A few years back, Disney celebrated "25 years of Disney on Broadway." In honor of the occasion, The View had six actresses, who originated on stage the roles that began as Disney movie characters, performing a medley of songs from their shows. These are Susan Egan (Belle in 'Beauty and the Beast'), Heather Headey (Nala in 'The Lion King,' and Aida in 'AIDA'), Ashley Brown (Mary in 'Mary Poppins'), Merle Dandridge (Kala in 'Tarzan'), Caissie Levy (Elsa in 'Frozen') and Patti Murin (Anna in 'Frozen'). It's very entertaining, and all are wonderful. One thing, though, stands out to me -- while all the other actress get up from their stools and walk downstage to sing their individual numbers, only Heather Headley (who I've posted many videos of and raved about) stays where she is, and calmly performs her song while sitting. And further, despite just sitting, blows everyone away. overflowing with texture, standing only to join everyone for the finale. While I'm admittedly biased, the user comments on the YouTube site overwhelmingly single out the same thing and agree with me.
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The James Corden late-night show might be gone, but browsing around YouTube, I cane across one of his “Crosswalk” The Musical” productions that I hadn’t seen or posted before. This was the Crosswalk version of Frozen, and it features all the films stars who provided voices -- Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad & Jonathan Groff. There are some goofy twists in it, and it’s pretty fun. When tracking down that last video I posted of the wonderful Theodore Bikel, recreating the “To Life” number, complete with dialogue in Yiddish, with Fyvush Finkle who did Fiddler on the Roof with him years earlier, I also came across this. It’s Bikel at a concert or some event, recreating “If I Were a Rich Man.” Two things stand out in his rendition. The first is that he performs it faster than most. (Whether that’s how he did it in the show or not, I don’t know.) And the other is that he sings it looking up, not out to the audience like most other do. And eventually I realized that it’s because, in the context of the song – which begins with him saying, "Dear God. You made many, many poor people. I realize, of course, that it’s not shame to be poor. But it’s no great honor, either. So, what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune.” And so, Bikel makes the very interesting choice to sing the entire song looking up at God. It’s very good. In 1995, Jacques D’Amboise received the Kennedy Center Honor. D’Amboise was a ballet dancer and choreographer, and I suspect is not extremely well-known today. But then most ballet dancers aren’t as well-known as movie stars and singers even at their height. But I post this for two reasons – but one above all. It’s because the first number of the tribute is a superbly choreographed and fun dance to the tune of Cole Porter’s “Let’s Misbehave”. Oddly, the video cuts out Walter Cronkite’s introduction of the performers, which is a huge shame, since the two of them are his children, Charlotte and Christopher D’Amboise. Christopher has had a successful career as a dancer, choreographer and director, and Charlotte is a highly-accomplished dancer and actress who’s received two Tony nominations on Broadway. (In fact, I’ve posted a glorious video of her in the Kennedy Center Honors tribute to Mary Martin, where she recreated the number she was then-performing in the revue Bob Fosse’s Broadway, superbly singing and soaring in “I’m Flying” from Peter Pan.) The two siblings are absolutely great in the number, but the best part is whenever the camera cuts back to their father -- with the biggest beaming smile you can imagine. Let me put it this way, I don’t particularly like dancing…and I absolutely love this. It’s great. And it’s topped by the glow from the father watching them honor him. Very nice as this full video is, this number and that reaction alone are the reason I’m posting this. But I do also like the finale number in the segment – which is a lot of fun for a reason you’ll discover – but I specifically like it, too, because it’s sung by a performer I like a great deal, Judy Kuhn. Okay, as a bonus, here's the performance I referred to above, the re-creation of the “I’m Flying” number from Peter Pan with Charlotte D'Amboise. Notable for me is that they do the full number, which includes my favorite part, the great (and rarely seen) Flying Ballet at the end, which I dearly love. And you'll note the reaction from the audience here -- and these are all sophisticate adults in tuxedos and ball gowns, not a child in sight. And above all that, as great as Charlotte D'Amboise is here -- can you imagine the pressure (and joy) of her performing this in front of Mary Martin?! UPDATE: And something I never noticed before, for all the many times I've watched this, but did finally after having posted this: at the very end, a moment before the video cuts off, you'll see applauding her and joyously beaming in the audience, a man at the 5:17 mark wearing glasses -- her father, Jacques D'Amboise. Continuing our gaggle of lesser-known love songs, we now have a fun song, "Love is the Reason" from the 1951 musical A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, with a score by Arthur Schwartz and the wonderful Dorothy Fields. It's performed by the also-wonderful Shirley Booth. And we'll add in another song, the comedy number "I Love You," this from Little Me, a show that got 10 Tony nominations in 1962, including one for Sid Caesar as Best Actor who played eight different roles in the show and sings the number here, along with Virginia Martin. The score is by Cy Coleman and lyricist Carolyn Leigh (who wrote several of the lyrics in Peter Pan). Not only is today when pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training in baseball, but it's also Valentines Day -- which seems wonderfully appropriate. Once again, we offer up a bouquet of lesser-known love songs and even some comedy just for the occasion. To start off, here are two of the most beautiful that I know -- but particularly from musicals, which has more than its share of love songs. This first is probably my favorite of the two, "When Did I Fall in Love?" from Fiorello! with a score by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, which won both the Pulitzer Prize and also Tony Award for Best Musical (tying, of all things, that year with The Sound of Music). It's sung here by Ellen Hanley. What I most admire about the song is the simplicity of the words, almost conversational, yet that bring out rich emotion. Usually when I've posted this in the past, I've used the Original Cast Recording, which is wonderful. But I just found a new version which is terrific. As it happens, it's from a live production of the musical, done in 2013 at the New York City Center Encores!, which annually has put on pared-down productions for brief runs of lesser-known, deserving shows. (Fiorello! was the first revival they ever presented -- and became the first they ever repeated for their 10th anniversary.) It's performed here by Kate Baldwin, who knows a thing or two about how to sing Harnick, having released an album of his songs. She soars here. The other, a very close runner-up, is "I Know Now" from the 1964 British musical Robert & Elizabeth, about the poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. In many ways, this is the opposite of "When Did I Fall in Love?", being very poetic (befitting its two main characters) and lush. The show had a score by Ron Grainer and Ronald Millar. It's performed by Keith Michell and June Bronhill. The treat here is that they recreated the number seven years later for a 1971 television special, so we have video of it. By the way, some may recognize Keith Michell's name. He most-famously played the lead in the PBS Masterpiece Theatre mini-series, The Six Wives of Henry VIII. And also had a recurring role as insurance investigator (and former jewel thief) 'Dennis Stanton' on Murder, She Wrote. He also had the lead in the London West End production of Man of La Mancha. June Bronhill was an Australian opera singer who also performed in several musicals, including as 'Maria' in the original Australian production of The Sound of Music. Okay, as a bonus, here's another love song from Robert & Elizabeth sung by the pair. Not precisely a comic number, but a lively fun one -- with a couple of among my favorite rhymes in any song -- as Robert explains to the overly-protected Elizabeth that he's deeply in love with her, which she tries to put off, knowing that her authoritarian father would never permit it. |
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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