Vernon and Misia...Artist and Muse

 Misia Sert (1872 - 1950),

Model, Patron, Mistress, Muse, Cultural Arbiter

of fin de siecle Paris.

She inspired Lautrec, Renoir, Bonnard, Vuillard,

Ravel, Diaghilev.

 Misia on the left...and Toulouse Lautrec's painting of her

for a poster...

 She began as a pianist, in a musical family, 

and supported herself as a teacher and accompanist in the early days.

Here, another Lautrec of Misia at the piano.

 Here as painted by Bonnard...

and below by Renoir.

 A photo by Bonnard...

and below, the album cover

of the Vernon Duke/Barry Singer musical,

with Marin Mazzie as Misia.

 Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dukelsky, aka Vernon Duke,

grew up in Minsk in 1903...and wrote a wide variety of 

ballets, concertos and theatrical music.

He became a great friend of George Gershwin, who encouraged him to 

Americanize his name.

After working in London and Paris, he moved to America

and composed many a wonderful song 

("April In Paris," "Autumn In New York," "I Can't Get Started")

and Broadway shows...his greatest success, "Cabin In The Sky."

An unproduced "French score" was salvaged by his wife, Kay McCracken...

and with Barry Singer as its champion, 

Misia The Musical has seen the light of day.

 

Playlist for Sunday, June 28, 2015: To Boldly Go!

Time for some new musicals!  I can't just play shows from 1956, where the composers, the performers, the dressers and the stage hands are all dead.  I mean, I love those Golden Age of Broadway shows...but really, I have to trade up once in awhile.  So Fun Home! Misia! Grey Gardens! Once!  A different sort of Broadway from the razzmatazz of  Phil Silvers and The Merm and Jerry and Jule...because we need fresh air sometimes.

Sandwiched, wrapped, California-rolled, and panini-ed with that contemporary stuff is Damn Yankees, lots O' Gershwin and The Boy Friend (with flappers and English accents) to soften the blow.  And some esoteric/cult/ever-neurotic Sondheim, so you won't think I've changed personalities completely.  Yes, I'm still here, cloaked like a Romulan in Klingon space, but yet the same old Captain of my own Broadway Enterprise.  Okay, that was cheesey.

Trust me.  It'll be alright. 


Overture/Six Months Out Of Every Year (Shannon Bolin, Ensemble, Damn Yankees)
'S Wonderful (Robert Fairchild, Max Von Essen, Adam Uranowitz, An American In
                 Paris)
Shall We Dance? (Jill Paice, An American In Paris)
I'll Build A Stairway To Paradise (Max Von Essen, Company, An American In Paris)
Painted, Promised Land (Male Ensemble, Misia)
Agreement (Lauren Worsham, Misia)
My Heart And I (Marin Mazzie, Misia)
Dada Je Suis (Charlelie Coutour, The Moderns)
Paris La Nuit (Charlelie Coutour, The Moderns)
Ring Of Keys (Sydney Lucas, Fun Home)
Flying Away (Sydney Lucas, Emily SKeggs, Beth Malone, Fun Home)
Around The World (Christine Ebersole, Grey Gardens)
Gold (Ensemble, Once)
Perfect Young Ladies (Rosemary Ashe, Ensemble, The Boy Friend)
Fancy Forgetting (Drek Waring, Anna Quayle, The Boy Friend)
A Room In Bloomsbury (Simon Green, Jane Wellman, The Boy Friend)
Forget About The Boy (Sutton Foster, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
The Nuttycracker Suite (Instrumental, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
Ah! Sweet Mystery Of Life/I'm Falling In Love With Someone (Marc Kudisch, Angela
                  Christian, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
Saturday Night (David Campbell, Ensemble, Saturday Night)
The Girls Of Summer (Suzanne Henry, Marry Me A Little)
Marry Me A Little (John Barrowman)
Can That Boy Fox Trot? (Suzanne Henry, Marry Me A Little)
So Many People (Lauren Ward, David Campbell, Saturday Night)
Better With A Man (Jefferson Mays, Bryce Pinkham, A Gentleman's Guide To Love
                   and Murder)
Inside Out (Lauren Worsham, Bryce Pinkham, A Gentleman's Guide To Love And
                   Murder)
Lady Hyacinth's Travels (Jefferson Mays, Ensemble, A Gentleman's Guide To Love
                   And Murder)
Whatever Lola Wants (Gwen Verdon, Damn Yankees)
Goodbye Old Girl (Robert Schafer, Ray Walston, Stephen Douglass, Damn Yankees)
Heart (Jean Stapleton, Ensemble, Damn Yankees)

Friendship!

 From the original production of Gypsy,

"Together Wherever We Go,"

with Sandra Church, Ethel Merman, and Jack Klugman.

 1962 saw the revival of Cole Porter's Anything Goes.

This was a shot from the recording of the cast album,

and from that, we'll hear "Friendship" with 

Eileen Rodgers, Hal Linden, and Mickey Deems.

 

 From The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,

we'll hear Olive Ostrovsky (with the pink capris, and played by

Celia Keenan-Bolger)

singing "My Friend, The Dictionary."

 "I only reveal secrets during friendship songs."

Murder For Two, with Jeff Blumenkrantz and Brett Ryback

performing "A Friend Like You."

 Sweeney Todd's "My Friends,"

Len Cariou and his arm, completed.

Robert Preston and Julie Andrews...

"You And Me,"

a perennial favorite from Victor/Victoria.

An American In Paris...Now and Then

Now: An American In Paris...Broadway Style

with direction and choreography by Christopher Wheeldon...

It stars Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope

as Jerry and Lise.

 Max Von Essen (right) plays Henri, French nightclub star,

and Brando Uranowitz (center) is Adam, the songwriter.

 The staged production includes all the Gershwin songs 

from the movie,

plus other goodies like "Shall We Dance," "The Man I Love,"

"Who Cares?, and "They Can't Take That Away From Me."

With a book by Craig Lucas and sets and costume design by Bob Crowley...

the show won 4 Tonys, but was bounced out of the 

Best Musical award by Fun Home.

Then: It was 1951...and Leslie Caron and Gene Kelly

were making the movie, with director Vincent Minnelli.

The choreography was all Gene.

 Leslie was 20 when Gene "discovered" her in the 

"Ballet des Champs Elysees"

and cast her as Lise.

Cyd Charisse was first hired to star, but had to leave the production

when she found she was pregnant.

"I'll Build A Stairway To Paradise", with Georges Guetary.

The ballet supposedly cost more than $500,000 to create...

today?  Maybe add a another digit!

Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay,

Best Score...but nothing for Gene?  

Brigadoon...lots of wooly pants.

The 1954 MGM musical...with Jimmy Thompson 

(front and center with THOSE PANTS!), 

Gene Kelly (left), and Van Johnson (right).

Plans to film in Scotland, and later Monterey, were shelved

when producer Dore Schary clipped the budget.

It was the MGM back lot for these lads and lasses.

 A pic of the original Broadway production,

done in 1947,

starred Marion Bell and David Brooks.

It was Lerner and Loewe's first hit...

and it featured the choreography of Agnes De Mille,

who incorporated Scottish dance into the routines.

 Alan Lerner, Cyd Charisse, Frederick Loewe and Virginia Bosler

on the movie set...

Brigadoon's filming took place just 2 years before they would 

produce their biggest hit, "My Fair Lady."

 Love this shot of Alan and Frederick at work.

Van, Gene and Elaine Stewart "at the bar."

Van competed against Donald O'Connor and Steve Allen (!)

for the part of Jeff.

Can't imagine anyone but Van in this role now!

Playlist for Sunday, June 21, 2015: Lerner, Loewe, and Friends

This week we celebrate the music of Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe...who had the uncanny ability to turn themselves in one breath into Scottish lads and lasses of a magical town, and Gold Rush-fevered unshaven prospectors who talk to trees the next. And after Miss Doolittle had learned her "Hartford, Hereford and Hampshires", they transported themselves back to Merry Ole England to fie this and fie that in Camelot. (Fie on me for not including My Fair Lady in this week's show, but I play that so much, I thought I'd concentrate on the other L&L creations!)

Then there's the riff I'm doing on Friendship: two sets of strangely related You-and-Me's, Friend Like You, Friend Like Me, Old Friends, Bad Friends, My Friend the _______,  you name it, I'm riffing it.  A few from Forever Plaid, Pump Boys, and then there's that new/old Gershwin musical, An American In Paris, based of course on the movie, but without Gene (so no cool striped boat necks, or rolled up cuffs), no Oscar (no acerbic/morose/depressing asides), and no Leslie (no Leslie). It seems no matter how old that S'Wonderful music is, someone is always resuscitating it.  Don't get me wrong, it's still s'pretty great. :)


 I Got Rhythm (Max Von Essen, Brandon Uranowitz, Robert Fairchild, Ensemble,
                      An American In Paris)
Once In The Highlands/Brigadoon (Ensemble, Brigadoon)
I'll Go Home With Bonnie Jean (Jimmy Thompson, Gene Kelly, Van Johnson,
                      Brigadoon)
Come To Me, Bend To Me (Jimmy Thompson, Brigadoon)
Sixteen Tons/Chain Gang (David Engel, Ensemble, Forever Plaid)
Cry (Stan Chandler, Forever Plaid)
Gotta Be This Or That (Ensemble, Forever Plaid)
I'm On My Way (Ensemble, Paint Your Wagon)
I Talk To The Trees (Tony Bavaar, Olga San Juan, Paint Your Wagon)
The First Thing You Know (Lee Marvin, Paint Your Wagon)
There's A Coach Comin' In (Ensemble, Paint Your Wagon)
Friendship (Eileen Rodgers, Hal Linden, Mickey Deems, Anything Goes)
Bad Companions (Ensemble, Goldilocks)
Together Wherever We Go (Ethel Merman, Sandra Church, Jack Klugman, Gypsy)
Old Friends (Lonny Price, Jim Walton, Ann Morrison, Merrily We Roll Along)
You Got A Friend In Me (Randy Newman, Toy Story)\
You And Me (Robert Preston, Julie Andrews, Victor/Victoria)
My Friend, The Dictionary (Celia Keenan-Bolger, The 25th Annual Putnam County
                      Spelling Bee)
A Friend Like You (Jeff Blumenkrantz, Brett Ryback, Murder For Two)
Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend (Carol Channing, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes)
Friend Like Me (Robin Williams, Aladdin)
My Friends (Len Cariou, Angela Lansbury, Sweeney Todd)
I Wonder What The King Is Doing Tonight (Richard Burton, Camelot)
Before I Gaze At You Again (Julie Andrews, Camelot)
Fie On Goodness (Ensemble, Camelot)
If Ever Would I Leave You (Robert Goulet, Camelot)
Pump Boys (Cast, Pump Boys And Dinettes)
The Night Dolly Parton Was Almost Mine (Mark Hardwick, Pump Boys And Dinettes)
Sister (Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, Pump Boys And Dinettes)
Vacation (Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, Ensemble, Pump Boys And Dinettes)
S'Wonderful (Adam Uranowitz, Max Von Essen, Robert Fairchild, An American In
                        Paris)
Shall We Dance? (Jill Paice, An American In Paris)
I'll Build A Stairway To Paradise (Max Von Essen, Company, An American In Paris)

More of those BIG MEN on the Broadway "Campus"...

 Happy Birthday to Cy Coleman...born on June 14, 1929,

in New York City.

Composer of Sweet Charity, Wild Cat, Little Me,

Barnum, City of Angels...and a ton more.

Love this shot of Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers.

They met while attending Columbia, back in 1919,

and began writing popular songs and musicals...

Today we'll hear from Babes in Arms, On Your Toes, Pal Joey,

and more!

George and Ira Gershwin,

arriving in Hollywood.

But first they were all Broadway!

Oh Kay, Girl Crazy, Of Thee I Sing...

each one crammed with songs that are now 

part of our musical language.