Playlist for Sunday, May 10, 2014: So Many Favorites, So Little Time

 I don't know why I love Broadway music so much.  If you asked me how many Broadway musicals I've actually seen, my response would be surprisingly low!  And, to tell you the truth, I prefer the music and lyrics to the actual shows.  Yup. I know the music of certain shows backwards and forwards, but when I've seen the productions LIVE, PERFECT, and PROFESSIONAL, I often find they were better in my mind.  It's the music that holds me.

I'm in a sentimental mood, as the song says, so this week I have a few of my very favorites...like Someone in a Tree, from Sondheim's Pacific Overture, which I played over and over again back in the 1980's.  (Perfect pace for jogging, BTW!) The idea of "the pebble, not the stream" making history...how hopeful.  

Redhead is new to the show!  Richard Kiley and Gwen Verdon...delicious! Also I just discovered Rags, a show from 1986.  It had a VERY short run (4 performances), but Brand New World is especially inspiring.  Charles Strouse's music and Stephen Schwartz's lyrics, reminding me of the energy of Ragtime and the cacophony of Barnum!

Stick around for the movie musical "corner," with some Judy and Gene and little Margaret O'Brien...Oh and remember to call your mom!  :)


Our Time (Ensemble, Merrily We Roll Along)
It's You (The Buffalo Bills Barbershop Quartet, The Music Man)
Gary, Indiana (Eddie Hodges, The Music Man)
Marian, the Librarian (Robert Preston, The Music Man)
Someone in a Tree (Ensemble, Pacific Overtures)
She's Not Enough Woman for Me (Richard Kiley, Leonard Stone, Redhead)
Erbie Fitch's Twitch (Gwen Verdon, Redhead)
For Me and My Gal (Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, For Me and My Gal)
Under the Bamboo Tree (Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Meet Me in
                          St. Louis)
The Boy Next Door (Judy Garland, Meet Me in St. Louis)
Brand New World (Julia Migenes, Josh Blake, Rags)
Three Sunny Rooms (Marcia Lewis, Dick LaTessa, Rags)
The Microphone (Brian Stokes Mitchell, Justin Guarini, Women on the                                       Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)
Man of La Mancha (Brian Stokes Mitchell, Man of La Mancha)
Garbage (Bea Arthur, The Shoe String Revue)