Playlist For December 11, 2022: Christmas. Almost. Soon. NOW!

An early Holiday Edition? Just when I said I wanted that intermission (that limbo) between tofurkey and fruitcake to last long and longer? Well, it's all because I'll be "jetting" away for an extended Fah La La time and won't be able to do a holiday show later. It has to happen soon, like now, as in this coming Sunday.

 

 

So that will require early chestnut roasting, early Bing-ing, and much too early (possibly teeth breaking) "Hard Candy." Nonetheless, we'll try to hit all the usual Christmas suspects, like White Christmas, Holiday in Plaid, Be A Santa and Turkey Lurkey (a distant cousin of tofurkey?), plus surprises like Christmas Island by Leon Redbone (once called "Crosby on Quaaludes"), an Elvis "carol", and as always, Allan with his very traditional Twelve Gifts of Christmas (the Japanese transistor radio...what a treat!). 

You know every lyric, right?

That Lurking Turkey from Promises, Promises,

with Baayork Lee, Donna McKechnie, and Margo Sappington.

Carlin Glynn (right), ready for Hard Candy...Gena Ramsel as Shy (with the hair),

and on the right, ???

The Plaid Tidings dudes, ready to Talk Christmas/Cool Yule...

 

 Would anyone of the present generation even know how to turn one of these on?

So apologies to be leaving you over the holidays, but know that I WILL BE BACK with Broadway. Enjoy your time to the utmost, raise a toddy for me, look for that seat (on the aisle, fireplace nook, or rocking chair), and leave me a cookie out on Xmas Eve. I might "Be A Santa!" 

 

Happy Holidays/Let Yourself Go (Brian d'Arcy James, Jeffry Denman, White Christmas The Musical)

Twelve Days To Christmas (Clerks and Customers, She Loves Me)

We Need A Little Christmas (Angela Lansbury, Sab Shimono, Frankie Michaels, Jane Connell, Mame)

Turkey Lurkey Time (Donna McKechnie, Baayork Lee, Margo Sappington, Promises, Promises)

Christmas Island (Leon Redbone)

Blue Christmas (Elvis Presley)

Calypso Christmas (Ensemble, Holiday In Plaid)

Snow (Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee White Christmas)

Sisters (Rosemary Clooney, Trudy Stevens, White Christmas)

The Best Things Happen When You're Dancing (Danny Kaye, White Christmas)

Count Your Blessings (Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, White Christmas)

White Christmas (Company, White Christmas)

Lovers On Christmas Eve (James Naughton, Joanna Gleason, I Love My Wife)

Talk Christmas/Cool Yule (Ensemble, Holiday In Plaid)

(I'm Spending) Hanukah in Santa Monica (Tom Lehrer, The Remains Of Tom Lehrer)

Five Pound Box Of Money (Pearl Bailey)

Johnny, It's Cold Outside (Tom Wopat, John Schneider, Home For Christmas) 

Christmas Mem'ries (Barbra Streisand, Christmas Mem'ries)

Ring Them Bells (Liza Minnelli, Liza With A Z)

I Hear Bells (Loni Ackerman, George Lee Andrews, Margery Cohen, Starting Here, Starting Now)

I Can Hear The Bells (Marissa Jaret Winokur, Kerry Butler, Hairspray)

Be A Santa (Sydney Chaplin, Subways Are For Sleeping)

Pine Cones And Holly Berries (Laurence Naismith, Janis Paige, Here's Love)

That Man Over There (Paul Reed, Here's Love)

The Twelve Gifts Of Christmas (Allan Sherman, For Swingin' Livers Only!)

Hard Candy Christmas (Pamela Blair, Donna King, Lisa Brown, Ensemble, Best Little Whorehouse In Texas)

Winter Song (Leslie Odom, Jr., Simply Christmas)

Another Winter In A Summer Town (Christine Ebersole, Grey Gardens

Three Wishes For Christmas (Tony Yazbek, Gypsy)

What Good Is Being Cranky (When It's Christmas Time)(Ann Hampton-Callaway, Hope Of Christmas)

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Bernadette Peters, Sondheim, Etc.)

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Judy Garland, Meet Me In St. Louis)

 

 

Playlist For December 4, 2022: Ira, You're S'Wonderful!

I am presently wearing a blanket of gravy and mashed potatoes. Seriously. My Thanksgiving turned into 5 Thanksgivings, if you count the leftover feasts. So even tho I didn't actually cook the banquet this year, I experienced it 10 fold. (My refrigerator is still experiencing it. Oy.)

 

 But now we have that limbo between the turkey and the eggnog. And I adamantly insist on there being a limbo, a pause between one holiday and the next! Growing up, we didn't get a tree 30 minutes after the parade was over, okay? We waited until maybe 3 days before Christmas. And THEN the folderol could begin. The blankets of tinsel (the aluminum kind, the heavy, wrinkly, cat-damaging tinsel), the nativity with the chipped Joseph, the stollen, the fruit cake...and there you go. Gifts ordered from that huge Sears (or Montgomery Ward) catalogue (that doll, Mom! That's the one!), and trips to the local jeweler for a Santa broach or tie tack for the 'rents. Ahhhh, fond memories.

 

I would pour over these pages and circle everything!

 

Not my parents, and that tree is way too fancy for us.

But the spirit (and the Philco) are on the nose!

BUT inn-keeping (where there is NO room, Mary) with that separation, that limbo, what do you play? And thanks to Ira Gershwin, we can play him! Ira (born Israel Gershovitz back in 1896) has his birthday on December 6th, so we can spend 2 S'Wonderful hours giving him a S'Wonderful salute. He was raised just 5 short blocks from where I used to live in the East Village, which was at that point in time smack dab in the middle of the Yiddish Theatre District. He was a reader. He was a writer. And together with younger brother George on the ivories, he collaborated on 12 musicals and 4 movie scores. And then later teamed up with Kern, Arlen, Weil...all the biggies of the day.

 

Ira! and below with brother George.

 

 So Ira this week. And after? Okay, okay...Broadway Christmas, Hollywood Christmas. Meanwhile, Who Cares and Shall We Dance? Yes, we do and we shall. :)

 

S'Wonderful (Georges Guetary, Gene Kelly, An American In Paris)

I Got Rhythm (Ethel Merman, Girl Crazy)

But Not For Me (Bobby Short, Bobby Short Is K-RA-ZY For Gershwin)

Stairway To Paradise (Georges Guetary, An American In Paris)

The Man That Got Away (Judy Garland, A Star Is Born)

The Man I Love (Liza Minnelli, New York, New York)

I've Got A Crush On You (Frank Sinatra)

Lonely Feet (Blossom Dearie, Alfred Drake)

Alone Together (Judy Garland, Judy At Carnegie Hall)

By Myself (Renee Zellweger, Judy)

Who Cares? (Ensemble, Of Thee I Sing)

Who Cares? (Bea Arthur, Just Between Friends)

Who Cares? (Judy Garland, Judy At Carnegie Hall) 

Nice Work If You Can Get It (The Andrews Sisters)

Love Is Here To Stay (Bobby Short, Bobby Short Is K-RA-ZY For Gershwin)

Let's Call The Whole Thing Off (Matthew Broderick, Kelli O'Hara, Nice Work If You Can Get It )

Long Ago And Far Away (Ann Hampton-Callaway, Jazz Goes To The Movies) 

Bidin' My Time (Ensemble, Crazy For You) 

Padum Padum (Edith Piaf)

For Me, Formidable (Charles Aznavour)

Laisse Tomber Les Filles (France Gall)

My Ship (Gertrude Lawrence, Lady In The Dark)

They All Laughed (Fred Astaire, Shall We Dance)

Clap Yo Hands (Kay Thompson, Fred Astaire, Funny Face)

Meadowlark (Patti LuPone, Don't Monkey With Broadway)

Back On Top (Patti LuPone, War Paint)

Sleepy Man (Patti LuPone, Don't Monkey With Broadway)

Shall We Dance? (Fred Astaire, Shall We Dance?)

Maybe (Bobby Short, Bobby Short Is K-RA-ZY For Gershwin)

Slap That Bass (Harry Groener, Crazy For You)

They Can't Take That Away From Me (Harry Groener, Jodi Benson, Crazy For You)

They Can't Take That Away From Me (Robert Fairchild, Brandon Uranowitz, Max Von Essen, An American In Paris)

They Can't Take That Away From Me (Peggy Lee, Black Coffee)

 S'Wonderful (Fred Astaire, Audrey Hepburn, Funny Face)

Playlist for Nov. 27, 2022: Pass the Tofurkey!

 As I type this, Rochester and its neighbors have dodged a huge precipitation bullet and "let it snow" all points west, and slightly south (meaning Orchard Park and Cheeeeeektowaga and Buffalo); we didn't even have to LOOK at our shovels. I didn't crack open the rock salt either. I did get my boot tray out, found the boots that go on it, as well as my Santa PJs from Walmart (fashion abounds here in The Cobblestone). Because no doubt the next storm will be all ours, so I am now ready, if not willing.

The theme for this coming Thanksgiving Edition has absolutely nothing to do with that holiday. There just aren't enough Thanksgiving "carols" on Broadway. Or anthems. Or pilgrim love ballads (Grim is in THE NAME)(would Plain And Simple count?). So we're going to just brush by this holiday, spit spot, and riff on another theme entirely: Anything. As in I can make a theme out of Anything. And I have. Plus Something. And Someone and Anyone. Yup, I'm definitely scrounging from the bottom of the Broadway Barrel this time, for a theme that is, NOT the quality. That's first rate, of course. :)

 

So there will be none of this (above)...back when balloons weren't part of a movie franchise or Disney or Marvel, et.al. 

I think that's just a large bug. Or a bug/dragon.

But remember these folks? Betty! Lorne!

And Shirley! On a snow castle.

 

On the agenda: "Anyone Can Whistle" and "Anything Goes", but "Someone Keeps Sending Me Flowers", C.O.D.? (Does anyone under the age of 60 even remember what that means?). "I'd Do Anything", I'd even "Do Something", if "You Do Something To Me".  Although "I Never Do Anything Twice"! (Feel free to read anything at all into these lyrics.)

 

 

Dody Goodman is the one "Someone Is Sending [Me] Flowers" to...

and I just felt like singing her praises with a couple of photos.

She was born October 28, 1914, and lived to be 93!

Below, her delightful cameo in Grease. (Grease is the word, btw.)

Next week, Ira Gershwin (they say it's your birthday!). The following week, an early Christmas Special. So I'll stop with the wacky weekly themes for awhile. But see how easily Broadway conforms to...well, practically Anything? Something's Coming, I don't know what it is, but it is "Something Good"!

See you post-turkey/tofurkey/tofutti. And skoal! 

As you can see above, I'll be cooking with friends.

 

 

Anything Goes (Sutton Foster, Anything Goes)

Something's Coming (Larry Kert, West Side Story)

You Do Something To Me (Howard McGillin, Susan Powell, Fifty Million Frenchman)

Something To Dance About (Tyne Daly, Call Me Madam)

Something Sort Of Grandish (Ella Logan, David Wayne, Finian's Rainbow)

Something Very Strange (Elaine Stritch, Sail Away)

Something Good (Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, The Sound Of Music

There Must Be Something Better Than Love (Pearl Bailey, Arms And The Girl)

There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This (Gwen Verdon, Helen Gallagher, Thelma Oliver, Sweet Charity)

Do Something (David Josefsberg, Rob McClure, Honeymoon In Vegas

Something Different (Katrina Lenk, Tony Shaloub, The Band's Visit)

Something From A Dream (Hunter Foster, The Bridges Of Madison County)

Something Rotten (Brian d'Arcy James, Company, Something Rotten)

I Can't Give You Anything But Love (Judy Garland)

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

I'd Do Anything (Georgia Brown, Davy Jones, Oliver!)

Doesn't That Mean Anything To You? (Andrea Marcovicci, If I Were A Bell)

I Never Do Anything Twice (Millicent Martin, Side By Side By Sondheim)

Anything Can Happen In New York (Ray McDonald, Richard Quine, Mickey Rooney, Babes On Broadway)

Love Is Good For Anything That Ails You (Ida McCune)

Don't Be Anything Less Than Everything You Can Be (Deborah Graham, Vicki Lewis, Terry Kerwin, Stephen Fenning, Snoopy!!!)

Anyone Can Whistle (Stephen Sondheim, Sondheim Sings, Vol. 1)

Anyone Can Whistle (Tom Wopat, Leslie Kritzer, Barbara Cook, Sondheim On Sondheim)

Anyone Can Whistle (Lee Remick, Anyone Can Whistle

I'm A Brass Band (Gwen Verdon, Sweet Charity)

Someone Is Sending Me Flowers (Dody Goodman, Parade)

Please Send Me Someone (Fred Applegate, Mel Brook's Young Frankenstein)

Someone To Watch Over Me (Jodi Benson, Crazy For You)

Goodnight My Someone (Barbara Cook, The Music Man)

Someone To Fall Back On (Jason Robert Brown, Wearing Someone Else's Clothes)

Playlist For November 20, 2022: Novembrrrrr/Remembrrrrr

So the dial turns and suddenly it's Dark and Dank: An Edgar Allan weather forecast. Did summer actually happen? I remember slightly sweating around July 18th (Philly, 110 degrees in the shade) and broiling on a beach somewhere in Jersey...but then POOF. I drove home from the radio station last night IN HAIL. What the...@#&*()&$)@

 

Like this, but darker and danker.

This guy creates the November weather reports around here.

Kudos to Andre Carrilho (and The New Yorker) for this fantastic caricature.

 

Now I have to search for my ear muffs and that boot tray. Every spring I put all these cold weather accessories away, like REALLY away, thinking winter will never show up again? Nah, it's never gonna snow again! And every November, it's a treasure hunt.

But if we look at this with that Pollyanna, "glass half full" positivity, that just prompts a Novembrrrrr edition, with Autumn Leaves and Raining In My Heart (and on my patio furniture)(yes, it's still out there shivering) kind of songs. It's also good for Remembrrrring and Nostalgia and Melancholia (which used to be a thing, I think, that you could expire from? Why am I picturing a chaise lounge/fainting couch to have Melancholia on?). I mean, I just picked up my first 3 gallons of eggnog (dairy-free, lite, filled with delicious if not at all healthy ingredients), and plan to warm it/sip it/think on it, about holidays with large price tags in exotic places (Philly? Jersey? Are those exotic NOW?).

 

So put on those fleecy Walmart duds (or smoking jacket, my personal choice), ready the tissue box (some of these songs have that kind of power!), and enjoy...my new favorite: Too Many Memories, a Betty Buckley gem. That's on the playlist, along with Yves and Lotte and Michael and Charmian. Tune in and we can have Melancholia together. (No vax for that. Yet.) :)

I Remember (Charmian Carr, Evening Primrose)

I Remember It Well (Alfred Drake, Maria Karnilova, Gigi)

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

Moments To Remember (Guy Stroman, Stan Chandler, Jason Graae, David Engel, Forever Plaid)

Les Feuilles Mortes (Yves Montand, Les Portes De La Nuit)

Autumn Leaves (Leslie Odom, Jr.)

Another Autumn (Tony Bavaar, Paint Your Wagon)

Let It Snow! (Plaid Tidings, Holiday In Plaid)

Raining In My Heart (Bernadette Peters, Dames At Sea)

Raining (Margo Seibert, Rocky The Musical)

Snow (Jeffry Denman, Stephen Bogardus, White Christmas)

Look To The Rainbow (Ella Logan, Finian's Rainbow)

Mama, A Rainbow (Daniel Fortus, Minnie's Boys)

Sing A Rainbow (Peggy Lee, Pete Kelly's Blues)

Feeling I'm Falling (Bobby Short, Bobby Short Is K-RA-ZY For Gershwin)

Falling In Love With Love (Portia Nelson, The Boys From Syracuse)

September Song (Lotte Lenya, Knickerbocker Holiday)

Falling Out Of Love Can Be Fun (Mary McCarty, Miss Liberty)

I've Got A Feeling I'm Falling (Nell Carter, Ain't Misbehavin')

When I Fall In Love/My Foolish Heart (Michael Feinstein, Romance On Film, Romance On Broadway)

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

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

Too Many Memories (Betty Buckley, Story Songs)

Fallin' (Robert Klein, They're Playing Our Song)

Fallen Angel (John Lloyd Young, Jersey Boys)

I'll Never Fall In Love Again (Jill O'Hara, Jerry Orbach, Promises, Promises)

Falling Into You (Stephen Pasquale, Kelli O'Hara, The Bridges Of Madison County)

Falling Slowly (Steve Kazee, Once)

Try To Remember (Jerry Orbach, The Fantasticks)

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

Memory (Betty Buckley, Cats)

 

Playlist For November 13, 2022: Upson Downs

Well, I had a chance to cycle this past week and that's probably the reason/excuse for this Sunday's theme. All that oxygen forcing itself up my nose and into my brain. Seriously, I get my most fantastical (that's a euphemistic way of describing WACKY) ideas while biking. Case in point:

1.) Why can't I bike around Lake Superior, SOLO, with a tent (having camped all of 2 times in my 60 plus years), for 1 month?!? Surely Shirley! What's so hard about that? I'm a monster!

With a perimeter of over 1,300 miles,

towns with names like "Thunder Bay" 

and no poshy B&Bs in the northern 1/3?? 

Oh sure, dream on!

 

2.) Why can't I sell my cobblestone and move to the Marais district of Paris? Like why didn't I do that yesterday? I mean it!

3.) What kind of pizza should I order tonight..."Meat Lovers"? Crispy? Deep Dish? What about a Snickers side salad? (Yes, that's a real thing.)

 

I don't think you have any right to call this a salad.

 

4.) Let's start a book club/play reading group/writers' group/taxidermist learning circle/anarchist commune? Who wouldn't want to do all of that?

and 5.) NEW THEME: Upside Down. Or Downside Up. Depending on your point of view and predilection for vertigo. 

 

That last one is actually doable. Lots of B-way songs re UP and DOWN. Some have both! There are also INSIDES and OUTSIDES, SIDEWAYS even, but we only have 2 hours. Maybe after another bike ride, I'll attempt THOSE adverbs. But for now, Everything's Coming Up, Sitting Down, Up A Lazy, Easing On Down, Brushing Up, et. al.

Ease on down...

Brush up...

                                                Ready for her close UP...
 

And she ain't DOWN (yet)...

So join me on the 13th. Hopefully by then, November will be acting more like its true self, no more oxygenating bike rides and their wacky consequences. Unless all this Broadway gets me dancing (and hyperventilating). :)

 

I Ain't Down Yet (Tammy Grimes, The Unsinkable Molly Brown)

Sit Down, You're Rocking The Boat (Walter Bobbie, Ensemble, Guys And Dolls)

Sit Down, John (William Daniels, Ensemble, 1776)

It's Delightful Down In Chili (Carol Channing, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes)

Ribbons Down My Back (Eileen Brennan, Hello, Dolly!)

Has I Let You Down? (Pearl Bailey, House Of Flowers)

Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out (Leslie Odom, Jr.)

Down In the Meadow (Marilyn Monroe, The River Of No Return)

Ease On Down The Road (Stephanie Mills, Ensemble, The Wiz)

When The Chips Are Down (Chris Sullivan, Nabiya Be, Ensemble, Hadestown)

Get Down (Brittany Mack, Six)

My Defenses Are Down (Tom Wopat, Annie Get Your Gun)

Down Among The Sheltering Palms (Ensemble, Some Like It Hot)

Deep Down Inside (Sid Caesar, Virginia Martin, Little Me)

Uptown, Downtown (Craig Lucas, Marry Me A Little)

When The Sun Goes Down (Mandy Gonzalez, Christopher Jackson, In The Heights)

Down With Love (Audra McDonald)

Everything's Coming Up Roses (Ethel Merman, Gypsy)

Hang Up (Mae Barnes, By The Beautiful Sea)

Up A Lazy River (Nick Cordero, Bullets Over Broadway)

Call Me Up Some Rainy Afternoon (Judy Garland, Bing Crosby)

Button Up Your Overcoat (Helen Kane)

I Won't Grow Up (Mary Martin, Peter Pan)

Pick Yourself Up (Fred Astaire, Swing Time)

Brush Up Your Shakespeare (James Whitmore, Keenan Wynn, Kiss Me, Kate)

Roll Yer Socks Up (Ensemble, New Girl In Town)

I'd Rather Wake Up By Myself (Shirley Booth, By The Beautiful Sea)

You're A Builder Upper (Jessica Molaskey, Make Believe)

Things Are Looking Up (Harry Groener, Crazy For You)

Waiting For The Girls Upstairs (Gene Nelson, John McMartin, Ensemble, Follies)

Upstairs (Jerry Orbach, Promises, Promises)

Nothin' Up (Ahna O'Reilly, The Robber Bridegroom)

A Little Friendly Advice (Moya Angela, Margo Seibert, In Transit)

Playlist For November 6, 2022: Angie Day!

My tribute to Angela Lansbury is long overdue. I could have smushed a hurried version into the line-up during our fall pledge drive. Or tossed the Halloween playlist out entirely. But I didn't. I'm sort of plan-ful and deliberate and non-spon-taneous when it comes to producing a 2 On The Aisle, hence the tardiness. But I wanted to do it right, and give Dame Angie full focus. Shoveling her shows into fundraising or "scarey Broadway" (with the exception of some Sweeney!) wouldn't have worked for me. 

 

So NOW. Now we bring on the Mame and the Mama Rose. The Bedknobs,  Balloons, Beauties and Beasts. The Nellie Lovett (who knew she had a first name?). All the goodies. Comedic, coy, grandiose, gut-wrenching...all Angela. 

First "professional gig": At the Samovar Club in Montreal, age 16, doing an act with her mom.

First movie: Gaslight, age 19. (Nominated for an Academy Award) Second movie, National Velvet. Third, The Picture of Dorian Gray. 

Strangest "mom" role?: The Manchurian Candidate. She was only 3 years older than Laurence Harvey, who played her "son". (Nominated for an Academy Award)...but don't forget Blue Hawaii (playing Elvis Presley's mom). That's pretty strange too. Insert Angela quote here: Hollywood only wanted her to play "bitches on wheels and people's mothers."

First Tony: Mame, 1966....(Second Tony, Dear World. Third, Gypsy. Fourth, Sweeney. Fifth, Blithe Spirit. Sixth, Lifetime Achievement. I'll stop now.) 

  

Number of Emmy Nominations for "Murder, She Wrote": 18. No Wins. NONE!?!?!

 

Number of Times I Saw Her Onstage: About 8. 7 of these in Sweeney. The 8th, in Blithe Spirit, with Christine Ebersole and Rupert Everett. She was 83 when she took on that Broadway production, supposedly wearing an ear piece to help her with cues and lines. Whatever. She was marvelous...

Otherwise, you've probably read all the obits and read of her triumphs/also-rans/family life, so I won't bore you with words. I'll wait til Sunday and overwhelm you with songs, how's that? Two hours of Angela awaits!

 

Open A New Window (Angela Lansbury, Mame)

The Worst Pies In London (Angela Lansbury, Sweeney Todd) 

Wait (Angela Lansbury, Len Cariou, Sweeney Todd)

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

Goodbye, Little Yellow Bird (Angela Lansbury, The Picture Of Dorian Grey)

How'd You Like To Spoon With Me? (Angela Lansbury, Til The Clouds Roll By)

A Step In The Right Direction (Angela Lansbury, Bedknobs And Broomsticks)

That's How Young I Feel (Angela Lansbury, Mame)

Bosom Buddies (Angela Lansbury, Mame)

Me And My Town (Angela Lansbury, Anyone Can Whistle)

I've Got You To Lean On (Angela Lansbury, Anyone Can Whistle)

Beauty And The Beast (Angela Lansbury, Beauty And The Beast)

Age Of Not Believing (Angela Lansbury, Bedknobs And Broomsticks)

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

Some People (Angela Lansbury, Gypsy)

Mr. Goldstone, I Love You (Angela Lansbury, Gypsy)

Together, Wherever We Go (Angela Lansbury, Barrie Ingham, Zan Charisse, Gypsy)

It's Today (Angela Lansbury, Mame)

A Little Priest (Angela Lansbury, Len Cariou, Sweeney Todd)

Parlor Songs (Roland Rusinek, Angela Lansbury, Ken Jennings, Sweeney Todd)

You'll Never Get Away From Me (Angela Lansbury, Barrie Ingham, Gypsy)

If He Walked Into My Life (Angela Lansbury, Mame) 

Nowhere To Go But Up (Angela Lansbury, Ben Whishaw, Company, Mary Poppins Returns)

Rose's Turn (Angela Lansbury, Gypsy)

We Need A Little Christmas (Angela Lansbury, Mame)

Liasons (Angela Lansbury, A Little Night Music)

Each Tomorrow Morning(Angela Lansbury, Dear World)

Finale (Angela Lansbury, Company, Mame)

 

 

Playlist For October 30, 2022: Broadway Treats (no tricks!)...The Halloween Edition!

 So...over the weekend I went to 2 Halloween parties. And my costume for both was Zombie Old Lady Robot from the Future. I think that's what I called it, because it seems you have to label the costume for it to be something other than just "dressing up". Goodwill came in very handy for the silver-sequined, mini jump suit base. The rest (circular saw earrings, drippy necklace, fake blood) is of course always "on hand", as is the jacket I bought for $15.00 from Urban Outfitters about 20 years ago, marked down from $45.00 when no one bought it (Whatta THEY know!?). The last few years I've either been Norma Desmond (Sunset Boulevard, avec turban, negligee, and cigarette holder) or just a plain Zombie. So this was sort of like combining the 2. It went over quite well at both events, though I must admit that my audiences were imbibing briskly, or maybe I just put a spell on 'em. 

I think I ate off my black lipstick.

And what the hell is that thing looming behind me?

And it's not even Halloween yet. I have a chance to make more Zombie Robot appearances, but perhaps I should just leave 'em wanting more. :) 

Oh, and not to forget LAST WEEK, when I traveled to NYC for my 39th birthday: It was swell, it was great...had the whole world on a plate, tho I realize (in my dotage) that the pace...man! I think I walked 5 miles my first day (Delta's JFK terminal is 4 miles long by itself). And you have to stay awake. It's not like sleep walking to Wegmans. You gotta bump through crowds, choose the right subway platform, leave an hour early, good luck finding a seat, and read the damn reviews. Be woke (both ways)! The food was superb, the cocktails sublime, the shows super, the hotel expensive, and rendezvousing with Child #2 heart-warming.

Polish breakfast

Tequila cocktail!

Chocolate cheesecake (that's raspberry drips, not fake blood)

Drunk Shakespeare (they skewered Macbeth)

and A Strange Loop (from the nose-bleeds).

But I digress: It's the Halloween Edition this Sunday and I have never done a Halloween Edition before. Does Broadway have enough "Halloween" songs? Like actually scary or just tacky? Maybe Tacky/Scary should be our subtitle. Case in point: Zombie Prom. Old Black Magic. Witches (both Wicked, East AND West). A Phantom or 2. A Hyde. And a large man-eating plant. 

 

 One from Column A (Beetlejuice)

and Two from Column B (Zombie Prom)

Broadway shivers. Bumps in the night. Candy corn (definitely CORN). Boo. Etc. Slay you Sunday!

 

I Put A Spell On You (Bette Midler, Hocus Pocus)

Skid Row (Downtown) (Hunter Foster, Kerry Butler, Ensemble, Little Shop Of Horrors)

Dentist! (Orin Scrivello, Little Shop Of Horrors)

Feed Me (Hunter Foster, Michael Leon Wooley, Little Shop Of Horrors)

Bewitched, Bothered, And Bewildered (JoAnn Greer, Pal Joey)

Witches' Brew (Leslie Uggams, Marilyn Cooper, Barbara Sharma, Hallelujah, Baby!)

Those Were The Good Old Days (Ray Walston, Damn Yankees)

I Want To Be Evil (Eartha Kitt, That Bad Eartha)

Popular (Kristin Chenowith, Wicked)

I'm Not That Girl (Idina Menzel, Wicked) 

Wonderful (Joel Grey, Idina Menzel, Wicked)

That Old Black Magic (Jerry Lewis, The Nutty Professor)

That Old Black Magic (Louis Prima, Keely Smith)

That Old Black Magic (Spike Jones And His City Slickers)

Morticia (Nathan Lane, The Addams Family)

The Moon And Me (Kevin Chamberlain, The Addams Family)

When You're An Addams (Nathan Lane, Ensemble, The Addams Family)

The Woman's Dead (Debra Monk, Edward Hibbert, Ensemble, Curtains)

Why Are All The D'ysquiths Dying? (Jefferson Mays, A Gentleman's Guide To Love And Murder)

The Man Is Dead (Sasha (played by the orchestra conductor of the moment!, Curtains)

Not While I'm Around (Ken Jennings, Angela Lansbury, Sweeney Town)

Jonny Don't Go (Jessica Snow-Wilson, Zombie Prom)

Zombie Prom (Karen Murphy, Richard Muenz, Zombie Prom)

What I Know Now (Leslie Kritzer, Beetlejuice)

Facade (Ensemble, Jekyll & Hyde)

The Music Of The Night (Michael Crawford, Phantom Of The Opera)

Masquerade (Ensemble, Phantom Of The Opera)

Welcome To Transylvania (Villager Ensemble, Young Frankenstein)

Roll In The Hay (Sutton Foster, Roger Bart, Young Frankenstein)

Transylvania Mania (Roger Bart, Christopher Fitzgerald, Sutton Foster, Young Frankenstein)

Puttin' On The Ritz (Roger Bart, Shuler Hensley, Young Frankenstein)

 

Playlist For October 16, 2022: 2 Toasts...and a KA-Ching!

Hey y'all! (Y'all?? Where the heck did that come from?) Guess I'm just Debbie-Reynolds-Excited because it's October, the very best month of the year, if you don't count December. (I'm not gonna count it.) Especially THIS October because not only do I get to be another year older (39. Again. I'm holding at 39.), but it's also my 10th year of 2 On The Aisle. That's right, I started my on-air "career" on October 21, 2012, here at Jazz90.1. The show was only 1 hour long at that point, 1 hour being totally enough time to terrify and palpitate me (and probably my audience). After the first 3 shows, I was ready to throw in the towel, fraught (love that word fraught. Reminds me of Bud Fraught-ley.) with anxiety and "I'll never be good enough" blues. BUT I prevailed, and although there's still room for improvement, I'm still here (as Stephen and Elaine would say/sing), pushing buttons, monitoring volumes, deep breathing, and tongue-tying my way thru (now) 2 hours of Broadway every week. And I still love it. 

 

Me, when I'm not radio-ing.

Yup, I'm a 3rd grader.

So we're celebrating. A Birthday, an Anniversary, annnnnd a Pledge Drive! Thanks to folks like you, Jazz 90.1 gets to play whatever it wants (to its multifaceted content), unshackled from mega corporations that dictate, and commercial contracts that demand. What a station! Can you imagine 30 plus volunteers coming together to produce such a thing? (Well, I can. I managed the Kendall Lawn Chair Ladies for 8 seasons. Herding cats and all that.) Anyway, it's like the Virgin Birth. Almost 50 years of broadcasting, thanks to miracles like volunteers and listeners like YOU!

Another one of me, non-DJ-ing.

The result of herding Lawn Chair Ladies. Don't rain on my parade.

 

If you appreciate all that we do (from food drives to cruises to concerts to 24 hour entertainment), let us know with a donation. $5.00, $500.00, $12.50, $29.95...it all counts, it all matters, and when it all gets added up, it equals another year of jazz, blues, standards, fusion, computer talk, and Broadway. We'll be swell, we'll be great, gonna have the whole world on our plate. With You. :)  

                        

 

 

 

Overture (Instrumental, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum)

I Love Betsy (Rob McClure, Honeymoon In Vegas)

Shiksa Goddess (Norbert Leo Butz, The Last Five Years)

I Could Be In Love With Someone Like You (Jason Robert Brown, Wearing Someone Else's Clothes)

Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen (Cameron Mason, Baayork Lee, Ensemble, A Chorus Line)

Dance: Ten; Looks: Three (Pamela Blair, A Chorus Line)

One (Company, A Chorus Line)

Let Me Be Your Sugar Baby (Ensemble, Sugar Babies)

Sugar (Tony Roberts, Robert Morse, Sugar)

Sugartime (The McGuire Sisters)

Don't Laugh (Victoria Clark, Sondheim: The Birthday Concert)

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

Losing My Mind (Barbara Cook, Follies)

No Time At All (Irene Ryan, Pippin)

Old Folks (Mildred Natwick, Gil Lamb, Ensemble, 70, Girls, 70)

A Band In New York City (Corey Cott, Laura Osnes, Ensemble, Bandstand)

Do You Miss New York (Dave Frishberg, At The Algonquin)

When You're Far Away From New York Town (Jack DeLon, Jennie)

My Attorney Bernie (Jessica Molaskey, At The Algonquin)

The Boy From... (Linda Lavin, The Mad Show)

That Old Black Magic (Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Bus Stop)

A Bowler Hat (Isao Sato, Pacific Overtures)

Johanna (Victor Garber, Sweeney)

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

Free (Zero Mostel, Brian Davies, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum)

Bring Me My Bride (Ron Holgate, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum)

I'm Calm (Jack Gilford, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum)

Lovely (Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum)

 

 

 

Playlist For October 9, 2022: Pledge a Go Go!

Four new words I've recently learned that I believe will be very useful: 

Psychrophilic. Thriving in low temperatures. This is a hallmark of all who enjoy winter sports. Example: "I am not psychrophilic, so no, I won't luge with you today."

 

Fantod. A state of irritability and tension. Example: "I am fantod, and fantod is us."

Podsnappery. Refusing to acknowledge unpleasant facts. Example: "Broadway musicals often provide me with podsnappery, and then some, pal!"

Epicharikaky. Joy found in the misery of others. Example: "I can't really pronounce epicharikaky, but it sounds like schadenfreude to me." 

 

 

As you can imagine, usage opportunities abound! I need to write these on my bathroom mirror and practice while I shave in the mornings. :) Not sure if I'll actually say them on air (that last one will not flow easily off my lips, ever), but I'll give them the old college try. 

MEANWHILE...

Pledge Drive Time! Yup, when those leaves start falling, you know we'll come begging for Jazz 90.1 support. I'll try to make all that fund raising talk upbeat, podsnappy, and exude not one iota of fantod! But remember that this station could go POOF (like those memorable flops... The Golden Apple, Big, Spiderman, and Merrily We Roll Along) if our coffers go empty. 

 

Ginger has the right idea.

 

So the playlist has EVERYTHING! Quite literally! Plus Time (Jazz 90.1 has been circling the Sun for 49 years) and Life (cuz we're still alive). You can call in your donation, you can do it online, you can mail in a check...lots of ways to give us dough, and of course when you do, thank you gifts a go go will be sailing back your way. And come 2023, you can be a Jubilarian (okay, I snuck in another new word, but you can GUESS that meaning, right?) and help us celebrate a healthy 50 years!

 

Everything's Coming Up Roses (Patti LuPone, Gypsy)

Everything Old Is New Again (Hugh Jackman, The Boy From Oz)

Everything Stops For Tea (Jack Buchanan)

Just Leave Everything To Me (Barbra Streisand, Hello Dolly!)

Money Isn't Everything (Ensemble, Allegro)

Time Heals Everything (Bernadette Peters, Mack & Mabel)

Everything Changes (Jessie Mueller, Waitress)

Just In Time (Judy Garland, A Musical Anthology)

Maybe This Time (Liza Minnelli, Cabaret)

Once Upon A Time (Ray Bolger, Eileen Herlie, All American)

It Was A Good Time (Liza Minnelli, A Musical Anthology)

Bidin' My Time (Mary Martin, Girl Crazy)

Some Other Time (Betty Comden, Nancy Walker, Ensemble, On The Town)

The Best Of Times Is Now (George Hearn, Company, La Cage Aux Folles)

To Life (Zero Mostel, Fiddler On The Roof)

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

On The Street Where You Live (Jordan Donica, My Fair Lady)

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

Real Live Girl (Sid Caesar, Little Me)

If He Walked Into My Life (Angela Lansbury, Mame)

What A Life (Richard Kind, Fiddler On The Roof)

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

It's Great To Be Alive (Jo Stafford, Johnny Mercer)

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

Mr. Livingstone (Ethel Merman, Happy Hunting) 

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

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

Being Alive (Dean Jones, Company)