your wardrobe on a revolving...thing...cuz you'll need all of it, everything from sweaters and mufflers to tank tops and sunscreen. Well, maybe. I can dream. Make that hallucinate.

 

And of course, perfect timing for Easter. I remember the Easters of my youth, all dolled up in my new Easter Dress, patent leather Mary Janes, a fluffy hat with plastic flowers, and sometimes a matching spring coat (in vibrant 60s lime or coral or something)...replaced (natch) with a snow jacket on that most likely freezing Sunday morning, ultimately ruining the outfit and my MOOD (the hollow chocolate bunnies didn't help either). So I just expect the entire month of April to be some sort of reincarnation of that depressing Easter at ages 8, 4, 7 and 11.

 

Yup, that's me and my daughter in our BEST EVER Easter Hats that we made for the Easter Parade, maybe 15 or 16 years ago. We OF COURSE participated in the New York City Easter Parade for many years. Where would I have been without my trusty glue gun?

 

But my mood has begun to effervesce slightly because a.) more light...more color and light! (Yes, a Sunday in the Park reffff), thanks to that time change, and b.) I've decided to shove the Broadway this week and focus on Hollywood. Yup, it's time for Hollywood at its Best, cuz movie theatres have aisles, too. At least I think they did. Can't remember when I was last IN ONE. But just for fun, the spotlight will be on those magnificent 7 or 17 or 70 MGM Musicals...so this week, it's Broadway And Beyond.  Lots of Fred and Gene and Judy! A little Nanette and Ann and Donald! Stairways to climb, anchors to weigh, shoes to shine, rain to dance (and sing) in, and of course Easter Parades on parade!

Think of it as one big basket of Cadbury's and peeps and SOLID chocolate bunnies. Ain't we worth it? :)

That's Entertainment (Fred Astaire, Jack Buchanan, Nanette Fabray, Oscar Levant, The Band Wagon)

All I Do Is Dream Of You (Ensemble, Singin' In The Rain)

Fit As a Fiddle (And Ready To Love) (Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Singin' In The Rain)

Singin' In The Rain (Gene Kelly, Singin' In The Rain)

You Are My Lucky Star (Gene Kelly, Betty Noyes, Singin' In The Rain)

Mr. Monotony (Judy Garland, Easter Parade)

A Fella With An Umbrella (Peter Lawford, Easter Parade)

I  Want To Go Back To Michigan (Judy Garland, Easter Parade)

We're A Couple Of Swells (Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Easter Parade)

I Love Luisa (Fred Astaire, Nanette Fabray, Oscar Levant, The Band Wagon)

The Triplets (Fred Astaire, Nanette Fabray, Jack Buchanan, The Band Wagon)

I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan (Fred Astaire, Jack Buchanan, The Band Wagon)

A Shine On Your Shoes (Fred Astaire, The Band Wagon)

If You Knew Susie (Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Anchors Aweigh)

O'Brien To Ryan To Goldberg (Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Jules Munshin, Take Me Out To The Ball Game)

Siberia (Joseph Buloff, Peter Lorre, Jules Munshin, Silk Stockings)

Be A Clown (Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, The Pirate)

Make 'Em Laugh (Donald McDonald, Singin' In The Rain)

Mack The Black (Judy Garland, The Pirate)

How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I've Been A Liar All My Life (Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Royal Wedding)

Lazy (Marilyn Monroe, Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, There's No Business Like Show Business)

Play That Barbershop Chord (Judy Garland, Ensemble, In The Good Old Summertime)

Shaking The Blues Away (Ann Miller, Easter Parade)

I Got Rhythm (Gene Kelly, An American In Paris)

S'Wonderful (Gene Kelly, Georges Guetary, An American In Paris) 

I'll Build A Stairway To Paradise (Georges Guetary, An American In Paris)

Under The Bamboo Tree (Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Easter Parade)

Goin' Co'tin' (Jane Powell, Ensemble, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers)

Count On Me (Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, Jules Munshin, Ann Miller, Alice Pearce, On The Town)

Brush Up Your Shakespeare (James Whitmore, Keenan Wynn, Kiss Me Kate)

Over The Rainbow (Judy Garland, The Wizard Of Oz)

Easter Parade (Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Easter Parade)

Broadway Melody Ballet (Gene Kelly, Singin' In The Rain)

 

Betty and Adolph and Len, oh my!

Betty Comden (above) and below with her lyric-writing buddy, 

Adolph Green.

Contrary to popular opinion, they weren't married to each other,

just a match made in Broadway Wordsmith Heaven! 

Adolph was born in the Bronx, Betty in Brooklyn,

and they met while looking for acting jobs.

They soon formed "The Revuers" with Judith Tuvim (soon to be Judy Holliday), Alvin Hammer, and John Frank,

performing songs and skits at the Village Vanguard.

Judy would leave to find work in Hollywood,

but Comden and Green (and their young collaborator, Leonard Bernstein) would find more success "On The Town" in NYC!

Above, the recording session for On The Town,

with Nancy Walker, Leonard, Adolph, and Betty.

BTW these 2 smarties, while writing the lyrics, created roles for themselves in this show! Why not? 

Wonderful Town (below, with Rosalind Russell and Edie Adams)

was another Bernstein/Comden/Green smash, done in 1953.

 

In 1951, B&C began working with Jule Styne (below), creating a long list of 50s and 60s hits:

Peter Pan (1954), Bells Are Ringing (1956), Say, Darling (1958), Do Re Mi (1960), Subways Are for Sleeping (1961), Fade Out–Fade In (1964), Hallelujah, Baby! (1967), and Lorelei (1974).

(Not to mention On The Twentieth Century, they did THAT one with 

Cy Coleman!)

Below, Betty on the set of Do Re Mi with Nancy Walker (1960).

And below, because I couldn't resist,

more shots of The Revuers...

Leonard B. would sometimes accompany them for rehearsals and gigs.

 

Playlist For Sunday, March 28, 2021: Gold, Silver, and Bronze...the Olympic Editition?

Okay, so I just NOW found out what is specifically meant by The Golden Age Of Broadway. It's from 1944 to 1964. Oklahoma (!) to Fiddler On The Roof. That's the Gold. So that would include On The Town, Guys And Dolls, Kiss Me Kate, West Side Story...you get the idea. With Fiddler slamming down the fire-retardant curtain on an entire era (ear-a). So even tho I'm going to try and pass this week's show off as GOLDEN, a good part of it is maybe tarnished Silver.  Subways Are For Sleeping (1961, but hardly a classic), Do Re Mi (1960...can anyone hum the ONE song that survived?), and Wonderful Town (1953) all sorta qualify time-wise, but It's A Bird...It's A Plane...It's a...forget it, Clark! And Seesaw? An also ran from 1973. Doesn't fit. Doesn't work. See(saw) what I mean about tarnished? 

 

 

But for some reason, Seesaw hangs on a droopy bough, like a gaudy Coleman Christmas ornament, right next to Subways, and Do Re Mi tangles up its "Adventure" with On The Town (thanks to Nancy Walker, I guess)...and Bells Are Ringing has Judy Holiday who Revue-ed with those same creative titans of the 1950s, Comden/Green/and Bernstein. So there you are, the overlapping, intersecting Venn Diagrams/ nee spreading, shedding Christmas tree called My Mind. Gold sharing branches (and extension cords) with Silver/Bronze/and cheap plastic. Hand me the polish and the glitter glue, please!
 

 But what do they ALL have in common? The "common" thread is: I love them all. The pithy lyrics (well, we have floss for that!), the quirky melodies...the fantastic arrangements. And the character actors who wouldn't go all American Idol on you in the 11th hour. The sets? Do Re Mi had, yes, a giant juke box background, a "stained glass" curtain, and cardboard cutouts as the nightclub patrons. Like "How To Succeed", some of the set was drawn on! But I think it worked. (Time Machine set to 1960, Mr. Peabody!)

 

So we'll see how it all hangs together. Nothing FRESH. Nothing Brand Spanking New. Just appreciating the Musical History here, folks. Soaking up the Broadway of Adolph and Jule and Lenny and Cy. They wrote "the book" and the tunes as well. Join me Sunday! :) 

 

Seesaw (Ensemble, Seesaw)

I Feel Like I'm Not Out Of Bed Yet/New York, New York (Cris Alexander, John Battles, Adolph Green, On The Town)

Come Up To My Place (Nancy Walker, Cris Alexander, On The Town)

I Understand (Robert Chisholm, On The Town)

Some Other Time (Betty Comden, Nancy Walker, Adolph Green, Cris Alexander, On The Town)

Waiting, Waiting (Nancy Walker, Do Re Mi)

Make Someone Happy (John Reardon, Nancy Dussault, Do Re Mi)

Adventure (Phil Silvers, Nancy Walker, Do Re Mi)

Doing Good (Bob Holiday, It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman)

You've Got Possibilities (Linda Lavin, It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman)

Revenge (Michael O'Sullivan, It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman)

Subway Directions - Ride Through The Night (Sydney Chaplin, Carol Lawrence, Subways Are For Sleeping)

Strange Duet (Orson Bean, Phyllis Newman, Subways Are For Sleeping)

I Was A Shoe-In (Phyllis Newman, Subways Are For Sleeping)

Welcome To Holiday Inn (Michele Lee, Seesaw)

We've Got It (Ken Howard, Michele Lee, Seesaw)

In Tune (Ensemble, Seesaw)

It's Not Where You Start, It's Where You Finish (Tommy Tune, Seesaw)

Ohio (Edie Adams, Rosalind Russell, Wonderful Town)

What A Waste (George Gaynes, Wonderful Town)

Swing! (Rosalind Russell, Ensemble, Wonderful Town)

Somewhere That's Green/Suddenly Seymour (Faith Prince, Alex Rybeck, Total Faith)

On My Own (Sydney Chaplin, Bells Are Ringing)

Is It A Crime?(Judy Holliday, Bells Are Ringing)

Just In Time (Sydney Chaplin, Judy Holiday, Bells Are Ringing)

Hello/Fancy Dress (Bob Martin, Georgia Engel, Company, The Drowsy Chaperone)

Show Off (Sutton Foster, The Drowsy Chaperone)

I Am Adolpho (Danny Burstein, Beth Level, The Drowsy Chaperone)

Cheers! Sondheim on Random

Turning 91 years old come March 22, 2021...

"Broadway's Music Man" Stephen Sondheim. 

Winner of an Oscar, 8 Tony Awards, 8 Grammy Awards, a Pultizer Prize, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Annnnd 2 theatres have been renamed for him: Henry Miller's Theatre on Broadway and the Queen's Theatre in the West End. Not too shabby!

And a few pics from his Broadway successes (and errant flops!)...

above, Company (1970),

with Larry Kurt as Bobbie (replacing Dean Jones).

Follies (1971)... with Gene Nelson, Alexis Smith, Dorothy Collins,

John McMartin, and Yvonne DeCarlo.

At the 1985 Lincoln Center concert version of Follies,

with George Hearn, Lee Remick, Barbara Cook, and Mandy Patinkin.

Again with Mandy, and Bernadette Peters, circa their working together on

Sunday In The Park With George (1984).

 

With Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury,

on opening night of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (1979).

Below, with the cast and creative team for 

Merrily We Roll Along (1981),

including George Furth (book) and Hal Prince (direction),

and below them, Jim Walton, Ann Morrison, and Lonny Price.

With Sab Shimono on the opening night of 

Pacific Overtures (1976)

And not to forget: 

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to The Forum (1962),

A Little Night Music (1973)

Into The Woods (1987)

Passion (1994)

Assassins (1990)

Anyone Can Whistle (1964)

Lyric writing for West Side Story, Gypsy, and Do I Hear A Waltz?

And he's "Still Here"... Huzzah!

Playlist For Sunday, March 21, 2021: He's STILL HERE!

A year ago...yeah, that's what everybody's talking about. A year ago, we all closed down and hibernated and cancelled and postponed, for what we thought would be...oh, around 2 weeks? Yeah, see you in like 2 weeks, pick all this stuff back up in 2 weeks...don't know how we'll ever SURVIVE 2 weeks in our HOMES??? Like what did WE know? And a year ago, I said to my station manager, "ROB, I GOTTA do a live show, cuz Sondheim's birthday is actually ON a Sunday AND he's going to be 90! Come on, I have to do this show!" And yeah, I eventually got to do that show, maybe a month late (with a mask, a windscreen, bleach, wipes, and no one within a 1/2 mile of the station), but like what did WE know a year ago?

 

Flash forward: Guess what? It's Sondheim's birthday, AGAIN. I wasn't even going to salute him! Depression, like a fruited jello mold, had set in. Blah. As you can tell, I haven't been blessed (aka vaccinated) yet, even tho I'm old as dirt and definitely have eligibility. That poke comes for me in 10 days. Meanwhile, the world has changed and I've changed and Broadway is still dark and I hate streaming shows. And Sondheim's only 91. 

91!!! Look, he MADE IT, Kim...ya gotta do a show for him!

 

Soooo, I will. I'll do a birthday show. He deserves it. He remained vertical thru this frickin' pandemic, and he's a musical theatre god. So from the overplayed files of 2 On The Aisle, we'll toast him with his signature songs, genuflect with a couple of near-misses, and brag that we once saw him at Orso and know somebody who knows somebody who knows him. (I actually did music score copying for Merrily We Roll Along, back when it was all by hand. We're talkin' 1980. And could I tell that thing was going to flop? No, I could not.) 

Once again, we'll rev up with a Broadway attitude, that acerbic/ambivalent/neurotic Sondheim kind (which is easier than Jerry Herman's positive PEP!), and do the right thing. Happy 91st, SS. Someday soon, we'll crawl back onto a Broadway stage (or up to that balcony aisle seat) in a wonderful theatre and enjoy your music once more. LIVE. 

 

Comedy Tonight (Nathan Lane, Company, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum)

Company (Dean Jones, Barbara Barrie, Elaine Stritch, Charles Kimbrough, George Coe, Merle Louise, Company)

Another Hundred People (Pamela Myers, Company)

The Little Things You Do Together (Elaine Stritch, Elaine Stritch At Liberty)

The Story Of Lucy And Jessie (Lee Remick, Follies)

Don't Laugh (Victoria Clark, The Sondheim Birthday Concert)

I'm Still Here (Yvonne DeCarlo, Follies)

Bounce (Richard Kind, Howard McGillin, Bounce)

Losing My Mind (Barbara Cook, Follies)

Everyday A Little Death (Victoria Mallory, Patricia Elliot, A Little Night Music)

I Remember (Charmian Carr, Evening Primrose)

Uptown, Downtown (Craig Lucas, Marry Me A Little) 

Welcome To Kanagawa (Ernest Harada, Pacific Overtures) 

Prelude/The Ballad Of Sweeney Todd (Len Cariou, Angela Lansbury, Company, Sweeney Todd

Ben Franklin Sondheim & Lin-Manuel (Dan Rosales, Juwan Crawley, Spamilton)

Move On (Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin, Sunday In The Park With George)

Johanna (Victor Garber, Sweeney Todd)

Opening Doors (Jim Walton, Lonny Price, Ann Morrison, Jason Alexander, Sally Klein, Merrily We Roll Along)

Old Friends (Jim Walton, Lonny Price, Ann Morrison, Merrily We Roll Along)

Anyone Can Whistle (Lee Remick, Anyone Can Whistle)

Not While I'm Around (Ken Jennings, Angela Lansbury, Sweeney Todd)

Not A Day Goes By (Bernadette Peters, Sondheim, Etc.)

Being Alive (Dean Jones, Company)

Send In The Clowns (Glynis Johns, A Little Night Music)

There Never Was A Baby (like THIS baby)!

Jazz Baby Carol Channing in Thoroughly Modern Millie, released in 1967.

(Raspberries!)

"Let Me Be Your Sugar Baby" from Sugar Babies, which launched on Broadway in 1979, a look-back at Vaudeville Days, starring Ann Miller (and her hair), 

Ann Jillian, and Mickey Rooney. BIG SUCCESS...ran for 3 years! 

The song, written in 1935 by Artie Malvin, supposedly inspired Sugar Baby candies? Hmmmm...citation needed!

Below, Carol Channing and Robert Morse who headed up the touring company cast.

Eubie! opened on Broadway in 1978, a revue spotlighting the music of Eubie Blake...and whatta cast! Maurice and Gregory Hines, Teddy Burrell, Mel Johnson, Jr., Lynnie Godfrey, and Jeffery Thompson.

The marvelous Gregory! On Sunday we'll hear "I'm A Great Big Baby" which had a Blake melody, paired with lyrics by Andy Razaf, originally part of a 1941 musical called Tan Manhattan.

 

I plucked "Bye Bye Baby" from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the MOVIE version from 1953. It was original to the Broadway musical, of course, and written by Jule Styne and Hoagie Carmichael. The musical does a great job (Carol Channing and company sing it), but this gives me a chance to play Marilyn and Jane...and there's poor Tommy Noonan just imagining what trouble Lorelei is going to get into during that cruise. And of course he's right, we ALLLL know that!

Dolores Gray prepared to shoot Bert Lahr, in her number "IF". If we're to believe the scuttlebutt, there was NO love lost between the two leads. Kaye Ballard wasn't toooooo happy either, as it seemed that every song that gave her a chance to shine was wheedled away by Dolores! Kaye was supposed to sing "If", which would have been pretty hilarious. On Sunday we'll hear DG with "There Never Was A Baby Like My Baby"...

 Below, Dolores with Bracelets. She probably did a Jack LaLanne workout with those!