This week's contestant is Ruth Eldredge from Provo, Utah. The song should be very easy -- it's well-known and played on top, not buried underneath. I'm kicking myself for missing the composer. He's very gettable, but I went for more obscure. Oddly, the contestant got the composer immediately, but struggled mightily with the hidden song.
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As I wrote here, the revue Beyond the Fringe was made up of some awfully remarkable people, not just as comic performers within the troupe, but (remarkably, given the fame of the show) perhaps more what they did individually after -- Peter Cooke, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett (playwright of The Madness of King George III and The History Boys) and Dr. Jonathan Miller (National Theatre opera director, Shakespearean director, and neuropsychologist). It had its start at the Edinburgh Festival in 1960, when four young talented men from Oxford and Cambridge Universities were brought together. I've posted several sketches from the famous show, and the other day suggested in a reply to a comment that I had come across something special and would be posting it soon. Today is soon enough. Here is Beyond the Fringe. Not a sketch or two...but the whole freaking thing. The legendary show. When you have two hours, sit back and revel in it. Or bookmark the video and make it through piecemeal. The show opened on the West End in 1961 and later transferred to Broadway, where Jonathan Miller was eventually replaced by Paxton Whitehead, who appears on the second Broadway album, Beyond the Fringe '64. (Among his many acclaimed credits and stage awards, he's probably most recognized for playing the husband of the snooty British couple across the hall from Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser in Mad About You.) This performance comes from the final "gala farewell" on London's West End. Though the show ran until 1966, I suspect this comes from 1962, when the original cast left to take the show to Broadway. The voiceover announcer notes that the play has played on Broadway, but since is the cast's final performance before going to Broadway, by the time this film was released it was legitimate to say that the show had played in New York. Fun too is the brief introduction with the camera maneuvering around the West End and seeing the marquees of the shows that were playing at the time, including Camelot with Laurence Harvey, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum starring Frankie Howerd, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Oliver!, among the many. The video isn't up to today's movie production standard, but seriously who cares? This is from a live stage production with the original cast, and captures it all for posterity, and that's about as good as it gets. It may not all translate ideally to a video, where we tend to expect things faster paced and more image oriented. This is a stage show, after all, recorded on video. It's talky, thoughtful, very smart, with some of the material dated politically perhaps. It's also vibrantly clever and anti-authority in suits and ties. And generally is utterly and blissfully funny. And that it exists in its entirety is stunning. In the image below, from left to right are Peter Cook, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore. Curtain up... It's been a quiet week. Clint Bunsen continues his fight to prevent Millet from becoming the county seat, the Lake Wobegon Whippets acquire a new center fielder, and Pastor Liz goes sledding after an energetic sermon.
I like the movie, All of Me, written by Phil Alden Robinson and directed by Carl Reiner. But I especially love the final credit sequence. If you haven't seen the movie, it helps to know at least a very little bit of the background. Basically the spirit of very ill Lily Tomlin has accidentally been transferred into the body of her straight-laced lawyer Steve Martin. She occasionally takes over his actions, but over the course of the movie they get to know one another intimately and slowly fall in love with one another. At the end, through plot development, with the help of a mystic (played by Richard Libertini) that spirit is finally transferred out of Martin and into the body of a beautiful woman (Victoria Tennant), where it can finally have free and complete reign. And at last, Martin and Tomlin have a chance to develop their romance. Which brings us to the joyous end credits. Real life trumped reel life on Thursday, and it turns out that Whoopi Goldberg takes second place to Sister Cristina Scuccia. On Italy's version of the TV show, The Voice, they had their own Sister Act. The 25-year-old nun came on stage and sang an enthusiastic rendition of Alicia Keys' song, "No One," to the four judges whose chairs were turned and couldn't see the performer. The joy of the performance, though, is less the singing than it is the reaction of the judges when they each discover who it was singing. And even if you don't speak a word of Italian -- as I don't -- it's nonetheless impossible not to revel in the joy that continues in the conversation which follows. And it's hard to tell who's more enthralled -- Sister Cristina, the judges, the studio audience...or the sister's fellow nuns -- anad her parents -- leaping up and down in the waiting room. I do wish the video had subtitles, because there's a lot of enthusiasm soaring around. (Perhaps one will show up eventually.) I did, however, track down some articles that include several quotes. For starters, there was uncertainty whether she really was a nun. "Yes, I am truly, truly a sister." (She was born in Sicily, and is a member of the Ursuline Sisters of the Holy Family.) At one point, she's asked what the Vatican might think of her singing. "I hope that Pope Francis will call me now," she answered. "If I had found you at Mass I would always be in church," said one of the judges, J-Ax. He's an Italian rapper, the one in the knit cap and tattoos. He also added, "You and me are like the devil and holy water." (By the way, I like how in the article from CNA, the Catholic News Agency, they describe The Voice of Italty as being "a reality show akin to 'American Idol' or 'Britain's Got Talent.'" While it's understandable that they used two especially-familiar shows to explain the program, you'd think they could have also said that it was akin to The Voice. Since that's exactly what it is, down to identical-looking chairs and...well, the design of the entire set, including the giant hand holding the microphone... And it's not like there aren't other versions of The Voice around the world. I know that, at the very least, there's also one in England.) "I have a gift and I'm giving it to you," Sister Cristina told the judges. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, posted a tweet (using a hashtag that is apparently trending), writing -- “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others (1 Peter 4:10)”. It's great fun. Whether it's the best singing performance is a question to decide for yourself, but it's certainly performed with great enthusiasm and done well. And also styles and tastes are different from culture to culture. But what makes this such a pleasure, beyond the lively singing, are the smiling faces that keep beaming brighter as the whole thing goes on. Okay, Italian-speaking or not, here 'tis -- UPDATE: I have been informed by intrepid reader Caroyln Brown that if you click on the CC button, you'll get a closed caption translation. So much for having had to track down articles... With my hand on a Bible, I had no intention of posting another Ella Fitzgerald recording today. But sometimes, kismet happens, and a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong recorded a couple of classic albums together. They're a treasure to hear, though I have to admit I'm not as huge a fan of them as I am of their work individually. Though both jazz singers who perform scat, I just don't think their voices mesh ideally, at least to my taste, though there is certainly a richness there. That said, I was browsing YouTube last night and by total chance -- I swear I wasn't even looking for anything by Ella Fitzgerald -- I came upon a video I couldn't not post. I had no idea that Ella Fitzgerald even recorded this song; I've never seen it on any album of hers. It might be on one, I've just never seen it. But here it is on video. This is Ella Fitzgerald in Helsinki, Finland, singing..."Hello, Dolly!": |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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