A Grand Night...or Morning...or Lunch...for Broadway!

 Kismet!

(As in "It's Fate, Baby, It's Fate!")

Best Musical of 1954,

with music adapted from the works of 

Alexander Borodin

(lah di dah!)

by Robert Wright and George Forrest.

A wily thief/poet (Alfred Drake), his daughter (Doretta Morrow),

 and a caliph (Richard Kiley)

mix it up in Old Bagdad...

made into a movie a year later with Howard Keel,

Dolores Gray, and Vic Damone?
Go figure.

 Richard Kiley hailed from Chicago, attended the Barnum Dramatic School (did it have 3 rings?), navied during WWII,
and later became a radio announcer back in his hometown. 

 Kiley eventually moved to NYC, and played leading men in 

Kismet, Redhead, No Strings, and Man of La Mancha. 

(Above as the Caliph in Kismet with Doretta.)

Two Tonys, Golden Globes, and Emmys lined his mantle piece

 (I mean he MUST have had a mantle!), 

with additional roles in The Thorn Birds, A Year In The Life,

  and Picket Fences. 

He passed away 21 years ago today, at the age of 76. 

Below, Richard in his signature role of

Don Quixote in Man Of La Mancha.

 Carol Lawrence and Larry Kert

escaping from the theatre!

Nah, just a very posed photo in that Hell's Kitchen area,

where West Side Story was set.

In our Night section of Sunday's 2 On The Aisle,

we gotta play "Tonight",

that Bernstein/Sondheim gem.

 The last scene in that original production...

those old sets, that wrinkled "brick building" scrim.

Man, they don't make 'em like that anymore! 

 Can you imagine being part of this rehearsal?

Singing for Lenny and Steve?

Incredible and petrifying.

Below, the on-Broadway-right-now reincarnation

complete with huge videos playing on the back screen
(beats wrinkles).

To some audience members, distracting.

To others, energizing and compelling! 

In our "Morning" section of Sunday's Wonderful Day Edition is 

John Rubinstein, the original Pippin of....wait for it...Pippin.

A musical from 1972 (could you tell?) with music and lyrics by 

Stephen Schwartz. 

That's our leading man above in the loosely-crocheted tank top

with Ben Vereen, 

who won a Tony for his performance as the Leading Player. 

Bob Fosse directed, choreographed and molded this show 

into what theatre critic/scholar Scott Miller called

 "surreal and disturbing". 

Above, Schwartz in one crazy shirt,

and, amused in the beard, Bob Fosse.

John Rubinstein would return to Pippin years later

and play King Charles (below with Sasha Allen),

Pippin's father.

 Sutton Foster is 

"A Morning Person",

in Shrek The Musical.

I didn't get a chance to see this show 

(which opened on Broadway in 2008) 

but evidently the staging of this number, 

with Fiona dancing with (large) mice,

 was meant to mimic Bob Fosse's "Sweet Charity" nightclub scene.

In a musical like Shrek, which riffed and parodied
scores of other shows, that figures.
Large rodents...big spenders. 

Sounds about right! 

Below, Sutton tries to look sad. 

  Occupying its own little corner on 2 On The Aisle this Sunday 

will be Babes On Broadway, released in 1941, 

third in the series of "Backyard Musicals"...

hey, let's put on a show in the barn, kids! Yeah, that kind...

Directed by Busby Berkeley,  with music by Yip Harburg and Burton Lane. Looks like a fun flick, til you reach the end and witness 

the black-face finale. 

THAT song, I'm not doin'! Instead, we'll hear the trio above with 

"Anything Can Happen In New York,"

featuring Ray McDonald, Mickey Rooney, and Richard Quine.

Some film trivia: 

Production of the movie had to be halted for a time, 

when Judy Garland flew off to Vegas to get married 

(to Husband #1, David Rose).

She was almost "past her prime" at 19, so time was a'wastin'?

Annnnnd her sisters, Virginia and Mary Jane Gumm, 

appear uncredited as chorus girls in this film.

The gang's all here:
Richard Quine, Anne Rooney (related to...?), Mickey Rooney,

Judy Garland, Virginia Weidler, and Ray McDonald.