Isabel, here and gone...

 Isabel Bigley hailed from The Bronx! 

Born February 23, 1926, Isabel studied at Juillard and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Her Broadway debut came in 1946, when she scooped a place in the chorus of Oklahoma! Later she was cast as Laurey in the London company with Howard Keel (Note "Harold" Keel in the program below...he musta been Howard's evil twin? :)) She played the part for 3 years.

 

 In 1950, she originated the part of Sister Sarah Brown, that "mission doll", in Guys And Dolls. AND she was the doll that Frank Loesser notoriously slapped for not singing loudly enough! Frank evidently didn't believe in "saving one's voice" and expected full-out performances, even in rehearsals. That slap sent Isabel home for a week, during which time Loesser sent flowers and candy. Lucky for him, she returned to rehearsals AND performances, and of course was later rewarded with a Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. WHEW!

Below with Robert Alda (Sky Masterson) and Pat Rooney (Arvide Abernathy).

 In 1953, she starred as Jeanie, the chorus girl, in the Rodgers and Hammertein musical, Me And Juliet, along with Joan McCracken (above) and Bill Hayes (below). Supposedly the role was written especially for her.

                              With Richard Rodgers and Bill "rehearsing".

Isabel married Lawrence Barnett, the president of the Music Corporation of America, in 1953. She retired from the stage in 1958, to raise her 6 children.    (She named one of her daughters "Laurey", btw.) 

                                She passed away in 2006, at the age of 80.

Playlist For Nov. 29, 2020: A Musical Banquet (and some poor suckers are starving to death!)

How are you celebrating this year's Thanksgiving? With or without Aunt Helen and Uncle Lester? With a brined and basted 30 pound turkey or cold Chinese take-out and a boxed Franzia?  Pumpkin pie a la mode or a King Cone in the car? But one thing is for sure: We probably all have FOOD on the itinerary. Glorious or "glorious" (minus the capital letter). And odds are, too much of it. Because this is the Over-Doing-It Season, the 6 week slog from one holiday to another (to another), and then on January 2nd, we say UNCLE LESTER and dive into a diet, for at least 16 hours. :)

But THIS coming Sunday, we'll have a FAT FREE musical buffet, all low-cal, no matter the number of cakes and pies and T-bone steaks and Turkey Lurkey consumed. And with all the dancing in the kitchen you'll do to this edition (while reheating the REAL leftovers, no doubt), it'll end up equaling a calorie deficit for sure. So it's win win. Eat eat. Metaphorically speaking.

 

Bowls of Apples and Cherries and Kumquats (Peggy Lee's tried and true recipe)

Bread (of the fresh French variety)

Veggies (well, at least a plethora of Spinach...and mispronounced Tomatoes. Thankfully not 1 EFFING Green Bean!)

Seafood (from a "really nice clambake")

Coffee and Tea to wash it all down (with cream and/or cardboard).

And plenty of guilt-free desserts (just ask Jenna for her daily special or the Dinettes for a full menu!)

I'm salivating just singing along. 

 So after your real feast(s), tune into Sunday's musical "mess", and we'll continue the holiday celebrating. Because why the hell not (thumb our nose)(make hay while the sun shines)(live before we die) have some fun? :)   

 

Food, Glorious Food (Ensemble, Oliver!)

Bread (Alun Armstrong, Ensemble, The Baker's Wife)

Menu Song (Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, Pump Boys And Dinettes)

Be Our Guest (Jerry Orbach, Angela Lansbury, Beauty And The Best)

It Couldn't Please Me More (Lotte Lenya, Jack Gilford, Cabaret)

Life If Just A Bowl Of Cherries (Ann Morrison, Kim Huber, Good News)

Apples (Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin, Annie)

Apples, Peaches, And Cherries (Peggy Lee)

Let's Call The Whole Thing Off (Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Shall We Dance)

I Say It's Spinach (And To Hell With It) (Jeffry Denman, Meredith Patterson, Face The Music)

You've Gotta Eat Your Spinach, Baby (Shirley Temple, Alice Faye, Jack Haley, Poor Little Rich Girl)

A Cup Of Coffee, A Sandwich, And You (Jack Buchanan, Gertrude Lawrence, Charlot's Revue)

Thank Heaven For Little Girls (Maurice Chevalier, Gigi)

Thank You So Much (Elizabeth Allen, Sergio Franchi, Do I Hear A Waltz?)

Thanks For The Memories (Bob Hope, Shirley Ross, The Big Broadcast Of 1938)

Thank You Very Much (Anton Rodgers, Albert Finney, Scrooge) 

Some Girls Can Bake A Pie (Ensemble, Of Thee I Sing)

Let's Have Another Cup Of Coffee (Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians)

You're The Cream In My Coffee (Ruth Etting)

Coffee In A Cardboard Cup (Lillian Hayman, Goldye Shaw, 70, Girls, 70)

That's The Way It Is (Isabel Bigley, Bill Hayes, Me And Juliet)

Happy To Keep His Dinner Warm (Bonnie Scott, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying)

Les Poissons (Rene Auberjonois, The Little Mermaid)

This Was A Real Nice Clambake (Jessie Mueller, Renee Fleming, Company, Carousel)

Opening Up/What Baking Can Do (Jessie Mueller, Waitress)

The Cake I Had (Mary Louise Wilson, Grey Gardens)

Ice Cream (Laura Benanti, She Loves Me)

Candy (Johnny Mercer, Jo Stafford, The Pied Pipers)

Tea For Two (Susan Watson, Roger Rathburn, No, No, Nanette)

When I Take My Sugar To Tea (The Boswell Sisters)

Have Another Cuppa Tea (Company, The Likes Of Us)

Turkey Lurkey Time (Donna McKechnie, Baayork Lee, Ensemble, Promises, Promises)

Overweight People (Allan Sherman, Live At The Hollywood Bowl)

 

 

Grover Dale, We Hardly Knew Ye Either!

Grover Dale, born Grover Robert Aitken in 1935 and raised in McKeesport, PA, 

supposedly took a bus to NYC with $150 in his pocket

(at the age of 18!)

to take on The Dance World.

Which he basically did

(although for awhile he had a "day job" selling hotdogs at Nedick's):

First NYC dance job...The Jackie Gleason Show (1954) 

2nd NYC dance job...The Milton Berle Show (1955)

Broadway Debut...The Amazing Adele (1955)

2nd Broadway show...L'il Abner (1956)

Original cast of West Side Story (he played Snow Boy),

and he made the cover of Dance Magazine (below) in 1960!

 

Reminds one of Tommy Tune, right? 

 

Grover as Snow Boy, WSS, in which he had to dance AND ACT.
 

        Above with Joe Layton (choreographer) and Patricia Hartley, 

                    rehearsing for Noel Coward's Sail Away (1961).

          Co-starring with George Chakiris in "Young Girls of Rochefort" (1966).

Two lady co-stars:

Above, Catherine Deneuve (in "Rochefort")

and Elaine Stritch (in "Sail Away").

 

 

 

 

With Debbie Reynolds in 

"The Unsinkable Molly Brown", 1964

(look at those socks!).

And below with Anita Morris, his wife, and son James

(by then the red socks had become a thing).

   

Prior to his marriage to Anita (star of Nine, Seesaw, The Magic Show...which Grover directed btw, and many films),

he was in a 6 year relationship with Anthony Perkins. 

From the 1970s on,

Grover focused on choreographing (for the stage, TV and commercials), directing, and teaching.

Grover is presently 85 years old, but still active in the dance community.

As recently as 2018, he participated in a salute to 

Jerome Robbins (and "Jerome Robbins' Broadway," which he directed)

aboard the USS Intrepid. 

 

Playlist For Sunday, November 22, 2020: Cheers! With Sprinkles!

Only 10...9...8...7 days til Thanksgiving? Just yesterday it was, well, yesterday with PLENTY of time to neglect shopping and menus and lists, and to leave my patio furniture (I have a patio? Since when?) outside, in denial of all that snows and blows. Well, doncha know, that furniture is now in another zip code, thanks to El Nino swirling around this little cobblestone with WILD abandon. And the calendar runs on apace, sprinting into the holidays, with me panting to keep the hell up.

 

Now that my power is back on (and my wi-fi cooking again), I can de-stress a bit with another playlist. Actually I find cooking these things up to be calming and creative and especially cozy, especially since my cat tends to park himself on my lap while I cook them. I just can't feel my legs after an hour of it (he's heavy, if not my brother), but what do I need with appendages, I ask you! Just glad to be alive and vertical and unwoozy and warm (thank you Mr. Furnace and Ms. Generator). 

 

In fact, I am soooo grateful that this coming Sunday is a Toast To Life. Yuppers, that's our theme...Life, Living, Livin' (subtly different), and Alive, along with some Beats (cuz heart beats = life, right? Can I get away with that?), annnnnd a little Brian Stokes (my fire) Mitchell. We sort of bypassed his birthday (Oct. 27, which makes him a Scorpio...YIKES!), so gotta pay penance for my Tardy, and what a great excuse to play that guy! PLUS a first: The First Ever S.E.X. corner! How risque, how Cuisinart, how qu'est que c'est!  It all equals one jam-packed 2 On The Aisle. 

 

You know who(s) enjoying an early form of El Nino Swirls.

 Meanwhile I'll be shopping (grrrr) and finding my shovel (ugh) and stop living in denial. Maybe. Denial is almost the Bliss that Ignorance used to be. I'll just have to wash it down with an El Nino Swirl.

You Can't Stop The Beat (Marissa Jaret Winokur, Company Hairspray)

Life Is (Lorraine Serabian, Company, Zorba)

A Lot Of Livin' To Do (Dick Gautier, Susan Watson, Bye Bye Birdie)

Livin' It Up On Top (Amber Grey, Chris Sullivan, Damon Daunno, Hadestown

Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries (Walter S. Harrah & Friends)

Not For The Life Of Me (Sutton Foster, Thoroughly Modern Millie)

Ah! Sweet Mystery Of Life (Marc Kudish, Angela Christian, Thoroughly Modern Millie

Life Does A Man A Favor (Tony Randall, Oh Captain!)

Man Of La Mancha (Brian Stokes Mitchell, Ernie Sabella, Man Of La Mancha)

The Microphone (Brian Stokes Mitchell, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown)

Make them Hear You (Brian Stokes Mitchell, Ragtime)

Story Of My Life (John Tartaglia, Ensemble, Shrek The Musical)

Live A Little (Tony Roberts, Marlyn Mason, How Now, Dow Jones?)

Live Before We Die (Nathan Lane, Bebe Neuwirth, The Addams Family)

It's A Fine Life (Georgia Brown, Alice Playten, Oliver!)

Beatnik Love Affair (Grover Dale, Sail Away)

Beat Of Your Heart (Andrew Polk, Ensemble, The Band's Visit)

A Beat Behind (Bernadette Peters, The Goodbye Girl)

I Think I Got You Beat (Brian d'Arcy James, Sutton Foster, Shrek)

But Alive (Lauren Bacall, Applause)

The House We Live In (Christine Ebersole, Grey Gardens)

Live, Laugh, Love (George Hearn, Company, Follies)

Sex Marches On (Michael McGrath, Ensemble, Louisiana Purchase)

Sexy (Kate Rockwell, Mean Girls)

Sex Is In The Heel (Billy Porter, Stark Sands, Ensemble, Kinky Boots)

Nightlife (Anita Gillette, All American)

You Haven't Lived Until You've Played The Palace (Carol Channing, Show Girl)

Where Is The Life That Late I Led? (Brian Stokes Mitchell, Kiss Me Kate)

All Of My Life (Phil Silvers, Do Re Mi)

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story (Lin-Manuel Miranda, Company, Hamilton)

Being Alive (Bernadette Peters, Sondheim, Etc.)

Irma: She's Got The Lot!

Irma La Douce began life as a play, written by Marguerite Monnot and Alexandre Breffort...in Paris! Which is pretty appropriate, as it was set in that city's red light district, Pigalle. Prostitutes, love affairs with prostitutes, Paris, all perfect fodder for a musical. I guess the only reason Bob Fosse wasn't involved as it started in France, swam the channel to great success in London (where it played for over 2 years), BEFORE coming to Broadway (yes, thanks as usual for the time period, David Merrick). Some of the UK cast came with it, including Elisabeth (with an Z) Seal, Keith Michell (without a T), and Clive (soon-to-be Fagin) Revill.

 

It opened on Broadway on September 29, 1960.

American cast members included Fred Gywnne and Stuart Damon.

Keith Michell was an Australian actor, with most of his work accomplished in the UK: Shakespeare, British television and musicals, and just a bit of this-side-of-the-pond stuff.

Elizabeth Seal also worked primarily in the UK, making her professional debut, as a dancer, at the age of 17. Prior to Irma, she'd done The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees, both in London. Merrick saw her playing Irma in the English production and he was wowed. Elizabeth won a Best Actress In A Musical Tony when she headlined state-side as Irma (yes, beating out Julie Andrews in Camelot, Carol Channing in Showgirl, and Nancy Walker in Do Re Mi!). She is presently 87 years old.

Can you imagine Clive Revill as an accountant? Of course you can...I mean "You've Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two", right? He originally trained in that career back in his New Zealand days, but the stage called and he picked up! He moved kit and kaboodle to London in 1950, where he studied at the Old Vic. Shakespeare was his game for many years, and then went on to Irma, Toad Of Toad Hall, Marat/Sade, Oliver! (and a Tony nod), Drood, and tons of voice overs. And he is alive and (pretty) well at the age of 90.

 

The show ran for just over a year.

Direction: Peter Brook.... Choreography: Onna White

Also in the cast, George S. Irving!

A Life Magazine review called the show

 "a French fairy tale for wicked grown-ups who want to believe in love" and that "Elizabeth Seal is an ideal Irma, tender, breezy, and totally implausible as a bad girl...the season's new favorite."

Playlist For Sunday, November 15, 2020: A Little Less Drama, S'il Vous Plait!

WOW. Whatta week. First, NO trick or treaters (well, more Kit Kats for ME!). Then The Four Seasons called (to say my mulch is ready). Gnawed off most of my nails on Tuesday. Grew them back on Saturday! An emotional, chocolate and pizza-fed roller coaster, accessorized by a new WHITE Kamala suit AND  Philly's Gritty on a lawn mower (new t-shirt) or is that a burning zamboni??? 

 

                                  See? Maya Rudolph already HAS her's!!!

 

I'm been knocked off my socks.  

And yet I live to Broadway another day! Honestly, at the very least, this show anchors me to some sort of scheduled (if overly choreographed) reality. If it's Tuesday, I must write a blog. In Belgium. That sorta thing. 

 

                         Me trying to keep up with election information.

 

So here's the "anchor" for this Sunday: Celebrating the anniversary of The Lion King, mega-money-maker HE. ANND same-o same-o for Oh, Kay! (rather different musicals, almost a century apart, and yet...both lived long and prospered). Celebrating the talented, if snide, Pearl Bailey, who just 53 years ago, opened in Hello, Dolly! along side Cab (that Moocher) Calloway. Plus a whole corner of "remember-ing" songs (just hope I don't forget to turn that corner!), plus War Paint, aka the make-up mogul story of Arden and Rubenstein, put to musique. Ahhh, what a convoluted web we weave, when we want to avoid that bowl of Kit Kats! 

Tune in for fun and frivolity (and hardly any drama at all, I promise!) on Sunday, where we will DO DO DO what we've DONE DONE DONE for almost 9 years of Sundays so far. Vive le Rue au Broadway! (Or something like that.)

P.S. Just finished The Queen's Gambit. SOOOO glad they didn't make it a musical, about CHESS. Oh...wait...

Back On Top (Patti LuPone, War Paint)

Circle of Life (Tsidii Le Loka, Company, The Lion King)

One By One (Ensemble, The Lion King)

Can You Feel The Love Tonight (Max Casella, Tom Alan Robbins, Heather Headley, Jason Raize, The Lion King)

Duck Story (Faith Prince, Total Faith)

Ev'rything I've Got (Faith Prince, Total Faith) 

I Put My Hand In (Pearl Bailey, Hello Dolly!)

You Can Be Replaced (Pearl Bailey, Pearl Bailey Sings For Adults Only)

Don't Like Goodbyes (Pearl Bailey, House Of Flowers)

So Long Dearie (Pearl Bailey, Hello Dolly!)

Someone To Watch Over Me (Dawn Upshaw, Oh, Kay!)

Do Do Do (George Olsen And His Music, vocals: Bob Borger, Fran Frey & Bob Rice)

Ain't It Romantic (Dawn Upshaw, Adam Arkin, Kurt Ollmann, Oh, Kay!)

I Remember It Well (Maurice Chevalier, Hermoine Gingold, Gigi)

Remember? (Beth Fowler, Barbara Lang, Benjamin Rayson, Ensemble, A Little Night Music)

Something To Remember You By (Instrumental, The Band Wagon)

Moments To Remember (Jason Graae, Ensemble, Forever Plaid)

I Remember That (Clark Thorell, Andrea Burns, Saturday Night)

I Remember (Charmian Carr, Evening Primrose)

Try To Remember (Jerry Orbach, The Fantasticks)

Valse Millieu (Keith Michell, Irma La Douce)

Love Makes The World Go Round (Anna Maria Alberghetti, Carnival)

Humming (Kaye Ballard, Carnival)

She's Got The Lot (Ensemble, Irma La Douce)

Paris Through The Window (Lonny Price, Company, A Class Act)

You're In Paris (Susan Watson, Benjamin Franklin In Paris)

Paris Original (Bonnie Scott, Claudette Sutherland, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying)

Fire And Ice (Erik Liberman, Steffani Leigh, War Paint)

Pink (Christine Ebersole, War Paint)

Beauty In The World  (Patti LuPone, Christine Ebersole, War Paint)

Bianca (rhymes with Sanka!)

Lisa Kirk was born in Brownsville, PA on February 25, 1925,

and raised in nearby Roscoe. Off to NYC (leaving the University of Pittsburgh..a law major?) to take a place in the chorus line at the Versailles, a nightclub in Manhattan. She debuted on Broadway in 1945, in the quick-to-close "Good Night Ladies", and just 2 years later, became one of the stars of Rodgers and Hammerstine's  "Allegro". Okay, so that was a flop, too, but hey! Who wouldn't want to sing "The Gentleman Is A Dope" with feeling?

Like Lisa DID!

In 1948, Lisa was picked for the part of Bianca in Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate. In an interview in her later years, Lisa said that Cole himself taught her the now-memorable songs that she got to sing...Reviews were super: "As Lois/Bianca, Lisa Kirk acts and sings her numbers impeccably; her performance of "Why Can't You Behave?" is unsurpassed as her sultry voice pours over great lines such as, "There I'll care for you forever / Well, at least till you dig my grave."

Lisa also did the variety shows that were all over television at the time, like The Ed Sullivan Show, The Colgate Comedy Hour, Studio One, The Dean Martin Show, etc., etc., etc.! Later on it was appearances on Bewitched (above),The    Courtship of Eddie's Father and (probably, who didn't?) The Love Boat.

Posing with Donald O'Connor.

But why is anyone's guess! :)

Lisa also provided the singing voice for Rosalind Russell, singing several of her songs in Gypsy. That's Lisa on the left (above), Roz, and Carroll Baker.  

...annnnnd she played singing gigs in the Persian Room (at the Plaza) and                                                         Rainbow and Stars. 

Lisa married artist/songwriter Robert Wells the year after her Kiss Me, Kate success, and stayed married to him until her death in 1990, at the age of 64. Robert, btw, helped Mel Torme write that old chestnut "The Christmas Song".

 

 

 

Playlist For November 8, 2020: International Toddies And Fudge Day!

Okay, Auntie Em, where the hell is that root cellar? Winds are presently roaring around my little stoney-brook-farm like a freight train, blowing my un-raked leaves to another zip code, bowling my leftover/left out pumpkins like bocci balls,... and my lawn flamingos are taking flight (and losing their jewelry!)(of course, MINE have jewelry). I guess as long as my half-dead trees stay vertical, I should count myself lucky. But man, it sounds like deepest, darkest February out there, not the 1st of November!

So I've lit my pumpkin spice candles and put on my fleecy pjs early tonight. Which is what YOU deserve to do, too. Because it's that inbetweentime. Between Halloween and Thanksgiving, between Thanksgiving and Christmas...the 3 best holidays all clotted together on THIS side of the year, but not one of them occurring NOW, tomorrow, no eves in sight! Can we make up a marking-time limbo tradition, like Hot Toddies and Fudge Day??? Especially if this year we can't have those rousing bacchanalias and cornucopias and flocculations?  At least we can roll out the comfort food and comfort Irish Cream and comfort MUSIC!  

But what to play? There are about 2.5 Thanksgiving songs from Broadway, and I refuse to Christmas song "dabble" for a good 5 weeks! And nobody's written any Toddies and Fudge tunes. YET. So maybe another theme...? Like YOU. You Deserve It. It's You. It Never Was You. Why Can't YOU Behave? Hey, You Would If You Could!  And there you go.

 

Well, maybe not THAT much comfort.

 And there are thousands of YOU songs on Broadway, and in movies. So we'll have time to stick our figurative toes in the by-now icey water of You-Dom. While we await the frostbite. And fudge.  :)

 

You Deserve It (Corey Cott, Laura Osnes, Bandstand)

I Believe In You (Robert Morse, How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying)

It's You (The Buffalo Bills Quartet, The Music Man)

You Would If You Could (Robert Lindsay, Jane Summerhays, Me And My Girl)

With You On My Arm (George Hearn, Gene Barry, La Cage Aux Folles)

Are You Having Any Fun? (Elaine Stritch, Stritch)

Let Yourself Go (Ginger Rogers, Follow The Fleet)

Let Me Entertain You (Karen Moore, Jacqueline Mayro, Gypsy)

You Should See Yourself (Gwen Verdon, Sweet Charity)

Before I Gaze At You Again (Julie Andrews, Camelot)

Why Can't You Behave? (Lisa Kirk, Harold Lang, Kiss Me Kate)

You Could Drive A Person Crazy (Susan Browning, Donna McKechnie, Pamela Myers, Company)

The Beast In You (Elaine Stritch, Goldilocks)

Can't Take You Nowhere (Jessica Molaskey, Dave Frishberg, At The Algonquin)

You And Me (Julie Andrews, Robert Preston, Victor/Victoria)

You And Me (But Mostly Me)(Andrew Rannells, Josh Gad, The Book Of Mormon)

You Love I (Redhead) 

Long As I'm Here With You (Sheryl Lee Ralph, Thoroughly Modern Millie)

It Never was You (Judy Garland, I Could Go On Singing)

I Don't Remember You (Robert Goulet, The Happy Time)

When You're Alone (Amber Scott, Hook)

You Don't Know This Man (Audra McDonald, Way Back To Paradise)

Without You (Julie Andrews, My Fair Lady)

And I Am Telling You (Jennifer Holliday, Dream Girls)

Now You Know (Leslie Kritzer, Sondheim On Sondheim)

You'll Be Back (Jonathan Groff, Hamilton)

You Gotta Get A Gimmick (Maria Karnilova, Chotzi Foley, Faith Dane, Gypsy)

I Wanna Be Like You (Louis Prima, Phil Harris, The Jungle Book)

You Do Something To Me (Louis Jourdan, Can-Can)

Do What You Do (Bobby Short, Bobby Short Is K-RA-ZY For Gershwin)

You Wonder How These Things Begin (Jerry Orbach, The Fantasticks)

They Were You (Rita Gardner, Kenneth Nelson, The Fantastiks)

I'll Be Seeing You (Ann Hampton-Callaway, Swing!)

First You Dream (Karen Ziemba, Daniel MacDonald, Steel Pier)

How About You? (Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Babes In Arms

Would You? (Betty Noyes, Jean Hagen, Singin' In The Rain)

Anything You Can Do (Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, Annie Get Your Gun)

You Made Me Love You (George S. Irving, Patsy Kelly, Irene)