I became a Wagnerite in 1971, and a Perfect Wagnerite the following year. For several reasons I didn’t get to know his opera Lohengrin very well, though I did go to see a great performance of it at the Met in the late 70s. I’m rectifying that omission now, and of course there’s a wealth of … Continue reading Prelude
Theatre
The World Goes Round
The latest episode of Fresh Air is A tribute to the music of John Kander and Fred Ebb. For some reason Terry Gross plays Frank Sinatra’s inferior version of the iconic “New York, New York” rather than Liza Minnelli’s excellent rendition. Oh, well. Anyway, here is Minnelli singing one of my favorite Kander and Ebb … Continue reading The World Goes Round
Maybe I Should Go to NYC
I’ve heard so much about the revival of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd that I’ve begun to think that perhaps I ought to take to trip to NYC to see it. After all, it is one of my favorites of Sondheim’s oeuvre, and it’s been years since I’ve seen a live production, and the … Continue reading Maybe I Should Go to NYC
Josh Groban
There’s a good interview with Josh Groban on Fresh Air where he talks about the revival of Sweeney Todd where he plays the title character. Ann Marie Baldonado is the interviewer: BALDONADO: You - when you're describing Sondheim, you talked about how, you know, he often writes staccato, but this - of "Sweeney's" a little … Continue reading Josh Groban
On the Steps of the Schubert
Broadway World has posted a video commemorating the 50th Anniversary of “Sondheim: A Musical Tribute”. I remember getting that album back in the 70s, although probably a year or so after it came out, when I was a fledgling Sondheim fan. That album helped to cement my admiration for Sondheim.
Those Final D’s
It’s been a week since I listened to that cast album of Irving Berlin’s Mr. President, but some of the songs are still swirling around in my brain. Of course, I used to have the album when I was a teenager, so I knew the score by heart in those days. Nanette Fabray played the First … Continue reading Those Final D’s
An Old Fashioned Wedding
Ethel Merman was in her late 30s when she created the role of Annie Oakley in the original production of Annie Get Your Gun in 1946, which was a bit too old for the historical Annie, but given that the show took lots of other liberties with history, it probably didn’t matter much. Of course, 20 … Continue reading An Old Fashioned Wedding
A Brilliant Comic Lyric Writer
Stephen Sondheim compiled a list called “Songs I Wish I’d Written (at Least in Part)” and he included an Irving Berlin number on that list. In the concert that included some of those songs he made some opening remarks, and here is what he had to say about Berlin: One, “You Can't Get a Man … Continue reading A Brilliant Comic Lyric Writer
A rubdown with a velvet glove
Speaking of Irving Berlin, as I was, I’m reminded of the time we went to see the Conrad Weiser High School production of his 1950 Broadway musical Call Me Madam. I think the only reason we went to see it was because our family doctor’s son, Arlington Nagle Jr., had a part in it. And … Continue reading A rubdown with a velvet glove
There’s “tootsie” playing “footsie” very cosy
Irving Berlin was one of the towering figures of Tin Pan Alley and the musical theater with a career reaching back to 1911 with his first hit tune “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”. Most of his famous songs date from the 20s and 30s when the songs in musicals often had very little to do with the … Continue reading There’s “tootsie” playing “footsie” very cosy