When composer/lyricist Edward Kleban died in 1987
(age 48),
he left a bevy of songs and projects
that had remained unpublished/unproduced in his lifetime.
In his will, he requested they be made into a show,
so Linda Klein (his partner for the last 8 years of his life)
and Lonny Price created A Class Act: A Musical About Musicals,
which spoke to Ed's life, his personality, his projects, and
his neurosis.
It took the team 6 years to write and workshop the show,
but they did it.
That's the real Ed below, and below that...
...the cast and creatives from
A Class Act,
including on the left (standing)
Randy Graff,
Lonny Price (center, with the Kleban beard!),
and Carolee Carmelo on right (standing) who played a character
based on Linda Klein.
David Hibbard, front right, played Michael Bennett
(director/choreographer of A Chorus Line),
and, not-pictured-but-part-of-the-cast, Jeff Blumenkrantz
(of Murder For Two, Bright Star, et.al.)
played Marvin Hamlisch.
The original production ran on Broadway for 2 months in 2000.
A quote from Lonny:
" 'To play Ed, you have to be neurotic and
crazy and
lovable and funny, all at the same time.
He's not the nicest
guy in the world, he's got a lot of edges.''
We'll hear "One", an interesting version of the
"One" you're used to!
A concerned Robert Morse
and Arlene Golonka
in Take Me Along, 1959.
Maybe Robert is waiting for that
"Nine O'Clock" date!
Below, the record cover
touting the great cast, with
Onna White "staging", and music by Robert Merrill.
Liza Minnelli (above center and below)
was just 17 years old when she starred in
Best Foot Forward,
based on a 1943 movie of the same name,
starring Lucille Ball, June Allyson and Nancy Walker.
And THAT was based
on the original Broadway musical of 1941,
which starred Rosemary Lane, Nancy (in her Broadway debut)
and June.
In 1954, they did a television adaptation...
yet it still wasn't enough!
Come 1963, Liza starred in an Off-Broadway version on this saga,
and won a Theatre World Award!
Christopher Walken also starred
(above with Liza).
All this to say,
we'll hear "The 3 Bs" on Sunday!
Words and Music: Ralph Blaine and Hugh Martin
Nine To Five!
Yup, it started as a 1980 movie,
with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton...
28 years later, somebody thought it belonged on Broadway.
It starred (above) Stephanie J. Block, Megan Hilty, Alison Janney,
and Marc Kudish.
It lasted on Bway about 6 months;
London audiences (and critics) were kinder,
and it stuck around longer across "the pond".
Below, a West End production!
Have to add a couple of great quotes here...
Ben Brantley of the NYTimes
described it as an "overinflated whoopee cushion"
and felt that the staged version turned its
"feminist revenge story into an occasion for lewd slapstick."
It probably wouldn't fly in this #metoo time zone.
I admit to never having seen The Five Pennies, from 1959.
It was a "bio-pic" of Red Nichols,
the cornet player/bandleader, with music by Sylvia Fine, and others.
It starred Danny Kaye, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Harry Guardino.
Louis Armstrong also had a cameo.
On Sunday, it'll provide us with the Number 5,
and a lullaby for that afternoon nap!
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