We start this week's show off with a Frank Loesser "special:" The Most Happy Fella...It took Frank 4 years to write the book, the music AND the lyrics for this show, and just to be "safe", he wrote over 40 songs for it...leaving Broadway audiences wondering if it was a musical or ...an opera!? Loesser called it "a musical with music," but there isn't much spoken dialogue, and like Gilbert and Sullivan, and later Sweeney Todd, its melodies demanded decent singers. Robert Weede of the New York City and San Francisco Opera companies was dubbed to play the original lead, Tony Esposito, the California wine grower, one of the dozens Loesser and his producing wife auditioned. And one more piece of trivia, Frank actually ended up leaving that "producing wife" and marrying Jo Sullivan, cast as the female lead, Rosabella! Those rehearsals musta been fun.
I'm really looking forward to our movie musical sections of the show. First, 3 songs from High Society! Did you know that there are no less than 5 movies with that title? One was an Our Gang movie, done in 1924, and another was a Bowery Boys film...Huntz Hall and Spanky, as Tracie Lord and Cary Grant, anyone?
In our second half, a real favorite of mine, "The Clouds Will Soon Roll By," sung by Elsie Carlisle...they put it in the 1981 version of Pennies from Heaven, that's where I first heard it. And then there's Rumble Rumble Rumble, Betty Hutton as Pauline in The Perils of Pauline...a little comedy number written by, yes! Frank Loesser.
Hope you all have a great first week of this new sci-fi-sounding year, and check in on Sunday, okay?
Sposalizio (Ensemble, The Most Happy Fella)
The Most Happy Fella (Robert Weede, Ensemble, The Most Happy Fella)
Standing on the Corner (Shorty Long, Ensemble, The Most Happy Fella)
Song of a Summer Night (Ensemble, The Most Happy Fella)
Big "D" (Shorty Long, Susan Johnson, The Most Happy Fella)
What Did I Have That I Don't Have Now (Barbara Harris, On A Clear Day You Can
See Forever)
Wait Til We're Sixty-Five (William Daniels, On A Clear Day)
On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (John Cullum, On A Clear Day)
Now You Has Jazz (Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, High Society)
Mind If I Make Love to You? (Frank Sinatra, High Society)
Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (Frank Sinatra, Celeste Holme, High Society)
The Story of Lucy and Jessie (Lee Remick, Follies)
The Road You Didn't Take (George Hearn, Follies)
Could I Leave You? (Lee Remick, Follies)
Broadway Baby (Elaine Stritch, Follies)
Marry Me a Little (John Barrowman, Puttin' It Together)
Anyone Would Love You (John Gary, Destry Rides Again)
That's the Beginning of the End (Elaine Stritch, Stritch)
Never Look Back (Doris Day, Love Me or Leave Me)
Christopher Street (Ensemble, Wonderful Town)
Ohio (Rosalind Russell, Edith Adams, Wonderful Town)
What a Waste (George Gaynes, Ensemble, Wonderful Town)
Wrong Note Rag (Rosalind Russell, Edith Adams, Wonderful Town)
The Clouds Will Soon Roll By (Elsie Carlisle, Pennies From Heaven)
How'd You Like to Spoon With Me? (Angela Lansbury, Til the Clouds Roll By)
Look for the Silver Lining (Judy Garland, Til the Clouds Roll By)
Rumble Rumble Rumble (Betty Hutton, The Perils of Pauline)
Make 'Em Laugh (Donald O'Connor, Singin' in the Rain)
Too Bad (Fred Astaire, Jules Munshin, Peter Lorre, Silk Stockings)
Rock Island (Ensemble, The Music Man)
The Sadder But Wiser Girl (Robert Preston, Iggy Wolfington, The Music Man)
Marian the Librarian (Robert Preston, The Music Man)
The Wells Fargo Wagon (Eddie Hodges, Ensemble, The Music Man)
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