Two-somes on 2 on the Aisle!

 As part of our Number 2 theme

this Sunday on 2 on the Aisle,

Chip Zien and Joanna Gleason, above,

when they played The Baker and The Baker's Wife

in Sondheim's Into The Woods.

And below, a more recent pic.

You can catch Chip in the latest released season of

The House of Cards,

and an interesting side note about Joanna...

she is the child of Deal-meister, Monty Hall.

From Into The Woods, we'll hear their duet, "It Takes Two."

 The Robber Bridegroom hit Broadway in 1975,

and starred Raul Julia.

We'll hear from the revival of 2016, which featured Steven Pasquale

above AND below center.

We'll sample "Two Heads Are Better Than One"

sung by Roger Devere and Evan Harrington

the two on the left above!

 

 A confused Andy Karl in

Groundhog Day

wakes up to "Day 2"!

Music by Tim (Matilda) Minchin.

Above, that tacky B&B bedroom,

and below, the happy population of Punxsutawney, PA.

 In 1997, the songwriting team of 

John Kander and Fred Ebb

created Steel Pier,

a marathon dance-drama with some interesting
(some dead!) 

characters.

It starred Karen Ziemba and Daniel McDonald (above)

and gave Kristen Chenowith (below) her Broadway debut. 

The show suffered from mixed reviews

and Titanic, which took ALL of the Tony Awards that year.

 Jim Newman as Happy with Kristen who played Precious,

newlyweds looking to win that marathon prize money.

We'll hear Kristen's big number,

"Two Little Words."

Pipe nightma...I mean Dream!!!

 In 1955 Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein

wrote the music for Pipe Dream,

their 7th musical together...just after Me & Juliet

and right before Cinderella.

It was based on a John Steinbeck novel called

Sweet Thursday,

a sequel to Cannery Row.

A romance between a marine biologist (Doc) and a prostitute (Suzy).

And that was one of the problems.

 

 

 Steinbeck was "delighted" with the initial script,

but as auditions and rehearsals progressed,

he became less than enchanted.

Oscar and Richard were afraid of the prostitute angle,

and changed Suzy's character into a lodger at Fauna's bordello,

"The Bear Flag",

not an actual "working girl."

Above, William Johnson as Doc and Mike Kellin as Hazel.

 The cast? Henry Fonda was thought to be the perfect choice for Doc...

but after weeks of singing lessons, 

everyone concerned admitted Hank just couldn't sing.

William Johnson was chosen, fresh off the tour of Annie Get Your Gun.

Rodgers hired Helen Traubel, an opera singer, to play Fauna...

and Judy Tyler 

(Princess Summer Fall Winter Spring from The Howdy Doody Show) 

to portray Suzy.

Julie Andrews AND Janet Leigh were both considered for the part of Suzy;

neither was available.

Lucky them.

 Above, William and Judy and The Pipe.

 Below, Judy and Helen and The Bear Flag's (no doubt RED) couch.

 At the very beginning of the rehearsal process,

Rodgers underwent surgery for cancer of the jaw.

He returned to rehearsals 10 days later, 

but as a frustrated (jaw-wired-shut) observer.

You can imagine the notes he must've passed!

 The musical lasted 6 months (245 performances)

and was nominated for 9 Tonys,

losing all of them with the exception of Best Costume Design. 

(Damn Yankees clinched the Best Musical award that year,

the only other show up for it!)

On a gruesome note,

both William Johnson and Judy Tyler died within a year of the show's closing.

Helen claimed the show cursed and 

began carrying a lucky charm in her pocket 

whenever she performed!

 Come 2012,

New York City Center Encores! produced a long-overdue Pipe,

a staged concert version with...

 Will Chase as Doc,

Laura Osnes as Suzy...

 Leslie Uggams played Fauna (above center),

Steven Wallem as Hazel (below left),

and Tom Wopat (below center) played Mac.

 The production and subsequent cast recording

was deemed by the NY Times

 "a fascinating musical on several counts, and one which displays the rich, vibrant sound of pure Rodgers & Hammerstein."

What changed? A better cast? An audience who could understand

(and allow for) a bordell-aised heroine?

Better intermission drinks?

Whatever the reason, thank the theatre gods for Encores! and 

their mission of producing shows that could easily 

slide between the Broadway cracks

and never be seen again. 

Playlist For Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018: Stir Fry!

Ideas for this week's blog:

1.) Broadway Stir Fry. When you want to clean out your cupboards (write your playlist), and blithely add raisins (Ethel Merman), American cheese (Newsies), tea biscuits (Spike!) and walnut pesto (Sondheim). Stir. Fry.

2.) How you ordered 3 new CDs and ONE OF THEM...the least expensive of the bunch, turns out to be the only good one. The others will maybe make good Christmas tree/Hanukkah bush ornaments. (Really, Pretty Woman???)

3.) Stop talking about the effing weather. Everybody's got dank. Big deal.

4.) Stop mentioning your love of:
       a.) coffee
       b.) your cat
       c.) Paris
       d.) eccentric Broadway shows that no one else knows...Elitist!!!

5.) Stop complaining about how life is not a bowl of cherries this week, but that with Broadway, it magically is! Cue Jerry Herman, glockenspiels, and kick lines! Jesus.

7.) Try to keep the themes to a minimum, okay? They're sophomoric. Unsophisticated. What would Ethel say (WWES). Or Stephen (WWSS).

6.) Don't write one at all. Let 'em wonder what's going on. Maybe they'll think you've run away with a tall, middle-aged, leading man, who sings and dances and shares your proclivities for esoteric musicals, coffee, cats, and Paris. Or they'll think you're sick or hungover or depressed. Yeah, they'll most likely think that.

7.) Relax. Wait til next week. When you have some fresh ideas. Have some coffee. Pet your cat. Don't get depressed. There'll always be Paris. 



Cocktails For Two (Spike Jones and his City Slickers)
The Man I Used To Be (Will Chase, Pipe Dream)
All At Once You Love Her (Will Chase, Laura Osnes, Pipe Dream)
A Lopsided Bus (Tom Wopat, James Clow, Stephen Wallem, Pipe Dream)
Friendship (Ethel Merman, Bert Lahr, DuBarry Was A Lady)
Friendship (Eileen Rodgers, Mickey Deems, Hal Linden, Anything Goes)
Friendship (Ann Hampton Callaway, Liz Callaway, Sibling Revelry)
Santa Fe (Jeremy Jordan, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Newsies)
Watch What Happens (Kara Lindsay, Newsies)
Carrying The Banner (Jeremy Jordan, Ensemble, Newsies)
Two Ladies (Joel Grey, Ensemble, Cabaret)
It Takes Two (Joanna Gleason, Chip Zien, Into The Woods)
Two Lost Souls (Gwen Verdon, Stephen Douglass, Damn Yankees)
Two Little Words (Kristin Chenoweth, Ensemble, Steel Pier)
Two Heads (Evan Harrington, Devere Rogers, The Robber Bridegroom
Two Sleepy People (Carroll Gibbons and The Savoy Hotel Orpheans)
Day Two (Andy Karl, Ensemble, Groundhog Day)
Two By Two (Josh Gad, Andrew Rannells, Ensemble, The Book Of Mormon)
Tradition (Zero Mostel, Company, Fiddler On The Roof)
Miracle of Miracles (Austin Pendleton, Fiddler On The Roof)
The Dream (Zero Mostel, Maria Karnilova, Company, Fiddler On The Roof)
A Friend Like You (Brett Ryback, Jeff Blumenthal, Murder For Two)
Yer My Friend, Ain'tcha? (Thelma Ritter, Cameron Prudhomme, New Girl
      In Town)
Old Friends (Jim Walton, Lonny Price, Ann Morrison, Merrily We Roll Along)
My Friends (Len Cariou, Angela Lansbury, Sweeney Todd)
Gotta Have Me Go With You (Judy Garland, A Star Is Born)
Together Wherever We Go (Ethel Merman, Jack Klugman, Gypsy)
Anything You Can Do (Betty Hutton, Annie Get Your Gun)
'Til Him (Mathew Broderick, Nathan Lane, The Producers)

Rrround tones, rrrrrround tones!

Kathleen Freeman was born

in 1919 in Chicago,

and joined her parents' vaudeville act as soon as she could stand.

She studied music at UCLA, with a piano major,

but the acting bug bit 

(or as she's quoted,"A terrible thing happened (on stage),

I got a laugh")

and it was off to the stage and movies!

Her film debut was in Wild Harvest, in 1947.

 

Kathleen made over 120 movies over the course of 50 years,

but one of her most popular films,

Singin' In The Rain, 1952,

did not even credit her.

She played Phoebe Dinsmore, vocal coach to Jean Hagen.

 Jerry Lewis was a big fan:

Kathleen did 11 movies with Jerry,

including The Nutty Professor and The Errand Boy.

 Another uncredited role, above,

in House Boat with Cary Grant (1958).

And so many sit-com appearances!

Including Hogan's Heroes, 1965-71,

where she played Frau Gertrude Linkmeyer,

above with Werner Klemperer as Colonel Klink.

A short lived sit-com,

done with Dom Deluise, 

"Lotsa Luck"

done in 1973.

 Other TV shows:

I Dream Of Jeanie, The Bob Cummings Show, 

Wagon Train, The Lucy Show,

The Beverly Hillbillies, Married With Children, and on and on! 

And back to movies...

As Sister Mary Stigmata in The Blues Brothers (1980)

  

 Support Your Local Gunfighter

with James Garner (1971)

 Hocus Pocus (1993)

 Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult

 And just before Kathleen passed away,

Broadway's The Full Monty,

where she played Jeanette Burmeister,

music director for "the boys" act.

She had to leave the show a few months into the run,

and died 5 days after doing so,

at the age 82. 

She received a Theatre World Award for her work.

Below with Andre DeShields.

 

Character actress supreme...

1919-2001

Wonderful, Classy and Earnest!

 Wonderful Town

has a history and a half:

First came the short stories it was based on, My Sister Eileen,

written by Ruth McKenney and published in the New Yorker

back in 1938.

Then came the PLAY, My Sister Eileen (no music yet!)

done on Broadway in 1940.

Two years later, the first (!) movie version, with 

Rosalind Russell and Janet Blair (still no music),

and then a radio play done with the same cast. 

Come 1953, Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green

wrote the music for the Broadway musical,

Wonderful Town,

with Roz, Edie Adams, George Gaynes, et. al...

and after that, it was back to Hollywood for a 1955 version,

again called My Sister Eileen.

It seems that "they" couldn't get the rights to the musical,

so Jule Styne and Leo Robin were hired to write brand new music,

(and they had to place that music in different scenes, as well!).

That one starred Jack Lemmon, Janet Leigh, Betty Garrett,

Tommy Rall and Bob Fosse.

You wonder if Ruth McKenney had any idea of the legacy she began

with the writing of those little stories back in the day.

 Edie, Dody Goodman, and Roz.

Also in the cast: Nathaniel Frey (Damn Yankees),

Cris Alexander(On The Town) and Henry Lascoe (Silk Stockings!).

 Edie Adams was listed as Edith Adams

in the show's Playbill.

She was 26 years old and won a Theatre World Award for her work in the show.

 Roz and George Gaynes...

he "loved a quiet girl", she had "100 easy ways to lose a man."

The show won 5 Tony Awards,

including one for Roz and another for Best Musical. 

 A Class Act

is a show with songs written by Edward Kleban,

whose magnum opus was A Chorus Line

(Ed was the lyricist half, with Marvin Hamlisch on music).

When he died in 1987, he stated in his will that 

he would like his unpublished songs to be made into a musical.

Linda Kline and Lonny Price did just that.

Above, some of the cast:

Lonny (who starred as Ed), Randy Graff, Nancy Anderson 

and David Hibbard.

 Ed (above) suffered from mental illness and cancer,

passing away at the age of 48.

Thanks to A Class Act,

he was nominated for a Tony Award 14 years after he died.

From A Class Act, 

we'll hear "Better", "Broadway Boogie Woogie",

and "Gauguin's Shoes." 

The success of No, No, Nanette in 1971

started a nostalgia craze on Broadway.

Above Jack Gilford, Ruby Keeler, Bobby Van and Helen Gallagher.

We'll hear "Tea For Two."

This show has a long provenance as well:
1919: stage play

1925: Broadway play

1930: pre-code movie 

1940: another movie

1971: the REVIVAL! 

Music, Vincent Youmans, lyrics, Otto Harbach and Irving Caesar

 The above shot is NOT from the original Off-Broadway production of 

Ernest In Love,

which opened in 1960...

but that IS a cast recording pic, however, below

with Louis Edmonds and John Irving in the middle.

The show was written by Lee Pockriss and Anne Croswell,

who would work together again on Tovarich.

Lee (with other writers) produced the likes of 

"Catch A Falling Star", "Johnny Angel"

and "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini."

 Brooks Atkinson's review of the show in the Times...

and below, the Tokyo version!