Okay, so...Broadway Death!
Case in point: Carol Channing's (almost) solo revue,
Show Girl, done back in 1961...
after Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend
and before Dolly!
Carol had help in that show from
Jules Munshin (below)
and Les Quatres Jeudi
(see the waiters?).
"This Is A Darned Nice Funeral"
(Gimme an F...gimme a U...)
I remember John Byner from his guest appearances
back in the late 60s and 70s,
doing stand-up on Merv and Mike and Johnny.
Sunday we'll hear him as Charon
(the River Styxx gondolier)
in The Frogs ("All Aboard").
Below, John with Carol Kane in
Transylvania 6-5000.
A leotarded John in a 1977 episode of
Maude...Captain Hero!
With the cast of The Frogs:
Roger Bart, Michael Siberry, John, Susan Stroman (director),
Burke Moses, Nathan Lane, Daniel Davis, and Peter Bartlett.
The original Frog production,
done in the swimming pool at Yale University,
in 1974.
Supposedly, Sigourney Weaver, Meryl Streep and Christopher Durang
were part of this production.
(I think Meryl probably made a marvelous frog.)
Stephen Bogardus,
part of the cast of Bright Star...
he started off in productions at the Public Theatre in NYC,
performed in the trio of William Finn's Falsetto musicals,
and has earned himself both Tony and Obie nominations.
We'll hear his rendition of
"She's Gone"
with A.J. Shively, below.
Stephen Bogardus, Stephen Lee Anderson, Dee Hoty, and Steve Martin
at the opening night curtain call of
Bright Star, March of 2016.
Mixed reviews (case in point, from USA Today:
"a majestic, Hammerstein-esque resolution
mitigated by zany musical-comedy flourishes")
but the score was praised,
and Steve M. and co-writer Edie Brickell got
Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle Awards.
All That Jazz, that (almost) autobiographical movie
of the life of Bob Fosse,
used musical oldies but goodies,
like "Who's Sorry Now?" and "After You've Gone."
Above, Roy Scheider as Joe Gideon in
a musical death scene to end ALL musical death scenes.
Co-starring (above) Erzsebet Foldi,
and Ann Reinking
as daughter and lover,
and (below) Leland Palmer as ex-wife (Gwen Verdon?).
And Jessica Lange as,
well, I guess we could call her the Angel of Death.
The movie was supposedly inspired by Fosse's life during the time
he was both editing his film Lenny (as in Bruce)
and simultaneously staging Chicago.
The film won the Cannes Film Festival's
Palme d'Or (1980).
(I think I need to do another Fosse Show. :))
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