Almost exactly forty-nine years after the interview that I embedded a few days ago, on October 13, 2010, Stephen Sondheim spoke to Matthew Cain in Great Britain for a wide ranging chat. He discussed many topics including the difference between the theater scenes in New York and London and his disappointment that musicals now vastly … Continue reading Sondheim in 2010
Musicals
Sondheim in 1961
This is a fascinating video. It was broadcast on Sunday October 15, 1961, but it was recorded a few days before then. It’s a WCBS production, so I don’t think it was ever broadcast nationally, but I really don’t know. Moreover, this is the raw tape with a false start and a do-over. Would commercials … Continue reading Sondheim in 1961
Johanna Quartet
The “Johanna Quartet” from Act II of Sweeney Todd or just called “Johanna (Act II Sequence)” from the forthcoming revival album has been released. It features Josh Groban, Ruthie Ann Miles, Jordan Fisher, and Maria Bilbao. Unlike the Original Broadway Cast recording, this one apparently does not include the sound effects of Sweeney dispatching his … Continue reading Johanna Quartet
On Account-a It’s June!
Philadelphia is experiencing something it hasn’t seen in quite a few years. I think it’s called spring. Usually for some reason the winter breezes linger into April and after a week or two of mild weather in May we’re already into summer heat and humidity of mid-80 degree or more highs. Not this year. We’re … Continue reading On Account-a It’s June!
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
Possibilities
Last night I decided to listen to the Original Cast album of the Broadway musical It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman, a score I haven’t heard in several years, and it immediately threw me into a quandary. I know that the Penn State Thespians put on the musical, as I have several vivid memories of … Continue reading Possibilities