Sunday Warblebirds!

 One of our Sunday ballads this week:
Leslie Uggams

and "My Own Morning",

written by Jule Styne, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green

for Hallelujah, Baby!

It was Leslie's Broadway debut, at the age of 24,

and she scooped a Best Actress in a Musical Tony award for it.

Leslie's presently 74 and still working:

 She starred in Empire (2015) and Deadpool (2016), 

above as "Blind Al".

Over 6 decades in the "business"...

and it all started in a little film called

Beulah,

in which Leslie played Ethel Water's niece, 

at 8 years of age. 

 

 Gotta have some Nathan Lane,

above with Bebe Neuwirth in

The Addams Family,

and below in the film version

(Addams Family Values, done in 1993)

in which Nathan played a police desk sergeant.

"Cook 'em, Hook 'em, and Book 'em!"

 And below, of course,

a star turn in The Producers,

Best Musical Tony winner of 2001,

with Cady Huffman

and Mathew Broderick.

 

 Bryce Pinkham and Jane Carr:
"You're A D'Ysquith!"

in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder.

Bryce sounds British to the core,

but he was born and raised in California,

and has trod the Broadway boards in

Ghost, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Heidi Chronicles, 

and more (of course!).

Jane, on the other hand, is straight from Essex,

and has done film, stage, Brit television, and voice overs a 'plenty.

 Bryce with Jefferson Mays,

who played the entire D'Ysquith family in the show.

Back in 2004, Jefferson garnered

every KNOWN THEATRE AWARD

for his performance in 

I Am My Own Wife.

So no stranger to success, he!

 The Callaway Gals!

We'll hear a mash up of 

"The Sweetest Sounds" from No Strings

(a Richard Rodgers' musical from 1962)

and "I Can See It"

(from The Fantasticks, 1960...til forever!).

I Can See It! (Can't You?)

 Robert Lindsay and Emma Thompson in the 

1985 London production of Me And My Girl.

After an 8 year run in the West End,

it traveled to Broadway,

but Emma didn't travel with it.

She said if she had to do one more chorus of 

"The Lambeth Walk", she'd go crazy!

Below, a recent shot of Robert...

 and Emma!

 The original cast of

The Fantasticks, 1960,

with Jerry Orbach (25 years old at the time)

in the crazy hat, top center.

Rita Gardner played Luisa, Kenneth Nelson (to the right) was Matt.

 This show ran for over 42 years...

and as of 2010, it had supposedly earned its initial investors

240 times their original investments.

Something to be said for simple productions

(a cardboard moon on a string, and a 2 piece "orchestra",

with the harpist doubling on bongos).

 A couple more shots of Mr. Orbach: 

Above: the 1969 Tony Awards,

with James Earl Jones, who won for The Great White Hope,

Julie Harris for Forty Carats,

Angela Lansbury for Dear World,

and Jerry for Promises, Promises.

 Eileen Brennan in Hello, Dolly!

Above at the cast recording, with Charles Nelson Reilly,

and below as our first "musical" Miss Molloy with

"Ribbons Down My Back".

 Today's Miss Molloy,

Kate Baldwin, in her hat shop,

in the current Bette Midler production.

Below, Kate with Gavin Creel

no doubt dripping in "Elegance".

 Art Lund as Joey in The Most Happy Fella, 1956,

with Jo Sullivan who played Rosabella.

Art started out singing with bands,

like that of Benny Goodman and Harry James.

After a hit, "Mam'selle" (1947), 

he found parts on Broadway (Destry Rides Again, Fiorello!)

and in film (The Molly Maguires, Black Caesar).

Below, Art with Robert Weede at the recording of the cast album.

"Joey, Joey, Joey"

 And of course we'll hear 

Leslie Odom Jr.'s version of "Joey",

from his 2016 album,

a fantastic rendition (and more bongos!).

Below, Leslie as Aaron Burr 

in Hamilton. 

Playlist for Sunday, November 12, 2017: Roll Down That Window!

My daughter invaded last weekend. She is a "Texan" now, with quotes because she holds (talon-like) fast to her New Yorker roots (and accent), and lives Texas-Lite in Austin. On the drive back from Rochester's "International" airport, she stuck her head out of the car window, like a Golden Retriever on its way to Country Max, and yelled something like "I love Fall!" Seems Austin goes autumn-less, seems Texas doesn't believe in Seasonal Switches. So she basked in our doom and gloom weekend of 36 degrees and rainy...hey, it's all relative. One man's 60 is another woman's 61.

But those seasonal cycles got the windmills of my mind going, and that's all I see in this play list...a lot of swirly bits, interconnected, leading to, linked, The Transitive Property...of Broadway! Case in point: The Callaway sissies warbling "I Can See It", and then I play The Fantasticks (cuz they got me in a Fantastick mood! HAH!), or the Family Addams leading to the Family D'Ysquith. Ribbons and Joeys and Jerrys. Damn, that's sweet.

And that's not to say I don't love the slam, bam, tang of a Julie Andrews to Four Jews to Hamilton mash-up. Robert Lindsay being all Englishy, next to Riff and Action being all JD. We got that, too.

But enjoy the windmills, cuz that's all I got this morning (well, along with clouds in my coffee). Don't go tilting at 'em. Stick your head out of the window, breathe deep the gathering gloom, and tap on. To your own personal Country Max.


Me And My Girl (Robert Lindsay, Emma Thompson, Me And My Girl)
Jet Song (Michael Callan, "The Jets", West Side Story)
Maria (Larry Kert, West Side Story)
Gee, Officer Krupke (Eddie Roll, Ensemble, West Side Story)
Symphonic Dance (Instrumental, West Side Story)
My Own Morning (Leslie Uggams, Hallelujah, Baby!)
You Don't Know this Man (Audra McDonald, Way Back To Paradise)
Anyone Can Whistle/Being Alive (Sutton Foster, Sutton Foster At The Carlyle)
The Sweetest Sounds/I Can See It (Ann Hampton Callaway, Liz Callaway,
      Sibling Revelry)
Try To Remember (Jerry Orbach, The Fantasticks)
Soon It's Gonna Rain (Rita Gardner, Kenneth Nelson, The Fantasticks)
I Can See It (Kenneth Nelson, Jerry Orbach, The Fantasticks)
Ribbons Down My Back (Eileen Brennan, Hello, Dolly!)
Ribbons Down My Back (Kate Baldwin, Hello, Dolly!)
Joey, Joey, Joey (Art Lund, The Most Happy Fella)
Joey, Joey, Joey (Leslie Odom, Jr., Leslie Odom, Jr.)
A Room In Bloomsbury (Julie Andrews, John Hewar, The Boy Friend)
One Room (Hal Linden, Leila Martin, The Rothschilds)
When Mabel Comes In The Room (Company, Mack & Mabel) 
Four Jews In A Room Bitching (Christian Borle, Andrew Rannells,
      Anthony Rosenthal, Brandon Uranowitz, Falsettos)
The Room Where It Happens (Leslie Odom, Jr., Lin-Manuel Miranda,
      Daveed Diggs, Okieriete Onaodowan, Hamilton)
When You're An Addams (Nathan Lane, Ensemble, The Addams Family)
You're A D'ysquith (Jane Carr, Bryce Pinkham, A Gentleman's Guide To
      Love & Murder)
Poison In My Pocket (Bryce Pinkham, Jefferson Mays, Catherine Walker,
      A Gentleman's Guide To Love & Murder
Sibella (Bryce Pinkham, A Gentleman's Guide To Love & Murder)
Morticia (Nathan Lane, The Addams Family)
Leaning On A Lamp Post (Robert Lindsay, Emma Thompson, Me And My Girl)
Once You Lose Your Heart (Emma Thompson, Me And My Girl)
The Lambeth Walk (Robert Lindsay, Company, Me And My Girl)

Cats, Faces, Toes, Louisiana...and VERA!

 Damned if I could find one photo of the original

Broadway production of The Cat and the Fiddle,

done in 1931,

with Odette Myrtle, Eddie Foy, Jr., and Lawrence Grossmith

(the son of George Grossmith, who was part of Gilbert & Sullivan's

popular D'Oyly Carte Company)

and with music by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach.

What I did find was a poster, and lots of pics

from the movie version, done in 1934,

starring Jeanette MacDonald and Ramon Novarro, below.

We'll hear "She Didn't Say No" sung by Elisabeth Welch

in a studio cast recording. 

 

 Louisiana Purchase is also a "challenge!"

Above is a playbill from the original Broadway production

(featuring William Gaxton, Vera Zorina, Victor Moore and Irene Borodoni)

and below, a promo photo from same...

but that's all I found!

Lots more from the movie version, done in 1941,

with Bob Hope, more Vera and more Moore!

 

 Exactly why they are in these get-ups, is beyond me.

Though it IS set in New Orleans for the most part,

with Mardi Gras, etc...??

Below, Vera Zorina, a Norwegian ballerina 

(of course! With THAT name, what else?)

who was married to choreographer George Balanchine for a time.

From this show, we'll hear "Change Your Luck"

and "Spinach".

 

 The fabulous Judy Judy Judy...

will be on hand with a contribution to our mini Street theme.

"On The Sunny Side Of The Street"

 Ray Bolger and Luella Gear

in the original production of On Your Toes, 1936.

A Rodgers and Hart show with George Abbott helping out with the book.

Ray played Phil Dolan III, and Luella had the 

Peggy Porterhouse role.

Fred Astaire nixed the part of Phil,

saying it would hurt his classy image.

 Above (with Ray kneeling) and below,

shots from the jazz ballet in "Toes,"

"Slaughter On Tenth Avenue."

 Starring in the 1954 revival of On Your Toes was

Bobby Van and Vera Zorina (yes, AGAIN!)

(below, and please note swan-esque headboard)...

and Elaine Stritch as Peggy.

We'll hear the title song of the show, "On Your Toes",

"This Can't Be Love",

and a song stolen from an earlier Rodgers and Hart show

(Present Arms, 1928)

"You Took Advantage Of Me"

especially for Ms. Stritch.

 Face The Music, 1932,

with an Irving Berlin score,

was the first time Berlin and Moss Hart

worked together.

It starred Mary Boland and Charles Lawrence.

Despite opening in the midst of the Depression,

it was a huge success with audiences,

thanks to songs like "Let's Have Another Cup Of Coffee."

The New York Times called it  a

  "bountiful merry-go-round of songs and gibes."

 If the name Mary Boland haunts you,

that may be because of her star turn

in The Women, 1939,

in which she played the Countess De Lave.

(Above center, with Paulette Goddard and Norma Shearer,

"on the train to Reno!")

WWII, Swing...and some Revolting Children

 First the novel by James Jones,

then the movie with Burt and Deborah and Frank,

now a musical!

From Here To Eternity,

yet to find a niche on Broadway, but it did in the West End,

with music by Stuart Brayson

and lyrics, Tim Rice 

(of Evita/Jesus Christ Superstar/

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat fame).

 The novel was censored from Day 1

(gay prostitution, profanity, the effects of war),

but in 2011 the original (un-excised) text was released,

which prompted renewed interest in a musical rendition.

So it is to the novel, not the film,

that this show pays allegience.

 

 It opened in London in 2013,

to mixed reviews,

tho the score was praised.

Below Robert Lonsdale and Siubhan Harrison

as Prewitt and Lorene.

 

 Darius Campbell as Warden

and Rebecca Thornhill as Karen.

We'll hear "Run Along Joe" with Siubhan Harrison

and "Marking Time" with Darius.

 Swing!, a juke box musical from 1999,

featuring songs from Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Benny Goodman.

Ann Hampton Callaway, Laurie Benanti, and Everett Bradley

were in the cast...

which also featured the Lindy Champs of 1997,

Ryan Francois and Jenny Thomas, 

who added their own jitterbug/lindy choreography

 to that of Lynne Taylor-Corbett.

 Swing! lasted over a year on Broadway,

was nominated for several Tonys,

and won Theatre World Awards for Ann and Everett.

 We'll hear "Swing Brother Swing," "Harlem Nocturne"

and "In the Mood/Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree".

 I'm a Tim Minchin nut,

and tho I tend to like his "stand up" work

(or should I call it his "sit down" work, because he usually 

plays the piano and sings his "stand up")

to his musicals,

I really do like Matilda and (some of) Groundhog Day.

Above, the wonderful UK production/set of Matilda,

and below, the man himself.

Born in Northampton, raised in Perth,

Tim has also had MANY theatrical roles,

playing Pontias Pilate AND later Judas in

Jesus Christ Superstar,

the title role in Amadeus,

and Don Quixote in Man Of La Mancha.

  

Matilda garnered Oliviers, Tonys, Grammys,

and Drama Desk Awards.

 We'll hear "When I Grow Up"

and "Revolting Children".

Looks like it from here. :)