Trumpets, Whistles, Drum Boogies and Smallish Talks!

 Anyone Can Whistle

hit Broadway in 1964, and lasted for 9 performances

(which means it now enjoys cult status).

Pretty incredible that they made time for these photographs.

Words and music were by Stephen Sondheim,

who before this had written lyrics for West Side Story

and Gypsy,

and music and lyrics for Forum.

It starred Angela Lansbury (her Broadway musical theatre debut),

Harry Guardino and Lee Remick.

The part Lee played (Nurse Fay Apple) was first offered to

Barbra Streisand,

but she turned it down when Funny Girl called and sounded a bit Funnier.

 The reviews?

 Howard Taubman of the Times: 

"Arthur Laurents's book lacks the fantasy 

that would make the idea work, 

and his staging has not improved matters. 

Mr. Sondheim has written several pleasing songs

 but not enough of them to give the musical wings. 

The performers yell rather than talk and run rather than walk. 

The dancing is the cream."

That creamy dancing was by Herbert Ross,

who received a Tony nomination.

 "There Won't Be Trumpets"

was cut before those precious 9 performances,

but returned for the cast recording and has since enjoyed

a popular cabaret status. 

 Yowza! 

A great pic of Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck

in Ball Of Fire directed by Howard Hawks, 1941.

Barbara got to wear "the dress",

but was dubbed by Liltin' Martha Tilton, below.

We'll hear "Drum Boogie",

written and performed in the movie by

Gene Krupa (and his band).

Supporting cast:

Oscar Homolka, Henry Travers, Dana Andrews and Dan Duryea.

 Betty Buckley got to play Martha Jefferson in 

the original production of 1776,

and sang "He Plays The Violin".

Below with her spouse (in the show), Ron Howard,

and looking on...William Daniels and Howard Da Silva

as John Adams and Ben Franklin, respectively.

1776 won the Best Musical Tony
(and 4 other Tonys) back in 1969.

Clive Barnes called it "a most striking, most gripping musical. 

I recommend it without reservation. 

It makes even an Englishman's heart beat faster.." 

 And then a little "Small Talk" from

Adler & Ross's Pajama Game.

Above the original production starring Eddie Foy Jr., Carol Haney,

Janis Paige, and John Raitt,

in various forms of sleepware.

("Sleeptite!")

 And then the revival of 2006,

with Michael McKean, Megan Lawrence, Harry Connick Jr. and Kelli O'Hara.

We don't wanna talk "Small Talk" indeed!

Playlist For Sunday, September 1, 2019: Back. Alive. Well. Caffeinated!

I'm BACK! Survived an Eeeeerie Expedition (peddle to the "meddle") around Lake Erie, and ready (well, almost!) to take on Broadway again. Fall's energy is around the corner, I can feel it percolating (or is that just the coffee in the kitchen?) with these cooler mornings. Longing now for a couple of sweatta weatha nights, so I can change my wardrobe (and my drinks).

 See? :)

Speaking of COFFEE, when will SOME people (who will not be named here) begin to make coffee that doesn't look like tea? Staying in like 15 different B&Bs over the last few weeks proves to me that Americans love their Folgers, their drip pots, their Keurigs (ugh on many levels and I don't even CARE if I'm spelling that wrong) and the total absence of espresso (even eXpresso!) or anything resembling COFFEE that puts hair on your chest...my biking-sojourny-friend Carol and I had great hopes for one host who actually had a 1940-ish percolator in his kitchen (it was turquoise even!), bubbling away at 7am-ish. But our hopes were dashed when we could actually see through the stuff, all the way to Ashtabula (which is an actual place, folks...don't let anybody tell ya different!). So I'm presently making my own brew and cutting off an extra cup for you, should you drop by. :)

What's that got to do with Broadway? Jeez, without caffeine I wouldn't have the strength to carve a playlist, let alone bike over 700 miles back to do it, for another year. October marks 2 On The Aisle's 8th year anniversary on Jazz 90.1, and I'm hoping that there exists enough JOE in this county to carry on for 8 more.

Meanwhile, I have a theme-laden show for you this Sunday, with all the "usual suspects" in attendance. Stuff I sang to myself while riding around a big blue thing. Trombones, Pianos, Whistling, Talkin' to Trees? Put on a sweatta maybe, and join me.


Seventy-Six Trombones (Robert Preston, The Music Man)
Slap That Bass (Harry Groener, Crazy For Your)
I Love A Piano (Jeffrey Denman, Meredith Patterson, Irving Berlin's
      White Christmas)
Piano Lessons (Barbara Cook, Pert Kelton, The Music Man)
I Love A Piano/Snookey Ookums/The Ragtime Violin (Judy Garland, Fred
      Astaire, Easter Parade)
There Won't Be Trumpets (Lee Remick, Anyone Can Whistle)
He Plays The Violin (Betty Buckley, 1776)
My Heart Is Like A Violin/The Fiddler And The Fighter (Jack Cassidy, Fade
      Out - Fade In)
Drum Boogie (Martha Tilton, Ball Of Fire)
Haben Sie Gehort Das Deutsche Band? (Brad Oscar, The Producers)
I'm A Brass Band (Shirley McClaine, Sweet Charity)
I Know A Guy (Corey Cott, Ensemble, Bandstand)
I Have Confidence (Julie Andrews, The Sound Of Music)
I'm Not Afraid Of Anything (Andrea Burns, Songs For A New World)
You Mustn't Be Discouraged (Carol Burnett, Tiger Haynes, Fade Out -
      Fade In)
Waiting (Etai Benson, Ensemble, The Band's Visit)
The Beat Of Your Heart (Andrew Polk, John Cariani, Alok Tewari, George
      Abud, The Band's Visit)
Papi Hears The Ocean (The Band's Visit)
Itzik's Lullaby (John Cariani, George Abud, The Band's Visit)
Answer Me (Adam Kantor, Company, The Band's Visit)
I Whistle A Happy Tune (Gertrude Lawrence, The King & I)
Anyone Can Whistle (Patti LuPone, Don't Monkey With Broadway)
Give A Little Whistle (Cliff Edwards, Pinocchio)
Pick-A-Little, Talk-A-Little (Adnia Rice, The Buffalo Bills, Ensemble,
      The Music Man)
Yatata (Norbert Leo Butz, Ensemble, Allegro)
Happy Talk (Juanita hall, South Pacific)
Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone (Doris Day)
I Talk To The Trees (Tony Bavaar, Olga San Juan, Paint Your Wagon)
Baby, Talk To Me (Dick Van Dyke, Bye Bye Birdie)
Talking To Yourself (Leslie Uggams, Robert Hooks, Allen Case,
      Hallelujah, Baby!)
Can't Stop Talking About Him (Betty Hutton, Fred Astaire, Let's Dance!)
Small Talk (Harry Connick, Jr., Kelli O'Hara, The Pajama Game)
Can't Stop Talking About Him (Audra McDonald)

More of My Favorite THINGS!

 Michael Feinstein's

wonderful "Wanna Sing A Show Tune"

will launch us, a song written by Ray Jessell.

Michael, at age 21, was introduced to Ira Gershwin,

who asked him to catalogue his record collection and 

sheet music (some of it unpublished).

Six years later, it was done,

giving Michael a "college education" in 

The Brothers Gershwin, and the American Songbook!

 If you don't know this scene from Guys And Dolls,

I don't think we have anything to say to each other.

Vivian Blaine chuckin' the satin
(or is it taffeta? It wrinkles so easily!)

and the MINK with her Hot Box Girls

 Lorenzo Fuller in a still from Kiss Me, Kate...

Lorenzo played Paul (assistant to "Fred Graham" in the show), 

and performed "Too Darn Hot" with

Fred Davis and Eddie Sledge.

Lorenzo would go on to do radio shows, musical direction,

and vocal coaching.

Below, the movie version,

in which the song was given to Ann Miller,

and those "Kinsey Reports" were changed

to just plain "latest reports."

And yet wasn't this table-top dance just as sexy as Kinsey?  

(And probably sexier, if Kinsey looked like Bob Mueller.)

 Nancy Walker as Hildy

and Cris Alexander as Chip

in the original production of On The Town.

Love see-thru cars :)

"Come Up To My Place"

 "Elegance" from Hello, Dolly!

Charles Nelson Reilly, Eileen Brennan, Jerry Dodge and Sondra Lee

Note Horse. Are those chorine legs peaking out under the fringe?

 Love Leslie Uggams

in Hallelujah, Baby!

A Jule Styne/Comden and Green show 

that won 24 year old Leslie a Tony!

Best Musical of 1968

"My Own Morning"

 Tony Danza and Rob McClure 

come to some sort of "Agreement"

in Honeymoon in Vegas...

And the marvelous Sutton Foster

pledges not to "Show Off" anymore,

in The Drowsy Chaperone,

Best Score and Best Book Tonys back in 2006.

The King of Broadway: Hal Prince

 Cabaret, Company, Phantom of the Opera,

Evita, The Pajama Game, Sweeney Todd...

Hal Prince produced or directed (and sometimes both)

the major Broadway musicals of the 

1950s and on. 

He worked with George Abbott, Stephen Sondheim,

Fosse, Bennett, Bernstein, Robbins,

Kander and Ebb, and, it would seem, every Broadway star

worth their tap shoes.

 At one point in the 1960s,

Hal had 3 shows running on Broadway at the same time:

Fiorello!, Tenderloin, and 

Above with Liza (Flora The Red Menace)

and below with the company of Company.

 Hal was born Harold Smith, Jr.

in Manhattan in 1928.

His parents divorced and his mother remarried a stockbroker,

 Milton Prince.

Private schools, UPenn, playwriting, acting in college productions,

and finally a stint in George Abbott's office.

He began stage managing with Abbott's productions of  

Touch and Go! and Wonderful Town. 

 With Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin

in Evita,

and below with the cast of Merrily We Roll Along,

the debacle which caused a rift in the Prince/Sondheim

"continuum" for several years.

 Other flops for Hal included

It's A Bird...It's A Plane...It's Superman,

Pacific Overtures, and Grind.

Off-Broadway endeavors included Diamonds (a baseball musical!),

The Petrified Prince, and Hollywood Arms

(a Carol Burnett auto-biographical play).

 With Sweeney Todd star, Angela Lansbury.

Amongst his storied successes,

The Phantom of the Opera,

the longest running musical in Broadway history.

Below, with Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Stephen Sondheim once said, 

“If there’s a burning plane, I want Hal to be the pilot. 

He’s just great faced with difficulties, and he’s a terrific leader. 

I watched him after ‘Pacific Overtures’ had been massacred by critics. 

And he had to address the cast, give them courage, 

even though he was hurting just as much.

I thought, This is a captain!”

 1928 - 2019