On TWO Conditions: You Gotta Be Cute and You Gotta Wear Clothes!

Phyllis Newman and Orson Bean

in Subways Are For Sleeping, 1957.

Orson started his performing career off as a 

magician!

He shifted from there into stand up comedy,

Broadway, TV, game shows, and movies.

Subways brought him a Tony nomination,

and the opportunity to sing

"I Just Can't Wait" to an often be-toweled Phyllis. 

Orson was born Dallas Frederick Burrows, in 1928,

in Burlington, Vt.

His stage name was suggested to him by 

a piano player at a Boston nightclub where "Dallas" worked.

Every night said piano man would introduce him by a 

different silly name;

Orson Bean got the most laughs!

Orson said that it was a blend of pompous and amusing.

Above, with Dick Van Dyke.

Below, with not Dick Van Dyke. 

Orson, at the far right, with some of his 

game show co-horts!

Bill Cullen, Kitty Carlisle, Bud Collyer, Bess Myerson, Henry Morgan,

and Betsy Palmer.

Orson was struck and killed by 2 cars in early February

while crossing a street (on foot) in Venice, CA.

He was 91 years old. 

We'll hear Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel,

as Magnolia and Gaylord

in Showboat.

Their conditional love song: "Make Believe". 

Kathryn was born Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick,

in 1922, in Winston-Salem, NC.

She trained as an opera singer,  

but got scooped by MGM to debut in 

Andy Hardy's Private Secretary, released in 1941.

(And yes, she played the secretary!)

More movie musicals followed,

and later in Kathryn's career, 

actual operas and Broadway musicals. 

One nifty example: In 1962, she replaced Julie Andrews in

Broadway's Camelot.

Below, another pic from Showboat: KG with Ava Gardner as Julie.

(Interesting note, Judy Garland and Dinah Shore were both considered for the part of Julie.)

Look at that hair!
My mom used to have that style

during her college days

(tho not quite as dramatically "pouffed" as Kathryn's!).

Two years after Showboat, it was time to

 Kiss Me, Kate...

Ann Miller as Bianca and Kathryn as Kate.

Stanley Prager, above, with

Helen Gallagher (who replaced Carol Haney) on the table,

and Thelma Pelish, aghast at the scene

in The Pajama Game.

Stanley started off as a stage manager on Broadway's

The Skin of Our Teeth.

He spent most of the 1940s doing B movies,

like A Bell For Adano, Gun Crazy, and A Foreign Affair.

Here's Stanley with Gale Robbins in

In The Meantime, Darling,

released in 1944. 

When he found himself on the Hollywood Blacklist,

it was back to Broadway for SP!

He performed in The Pajama Game, Two On The Aisle,

Room Service...

and then turned to directing.

Some of the shows he did wearing that hat include

Bravo, Giovanni,

70, Girls, 70,

and Minnie's Boys.

Stanley in Force Of Evil, 1948.

Recording the original cast album

of The Pajama Game,

with Janis Paige and John Raitt, front and center.

That's Eddie Foy, Jr. in the hat on the left,

and on the right, Carol Haney and Stanley.

Come the 1960s, he directed television shows,

like The Patty Duke Show and Car 54.

He passed away in 1972, at the age of 55.

Playlist For March 1, 2020: Conditionally Yours!

Huzzah! Tis March! Well, almost, as I type this. But the sun is streaming about, teasing me to think "Tra Lah", as in Julie Andrew's lusty month of May. Disgusting ice, wind, sleet, and stock prices will of course fall about me in the next few weeks, til the real SPRING comes along and "springs" us up again, but it does give one hope to feel 50 degrees, not 5. So I will take advantage of lusty temps and tra lah lah the hell out of it. :)

 Hold on to your hoop, Julie.

It ain't that lusty. Yet.

Meanwhile, let's dissect some Broadway. Two types of songs will be placed on the microscope slides this coming Sunday: The Conditional Love Song and The Character Song. The first (hmmmm...what would it be like to love you? Would it work? Shall we try it on alternate Tuesdays?) brings the 2 main characters together (Act One, Scene 2?) to ponder/argue/dream about an alliance. And the more opposite those 2 are, the more fun! I mean if they were 2 peas in an effing pod, who would care? Who would buy tickets to that?

 From Carousel couples

to Mormon mates...

The second (the cute, quirky, lyric-clever, brief, and hopefully humorous Character Song) is usually invented for the secondary character(s) to sing, a little comic relief that doesn't actually further the plot, but allows us to breathe and laugh and wallow in a respite from all the drama. Gladys and Prez, Ado Annie, Gooch, and Winthrop. Love a good Character Song, maybe a little TOO much.

 "Her Is"

maybe both a Conditional and a Character song

wrapped together.

It's a floor wax AND a dessert topping!

 A Gooch and a Mame

So half Conditional, half Character this Sunday...I'm calling it the Half and Half Edition, like the coffee creamer. Like coffee needs cream? Whatever. Or the 2, 2, 2 Mints In One! Edition (that's dating me, for sure). Tune in for Iffy and (sometimes) Squiffy this Sunday...


Her Is (Stanley Prager, Carol Haney, The Pajama Game)
I'll Know (Peter Gallagher, Josie De Guzman, Guys And Dolls)
The Tennis Song (James Naughton, Dee Hoty, City Of Angels)
What Do You Want Of Me? (Joan Diener, Man of La Mancha)
If I Loved You (Jan Clayton, John Raitt, Carousel)
Make Believe (Howard Keel, Kathryn Grayson, Show Boat)
Vanilla Ice Cream (Laura Benanti, She Loves Me)
Long Before I Knew You (Syd Chaplin, Judy Holliday, Bells Are Ringing)
Twin Soliloquies (Mary Martin, Ezio Pinza, South Pacific)
Who Knows What Might Have Been (Carol Lawrence, Syd Chaplin,
       Subways Are For Sleeping)
Barcelona (Dean Jones, Susan Browning, Company)
We Could Be Close (Robert Morse, Elaine Joyce, Sugar)
People Will Say We're In Love (Alfred Drake, Joan Roberts, Oklahoma!)
We Can Do It (Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, The Producers)
What Is This Feeling? (Idina Menzel, Kristen Chenoweth, Wicked)
You I Like (Michael Feinstein, Jerry Herman, The Grand Tour)
You And Me (But Mostly Me)(Andrew Rannells, Josh Gad, The Book
      Of Mormon)
Tom, Dick, Or Harry (Lisa Kirk, Harold Lang, Edwin Clay, Charles Wood,
       Kiss Me Kate)
The Three Of Us (Michael McKean, Megan Lawrence, The Pajama Game)
Drop That Name (Judy Holliday, Ensemble, Bells Are Ringing)
Be Like The Bluebird (Mickey Deems, Anything Goes)
One Hundred Easy Ways (Rosalind Russell, Wonderful Town)
I Cain't Say No (Gloria Grahame, Oklahoma!)
I'm Past My Prime (Edie Adams, Stubby Kaye, Li'l Abner)
Gooch's Song (Jane Connell, Mame)
Gee, Officer Krupke (Russ Tamblyn, The Jets, West Side Story)
Brush Up Your Shakespeare (Harry Clark, Jack Diamond, Kiss Me Kate)
Gary, Indiana (Eddie Hodges, The Music Man)
I Just Can't Wait (Orson Bean, Subways Are For Sleeping)
How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I've Been
       A Liar All My Life? (Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Royal Wedding)
Lovely (Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To
       The Forum)
What's Gonna Happen (Sarah Stiles, Tootsie)
Roll In The Hay (Roger Bart, Sutton Foster, Christopher Fitzgerald,
       Young Frankenstein)

Celebrating Black History Month!

Ain't Misbehavin' divas...

Armelia McQueen, Nell Carter, and Charlayne Woodard,

who starred in the original production

of 1978.

It started small,

in a cabaret setting at the Manhattan Theatre Club,

with Luther Henderson (arranger and orchestrator)

initially playing the piano for each performance.

Onwards to Broadway later that year,

under the direction of Richard Maltby, Jr.!

Above, a young Andre De Shields, part of the original cast
of Misbehavin'

(currently on Broadway in Hadestown),

and below, Ken Page (with Nell).

The inspiration for this Best Musical Tony Winner:

the music of Fats Waller.

The show was revived on Broadway again in 1988,

and Frank Rich of the NYTimes had this to say:

  "This musical anthology expands beyond its form to become a 

resurrection of a great black artist's soul.

Perhaps the key to the musical's approach 

is its willingness to let 

Waller speak simply and eloquently for himself, 

through his art but without show-biz embroidery."

Conceived of by Ron Taylor

(who also starred...that's him below, with Gretha Boston),

It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues

cracked Broadway in 1999,

and chronicled the history of Blues,

with over 3 dozen songs.

It starred Ron, Gretha, a young Gregory Porter,

Eloise Laws, Carter Calvert, and "Mississippi" Charles Bevel.

It included African chants, slave songs,

spirituals...and my favorite, "Fever".

Ethel Waters...what a life!

The black vaudeville circuit, the Harlem Renaissance,

Broadway, films, concert performances and television. 

She was the first African-American to star on her own television show 

and the first African-American woman to be nominated 

for a Primetime Emmy Award.

On Sunday, we'll hear the Oscar-nominated song she sang in both the

 Broadway and movie versions of 

Cabin In The Sky:

"Happiness Is Just A Thing Called Joe."

(Her autobiography..."His Eye Is On The Sparrow")

Pearl Bailey starred in Hello, Dolly! twice!

Once in 1967 and again in 1975.

In an unusual move for the time,

David Merrick came up with an idea of an all-black cast,

when audiences for his original production began to wane

(despite all the different Dolly replacements:

Ann Miller, Ethel Merman, Phyllis Diller!?!?).

And that re-casting proved so popular, that in ANOTHER unusual move,

they made a new cast recording,

which we can enjoy this Sunday!

Pictured above, Pearl with her Cornelius, Barnaby, et. al.:  

Jack Crowder, Sherri Peaches Brewer, and Winston DeWitt Hemsley.

Cab Calloway, below, played Horace in this first Pearl Version,

and in the 2nd production,

Billy Daniels had the honor.

The cast of the Broadway musical "Five Guys Named Moe":

Jerry Dixon, Doug Eskew, Milton Craig Nealy, Kevin Ramsey, 

Jeffrey Sams, and Glen Turner. 

Jerry (below, and the one in the dark suit above)

played Nomax,

who has been dumped by his girlfriend.

The Five Moes emerge from his radio,

to cheer him up with the songs of Louis Jordan.

And those great songs, super arrangements, and imaginative choreography

got the show a Tony nom,

and productions from here to (almost) Borneo!

Sheryl Lee Ralph

has trod the boards since 1980.

Her break-out role was in the 1981 production of 

Dreamgirls,

in which she starred as Deena Jones,

and she's been Broadwaying (and filming and tv-ing) ever since.

Above, a curtain call post-Thoroughly Modern Millie performance (2002);

 Sheryl played Muzzy Van Hossmeer

and got to sing "Long As I'm Here With You."

Below center, Sheryl as Deena in Dreamgirls.

 

We'll hear Leslie Uggams 

(above, in a shot from Thoroughly Modern Millie...she replaced Sheryl)

with a song from Hallelujah, Baby!

Lena Horne was set to star in that Styne/Comden/Green show,

but when she opted out,

Leslie made it her own,

winning a Tony for her performance.

"My Own Morning"

 

The first production of 

The Hot Mikado

(a jazzed up version of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado)

 happened back in 1939, 

and starred Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (above).

 Come the 1980s,

David H. Bell (book and lyrics) and
Rob Bowman (arrangements and orchestrations)

gave the production a face-lift.

This zoot-suited, lindy-hopping version

premiered at Ford's Theatre in D.C. in 1986...

...followed by productions in the West End (below)

and Chicago. 

Now it's know as Hot Mikado,

being a much HOTTER title when you drop the "The", I guess!

Playlist For February 23, 2020: Anything But The Blues!

 Me at 4am.

Not really, but I definitely need pjs like this. :)

I am up waaaaay too early. I've beaten the farmers, the snow plowers, the Dunkin bakers...no one on the planet is awake but me. And there is no good reason to be. It's President's Day, and by rights, I could legitimately get away with sleeping til noon (if my cat had an automatic feeder not named Kim, but of course then he really WOULD be OBESE). But no, I have to wake up at 4am, rev my brain, and go vertical. I may pass out by 10am and take a nap. Cuz otherwise, my name will be Chopped Liver, good for nonce but taking up space (and not worth an aisle seat)!

 Yup, that's me at present.

On a cracker.

Zzzzzzzzzzz...

 Okay...back from a power nap! Much better. How I am able to drink an entire POT of coffee and then manage to go back to sleep for 2 hours at 7:30am, when I couldn't at 4am, is beyond me.

This is boring. Let's get exciting. And drink more coffee.

So Jazz 90.1 has been doing a great thing this month, as it does EVERY February, and that's saluting African American Jazz Musicians. So I'm jumping on the bandwagon and doing pretty much the same this Sunday: African American Broadway...and I have 17 bunches of performers and musicals to pick from. So much so that I'm just now realizing how many got left off this playlist! (So many shows, so little air time.) Again, we fall short!

But still: Nell Carter, Sheryl Lee Ralph, 2 Leslies (Odom AND Uggams), Ron Taylor, Andre DeShields, Lena, Pearl,  Diahann, and Ethel. Five Guys all named Moe, a Dolly, a Sarah with brown eyes, and absolutely No Bad News! All together, they add up to 2 smashing hours.

And I promise to stay awake. Once we push PLAY on Sunday, Broadway'll provide those metaphorical toothpicks for my eyelids and I'll be fine! Tune in, Broadwayphiles. :)


Odun De (Ron Taylor, Company, It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues)
Blood Done Signed My Name (Ron Taylor, Gretha Boston, It Ain't Nothin'
       But The Blues)
Blues Man (Ron Taylor, It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues)
Fever (Carter Calvert, It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues)
Ain't Misbehavin'/T'ain't Nobody's Business If I Do (Armelia McQueen,
       Andre DeShields, Ken Page, Nell Carter, Charlayne Woodward, Ain't
       Misbehavin')
I've Got A Feeling I'm Falling (Nell Carter, Ain't Misbehavin')
Your Feet's Too Big (Ken Page, Ain't Misbehavin')
One Man (Pearl Bailey, Flower Drum Song)
Honey In The Honeycomb (Lena Horne, Cabin In The Sky)
Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe (Ethel Waters, Cabin In The Sky)
I Wants To Stay Here (Lena Horne, Porgy And Bess)
Legalize My Name (Pearl Bailey, St. Louis Woman)
Early In The Mornin' (Jerry Dixon, Five Guys Named Moe)
Azure Te (Jerry Dixon, Doug Eskew, Milton Craig Nealy,
       Kevin Ramsey, Jeffrey D. Sams, Glenn Turner, Five Guys Named Moe)
Saturday Night Fish Fry (Jerry Dixon, Doug Eskew, Milton Craig Nealy,
       Kevin Ramsey, Jeffrey D. Sams, Glenn Turner, Five Guys Named Moe)
I Don't Know Where She Got It (Lillian Hayman, Hallelujah, Baby!)
My Own Morning (Leslie Uggams, Hallelujah, Baby!)
We Are Gentlemen Of Japan (Ensemble, Hot Mikado)
Three Little Maids From School (Paulette Ivory, Veronica Hart, Alison
       Jiear, Hot Mikado)
It Takes A Woman (Cab Calloway, Hello, Dolly!)
Elegance (Jack Crowder, Emily Yancy, Winston Dewitt Hemsley,
       Chris Calloway, Hello, Dolly!)
So Long Dearie (Pearl Bailey, Hello, Dolly!)
The Sweetest Sounds (Diahann Carroll, Richard Kiley, No Strings)
What About Love? (LaChanze, Elisabeth Withers, The Color Purple)
Strange Fruit (Audra McDonald, Lady Day At Emerson's
       Bar And Grill)
Long As I'm Here With You (Sheryl Lee Ralph, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
Sarah Brown Eyes (Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald, Ragtime)
Dear Theodosia (Leslie Odom, Jr., Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton)
Our Lady Of The Underground (Amber Gray, Hadestown)
Dreamgirls (Sheryl Lee Ralph, Loretta Devine, Jennifer Holliday, Dreamgirls)
And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going (Jennifer Holliday, Dreamgirls)
Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News (Mabel King, The Wiz)

Tough Guys (and Dolls)

The cast and crew (and man-eating plant)

of that first off-off-Broadway production of

Little Shop of Horrors,

which I was lucky enough to see at the Orpheum Theatre.

It was a trip!

Lee Wilkof (I believe) seated at far left,

Ron Taylor in the Feed Me t-shirt,

Ellen Greene next to Audrey II,

and composer/lyricist team of 

Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, down front.

Franc Luz and Lee

mid Dentist!?

Franc, who is in his 70s now,

also starred in When Harry Met Sally and...

 Star Trek: The Next Generation...

as Odan in the episode "The Host."

Fighting Danny Sewell (above), 

enjoying his first career as a professional heavyweight boxer!

His second career proved as "smashing":

acting in Brit films and tv shows,

and in Oliver! as Bill Sikes (below),

performing in both the UK and Broadway productions.

Other Broadway roles included parts in

The Homecoming, Equus, and The Elephant Man.

The Wild West: Prime territory for villains, right?

Nick Wyman played the dastardly governor in

Desperate Measures,

an off-Broadway jaunt from 2017/18...

above, with Lauren Molina, who played Bela,

and below, with Emma Degerstedt and Peter Saide.

Hopefully I pronounce this bad guy's last name correctly on Sunday

(it has about 17 syllables).

Harriet Harris played Mrs. Meers in the 2002 production

of Thoroughly Modern Millie.

She looks harmless enough, 

but "They Don't Know" she's the mastermind

of a slavery ring!

That's Harriet below,

sans kimono and chopsticks. 

(Sorry, that's not very PC, but neither are her cohorts in the show.)

Michael Rupert who got to be the sharky lawyer,

Professor Callahan,

in Legally Blonde

and sing "Blood In The Water".

That's him below, in a face off with 

Laura Bell Bundy as Elle.

Music and lyrics for this show were by

Nell Benjamin and Laurence O'Keefe

(and yes, they met while studying at Harvard!).

Carol Channing did her one woman revue,

Showgirl, in 1961, 

post-Gentlemen Prefer, and pre-Dolly Levy.

Lots of great character songs 

brought to us by Charles Gaynor

gave Carol a chance to play an array of roles,

including "Switchblade Bess"

which we'll sample on Sunday!