Musicals On a Sunny Day

Got a quick start this morning with breakfast before hurrying out. I couldn't believe how gorgeous it was. The wind finally settled down, and while it remained fairly strong, it was nothing like earlier in the week. The sun was out, and there wasn't a cloud in the searing blue sky. 

Maybe that's why we were so quiet today. It was slightly busier than yesterday, but still nowhere near overwhelming. Audubon had a lot of events going on, too, including their Town-Wide Yard Sale. Not to mention, this is the last day of the month, and we're between holidays. It died so quickly and we had so much help by 2:30, I was able to leave with no relief and no need for one.

I'm furious about my schedule next week. A lot more hours...but I don't have my next day off until Friday! My last day off was TUESDAY! And it's all 6 to 8 1/2 hour shifts. One of the cashiers had family trouble and had to take off, and now we're even more short-handed. When am I going to get anything done? 

Took the long way home via Nicholson Road, as I did yesterday. It was busy with Saturday shoppers around the mall, but otherwise wasn't too bad. Even the White Horse Pike could have been worse. Most folks were likely either still at local events or at the Shore. At least everything is really gorgeous now. The leaves grow fatter and fatter on the trees; the gardens glow with pansies and tulips.

Went straight upstairs and into Match Game '78 while I changed and had a snack. Jon "Bowzer" Bauman made his first appearances on the show in these episodes, along with the only appearance in the original show of Rhoda regular Nancy Lane. They added a great deal of New York flair to the week, from Nancy's jokes about New Jersey to Bowzer showing off his 50's greaser look.

Watched A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song while going through papers on top of my printer and dusting the rooms. I go further into the third entry in this series at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Family Fun Saturday - A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song

Worked on writing for a while after the movie ended. White King Gene and Queen Helen are being held prisoner on their own thrones. They know what's going to happen - their memories work forwards and backwards, too - but the Red King still threatens King Gene with being stripped of his "muchness" if he doesn't give up his move to him. 

Broke for dinner at 7. Threw on PAW Patrol while I ate. The Pups are on vacation out west when the robotic dinosaur a diner owner keeps to advertise his wares suddenly walks off with his trailer and his wife. The "Pups Save a Robo-Saurus" and manage to get his wife back in time for her to watch her favorite show. "Pups Save a Film Festival" when Daring Danny X's overdone stunts keep interrupting everyone's attempts at making a movie for the local outdoor screen, including their own.

Finished the night with something unique at YouTube. I'd seen bits and pieces of the first Musical Comedy Tonight before, but I never found the full show until tonight...and never knew there was more. Sylvia Fine-Kaye, the witty songwriter wife of Danny Kaye, introduces us to the history of the Broadway musical, from the college-themed show Leave It to Jane in 1919 to Company in 1970, performed by major talent. 

In the first concert, we get to see Ethel Merman bray the title song from Anything Goes that made her a star in 1934 and be ecstatic when handsome Rock Hudson joins her for "You're the Top." Bobby Van and Bernadette Peters make a charming couple singing about how "The Best Things In Life are Free," while a redheaded Sandy Duncan is the perfect flapper leading the chorus through "The Varsity Drag" from Good News. John Davidson sings about "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" and leads the chorus through the rousing title song of Oklahoma!, and we get to hear Agnes DeMille narrate her famous ballet. Carol Burnett is a hilarious Aldo Annie singing "I Can't Say No." She, Duncan, and Peters return for Company. Duncan gets "Another Hundred People," while Peters joins Richard Chamberlain, whose legendary charm will certainly keep her from leaving for "Barcelona." Burnett gets to practice her drunk routine with "The Ladies Who Lunch."

The third entry focuses wholly on older shows. Beth Howland of Alice explains why she admires "Cleopatterer" in the big comic song from Leave It to Jane, while Broadway star Christine Andreas leads the chorus through the title song. Peter Noone and Clive Revell make odd choices for a brief excerpt from The Mikado, and Show Boat is represented by the 1936 Universal movie with Irene Dunne and Paul Robeson rather than a recreation. 

Other shows come off better. Florence Henderson sings a gorgeous "They Didn't Believe Me," Jerome Kern's first major hit. Patti LaBelle starts a "Heat Wave" with the chorus in a sequence from the Irving Berlin revue As Thousands Cheer. Donna McKechnie joins Dick Van Dyke for "Thou Swell" from the Rodgers and Hart A Connecticut Yankee and "This Can't Be Love" from The Boys from Syracuse. Elaine Stritch reveals what Morgan LeFay does "To Keep My Love Alive" in the last song Rodgers and Hart wrote together. Kaye Ballard joins McKechnie and Roberta Peters as they "Sing for Their Suppers" and reveal why "Falling In Love With Love" is a bad idea. 

Honestly, if you love older musicals like I do, this is highly recommended for the numbers recreating rarely-seen older shows like Connecticut Yankee and Good News alone. (And I hope the full second special shows up online soon - it apparently can only be found at the Paley Center in New York at the moment, though the Lady In the Dark sequence with Danny Kaye and Lynn Redgrave is on YouTube.)

Musical Comedy Tonight (1979)

Musical Comedy Tonight III (1985)

Baby, It's Really Cold Outside!

It was windy and bitterly cold, though sunny, when I got up this morning. I ran a couple of episodes of The Muppet Show to warm things up a little as I got ready for work. Bernadette Peters appeared in a second season episode, where she danced with the Muppet Monsters in "Take a Little One Step" from No No Nanette and reassured Kermit's nephew Robin that he was appreciated. Edgar Bergen and his dummies Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd fit right in as Fozzie tries his own ventriloquism act and Charlie wonders what to make of a theater that's more like a zoo.

The extreme chill coupled with the return to a normal schedule for the first time in two weeks must have scared a lot of people off. It was on and off steady, but not really that horrible. We were quiet for a lot of the afternoon. I was only late getting off because my last customers had WIC Checks. They were really nice about it, but WIC Checks - checks for low-income families with babies and small children to get basics like milk, formula, fruit and vegetables, and baby food - can take a while to do, especially when they have three or more.

Went straight home when I finally got out. I noticed as I came upstairs that the contractors who have been working on the downstairs apartment had replaced the yellow tape that cut off the sagging half of the porch with a more solid wooden barrier. (Part of the barrier, in fact, was made from the wood that had covered the sagging parts in the middle of the porch.)

Spent the rest of the night making Chocolate-Banana Muffins. Threw in chocolate chips and the last of the coconut, too. I've been taking muffins to work instead of sandwiches. They take less time to make and fit easier in my lunch bags. The muffins came out nice, and oh boy, were they chocolate-y! I used that Hershey's Special Dark cocoa I love.

Ran Broadway's Lost Treasures I as I finished the muffins, and later as I ate leftovers for dinner. I dubbed this collection of performances from the Tony Awards about two years ago from a tape I found at the Haddon Heights Library. It's fun to see the wonderful performances, some with their original casts. My favorites include Zero Mostel really getting into "If I Were a Rich Man" from Fiddler On the Roof, the dynamic wedding finale of My One and Only, Bonnie Franklin and the cast of the 1970 show Applause spoofing popular late 60s musicals, Patti LuPone and the cast of Evita promising "A New Argentina," the cast of the original 1977 Annie performing a medley of songs from that show, and chimney sweep Barbara Harris suddenly becoming "Movie Star Gorgeous" in a touching number from the musical anthology The Apple Tree.

Sudden Showers

I awoke to sun, humidity...and a phone call. The Acme wanted me to come in at noon...and it was quarter of 10. I said "yes," but only because I really need the money. I don't mind coming in when people ask me well ahead of time, but usually when they call me like that, it's because someone's panicking for no reason.

As I discovered when I finally made it in at 12:15, that proved to be the case. We weren't busy, and would be on-and-off steady all day. There was a reason for this. The weather was off-and-on all day, too. Dark clouds were gathering even as I rode to the Acme. It rained hard around 2PM, and again around 4. Thankfully, I don't think it's rained since then.

We had to deal with customers who were upset for other reasons, too. Evidently, most of Audubon, Mt. Ephram, and Bellmawr had lost power, including all the businesses and street lights on the Black Horse Pike too, including WaWa and PNC. According to one customer, it came back on after four hours. I have no idea what happened. The Acme never lost power, and it looks like my apartment didn't, either. My digital alarm clock isn't flashing.

It slowed down enough by 7PM for me to hurry out without a relief. Though clouds were gathering on the horizon as I rode home, it has yet to rain again. I had a quick shower, then finished out Broadway: The American Musical while eating leftovers for dinner. I have fond memories of many of the shows that turned up in "Tradition" and "Putting It Together." The "I Love New York" commercials featuring whatever Broadway shows and celebrities were hot that year used to run on Channel 9 and 11 all the time when I was a kid in the 80s. I saw the ads for Phantom of the Opera, City of Angels, and Cats, and thought this is glamour...this is Broadway!

My mother didn't agree. She wouldn't let us near New York for years, having heard far too many horror stories about the horrible shape it was in during the 70s, 80s, and much of the 90s. I was surprised when she let me go there in 2001 for that WENN Convention - I guess she figured it would be ok if I was in a group.

The Times Square I saw in June 2001 was a very different place from what I encountered on a class trip to New York in high school around 1995. Our bus going back from that trip got caught in traffic in Times Square. We saw hustlers, panhandlers people in fine clothes on their way to a show, sailors (who flirted with some of the girls!), and assorted grimy bootleg items sellers. When I visited a quiet, early-morning Times Square, I saw a very different side of the city - newly-washed, softly sun-dappled, with almost no one but me and the Disney Store around.

Broadway Heat

It was thankfully only cloudy and humid when I awoke this morning. I put off going to the Haddon Township Library this time until about 11. I wanted to avoid the crowds I've run into constantly there over the past few weeks. Newton River Park was surprisingly busy for such a warm, humid morning. It was hot, but not as hot as over the weekend. I dodged lots of dog walkers (one with two cute white boxer pups), fishermen, and people out for a jog.

It was still busy at the library, but not as busy as last week, as I got there well after the Storybook Hour ended. This time, I was able to clear foreign and children's titles out of the adult section without having to lean over everyone. And there was a big stack to clear out! I had to shuffle a lot of things around to get the foreign titles in. They really need to be cleared out. The kids' titles weren't as bad today, perhaps because there are now lots of bored kids out of school to watch them.

I took out three comedies about men and women behaving badly - Bridesmaids, Broadway Danny Rose, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - and a PBS miniseries on musicals, Broadway - The American Musical. The biography I'm reading on George M. Cohan has stimulated my interest in Broadway history.

Stopped at Capitol Pizza for lunch. It was cooler inside, but I didn't feel like watching silly court shows on Fox while I ate. I took my cheese and mushroom slices and can of Fresca to the umbrella covered metal table and chairs outside. The view of two parked cars, the White Horse Pike, and a small publishing company housed in an old garage across the street wasn't exactly inspiring, but it was in the shade and it still beat Divorce Court.

I spent a couple of hours at home after lunch. Took down the 4th of July decorations as I watched the first two episodes of Broadway: The American Musical. "Give My Regards to Broadway" and "Syncopated City" cover the last decade of the 19th century and the first three decades of the 20th, as Broadway evolves from a few streets of stages into the glittering Crossroads of the World...and the musical evolves with it, from Cohan's nervy, flag-waving comedies to the Gershwins' uptempo farces, from Victor Herbert's operetta fantasies to Kern and Hammerstein unleashing the integrated musical with Show Boat.

I got bored after "Syncopated City" finished and, since the weather was holidng out, decided a swim was in order. I changed into my bathing suit and rode over to Dad's. Dad said the water was in the 90s. I didn't believe him...until I jumped in and emerged with no feeling of shock! The water wasn't even remotely cold. The thermometer tied to the ladder on the deep end of the pool said it was in the upper 80s. I had a very pleasant swim for a half-hour, then read The Man Who Owned Broadway for another half-hour. Chatted with Dad and Jodie a bit before leaving and confirmed that yes, there will be a party on Saturday, and yes, they would like me to bring another pudding pie.

When I got home, I made Chicken Green Pepper Stir Fry and Persian Cucumber Salad for dinner while watching the next two episodes of Broadway: The American Musical. The one-two-three punch of the Depression, talking films, and radio hits Broadway and the musical hard in "I Got Plenty O' Nuthin'." While Hollywood may be the place to make money, the stage is where composers and stars can experiment in ways movies don't allow. The Gershwins did the political satire Of Thee I Sing and the folk opera Porgy and Bess. Cole Porter's glamorous shows like Anything Goes and DuBarry Was a Lady brought glitter and laughter to people who desperately needed it. Revues developed a conscience with the additions of songs that tackled the issues of the day, like "Supper Time" and "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" Marc Blitzstein's opera The Cradle Will Rock was so controversial, the government and unions tried to keep it from being performed...but the cast, Orson Welles, and Blitzstein had them do it in the seats and boxes.

Irving Berlin's rousing This Is the Army takes us into World War II, which is where we begin the next episode, "Oh What a Beautiful Morning." The darkest days of the war begat some of Broadway's brightest musicals, including Rogers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! (my personal favorite of their shows) and Carousel. Suddenly, everyone's inspired to do these new-fangled "integrated" musicals, where the song and dance fits the story and the story isn't always piffle. Irving Berlin did Annie Get Your Gun with Ethel Merman at Rogers and Hammerstein's request. Cole Porter revitalized his career with Kiss Me Kate. E.Y Harburg brought an integrated cast to Broadway in the tale of how a leprechaun's magic effects race relation in the south, Finian's Rainbow. Betty Comden and Adolph Green join Leonard Bernstein for the story of three sailors on leave in New York in On the Town and two sisters trying to make it big on Christopher Street in Wonderful Town. TV variety shows helped advertise hits like Guys and Dolls and Gypsy.

I Just Can't Wait to be King Of Broadway

I spent the majority of today at work, which was quiet when I came in around 11:30, steady when I left at 5:30. I tried making a lime pie after work, but I wasn't paying attention to the mix and burned it, then put too much water in it. I hope it comes out ok anyway.

I did finish up the Broadway documentary today. The last two parts covering the 70s, 80s, 90s, and up through 2004 brought back a LOT of memories. I remember seeing commercials for Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and City of Angels as a kid on Channel 9 and 11 and thinking that this was the height of New York glamor - the Broadway musical. I remember seeing Sweeney Todd on HBO when I was about 6, the original version with Angela Landsbury. Talk about nightmares! I still shudder when I think about that. (I never thought of Landsbury in quite the same way again.) I saw the "I Love NY" post-9/11 commercial with Nathan Lane when I was in college and remember how exciting it was, even after what had happened just across town from Times Square.

As much as I enjoyed it, there were a few things I would have liked to have seen covered more thoroughly. The two big ones were the American operettas of the teens and 20s and the musicals of Kurt Weill. The operettas of the 1910's and 20s were quite influential in their day (Sigmund Romberg wrote shows well into the 50s), and they're sweet guilty pleasures of mine. They could have at least talked about some of the bigger 20s shows, like New Moon and The Desert Song, or mentioned the European-based operettas that World War I swept away, like The Merry Widow. And Kurt Weill, who wrote the influential 30s and 40s shows Knickerbocker Holiday, Lady In the Dark, One Touch of Venus, Lost In the Stars, the opera Street Scene, and the German show The Threepenny Opera that has been successfully revived several times, isn't discussed at all. The only reference to Weill is Danny Kaye singing "Tchaikovsky" from Lady In the Dark over the closing credits of the last part.

Just a Broadway Baby

With this being my only day off this week, I spent most of the day running errands. I did my laundry in the morning. Dolores was finishing off hers and Uncle Ken's laundry. He's supposed to go in for surgery for his cancer tomorrow. God, I hope he's ok. I'm really worried about him. I've always liked Uncle Ken. He's such a sweetheart. Dad was just watching his perpetual 24 hours of horror and spooky mysteries on the Chiller cable channel. It was such a nice day, I went out for a short walk around Oaklyn and Audubon, stopping briefly at the Oaklyn Library.

After I came in from doing the laundry, I had lunch and headed out again, this time over to the Haddon Township Library for my weekly volunteering session. It was busy when I arrived, and there were huge stacks of books and DVDs to be put away. I spent most of the time I was there shelving DVDs and children's books. I did finally take out the newest Strawberry Shortcake DVD, "Happily Ever After," and a PBS documentary mini-series, Broadway - The American Musical. I'd read the huge coffee table book of that title, but never saw the documentary it was based after. I made a few very brief stops at AC Moore for Valentine's decorations and Dollar Tree for cards before heading home.

Spent the rest of the evening making Batter Corn Bread (which came out quite well) and watching the DVDs I took out of the library. As you can probably guess from the title, the Strawberry Shortcake disc is that show's second DVD covering fairy tales. The first is their take on Sleeping Beauty, in which Strawberry uses the famous story of the girl who is put to sleep by a vengeful fairy to try to patch up a fight between her friends Angel Cake and Rainbow Sherbet. Rainbow gets a rare chance at the spotlight in an imaginative version of Rapunzel. Here, "Rap" is a tomboy who would rather be commanding sailboats than ruling a kingdom, but her teacher (Sour Grapes) wants her to become a real lady. I like the variation on the usual "be yourself" theme in the second - you don't need very long hair or fancy dresses to be a real princess or a real ruler. There's also a nice subplot on the necessity of education...and it's interesting to see this is the second episode (after Let's Dance) where Sour Grapes is a teacher who softens to the girls.

Broadway is absolutely fascinating. Like the Ethan Mordden books, it covers the history of the Broadway musical from the beginnings of the Ziegfield Follies (and revues in general) and George M. Cohan around the turn of the 20th Century to the creation of Wicked, the then-newest musical hit. While I already knew about a lot of what's covered here (Ziegfield and the Follies, Fanny Brice, Cohan, Marilyn Miller, Show Boat, Ethel Merman, "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?", Irvin Berlin, Cole Porter and Anything Goes), the one thing I didn't know much about was black performers. It was interesting to hear about Follies star Bert Williams (and realize I've known his theme song, "Nobody," since childhood), Ethel Waters, and early black shows like Shuffle Along.

The Strangest Bit of "Magic" On Broadway

Ok, I'm completely with Playbill.com here. Not only is there a stage version of the very bad 1982 movie "Xanadu" on Broadway, but it seems to have received GOOD reviews! ;)

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/109544.html

Broadway Baby

God, this sounds awesome. I so wish I could go up to New York and see this. I have the Lincoln Center concert version on DVD (found at Wal-Mart, of all places) and the Ann Millier Paper Mill Playhouse revival on a great two-disc CD set.

The story is deceptively simple - a group of former showgirls and their stage-door hubbies meet for a reunion when their theater is on the verge of demolition, and all kinds of secrets come out of the closet - including the true loves of two not-so-happily married couples.

The music is truly sensational, though. I listen to the Paper Mill revival CD set a lot, and the Follies concert DVD is incomplete but interesting if you can find it. I really hope Encores! moves this to Broadway - hey, it worked for their version of "Chicago."

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/105738.html