To celebrate the rare event of a blue moon on New Year’s Eve (which is reality on the last day of 2009), the song for this week is the legendary ballad, Blue Moon. According to Wikipedia, the song was written in 1934 by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, and is performed by numerous artists since then. In the video below, guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel performs the song in fingerstyle fashion.

Some of us know J. Walter Hawkes as a wonderfully mobile trombonist or as an Emmy-winning composer.  Others know him as a champion of the ukulele and composer of longer works.  I admire all these selves, but I am especially fond of his singing — often tender and always inspired.  Here’s J. Walter Hawkes, the one-man orchestra: soprano ukulele and voice, doing splendid homage to Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=5620880

One of my many hopes in the jazz world is that I will someday get to write the liner notes to a JWH vocal CD!

COPYRIGHT, MICHAEL STEINMAN AND JAZZ LIVES, 2009
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.  Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Michael Steinman and Jazz Lives with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

From “The Sound of Music“
Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II
Music: Richard Rodgers

There’s a sad sort of clanging
From the clock in the hall
And the bells in the steeple too,
And up in the nurs’ry an absurd little bird
Is popping out to say “coocoo”.

Regretfully they tell us,
But firmly they compel us
To say goodby to you.

So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, good night,
I hate to go and leave this pretty sight.
So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, adieu,
Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu.

So long, farewell, Au’voir, auf wiedersehen,
I’d like to stay and taste my first champagne
So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, goodbye,
I leave and heave a sigh and say goodbye,
Good bye

I’m glad to go,
I cannot tell a lie.
I flit, I float,
I fleetly flee, I fly.

The sun has gone to bed and so must I
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye,
Goodbye,
Goodbye,
Goodbye!

00345.0000 SURREY WITH THE FRINGE ON THE TOP

Music: Richard Rodgers
Words: Oscar Hammerstein

Link to Lyrics and Chords
Link to Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones’ Performance

Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry,
When I take you out in the surrey,
When I take you out in the surrey with the fringe on the top.
Watch that fringe and see how it flutters,
When I drive them high steppin’ strutters;
Nosey folks’ll peep through their shutters,
And their eyes will pop.

The wheels are yellow, the upholstery brown,
The dashboard’s genuine leather,
With isinglass curtains you can roll right down,
In case there’s a change in the weather.
Two bright side lights winkin’ and blinkin’,
Ain’t no finer rig I’m a-thinkin’,
You can keep your rig if you’re thinkin’
That I’d care to swap
For that shiny little surrey with the fringe on the top.
All the world will fly in a flurry,
When I take you out in the surrey,
When I take you out in the surrey with the fringe on the top.

When we hit that road hell for leather,
Cats and dogs’ll dance in the heather.
Birds and frogs’ll sing all together and the toads’ll hop.
The wind will whistle as we rattle along,
The cows’ll moo in the clover,
The river will ripple out a whispered song,
And whisper it over and over:
Don’t you wisht you could go on forever?
Don’t you wisht you could go on forever?
Don’t you wisht you could go on forever and a-never stop?
In that shiny little surrey with the fringe on the top.

00221.000 MY ROMANCE

Music: Richard Rodgers
Words: Lorenz Hart

Link to Lyrics and Chords (James Taylor version)
Link to James Taylor’s Performance

My romance doesn’t have to have a moon in the sky;
My romance doesn’t need a blue lagoon standing by.
No month of May, no twinkling stars,
No hide-away, no soft guitars.
My romance doesn’t need a castle rising in Spain;
Nor a dance to a constantly surprising refrain.
Wide awake, I can make my most fantastic dreams come true
My romance doesn’t need a thing but you.

BroadwayWorld recently published an interview with Michael Kunze about his musical adaptation of Rebecca, which is aiming for an English language transfer to the a major commercial centre like the West End or Broadway. Kunze takes great pains to try and distinguish his work from traditional Broadway fare, so let’s take what he says, put it under a microscope and see if it holds up. The boxed sections below are all quotations from the interview.

The dramamusical is a tool to make clear that this is not a typical Broadway-type musical, which is more a musical-comedy. In what I do, we do drama with music. The way I write the shows is that I basically write the drama, of course with the music in mind, but the music is something that comes next, like a movie. The music is a very important element, but the most important element of the drama is the story, so the music really serves the story, and the music doesn’t really have a right in its own beside the story, like a number that is just made for the music and the dance.

Huh? It seems that Mr Kunze hasn’t seen any musical since 1926. He doesn’t seem to be aware of – for example – Show Boat, South Pacific, Sweeney Todd, Marie Christine, The Light in the Piazza. He doesn’t seem to be aware that musical theatre in the American tradition extends beyond the tradition of musical comedy that was dominant until the 1940s, but which made way for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical play, in which music is most certainly in the service of the drama and for the various forms of the concept musical, in which the music is often related most clearly to the ideas that are being communicated in the show from the very moment of its inception. Even if we look at the musical comedies that have appeared after the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, many are far more integrated than their counterparts in the 1920s and 1930s. So I’m left to wonder whether this is a case of ignorance or self-importance.

It really isn’t something that I’ve invented. Jesus Christ Superstar [and] the other Andrew Lloyd Webber stuff, if you exclude Cats, follows the same kind of basic idea. Well, Andrew would never say that the music only serves the story, but that’s what it really is. He uses the music to tell the story, and that’s what all dramamusicals do.

All right, so he seems to know something about British musical theatre and deems it of a high enough standard to rank alongside his “dramamusicals”. But is it true of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicals that the music serves the story? Without engaging in an elaborate discussion on the matter, I’d be willing to bet that there is at least one example in each of the Lloyd Webber musicals where the music does not serve the drama fully. Off the top of my head – and to keep in line with the example Kunze himself cites – there’s “King Herod’s Song” in Jesus Christ Superstar, although the newer, rock-flavoured arrangement does help its cause somewhat. So it seems that perhaps the music does not need a particularly profound dramatic agency for it to serve the drama in these “dramamusicals”, which of course contradicts Kunze’s original thesis, that ‘the music doesn’t really have a right in its own beside the story’. What other purpose does a song like “You Can Get Away With Anything” in The Woman in White, for example, have if it doesn’t really serve the character and the humour comes not from the lyrics but from a pair of rats that clamber in and out of the actor’s costume? Or is Kunze saying that the music in a case like this still serves a dramatic purpose, even though the song as a whole is a failure because of the lyrics?

I think all the shows that concentrate on a dramatic story are dramamusicals. Billy Elliot is a dramamusical. Wicked is a dramamusical. I just want to distinguish where theatre is more theatrical than in a classical Broadway musical which is based on the vaudeville tradition, on dance, on spectacular things happening, and this is not what I look for…. I think (Wicked is) a milestone in the development of the musical, because in the history of the musical, this show will be regarded as the first one that really combines the European tradition with the Broadway tradition.

Now I’m just beginning to chuckle. Wicked being taken as a prime example where the music exists in service of the drama? The book of Wicked was forced to fit in with Stephen Schwartz’s ideas regarding the way the story should be told. The book in its best moments is competent, but completely falls to pieces in the second act, completely ignoring the very concept that Maguire had in the first place: to fill in the gaps of the story behind The Wonderful Wizard of Oz without contradicting the basic mythology in that particular book in the series and its iconic movie musical adaptation and thereby offer a different perspective on the story. Winnie Holzman, spurred on by Schwartz, creates a story that prides itself in tying itself all up very neatly, but it does so with little sense of logic and the songs that punctuate the book become less and less credible as dramatic building blocks as we speed towards the final curtain. This doesn’t even begin to engage with ideas around the way the music is orchestrated, which separates it out even further from the given circumstances of the show. It doesn’t even work to access the show from the perspective of post-modern deconstruction, which is surely the very point of creating a musical of this nature, because the choices are so inconsistent – and in contradiction to Kunze’s view on the show, constructed around “spectacular things happening” rather than on any firm set of dramaturgical principles. Perhaps Wicked is a milestone, but it’s not one that develops musical theatre as an art form. In what is commercial, yes; in what is popular, sure. In what artistically successful and dramatically compelling; most certainly not. And I’m still not clear on what specifically European musical theatre traditions are incorporated into this hybrid form, but based on what Kunze has said about the “dramamusical”, I’m convinced they do more harm than good.

I believe in drama as the key entertainment in theatre, and I think I’m not the only one who does. I didn’t even invent the name dramamusical, that was invented by a journalist. I just think it’s more European because I think the tradition of opera with the highly dramatic stories lent more to that kind of art-form, and I think that also our audiences in Europe, and I really include here in England, are more interested in going to theatre and have a real theatrical experience, a real emotional experience at last, not just an entertaining evening, but something they can discuss after the show.

Well, at least Kunze displays some humility by admitting that he did not come up with the idea of a dramatically integrated musical. I wonder who the journalist who coined the term is; I’d love to have a look at what he has to say about this potent new musical theatre form he has identified….

The comparison with opera that follows is not one that works for Kunze’s argument either. Opera by its nature is led by the music; it is music theatre rather than musical theatre and, as long as it is technically well-performed, opera often manages to be excused in its shortcomings as drama. This is, of course, a generalisation as there are operas, particularly those that are more contemporary that do integrate dramatic aspects more successfully into the theatrical whole and certainly even many traditional operas have a strong narrative and thematic thrust – but they are still led first and foremost by the music, hence the prominence of the composer and the conductor in any discussion of any opera.

Then we get to what effect Kunze believes a musical should have on its audience. In his eyes, musicals like Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera and his own shows offer a rare, real emotional experience that delivers a sense of enlightenment hitherto unseen in the musical theatre canon and one to which the American musical theatre tradition holds no claim. Clearly, he’s never heard of Carousel, Cabaret or Pacific Overtures. Obviously, there is no such experience to be had in Camelot, Follies, Fiddler on the Roof.

I’ve never really engaged with Kunze’s musicals, but his work must be truly phenomenal if it is what he implies they are: impeccable examples of musicals in which all other elements are in service to the drama. I must get my hands on Elisabeth, Tanz der Vampire or this impending masterpiece of the musical stage, Rebecca, and see for myself – but they had better live up to the high expectations that Kunze has created for them….

This is a list of 5 of my favourite musicals of the 1940s. Anyone who is even vaguely interested in musical theatre should know about these shows and if you don’t… well, there’s no better time than the present to begin!

1. South Pacific

South Pacific is my favourite of the Rodgers and Hammerstein shows. To take a couple of short stories and weave them into a full length musical is no mean feat, but to do it with a book that really stands on its own feet dramatically and a score in which there are no bad songs is simply amazing. Only one minor problem exists in the last half of the second act, when the score tapers away to allow the action to wrap itself up, but the montage of scenes that tells what what happens with De Beque and Cable is probably the only way that part of the story and the reprises probably serve the show better by reinforcing theme, character and development than introducing a number of new songs would. It’s perhaps the prefect representation of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.

2. Oklahoma!

Oklahoma! It’s all about a picnic, right? A simple romance with the lovers working at cross purposes until they finally get together before the final curtain falls. I suppose that’s the easy way to look at it, but in the hands of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Oklahoma! transcends its humble narrative and becomes and allegory for a time in American history that was fraught with conflict and uncertainty, the mileau against which the show itself is set. What else does it have to offer? One – a charming score with songs that sound so much like the American landscape that one wonders at the fact that they didn’t exist before Rodgers and Hammerstein created them for this show. Two – a mode of storytelling that uses dance as an inextricable part of the action, not just in the famous dream ballet but throughout the show. Three – when it’s done right, a show that really rises to the mark in terms of dramatic tension; just who is going to win that auction on the picnic basket? Don’t know? Well go and buy the DVD of the RNT production and find out!

3. Carousel

Carousel offers us the rawest emotional experience of any Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. As in Oklahoma!, we have a largely excellent score and an engaging multi-modal storytelling experience. It’s true that perhaps some elements of the show fall just short of knitting into a perfect whole, but almost perfect is good enough for me. The highlights of this show are breathtaking: the opening “Carousel Waltz”, the flawlessly constructed bench scene, Louise’s heart-wrenching ballet in the second act and one of Rodgers’ most dynamic scores. If you don’t have a cast recording of this show, you need to get at least one. Not sure which? Read this blog which compares the various recordings of the show and get one now!

4. On the Town

“Finally”, I hear you say, “We are out of Rodgers and Hammerstein territory!” And the show that gets us there is On the Town. On the Town is haunted by two tragedies: firstly, the original Jerome Robbins choreography was never notated so all we have on record is what he could remember when he reconstructed his work for Jerome Robbins’ Broadway and, secondly, the film version chucked out the heart of the score leaving us with all entertainment and no enlightenment and hoofing instead of dance. (That said, the film version is very entertaining, but it is so different that it is an entirely separate entity.) Leonard Bernstein’s score (with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green) is by turns thrilling (“New York New York”), comical (“Come Up to My Place”, “I Can Cook Too”) and deeply moving (“Lonely Town”). It’s the classic show from the 1940s that perhaps deserves more recognition that it receives.

5. Kiss Me, Kate

Last show on this list is another not quite perfect show: Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate. What’s wrong with it? Well, conceptually, there’s no real clear choice made regarding what the show within the show is supposed to be, resulting in some moments in which require one to push to the limits of one’s suspension of disbelief, not the least of which involves two gangsters suddenly performing a musical number within the scope of the show within the show. That’s one of the very few things the film adaptation got right, shifting the song into the alley behind the theatre as a non-diegetic piece of advice for leading man Fred Graham. But once you’re that conceptual flaw, there’s a great love story being told here with a great score, offering some of Porter’s most moving work (“So in Love”) and some of his wittiest lyrics (“Wunderbar, “Tom, Dick, or Harry” and “Where is the Life that Late I Led?”). It’s a gem.

Once upon a time, Richard Rodgers lived near the Westport Country Playhouse.  He saw “Green Grow the Lilacs” there; soon, that show turned into “Oklahoma!”  (You can read all about it in Westporter Max Wilk’s book “OK!  The Story of Oklahoma!“)

Richard Rodgers’ daughter, Mary Rodgers Guettel, became an apprentice at the Playhouse in 1950.  She later earned fame writing the music for “Once Upon a Mattress.”

James Naughton

Mary Rodgers’ son, Adam Guettel, wrote “Light in the Piazza.”  That musical starred Kelli O’Hara — whose father-in-law is noted actor Jim Naughton, our neighbor in Weston.

What’s the purpose of this “6 Degrees of Westport Country Playhouse Separation”?

All those folks — except of course Richard Rodgers, who is dead — will appear Monday at the Playhouse’s Gala 2009.  The evening includes a salute to Mary Rodgers Guettel.

Part of the proceeds will support the Joanne Woodward Intern and Apprentice Program — a fitting tribute to both the former Playhouse artistic director, and former apprentice Mary Rodgers.

One more “6 Degrees” note:  Stephen Sondheim, another 1950 apprentice, will be there to honor Mary Rodgers Guettel.

Kelli O'Hara

A musical performance — “An Enchanted Evening:  The Music of Richard Rodgers” — will feature Naughton, O’Hara, Steven Pasquale (who created the role of Fabrizio in — ta da! — Adam Guettel’s “Light in the Piazza,” and others.

Talk about a “community theater”!

(A cocktail reception and silent auction begins at 5:45 p.m., followed by the performance and tributes [7:30 p.m.] and dinner [9 p.m.].  Benefit tickets start at $500.  For tickets or more information, contact Kim Maresca, 203-227-5137, ext. 138; kmaresca@westportplayhouse.org.)

Forbes has released its annual list of the top-earning dead celebrities. To make the list, a dead celebrity must have earned at least $6 million in the past year. Missing from this year’s list is Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Steve McQueen. At number one: a fashion designer.

1. Yves Saint Laurent: $350 million
2. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein: $235 million combined
3. Michael Jackson: $90 million
4. Elvis Presley: $55 million
5. JRR Tolkien: $50 million
6. Charles Schulz: $35 million
7. John Lennon: $15 million
8. Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel): $15 million
9. Albert Einstein: $10 million
10. Michael Crichton: $9 million
11. Jimi Hendrix: $8 million
12. Aaron Spelling: $8 million
13. Andy Warhol: $6 million

Stanton’s Sheet Music receives many inquiries from customers who “just got put in charge of the school musical” and want to know where to start. Although MANY choral/band directors and drama teachers are also expected to direct musicals, it seems that most college courses skip right over this topic. One of your first steps will be to decide upon the musical you’d like to stage. While Stanton’s does sell Broadway vocal collections, choral/band arrangements and other musical theater products including most Broadway Junior productions, we CANNOT contract the licensing rights that give you legal permission to perform the work—for that you must contact the appropriate licensing company. Some of the largest licensing companies are:

Musical Theater International
Since its founding in 1952, MTI has been supplying musical materials to theatres worldwide, whether it is the newest hit from the Broadway or London stage, or a timeless classic. MTI has been a driving force in cultivating new work and in extending the production life of the great American musicals such as Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Fiddler On The Roof, Les Misérables, Annie, Damn Yankees, The Music Man, Godspell, Little Shop Of Horrors, and the musical theatre collection of Stephen Sondheim, among others.

Rogers and Hammerstein Organization
Founded by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II more than 60 years ago, the R&H Organization represents a wide variety of entertainment copyrights and over 200 writers. In addition to Rodger & Hammerstein classics like The Sound of Music, Oklahoma!, The King and I, and South Pacific, they also offer a range of popular musicals including Annie Get Your Gun, The Light in the Piazza, Babes in Arms, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Tams-Witmark Music Library, Inc
Tams-Witmark licensed the first high school production of a Broadway musical approximately 75 years ago. Today, thousands of schools and community theatres are presenting Tams-Witmark musicals each year, including A Chorus Line, Anything Goes, Bye Bye Birdie, The Wizard of Oz, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, Oliver, Hello Dolly, My Fair Lady, Cabaret, Crazy for You, Forty-Second Street, Camelot, Kiss Me Kate, Gypsy and Brigadoon.

Samuel French
With offices in New York City, London, Hollywood and Studio City, California, Samuel French has been representing playwrights since 1830. They began hosting the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Play Festival in 1975 which has resulted in the publishing of 181 new plays since. Some of their most popular offerings are: Anne of Green Gables, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Chicago, Clue: The Musical,  Grease,  Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Mikado, Nunsense, Peter Pan, The Rocky Horror Show, and The Secret Garden.

All of these reputable companies offer script preview programs (similar to Stanton’s 21-Day Trial) and helpful websites to guide you through musical licensing procedures. Several variables determine how much money the performance rights will cost, and the only way to get a quote is to begin a dialogue with a licensing company. Stanton’s advises you to begin this process as far in advance as possible so that you have plenty of time to research and choose the best show for your particular situation.

Now all you have to do is cast the show, run rehearsals, build sets, sew/rent costumes, book a pit, and print programs. Simple, right?

One of the many pleasures of the 2009 Jazz at Chautauqua was hearing Petra van Nuis and Andy Brown perform in front of a live audience, and I think the performance clips I’ve posted are solid evidence of their talents.  I was hoping that the duo’s new CD would provide the same experience.  Sometimes, of course, magic dissolves in the recording studio amid attempts to make recordings flawless.     

But I need not have worried.  Petra and Andy’s new CD is splendid.

Where to begin?  (Once we’ve taken in the picture of the happy good-looking couple above . . . )  The songs on the CD are DESTINATION MOON, FAR AWAY PLACES, FROM THIS MOMENT ON, I’LL NEVER STOP LOVING YOU, CARAVAN, BORN TO BLOW THE BLUES, LET’S DO IT, BIM BOM (a solo for Andy), A COTTAGE FOR SALE, HOW LITTLE WE KNOW, INVITATION, ME MYSELF AND I, WITH A SONG IN MY HEART. 

That song list speaks to a wide-ranging and discerning knowledge of the great songs of the last eighty or so years, a delight in itself: Porter, Ellington, Robison, Rodgers, and some delightful oddities.  I know, for instance, that DESTINATION MOON is attached to a film of the same name and it even appears on a Lester Young live date c. 1950, but how many people have ever recorded it?  (If you don’t know the song, imagine IN MY MERRY OLDSMOBILE updated to the era of fantasy rocket travel.)  And BORN TO BLOW THE BLUES is associated with Marilyn Moore — but I haven’t heard it in ages.  But this CD isn’t a high-toned musical archeology lesson, either.

Andy Brown, first: barring a half-dozen I admire, most jazz guitarists have become entranced, Narcissus staring at their own reflection in the shiny body of the Gibson or Macaferri, with the endless possibilities of their own technique.  (You could blame Charlie Parker or Jimi Hendrix for this, but we’re here to celebrate.)  So the notes pour out in what sound like endless streams; the fingers fly.  Few guitarists seem to understand the value of space, of breathing pauses, of logical solo construction — with music delivered at an intelligible rate.  Andy could cover the fingerboard, digits a blur, if he chose to.  But he knows better.  So his playing unfolds beautifully in its own song, no matter what tempo or what chords.  He loves melody; he can swing any band several steps closer to Heaven with his chordal strum, and he is an absolutely flawless team-player, never fixated on the limelight.  Accompanying a singer isn’t easy, either, but Andy is rather like a tactful, energized conversationalist at the party: he has things to tell us, he has comments to offer and support by the bucketful, but he never tries to outshine Petra.

And Petra?  The first thing I noticed about Petra (before I had heard her in person) was the focus she brought to her songs.  She isn’t one of these gospel whoopers; she hasn’t channelled Aretha or Billie; she isn’t a Broadway belter.  All to the good, let me assure you.  It means that she doesn’t overact, that she fits the word to the deed and the notes to the emotion, never smudging a lyric to appear hip, never landing in the wrong place.  She can romp very happily (her enunciation is flawless, even in fourth gear) and she has a speaking presence.  And before I had heard this CD, I would have praised Petra for avoiding the dramatic excesses I hear from so many singers.  But then I heard her version of A COTTAGE FOR SALE, and I was just about stunned by its great dramatic range, mixing ruefulness, poignancy, and loss — without overacting so much as a hair.  It was pure feeling, captured beautifully.  I might never hear that song sung so heartbreakingly again.      

Both Petra and Andy get first place in my imagined TALENT DESERVING COSMIC RECOGNITION category!  Check out their websites — www.petrasings.com., and www.andybrownguitar.com – to find out such useful information as “May I hear some audio clips?” and, following quickly,”How can I buy these CDs?”

Psst!  Want something for free?  Go to Petra’s site and you’ll be able to see many more clips of this duo and other combinations . . . and you can listen to a four-tune demo CD of Petra with her RECESSION SEVEN, which is a sort of well-behaved small swing band (think Eddie Condon – Lee Wiley – Teddy Wilson – Mildred Bailey) including legendary Chicagoans Kim Cusack and Russ Phillips.

State Fair was the first musical made specifically for film by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Their two previous musical collaborations, Oklahoma! and Carousel, were both stage productions. (Although both would eventually be made into films in the ’50s.) State Fair was based on a novel by Philip Stong that had previously been made into a non-musical film in 1933 with Will Rogers.

Margy Frake (Jeanne Crain) and her brother, Wayne (Dick Haymes), go to the Iowa State Fair with their parents (played by Fay Bainter and Charles Winninger) and their prize hog, Blue Boy. Margy and Wayne are both somewhat dissatisfied with their current significant others, and each find someone a whole lot more exciting at the fair; she a cavalier reporter played by Dana Andrews and he a flame-haired singer played by Vivian Blaine. Things go well for both, but can their love affairs outlast the fair?

Musically primitive and relentlessly cheery, State Fair injects life into its clichéd proceedings with charm, humor, and some cartoonishly outsized, Technicolor images of middle-American excess. And Andrews (who played the detective in the 1944 noir classic Laura) is rakishly charming, almost but not quite a thug, and always fun to watch.

00096.0000 OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING

Music: Richard Rodgers
Words: Oscar Hammerstein
Lyrics and Chords Link
Link to Original Movie soundtrack performance

There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow,
There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow,
The corn is as high as an elephant’s eye,
And it looks like it’s climbing clear up to the sky.

CHORUS-
Oh what a beautiful morning,
Oh what a beautiful day.
I’ve got a beautiful feeling
Everything’s going my way.

All the cattle are standing like statues,
All the cattle are standing like statues,
They don’t turn their heads as they see me ride by,
But a little brown maverick is winking her eye.
(CHORUS)

All the sounds of the earth are like music,
All the sounds of the earth are like music.
The breeze is so busy it don’t miss a tree,
And a old weeping willow is laughing at me.
(CHORUS).

Galt MacDermot
Had a – how shall we term it? -
A great hit with Hair
And went downhill from there.

Stephen Schwartz
By all reports
Wrote one more semiquavery vamp
And died of writer’s cramp

Richard Rodgers,
Beloved of codgers,
His melodies adrenocorticomimetic;
But a bit of a Dick.

LIMITED ENGAGEMENT

Please join us for an evening of dance, inspired by the music of one of our greatest American composers, Richard Rodgers.

Award-winning choreographer, LEE MARTINO, has assembled an exceptional cast of dancers from film, television, music videos and stage, in what promises to be “A Grand Night For Dancing”.

Martino’s exhilarating and magical dance numbers will be performed to some of your favorite Rodgers tunes including “If I Loved You”, “Shall We Dance”, “This Can’t Be Love”, and many of his glorious waltzes, some reinvented and some in their original form.  Included is the iconic ballet “Slaughter On Tenth Avenue”.  This concert is presented by Reprise Theatre Company.

Dancers:

Seth Belliston, Kelly Connolly, Meg Gillentine, Scott Hislop, Chris Holly, Kim Mikesell, Candy Olsen, Jean Michelle Sayeg, John Todd and Sal Vassallo. Guest appearance by Jeffry Denman.  Martino is represented by Gendece Entertainment Group.

Watching the film version of South Pacific again after a while is always a surprise. I always enjoy it more than I think I will and today I probably like it more than I ever have.

Some things I liked:

1. Mitzi Gaynor. I like her more and more each time I see the film. Yes, there are two scenes (in my opinion) where her acting is perhaps a little weak – when she breaks down during the rehearsal for “Honey Bun” and just after “My Girl Back Home”. But she generally does a great job, and even does all own her singing!
2. The locations. I think these are beautiful and really well used throughout the film. It’s great when a film actually uses its locations to its advantage, to tell the story and create the world of the film, rather than just as a gimmick.
3. The storytelling. Perhaps a this is about the stage show as well as the film, but I love the way the two stories complement each other so perfectly. They are such well written characters. It’s immensely compelling.
4. The score. It’s a truly great one, even if the last half hour is a little “plotty”. There are some strange little cuts here and there, but the score is served much better here than in the recent television adaptation. And “This Nearly Was Mine” is a beautiful – one of my favourite Rodgers and Hammerstein songs.
5. A great supporting cast: Ray Walston and Russ Brown as Luther Billis and Captain Brackett are just great!

Some things I didn’t like:

1. The colour filters, which are just distracting and don’t enhance the film one bit in my opinion.
2. The singing to the camera in “A Wonderful Guy” and “My Girl Back Home”. This is my number one pet hate in movie musicals. I don’t think it EVER works, and I just find it frustrating here.
3. I’m not crazy about the casting of John Kerr as Cable, and I don’t think Bill Lee is the greatest match as his singing voice. I find his dubbing a bit distracting. It’s certainly not as good a match as Emile or Bloody Mary.
4. I’m also not sure I like the shuffling of the scenes at the top of the film. I love the symmetry that opening with “Dites-Moi” would have given to the film, in the way that is does on stage. Also, this is a love story taking place within the setting of the war, not a war movie that happens to have a love story in it. Starting with Cable in the plane shifts the focus of the material away from its heart.

Give it a watch. You’ll enjoy it!

Baby-Faced Brett Shuts Out Sox on Two Hits – Athletics Nation

Words and Music is another excuse for MGM to bring out their stable of stars to retell of the career of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, and it&s pretty routine. What isn&t routine is Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen&s dazzling rendition of …

A Connecticut Yankee has been a great favorite with audiences ever since this musical by lyricist Lorenz Hart and composer Richard Rodgers was first performed in 1927. My Heart Stood Still came about as a result of a reckless …

The lyric was written by Lorenz Hart who was a gay, bald, cigar-smoking midget. So I prefer to think of it as him waking up with a dim, lumpy rent boy and feeling tender about it instead of cynical. by DavidS on Jul 6, 2009 8:31 PM PDT …

A Connecticut Yankee has been a great favorite with audiences ever since this musical by lyricist Lorenz Hart and composer Richard Rodgers was first performed in 1927. My Heart Stood Still came about as a result of a reckless …

The lyric was written by Lorenz Hart who was a gay, bald, cigar-smoking midget. So I prefer to think of it as him waking up with a dim, lumpy rent boy and feeling tender about it instead of cynical. by DavidS on Jul 6, 2009 8:31 PM PDT …