September 2007 Archives

Tony Roberts is on the menu Thursday at Food for Thought's lunch time play reading series at the Players Club [16 Gramercy Park South, between Park Avenue and Irving Place]. The bill of fare will be O'Henry's A Municipal Report and The Pirates by Susan Charlotte and Pascal Aubier.

Two-time Tony nominee Roberts is currently starring in Broadway's sleeper hit musical Xanadu with Kerry Butler, Cheyenne Jackson, Jackie Hoffman and Mary Testa.

The O'Henry adaptation is the story of a reporter's encounters with mendacity [The Cat on a Hot Tin Roof kind] and murder in Nashville. The Pirates involves two storytellers at a dinner party where a murder has taken place. Both are set in the 20th Century, early and end. Antony Marsellis will direct.

Lunch is from 12:30, with the performance at 1:30. An up close and personal Q&A and reception follow. Charlotte is founder and artistic director of FFT.

Tickets are $75. To reserve, call (212) 362-2560 or (646) 366-9340. For more information, visit http://www.foodforthoughtproductions.com/.

Monday night, Roberts was feted by his fellow Friars with a dinner and musical tribute that featured Hoffman, Testa, Lucie Arnaz, Veanne Cox, Jim Dale and Penny Fuller. Friar Dean Freddie Roman was emcee. Randie Levine-Miller produced.

Parsons Goes Latin

Oscar-winning and four-time Tony-nominee and Drama Desk-winning actress and director Estelle Parsons joins forces with INTAR Theatre, which produces Latin-influenced plays in English, to direct a 75-year-old classic of Pulitzer Prize-winner Maxwell Anderson, Night Over Taos, to inaugurate the theatre's 42nd season. The play runs through October 20 at Theater for the New City [155 First Avenue].

Produced on Broadway in 1932 by the legendary and revolutionary Group Theatre, Night Over Taso was directed by Lee Strasberg with a cast that included Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner and Clifford Odets.

It's set during the U.S.-Mexican War, when Mexico lost nearly half of its territory, including what is now New Mexico, and tells the story of freedom fighter Pablo Montoya.

INTAR artistic director Eduardo Machado says, "Night Over Taos is a play from America's rich past that talks intimately to us today who are struggling with issues of immigration and the Iraq War. Maxwell Anderson tells how the west was really won. We are thrilled Estelle Parsons was attracted to this project and to have the privilege of working with her."

The cast of 25, the largest of any INTAR production, includes Jack Landron, Shawn Elliott, Peter Jay Fernandez, Mercedes Herrero, Mickey Solis, Erin Wagner and Miriam
Colon.

Anderson, widely acknowledged as one of the most prolific American playwrights of the years between World Wars I and II, was a rival to Eugene O'Neill. He wrote poetry, screenplays and for theater. He received the Pulitzer in 1933 for Both Your Houses. In 1937, he received Drama Critics' Circle Awards, then Broadway's highest honors, for Winterset and High Tor.

Tickets are $10 - $35, $10 for students/seniors, and can be purchased by calling (212) 254.1109, or online at http://www.theatermania.com/. For more info, visit http://www.intartheatre.org/.

Swados Takes a Spirtual Path

The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine [1047 Amsterdam Avenue at West 112th Street] will present the premiere of Atonement by composer Elizabeth Swados on Monday at 7 P.M. Tickets are free on a first-come, first-served basis. You'll be asked to make a donation to Artists Striving to End Poverty.

Atonement will be performed by eight soloists, a chorus of more than 30 singers and musicians.
Swados describes the work as a concert with liturgical underpinnings written as an interfaith Yom Kippur offering. "The tone of the music goes from the intimate solo of prayers for forgiveness," says Swados, "to the explosions of our dangerous lives and evolve into the celebration and joyousness of life itself."

The writer/composer/director, known for her political satire and edgy work [Doonesbury], added, "I wanted to examine the horrors our world is facing, as well as the destitution of many of its citizens, and to look into ourselves and recognize our complicity, active or passive, in this chaos."

Swados' Runaways debuted at the Public and went on to become a Broadway hit and put her in the theater history books. She garnered five 1978 Tony noms, including Best Musical, Book, Choreography, Director and Score - a still unmatched feat. There was also and Obie win for Direction.

The piece will also be performed at St. Marks Church's Church in-the-Bowery [Second Avenue at East 10th Street] as part of the Holy Wow! festival on October 14 at 7:30; and at Manhattan's Jewish Community Center [334 Amsterdam Avenue at West 76th Street] on October 27 at 8.

From the Palace to the Cutting Room

Legally Blonde's Elle Woods, Tony and DD-nominated star Laura Bell Bundy will drastically change personas Tuesday night, October 2, one of her nights off from Broadway.

Taking a break from her Harvard challenges, she'll become Laura Bell and channel her country side in anything but pink at Chris Noth and Steve Walker's Cutting Room [19 West 24th Street, between Broadway and Sixth Avenue]. Showtime is 8 P.M. She'll be appearing with her band.

Dynamo Bundy, who originated Amber Von Tussle in Hairspray and portrayed the good Glinda in Wicked, was greatly influenced by Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and, among others, Aretha Franklin growing up in her native Kentucky.

Her Cutting Room appearance will showcase her songwriting talents and tunes from her new CD, Longing for a Place Already Gone [LAB Records; SRP $15], which features 17 tracks, from uptempo to waltzy ballads, written by Bundy and Larson Paine.

Laura Bell, wanting to use a name that would distinguish her from the actress/singer playing Elle, says, "My music is a throw back to the fifties and sixties, what I've coined 'y'alternative,' a sort of indie country meets Dixie-flavored rockabilly meets Top 40. The songs have the quality of a song Patsy Cline would have recorded or that Willie Nelson or Johnny Cash would have written." If Bell's vocals bear a resemblance to Cline, "it's because I've tried to capture the essence of her vocal styling."

The CD, recorded on the West Coast with top fiddle, dobro, mandolin and peddle steel players just prior to going into Legally Blonde, contains a colorful booklet of lyrics and some decidedly non-Legally Blonde photos [button a couple of those buttons, Laura!]. It's available at Amazon.com, where you can catch vocal samples, and http://www.labrecordsmusic.com./ At iTunes.com, you can do download purchases.

Bell, who describes her current life as "work heavy but one where I'm having a wonderful time," decided to do her album on her own label "because I felt it would be hard for an industry label to understand what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. It's a little new and different. In order for me to do it quickly, capture the traditional sound and maintain control, I just needed to do it myself."

Anyone getting an early start on holiday shopping can visit the LAB Records site to purchase of Laura Bell Bundy's I'll Be Home For Christmas, with proceeds benefiting the Kreative Kids Foundation.

Bundy, Christian Borle, Orfeh, Michael Rupert and the Legally Blonde company can be heard singing Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin's show tunes on Ghostlight Records. The just-taped performance of the musical will be broadcast on October 13 on MTV.

Keep in mind, when entering the artist's name on Search lines, that you are now dealing with two personalities: Laura Bell and Laura Bell Bundy. For much more on the many facets of Bundy/Bell [and to purchase a purse or two], visit http://www.lauraashleybellbundy.com/ and http://www.laurabellbundy.com/.

Tickets for Laura Bell in concert at Cutting Room are $15 and available at SmartTix.com. There's an additional $10 food or drink minimum.

Judy Kuhn Returns

Three-time Tony and DD-nominee, acclaimed actress/singer Judy Kuhn, star of stage and screen, has a new CD and will soon be joining the cast of the Les Mis?rables revival as Fantine.
Twenty years ago, in the original production, she played Cosette. She joins the show on October 23, succeeding Tony Award winner Lea Salonga, whose final performance is October 21.

In addition to her Broadway outings, Kuhn has performed on concert stages around the world including Carnegie Hall and London's Royal Albert Hall. Her new CD Serious Playground: The Songs of Laura Nyro [Ghostlight Records; SRP $19] celebrates the work of one of the pioneering singer/songwriters of the 60s and 70s.

The CD is based on Kuhn's January sold-out Lincoln Center American Songbook Series concert, which followed her Obie-winning performance Off Broadway in Eli's Comin' at the Vineyard.
Music Director Jeffrey Klitz leads an eight-piece band on 14 known ["Stoney End," "Sweet Blindness"] and rarely-recorded compositions.

This Monday and on October 8, 15 and 22, Kuhn will be performing at Joe's Pub. The Kennedy Center in Washington follows on October 26.

The Musical That Went Out in the Cold

Disney's huge break-out hit High School Musical arrives in New York September 29 and 30 for four performances only, but not to a theatre near you. This is Feld Entertainment, helmed by Tony-winning producer Kenneth Feld, and Emmy-winning Kenny Ortega's ice show adaptation in association with Disney Theatrical Productions chief Peter Schumacher.

As even a hermit in the vast wilderness will tell you, High School Musical is an international phenom first as a giga-rated Disney Channel TV movie, then quadruple-Platinum cast CD, concert tour and chart-topping DVD. Now, High School Musical is hitting the ice. The venue is Madison Square Garden and all the rah-rah Wildcat team-spirit will be intact.

The director is Tony-nominee Jeff Calhoun [Brooklyn, Annie Get Your Gun, Big River]. Peter Barsocchini has scripted from his Disney Channel originals. There's razzle dazzle choreography by Charles Kaplow and Cindy Stuart.

Portraying Gabriella, Troy, Taylor, Ryan, Chad and mean girl Sharpay in the 35-strong cast of world class skaters [some a few years removed from their alma maters] are, respectively, Lane Walker, Jordan Brauninger [a U.S. double Gold Medalist in Senior Freestyle], Tetona Jackson, Peter B. Muck/Vyacheslav Chiliy [Russian Junior Singles champ and the Ukraine's first Men's Singles champ], Simon Hanks, and Sandy Rucker [2005 U.S. Junior National champ]/Helena Gundberg [two-time Swedish National Figure Skating champ and a member of the 1998 Olympic team].

High School Musical: the Ice Tour features the chart-topping songs that are close to every young gal's heart: "We're All in This Together" and "Start of Something New" by Matthew Gerrard and Robbie Nevil, "You Are the Music in Me" and "When There Was Me and You" by Jamie Houston, "What I've Been Looking For" by Andy Dodd and Adam Watts, plus 14 more songs by various composers and music from Disney's High School Musical 2.

Tickets are $15 to $125 for VIP Gold seating and available by calling Ticketmaster at (212) 307-7171, at www.ticketmaster.com or http://www.highschoolmusicaltheicetour.com/.

Met Musuem Honors Brooke Astor

This weekend all programs at the Metropolitan Museum ó gallery talks, lectures, tours, films and family programs ó will be free with admission in honor of their generous benefactor Brooke Astor.

Friday night at 7 P.M., Met director Philippe de Montebello and Lord William Astor will introduce Brooke Astor's Love Affair with Asian Art in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.

Current must-see exhibitions include The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, through January 6, which puts on display the museum's 20 Rembrandts and its entire Dutch Paintings Collection - 228 works; and Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection through February 3. The Met is closed on Mondays.

Inside Broadway's 25th Anniversary

The children's theater organization founded in 1982 by Michael Presser to create the audiences of tomorrow, Inside Broadway will celebrate its 25th Anniversary with a benefit concert and awards presentation on October 15 at 7:30 P.M. at the McGraw-Hill Auditorium [Rockefeller Center, West 49th Street and Sixth Avenue].

This year's honorees include Tony-winning Bebe Neuwirth, Roger Bart [Young Frankenstein], and Broadway couple Rebecca Luker [Mary Poppins] and Danny Burstein [Drowsy Chaperone]. Entertainment will be by the casts of several Broadway shows. Pia Lindstrom will emcee.

Cocktails will be served at six with the org's annual Broadway Beacon Awards, honoring theater industry advocates who help develop young audiences for Broadway. The benefit chairs include Harry Coghlan, president and GM of Clear Channel Spectacolor.

Benefit tickets are $350 and available by calling (212) 245-0710, or online at [email protected]. For more information, go to http://www.insidebroadway.org/.

This Fall, Inside Broadway is presenting Creating the Magic, a behind-the-scenes look at Broadway shows, in schools as well career workshops. The season culminates in the Spring with a production of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown. The org began in 1982 at the request of late Shubert Org president Bernard Jacobs, by creating the first Broadway student ticket program in conjunction with Cats.

Coyote Innovation

Coyete REP this week introduces the premiere of three recorded sound plays from their 2007 Sound Play Series on the web at http://www.coyoterep.org/ and available for listening through iTunes.

The plays are the survival drama Coyote Rising by Tira Palmquist, The Boy at the Window the comedy by Douglas Braverman that revisits the kids from Peter Pan and Patriot Act (An Occurrence at Yankee Stadium) by Robert Emmet Lunney which reflects on real-life incidents.

The casts are large - directed by, respectively, Jeanne LaSala. Olivia Mora and Teresa K. Pond and Richard Romagnoli. Coyote REP's recorded sound plays are made possible in part by the donation of studio space by WNYC. Download info is available on the org's web site.

Scottish Wolves

The National Theatre of Scotland and London's Obie and Olivier Award-winning Improbable theater company are presenting The Wolves in the Walls, a 75-minute, multimedia "musical pandemonium" adapted from the best-selling book by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, for 16 performances October 5-21 at the New Victory Theatre.

This is the New York debut for the recently-created NTOS. The company will visit Brooklyn in the Fall, bringing its acclaimed production of Black Watch to St. Ann's Warehouse.

The award-winning, hit U.K. show is conceived for the stage by NTOS A.D. Vicky Featherstone, Improbable's Julian Crouch and musician Nick Powell and described as "comic book-scary, spooky fun for adults and children alike [seven and up] with live music, projections and eerily lifelike puppets." Improbable and Crouch debuted Shockheaded Peter at the New Vic in 1999.

Tickets $12.50 - $35 and available at the box office, by caling (646) 223-3010 and online at http://www.newvictory.org/. With the purchase tickets to TWINW and at least two other New Vic prods, buyers can save 30% on tickets to all shows this entire season. The Wolves in the Walls is being supported with a grant from the Jim Henson Foundation.

Tony Bennett on CD and DVD

Tony Bennett Sings The Ultimate American Songbook, Volume 1 [Legacy/RPM/Columbia Records; SRP $18] has arrived in stores with 15 songs covering three decades of his repertoire with Columbia.

Tunes include Cole Porter's "Ev'ry Time We Say Good­bye" from the revue Seven Lively Arts; Vernon Duke's "Taking A Chance On Love" from Cabin In The Sky; Sondheim's "You'll Never Get Away From Me" from Gypsy; Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer's "That Old Black Magic" [accompanied by the Dave Brubeck Quartet] from the film Star Spangled Rhythm; and "Moonglow," a duet with k.d. lang.

The Music Never Ends, a two-disc DVD doc [Warner Home Video; SRP, $25] that captures Bennett's Monterey Jazz Festival concert will be in stores in November. Clint Eastwood executive produced the video for debut recently on PBS' American Masters.

Ghouls, Goblins and Coasters

ëTis the season to scream! And weekend and holidays through October 28, you can holler your lungs out at Six Flags Great Adventures' Fright Fest, the tri-state area's largest Halloween party, in Jackson, NJ.

If the two daunting, monster roller coasters Kingda Ka and El Torro aren't enough to give your lungs a good workout, you can raise some cain with the Creatures of the Night [not to be confused with the music of the night] at the nightly Parade of the Walking Dead and Winn's Thrill Circus. Not enough? Well, you can be "mealworthy" for a bunch of creepy critters in the Coffin of Fear.

For calmer pleasures, there the new Wiggle's children's section, meet and greet opts with Looney Tunes characters, Dolphin Discovery, a rumble in the jungle with gigantic Bengals at the Temple of the Tiger, Halloween-themed shows and dance parties galore and fireworks.

Saturday, October 6, Six Flags hosts their fifth annual American Red Cross blood drive. Those who donate at least a pint receive Fright Fest tickets. On October 14, the park will host its first 5K run/fitness walk Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, the world's largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists.

One of the highlights of a Six Flags daylight visits is the drive-through Animal Safari, one of the biggest and best in the U.S. For directions, pricing and information, visit http://www.sixflags.com/.

Mickey and Judy Boxed

Mickey and Judy are ready to put on that show. And what a show! Actually, a whole bunch of ëem.

The five-disc DVD boxed set The Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland Collection: Ultimate Collector's Edition has arrived in stores [Warner Home Video; SRP $50]. The M-G-M musical classics, all remastered, finally making their first DVD appearance are the duo's Babes in Arms, Babes on Broadway, Strike Up the Band and Girl Crazy - four "backyard" extravaganzas that cemented the duo's reputation as one of Hollywood's beloved screen teams.

Disc Five contains nearly three hours of bonus material, including Private Screenings with Mickey Rooney, an in-depth, deeply personal interview by TCM's Robert Osborne, and The Judy Garland Songbook, 21 complete Garland movie musical numbers.

These four films were produced by M-G-M musicals legend Arthur Freed. Rooney earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Babes in Arms, considered the quintessential Mickey-Judy musical. It was quite freely adapted from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart Broadway hit. Busby Berkeley directed and lavishly choreographed.

The boxed set print restores a cut removed after World War II of the stars impersonating Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Studio head Louis B. Mayer felt the public wouldn't want to see the recently deceased F.D.R. parodied. Footage of the deleted sequence was lost until it was discovered on a collector's print.

Strike up the Band [1940] features famed big band leader Paul Whiteman and the outrageous Berkeley production number "Do the La Conga." One of the songs, "Our Love Affair," was Oscar-nominated.

Girl Crazy [1943] is based on George and Ira Gershwin's 1930 Broadway hit and has a sublime score, highlighted by "Embraceable You," "Fascinating Rhythm," "Bidin' My Time" and the poignant Garland solo "But Not for Me." Berkeley, once again helmed. His colossal dude-ranch "I Got Rhythm" finale is still talked about today. June Allyson and Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra also appear.

[Photos: 2) PAUL KOLNIK; 3) LARISSA UNDERWOOD; 5) ELLIS NASSOUR ]

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The 40th Anniversary of Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical will be celebrated with concert performances at Joe's Pub in the Park, at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Performances are free and begin at 7 P.M.

The year is 1967, and the Vietnam War is at its height. In New York, a hippie tribe rails against the establishment, intolerance and brutality. When one of their own gets drafted, he must make a decision about what values are worth fighting for.

Book and lyrics are by Gerome Ragni and James Rado, with music by Galt Macdermot. The concert production is directed by Diane Paulus with Xanadu's Rob Fisher as music director.

The 30-strong cast is highlighted by Spring Awakening's Tony and Drama Desk nominee Jonathan Groff as Claude, Tony-nominee Megan Lawrence [Pajama Game, Urinetown] as Mother of the Tribe and Will Swenson [one of the standout stars of Roundabout's 110 in the Shade revival] as Berger.

Tickets are available day of the performance [two per person] at the Delacorte box office from 1 P.M. and at the Public from 1 - 3. Enter Central Park at West 81st Street and Central Park West and East 79th Street and Fifth Avenue. The 2007 season of Joe's Pub in the Park is made possible by generous funding from The New York State Music Fund.

Hair premiered at the Public in October 1967, officially opening its home on Lafayette Street. It has the distinction of being the first off-Broadway musical to transfer to Broadway when it moved to the Biltmore in April 1968, where it ran for 1,750 performances. Among those in the cast were Paul Jabara, Diane Keaton, Lynn Kellog, Melba Moore, Rado [Claude] and Ragni [Berger]. It reopened for a short-lived run in 1977. Among those featured were Cleavant Derricks and [pre-Dreamgirls] Loretta Divine, Annie Golden [currently an u/s in Xanadu] and Charlaine Woodard.

"Make love, not war!" was the battle cry in 1968 among the free wheeling, anti-war East Village hippies. Rado and Ragni, two unemployed actors, had the idea to create "something new, something different" for the stage. The result impressed New York Shakespeare Festival impresario Joseph Papp so much that he urged the duo to add music.

They collaborated for two years to create their "pop rock/showtune hybrid." Ragni says it wasn't easy finding a composer. "We rejected several, until finally, in early 1967, we found Galt. What he composed was love at first hearing. It was more than a fulfillment of a dream. It was a clear illustration of a marriage made in heaven."

MacDermot's forays into music had been quite heavenly. He was a church organist before becoming a band pianist. Even though MacDermot was as straight-laced as Rado and Ragni were hip, it became, as Ragni said.

On its Off Broadway opening, Hair became a major turning point in theater. Hippies advocating peace over war, drugs over soda pop and free love - not to mention onstage nudity and words never heard even in impolite society - created an uproar. Old-line drama critics didn't know what to think, but youth bellied up to the box office. The fledging Public Theatre had a blockbuster and Papp was established as a producer to be reckoned with. Out with the traditional and in with the avant-garde became the rallying cry. There were cries for censorship and, subsequently, many cities banned productions.

Even after becoming a smash, it appeared the creative team's dream of being on Broadway wouldn't come true. "We offered it to the established producers," reported Rado, "but it was rejected again and again."

Then producer Michael Butler, a handsome, independent-minded young yachtsman from an aeronautics family, and Papp moved the show to a Theatre District disco. When Papp began to doubt Hair's future - or fear for his own because of necessary funding for his theatre - and when Butler's dad turned off the finance spigot, Adela Holzer, who billed herself as a Spanish aristocrat, came to his rescue with additional money.

Holzer became that rare commodity: a major female producer, later bringing Treemonisha and The Ritz to Broadway. She was an early supporter of Terrence McNally and the directorial aspirations of Dustin Hoffman [who got so fed up with her interference, he locked her out of the theatre]. Holzer was also lead producer of Rado/Ragni/MacDermot's second Broadway outing, the disastrous Dude.

In 1979, she was convicted of grand larceny and landed in prison. In 2003, she got was convicted of bilking immigrants of money on the promise of securing their Green Card. She's still serving time and will be unable to see the production she helped salvage and guide into the theatrical history books.

Bulter, who was, ironically, pro the Vietnam conflict and who ran for a Democratic U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, was the godson of film legend Tyrone Power; a devoted friend Greta Garbo, the Windsors and John and Jacqueline Kennedy.

The most avant-garde of avant-garde directors, Tom O'Horgan was brought in to revise the show and Broadway was never the same. In May 1971, he enjoyed controversy all over again with his production of Lenny, followed in October by his Jesus Christ Superstar, which also had its fair share of protestors - this time, religious.

If the creators wanted something different, they got it. More than one cast member said that the majority of the cast was "high on acid." To encourage nudity, cast members were offered an additional $7.50 each time they exposed themselves.

The perception of what a Broadway show "should be" is vastly different today. Back then, even with its great popularity, Hair was only nominated for two Tony Awards: Best Musical and Best Director. What amazed most traditional theater power-brokers was that it was nominated at all. Snub or no snub, there was no shortage of audiences. They went because they believed or to be shocked. Hair became a cause celebre.

Some of the show's rock score grew to accepted by the mainstream: more accessible songs, such as "Aquarius" and "Let the Sunshine In," which made it to the pop charts. The sun shined in and the Age of Aquarius dawned. Peace, love, freedom were in vogue, at least onstage.

West Side Story's 50th Anniversary

The Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim/Jerome Robbins landmark production of West Side Story opened on Broadway in September, 1957. The stars were Larry Kert, Carol Lawrence, Chita Rivera and Mickey Calin. Among the supporting cast were Martin Charnin, Marilyn Cooper, Gover Dale and Tony Mordente.

To celebrate the Tony-winning musical's 50th Anniversary, Decca Broadway assembled a roster of classical crossover artists for West Side Story, a new, state-of-the-art recording of the score.

Bernstein's score was dazzling and varied, using Latin, jazz, street-savvy harmonies along with the soaring melodies of "Maria," "Somewhere," "Tonight," "I Have a Love" and "Something's Coming."

On the CD, two best-selling recording artists and critically acclaimed singers take on the roles of Maria and Tony: soprano Hayley Westenra and Italian tenor Vittorio. USA Today named Vittorio one of four possible heirs to Pavarotti's musical throne. Westenra, barely out of her teens, was said to have the "voice of an angel" by The New York Times.

The role of Anita is sung by Melanie Marshall. The cast includes an additional 15 singers. Nick Ingman conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Jamie Bernstein provides introductory liner notes. "One of the many reasons I love my father's scor," she writes, "is that it can be enjoyed on so many levels. You can let the music was h over you like a glorious tide and simply revel in the rich melodies and propulsive rhythms; or inspect it more closely and be amazed at the intricacy of its composition."

Bernstein observes that "three notes, just three little notes, provide the musical key to the whole score. These are the opening notes: a g, a C and an F sharp. We hear these three notes again and again Ã- in endless anagrams and permutations, creating and ingenious musical portrait of ambiguity."

Masterworks Broadway just released A Place for Us: A Tribute to 50 Years of West Side Story, which reassembles chart-topping artists and instrumentalists on 10 tracks from various albums. They include Julie Andrews, Joshua Bell, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, the Canadian Brass. Eldar, Johnny Mathis, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Streisand and Andy Williams. Kristin Chenoweth and Hugh Panaro recorded a duet of "Tonight" especially for the album. In the way of previously unreleased material, Andre Previn, on piano, leads a jazz trio in a six-minute riff on "Gee, Officer Krupke."

More WSS News

World-renowned impresario Paul Szilard, who is presenting the Martha Graham Dance Company in their acclaimed Joyce season [which ends this weekend], and Michael Brenner will co-produce West Side Story with an American cast this November at Paris' historic Theatre du Chatelet. Two-time Tony-nominee Joey McKneely [Smokey Joe's Cafe, The Life] will direct and choreograph the four week engagement.

Szilard, a former leading ballet dancer, produced the first Japanese tour of WSS with an American cast, who were rehearsed by Jerome Robbins. It was the first English language Broadway show to appear there.

Brenner is no stranger to live entertainment. In addition to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater [which Szilard represented for nearly 40 years] and Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, he's presented Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, Ballet Nacional de EspaÒa, Sarah Brightman, Shirley MacLaine, Marcel Marceau, Broadway shows such as Tango Argentino and Fosse as well as a long roster of foreign language productions of Broadway hits.

Broadway's Star-studded Flea Market

Who wouldn't want a share of Broadway to keep and cherish? Well, get your grove on, because Sunday's the day to make out like O.J. did - or tried to - in Vegas.

The 21st Annual Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS this Sunday from 10 A.M. - 7 P.M. in and around Shubert Alley promises to offer something for everyone - from the bargain shopper on the hunt for theater memorabilia to the well-heeled bidders who want to make their Broadway debut in a musical.

They'll be stars from all shows signing autographs and posting for photos, signed Playbills, posters, costume sketches, cast albums and refreshments. Again this year, stars from TV's daytime dramas will be on hand.

The highlight of the day is the "grand auction," where fans can bid for walk-on roles in such shows as Hairspray, Jersey Boys, Legally Blonde, Mamma Mia!, The Phantom Of The Opera, Rent and Wicked; private backstage tours of such TV shows as Battlestar Gallactica, Bones, The Daily Show, Scrubs and Ugly Betty; and VIP seating to the opening nights of Cyrano, The Little Mermaid, The Ritz and Young Frankenstein.

And how about the opportunity to own one-of-a kind Broadway memorabilia, such as Jessica Tandy's wardrobe trunk from the tour of A Delicate Balance.

In the market for a used van? Look no further than the Broadway Flea, where the long-running hit Altar Boyz will be donating the 1987 VW show van to be auctioned off. The winner will celebrate with the cast with a photo with boyz Andrew C. Call, Chad Doreck, Jay Garcia, Ryan Ratliff and Ryan Strand and the van; backstage tour and photos; autographed poster; 10 VIP tickets and souvenir programs; show CD, t-shirt, water bottle and promo button; and special drive about the city in the van in addition to a walk-on as the "Fogger" during the Altar Boyz opening sequence.

Celebrities scheduled to appear at the celebrity autograph table and photo booth include Max Crumm [Grease], Tyne Daly, Sir Ian McKellen, Laura Osnes [Grease), Bebe Neuwirth, Bernadette Peters, David Hyde Pierce, Anthony Rapp, Corin Redgrave [Tynan], Lynn Redgrave [Grace], Vanessa Redgrave, Jo Anne Worley [The Drowsy Chaperone] and many more.

BC/EFA is the nation's leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fund raising and grant making organization. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the casts of shows and audiences, the org has raised an astounding $130 million plus for services for people with AIDS, HIV or HIV-related illnesses since its inception in 1988.

Remembering Betty Comden

If planners had waited any longer to have Betty Comden's memorial, it could have been celebrated on the first anniversary of her death. As it was, on Tuesday, it was a few weeks short. One might wonder why it took so long, but Miss Comden was finally honored, and it was quite a memorable tribute.

Sadly, the party is officially over. The "better half" was the way the late Adolph Green described his long-time writing partner Betty Comden, who died November 23. She was 89.

I loved the 1998 photo taken by Suzanne DeChillo and used in Ms. Comden's the New York Times obit. It showed her and Mr. Green, who died in 2002, with his head on Ms. Comden's shoulder. It was an affectionate portrait of one of Broadway's most cherished, most celebrated book writer/lyrics duos and one of those photos that speak louder than a thousand words.

The depth of their friendship and loyalty was legendary. The song "Perfect Relationship" from their hit Bells Are Ringing, with music by Jule Styne and which starred Judy Holliday, aptly summed up their professional partnership, which scanned more than six decades.

Comden and Green, as book writers and lyricists, were at the forefront of Broadway's Golden Era of musicals from the early 40s into the late 70s. They met daily, most often in Ms. Comden's living room, either to work up lyrics for a show or, as Ms. Comden revealed in 2001 when I spoke to her and Mr. Green about the release on CD of their revue Two On the Aisle, which starred Dolores Gray and Bert Lahr, "to do nothing more than sit and talk about the weather, which we've done a good bit of the time lately."

In a 1977 Times interview, Ms. Comden said, "We stare at each other ... There are long periods when nothing happens, and it's just boring and disheartening. But we have a theory that nothing's wasted, even those long days of staring at one another. You sort of have to believe that, don't you? That you had to go through all that to get to the day when something did happen."

They were seen together and their names mentioned together so often that it is no surprise that many people, even in the industry, thought they were married. They were, quipped Ms. Comden, "but to other people."

Comden and Green, who recieved six Tony Award nominations [winning four times for best score and/or book], were together so much that they felt "lost and lonely" when apart.

[Their "wins" often include Tonys for Best Musical, but now a "win" in that category officially goes to the producer(s).]

Comden and Green wrote such classic stage shows as On the Town, Wonderful Town, Applause, On the Twentieth Century [in which Ms. Comden briefly appeared, replacing Imogene Coca as Letitia Primrose], The Will Rogers Follies [Tony Award]. Working with Styne, in addition to BAR, they also wrote Do Re Mi, Fade Out, Fade In, Hallelujah, Baby! [Tony], additional lyrics for the 1954 Mary Martin Peter Pan and the infamous David Merrick musical Subways Are for Sleeping.

The team was Oscar-nominated twice, for their screenplays for The Band Wagon and It's Always Fair Weather. The latter co-starred Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Gray, Cyd Charisse and Michael Kidd. Of Gray, Ms. Comden termed "wonderful, first rate." Mr. Green added, "she was statuesque, tall and quite stunning. She looked great." Added Ms. Comden, "Dolores had this marvelous voice, and a great body, too."

They termed Gray one of the most difficult actresses they ever worked with, mainly because of her constantly interfering stage mother. Gray did go on to become a formidable stage presence, but rarely got on well with her leading men.

She noted that IAFW was "a lovely, underrated musical," which centered on the reunion of three G.I.s after WWII. She spoke briefly of the temperamental Gray and the "madly egotistical" Kelly's clashes on the film, "It wasn't a match made in Hollywood heaven. If Gene said it was black, Dolores absolutely insisted it was white. It went on like that for the whole picture. But, somehow, the movie got made. It's my personal favorite. It had a remarkable story and I'm proud of the score."

Strangely, Comden and Green were not nominated for their screenplay for one of the most successful movie musical comedies in cinema history, Singin' in the Rain, which in 1998 was ranked Number 10 on the list of the 100 Best American Movies of the 20th Century. A not-too-well-known fact is that Ms. Comden wrote the lyrics for Donald O'Connor's showstopping number "Moses Supposes."

C&G did win a Writer's Guild of America Award and were nominated for a Golden Globe for SITR. Looking back, one might be totally perplexed that the film, in spite of its box office clout [and, now, it's status as a movie classic], didn't get nominated for Best Picture.

In 1991, President George H. W. Bush honored C&G at the White House. That evening they were among the recipients of Kennedy Center Honors for "contributions to American musical theater."

I had the pleasure of interviewing Ms. Comden and Mr. Green several times; and was asked to be host to Ms. Comden when she was among the Broadway composers and lyricists receiving 2003 Tony Award Honors. She was extraordinarily frail but her wit was intact. In the dark, we made our way slowly to the stage to await her introduction. For a second, Ms. Comden seemed to panic. "I can't see a thing!" she said, tightly gripping my hand. I replied, "That's because all the lights are out." She responded, "Well, when they come back on, just push me out there!"

That wasn't necessary: the emcee collected her. As Miss Comden walked away, she quickly turned and said, "Now, don't you go anywhere. I'll be right back."

C&G met as players in an improv group called the Revuers. She was still Elizabeth Cohen from Brooklyn, who began her career as Claire DeLoone in the team's On the Town, with music by Leonard Bernstein. She won a 1945 Theatre World Award as one of the season's promising newcomers. As the rechristened Betty Comden, she teamed with Mr. Green to write sketches and lyrics for a series of revues. Joining ASCAP in 1945, she collaborated not only with Bernstein and Styne, but also Morton Gould and Andre Previn.

"After Two On the Aisle," noted Ms. Comden, "revues fell out of favor. It became a time when you made your money from a sale to the movies, and Hollywood was buying book shows. They couldn't get a story out of a revue. So we went that route, because we had to make a living. "

Among the long list of Comden and Green tunes are "Lonely Town," "New York, New York," the hilarious showstopper "I Can Cook, Too" and "Some Other Time" from OTT; "It's Love," "A Little Bit in Love," "Ohio" and "One Hundred Easy Ways (To Lose a Man)" from WT; and "I Met A Girl," "Just in Time," "Long Before I Knew You" and "The Party's Over" from BAR.

At a 2001 Drama Desk event, I visited with Mr. Green, who had not been well, and said it was nice to see him out and about with his wife. Mr. Green deadpanned, "You're speaking of Phyllis [Newman], not Betty, right?" Yes, he was informed. "Good," he replied, as Ms. Comden who was seated with them laughed. "I only ask because through the years almost everyone, even those who'd you'd think are in the know, think that Betty and I are married. It's happened a lot since we've been a team for so long. Of course, I always clear it up in a few minutes. Since I spend literally every day with Betty, I can understand why people think we're married."

Added Ms. Comden, "In many ways, you can say we're wedded. Adolph seems to know what I'm thinking before I know what I'm thinking and I've gotten very adept at finishing his thoughts for him. That's what happens in a lot of marriages!"

[Photo Credits: 3) FRIEDMAN-ABLES; 4) MARK RUPP]

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