Lovely, Russian Spies, Strings, and !

 2 On The Aisle's theme o' the day is Lovely,

which demands we play both versions of 

"Lovely" 

from A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum:

Above, Version 1 with Preshy Marker, Zero Mostel, and Brian Davies

(Preshy was the original Philia, Brian played Hero)

and below, Version 2...

Zero with a dolled up Jack Gilford.

(Jewelry and flowers do = Lovely!)

 From the 1962 revival of Anything Goes,

we'll hear Barbara Lang, who played Hope Harcourt (above),

and Hal Linden, as Billy Crocker (below),

duet to Cole Porter's "It's De-Lovely"...

15 years-ish later, Hal would turn detective (Barney Miller),

but in the beginning, he was a musical leading man. 

These shots are from Masterwork's cast recording library.

 

 Russian spies crop up in Sunday's show as well!

Above, "Siberia" in the movie version of Silk Stockings, 1957,

with Joseph Buloff, Jules Munshin, and Peter Lorre

as Ivanov, Brankov, and Bibinski.

Looks like Peter had a flair for Russian folk dance!

 Above, an Al Hirshfeld take on the Broadway version (1955)

that starred Hildegaard Neff and Don Ameche,

and there our trio of spies was played by

Leon Belasco, Henry Lasco, and David Opatoshu.

We'll hear their version of "Too Bad."

Both the film AND staged versions of Stockings

did ROTTEN at the box office

despite the Cole Porter tunes.

 

 Richard Rodgers wrote No Strings on his own,

his first and only solo Broadway go 'round. 

It starred Diahann Carroll (above)

and Richard Kiley. 

The triumvirate on opening night, below.

 The casting was deemed progressive for its time.

Rodgers said he chose Diahann for the lead

after seeing her appear on The Tonight Show, and that
"Rather than shrinking from the issue of race, 

such an approach would demonstrate our respect for the audience's ability to accept our theme free from rhetoric or sermons."

 Replacements in the cast continued the bi-racial theme.

Go Richard! :)

 

 Diahann won a Tony Award for her work,

but shared the award that year with a 24 year old 

Italian lyric soprano named...

 Anna Maria Alberghetti!

Carnival (which at first had a ! at the end of it)

had the music and lyrics of Bob Merrill.

Gower Champion directed and he was the one to remove the !.

("It's a not a block buster, it's a gentle show.")

Anna was cast as Lili

(tho producer David Merrick first wanted Leslie Caron),

and she got to sing the break-out song of the show, 

"Love Makes The World Go Round".

In the shadows above, Jerry Orbach, looking ominous if fuzzy.

Kaye Ballard played The Incomparable Rosalie (below)...

 

 and more Rosalie below (with STRINGS!)

and James Mitchell, as Marco The Magnificent.

The "gentle" non-! show lasted almost 2 years on Broadway.

Both Carnival and No Strings were nominated for

Best Musical,

but the award that year (1962) went to How To Succeed!