Playlist for Sunday, September 14, 2014: Back and At 'Em!

Well, I'm back!  A two week break in the Broadway Action (sorry for the lack of posts, but a vacation is a vacation...), but returning live this Sunday for more!

And for the first time, we'll open with an overture (how appropriate!), this one from Gypsy, and we'll follow that up with three more selections from that King Lear of a musical. Amazingly enough, David Merrick and Ethel Merman had a tough time getting folks interested in Gypsy from the start!  First off, Jerome Robbins DID NOT want to direct, Comden and Green DID NOT know what to do with the book, both Irving Berlin (Ethel's favorite) and Cole Porter DID NOT want to write the music.  Stephen Sondheim DID want to do the honors, but Ethel DID NOT want such a newbie responsible for her "arias," so they persuaded him to do only the lyrics and Jule Styne DID agree to work with him.  Yikes!  And what came out of all this NOTTING?  An over the top, peak of its form, dancing in the streets Gypsy!   

Speaking of Sondheim, we'll showcase two from his lesser-known works (aka flops), Bounce and Merrily We Roll Along...The former took three turns at bat (and three name changes) before it actually debuted, and of course the later lasted for only 16 performances on the Great White Way.  I love stuff like this, because even though critics or audiences made their judgment calls and walked out of performances years ago, you listen now and you actually hear it: good stuff, that's worth something. Snap judgments don't work with Sondheim.

I've waxed "poetic" for too long...but stick around for "Old Folks" from 70, Girls, 70! We're all headed in that direction; we might as well tap there!  :)


Overture to Gypsy (Instrumental, Gypsy)
Let Me Entertain You (Sandra Church, Gypsy)
You'll Never Get Away From Me (Ethel Merman, Jack Klugman, Gypsy)
You Gotta Get a Gimmick (Ensemble, Gypsy)
C'est Moi (Robert Goulet, Camelot)
The Swamps of Home (Carol Burnett, Once Upon a Mattress)
Bounce (Addison Mizner, Howard McGillan, Bounce)
Old Friends (Jim Walton, Lonny Price, Ann Morrison, Merrily We Roll Along)
Adelaide's Lament (Vivian Blaine, Guys and Dolls)
Slap that Bass (Harry Groener, Ensemble, Crazy for You)
We Make a Beautiful Pair (Penelope Milford, Donna Theodore, Shenandoah)
Why Am I Me? (Chip Ford, Joseph Shapiro, Shenandoah)
Old Folks (Ensemble, 70, Girls, 70)