Playlist For January 12, 2020: No skiis, no winter, just Broadway!

The 3 Month/90,000 Day Count Down has begun; January 1 to April 1, the dank gulag of WINTER. Damn, I hate this time of the year. People say, plan a trip for February! Take a cruise in March! Conjure up a Mardi Gras party! Take up skiing! Dear god. First of all, upstate NY doesn't like letting anyone leave. Plan an escape and the weather descends, trapping you at the Buffalo/Rochester/Toronto/fill in name of airport here Airport. Plan a party? Snap, an ice storm (with leftovers rapidly spoiling in your larder). And skiing? A hearty no there, but tubing...with my ass ON THE GROUND (or near it already) is something I do actually tolerate, tho those 5 year olds do get in the way!

So maybe these doldrums are just an excuse to play more Liza, but on the other hand, I don't think I've done a John Kander/Fred Ebb salute EVER, so 'tis THAT season! And they did a ton of shows, over 20...so I have lots of material. Okay, waaaaay too much material. Smash hits (like Cabaret and Chicago), their share of bagels (Flora, The Happy Time, 70, Girls, 70), some also rans (Curtains, The Rink), but all in all, a Broadway lifetime full of incredible tunes and great performances. Unfortunately,  Fred Ebb left us in 2004, mid-way thru Curtains, but John Kander is still revving his engines at age 93 and probably humming a newly-composed Act 1closer, if not strategizing Another Opn'in', Another Show for Broadway as we wheeze.

And they loved Liza...created whole shows for her, even stole songs back for her (yup, just ask, Kaye Ballard, if you could, how they yanked "Maybe This Time" right out of her hopefully-bejeweled, tastefully-manicured hands, all for Ms. Minnelli to do in the movie version of Cabaret!). They also loved inflecting their shows with politics (fighting the Nazis, joining up with the Communist Party, unions) and wrote feisty female leads, ladies who had no trouble standing up to the men in their lives (if not put a hole, or 7, in 'em). Sexy, powerful women who sang sexy, powerful songs, didn't pull punches, or stop just because they got old and gnarled. (They just put on their stolen fur coats and carried on.) Kander & Ebb empowered the Misses in the Mezz!

Of course, this will be just the tip of the Kander & Ebb iceberg. Whole musicals must go unexposed (apologies to Spiderwoman, et.al.), cuz these 2 hours fill up fast, especially when La Bacall does 10 verses a la Jerry Herman, when 4 would suffice (well, she WAS the Woman of the Year!). But I'll try to smush as many K&E songs and minutiae into our time together as poss.

So pardon me, while I inflate that tube. And cross off another day! ;)

Sing Happy (Liza Minnelli, Flora The Red Menace)
Wilkommen (Joel Grey, Cabaret)
Two Ladies (Joel Grey, Ensemble, Cabaret)
Married (Lotte Lenya, Jack Gilford, Cabaret)
Mein Herr (Liza Minnelli, Cabaret)
All That Jazz (Chita Rivera, Chicago)
We Both Reached For The Gun (Jerry Orbach, Gwen Verdon, Chicago)
My Own Best Friend (Chita Rivera, Gwen Verdon, Chicago)
Tomorrow Morning (Robert Goulet, Michael Rupert, The Happy Time)
Wallflower (Diane Langton, The Rink)
70, Girls, 70 (Company, 70, Girls, 70)
Sara Lee (Bob Cuccioli, And The World Goes 'Round)
The Grass Is Always Greener (Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Cooper, Woman
       Of The Year)
Second Chance (Daniel McDonald, Karen Ziemba, Steel Pier)
Everybody's Girl (Debra Monk, Steel Pier)
Lovebird (Karen Ziemba, Adam Petty, Ensemble, Steel Pier)
Steel Pier (Gregory Harrison, Ensemble, Steel Pier)
There Goes The Ball Game/How Lucky Can You Get (Ensemble,
       And The World Goes 'Round)
A Quiet Thing (Marin Mazzie)
Go Back Home (Audra McDonald, Go Back Home)
All I Need (Is One Good Break)(Liza Minnelli, Flora The Red Menace)
Hello, Waves (Bob Dishy, Liza Minnelli, Flora The Red Menace)
The Woman's Dead (Debra Monk, Ensemble, Curtains)
A Tough Act To Follow (David Hyde Pierce, Jill Paice, Curtains)
Colored Lights (Liza Minnelli, The Rink)
But The World Goes 'Round (Liza Minnelli, New York, New York)
Maybe This Time (Kaye Ballard)
Isn't This Better? (Ensemble, And The World Goes 'Round)
Life Is (Lorraine Serabian, Ensemble, Zorba)