Playlist For Sunday, June 5, 2022: Get ready. The iced tea is prepping!

 Is this really IT?!? Are we SUMMER-ING now? The hurdle of Memorial Day Weekend has been bounded ore, the limbo stick of ughy Spring arched expertly under (Bob Fosse would be proud of those back bends, for sure), and NOW? Now can we have Summer? Well...almost.

This past weekend seemed primed for watermelon, G&Ts, and barbies hotting up on the patio. My daughter spent part of it at a Philly ball game (90 degrees)(jeez, these millennials, and their insouciance!); I spent it biking hither and yon, ore hill and dale (82 degrees), but hey that's in the seasonal range, right? (Actually, I had to look up "dale". I always assumed it was the opposite of HILL, and it is. A rather wide valley, evidently. From the Old English. Think Downton, but when it was a real Abbey.) But after Wednesday, it looks pretty dale-ish temp-wise, like 61? 62? How I am to keep my bike-short tan lines that way? Harrumph.

 

 Well, we can GET READY. As Kaye Ballard did with her prepped pitcher of tea, in The Golden Apple. In fact, we can all practice LAZY, right? With a Lazy Afternoon, a Lazy Moon, Lazy Rivers, and Lazy Bones. Plus we simply must listen to a couple of shows up for Tony Awards (June 12, folks! My money would be on The Girl From The North Country, but I haven't heard more than 1 song from Mr. Saturday Night OR The Strange Loop...where are the frickin' cast recordings???), plus plus plus a Car Corner (Model Ts, Coupes, and Caddies) ANNNND as always, Broadway Surprises, to keep you "On Your Toes".

 

So practice your Lazy with me on Sunday...put me on the patio, next to a pitcher of something icy and tighten those hammock springs. Tis (almost) the Season! :)

Lazy Afternoon (Kaye Ballard, Golden Apple)

Lazy Moon (Ensemble, Goldilocks)

Lazy (Marilyn Monroe, There's No Business Like Show Business)

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

Lazybones (Leon Redbone, On The Track)

I Said "No" (Andrea Marcovicci, If I Were A Bell)

Hamlet (Andrea Marcovicci, If I Were A Bell)

Hamlet (Betty Hutton, Red, Hot, And Blue)

Slow Train/License To Kill (Sheila Atim, Girl From The North Country)

Like A Rolling Stone/I Want You (Shirley Henderson, Girl From The North Country)

Hurricane/All Along The Watchtower/Idiot Wind (Sheila Atim, Girl From The North Country)

Manhattan Serenade (Helen Forrest, Harry James And His Orchestra)

Schroeder (Reva Rose, Skip Hinnant, You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown)

Symphony (Jo Stafford, Paul Weston And His Orchestra)

Keep Away From The Fellow Who Owns An Automobile (Ida Jones)

Henry's Made A Lady Out Of Lizzie (The Harry Reser Band, with Tom Stack on vocals)

Little Deuce Coup (The Beach Boys)

Pink Cadillac (Bruce Springsteen)

Back Stage Babble (Len Cariou, Ensemble, Applause)

The Lonely Goatherd (Julie Andrews, Ensemble, The Sound Of Music) 

Good Morning Starshine (Caissie Levy, Hair)

Ex-Wives (Company, Six)

Heart Of Stone (Abby Mueller, Six)

Get Down (Brittney Mack, Six)

Take Me To The World (Charmian Carr, Evening Primrose)

Being Good (Audra McDonald, Sing Happy)

Why I Am The Way I Am (Laura Benanti, In Constant Search Of The Right Kind Of Attention)

Glitter And Be Gay (Barbara Cook, Candide)

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

Every Time We Say Goodbye (Ball State Cabaret Class Singers, Take Me To The World)

So Long Dearie (Carol Channing, Hello Dolly!)

Goodbye! (Ensemble, The Producers)

 

 

Playlist For Sunday, May 29, 2022: Lusty Monkeys!

Recent Insights:

1.) Monkeypox? Really? I guess the CDC isn't paying any sort of marketing expert to dream up better Plague Names. If I'm gonna drop from this new disease, I think it should have a SERIOUS name. SNL will have a field day.

2.) It has been stated by Other Experts that we no longer have to put 2 spaces after a period when typing sentences.  (See that? Looks weird now, right?)  I had a real battle with myself about this a few years ago; Miss Eldred, my typing teacher of old, had insisted on 2 spaces.  But now...we're evidently FREE of all that? What the...? I think this is just 1 more symbol of the downfall of civilization, right up there with pineapple pizza, intermittent fasting, and decaf.  Next, everyone will forget how to use a semicolon. Wait....;!

3.) How do you really spell spyriah? Spirea, not sharia or syariah or psoriasis...it's those white flowering bushes. I can pronounce it, I can marvel at it in its present state, I just never know how to spell it. Anyway, that along with lilacs are my BIG BLOOMS right now until the next hail/locusts/Auntie Em windstorm comes along to "rain on my parade". Anyway, a gardener (or speller) I ain't. 

 

            

This one. This is the one I can't spell.

 

4.) I've never owned a dishwasher. Is that surprising? Unless you count my children. I let the dishes hang out in my sink til 5pm or so and then personally tackle them, mano a disho. Which all leads me to consider the "Kitchen Sink" edition of 2OTA we have waiting for us this Sunday.

Songs about starting, beginnings, endings (some happy, some sad).  Birthdays (Bea and Rene). Lusty Months. Macks, Mabels, and Mama Mortons. Plus Flora (and Fauna?), a couple of Buddies, Nice-ities, and Tommy on a Seesaw.

Tommy OFF that Seesaw.

 

Confused? Moi, too. But I promise you a happy ending. And not one monkey or double spaces. Just lots of dishes in the Broadway Kitchen Sink. :) 

 

Where Do You Start? (Bea Arthur, Just Between Friends)

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

When Will My Life Begin? (Mandy Moore, Tangled)

Let's Begin (Paula Laurence, Alfred Drake, Roberta)

I've Got Beginner's Luck (Robert Fairchild, American In Paris)

Life Begins (At Exactly 8:40 Or Thereabouts)(Graham Rowat, Ensemble, Life Begins At 8:40)

You're A Builder Upper (Christopher Fitzgerald, Jessica Stone, Life Begins At 8:40)

C'est La Vie (Brad Oscar, Christopher Fitzgerald, Faith Prince, Life Begins At 8:40) 

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

Nice She Ain't (Boyd Gaines, Gypsy)

A Very Nice Man (Anna Maria Alberghetti, Carnival)

It's Nicer In Nice (Violetta Farjeon, Ensemble, The Boyfriend)

My Nice Ways (Sally Kellerman, Breakfast At Tiffany's)

A Very Nice Prince (Kim Crosby, Joanna Gleason, Into The Woods)

Someone Nice Like You (Anthony Newley, Anna Quayle, Stop The World - I Want To Get Off)

Nice Work If You Can Get It (Fred Astaire, A Damsel In Distress)

Nice (Tyne Daly, Harriet Harris, It Shoulda Been You)

The Buddy System (Rene Auberjonois, City Of Angels) 

When The Sun Goes Down In The South (Rene Auberjonois, Bob Gunton, Daniel Jenkins, Ron Richardson, Big River)

You're Gonna Hear From Me (Bea Arthur, Just Between Friends)

Bosom Buddies (Bea Arthur, Angela Lansbury, Mame)

The Man In The Moon (Bea Arthur, Just Between Friends)

Not Every Day Of The Week (Bob Dishy, Liza Minnelli, Flora The Red Menace)

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

He Did It (Karen Ziemba, Jill Paice, Noah Racey, Jason Danieley, Edward Hibbert, Curtains)

Cell Block Tango (Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ensemble, Chicago)

Camelot (Richard Burton, Camelot)

The Lusty Month Of May (Julie Andrews, Camelot)

C'est Moi (Robert Goulet, Camelot)

Happily Ever After (Craig Lucas, Marry Me A Little)

That's The Beginning Of The End (Elaine Stritch, Stritch)

I Promise You A Happy Ending (Robert Preston, Mack And Mabel)

It's Not How You Start, It's How You Finish (Tommy Tune, Seesaw)

Playlist For Sunday, May 22, 2022: Edgy, Irving!

Quel horror. The Tony Awards are but a month away, and I think I've heard 2 of the nominated musicals. Edgy, I ain't. Six, yes. Girl From The North County, yes, as well. But the rest??? I got a CD of Strange Loop, but it's going to take me awhile to listen/appreciate/osmose THAT into my picky pulmonaries. I'd LOVE to get my hands on the tunes from Mr. Saturday Night, but the soundtrack doesn't seem to digitally exist anywhere at present. Ahhhh, me.

Does this look edgy?

So hence the dull edge. So hence we reach back, not forward: To Irving Berlin. Cuz: Irv's birthday was May 15 (see, I'm even late to that!), 1888, but I only now realize that I've never dedicated a 2OTA entirely to him. That's gotta change. Amends must be made. So we'll get Lost In His Arms, go Cheek To Cheek, Do What Comes Naturally, and Say It's Wonderful, because it Always is! Not edgy, no. Not Cole Porter-witty. Not Zippel zesty, or Coleman cool. Just open and eager, easy on the hum, and sometimes tough on the heart. 

 

Hey, edgy enough to get these hot babes! (I don't have to tell YOU who they are, do I?)

 

Hope you can sing and/or shuffle along with me on Sunday. Classic Berlin Broadway. Edgy ENUF! :)

 

Alexander's Ragtime Band (Alice Faye, Alexander's Ragtime Band)

Doin' What Comes Naturally (Bernadette Peters, Annie Get Your Gun) 

I Got Lost In His Arms (Ethel Merman, Annie Get Your Gun)

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

Blue Skies (Al Jolson, The Jazz Singer)

Always (Eugenie Baird, Bing Crosby)

Cheek To Cheek (Fred Astaire, Top Hat)

Mandy (Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman, George Murphy, Ann Sothern, Kid Millions)

Heat Wave (Marilyn Monroe, There's No Business Like Show Business)

Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me (Rosemary Clooney, White Christmas)

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

Apologia (Ensemble, Louisiana Purchase)

What Chance Have I With Love (George S. Irving, Louisiana Purchase)

Sex Marches On (Ensemble, Louisiana Purchase)

Puttin' On The Ritz (Phil Spitalny and His Orchestra)

Let's Have Another Cup Of Coffee (Jeffrey Denman, Meredith Patterson, As Thousands Cheer)

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

I Love A Piano (Jeffrey Denman, Meredith Patterson, Irving Berlin's White Christmas)

After You Get What You Want (Marilyn Monroe, There's No Business Like Show Business)

A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody (Rudy Vallee)

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

Say It Isn't So (Billie Holiday)

The Hostess With The Mostess (Ethel Merman, Call Me Madam)

It's A Lovely Day Today (Melissa Errico, Lewis Cleale, Call Me Madam)

Let's Take An Old Fashioned Walk (Eddie Albert, Miss Liberty)

Top Hat, White Tie, And Tails (Fred Astaire, Top Hat)

Dance With Me (The New York Voices, Louisiana Purchase)

It Only Happens When I Dance With You (Judy Garland, Easter Parade)

What'll I Do? (Harry Nilsson, A Little Touch of Schmilsson In The Night)

How About Me? (Judy Holliday, Trouble Is A Man)

Mr. Monotony (Debbie Shapiro, Jerome Robbin's Broadway)

Remember (Ella Fitzgerald)

They Say It's Wonderful (Bernadette Peters, Tom Wopat, Annie Get Your Gun)

 There's No Business Like Show Business (Ensemble, Annie Get Your Gun)

Let's try that again! Vertical by 5/15, I promise.

So I totally missed Mother's Day. Thanks to another dose of the plague, I spent most of that "special day" communing with my comforter, high on Excedrin, tea and toast-ing...Annnnd plenty sorry that I missed going LIVE with 2OTA! 

I did get a piece of ice cream cake delivered to me. Highly medicinal. In fact, if you think you're getting sick, I would definitely recommend you stock-piling a Carvel (or its modern day equivalent) or 9 in your freezer. It lifted me emotionally, mentally, physically, and perhaps even psychically. (There is an ice cream cake tarot card, did you know that?) It helped more than I can say. 

 

Sooooo we will try to make last week's 2 On The Aisle edition happen THIS WEEK, okay? Just peruse the post before this one for the playlist. Songs from those Fifties-Flavored shows, like Grease, Jersey Boys, Forever Plaid, et.al. Songs of Sport (tennis, anyone?), played by Broadway types, so you know that all the hard stuff like tackling, bunting, whacking, and running will be sung and danced to. My kinda sport! :) 

And the outside has exploded! Man, Nature got busy while I was isolating...

Playlist For Sunday, May 8, 2022: My Day, My Way (and NO Mamma Rose!)

Okay, so this is supposed be a Mother's Day Edition. Well, it's not going to be. Like Broadway Christmas, there's a limited number of MOM songs (at least when you get past Gypsy, with scary Mamma Rose), and I just didn't feel like playing what would have baked down to the exact same Mother's Day show I did last year. So it's NOT. See, I'm a mom, too, and I should be able to play whatever the heck I wanna on MY DAY, right? So that's what I'm choosing. My day, my way.

Choice 1: The Sound of the 50s! Grease, Forever Plaid, Bye Bye Birdie. A little Hairspray, to hold those waves (and cooties) in place. Some boys from Jersey. A poodle skirt. Pink Ladies. And Ed Sullivan.

(Side note, I actually DID find the Perfect Poodle Skirt in a vintage shop in Philly recently, but it was pricey. Surely worth it...a chain leash on the poodle? Man. But I didn't buy it. Now I'm yearning.) 

This one seems to come with its own poodle.

Loving the phone variety!

Choice 2: Pour Le Sport! Baseball (Damn Yankees), double entendre tennis (City Of Angels), football (Wonderful Town), and golf (Marry Me A Little). Plus a little Jane Russell who seemed exhausted (if not sexually frustrated) by all those workouts in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I couldn't find any hockey musicals. I did look. 

 

So to all the MOM's out there, enjoy your day YOUR way, and hopefully you'll get a lovely breakfast in bed, flowers, candy, and a night out on the town. I've requested same, but my cat just looks askance (he's a master at askance) and promises nothing. I'll make my own Eggs Benedict, thank you, and take myself out. And buy that damn poodle! :))))) 

The Telephone Hour (Ensemble, Bye Bye Birdie)

Honestly Sincere (Dick Gautier, Bye Bye Birdie) 

Cooties (Laura Bell Bundy, Hairspray)

Sherry (John Lloyd Young, Christian Hoff, Daniel Reichard, J. Robert Spencer,  Jersey Boys)

Gotta Be This Or That (Jason Graae, Stan Chandler, David Engel, Guy Stroman,  Forever Plaid)

Beauty School Drop Out (Marya Small, Alan Paul, Grease)

Rag Doll (John Lloyd Young, Christian Hoff, Daniel Reichard, J. Robert Spencer,  Jersey Boys) 

Shangri-La (Jason Graae, Stan Chandler, David Engel, Guy Stroman,  Forever Plaid)

Six Months Out Of Every Year (Shannon Bolin, Robert Shafer, Damn Yankees) 

Who's Got The Pain? (Gwen Verdon, Ensemble, Damn Yankees) 

The Game (Nathaniel Frey, Albert Linville, Russ Brown, Jimmy Komack, Damn Yankees)

T-E-A-M (Gary Burghoff, Reva Rose, Company, You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown)

O'Brien To Ryan To Goldberg (Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin, Take Me Out To The Ball Game)

The Baseball Game (Christian Borle, Andrew Rannells, Ensemble, Falsettos)

What A Game (Mark Jacoby, Alex Strange, Ragtime)

There Goes The Ball Game (Karen Ziemba, Robert Cuccioli, Karen Mason, Jim Walton, And The World Goes 'Round)

Take Me Out To The Ball Game (Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Take Me Out To The Ball Game)

They Love Me (Nanette Fabray, Mr. President)

Why Does The Whole Damn World Adore Me? (Nathan Lane, Sherry!)

It's Me (Isabel Bigley, Joan McCracken, Me And Juliet)

Pour Le Sport (Craig Lucas, Suzanne Henry, Marry Me A Little)

The Tennis Song (James Naughton, Dee Hoty, City Of Angels)

Today's The Day/The Football Drill (Kim Huber, Ann Morrison, Good News)

Pass The Football (Jordan Bentley, Wonderful Town)

Ain't There Anyone Here For Love (Jane Russell, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes)

Runnin' Wild (Marilyn Monroe, Some Like It Hot)

Bicycle Built For Two (Dinah Shore)

Give Me A Bike (Beatrice Lillie, High Spirits)

Crazy 'Bout Ya' Baby (Jason Graae, Stan Chandler, David Engel, Guy Stroman,  Forever Plaid)

It's Raining On Prom Night (Carole Demas, Grease)

Cry (Jason Graae, Stan Chandler, David Engel, Guy Stroman,  Forever Plaid) 

Big Girls Don't Cry ((John Lloyd Young, Christian Hoff, Daniel Reichard, J. Robert Spencer,  Jersey Boys)

One Last Kiss (Dick Gautier, Bye Bye Birdie)

Hymn For A Sunday Night (Paul Lynde, Ensemble, Bye Bye Birdie)

Born To Hand Jive (Alan Paul, Don Billett, Company, Grease)