I'm always amazed at the range that Broadway offers...Jerry Herman has you dancing in the streets, with 15 or more choruses building, buiLDING, BUILDING...yet there are the lean, luscious ballads of Jules Styne, the "Very Soft Shoes" sand-dance of Mary Rodgers, the quirky use of "Moonlight Sonata" when Schroeder and Lucy sit down to play. And it's all Broadway. Thank goodness, cuz otherwise we'd be constantly out of breath with all those kick lines, Jerry!
So with that in mind...we have spectacular Hello, Dolly!...intimate Fantasticks...that weirdo Avenue Q! And a bunch more. My favorite show number this week is from the little Shoe String Revue, 1955, which featured soon-to-be stars like Bea Arthur, Dody Goodman, and Arte Johnson, and music by the likes of Charles Strouse and Sheldon Harnick. I "found" a gem recently in this show's playlist called "A Million Windows and I", written by Alec Wilder (music) and Norman Gimbel (lyrics)...am I the only one on the planet not to have heard this gorgeous thing before? The rendition we'll hear on Sunday is with Ann Hampton Calloway, and it is absolutely wonderful. I'm tellin' ya!
Then it seems we are developing a new "THING" on 2 on the Aisle: an Oldie but Goodie "Corner." Songs of the 1920s and 30s...and this week's offerings include a Helen Kane classic, "I Want to Be Bad." Well, we had Eartha wanting to be evil last week, so.....And a Ruth Etting selection, "Dancing in the Moonlight." Yes, before somebody named Sherman Kelly wrote that King Harvest/Van Morrison hit, there was another TOTALLY different "Moonlight," by Walt Donaldson and Gus Kahn...and it's perfect.
See you on Sunday!
Put On Your Sunday Clothes (Charles Nelson Reilly, Carol Channing, Company,
Hello, Dolly!)
Oliver! (Willoughby Goddard, Bruce Prochnik, Ensemble, Oliver!)
Boy For Sale/Where is Love? (Willoughby Goddard, Bruce Prochnik, Oliver!)
I'd Do Anything (Georgia Brown, Michael Goodman, Ensemble, Oliver!)
As Long as He Needs Me (Georgia Brown, Oliver!)
I Can See It (Jerry Orbach, Kenneth Nelson, The Fantasticks)
Much More (Rita Gardner, The Fantasticks)
Plant a Radish (William Larson, Hugh Thomas, The Fantasticks)
They Were You (Kenneth Nelson, Rita Gardner, The Fantasticks)
Book Report (Ensemble, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown)
Schroeder/Moonlight Sonata (Reva Rose, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown)
If You Were Gay (John Tartaglia, Rick Lyon, Avenue Q)
Pandemonium (Company, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee)
Dancing in the Moonlight (Ruth Etting)
All I Do is Dream of You (Leslie Hutch Hutchinson)
Pennies From Heaven (Bing Crosby, Pennies From Heaven)
I'll See You in My Dreams (Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra)
I Want to be Bad (Helen Kane)
Opening for a Princess (Joseph Bova, Company, Once Upon a Mattress)
Sensitivity (Jane White, Allen Case, Once Upon a Mattress)
Very Soft Shoes (Matt Mattox, Once Upon a Mattress)
Happily Ever After (Carol Burnett, Once Upon a Mattress)
If It's Time to Go (Ensemble, Brownstone)
A Million Windows and I (Ann Hampton Calloway, The Shoe String Revue)
Who Are You Now? (Barbara Streisand, Funny Girl)
Go Back Home (Audra McDonald, Go Back Home)
Crazy World (Julie Andrews, Victor/Victoria)
I Put My Hand In (Carol Channing, Ensemble, Hello, Dolly!)
Dancing (Charles Nelson Reilly, Carol Channing, Ensemble, Hello, Dolly!)
It Only Takes a Moment (Charles Nelson Reilly, Eileen Brennan, Hello, Dolly!)
Hello, Dolly! (Carol Channing, Ensemble, Hello, Dolly!)
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