Playlist for Sunday, January 5, 2013: Too Bad, You Can't Go Back to Moscow!

2 on the Aisle experiences a slight list to the Movie Musical side this Sunday, what with selections from Cabaret (the film), Singin' in the Rain, Silk Stockings, etc., but they're just so good!  Not to fear, however, because there are still some iconic Broadway items in the line up, from the likes of The Pajama Game and Bells are Ringing, plus a few quirky also-rans, like My Ol' Kentucky Rock N' Roll Home from Oil City Symphony. 

That latter one was co-written by Mark Hardwick, an incredible musician (keyboards, accordian, composer and lyricist) who also wrote Pump Boys, and Radio Gals...he had a cameo in Woody Allen's Danny Rose (he played the blind accordianist) and was in a few other movies, before he died at the age of 39. So we're playing 3 of his songs this Sunday...a great talent. 

And to top it off, two comedic "Russian" perspectives...whatta country! 


Sunrise Melody (Ensemble, Radio Gals)
My Ol' Kentucky Rock N' Roll Home (Mark Hardwick, Oil City Symphony)
Drinkin' Shoes (Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, Pump Boys and
                                   Dinettes)
Bells Are Ringing (Ensemble, Bells Are Ringing)
Seven and a Half Cents (Ensemble, The Pajama Game)
Mein Herr (Liza Minelli, Cabaret)
Maybe this Time (Liza Minelli, Cabaret)
All I Do Is Dream Of You (Ensemble, Singin' in the Rain)
Obrien to Ryan to Goldberg (Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin, Take Me
                                   Out to the Ball Game)
Well, Did You Evah? (Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, High Society)
Coffee Shop Nights (David Hyde Pierce, Karen Ziemba, Curtains)
When You Meet a Man from Chicago (Sheila Smith, Sugar)
Nitchevo (Ensemble, Tovarich)
Too Bad (Fred Astaire, Jules, Munshin, Peter Lorre, Silk Stockings)

So in Love!

Patricia Morrison and Alfred Drake, in Kiss Me Kate, 1949.

Carol Channing, as Lorelei Lee

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1949.  Carol's debut on Broadway, back when she had her own hair.

Puttin' on the Ritz...

Shuler Hensley as the Monster, and Roger Bart as Dr. Frankenstein....Mel Brook's Broadway take on Young Frankenstein. 

Merry Christmas! Annnnnd a new playlist: Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013

As I write this, the living room is awash with ribbons, wrapping paper, visiting cats dangerously close to the Christmas tree, and dinner preparations guilting me from the kitchen...BUT time, tide and playlists wait for no man!!

This Sunday, the last one of 2013, we'll begin with Puttin' on the Ritz, that Irving Berlin steal, mano a monster, from Young Frankenstein, the Musical.  Other favorites from Kiss Me Kate, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Gigi, and Good News...and we have a couple of "new to show" items, like The Man I Used to Be, from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Pipe Dream, one of their few disasters...based on John Steinbeck's Cannery Row (he even wrote the book for the show). John Steinbeck...musicals...a weird juxtaposition in my book!

And Mandy Patinkin makes an appearance (oh, how I wish IN PERSON!!), from the concert version of Follies, in which he sings a trio as a solo...Buddy's Blues. Bring on the schizophrenia!

Merry merry to you all...and see you on the flip side of this holiday!


Puttin' on the Ritz (Roger Bart, Shuler Hensley, Young Frankenstein)
Use What You Got (Sam Harris, The Life)
Purlie (Melba Moore, Purlie)
Were Thine That Special Face (Alfred Drake, Kiss Me Kate)
It's All Right With Me (Peter Cookson, Can Can)
That's Him (Mary Martin, One Touch of Venus)
Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend (Carol Channing, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes)
Dance With Me/Tonight at the Mardi Gras (Louisiana Purchase, The New York
                                                         Voices)
By The Sea (Angela Lansbury, Sweeney Todd)
Buddy's Blues (Mandy Patinkin, Follies)
The Man I Used To Be (William Johnson, Pipe Dream)
I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore (Alfred Drake, Gigi)
You're the Cream in my Coffee (Wayne Bryan, Claire Gerig, Good News)
Naughty Baby (Michele Pawk, John Hillner, Crazy for You)

Angela, doing her MAME thing.

Hard to imagine that under all that mink is our Mrs. Lovett! 

Turkey Lurkey Irritating-ness

Okay, it does have Donna McKechnie, but I still find this Promises, Promises number annoying!

Snow!

Why don't they make train travel like this anymore? In the club car with Bing, Rosemary, Danny and Vera.

Allan Sherman...

Yup, he did try his hand at writing a Broadway musical, but we'll sample "The Twelve Gifts of Christmas," one of his hit singles, on Sunday.

That red dress!

Liza with a Z...1972, and Ring them Bells!

Those DARK Christmas lyrics!

As promised, here are those original lyrics to Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, that Judy Garland and her director (soon to be husband), Vincent Minelli asked to be changed:

"Have yourself a merry little Christmas
It may be your last
Next year we may all be living in the past
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Pop that champagne cork
Next year we may all be living in New York."

Yeah, little Margaret O'Brien would have had nightmares with this version!  

Playlist for Sunday, Dec. 22, 2013: We Need a Little Christmas

I guess you could call this the Holiday Edition of 2 on the Aisle...about half of the show will be Christmas Broadway (or Christmas Hollywood, because we WILL have some movie musicals added in as well!).  Be A Santa from Subways are for Sleeping, We Need a Little Christmas from Mame, and Turkey Lurkey Time from Promises, Promises are some of those holiday goodies we'll hear.

On the Hollywood side...Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, from Meet Me in St. Louis.  The lyrics of that song (written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane) were rewritten for Judy Garland's character, because focused as they were on World War II, Judy found them too dark to sing to little Margaret O'Brien.  Sinatra asked for them to be changed a second time, when he covered the song...so Hugh had to keep lightening them up. Guess I'll have to wiki those original DARK lyrics!!!

Hard Candy Christmas, from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, is a real favorite, tho I'm not sure if you could actually call it a Christmas song.  Sung by Miss Mona, the owner of the "Chicken Ranch," and her "staff," it was originally sung by Carlin Glynn, and later in the movie version, by somebody named Dolly Parton.  Ring any bells?

Merry Christmas, Broadway-philes!


Happy Holidays/Let Yourself Go (Jeffry Denman, ensemble, White Christmas
                                                           the Musical)
12 Days 'til Christmas (Ensemble, She Loves Me)
We Need a Little Christmas (Angela Lansbury, Mame)
Be a Santa (Sydney Chaplin, Subways are for Sleeping)
Turkey Lurkey Time (Ensemble, Promises Promises)
Snow (Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, "Vera Ellen," "Rosemary Clooney," White
                                                            Christmas, the film)
I Got Rhythm (Gene Kelly, An American in Paris)
Slap That Bass (Fred Astaire, Shall We Dance)
Sister (Cass Morgan, Debra Monk, Pump Boys and Dinettes)
Hard Candy Christmas (Carlin Glynn, Ensemble, The Best Little Whorehouse in
                                                             Texas)
The Twelve Gifts of Christmas (Allan Sherman, For Swingin' Livers Only!)
Ring Them Bells (Liza Minelli, Liza with a Z)
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Judy Garland, Meet Me in St. Louis)

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

I don't???  Celeste Holm and Frankie, dissing High Society.

Judy...

Ms. Garland.  On the playlist for this coming Sunday (12/15/13)

Wouldn't It Be Lovely?

Julie Andrews and her Cockney gang...My Fair Lady.

Playlist for Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013: Movie Musicals? Isn't that Cheating?

So, as promised, 2 on the Aisle will sneak out of those aisle seats for a few "numbers" this week, grab some popcorn and dash into the movies!  Just for three songs, so don't hyperventilate; we'll be back to Broadway soon enough.  Judy Garland's "The Man Who Got Away," and that Sinatra/Holm rendition of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" are worth it.  Due to my staged musical obsession, I have a ways to go in collecting these movie musical gems, but I am happy to begin...and as I get 'em, you'll hear 'em!

Along for the ride will be two selections from The Rothchilds, a musical from 1970, with music by that Jerry Bock/Sheldon Harnick team. They were fresh from their success with Fiddler on the Roof back then, and supposedly turned down writing The Happy Time, figuring that writing about a French Canadian family was too close to that Jewish family out there in Anatevka...so they waited and picked The Rothchilds, which is all about that Jewish banking family in Frankfurt.  Ahhhh, I see their cunning plan!  Well, not really.  Love the music, but it certainly shares (more than) a feeling with their previous work. 

And hang on for Alice Ghostley singing a beguine!  That'll raise the hairs on the back of your neck!  "See" you on Sunday...


Wouldn't It Be Lovely?  (Julie Andrews, My Fair Lady)
Some People (Ethel Merman, Gypsy)
If My Friends Could See Me Now (Gwen Verdon, Sweet Charity)
I Say It's Spinach and to Hell With It (Jeffry Denman, Meredith Patterson)
I Want to Be Happy (Jack Gilford, Helen Gallagher, No, No, Nanette)
The Man Who Got Away (Judy Garland, A Star is Born)
S'Wonderful (Gene Kelly, Georges Guetary, An American in Paris)
Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (Frank Sinatra, Celeste Holm, High Society)
One Room (Hal Linden, Leila Martin, The Rothchilds)
Everything (Hal Linden, Leila Martin, Ensemble, The Rothchilds)
Hernando's Hideaway (Carol Haney, Ensemble, The Pajama Game)
Boston Beguine (Alice Ghostley, New Faces of 1952)
Dear Mr. Gershwin (Klea Blackhurst, Radio Gals)
The Song that Goes Like This (Tim Curry, Sara Ramirez, Spamalot)

I'll Go Home with Bonnie Jean

Gene and Van...Brigadoon!

Recorded Show on 12/8/13

The "2 on the Aisle" show this coming Sunday, Dec. 8th, will be a recorded one from the archives.  We'll be back LIVE on Sunday, Dec. 15th, with a new "Movie Musical Corner!"  Have a great week....

Before cell phones, there was...

The Telephone Hour.  Bye Bye Birdie, 1960.

Forever Plaid Originals...1990.

Photo on left:  Jason Graae (Sparky), Stan Chandler (Jinx), David Engle (Smudge) and Guy Stroman (Frankie)

Stubby Kaye....

as Nicely Nicely Johnson, Guys and Dolls, 1950.

Playlist for Sunday, December 1, 2013: Classic Moments

Iconic wins out this Sunday!  We'll hear from a lot of classic musicals, from Bye Bye Birdie and Oklahoma to Cinderella and The Music Man. Only a couple of eccentric "newbies," like one from Brownstone (The Musical), 1986...a Liz Callaway number called "Since You Stayed Here." This show never hit Broadway, better scaled perhaps to smaller theatres, and it didn't last long.  But this number was subsequently covered by Bette Midler, Michael Crawford and Dionne Warwick (remember her?), so how bad can it be?

Greenwillow, Frank Loesser's less than successful foray of 1960 (yes, one reviewer did call it Lesser Loesser), starred Anthony Perkins (rehearsing in this musical WHILE filming Psycho)...and from that show we'll hear "Could've Been a Ring," which features Pert Shelton.  You know her!  She played Marion Paroo's mother in The Music Man, both the film and the staged version, aaaaannnnd she was the first to play Ralph Cramden's wife (yes, the first Alice) in the Honeymooners.

We'll close with a little trip to the 50's and "Heart and Soul," which was actually written by Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser (when he was MORE!)....


The Telephone Hour (Ensemble, Bye Bye Birdie)
Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat (Stubby Kaye, Guys and Dolls)
Pass That Football (Jordan Bentley, Wonderful Town)
When I'm Not Near The Girl I Love (David Wayne, Finian's Rainbow)
Wendy (Mary Martin, Peter Pan)
Goodnight My Someone (Barbara Cook, The Music Man)
Pore Jud is Daid (Albert Drake, Howard Da Silva, Oklahoma)
Could've Been a Ring (Pert Shelton, Lee Cass, Greenwillow)
T'morra T'morra (Joan McCracken, Bloomer Girl)
Since You Stayed Here (Liz Callaway, Brownstone)
I Cannot Hear The City (Brian D'arcy James, Sweet Smell of Success)
Ice Cream (Barbara Cook, She Loves Me)
In My Own Little Corner (Lea Salonga, Cinderella)
Heart and Soul (Jason Graae, Forever Plaid)
Doo-Waa Doo-Wee (Jason Graae, Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really
                                    Reflect Up?)

Kaye Ballard, circa 1950

She played Helen in the The Golden Apple, 1954...A great musical theatre star and comedienne...Later she starred with Eve Arden on television's The Mothers In Law. 

Alfred Drake...

as Honore, in Broadway's Gigi...1973.

(You gotta have) Heart...

Original Broadway cast of Damn Yankees, 1955....featuring Albert Linville, Nathaniel Frey, Jimmy Komack and Russ Brown.

Playlist for Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013: From Buffalo to Siberia

Geographically speaking, there's a pretty wide range in this week's show...from Gigi's Paris to 42nd Street's Shuffling off to Buffalo, from deepest, dankest Russia to the Bronx River Parkway, we run the gamut from marvelous to mundane.

A couple of my favorites:  The Music that Makes Me Dance, sung by Ms. Streisand, from Funny Girl...and another standard that I'd always wondered about, Lazy Afternoon.  Well, that one's from The Golden Apple, which was a musically updated take on The Iliad and The Odyssey (why do one, when you can have both?), and sung by Kaye Ballard who played Helen who runs away with a traveling salesman named...Paris.  Barbra Streisand covered it back in the 70s, and I think a few other singers did as well, because I've known that song forever and never knew where it came from. 

Added extra:  Siberia, sung by Jules Munschin, Peter Lorre, and Joseph Buloff, the Russian Commissars in Silk Stockings, the movie.  An original Broadway cast album of the 1955 musical was never released, so we'll have to content ourselves with this.  Well, I'M content!

Heart (Ensemble, Damn Yankees)
Shuffle Off to Buffalo (Ensemble, 42nd Street)
You've Got That Thing (Jason Graae, Fifty Million Frenchmen)
Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries (Ensemble, Good News)
I'm All I've Got (Michele Lee, Bravo Giovanni)
We've Got It (Ken Howard, Seesaw)
Lazy Afternoon (Kaye Ballard, The Golden Apple)
The Music That Makes Me Dance (Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl)
The Heart is Quicker Than the Eye (Elaine Stritch, Bobby Van, On Your Toes)
I'd Rather Wake Up By Myself (Shirley Booth, By the Beautiful Sea)
Do You Love Me? (Zero Mostel, Maria Karnilova, Fiddler on the Roof)
I Remember It Well (Alfred Drake, Maria Karnilova, Gigi)
Siberia (Jules Munschin, Peter Lorre, Joseph Buloff, Silk Stockings)
Stuck with Each Other (Margery Gray, Byron Blu Mitchell, Tovarich)

I'd Do Anything...for Oliver!

Georgia Brown as Nancy, Michael Goodman (The Artful Dodger), Bruce Prochnik (Oliver) and Clive Revill (Fagin)...

Family Photo: On the Twentieth Century, 1978

Kevin Kline, Madeline Kahn, Cy Coleman (Composer), Adolph Green and Betty Comden (Lyricists), John Cullum, Imogene Coca, and Paul Gemignani (Musical Director. 

Vivien Leigh...Tovarich!

 With her co-star Jean Pierre Aumont...1963.

And being all iconic...in her younger days.

Playlist for Sunday Nov. 17, 2013: Out of the Broadway Box...a bit!

A couple of weirdos this week! A couple???  (Just can't help myself...)

First, I found Bravo Giovanni, a 1962 flop, starring Cesare Siepi (an opera star) and Michele Lee, that survived 76 performances.  All about a restaurant owner who decides the restaurant next door is better, and tunnels into the basement of said kitchen to steal its food and sell it as ... well, you get the idea. In fact, the idea seems awfully familiar.  Didn't Woody Allen...well, I guess not.  The only song I found worth sharing is "Steady Steady" sung by Miss Lee, so BRAVA Michele!

Second, I unearthed (okay, enough tunneling) Subways are for Sleeping, and found "Subway Directions - Ride Through the Night" with Sydney Chaplin (yes, Charlie's son) giving pretty plausible instructions on how to get "uptown," and Carol Lawrence rather romantically viewing her future train ride.  "Subways" had a very rocky start back in 1961, as the IRT/BMT refused to run ads in their trains, thinking that "sleeping" in their subway cars wasn't a great thing to advocate.  David Merrick (The Producer) then decided to find people with the same names as the important theatre critics of the day, and publicize their "opinions" in ads, billboards and the like.  No one was fooled (for long), but it meant the show WENT ON to run over 200 performances.

I've rambled too long, but be sure to listen for that Vivien Leigh number from Tovarich!  She's no Janis Paige, but then neither am I.  :)


Prologus, Invocation, and Instructions to the Audience (Nathan Lane,        
                                                 Roger Bart, The Frogs)
I'd Do Anything (Georgia Brown and company, Oliver!)
Veronique (Madeline Kahn, On the Twentieth Century)
Subway Instructions - Ride Through the Night (Sydney Chaplin, Carol
                                                 Lawrence, Subways are for Sleeping)
Christopher Street (Warren Galjour, Wonderful Town)
The Glamorous Life (Audra McDonald, A Little Night Music)
You Could Drive a Person Crazy (Ensemble, Company)
Lady's Maid (Ensemble, Titanic)
We're Alive (Ensemble, Juno)
Steady, Steady (Michele Lee, Bravo Giovanni)
I Know the Feeling (Vivien Leigh, Tovarich!)
The Beguine (Tamara Long, Steve Elmore, Dames at Sea)


            

Myron McCormick...and Stew Pot

Those South Pacific SeaBees, with Mary Martin.

Scoundrels: Dirty, Rotten, 2.

Norman Leo Butz and John Lithgow, 2005.

Walter Chiari, Leading Man!

A Hirschfeld drawing of The Gay Life...Walter Chiari is front and center, posed with Barbara Cook, the bride. 1963

Jack Cassidy...

At the cast recording of "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman"....1966.

Are you from "Big D"?

Susan Johnson and Shorty Long, the original Cleo and Herman, from The Most Happy Fella...

Playlist for Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013: Iconic, Eccentric, and all that stuff in Between

Well, no matter how I try, I just cannot do a show that is stuffed with only BIG, award-winning, audience-pleasing musicals.  I can add two or three, like an Oklahoma, maybe something from Carousel, and then I have to break loose and throw in some cult classics, some weird flop that nobody but Broadway geeks (like myself, and I must say I am honored to be part of that group) know about.  Sorry, but that's the way I roll.

But that's a good thing, because if I play the also-rans, the peculiar little musicals that never had a chance, then you'll hear them and love them like I do.  I just know it.

So here, for example...after we hear a bit of Kismet and South Pacific and The King and I, we ascend (okay, some would say descend) into It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman, and then Fade Out Fade In, and then ....well, you get the idea.  This show runs the gamut.  One newbie is Marie Christine, a 1999 creation of Michael John LaChiusa, with Audra McDonald.  It didn't do well at the starting gate, but I think we'll be seeing this show produced as a well-respected opera someday.  Remember I said that, okay???

Thanks for joining me on Sunday, at 3, at Jazz 90.1FM! 


Big D (Susan Johnson, Shorty Long, The Most Happy Fella)
There is Nothin' Like a Dame (Myron McCormick, Ensemble, South Pacific)
I Never Had a Chance (Walter Chiari, The Gay Life)
Night of My Nights (Richard Kiley, Kismet)
I Have Dreamed (Larry Douglas, Doretta Morrow, The King and I)
The Woman for the Man (Jack Cassidy, It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman)
My Fortune is My Face (Jack Cassidy, Fade Out - Fade In)
Love Sneaks In (John Lithgow, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)
Too Soon (Lillian Roth, I Can Get it For You Wholesale)
The World Goes 'Round (Brenda Pressley, The World Goes 'Round)
Island (Sherie Rene Scott, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)
Way Back to Paradise (Audra McDonald, Marie Christine)
The Late, Late Show (Phil Silvers, Do Re Mi)
Muqin (Harriet Sansom Harris, Thoroughly Modern Millie)

So Sue Me!

Sam Levene and Vivian Blaine...The original Guy, the original Doll.

Goldilocks....Elaine and Don

Don Ameche trying to tell Elaine Stritch what to do?  Good luck with that!

Come Up to My Place!

Cris Alexander and Nancy Walker...her taxi only goes to HER PLACE.  Sos he should just forget about the Hippodrome.  On the Town!

Zero as Tevye

Fiddler on Roof...and the best Tevye, Zero Mostel.

Playlist for Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013: A Whole Year Old!

Last Sunday, 2 on the Aisle celebrated its first anniversary!  Hard to believe that I've survived a year of radio hosting.  I used to actually SHAKE before each show.  That's where that saying comes from, I guess: Shaking in Your Shoes.  Well, I'm past all that now.  A regular pro.  Well...on my good days!

So this week, we've got some pretty quirky stuff on the "menu."  I've been wanting to play "Swing" from Wonderful Town forever...and finally carved a space for it.  Rosalind Russell trying to act all hep?  Floy Doying all around, with that beatnik beat...you can almost smell the Mary Jane.  (I said ALMOST!)...Then there's "The Dream" from Fiddler on the Roof...where Tevye, played by Zero, "dreams" up a nightmare, hoping to convince his wife to choose another husband for their daughter.  Over the top, but I love it!

A bit of Elaine, a song by Barbra, some Honey Bun and a hilarious Hysterium...and you've got this week's 2 on the Aisle..."see" you Sunday!


I'm the Greatest Star (Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl)
The Dream (Zero Mostel and Cast, Fiddler on the Roof)
A Small Cartel (Ensemble, Tovarich)
What Causes That? (Harry Groener, Bruce Adler, Crazy for You)
Sue Me! (Sam Levene, Vivian Blaine, Guys and Dolls)
Take It on the Chin (Maryann Plunkett, Me and My Girl)
I Love to Cry at Weddings (Ensemble, Sweet Charity)
Come Up to My Place (Nancy Walker, Cris Alexander, On the Town)
Swing! (Rosalind Russell, Wonderful Town)
Maine (Richard Kiley, Diahann Carroll, No Strings)
I Never Know When (Elaine Stritch, Goldilocks)
Honey Bun (Mary Martin, South Pacific)
I'm Calm (Jack Gilford, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum)

Jules Munschin. one of them there character types...

Pictured here with Anne Miller, from the film version of On The Town.

Anita Gillette in All-American...

Front and center, in her baby dolls, singing "Nightlife!"

No Strings!

Diahann Carroll and Richard Kiley...

Shirley Booth...

...as Aunt Sissy in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, circa 1961.

Playlist for Sunday, October 27, 2013

A couple of "new to 2 on the Aisle" musicals this Sunday!  For instance, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, based on the book by Betty Smith, musical-ized by Arthur Schwartz and Dorothy Fields.  They got Shirley Booth to play Aunt Sissy, and she basically stole the focus of the show off the young supposed-to-be leads.  Her voice is pretty nails-on-blackboard nasal, but hey, it works!  We'll hear "He Had Refinement."

Another newbie, No Strings, a Richard Rodgers musical from 1962, that starred Diahann Carroll and Richard Kiley.  An interracial romance: Parisian by way of NYC black model, paired with white Maine-ish novelist.  A big step in 1962!  I'd heard "The Sweetest Sound (You'll Ever Hear)" before, but never knew where it came from, 'til now.

Also on tap: Tovarich! Russian aristocracy, down on their luck...and of course it's a comedy!  Vivien Leigh starred (and won a Tony for it, I'll have you know!), and it had a respectable run, for that time period...which was 1963.  We'll hear how "It Used to Be."

So the 60s rule this week!


The Varsity Drag (Ensemble, Good News!)
The Sweetest Sound (Diahann Carroll, Richard Kiley, No Strings)
I Believe in You (Robert Morse, How to Succeed in Business)
Nightlife (Anita Gillette, All-American)
You Can Always Count on Me (Randy Graff, City of Angels)
Quiet (Adrianna Bertolal, Matilda)
A Quiet Thing (Liza Minnelli, Flora the Red Menace)
The Bloom is Off the Rose (Jules Munschin, The Gay Life)
He Had Refinement (Shirley Booth, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn)
If You Can Find Me, I'm Here (Anthony Perkins, Evening Primrose)
See What it Gets You (Lee Remick, Anyone Can Whistle)
Plant a Radish (Hugh Thomas, William Larson, The Fantasticks)
It Used to Be (Ensemble, Tovarich)

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So please make a donation...you can do that at the station's website: Jazz901.org

Thanks, from 2 On the Aisle!

Gwen Verdon, Damn Yankees

Taken at the recording of the show's album, 1955

Creators and Cast of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown! 1967

Front line...Director Joseph Hardy, Composer/Lyricist Clark Gesner, Gary Burghoff as Charlie Brown, Karen Johnson as Peppermint Patty. 

Back line....Reva Rose as Lucy, Bob Balaban as Linus, Bill Hinnant as Snoopy and Skip Hinnant as Schroeder.

Money Money!

Liza and Joel...Cabaret!

Back and At'Em! Playlist for Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013

Back LIVE this Sunday...with three musicals that are new to the show.  First, "The Gay Life," from 1961 (subsequently renamed "The High Life"), a Howard Dietz/Arthur Schwartz creation, all about the love life of a Viennese dilettante at the turn of the century.  It starred Barbara Cook, Jules Munshin, and Walter Chiari, the latter of whom could hardly speak (let alone, sing!) English and was (mis?)cast mainly because of his swarthy good looks. Not enough POW reviews to keep it solvent, but a couple of worthy Dietz/Schwartz tunes...we'll hear "Why Go Anywhere at All?" this week...and more subsequently.

A new Sondheim goody, from "Evening Primrose," a 1966 production created for television... Anthony Perkins (yup, that Psycho guy) and Charmian Carr starred.  She was fresh from her role as Liesl in the movie version of "The Sound of Music"...remember?  Well, here she sings a wonderful rendition of "I Remember." 

At the other end of the spectrum, we have a tune from "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," with music by that "Women on the Verge" composer, David Yazbek.  It's yummy. :)

Hello Dolly! (Carol Channing, et.al., Hello Dolly!)
We're in the Money (Ensemble, 42nd Street)
Money Money (Liza Minelli, Joel Gray, Cabaret)
Who's Got the Pain? (Gwen Verdon, Ensemble, Damn Yankees)
Dance at the Gym (Instrumental, West Side Story)
Why Go Anywhere at All? (Jeanne Bal, The Gay Life)
Why Do the Wrong People Travel? (Elaine Stritch, Sail Away)
I Remember (Charmian Carr, Evening Primrose)
I Loved You Once in Silence (Julie Andrews, Camelot)
He'll Never Know (Mark Lynn-Baker, Jay Goede, A Year with Frog and Toad)
Kite (Gary Burghoff, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown)
The Party's Over (Judy Holliday, Bells Are Ringing)
Dirty Rotten Number (John Lithgow, Norbert Leo Butz, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)

Vacation!

Sorry, but there won't be a new show this Sunday, Oct. 13...I'm off on a quick vacation for the Columbus Day Weekend.  So Jazz 90.1 will be airing a show I did on August 11th of this year.  You can check the post for that date, here on this blog, if you'd like to see the playlist.

I'll be back, LIVE, with a brand new 2 on the Aisle, on October 20.  Thanks for staying in touch!

Binga Banga Bonga!

Elaine Stritch...in a pose from Angel in the Wings, 1947.  She was 22 yrs. old.

Peter Pan...do you see any strings?

Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard...1955

Playlist for October 6, 2013: Soup to Nuts!

Sooooo, my big find of this week is "It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman!"  A Charles Strouse/Lee Adams musical from 1966.  It starred Bob Holiday as Superman/Clark Kent, Jack Cassidy as the Villian, and co-starred Linda Lavin as Cassidy's secretary.  Despite some pretty gloomy reviews, I love a few of the songs...like Possibilities, sung by Ms. Lavin, which we'll hear on Sunday.  More from this musical in subsequent weeks!

There's also "And the World Goes 'Round," which was a musical review/tribute to the songs of Kander and Ebb.  Two songs in particular...Arthur in the Afternoon, which is from The Act with Ms. Liza and Colored Lights, from The Rink.  I'm going to have to dig out these two musicals again, but "World" does an excellent job, using Karen Ziemba and Karen Mason in superior renditions.

If we have time, we'll end with Ms. Stritch...and hear an encore performance of that hilarious nugget, Civilization.  Did you know Louis Prima did a rendition of this?  Now to FIND IT!!!


It's Today (Angela Lansbury, Mame)
I'm Flying! (Mary Martin, Peter Pan)
The Most Happy Fella (Robert Weede, The Most Happy Fella)
Nothing (Priscilla Lopez, A Chorus Line)
Invisible (Patti Lupone, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)
She Loves Me (Daniel Massey, She Loves Me)
Possibilities (Linda Lavin, It's a Bird... It's a Plane...It's Superman!)
Easy to Say (Jessica-Snow Wilson, Zombie Prom)
Colored Lights (Karen Mason, And the World Goes Round/The Rink)
Get Me To the Church On Time (Stanley Holloway, My Fair Lady)
A Certain Girl (Robert Goulet, David Wayne, Michael Rupert, The Happy Time)
Arthur in the Afternoon (Karen Ziemba, And the World Goes Round/The Act)
Civilization (Elaine Stritch, Angel in the Wings)

Eileen Herlie and Ray Bolger...

That Once Upon A Time duo...from All American, 1962.

From All-American...

Physical Fitness...with growls!  Music by Charles Strouse, Lyrics Lee Adams

Tommy Tune!

He's only 6ft. 6in...maybe it's the arms.

Playlist for Sunday, September 29, 2013: Another week, another Broadway saga!

This week we uncover another Charles Strouse/Lee Adams goodie.  Last week, Golden Boy (by the same writers)...this week All-American, from 1962.  What a country!  And yes, that is one of the numbers! Strouse and Adams were fresh off their success from Bye Bye Birdie, but on Broadway, one HIT doesn't necessarily follow another.  Ray Bolger was picked to star, though there were a lot of other contenders, Zero Mostel for one.  Although Bolger hadn't done anything on stage for over 10 years, Director Josh Logan thought he was more handsome and romantic (!) than Zero...But Ray was passed his prime and didn't pull the audiences they hoped.  Mel Brooks wrote the book, his first big-time musical endeavor, and his humor clashed with Logan's.  Shake well (don't stir), and you get one big flop. But a couple of musical gems...listen for Physical Fitness and The Real Me, both are big favorites of mine!

Of course, we'll add in some other gems...Embraceable You, If He Walked Into My Life and a couple from Pump Boys and Dinettes.  Those always work!  I can't ALWAYS play quirky! 

Thanks for tuning in...:)

Chapter 54, Number 1909 (Tommy Tune, Ken Howard, Michele Lee, Seesaw)
Don't Forget 127th Street (Johnny Brown, Sammy Davis Jr., Golden Boy)
Timing (Sharon Murray, Grind)
Embraceable You (Jodi Benson, Harry Groener, Crazy For You)
Once Upon a Time (Ray Bolger, Eileen Herlie, All American)
Vacation (Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, Pump Boys and Dinettes)
Mona (John Foley, Pump Boys and Dinettes)
I Wanna Go Home (Daniel H. Jenkins, Big)
Willing to Ride (Karen Ziemba, Steel Pier)
Talking to Yourself (Leslie Uggams, Robert Hooks and Allen Case, Hallelujah,
                              Baby!)
If He Walked Into My Life (Angela Lansbury, Mame)
Physical Fitness (Ensemble, All American)
The Real Me (Eileen Herlie, All American)

Dames at Sea, aka Golddiggers Afloat

And Bernadette Peters...smack dab in the middle.

Golden Boy, 1964

Sammy Davis Jr. in the main role of this gutsy-for-its-time musical.

Angela Lansbury...

From Dear World, 1969.

Playlist for Sunday, September 22, 2013: Not a Sondheim in the Bunch!

Okay, I'm passed my Sondheim-jonesing, so on to new musicals! And this week, a lot of quirky, cult-y favorites, and a couple of actual flops.

Dear World, with Angela Lansbury was one of the latter...a Jerry Herman creation that endured scathing reviews.  Angela was the only bright spot amidst an otherwise dismal show, according to the reviews...based on "The Mad Woman of Chaillot" which Katherine Hepburn conquered in film version....Then there's a little something from Big and Legally Blonde, two musicals based on movies, that had some catchy tunes, but were generally ignored by the award givers. Breakfast at Tiffany's makes a showing as well, that doomed production that never even opened, disappointing Mary Tyler Moore and Richard Chamberlain who were to be the leads (and all those fans of theirs who bought TICKETS!).  Nice little trivia note: Truman Capote's title?  Well, seems that at the time he wrote "Breakfast," Tiffany's was the only store he knew in New York. True, Tru? (Wrong!  An unknowing New York tourist, when asked which sophisticated restaurant he wanted to eat at, evidently asked "Why don't we have breakfast at Tiffany's?")

Golden Boy, 1964, with Sammy Davis Jr., had a little more success: An amazing jazzy score...an interracial kiss...and some topics that audiences of the early 60s weren't that comfortable with.  BUT it survived on Broadway for over a year, and garnered 5 Tony nominations.

So hope you enjoy these quirky near-classics!


Night Song (Sammy Davis, Jr., Golden Boy)
While the City Sleeps (Billy Daniels, Golden Boy)
Nothing is New in New York (Ensemble, Breakfast at Tiffany's)
N.Y.C. (Andrea McArdle, Reid Shelton, Annie)
Very Soft Shoes (Matt Mattox, Once Upon a Mattress)
Shipoopi (Iggy Wolfington, The Music Man)
I Do Not Know (Walter Willison, Two by Two)
Something Good (Julie Andrews, The Sound of Music)
Coffee, Black! (Daniel H. Jenkins, Jon Cypher, Big)
There! Right There! (Laura Bell Bundy, Christian Borle, Legally Blonde)
Late Bloomer (Russ Thacker, Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?)
Each Tomorrow Morning (Angela Lansbury, Dear World)
Sailor of My Dreams (Bernadette Peters, Dames at Sea)
Dimples (Virginia Martin, Little Me)

Glynis Johns, A Little Night Music

The original Send in the Clowns gal...

Alright, Concentrate! George and Dot...

Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters, in Sunday in the Park with George, 1984.