The sun is out. The power is off.

 Martin Charnin was born and raised in NYC,

 attending the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan.

At Cooper Union, he studied painting.

But Theatre worked its spell on Martin during 

a summer job in the Adirondacks, 

where he wrote sketches, painted scenery and acted.

After graduation, he auditioned for West Side Story

(then called Gangway)

and got the part of Big Deal, a member of the Jets.

 By the early 1960s,

Martin had begun writing lyrics

(with Mary Rodgers for Hot Spot,

and with Richard Rodgers on Two By Two).

He also directed and produced for television...

but come the 70s, Martin got an idea about 

Little Orphan Annie

and how her story would make a fabulous musical. 

His collaborators-to-be,

Charles Strouse (above) and Thomas Meehan

had to be convinced,

the latter insisting that he would never want to

 write the book for a musical that he would not want to see.

 Charles had just come off a flop,

"It's A Bird...It's A Plane...It's Superman!",

another comic book character,

and he sure didn't want to have that experience again.

But Martin charmed them!

Above, Martin with Andrea McArdle 

(NOT the first Annie! The first Annie was Kristen Vigard,

who played the out of town previews. 

She was found "too sweet" for the part, and was traded in

for the crusty Andrea!)

and Reid Shelton (Daddy Warbucks) at the cast recording.

Andrea, who was 14 years old when the show opened,

received a Tony nomination.

Dorothy Loudon (below), the first Miss Hannigan,

won one!

 Sandy the Dog was played by Sandy the Dog.

This may or may not be the original Sandy.

 Reid, Andrea, and Sandy Faison,

about to belt out "N.Y.C." probably!

  Annie ran on Broadway for almost 6 years,

and from there

Martin would go on to direct 42 touring productions of the show;

by 1993, he had spent 23 years involved in Annie,

and this before the sequels and revivals!

 The 40th year reunion with Charles, Andrea, and Martin (above),

and the two partners below.

Charles is 91 years old at present. 

Martin often returned to direct the original “Annie,” 

specifically for touring companies, as recently as 2014.

Just prior to his death, he was working on a revue

to open this December at the Triad Theatre,

but "the show will NOT go on" without him.

Last night (7/13/19) the lights of Broadway were dimmed...

in fact the whole west side of Manhattan lost power!

So Martin got quite the send off.

1934 - 2019

As if he sees you and he doesn’t all at once.

 After Stephen Sondheim's debacle

of Merrily We Roll Along 

(16 performances and scathing reviews),

he was ready to quit doing musical theatre.

But just in the nick of time...inspiration!

"A Sunday Afternoon On The Island of La Grande Jatte"

by George Seurat, the French Pointillist painter,

which both he and James Lapine (book writer supreme)

 became fascinated with:

Voila! Sunday in the Park with George.

.Mandy Patinkin starred as George
(above with the beard, not the eye-patch!)

and Bernadette Peters (below) played his girlfriend, 

appropriately named Dot.

 In rehearsal with Bernadette

and Mandy.

The show began Off-Broadway at Playwright's Horizon in 1983,

and then transferred to Broadway the following year,

for just over 600 performances.  

And yes, like most Sondheim shows,

it lost money.

 The musical is a fictionalized account of 

George and Dot.

The truer tale:

Seurat's common-law wife was Madeleine Knobloch, and

she did not leave him for a romance with "Louie The Baker" 

nor did she travel to America. 

She was living with Seurat when he died, at the age of 31.

Madeline died of cirrhosis of the liver at 35.

 In Act 2, Mandy played George and Dot's great-grandson,

and Bernadette became Marie, his grandmother,

and supposedly the child of Dot and George.

 Again, in real life, George and Dot's children

(they had two)

both died in infancy.

Although the show was awarded several

Drama Desks,

and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama

(and an Olivier for Best Musical when it played the West End),

only 2 of their 10 Tony nominations brought wins:

Scenic Design and Lighting.

This was the year of La Cage Aux Folles, 

and Jerry Herman's "music you can hum" barb!

 A 2017 revival with Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford

was well reviewed and is on its way to the West End,

as I type!

Now just hoping for a cast album! 

Georges old and new...

Reviewer Frank Rich of the NYTimes

called the original production,

 "an audacious, haunting and, in its own intensely personal way, 

touching work. 

Even when it fails – as it does on occasion – Sunday in the Park is setting the stage for even more sustained theatrical innovations yet to come."

Of the revival, 33 years later,

Ben Brantley said the show

"suddenly feels more incisive and urgent, even necessary, than ever.

 It’s impossible not to fall in love."

Playlist For July 14, 2019: Sunday. With George. In The Park. Be there.

Well, we here in upstate NY have finally landed (check your Timex!) in Summer. Took us a little longer than usual, but we're here. Time for roasting corn, slurping pinas a-pool, crankin' up the AC, and bugs. Love it. I will not complain. Until August, and then watch out. Only 20 days or so in the future, I'll be jonesing for foliage, pumpkin drinks, LL Bean sweaters, crisp/chilly/and even dank and nostalgically dreary.

Cuz that's the weather I think best in. This summer stuff melts brains into La La Land, where hammock dreams mix with heat and spiked lemonade to foment fuzz. Just now I was off in bike land (30 miles out) and came up with the non-profound themes set before you (Art? Music? Dance? What is this, the High School For The Performing Arts? Mack Sennett and Norma Desmond wanna be's?)...all just an excuse to play Sunday In The Park (not the Chicago version), Nine, Funny Girl, and A Chorus Line. The heat has me in its clutches and it's only July 9!

We'll also play some Annie and remember Martin Charnin, lyricist, director, creator of so many wonderful shows (Broadway, television, cabaret), and dabble in a few lovely ballads from THIS DECADE. How edgy of me. :)

So back to the blender for another frappe.  Just gotta find my flip flops. Maybe I left them under the hammock. Or by the pool. Wait...I'm wearing them! XO

Sunday In The Park With George (Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters,
      Sunday In The Park With George)
No Life (Charles Kimbrough, Dana Ivey, Sunday In The Park With George)
Color And Light (Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Sunday In The
      Park With George)
Movie Themes (Raul Julia, Nine)
Folies Bergere (Liliane Montevecchi, Raul Julia, Stephanie Cotsirilos, Nine)
Movies Were Movies (Robert Preston, Mack & Mabel)
The Usher From The Mezzanine (Carol Burnett, Fade Out - Fade In)
Poor Little Hollywood Star (Virginia Martin, Little Me)
I Want To Go To Hollywood (Jane Krakowski, Grand Hotel)
With One Look (Patti LuPone, Sunset Boulevard)
Tomorrow (Andrea McArdle, Annie)
Little Girls (Dorothy Loudon, Annie)
N.Y.C. (Reid Shelton, Sandy Faison, Andrea McArdle, Annie)
Girl From The North Country (Kirsty Malpass, Girl From The North Country)
All I've Ever Known (Nabiyah Be, Damon Daunno, Hadestown)
When Your Mind's Made Up (Steve Kazee, Cristin Milioti, Once)
I Miss The Music (David Hyde Pierce, Jason Danieley, Curtains)
The Music That Makes Me Dance (Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl)
The Music And The Mirror (Donna McKechnie, A Chorus Line)
Dancing (Carol Channing, Charles Nelson Reilly, Eileen Brennan, Jerry
      Dodge, Hello Dolly!)
Gotta Dance (Gene Kelly, Singin' In The Rain)
Dance: Ten; Looks: Three (Pamela Blaire, A Chorus Line)
Dance At The Gym (Instrumental, West Side Story)
Finishing The Hat (Mandy Patinkin, Sunday In The Park With George)
We Do Not Belong Together ( (Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters,
      Sunday In The Park With George)
Sunday  (Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Sunday In The Park
      With George)

Warm woolen mittens...

More of My Favorite Things:

 Judy Holliday,

who did both the original Broadway production (above)

and the movie (below) of 

Bells Are Ringing.

"I'm Going Back",

a song unfortunately left out of the movie version,

the work of Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

Judy got a Tony out of that staged performance,

as did her co-star, Sydney Chaplin.

Love the scene below...

Frank Gorshin and Judy, as beatniks sublime!

 No "favorites" show of mine would be complete

without some Elaine,

and "I'm Still Here" represents all of the Stritch Stuff I love.

Above, from Elaine Stritch At Liberty,

her one-woman show.

 Bandstand didn't last long on Broadway,

but a couple of songs make my top 100 list, for sure!

Like "Nobody"

with Corey Cott and Laura Osnes.

 

 John Lithgow has played a couple of

dirty rotten characters,

one from The Sweet Smell Of Success,

and another from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (above AND below)

with Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott.

"Dirty Rotten Number"

Music: David Yazbek.

 Phyllis Newman and Orson Bean

in Subways Are For Sleeping (1961),

another Styne/Comden/Green creation

(I guess their shows are all favorites of mine!).

"I Just Can't Wait"

Phyllis was married to Adolph Green and STILL had to audition

for the part of Martha,

who wears a towel through most of the musical

(thinking she can't be evicted if she's not dressed?

I gotta try that!).

Orson (below) in game-show days.

 

I think I grew up with these folks:

Tom Poston, Kitty Carlisle, Bud Collyer and Orson Bean

on To Tell The Truth, from the 1960s.

Peggy Cass is AWOL. :)

Bright copper kettles...

 And these are some of my favorite things...

Christian Borle in Something Rotten.

Well, the whole score is pretty damn fun,

so this song must represent all the others.

"Will Power!" 

 

 Joel Grey and Sutton Foster

as Moonface Martin and Reno Sweeney

in the 2011 revival of Anything Goes:

"Friendship" (originally from Dubarry Was A Lady,

but thanks to its inclusion in the 1962 revival,

it seems now to be a part of this show's firm-a-ment!)

Below, Colin Donnell (as Billy) enters the picture.

 Charles Nelson Reilly

(before the Hollywood Square days)

in How To Succeed.

I totally relate to his (and Claudette Sutherland's)

desperation.

"Coffee Break"

(Note the painted scenery. And work stations. Beats cubicles.)

 For some reason the number was jettisoned from the movie version.

Above, the end pose with BAGELS on that coffee cart?

Or are they huge donuts?

It wasn't the only song cut.

(Happy To Keep His Dinner Warm and also Paris Original,

which can be heard in the background in one scene.)

 We'll also hear Isao Sato,

getting a hug from Stephen Sondheim,

post opening night of Pacific Overtures.

His performance brought him a Tony nomination

back in 1976.

Isao's second career (flight instructor) would cause his death

at the age of 40 (in 1990).

"A Bowler Hat"

 Tony Perkins and Charmian Carr

in Sondheim's musical-for-television,

Evening Primrose.

We'll hear "I Remember".

Charmian, below, passed away just 3 years ago,

Tony in 1992.

 From City of Angels

(super music Cy Coleman, super lyrics David Zippel),

we'll hear Rene Auberjonois and "The Buddy System."

Hard to pick a favorite from this score,

but "Buddy" worked well in the "Rotten" set. :)

Above with Gregg Edelman who played Stein. 

Rene is 79 at present,

and his name actually means "one who makes armor." 

Cool!

 

 Too many great songs from Do Re Mi (1960)

a Jule Styne/Comden and Green goodie,

starring Phil Silvers and Nancy Walker,

but I had to pick just one...a short one!

"Waiting, Waiting"

Below, Betty Comden backstage with Nancy.

Playlist For July 7, 2019: Whiskers on Kittens

 These are a few of my favorite things, okay? Yup, that's the theme of this week's 2 On The Aisle, a playlist I could concoct in a FLASH. Ultra busy with guests and barbies and whatnot, so I had to carve this in about 1 hour. Next week we can do YOUR favorites. This week it's MINE. I'm off to party and bike (not in that order) and in general play hooky.

 Have a great 4th, or spread the holiday through the entire week. I intend to!


My Favorite Things (Mary Martin, The Sound Of Music)
Waiting, Waiting (Nancy Walker, Do Re Mi)
Friendship (Joel Grey, Sutton Foster, Anything Goes)
Tiger Rag (Jane Krakowski, Company, Bullets Over Broadway)
I'm Still Here (Elaine Stritch, Elaine Stritch At Liberty)
I'm Going Back (Judy Holliday, Bells Are Ringing)
And I Was Beautiful (Angela Lansbury, Dear World)
I Remember (Charmian Carr, Evening Primrose)
You're A Dysquith (Jane Carr, Bryce Pinkham, A Gentleman's Guide To
      Love And Murder)
When You're An Addams (Nathan Lane, Company, The Addams Family)
What Kind Of Man (Debra Monk, Company, Curtains)
Coffee Break (Charles Nelson Reilly, Claudette Sutherland, How To Succeed
      In Business Without Really Trying)
I Can't Be In Love (Don Ameche, Goldilocks)
I Just Can't Wait (Orson Bean, Subways Are For Sleeping)
I Want It All (Liz Callaway, Beth Fowler, Catherine Cox, Baby)
Will Power (Christian Borle, Something Rotten) 
Nobody (Corey Cott, Laura Osnes, Bandstand)
Dirt (Ensemble, The Sweet Smell Of Success)
The Buddy System (Rene Auberjonois, City Of Angels)
Dirty Rotten Number (John Lithgow, Norbert Leo Butz, Dirty
      Rotten Scoundrels)
Will You? (Christine Ebersole, Grey Gardens)
Omar Sharif (Katrina Lenk, The Band's Visit)
Johanna (Victor Garber, Sweeney Todd)
A Bowler Hat (Isao Sato, Pacific Overtures)
What's Gonna Happen (Sarah Stiles, Tootsie)
Shiksa Goddess (Norbert Leo Butz, The Last Five Years)
Model Behavior (Laura Benanti, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous
      Breakdown)
Deep Beneath The City/Not There Yet (Company, In Transit)