Broadway Birthdays and Bad Spacing (thank you, Blogspot!)

Nanette Fabray,

one of our birthday gals

on Sunday's 2 On The Aisle...

above, in The Band Wagon, singing Louisiana Hayride.

And below, with Robert Ryan in

Mr. President,

Irving Berlin's last musical, 1962.

Nanette started performing at the age of 3

in Vaudeville!

She'd go on to work on Broadway, in movies,

and television for almost 7 decades.

Her first love, she said, was live TV:
"It involves a form of insanity that reminds me of make-believe games that you played as a child.”

Below, Nanette "overwhelmed" by the cast of "Caesar's Hour",

including Sid Caesar (starting at left),

Carl Reiner, and Howard Morris.

Thanks to this show, Nanette won 3 Emmys.

                                      

George S. Irving had a career spent mostly on the stage as a wonderful character actor. He was born in Springfield, Mass. on November 2, 1922, and began singing in synagogues at the age of 13. His Broadway debut in Oklahoma, the original production, was cut short when he was drafted just days later! But Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Me And Juliet, Me And My Girl, Irene and many more shows followed, once he was back state-side.

                                           With Debbie Reynolds in Irene.                                                                George passed away in 2016, at the age of 94. And an interesting side note, George was married to Maria Karnilova (star of Fiddler On The Roof) for 52 years! 

 

 Barbara Cook, another (mostly) stage actress, debuted in Flahooley, a flop with puppets AND Yma Sumac!

But she survived to do The Gay Life (above),

Plain And Simple (below), She Loves Me, and The Music Man.

 Barbara hailed from Atlanta, Georgia...to arrive as a tourist in NYC,

and then just decided to stay!

Good move. 

 

 

 

        Come the 1970s, Barbara began a second career as a cabaret singer,                        with dates at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Albert Hall.

              Barbara (above) appeared in Sondheim On Sondheim, in 2010, with                                     Leslie Kritzer, Vanessa Williams, and Erin Mackey.

         According to the the NYTimes, Barbara was "at the top of her game.... Cook's voice is remarkably unchanged from 1958, when she won the Tony Award for playing Marian the Librarian in The Music Man. A few high notes aside, it is, eerily, as rich and clear as ever."

                        Barbara passed away in 2017, at the age of 89.

 

Playlist For Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020: Focus On The Foliage, Dammit!

My own birthday (birth-MONTH) shenanigans were evidently not enough. No, I must make merry with OTHER birthdays, Broadway Birthdays. Like Barbara Cook's and George S. Irving's and Nanette Fabray's. And Grand Openings (of Broadway musicals, not grocery stores...I draw the line at attending those), like Take Me Along and Grey Gardens. See, I can carve a playlist and a half with fodder like that. But times is hard, Sweeney...times is hard!

Well, it's not quite that bad.

 Thank the gods for foliage, that's all I can say. Cuz damp and dank have been IT around here. No delightful crisp in the air. No sizzling cider bubbling in my veins. Just hard (French) pressed joe, not a Crispy Creme in sight. Sigh. Feeling a tang of self-pity and morose melancholia this afternoon (I may swoon)(that's why I have a fainting couch) due to the weather and the lack of zzzzzip (or the lack of community property)(or the feeling I'm getting too old)(pick one, maybe both).

So I'll work on zzzzzipping myself UP by Sunday, okay? Pinky promise. I'll spin Faith Prince (Bells Are Ringing), Iggy Wolfington (who?? Shipoopi!), some of my acerbically Stritchy friend (nope, never met her, but I just KNOW she could bite!), a little Jackie Gleason (that hornswoggler), and maybe jump on a hayride with Nanette. That would sure do the trick! But meanwhile can I just LIVE inside The Band Wagon? Me and Oscar could drink at the piano/bar and play chopsticks til the cows come home, and then "I'll Go My Way By Myself".  It's a quarter to 3 (in the afternoon) and there's no one in the place, except ...wait! I will zzzzzip yet! Pinky promise.

 Come Sunday's Broadway at its Best!

 

Till There Was You (Barbara Cook, Robert Preston, The Music Man)

Independent (Marc Kudisch, Bells Are Ringing)

It's A Simple Little System (David Garrison, Ensemble, Bells Are Ringing)

Mu-Cha-Cha (Faith Prince, Julio Augustin, Bells Are Ringing)

Just In Time (Marc Kudisch, Faith Prince, Bells Are Ringing)

I Know A Guy (Corey Cott, Ensemble, Bandstand)

Have I Got A Guy For You (Patti LuPone, Ensemble, Company)

A Guy What Takes His Time (Marlene Dietrich)

A Guy Like You (Jason Alexander, Charles Kimbrough, Mary Wickes, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame)

Sid, Ol' Kid (Jackie Gleason, Ensemble, Take Me Along)

Nine O'Clock (Robert Morse, Take Me Along)

But Yours (Jackie Gleason, Eileen Herlie, Take Me Along)

Take Me Along (Walter Pigeon, Jackie Gleason, Take Me Along)

They Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me (George S. Irving, Irene)

I'm A Tingle, I'm A Glow (George S. Irving, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes)

The Butler Song (George S. Irving, Enter Laughing)

How Soon (Will I Be Seeing You)? (Nanette Fabray)

They Love Me (Nanette Fabray, Mr. President)

Louisiana Hayride (Nanette Fabray, The Band Wagon)

The Revolutionary Costume For Today (Christine Ebersole, Grey Gardens)

World Weary (Christine Ebersole, Christine Ebersole Sings Noel Coward)

Another Winter In A Summer Town (Christine Ebersole, Mary Louise Wilson, Grey Gardens)

That's My Boy (Elaine Stritch, Stritch)

I Never Know When (Elaine Stritch, Goldilocks)

Useless Useful Phrases (Elaine Stritch, Sail Away)

The Label On The Bottle (Barbara Cook, The Gay Life)

Will He Like Me? (Barbara Cook, She Loves Me)

Oh, Happy We (Barbara Cook, Robert Rounseville, Candide)

Long Before I Knew You (Barbara Cook, Bells Are Ringing)

The Sadder-But-Wiser Girl For Me (Robert Preston, The Music Man)

The Wells Fargo Wagon (Ensemble, The Music Man)

Goodnight My Someone (Barbara Cook, The Music Man)

Shipoopi (Iggy Wolfington, The Music Man)

 

 

Divine Dames and Luxe Ladies !

Here's to the LADIES!

Bea Arthur above as Vera Charles in the 1966 production of 

Mame...

and below Dame Angela a'perch a lady moon, 

wreaking havoc (and reeking gin) no doubt!

We'll hear "The Man In The Moon (Is A Lady)" come Sunday.

 Julie Andrews had her Broadway debut in 

   The Boy Friend, back in 1954.  

   Those "Perfect Young Ladies" included

                Julie as Polly (in the center), Ann Wakefield, and Millicent Martin.                          

Dear lord.

Elaine Stritch and...who's in the bear suit?

Not Don Ameche, surely! They couldn't pay him enough!

Goldilocks was a sure fire flop, back in 1958...

All about a silent picture star 

and a rather tyrannical silent picture director,

played respectively by Elaine and Don.

That photo above is the stuff of nightmares,

and, I guess, so was the show. :)

We'll hear "Give The Little Lady (A Great Big Hand)".

Judy Blazer's done a plethora of Off and On Broadway,

including The Fantasticks, Me & My Girl (below as Sally),

Titanic, Lucky Stiff, Candide...well, the list goes on.

We'll hear her on the studio cast recording of Babes In Arms,

"The Lady Is A Tramp".

Yvonne Adair and Carol Channing

starred in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,

before it even THOUGHT of becoming a movie musical

with Rosalind Russell and Marilyn Monroe.

Music, of course, by Jule Styne and Leo Robin.

We'll sample the title song!

 

Playlist For Sunday, October 25, 2020: Ladies and Germs!

Well, the birthday cake/alfredo-sauce/wine/bedtime-later-than-10pm must have gone to my head, because we are BACK, ladies and gentlemen, to a wacky Broadway theme this week: Ladies and Gentlemen! No, really. That's the theme, not the salutation. Ladies and gents, guys, dolls, dames...that sorta thing. I know, I must be desperate. But desperate times call for ...well, YOU know.

But lemme tell ya, the ladies really win out here, numbers-wise. There are a plethora of Lady songs on Broadway; in fact, the whole first hour of this edition will be spent with them... The Perfect, The Tramps, The Tattooed, The Pretty, Mysterious and Lunching. The Gents (and Guys) will be relegated to Hour 2. They (The Wonderful, The Blonde Preferring, The Dopes) will even have to share Hour Number 2 with the Dames (At Sea and Shady!). Ahhhh well, you gotta treat her like a lady and she'll be...well, YOU know!

                    Yup, that was me (above), frolicking on Birthday Night!
 

                                      AND NO, that's not me afterward!       

See, I must still be on a sugar high. Have to tighten my belt and my resolve to eschew the toxic, get my zzzz's, and spirulina-it-up for the rest of the month. Maybe by November, I can have a cheat day. Or week. Smoothies and quinoa are fine for a time, but biscuits and gravy (and gin) comfort the cockles.

So join me for those Ladies (and germs) on Sunday. Let's wacky out these wacky times together. :)

 

Guys And Dolls (Walter Bobbie, J.K. Simmons, Guys And Dolls)

Two Ladies (Joel Grey, Cabaret)

Perfect Young Ladies (Millicent Martin, Ann Wakefield, Paulette Girard, The Boy Friend)

The Lady Is A Tramp (Judy Blazer, Babes In Arms)

Two Ladies In De Shade Of De Banana Tree (Enid Mosier, Ada Moore, House Of Flowers)

The Ladies Who Sing With The Band (Ken Page, Andre DeShields, Ain't Misbehavin')

Give The Little Lady (A Great Big Hand) (Elaine Stritch, Goldilocks)

He's A Ladies' Man (Kim Huber, Ann Morrison, Good News)

The Man In The Moon (Is A Lady) (Bea Arthur, Mame) 

Luck Be a Lady (Robert Alda, Guys And Dolls)

Eadie Was A Lady (Ethel Merman, Take A Chance)

Mysterious Lady (Cyril Ritchard, Mary Martin, Peter Pan)

Lydia The Tattooed Lady (Groucho Marx, At The Circus)

Ladies In Their Sensitivities (Jack Eric Williams, Edmund Lyndeck, Victor Garber, Sarah Rice, Sweeney Todd)

Pretty Lady (Timm Fuji, Patrick Kinser-Lau, Mark Hsu Syers, Pacific Overtures)

Lady Of The Underground (Amber Gray, Hadestown)

The Ladies Who Lunch (Elaine Stritch, Elaine Stritch At Liberty)

We Are Gentlemen Of  Japan (Ensemble, Hot Mikado)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Carol Channing, Jack McCauley, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes)

Most Gentlemen Don't Like Love (Scarlet Strallan, The New Yorkers)

The Gentleman Is A Dope (Liz Callaway, Allegro)

Gentleman Jimmy (Eileen Rodgers, Fiorello!)

So Long, Big Guy (Jack Cassidy, It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman)

A Wonderful Guy (Kelli O'Hara, South Pacific)

What A Guy (Bernadette Peters, The Goodbye Girl)

Why? Cuz I'm A Guy (Robert Roznowski, Jordan Leeds, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change)

Dames (Lee Roy Reams, 42nd Street)

There Is Nothing Like A Dame (Ensemble, South Pacific)

Dames At Sea (David Christmas, Bernadette Peters, Ensemble, Dames At Sea)

The Shady Dame From Seville (Robert Preston, Victor/Victoria)

You Are Woman (I Am Man) (Syd Chaplin, Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl)

When A Woman Loves A Man (Audra McDonald, Lady Day At Emerson's Bar And Grill)

Guys And Dolls (Stubby Kaye, Johnny Silver, Guys And Dolls)

Angela. Yes, AGAIN and STILL!

 

 

 Vital stats: Angela Brigid Lansbury,

born October 16, 1925 in

Regents Park.

Her mom was Moyna MacGill, a West End actress,

and her dad, Edgar Lansbury, a timber merchant/politician, 

who died when Angela turned 9.

The family left England for Canada and America in 1940.

From Montreal to NYC to Hollywood,

while Moyna looked for work in "pictures!"

 

Angela's break (at the age of 17) came as a result of 

a party that Moyna threw.

John Van Druten came to this shindig, met Angela, and thought her perfect

for the part of the maid in Gaslight.

(Due to her young age, they had to have a social worker on set.)

This part led to an MGM contract ($500 a week!)

and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
 

 

Early films: The Picture Of Dorian Gray with Hurd Hatfield

and National Velvet with Elizabeth Taylor and Juanita Quigley.
 

Lunching with Basil Rathbone,

Angela as Princess Guinevere in The Court Jester, 1955.

         Based on the hair and costume, I believe this is The Harvey Girls, 1946.

 

Above, a pic from Til The Clouds Roll By, also released in 1946.

The above shot is of course from State Of The Union, released in 1948. Above, Angela with Adolphe Menjou. It also starred Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey and I've only watched it about 79 times! 

Below, The Manchurian Candidate, which had Angela playing Laurence Harvey's mother, when she was in fact only 3 years older than he. She received a Golden Globe for her work in this picture. Oh, and BTW, Frank Sinatra wanted to Lucille Ball to play this part. Whew! We dodged that bullet!

Two Broadway achievements: Above, Anyone Can Whistle, a Sondheim flop, and below, Angela's turn at playing Mama Rose in Gypsy.

 

 At the age of 41, Angela landed a plum role as MAME in that Jerry Herman musical of 1966. A Tony Award for Angie! And another star turn in Sweeney Todd as Mrs. Lovett (below with Len Cariou).

Television-wise, Murder She Wrote lasted for 12 years!

The show was called "a television landmark" for having an older female character as the protagonist.

       Not sure what the above pic is from, but it reminds me her role in Jerry               Herman's Dear World, which was based on The Mad Woman Of Chaillot. 

        Below, Angela as Madame Acarti in Blithe Spirit (on Broadway in 2009),       which she starred in along with Rupert Everett and Christine Ebersole. 

       

WOW! Angela has had her career dips, 

but age seemed to bring her a second wind! 

Let's count down those awards: An Honorary Oscar, 

A BAFTA for Lifetime Achievement, 5 Tonys, 6 Golden Globes, and an Olivier. Nomination-wise, 3 Oscar noms, 18 Emmy noms, and a Grammy. 

Oh, and she's a Dame (a real one). 

95 years young, come Friday, the 16th!

Playlist For Sunday, October 18, 2020: I'll even SHARE a cupcake!

So it's all about me this coming Sunday. It's my 65th birthday, so it'll be MY PARTY and I'll Sondheim/Styne/Brown/Schwartz  if I want to!

 

No, really. It's my actually birthday ON SUNDAY! Now I usually take OFF for my birthday...off from any kind of work, and off geographically, to semi-exotic lands (at the very least, leave my zip code). But this year, nope. I'm choosing to share my birthday with you and give myself an excuse to foist favorites in your general direction. So no escargot or creme this or brulee that. Maybe just a stale baguette or a PayDay. But that's okay. Hey, I'm vertical, breathing, varicose-free (well, almost), I just got a haircut, and I've now got Medicare. So huzzah and other medieval exclamations. See, I'm a jolly good fellow!

Plus I have an ulterior motive: Pledge Drive! Jazz 90.1 is "in the thick of it", halfway thru our fall campaign, and I'm pretty darn sure that a LIVE amount of begging will be more fruitful than a pre-recorded one. Mike Velasquez joined me for this past Sunday's edition, and while we had A LOT of fun together and did get a few pledges, we need to raise more.

 

Broadway music is a niche market when it comes to radio. Not many stations (talkin' non-satellite, now) offer 2 hours of Broadway tunes every week. And I may not have a huge audience, and I'm okay with that. But to those of you who LOVE this stuff, the Broadway-philes, please consider joining this Jazz90.1 party and keep Broadway (and my drivel about it) coming atcha every Sunday, with a contribution! The size of your donation (and other things, supposedly) doesn't matter at all.

I'd consider it a birthday present! Or a slice of cake. Or a standing ovation from your aisle seat. 

 

 So call me on Sunday! Wish me 65 more...and donate some dough! :)

 

It's Today (Angela Lansbury, Mame)

By The Sea (Angela Lansbury, Len Cariou, Sweeney Todd)

Each Tomorrow Morning (Angela Lansbury, Dear World)

God, That's Good (Angela Lansbury, Len Cariou, Ken Jennings, Company, Sweeney Todd)

Bells Are Ringing (Ensemble, Bells Are Ringing)

It's A Perfect Relationship (Judy Holliday, Bells Are Ringing)

Drop That Name (Judy Holliday, Ensemble, Bells Are Ringing)

Opening Doors (Jim Walton, Lonny Price, Ann Morrison, Jason Alexander, Sally Klein, Merrily We Roll Along)

Someone In A Tree (James Dybas, Mako, Ensemble, Pacific Overtures)

Send In The Clowns (Glynis Johns, A Little Night Music)

La Valse d'Amelie (Instrumental, Amelie)

Guilty (Al Bowly, Amelie)

Soir De Fete (Instrumental, Amelie)

Halfway (Savvy Crawford, Phillipa Soo, Amelie)

Magic To Do (Patina Miller, Company, Pippin)

On The Right Track (Ben Vereen, John Rubenstein, Pippin)

No Time At All (Andrea Martin, Pippin)

The Prince Is Giving A Ball (Ensemble, Cinderella)

Impossible; It's Possible (Edie Adams, Julie Andrews, Cinderella)

Stepsisters' Lament (Alice Ghostley, Kaye Ballard, Cinderella)

A Lovely Night (Julie Andrews, Cinderella)

Prologue (James Naughton, City Of Angels)

Lost And Found (Rachel York, City Of Angels)

Double Talk Walk (Instrumental, City Of Angels)

You Can Always Count On Me (Randy Graff, City Of Angels)

It's Gettin' Hot In Here (Lauren Molina, Desperate Measures)

Stop There (Peter Saide, Desperate Measures)

Just For You (Lauren Molina, Conor Ryan, Desperate Measures)