Sunday Brunch: New Yorkers, Songbirds, and La Ging!

 

The New Yorkers opened on Broadway in 1930,

inspired by a Peter Arno cartoon, a story by E. Ray Goetz,

 AND to promote the magazine.

The Music Maestro, Cole Porter, did the honors,

with a book by Herbert Field.

Jimmy Durante starred, and of course, he had to write

ALL of his own songs

(5 out of the 17 were all his...how did Cole put up with this?).

High Society meets Bootleggers,

that was the "plot" in a nutshell!

168 performances, so it was judged a hit,

by the standards of the day.

 Hopes of mounting a revival were challenged 

by the fact that most of the original material

was lost,

save for some rather sketchy notes by a stage manager.

So when Jack Viertel and the other Powers That Be

at Encores!

attempted to re-do this gem,

they had to insert/edit/rewrite and insert songs

(from other Porter shows). 

They also discovered some of those Durante creations 

in a Los Angeles archive. (Lucky us!)

 Robyn Hurder and Friends. 

(Dip, Louise! Dip!)

The 2017 production starred Scarlett Strallen, Tam Mutu (above)

Cyrille Aimée (below), and Kevin Chamberlain (below THAT, center).

 Cyrille got to do "Love For Sale",

and Kevin reprised the Jimmy Durante role/"songs".

  

Laura Benanti has a birthday this week...she turns 41 on July 15! 

 For her work in Gypsy, she received a 

Tony for Best Featured Actress In A Musical...

as Louise in the 2008 revival with Patti LuPone.

 Some of her many Broadway credits include:

 Eliza in the revival of My Fair Lady...

 Amalia in She Loves Me...

and Candela in David Yazbek's 

Women On The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. 

 Evidently, Laura felt she was an "ugly duckling" growing up,

with a penchant for Sondheim musicals.
"I came out of the womb as a 40 year old", she's said.

Below, Laura in her recurring role as Melania Trump

on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

Annnnnd Ginger's natal day on July 16!

Born in 1911 in Independence, MO, raised in Kansas City

and Forth Worth.

At 14, "Virginia" won a Charleston contest,

which started a vaudeville career,

which led to Broadway (Girl Crazy, 1930),

which brought her to Hollywood
 (for movies like 42nd Street, 1933
where she played Anytime Annie...
"the only time she said no, she didn't hear the question").

A "star overnight" aka 8 years!

Below, Ginger "in the money" in
Gold Diggers Of 1933.

Ginger did 9 films with Fred Astaire,

like Top Hat and Swing Time...

some of the biggest hits RKO would ever have.

After that pairing no longer drew crowds,

she did comedy and drama,

winning an Oscar for Kitty Foyle in 1941. 

In 1949, she reunited with Fred to do
The Barclays Of Broadway,

replacing Judy Garland who was originally cast.

 In Stage Door, 1937,

with "roomie" Katherine Hepburn

(love their scenes together!)

Comic-timing wise, who cared if Ginger could dance?

She could dish! 

(An FYI on this movie's script:

Though it was based on the Broadway play,

written by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber,

the storyline and characters were changed soooo much,

that George joked it should have been called "Screen Door.")

 Like many actresses of a "certain age",

Ginger took a turn playing Dolly Levi.

She directed, made movies, did television appearances, 

and wrote a semi-tell-all autobiography called

"Ginger: My Story"?? 

Come Ging, make with Zing!

She passed away in 1995, at the age of 83.