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)

Jazz 90.1 Needs Your Donation!

It's Fall Pledge Drive Time at Jazz 90.1, and if you're enjoying all the Jazz and Blues and Broadway, and everything else this station offers (and that's a lot!), please contribute!  This station is 100% Member Supported, and without contributing members, we bite the dust. 

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)