A Good Morning that "Could Not Better Be!"

 A sample of all our Good Mornings!

Above, Marissa Jaret Winokur in Hairspray,

"Good Morning, Baltimore".

Music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics, Scott Whittman,

who collaborated on music for

Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Catch Me If You Can,

and Bombshell.

 

 From the very successful revival of Hair, starring

Gavin Creel (above center),

we'll hear "Good Morning Starshine"

(whether we want to or not).

 Best Revival of a Musical, 2009.

 Then "Good Morning, Good Day"

from the 2016 revival of She Loves Me.

Zachary Levi, Laura Benanti, Michael McGrath, and 

Nicholas Barasch.

Below, Jane Krakowski and Gavin Creel 

(with less hair and more clothes).

 A Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick creation from 1963.

 We dive into the Hollywood pool for 

"Good Morning"

from Singin' In The Rain,

with Donald O, Debbie R, and Le Kelly!

A Nacio Herb Brown/Arthur Freed tune.

 And a lesser known "Your Good Morning"

from a Jerry Herman revue

called Parade.

It featured Dody Goodman (above),

Fia Karin, Richard Tone, Charles Nelson Reilly,

and Lester James.

So obscure that there are only 2 photos of it on the internet???

 (and fuzzy ones at that!)

 The Court Jester,

with Danny Kaye, Basil Rathbone,

Glynis Johns, Angela Lansbury, Mildred Natwick

 and a bevy of other great character actors,

cost an arm-load when it was produced in 1955.

Composing the score was Vic Schoen

who had never written a film score before.

Igor Stravinsky visited the set, listened in, 

then told Schoen he had "broken all the rules".

Schoen actually composed a piano sonata for the dueling scene

between Danny and Basil.

We'll hear "Life Could Not Better Be!"

 Danny, above with his wife Sylvia Fine.

The movie cost $4 mill to make,

the most spent on a comedy to date,

and it bombed.

Since then, it's become a television matinee favorite.

Below, how you eat a burger and fries as a princess!

 From the 1999 revival of Annie Get Your Gun...

Ben Brantley of The New York Times

found it "pandering and patronizing."

He did applaud the leads, however, in the form of 

Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat.

 This production dropped several songs, 

including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "I'm A Bad, Bad Man", 

and "I'm an Indian Too".

 And the final shooting match between Annie and Frank ended in a tie.

 Replacements for this production

(on Broadway and on tour):
Susan Lucci, Cheryl Ladd, Patrick Cassidy, Reba McEntire,

Brent Barrett, Marilu Henner, and Rex Smith!

Add that to the first and subsequent "Annies"....Ethel Merman, 

(almost) Judy Garland, Betty Hutton,

Barbara Eden, Debbie Reynolds,

Andrea McArdle (yup, that OTHER Annie),

and Lucie Arnaz!