Richard Rogers, Arthur Laurents, and Stephen Sondheim, when they were speaking....

From Do I Here a Waltz?  Must have been during the early part of that "waltz," cuz later they all changed partners!

Playlist for Sunday, August 4, 2013:

This week I learned that the making of "Do I Hear a Waltz?" was anything but copacetic.  The one and only time Richard Rogers dained to work with Stephen Sondheim...Oscar H. had passed away and Rogers (momentarily) thought he could work with Sondheim.  Arthur Laurents who had written the play it would be based on, Time of the Cuckoo, was signed to adapt/do the book.  (This play from 1952 was later made into "Summertime," the movie with Katherine Hepburn.)  Well, it seems things did NOT go smoothly.  Rogers was drinking heavily, hiding vodka bottles in the toilet tank, etc.; he called Sondheim's lyrics several 4-letter words, and banned Laurents from the rehearsals.  Despite this, the show managed to open and even have a bit of a run. So hey, we'll play it! 

Another goodie: From Juno, featuring Melvyn Douglas..."Daarlin' Man," which is so Irish you start salivating for a pub and pint.  And then a pretty "Azure Te," or Paris Blues as it's also called...sung by Five Guys Named Moe, at their most romantic.

Enjoy!


Opening to Brigadoon (Cast, Brigadoon)
Daarlin' Man (Melvyn Douglas and Jack MacGowran, Juno)
The Family Solicitor (Timothy Jerome, Me & My Girl)
Ya Got Trouble (Robert Preston, The Music Man)
A Little Brains, A Little Talent (Gwen Verdon, Damn Yankees)
Do I Hear A Waltz? (Elizabeth Allen, Do I Hear A Waltz?)
The Little Things You Do Together (Elaine Stritch and Cast, Company)
Azure Te (Cast, Five Guys Named Moe)
They Just Keep Movin' the Line (Megan Hilty, Bombshell)
A Little Bit in Love (Edie Adams, Wonderful Town)
Lovesick (Sherie Rene Scott, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)
Singapore Sue (Joseph R. Sicari, Dames at Sea)
Lila Tremaine (Carol Burnett, Fade Out- Fade In)
Gold and Goldberg (Adam Grupper, Stuart Zagnit, The Wild Party)

We Deserve Each Other...Me & Juliet

Joan McCracken and Bob Fortier...

Women on the Verge...Model Behavior

Laura Benanti, leaving ANOTHER message. (Pepa, are you screening?)

From SUGAR, the musical version of Some Like It Hot

Robert Morse and Tony Roberts...as Daphne and Josephine.

Playlist for Sunday, July 28, 2013: On the Tawdry Side!

Whenever I add something from City of Angels to a playlist, I have to search for something with sleazy saxophones to pair it with...that's the kind of musical it is.  Street-wise, noir, middle of the night and raining.  So I found Bombshell, from Smash...yup, the TV show.  Well, that sexy Hollywood sound fits like a blond in a white convertible.... To go along with that, Sweet Smell of Success ("The Column") and something called "Welcome to Holiday Inn," from Seesaw.  It all adds up to 20 minutes on the tawdry side.

Then I found Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and immediately related, I mean...uh...liked it!  So I'm playing "Model Behavior," sung by Laura Benanti, which is a crazed, ready-to-jump monologue sung into an answering machine.  Don't worry, you'll love it, too.


Theme from City of Angels (James Naughton and Cast, City of Angels)
Smash! (Megan Hilty, Katherine McPhee, Bombshell)
The Column (John Lithgow, Brian d'Arcy James, Sweet Smell of Success)
Welcome to Holiday Inn (Michele Lee, Seesaw)
Penniless Bums (Robert Morse, Tony Roberts, Sugar)
The Girls of Summer (Suzanne Henry, Marry Me a Little)
Delishious (Bobby Short, Nice Work if You Can Get It and K-RA-ZY for Gershwin)
Pour Le Sport (Suzanne Henry, Craig Lucas, Marry Me a Little)
Hello Waves (Bob Dishy, Liza Minelli, Flora the Red Menace)
Ain't It Romantic (Marti Stevens, Oh Kay!)
It Couldn't Please Me More (Lotte Lenya, Jack Gilford, Cabaret)
Model Behavior (Laura Benanti, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)
She Hadda Go Back (Craig Stevens, Ensemble, Here's Love)
We Deserve Each Other (Joan McCracken, Bob Fortier, Me and Juliet)

Stubby Kaye, as Marryin' Sam

Li'l Abner...and it looks like a show stopper!

Stanley Holloway...With a WHOLE LOT a Luck!

Everyone's favorite dustman, from My Fair Lady, Alfred P. Doolittle.

Playlist for Sunday, July 21, 2013: From La Cage to Country

I'd forgotten all about Li'l Abner, the Musical!  Yes, I remember Stubby Kaye singin' up a storm about Corn Pone back in my youth, but I'm just now re-discovering it.  So after a La Cage Aux Folles opening, we'll traipse over to Dog Patch.  We'll have more "country" with Big River, written by none other than Roger Miller!?

Another mined goodie is "Find Yourself a Man," from Funny Girl, which features Kay Medford, a comedienne from the 50s...who sorta specialized in playing mothers...(here she is Fanny Brice's mom, but she also played Dick Van Dyke's mom in the original production of Bye Bye Birdie). She's joined by Jean Stapleton on that one!

Two from Runaways, a 1978 musical that was enjoying some success when I moved to NYC. A real concept musical, with songs strung together with poems and soliloquies written by the "runaway" cast...okay, so it's got that somewhat dated 70's feel, but isn't that part of the Broadway cannon, too?

Well, I'm waxing on..."See" you on Sunday!

La Cage Aux Folles (George Hearn and Cast, La Cage Aux Folles)
The Country's in the Very Best of Hands (Stubby Kaye, Peter Palmer, Li'l Abner)
When the Sun Goes Down (Rene Auberjonois and Ensemble, Big River)
Lida Rose (Barbara Cook and The Buffalo Bills, The Music Man)
Bad Companions (Nathaniel Frey, Margaret Hamilton, and Ensemble,
                                       Goldilocks)
Do We? (Gil Lamb and Lucie Lancaster, 70, Girls, 70)
Find Yourself a Man (Kay Medford, Jean Stapleton, Danny Meehan, Funny Girl)
Someone to Watch Over Me (Jodi Benson, Crazy for You)
My Big Mistake (Dee Hoty, The Will Rogers' Follies)
When Love Arrives (John Scherer, Becky Watson, By Jeeves)
The Undiscovered Son AND No Lullabies for Luis (Cast, Runaways)
I'm Past My Prime (Edie Adams, Stubby Kaye, Li'l Abner)
I Like Ev'rybody (Susan Johnson, Shorty Long, The Most Happy Fella)

One...Singular Sensation!

Chorus Line...of course.

Lotte Lenya and Jack Gilford...

From the original Broadway production of Cabaret...1966.  Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz, both characters left out in the movie version, unfortunately!

Paris Original...just not exclusive!

From How to Succeed...1952.

Playlist for Sunday July 14, 2003

Who said summer was a time to kick back?  I don't know about you, but this season, more than any of the others, finds me over-scheduled, behind-the-8-ball, and with all this rain, under-gardened, under-hammocked, and under-tanned!  However, the PLAYLIST must go on!

This week's selections run from the gritty "So What?" of Lotte Lenya (from the original production of Cabaret) to the light as air and optimistic "Sunny Side of Every Situation," from 42nd Street.  We also have a couple samplings of Karen Ziemba, one of those great Broadway voices...from Curtains and Steel Pier.  Also two of my most favorite character songs: "Miss Marmelstein" sung by 19 yr. old Barbra S., and "Her Is" with Stanley Prager and Carol Haney.  Incredible voices... Stanley's is nasally appropriate, even Carol (with only 2 words to repeat) uses the perfect Brooklyn-by-way-of-Canarsie twang.

Hope I have time for all this!  And I hope you can join me...Sunday at 3pm, Jazz 90.1...


The Lambeth Walk (Robert Lindsay and Cast, Me and My Girl)
Thataway! (Karen Ziemba and Cast, Curtains)
Then You May Take Me to the Fair (Julie Andrews and Ensemble, Camelot)
So What? (Lotte Lenya, Cabaret)
Anatevka (Cast, Fiddler on the Roof)
Paris Original (Bonnie Scott, Claudette Sutherland, Ruth Kobart, How to
                                                   Succeed)
Sunny Side to Every Situation (Ensemble, 42nd Street)
Uptown, Downtown (Craig Lucas, Marry Me A Little)
The Story of Lucy and Jessie (Lee Remick, Follies)
First You Dream (Daniel McDonald, Karen Ziemba, Steel Pier)
What I Did For Love (Priscilla Lopez, A Chorus Line)
Miss Marmelstein (Barbra Streisand, I Can Get It For You Wholesale)
Her Is (Stanley Prager, Carol Haney, The Pajama Game)

Spamalot!

Michael McGrath and Tim Curry....As King Arthur and .... nobody!

From Hairspray...With Hairspray

Marissa Jaret Winokur and Harvey Fierstein...Mama I'm a Big Girl Now.

Yuli Borisovich Bryner

In other words, King Yul!

Playlist for Sunday, July 7, 2013: Opa!

Anthony Quinn?  Well, even though I lived in NYC at the time of the 1983 revival of Zorba, I succeeded in missing his Broadway musical debut... I'm just now "discovering" this Kander and Ebb musical. Still not convinced of Tony's vocal expertise, I'll use the opening number, "Life Is," which doesn't feature him.  Opa!

Another newbie to 2 on the Aisle is "Bounce," a Stephen Sondheim musical that's never made it to Broadway, about two REAL ne're do well brothers (with lots of get rich schemes) who died on the same day.  Perfect fodder for a musical, right?  Well...again, a great opening number, but I remain unconvinced about the rest of the show.

Add a smattering of Spamalot, some epic South Pacific and Sweeney, and shake well!  Til' Sunday then...

Life Is (Cast, Zorba)
Bounce (Richard Kind and Howard McGillan, Bounce)
The Worst Pies in London (Angela Lansbury, Sweeney Todd)
A Puzzlement (Yul Brynner, The King and I)
Bali Ha'i (Juanita Hall, South Pacific)
People (Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl)
Summertime (Lena Horne, Porgy & Bess)
I'm All Alone (Tim Curry and Cast, Spamalot)
Mama, I'm A Big Girl Now (Marissa Jaret Winokur and Cast, Hairspray)
Go Back Home (Audra McDonald, The Scottsboro Boys)
Poems (Isao Sato, Sab Shimono, Pacific Overtures)
Let Me Entertain You (Sandra Church, Gypsy)
Moving Uptown (Eartha Kitt, The Wild Party)
So Long, Farewell (Children's ensemble, The Sound of Music)