Monday morning, Ella Fitzgerald with a great Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart song.
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Tag Archives: musical
Tilting At Windmills
Richard Kiley in his greatest Broadway role, as Miguel Cervantes/Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha, book by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Darion.
Wikipedia tempts us with the information that the original lyricist was to be W. H. Auden, but his lyrics were considered too satirical and biting towards the bourgeois audience and so was replaced.
What I would give to see those discarded lyrics!
Thanks to YouTuber The Ed Sullivan Show
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The Company Way
One more lesson in obsequiousness from How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. The late Robert Morse rings every bit of humor from the song. The clever lyrics and music are by Frank Loesser.
Thanks to YouTuber Movieclips
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Would You Light My Candle?
As snow and cold invades these parts, Renée Elise Goldsberry seeks some warmth from Will Chase in Rent.
Thanks to BroadwayInHD
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A Brotherhood of Man
Daniel Radcliffe in a non-Harry Potter-ish role, insists on the unity of us all, as his corporate brethren in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying agree. Robert Morse and Matthew Broderick who both played the same role, introduce the high-spirited number at the Tony Awards.
Who knew that Radcliffe was such a great song-and-dance man?
Thanks to YouTuber The xNYr
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Audition
Monday morning, put the oxygen tanks on standby.
That’s Graeme Henderson putting the chorus gypsies through their paces in the London West End revival of 42nd Street
Thanks to YouTuber Great Performances | PBS
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Tonight
Monday morning, as the 1961 vs the 2021 West Side Story movie buffs argue, let’s go back to the glorious original Broadway theater cast of Carol Lawrence and Larry Kert. Certainly no one better than they were. Here they are in a tv appearance on Ed Sullivan, about 1958. Unfortunately, this YouTube version ends early, but some is better than none…
Thanks to YouTuber The Ed Sullivan Show
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West Side Story
Monday morning, some great photos of the original Broadway cast of West Side Story set to a breakneck speed medley of the immortal Leonard Bernstein score.
Thanks to YouTuber johntlew
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525,600 Minutes
At the closing performance of Jonathan Larsen’s Rent, after 12 years on Broadway, the cast was joined in their finale by the original 1996 cast to sing “Seasons of Love.”
Thanks to YouTuber BroadwayInHD
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How We Gonna Pay…?
Monday Morning, waking up hyperactive, the power is out and last year’s rent is due.
The frenetic choreography is over the top for me, but the music and lyrics as sung by the 2008 Broadway cast of Jonathan Larsen’s Rent are still zippy.
Thanks to YouTuber BroadwayInHD
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Toto Too
Monday morning, because sometimes the original is the best.
Thanks to YouTuber Movieclips
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I Want To Be With You: Sammy Davis Jr.
Monday Morning, Mr. Wonderful, as Sammy Davis’s character in his first Broadway play was called.
If Sammy Davis were only a dancer he would be known as one of the greatest tap dancers of the 20th century.
If he were only a singer he would be known as one of the greatest male vocalists of the 20th century.
He was both.
Here he is with a song from his second musical, Golden Boy, from 1964, about an African-American boxer who falls in love with a white woman.
Paula Wayne who played Sammy’s lover, Lorna, in the show, said that when the time came during rehearsals for Sammy to kiss her, Sammy was very reluctant to do so. It was the first time an interracial kiss had happened on the Broadway stage; but Paula insisted that there would be no problem. She was soon to find out otherwise—the day after the show opened there were pickets in front of the theatre from white supremacists groups denouncing the show.
But the show ran for 500+ performances and had a great, under-appreciated score by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams—probably the best score they ever created.
Thanks to YouTuber varadero1839
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Hi-Jinx: Tommy Rall
Another of the great, but lesser known, film dance stars, Tommy Rall, who died this month. As a youngster, he was in a group of dancing teens called the “Jivin’ Jacks and Jills” at Universal Studios, which included Donald O’Connor. He was trained in ballet, and his amazing high jumps, pirouettes, and flips rival anything else seen on the screen. He appeared in movie musicals almost every year in the 50s, but somehow he never made it into super-stardom. O’Connor thought Rall was one of the greatest dancers living, a better dancer than either Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire.
Here he is with Ann Miller in “Why Can’t You Behave?” from Kiss Me Kate, where he mixes dance with some practical jokes in a fun character piece.
Click on the image to play.
Thanks to YouTuber JOHANNQUETEBEO
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Trash To Gold
Gene Kelly, Michael Kidd, and Dan Duryea as three GIs about to be discharged, set out on a binge and do an incredible dance number with trash can lids. From the film, It’s Always Fair Weather, the last Gene Kelly–Stanley Donen collaboration.
Thanks to YouTuber Peggy Afuta
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That Musical About The Two Rival NYC Gangs…
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A delicious parody of West Side Story with Will Ferrell and his SNL compatriots.
Thanks to YouTuber
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Fool’s Gold
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The great and idiosyncratic Anthony Newley, singing, in costume, the song from Stop The World, I Want To Get Off! that had him laughing all the way to the bank.
Thanks to YouTuber Anthonay Newley
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“Baby You Knock Me Out”
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Monday morning, the extraordinary Cyd Charisse floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee, and schools the boys in boxing lore in this dance clip from It’s Always Fair Weather. Music and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.
Thanks to YouTuber Warner Archive Instant
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“We Think You’re Just Sensational”
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Angela Lansbury in one of her signature roles at the 1975 Tony Awards.
About two-thirds of the way through the clip, Lansbury gets surprised by a guest dancer. Don’t miss it. The look on her face is wonderful. (If you don’t recognize who it is, I’ll post his identity in the comments.)
Thanks to YouTuber kotlicek
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Put On A Happy Face
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Dick Van Dyke and the eloquent Sharon Lerit from the Broadway stage production of Bye Bye Birdie dance up a storm.
Van Dyke learned years later that the producers had wanted to fire him out of town, but Gower Champion had fought hard to keep him. Van Dyke and the show made it to New York and hit it big.
Thanks to YouTuber lee a
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Hymn For A Sunday Evening
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Department of Self-Referential Videos Department.
The original Broadway cast of Bye Bye Birdie—including the fabulous Paul Lynde— singing the Ed Sullivan song—on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Thanks to YouTuber lee a
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If I Were A Bell
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Jean Simmons’ wonderful turn as the Salvation Army worker who just had her first drink in Frank Loesser’s Guys And Dolls. And, of course, Marlon Brando, in one of the oddest casting decisions for a movie musical, as the leading man, gambler Sky Masterson.
Thanks to YouTuber ZSy264
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“It’s Just Their Time To, I Reckon.”
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The “bench scene” from Carousel, “If I Loved You,” with the original Broadway cast, John Raitt (father of Bonnie) and Jan Clayton. In my opinion, the best love scene and music that Rodgers and Hammerstein ever wrote. And stay until the end to catch the amazing Jan Clayton in the final clinch.
Thanks to YouTuber fvydt
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“Time Is An Ocean”: Marc Anthony and Ruben Blades
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The short-lived original 1998 Broadway production of The Capeman had a beautiful score by Paul Simon and Derek Walcott. And it was sung superbly by two icons, Marc Anthony and Ruben Blades.
The video above was uploaded last month to YouTube by Blades himself. In this song, Ruben Blades plays the older Salvador Agron, the so-called Capeman murderer, looking back and trying to reach his younger, 16-year-old incarcerated self, played by Marc Anthony.
I hope that someday more video surfaces, as that show really needs to be re-evaluated. It was performed for a few times in the summer at Central Park’s outdoor Delacorte Theatre in 2012, but was not picked up for a longer run. If anyone is interested, I’ll tell a funny story concerning my viewing of that production.
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Tappin’ Thru Life: Maurice Hines
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Yesterday, radio station WBAI 99.5 FM in NY aired my interview with tap-dancing legend, Maurice Hines. Together with his brother Gregory, he re-invented tap dance for modern audiences.
Maurice guested on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson over 35 times and had a featured role in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club. The star of several shows on Broadway, he just opened Off-Broadway in a new autobiographical song and dancer called Tappin’ Thru Life.
In the show, 72 year old Maurice sings, dances and dishes about the greats he’s worked with, including Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and on and on. I had the pleasure of talking with him in his dressing room a few hours before his Wednesday evening performance.
Click on the grey triangle to hear the warm giving voice of Maurice Hines talking about his life and times.
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Let’s Squish Our Fruits Together
The pranksters at Improv Everywhere are at it again, and they need you!
Improv Everywhere is the group of geniuses who created the No Pants Subway prank. They specialize in seemingly spontaneous musical break outs in public places. In the above video you can see one of my favorite of their pranks (or “missions,” as they call them), a real life musical in a grocery store celebrating the mingling of fruits (don’t ask, the video explains all)!
And now you, too, can participate in their next prank in mid-April. If you live in NYC and have one or more of the following skills: ballet, gymnastics, or ballroom dancing, then get in contact with them at the following urls:
