Playlist for Sunday, February 12, 2017: I'll Have the Mixed Greens!

Our Love Line up for 2 on the Aisle's Valentine Edition....

Pearl Bailey:  Ever Snide
Ethel Merman: In LOVE!!! (Can ya hear me in Jersey?)
Audra McDonald:  With a Harrumph!
Emma Thompson:  With a Sniffle
Marlene Dietrich:  With a cigarette, lots of smoke, and great stockings
Fred Astaire: With tails
Nathan Lane: With chocolates
Mary Martin: With (a lot of) shampoo
and The Marx Brothers: With a ukulele and a duck
 
To explain...Valentine season is upon us once again. Hearts, flowers, little Cupids pinging arrows at you...and I thought that was hail. Anyway, I'm hauling out the Broadway Love Ballads. But two hours of them would get a little ooey-gooey. They seem to have 4 types: 1.) I love you, in silence, 2.) I love you, out loud with !!!!, 3.) You used to love me, but you left me, can't you please please please come back?, or 4.) You will never ever love me, and I'm going to die a long suffering death because of it, ON STAGE, while you watch). This can grow mind-numbingly, teeth-achingly Sappy.

So like last year, I've combined Sappy with Snarky. Half and Half. Last year, I did one hour of each; this year I toss 'em in a Broadway salad;  if you get tired of the mood, wait 3 "bites" and a new scallion or radicchio leaf will appear on your "fork". I won't even talk about dressing. Or the entree! :)


Lovesick (Sherie Rene Scott, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown)
She Loves Me (Zachary Levi, She Loves Me)
You're Just In Love (Donald O'Connor, Ethel Merman, Call Me Madam)
Falling In Love Again (Marlene Dietrich,The Blue Angel)
There Must Be Something Better Than Love (Pearl Bailey, Arms And The Girl)
I Can't Be In Love (Don Ameche, Goldilocks)
I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair (Mary Martin, South Pacific)
The Sadder But Wise Girl For Me (Robert Preston, The Music Man)
Love Makes The World Go Round (Anna Maria Alberghetti, Carnival)
My Funny Valentine (Trudy Erwin, Pal Joey)
Once You Lose Your Heart (Emma Thompson, Me And My Girl)
Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful (Jon Cypher, Julie Andrews,
      Cinderella)
Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me (Peggy Lee, White Christmas)
I Don't Think I'll Fall In Love Today (Nancy Walker, David Craig, Treasure Girl)
Down With Love (Audra McDonald)
Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love)(Rudy Vallee and His Connecticut Yankees,
      Paris)
Everyone Says I Love You (The Marx Brothers, Horse Feathers)
Love From A Heart Of Gold (Rudy Vallee, Virginia Martin, How To Succeed In
      Business Without Really Trying)
Dear Love (Liza Minelli, Flora The Red Menace)
Put 'Em In A Box, Tie 'Em With A Ribbon, And Throw 'Em In The Deep Blue
      See (Doris Day, Romance On The High Seas)
It's A Helluva Way To Run A Love Affair (Shirl Conway, Plain And Fancy)
If (Elaine Stritch, Two On The Aisle)
Goody, Goody (Julie London, Julie Is Her Name)
Be Good Or Be Gone (Cass Morgan, Pump Boys And Dinettes)
Freddy, My Love (Katie Hanley, The Pink Ladies, Grease)
Gimme Gimme (Sutton Foster, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
He Loves And She Loves (Fred Astaire, Funny Face)
Yesterday I Loved You (Allen Case, Anne Jones, Once Upon A Mattress) 
I'm Not At All In Love (Janis Paige, The Pajama Game))
Abracadabra (June Havoc, Mexican Hay Ride)
No One'll Ever Love You (Elaine Stritch, Don Ameche, Goldilocks)
(I'll Be Glad When You're Dead) You Rascal You (Female Ensemble, Bullets
      Over Broadway)
So Long Dearie (Carol Channing, Hello, Dolly!)
Let's Not Talk About Anything Else But Love (Terrence Mann, Nathan Lane,
      Kevin Chamberlain, Jackie Hoffman, The Addams Family)

A Taste, A Sample, A Soupcon!

 Baker Street,

the musical, not the address,

opened on Broadway in 1965,

loosely based as it was on "Scandal In Bohemia."

Fritz Weaver starred as Holmes, Martin Gabel as Moriarty,

and Inga Swenson as Irene Adler.

The songwriting team of Marian Grudeff and Raymond Jessel

were helped out by their friends, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick,

who contributed additional songs. 

Tommy Tune and Christopher Walken had their 

Broadway debuts in the chorus!

 No, this ISN'T from the original Broadway production,

but it's nice to know this thing still gets performed!

We'll hear "It's So Simple" and "Leave It To Us, Guv."

 Fritz Weaver died just this past year, at the age of 90.

Despite his impeccable British accent (and air),

he was actually born and raised in Pittsburgh.

He received a Tony for his work in Child's Circle (1970),

did plenty of films (Marathon Man, The Thomas Crown Affair, etc.)

and television 

(The Twilight Zone, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Hawaii Five-O,

YOU NAME IT...he was in it!).

 Irma La Douce began life in France...

with music by Marguerite Monnot and Alexandre Breffort,

back in 1956.

By 1960, it was being produced by David Merrick on Broadway.

Elizabeth Seal, Keith Michell (no T!) and Clive Revill starred.

The story of a prostitute and the pimp who loves her

was made more palatable for innocent American ears

by the use of the French labels:
poule (prostitute), mec (pimp), and grisbee (money).

 

 LIFE magazine called it,

"a French fairy tale for wicked grownups."

Below, Elizabeth (who received a Tony for her work)

and Clive (soon-to-be Fagin in Oliver!)

at the cast album recording.

 

By 1963, they'd made the movie version,

with Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon.

The movie was not a musical,

tho it did tout a score by Andre Previn.

Marilyn Monroe was originally thought of 

for the role of Irma,

but she passed away before the movie could be made.

 

Diahann Carroll and Richard Kiley in 

No Strings,

a Richard Rodgers creation...he did both music and lyrics.

Diahann played a fashion model, Richard a writer.

 Rodgers won the Tony that year for best score,

Diahann for best actress...

and kudos for the casting, right?

(It was 1962!)

We'll sample "Loads of Love".

 

 The movie of On The Town,

with Betty Garrett and Frank Sinatra...1949.

We'll hear "You're Awful!"

Nancy Walker originally played the Betty Garrett part on stage.

Love Betty, but LOVE NANCY!

Vera-Ellen, Gene Kelly, Ann Miller, Jules Munshin, 

Betty and Frank.

Large Hearts! Big Egos! Warm Coats!

 Carl (Alfalfa) Switzer

and the Our Gang gang...

we'll hear George (Spanky) McFarland, Darla Hood,

and Carl render 

"Let Me Call You Sweetheart"

from the "Hearts is Thumps" episode,

in which Spanky puts soap in Alfalfa's sandwich,

for being disloyal to their Women Haters club.

Those were the days!

(This above pic is NOT from that episode.)

 From Waitress,

we'll hear "I Love You Like A Table"

with Christopher Fitzgerald and Kimiko Glenn.

Waitress made history on Broadway when it opened in 2016,

with the four top creative spots in a show being filled by women.

Time Out New York called the show

 "an excellent ratio of sweet to tart."

 We'll hear Nathan in Sherry!

which was based on The Man Who Came To Dinner.

What a history...first produced back in 1967,

with Clive Revill (Oliver's Fagin), Elizabeth Allen (Do I Hear A Waltz?), 

Jon Cypher (Cinderella), and Dolores Gray.

Major flop:  72 performances.

Then LOST! Lost for 30 years.

They found it in a trunk in New Jersey??

To celebrate, a studio recording done in 2003,

with Nathan, Carol, Bernadette, and 2 Toms
(Tune and Wopat)...

We'll hear the only song I can tolerate: 

Why Does The Whole Damn World Adore Me?

 Mary Martin

got to introduce "My Heart Belongs To Daddy" 

in Cole Porter's Leave It To Me!

Mary played Dolly, a poor girl stranded in Siberia,

with only a fur coat to her name!

She did a "strip tease" to the song.

I'm scandalized. :)

 Fanny Brice will serenade us with 

"I'd Rather Be Blue Over You"

which was from the 1928 "part-talkie", My Man.

Of course if you google this song,

all you get is Barbra Streisand and Funny Girl,

incorporated as it was into that musical AND movie.

But first it was Fanny's...and her first feature film debut,

at the age of 37.

 Love this shot of Ray Bolger and Elaine Stritch...

we'll hear Ray and "I'm Fascinating"

from All American.

Elaine will have to wait til next week. 

 

You actually CAN fit a lot of people in a trailer!

Mary Astor, Scotty Beckett, 

Freddie Bartholomew, and Judy Garland...as Pinky Wingate,

in a promo shot for Listen, Darling.

We'll hear "Zing!"

Judy was 16 years old.

 

Love this Peggy Lee album from 1960.

(This cover won the Grammy for Best Cover that year, btw.)

Best rendition of "Heart" I know!

Playlist for Sunday, February 5, 2017: Not Tonight, Darling

As I sat down to write this blog, I wondered what tack to take, what perspective to bring to this chosen list of possibly disparate Broadway tunes? Were they linked deliberately (does Kim actually follow some deep, sometimes subconscious, profound thought process whereby Gwen Verdon morphs subtly but inevitably into Sutton Foster?) or were these songs tossed willy-nilly into an un-ordered order, smacking of a cavalier/slap-and-dash/shoddy/dare we say unprofessional nonchalance? Well, if you think I'm going to answer that question, you gots another thing comin', bub.

But anyway. What we have here is, for the most part, Valentine's Day Overflow. I was shuffling...I mean, carefully adding songs to the up and coming VD show, and I was met by an overabundance of love songs. Broadway's like that; it would seem that every 3rd song in a musical is about love (how you want it, can't get it, louse it up, lose it, never want to experience it again). So what to do with the extra 17,000 songs?!?  Shove 'em in...I mean, carefully place them in this week's show! Voila!  A chance to "get in the mood" a week or so early. Plenty of time to get over a figurative "headache."

What the world needs now....Love, Sweet Love. :)


Ah! Sweet Mystery Of Life/Falling In Love With Someone (Marc Kudisch,
     Angela Christian, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
I Love You Like A Table (Christopher Fitzgerald, Kimiko Glenn, Waitress)
Love Is Good For Anything That Ails You (Ida Sue McCune, Billy May, The
     Hit Parade)
Loads Of Love (Diahann Carroll, No Strings)
I'd Rather Be Blue Over You (Fanny Brice, My Man)
Roll Your Socks Up (Ensemble, New Girl In Town)
Yer My Friend, Ain't Cha? (Thelma Ritter, Cameron Prud'homme,
     New Girl In Town)
Flings (Lulu Bates, Thelma Ritter, Mara Landy, New Girl In Town)
You're Awful (Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, On The Town)
When Love Arrives (Steven Pacey, Diana Morrison, Judy Blazer, George
     Irving, By Jeeves)
Outside Of That, I Love You (Judy Blazer, George Irving, Louisiana Purchase)
Heart And Soul (Jason Graae, Ensemble, Forever Plaid)
Valse Milieu (Clive Revill, Irma La Douce)
The Wreck Of A Mec (Keith Michell, Irma La Douce)
Grand Imperial Cirque De Paris (Pierre Olaf, Ensemble, Carnival)
Humming (Kaye Ballard, Henry Lascoe, Carnival)
Come Raise Your Cup (Ensemble, Ernest In Love)
It's So Simple (Fritz Weaver, Peter Sallis, Ensemble, Baker Street)
You Can't Make Love (Christina Gillespie, Alan Shayne, Ernest In Love)
Muffin Song (John Irving, Louis Edmonds, Ernest In Love)
Leave It To Us, Guv (Fritz Weaver, Ensemble, Baker Street)
Why Does The Whole World Damn World Adore Me? (Nathan Lane, Sherry!)
I'm Fascinating (Ray Bolger, All-American)
C'est Moi (Robert Goulet, Camelot)
Champagne (Lin-Manuel Miranda, In The Heights)
Born In Puerto Rico (Paul Simon, The Cape Man)
Finale (Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ensemble, In The Heights)
Listen To Your Heart (Sutton Foster, Young Frankenstein)
My Heart Belongs To Daddy (Mary Martin, Leave It To Me)
Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart (Judy Garland, Listen, Darling)
Heart (Peggy Lee, Latin A La Lee)
Let Me Call You Sweetheart  (Carl Switzer, Darla Jean Hood, Our Gang)

Yup, Old-Guy Composer/Lyricists...but thank the theatre gods for 'em!

 Jerome Kern, born Jan. 27, 1885,

on Sutton Place

(when it was the brewery district, not the high-rent 'hood 

it is now),

started his career as a rehearsal pianist and

on Tin Pan Alley, plugging other people's songs.

His own songs found their way into The Earl and The Girl,

The Beauty of Bath, and silent films.

Between 1915 and 1920, 

he wrote 16 musicals.

Projects with P.G. Wodehouse, Guy Bolton,and later

Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein.

Later in life,

at his doctor's insistence,

he moved to Hollywood to write movie scores...

as if that was less stressful than Broadway?

Below with Oscar,

with whom Jerome had his longest-lasting writing partnership

(unusual for Jerome, supposedly).

He died in 1945, having written (or contributed to)

over 60 musicals, and over 700 songs.

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart,

joined forces when they met at Columbia University;

their first song, "Any Old Place With You", was added to the

musical comedy, A Lonely Romeo.

1918 brought their break-thru show: The Garrick Gaieties.

Their partnership lasted for 20 years, 

having produced 26 musicals and scores for several films.

Hart passed away in 1943, at the age of 48.

Below, Richard with his "new" partner,

Oscar Hammerstein,

riding high after South Pacif...or The King and I...

or ...(insert R&H Smash here!

John Kander & Fred Ebb

(John at the keys)

were introduced by music publisher, Tommy Valando, in 1962,

and on the strength of their songs for Golden Gate

(never produced!)

they were hired to write the score for 

Flora The Red Menace.

Okay, so it was a flop (87 performances)

but it led to Cabaret, and a life-long connection with Liza.

The Happy Time, The Rink, Chicago, Curtains and more...

Fred passed away in 2004,

John will turn 90 in March of this year.

 David Shire and Richard Maltby, Jr. (in stripes!)

have written 2 Broadway musicals together (Big and Baby)

and 2 revues (Starting Here, Starting Now, and Closer Than Ever).

Separately, David has written for movies and television
(The Taking Of Pelham 123, Norma Rae, Alice

Shining Time Station, etc.), 

conducted symphonic orchestras, and

is a Buffalo native!

Richard has turned to directing and producing

(Ain't Misbehavin', Miss Saigon, Fosse, Ring Of Fire),

and is King of the Crossword.

 Leslie Bricusse,

lyricist, composer, and writer,

has a birthday on Sunday (1/29), when he'll turn 86 years old.

Above with Henry Mancini,
(with Cher and Placido?) 

receiving their Oscars for the score of Victor/Victoria.

 And Leslie with Anthony Newley,

with whom he created Stop The World,

and The Roar Of the Greasepaint, and

Willie Wonka And The Chocolate Factory.

Leslie (working alone or with partners) has created

almost 2 dozen scores for shows and movies,

including "Talk To The Animals" from Doctor Doolittle,

for which he received an Academy Award for Best Song.

Classic Corner...before I get quirky!

Mary Martin, Richard Rodgers, and Ezio Pinza...

no doubt waiting for Oscar to show up

so they make that lunch reservation at Sardis.

South Pacific opened in 1949
 and ran for almost 2,000 performances.

 Ezio was a Metropolitan Opera star at the time,

but when he heard they were casting 

for an "Emile de Becque,"

he changed sides.

His contract for the show limited his singing to only
15 minutes per performance.
Hmmmm...better cut that last chorus!

 Julie Andrews was such a hit in 

My Fair Lady,

Rodgers and Hammerstein were ecstatic she'd agreed to be part

of a new CBS musical project.

They decided on Cinderella...

Above, "My Own Little Corner."

 A lousy (FUZZY) shot of Howard DaSilva as Jud
and Alfred Drake as Curly

in Oklahoma!:

"Pore Jud Is Daid"

Below, a much better pic of a slightly maniacal Howard

and Joan Roberts as Laurey.

None of the cast was a star prior to the opening,

which is what Richard and Oscar were going for.

Mike Todd, after seeing a preview in New Haven,

had the definitive quote:

"No legs, no jokes, no chance",

although I think that version's cleaner than the original.

 Theodore Bikel,

a talented folk singer, actor and activist from Russia 

who would go on to star in Fiddler,
etc., etc., ETC!,

as the original Baron Von Trapp

(with an admiring Marion Marlowe as Elsa Schraeder)

in The Sound Of Music.

I have no doubt he played the guitar when he

sang "Edelweiss" in the production.

 Above, the original On Your Toes,

which Richard wrote with the OTHER "H"...

Lorenz Hart, back in 1936,

originally starring Ray Bolger (above with Doris Carson).

Below, two pics from the 1954 revival,

with Bobby Van, and Elaine Stritch.

 Bobby and Kay Coulter

and "There's a Small Hotel"....

The same Bobby who danced in the movie version
of Kiss Me, Kate,
as one of those Tom, Dick or Harry's
(with Tommy Rall and Bob Fosse).

Playlist for Sunday, January 29, 2017: Double Park, I'll Just Be A Second.

With the country's new lunatic/leader in place, I sort of need to borrow that Newley/Bricusse show title: Stop The World, I Want To Get Off. I wonder which one thought that up? Or maybe it was one of their wives, or Aunt Sadie...or somebody who was just delivering coffees and buns to a rehearsal, and overheard them batting around possible ideas. Maybe that guy is the one we need to thank.

Of course, I'm not playing that show. It just works, that title. Right now. No, I'm playing Leslie Bricusse, 'cuz it's his 85th birthday. He's probably well ensconced in a little Cotswold cottage by now, adding a chapter to his memoirs and knocking back Darjeeling with Mrs. Nesbitt. Good on you, Les. You gave us Willie Wonka and Doctor Doolittle and Hook-ed us with your words.

We'll also say "Good On You" to Jerome Kern, born just 132 years ago (?), but his melodies still float my catamaran (don't know about yours!)...and have fun with a few classic composer corners: R&H, another R&H, K&E, and just H. (Oh come on, do I have to spell 'em out?) I also JUST THE OTHER DAY discovered Closer Than Ever, a revue of Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire tunes. It was produced in 1989. Maybe I was busy birthing Broadway Babies at the time, but this one slipped by me til...oh, last Thursday, when I cracked open that CD and "discovered it" (like a lost Scottish town that appears only...oops, wrong show). Anyway, I then realized I had actually met David Shire and his wife Didi Conn (remember Shining Time Station???) at a Seder Many Moons Ago (in a far off land...oops, wrong show), and had totally forgotten it. The drugs of the 70s (and 80s and...) have far reaching consequences. Don't do drugs, kids. Just do Broadway.


Doors (Sally Mayes, Richard Muenz, Lynne Wintersteller, Brent Barrett,
      Closer Than Ever) 
Some Enchanted Evening (Ezio Pinza, South Pacific)
In My Own Little Corner (Julie Andrews, Cinderella)
Pore Jud Is Dead (Alfred Drake, Howard DaSilva, Oklahoma)
Edelweiss (Theodore Bikel, The Sound Of Music)
On Your Toes (Bobby Van, Kay Coulter, Joshua Shelley, On Your Toes)
There's A Small Hotel (Bobby Van, Kay Coulter, On Your Toes)
You Took Advantage Of Me (Elaine Stritch, On Your Toes)
Not Today (Debbie Gravitte, Liz Callaway, Kevin Reed, Brownstone)
Crossword Puzzle (Lonnie Ackerman, Starting Here, Starting Now)
Colored Lights (Karen Mason, And The World Goes 'Round)
A Million Windows And I (Ann Hampton Callaway, Shoe String Revue)
Make Believe (Howard Keel, Kathryn Grayson, Show Boat)
Bill (Annette Warren, Show Boat)
You Were Never Lovelier (Fred Astaire, You Were Never Lovelier)
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (Tamara Drasin, Roberta)
A Fine Romance (Marilyn Monroe, Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend)
Three Friends (Sally Mayes, Lynn Wintersteller, Brent Barrett,
      Closer Than Ever)
There (Sally Mayes, Richard Muenz, Closer Than Ever)
Patterns (Lynn Wintersteller, Closer Than Ever)
Who Can I Turn To (Anthony Newley, The Roar Of The Grease Paint, The
      Smell Of The Crowd)
Gay Paree (Robert Preston, Victor/Victoria)
Pure Imagination (Barbra Streisand, Seth McFarlane, Willie Wonka And
      The Chocolate Factory)
When You're Alone (Caroline Goodall, Hook)
Elegance (Charles Nelson Reilly, Jerry Dodge, Eileen Brennan,
      Sondra Lee, Hello, Dolly!)
Look What's Happened To Mabel (Bernadette Peters, Mack & Mabel)
Too Charming (Robert Preston, Ulla Sallert, Ben Franklin In Paris)
My Best Girl (Frankie Michaels, Angela Lansbury, Mame)
La Cage Aux Folles (George Hearn, Elizabeth Parrish, The Cagelles,
      La Cage Aux Folles)