Stephen Sondheim passed away on Friday at the age of 91. A friend called me up and asked if I was surprised to hear it. I said it's terribly hard to be surprised if someone has died at the age of 91, but also the last time I'd seen him was on Steven Colbert's show a month or two ago -- he was seated already when they came back from commercial, rather than walk out onstage at this introduction, so I figured he wasn't doing well. But surprise aside, it's still a shame because he continued to offer much to the world of art. Even if he wasn't getting new work produced, he was still writing it -- and most importantly he was still talking about it and teaching it. Rather than write an essay on Sondheim, this is an extremely good 15-minute piece on him that 60 Minutes did in 1988. A couple of tangential comments. The British actor who comes in around the 9-minute mark that Sondheim is rehearsing with for the British production of Follies is Daniel Massey. He starred in the original Broadway production of She Loves Me, and I saw him in London at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Measure for Measure. But also is that he's the song of movie great Raymond Massey. Also, when they talk about and show Glynnis Johns singing "Send in the Clowns" from the original production of A Little Night Music, I suspect that many people will recognize her, but if she seems familiar and you just can't quite place where, she was the mother in Mary Poppins. But this is about Sondheim. So --
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From the archives. The contestant for this week's Piano Puzzler is Genevieve Wilde from Quakertown, Pennsylvania. I could hear the tune, and almost clearly, but just couldn't get it. It's definitely known, and I got it later when pianist Bruce Adolphe brought the music out more, but it was tough, even though known and clear. The composer style seemed to be from an era that I overlap a lot of people, so I took a guess. I was surprised that I was somewhat close, but didn't get that either.
A few weeks back, I posted the 60 Minutes sequence here about Tony Bennett having Alzheimer's, yet preparing for a final concert at Carnegie Hall with Lady Gaga.
Just a quick note to say that CBS recorded that concert, and they'll be airing it tomorrow (Sunday) at 8 PM in Los Angeles and on the East Coast, and at 7 PM in the Midwest.
On this week’s Al Franken podcast, he has one of his favorite guests, dating back to his show on Air America Radio, Dahlia Lithwick, who (among other things) writes about the Supreme Court as Slate’s expert. As Al writes about the episode, “Lithwick brings her depth and breadth of knowledge, plus her wit.”
I haven't see a video from the wonderful team at Bad Lip Reading for a long time. In fairness, I haven't looked, but I do tend to get alerts when they show up. And one has finally shown up. It's a very bad lip reading version of the movie Dune. And it's fun even without having seen the film -- which I haven't. (I've read several of the books which was plenty enough, though I did see the David Lynch movie which didn't help in pushing me to see others.) But books and previous movies aside, it's hard to top a Bad Lip Reading version... Quite a few months back, my pal Mark Evanier wrote a piece here about the music group The Four Seasons and mentioned, beyond Frankie Valli, a bit about one of the members, Bob Gaudio. It got me to thinking about something I wanted to mention – and, well, about eight months later I’m finally getting around to it. Some things just take time, I guess… Bob Gaudio’s name isn’t well-known compared to Frankie Vallie’s – but then, no one in the groups is as well-known. But Gadio stands our for writing so many of The Four Season’s huge hits. He wrote such songs as "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Walk Like a Man", "Rag Doll", "Bye Bye Baby", and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You". And he also co-wrote “Sherry", "Who Loves You" and "December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" among many others. That’s a good resume. Gaudio has another wonderful credit – an extensive one, in fact – but it’s almost unknown. And it shouldn’t be. He wrote the music to the score of a stage musical based on the movie, Peggy Sue Got Married. And therein lies the tale. The musical of Peggy Sue Got Married was written by the co-writers of the movie, my friends Jerry Leitchling and Arlene Sarner (who are married). They wrote the musical’s book, Jerry wrote the lyrics and Bob Gaudio wrote the music. I first became aware of the show probably in 2000 when Jerry told me about it in their living room and played me a demo tape of about six of the songs. They were very good, and sounded like they fit the story wonderfully. The show was, in fact, in good enough shape at that point where they were closing in on a pre-Broadway run in London and even had a star. And quite a star it was – Ruthie Henshall. Ruthie Henshall was not only a major British stage star (and is still), but she was one of my dad’s favorite stage actresses from my folks yearly trips to London – and she was perfect casting. She’d played ‘Nancy’ in a West End revival of Oliver! Was in Les Miserables as ‘Fantine.” Was in Cats for three years. And starred in the London production of Chicago. And much more (and even more since.) She had three Olivier nominations at the time (five now) and won as Best Actress for the musical She Loves Me. And she’s played on Broadway, as well, among other things joining the New York cast of Side by Side by Sondheim, Miss Saigon and Chicago. The point here is that it was a big coup to get Ruthie Henshall to star in their stage musical version of Peggy Sue Got Married. And it meant this would be a major production. Before going to London, they had some tryouts, and the world premiere, as it happened was schedule to be just outside of Chicago – when I had a trip planned home. So, I made sure to get a ticket for the first performance, which was at the Marriott Theater in Lincolnshire, about 30 minutes north of the city. What I remember about the production is that it was done in-the-round – and it was very good. Not perfect, this was not only the first version of the show, but the very first performance, after all. So, there were things to tweak, cut, add and deal with. But I remember that for this early in the show’s life (and you can’t get earlier than the first performance), I was impressed by how good it was and what good shape it was in already. And finally getting a chance to hear the full score by Bob Gaudio and Jerry, it was indeed very good overall – and some of it quite wonderful. And here’s proof I was there – as were the authors. (I even still have the tickets. Hey, I wanted -- and still want -- evidence that I was there the very opening night.) The tryouts finished, the rewriting all completed, the show eventually got its theater and opening date in London. In additional to Ruthie Hensall, also in the cast (though not as ‘Charlie’) was Gavin Lee, who would later star as ‘Bert’ in the stage musical adaptation of Mary Poppins on both Broadway and the West End. The musical opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London on August 20, 2001. My recollection is that the reviews weren’t raves, they were most positive. And Ruthie Henshall not only got great notices, but she would eventually get nominated as Best Actress in a musical for it. Unfortunately, the show closed on October 31, after around 80 performances or so. And here’s the thing – The show didn’t close early because of bad reviews. They were pretty good, as I noted, and Ruthie Henshall was a big star and got terrified reviews. So, what was the problem? Look again at the dates it ran. August 30 to October, 31, 2001. And in between then, less than two weeks after it opened, was September 11. The tragedy was profound, of course, and beyond the direct result, it impacted many areas of society, as well, as we know. And one of those is that it put a near-stop to tourism. And that was a hurdle Peggy Sue Got Married couldn’t get over. My hope is that enough time has passed for the show to be seen in a more clear light, and whether or not there could be a revival for Broadway, it seems like it could at least be remounted for a national tour to play around the country. The point (to my thinking…) isn’t just that it deserves an audience, but touring it would bring a visibility to the mostly-unknown show and bring it to the attention of community theaters, colleges and high school where it would be perfect and could have a long life, running alongside such perennials as Grease and Bye Bye Birdie. The show is in that vein, it’s based on a very successful movie, and – from what I saw – it’s very enjoyable. And got generally positive reviews when it opened. It just got caught by tragic fortune. It deserves to have a theatrical life. I don’t know where things stand with that – if at all, or always active – I only know it should be part of the theater playbook for theaters around the country, at the very least. Or even that several of the songs deserve to be recorded outside of the show. (The Gaudio pedigree is there, after all.) There isn’t much of the score available that I could find to post here, but I did come across three things. Two are videos, and their quality isn't very good. Though the songs certainly are. This first selection is part of the song “This Time Around,” sung by Ruthie Henshall. It’s not a performance onstage, but from her appearance on a TV show -- and is only about a minute, but even at that, it’s really wonderful. If you recall the movie (or don't), it comes from when Peggy Sue has woken up and found herself in her high school past, and after accepting that that is really where she is, she realizes she has a chance to change her life and not make the same mistakes, notably marrying her high school sweatheart Charlie. In fact, Ms. Henshall liked the song enough (deservedly so) that the recorded it for her album Pilgrim. So, here is the full, rich, soaring four-minute version. And finally, this is the song she sings, "Can't See Myself Without You." It's a shorter reprise from near the end of the show, rather than the longer, original version from earlier in the story. Though it's still three minutes long, and in some ways, the reprise may have more emotional power for what her character has gone through, finally recognizing what's most important to her life. Yes, this is only two songs. But I think you can get a sense that there is something substantive here. (And what a wonderful performance Ruthie Henshall gave, as well.) And you can see what I mean that some of show's songs deserve their own life, as well. So, here's hoping for a future life to Peggy Sue Got Married: the Musical -- and the excellent work of Arlene Sarner, Jerry Leichtling and Bob Gaudio. But whatever happens next or not, I'm glad the work did get performed -- and admired. And that we have at least these reminders. |
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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