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…
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.
Monday morning, The Jets, The Sharks, Tony, Maria, and Anita get ready for the big night. Lucky them to have the Bernstein/Sondheim music to prepare to. Still the best score from an American musical in my opinion.
Listen as musical composer and commentator Rob Kapilow deconstructs Bernstein’s masterpiece, “Tonight,” from West Side Story. Utilizing the revisions of the song from Bernstein’s archives, Kapilow explains, musical phrase by phrase, how the song is constructed, and why it works so well. It’s a fascinating exegesis and all the more wonderful for the heavenly singing of Sally Wilfert and Michael Winther as Maria and Tony.
As the cherry on top, after Kapilow’s close explication, Wilfert and Winther get to sing the song through, uninterrupted.
This enlightening demonstration was just one of several bonuses the audience was treated to at this month’sEverything Old is New Again Live cabaret performance, David Kenney’s monthly fundraiser for radio station WBAI 99.5 FM NYC at The Metropolitan Room. The next live show is March 6th; until then, keep happy by listening to David’s show every Sunday night from 9-11pm, at WBAI.org.
Click on the grey triangle above to hear Kapilow and company.