Anything Can Happen If You Let It

The storm finally blew out late last night and took the last of the summer heat with it. The chilly, sunny morning said "fall" all over, and I loved it. It sure beats the Indian summer that's lingered the past few falls. Brunch With the Beatles celebrated the coming of fall by highlighting songs from each of the 12 original British albums, from "Please Please Me" to "The Long and Winding Road." I exchanged my usual tea for a more warming cup of home-made Hot Cocoa (with real cocoa) and Dark Chocolate Chip Pancakes.

Went through my cookbooks for baking ideas, then worked on Apple-Lemon Bars while listening to my new Disney cast albums. Ironically, the one that was the most changed from its source material, Mary Poppins, ended up being my favorite of the three. Naturally, Disney couldn't get singing penguins and flying, laughing uncles onstage. The "I Love to Laugh" number was dropped all together, as was any reference to Mrs. Banks' suffragette activities. "Supercalafragilisticexpealidotious," which was just sort of dropped into the animated sequence as a celebratory song for Mary, is now part of a fun number set in a shop where words are bought and sold. The "Jolly Holiday" park fantasy romp now animates statues instead of penguins and buskers. "Let's Go Fly a Kite" is performed by Bert and the kids instead of the Banks family in the finale.

The biggest change is that the musical has something the movie didn't bother with -  a traditional villain. Miss Andrew is a nasty old crone who was once Mr. Banks' nanny and is hired after a frustrated Mary takes off. Mary believes that Jane and Michael need to figure out some things on their own...but Miss Andrew's "Brimstone and Treacle" isn't going to help change their ways. There's also "Temper, Temper," a rather dark number where Jane and Michael's toys come to life and put them on trial for mistreating them. (This song proved to be too dark - it has apparently been replaced with a somewhat less frightening version of the same idea, "Playing the Game.")

The other two shows are less successful in transforming their stories for a different medium. Little Mermaid was just ok. It pretty much stuck to the movie up through the last 20 minutes or so; Eric's near-marriage to Ursula was replaced by a "princess contest," not unlike the "Princesses on Parade" number from The Swan Princess. Ursula also had an Ethel Merman-style number, "I Want the Good Times Back," that didn't really match the tone of the rest of the show or film score.

Beauty and the Beast is the darkest, in tone and material. It also seems to have had the least added to it for the stage. One of the new songs is actually my favorite of any of the "added material" for the three musicals. Tim Rice wrote the lyrics for a searing ballad to deepen the character of the Beast, "If I Can't Love Her." Frequent stage villain Terrance Mann (he sings Chauvelain in my original Broadway cast CD of The Scarlet Pimpernel) performs it with incredible intensity.

I went for a really quick walk after pulling the cookies out of the oven. It was an absolutely amazing early fall day. The sun was shining, and it was much cooler than yesterday, without any humidity. I'm so glad it feels like fall. The trees are just starting to show the barest hint of changing colors. There's asters and mums in every garden. Tomato vines are laden with the last fruit of the season; late summer roses show off their soft glow in ornamental bushes. I went down to the boat landing on Goff Avenue and back. The view was amazing. You could see the Ben Franklin Bridge as clear as you could through a telescope.

Had a quick chat with Mom when I got in. She has no problems with me staying up here for my vacation. For one thing, the nice weather seems to have encouraged people to head south. She went into Cape May today for a walk around...and found it was so busy, she could only remain for 45 minutes before wanting to go home and avoid the crowd. She's happily preparing surprises for her grandsons and CARE packages for my brother in the Navy.

The Eagles game was in full swing by the time I made it to work. It was steady when I got in, but it died very quickly, and in fact was dead as a doornail for most of the night. Ironic, considering the game was terrible. The Eagles played badly and lost to the Cardinals 27-6.