Mothers and Moose

 Minnie's Boys hit Broadway in 1969, 

with music by Hal Hackady and Larry Grossman,

and a book by Robert Fisher and Arthur Marx,

Groucho's son.

Arthur grew up on the Vaudeville circuit with his extended family,

and went on to be a gag writer for Milton Berle,

and a sitcom writer for shows like

Alice, My Three Sons and All In The Family.

The musical starred Shelly Winters, Lewis J. Stadlen as Groucho,

Irwin Pearl as Chico, and Daniel Fortus as Harpo.

We'll hear "Mama, I Rainbow" ironically sung by Harpo.  

 Leigh Ann Larkin (with a Moo Cow)

in the 2008 revival of Gypsy, 

which also starred Patti Lupone and Laura Benanti.

We'll hear a song dropped from the original production,

"Tomorrow's Mother's Day".

(Side note: Hopefully you were lucky enough to catch

Leigh Ann's excellent performance as Sally Bowles in the 

now-touring company of Cabaret.)

 Scott Jarvis in the original production of 1776

which had the music of Sherman Edwards,

who began his music career as a pianist, arranger,

and a pop song writer

("See You In September", "Wonderful, Wonderful", etc.

...yes, he was a Brill Building denizen).

But one day,

Sherman walked a few blocks over to Broadway

and became the composer of the Best Musical of 1969.

We'll hear Scott and "Momma Look Sharp".

 

 Broadway (and Hollywood)

make formidable mothers:
Above, Queen Latifah as Matron Mamma Morton

in the film version of Chicago,

and below, Marissa Jaret Winokur and Harvey Fierstein

in the original Broadway production of Hairspray.

 We'll also sample the brand-new-to-Broadway

Come From Away...

7,000 plane people stuck in Gander, Labrador

on 9/11, 

definitely the stuff of musicals.

A cast of 12, Celtic-flavored musical, and a hit with NY critics.

 Music and Lyrics,

Irene Sankoff and David Hein.