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Ben Franklin was born on this day, January 17, in 1706. And as I like to do to celebrate, I thought I'd post a few songs with the good fellow from a couple of Broadway musicals. Yes, a couple -- there are two musicals I know of that feature Benjamin Franklin, which is probably two more than most people would have guessed for a very long time. While I'm certain that 1776 comes first to mind for most people, instead we're going to start with another. It's a show that opened in October, 1964, called Ben Franklin in Paris. And it had an impressive lead -- Robert Preston, in his first musical since The Music Man. It had music and lyrics by a fellow named Sidney Michaels and also starred Ulla Sallert. The show didn't have a long run, though did play for 215 performances, which is half a year. I'm not bowled over by the score, but it does have a few nice things in it. And happily, my favorite song even has video of it when the cast appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and performed the song and the scene that leads into it. This is "Half the Battle." The other song, "Look for Small Pleasures," is quite nice, in a small, charming way. In fact, it even had a bit of life outside the show and was recorded by several people, with moderate success. And of course we have to follow that up with something from 1776, with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards. So, here then is "The Egg." And...oh, okay, let's throw in an offbeat bonus. No, it's not a musical about Ben Franklin, but how can we end a celebration of the good fellow without this song from Mary Poppins?!
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A week or so ago, I posted a video of Hugh Grant making a speech to help honor screenwriter and director Richard Curtis at the Motion Picture ceremony presenting him with an honorary Oscar. In his speech, Grant noted that Curtis was one of he founders of Comic Relief and its off-shoot Red Nose Day – which makes this video all the more pointed, since it comes from the 2010 Comic Relief. This is a 12-minute film that’s a parody of the movie Mamma Mia, starring Jennifer Saunders playing Meryl Streep. And it features a wonderful cast, including Sienna Miller as ‘Amanda Seyfried,’ Dawn French as “Julie Walter,” British comedian Alan Carr as ‘Colin Firth’ and Joanna Lumley recreating her role of ‘Patsy’ from Absolutely Fabulous (for no apparent reason). The whole thing is utterly loony and a lot of fun. You may recall that back in November I posted here a video of Susan Boyle returning to Britain’s Got Talent, after having had a stroke, and singing “I Dreamed a Dream” with Lucie Jones from the West End cast of Les Miserables, later joining the full company for the finale. It was all about Susan Boyle – although in my comments I also noted how bowled over I was by Lucie Jones, both her soaring voice, but also her kindness toward Boyle, clearly caring and attentive. I was curious what other video that might be of her – and what I found continued to blow me away. Here’s just one example. It comes from five years ago when she stared in the musical Waitress, that has a score by Susan Bareilles. She played the lead role in London on the West End, taking over from Katherine McPhee (and then was briefly replaced when Bareilles herself came in to play the role), and later reprised the role in the UK touring company. This video is live, in performance, but I suspect it’s from a TV show, not during the stage production despite her being in costume and the full set. Her charming reaction at the end to the cheers, breaking character doesn’t strike me as something she’d do during a show. It doesn’t matter. It’s the performance of her singing “This Used to Be Mine” that’s so great. Tonight we have a sort of Unknown Harnick Festival with three Christmas songs by Sheldon Harnick that you've almost-certainly never heard. In the case of this first song, that's because it's for a musical that never made it to Broadway. The song is a particular sweet number called "One Family," and it's from a show that Harnick wrote based on none other than...A Christmas Carol. Harnick is best-known for his work with composer Jerry Bock on such musicals as Fiddler on the Roof, She Loves Me and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fiorello! For this, though, he collaborated on the show with famed movie composer, Michel Legrand, who among many film scores wrote The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, as well as the original film version of The Thomas Crown Affair, for which he won an Oscar for the Best Song, "The Windmills of Your Mind." Though their production of A Christmas Carol never was produced on Broadway, it's had a bit of a life in community theater. This number is sung in the show by the Cratchit Family, and it's performed here by Sheldon Harnick, along with his wife Margery Gray (who had a successful Broadway career, including the show Mr. Wonderful that starred Sammy Davis Jr., and oddly enough had music by Jerry Bock before he teamed up with Harnick), and Leigh Beery, who starred as 'Roxanna' opposite Christopher Plummer in Cyrano, a musical adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac. (She comes in with her main solo at the 1-minute mark. Margery Gray follows her.) This (and the two that follow) come from the wonderful CD I've posted several selections from -- Sheldon Harnick: Hidden Treasures, which you can find here. These next two Christmas songs were written by Harnick and Bock for their musical She Loves Me (which is based on the Hungarian play that the movies Shop Around the Corner and You've Got Mail are adapted from). However, they're so little-known that people who even love She Loves Me inside-out likely don't even know them. That's because they were cut from the show. The first song, "Christmas Eve," was to come at the very end of the show -- around the time when the "12 Days to Christmas" number, whose video I posted here the other day (12 days before Christmas) comes in. It's a lovely, wistful ballad, but in his liner notes Harnick writes that the song just didn't move the story forward enough and had to be taken out. It's sung here by the composers, with Harnick in the lead. And the final number is probably best-described as a show song, one that really only fits within the context of the musical. Harnick notes that it was ultimately too complex and didn't work well-enough for that, so it too was cut. But it's good fun to hear, especially with Harnick filling in the dialogue. And if you do know the show, you'll recognize that some of the lyrics were saved and able to be used elsewhere in the show, mixed in as a sort of sardonic counterpoint in the song "Ilona." Here then are Harnick and Bock singing, "Merry Christmas Bells."
You may have seen new stories about Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson appearing on Broadway last week in the musical “& Juliet” in a walk-on role. All the better, it turns out that she didn’t just walk on stage for a line, but was in two scenes and had a song with some choreography! It turns out that she has not only always loved musical theater, but even took classes and performed in shows at Yale. (She was in the musical Little Shop of Horrors there with humorist Mo Rocca playing 'Seymour,' and in one of her classes, she performed in a scene with Matt Damon.) In fact, when she applied to Yale, she told the interviewer that her goal was to be the first Black Supreme Court Justice to be on Broadway! She reached her goal. By the way, upcoming I'll be posting her appearance on the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me! where she talking about this in detail -- and one of the panelists is...Mo Rocca! If you haven’t seen any footage of her performance and rehearsals, here are a couple of fun videos. The first is a short one released by the production – The second is a longer piece with more footage on CBS Mornings. – Yesterday, I mentioned that I would have an addendum of sorts to the posting of the songs from Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. "Soon" turns out to be today. For those who were skeptical of me calling this a Broadway-quality score, It turns out (aside from the reality that it is) that the show did play on Broadway -- sort of. In 2014, the Actors Fund did a benefit concert with a fairly elaborate staged reading of the TV show, with full costumes, limited sets and even some choreography. And this is a 3-1/2 minute montage. And it looks absolutely wonderful. And sounds like they used the original music arrangements. (At the end of the video are some credits, and it notes being done with DreamWorks Animation and Margaret Styne. I'm going to guess that the former hold the rights to the TV special and the latter may hold some rights since she was the wife of composer Jule Styne.) Since the show is only about 52 minutes, it's much too short to mount a full production, but I suspect it could be paired with another one-act show or also done in community theaters. By the way, their adaptation of the thieves' song, "We're Despicable," is scary-good how close they came with the casting and even the animated choreography. Even down to the tiny details, at one point, of the comically-weird, twisty hand movements. And as a bonus, we have this follow-up -- from when the Actors Fund did the show again, in 2019. While I prefer the Scrooge in the 2014 production, I'm using this version in part so that we can get both up here, but also because it's a little bit longer, so there's more material. However, in addition, the actress who plays 'Belle' and sings "Winter is Warm' here is Sierra Boggess, a wonderful performer who was the original 'Ariel' in the Broadway production of The Little Mermaid, and who has appeared in several videos I've posted from the BBC Proms.) Once again their adaptation of the thieves' song, "We're Despicable," is scary-good how close they came with the casting (I find it a touch better the first year) and even with the animated choreography. Even down to the tiny details, at one point, of the comically-weird, twisty hand movements. And fortunately, the best -- and closest -- of the performers is in both versions, the tall fellow with glasses. And we have one more bonus -- Apparently, a soundtrack album was planned, but never released. And it turns out that an overture was arranged for the album -- and recorded. And it's now shown up on YouTube. I've seen the animated special many dozens of times, and not only never heard this before, but I never knew it existed. Which I assume is the case for most people who have watched the TV special regularly over the years. And like so many overtures of Jule Styne musicals, it's wonderful. So, finally -- curtain up. |
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 
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