MORE TOP 40 BROADWAY

I wasn't a bit surprised that, in response to my column of two weeks ago, several readers came up with more examples of Broadway stars who had pop hit recordings of songs from their shows. It's difficult to thoroughly research this sort of thing unless you haul your butt to the library, which I did not do. (Google only gets you so far, especially when it comes to esoterica). The matter is further complicated by the exact definition of a pop hit. For example, if a record made the Easy Listening charts, does that count?

I specifically asked for instances in which a performer had a hit with a song from a musical while he or she was appearing in the show. I cited Barbra Streisand's studio recording of "People" from Funny Girl and a few other examples from the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, but Christopher Connelly sagely pointed out that we should look back to the first few decades of the 20th century for more.

"Helen Morgan's 1928 recording of 'Bill' [from Show Boat] was a hit," Connelly wrote, "although I don't have my notes in front of me to tell you how high up it got the charts. It was however, ultimately included in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Morgan's cover of 'Body and Soul' from Three's a Crowd climbed to number 16 on the charts; but the song's B'way originator, Libby Holman had an even bigger hit with her version of it. Morgan also had success with one or both of her Sweet Adeline recordings, 'Why Was I Born?' and 'Don't Ever Leave Me!,' as well as her 1932 recording of her two Show Boat songs. I don't know how you would research this, but I'm sure Fanny Brice's original recordings of 'My Man'/'Second Hand Rose' and many of Jolson's stage performances -- especially from Sinbad -- made the charts. Ditto Ruth Etting's 'Love Me or Leave Me' (Whoopee!) and both Ruth and Nora Bayes' recordings of 'Shine On, Harvest Moon' [from The Ziegfeld Follies of 1908]. Bert Williams' Follies recordings were also hugely popular, and Helen Kane's star-making recording of 'I Wanna Be Loved By You' (Good Boy) certainly climbed the charts. Ditto Eartha Kitt's star-making turn, 'Monotonous,' in New Faces of 1952." Whew! Thanks, Chris!

I noted in my article that Ethel Merman had made a pop record of "I Get a Kick Out of You" from Anything Goes, though I wasn't sure how big a hit it was. According to Skip Koenig, The Merm deserves a place in the pop record pantheon for another effort. "Merman had a charted hit in January '33 with 'Eadie Was a Lady,'" says Skip. "Variety charts her both in N.Y. and L.A. The chart is confusing as it has separate rankings for Brunswick, Columbia, and Victor." Given that Skip did the complete discography and contributed heavily to Caryl Flinn's Brass Diva: The Life and Legends of Ethel Merman, due from the University of California Press this November, I'll take his word for it.

Mike Dworchak, who used to work at the Rodgers and Hammerstein office and now is with USA Networks, wrote: "Mary Martin [pictured above] had a Top 10 hit in early 1939 with 'My Heart Belongs to Daddy' from Leave it to Me. She recorded a version of the song with Eddy Duchin's Orchestra." I should have remembered that, as the performance in question was included on an old LP that was in my parents' collection when I was growing up, and I played it constantly. If you ever want to know why Martin became an overnight star in Leave It to Me, track down this recording and give a listen.

Other examples of pop hit recordings of songs by the self-same people who performed those songs on Broadway? Stuart Soloway wrote, "I thought of two, and they are both from the same person: Steve Lawrence!" He cited Lawrence's single of "I Gotta Be Me" from Golden Rainbow as having received a lot of airplay, though he allowed that "Sammy Davis had the bigger hit" with that tune. Stuart also pointed to Lawrence's popular recording of "A Room Without Windows" from What Makes Sammy Run? (This is a good place to mention that Lawrence's wife, Eydie Gorme, had a huge success with "If He Walked Into My Life" from Mame -- though, of course, she did not appear in the Broadway production.)

Finally, Richard Wall, Tina M. Sheing, and Chris Connelly all pointed to what may be my most grievous omission: Murray Head's recording of "One Night in Bangkok" from the Chess concept album. Head didn't appear in the show on Broadway, but he co-starred with Elaine Paige in the earlier London production. I'm not sure if the song was still getting major airplay when Ches opened, and I didn't really deal with British shows and songs in my article, but let's not quibble; the important point is that folks across the pond had the rare and thrilling experience of going to the theater and hearing a song sung live in the context of a musical by the performer who had very recently made it a pop hit.

So, do you think there's a chance that Roger Bart, Shuler Hensley, Megan Mullaly, Sutton Foster, or someone else in Young Frankenstein will chart with a number from that score? And if "Putting on the Ritz" once again becomes a hit, would that count? Let's see what happens!

A LONE STAR IS REBORN

Lone Star Love had an Off-Broadway run in 2004-2005, and now this Wild West musical based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is prepped to open on Broadway at the Belasco. Directed and choreographed by Randy Skinner, the show was conceived by John L. Haber, who co-wrote the book with Robert Horn. The score is by Jack Herrick of the Red Clay Ramblers.

Pictured above are some of the cast's lovely ladies performing "World of Men" at a press preview of five musical numbers from the show, held at the Hilton Theatre Studios on Thursday, August 23.

Among the production's stars are Dee Hoty (Footloose, The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public, The Will Rogers Follies, etc.) as Mrs. Page and Lauren Kennedy (Spamalot, Sunset Blvd., Side Show, etc.) as Mrs. Ford.

Here are Clarke Thorell (best known as the original Corny Collins in Hairspray) as Fenton and Kara Lindsay as Miss Ann Page, singing "Count on My Love."

Lone Star Love will mark the Broadway debut of Randy Quaid, whose numerous film credits range from The Last Picture Show to Midnight Express to Brokeback Mountain.

Here's Quaid, as the corpulent Colonel John Falstaff, and company performing "Fat Man Jump."

Robert Cuccioli, most famous for creating the title roles in Broadway's Jekyll & Hyde, plays Frank Ford in Lone Star Love.

Here are Cuccioli, Kennedy, Hoty, and Dan Sharkey as George Page in the foot-stomping finale. Lone Star Love begins previews at the Belasco on November 1 and is set to open officially on December 3.

TOP 40 BROADWAY

While enjoying the original cast album of Funny Girl for the umpteenth time, I was struck by the fact that people who saw the show early in its run were the luckiest people in the world in that they had the rare experience of hearing a current Top 40 hit sung on Broadway by the artist featured on the hit recording.

Columbia Records had released Barbra Streisand's gorgeous studio performance of "People" before the show opened at the Winter Garden, and it shot up as high as #4 on the singles chart. Can you imagine how thrilling it must have been for theatergoers to hear Barbra herself launch into the song about halfway through the first act? And can you imagine Columbia's chagrin over the fact that the Funny Girl cast album was released by Capitol?

This got me to wondering how often audiences have had the chance to hear a current pop hit sung on Broadway (or Off-Broadway) by the singer who made it famous. As far as I can tell, the answer is "not very often at all." Even in the middle part of the 20th century, a.k.a. The Golden Age of Broadway, Top 40 versions of show tunes were almost invariably recorded by pop singers. True, Ethel Merman and Ray Bolger respectively made studio recordings "I Get a Kick Out of You" from Anything Goes and "Once in Love With Amy" from Where's Charley? that were released while those shows were running, but I'm not sure if they ever made the hit parade.

The original Broadway cast LP of My Fair Lady rose to the top of the charts and stayed there forever, but it was Vic Damone who had a hit single with "On the Street Where You Live" -- not John Michael King, who performed the beautiful ballad nightly and twice on matinee days at the Mark Hellinger Theatre. John Raitt sang "Hey There" spectacularly well in the The Pajama Game, but the Top 40 version featured the crooning of Rosemary Clooney. Jack Cassidy and male chorus may be heard singing the title song from Wish You Were Here on that cast album, but Eddie Fisher's wildly popular recording of the number is credited with having saved the show from flopping.

Ed Ames, not Jerry Orbach, had a hit with "Try to Remember" from The Fantasticks. And it was Louis Armstrong, rather than Carol Channing, who scored a monster hit with "Hello, Dolly!" in 1964. (By the way, his unmatched performance was featured on an Armstrong album that included four other show songs: "A Lot of Livin' to Do" from Bye Bye Birdie, "Hey, Look Me Over" from Wildcat, "I Still Get Jealous" from High Button Shoes, and "You Are Woman, I Am Man" from Funny Girl.)

The Off-Broadway and Broadway albums of Hair yielded no Top 40 recordings of songs from that score, but The Fifth Dimension and some guy named Oliver respectively hit it big with "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" and "Good Morning, Starshine." Although the Promises, Promises cast recording failed to make pop stars of our friend Jerry Orbach or Jill O'Hara, Dionne Warwick was all over the airwaves with "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" and the title song. Jack Jones had a major success with "What I Did for Love" from A Chorus Line, though I'm not sure if his recording ever reached the Top 40. And "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" from Evita got AM radio airplay in a disco version that was most certainly not sung by Patti LuPone.

As far as I can tell, this leaves us with only three cases (aside from Streisand's "People") in which Broadway performers had pop hit recordings of songs from shows in which they were appearing at the time (or shortly thereafter). Yvonne Elliman's performance of "I Don't Know to Love Him" from the Jesus Christ Superstar concept album got a fair amount of AM radio airplay prior to the October 1971 opening of the Broadway production, in which Elliman as Mary Magdalene sang the song eight times a week -- but it should be noted that Helen Reddy had an even bigger hit with this number. Also heard frequently on the radio in 1971 was "Day by Day" from the Off-Broadway cast recording of Godspell, featuring Robin Lamont as soloist. The only other instance I can think of in which a track from a cast album became a pop hit? Jennifer Holliday's "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," from Dreamgirls.

And that, I believe, is that. More recent attempts to massage Broadway songs into pop hits have been unsuccessful -- e.g., the recording of "Seasons of Love" (from Rent) with Stevie Wonder as special guest soloist. If you can name any other examples of musical theater stars having cracked the Top 40 with songs from their shows, please fill me in.

THE LADY IS A CHAMP

For the better part of two decades, Charles Busch was one of the leading lights of Off-Broadway as the author and drag star of Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, The Lady in Question, Red Scare on Sunset, and a clutch of other fabulous entertainments. More recently, he conquered Broadway as the author of the comedy hit The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, and he wrote the book for the underrated musical Taboo. His latest stage work, Our Leading Lady, had a run at Manhattan Theatre Club last season. Two of his plays, Psycho Beach Party and Die Mommie Die, were made into films that have become minor cult classics.

Just last week, it was announced that the stage version of Die Mommie Die will have a limited run at New World Stages this fall, with Busch starring. And, as we speak, the indefatigable artiste is headlining a revival of The Lady in Question at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, directed by Christopher Ashley. Bush is once again cavorting with Julie Halston, his longtime partner in comic mayhem; the cast also includes the mega-talented Candy Buckley, Barrett Foa, Larry Keith, Richard Kind, Matt McGrath, Perry Ojeda, and Ana Reeder.

Described as a free-wheeling satire of 1940s espionage flicks, The Lady in Question tells the tale of Gertrude Garnet, a glamorous, egotistical, self-centered concert pianist who becomes a true heroine when a handsome American professor enlists her help in rescuing his mother from a Nazi prison. Busch, Halston, and company spoke about the show, which runs August 14-September 2 at Bay Street, during the final stages of rehearsal.

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Charles Busch: I've always wanted to work with everyone in this cast. I'm a little obsessed with Matt McGrath. I remember seeing him in 1989 in Amulets of the Dragon Forces, this incredible Paul Zindel play, when he was just a kid. He gave one of the great performances; it was like Julie Harris in The Member of the Wedding. Richard Kind, of course, took over in The Tale of the Allergist's Wife and breathed new life into that play, so I thought it would be fun to act with him. I think we make a very good team.

Richard Kind: I'd never seen any of Charles' shows Off-Broadway, but I had friends in the company, and I would always hear them talk about The Lady in Question in particular. A lot of people think it's his best work. Charles recently directed me in the radio version of Allergist's Wife. The thought that I might be playing opposite him romantically in this play just killed me -- not to mention the fact that I'd be playing a Nazi. I was very nervous about taking the part. I still think Charles has made a huge mistake.

Julie Halston: It's not a mistake at all!

Busch: I love it when people play against type. Richard is one of those actors with a very strong comic persona, but he can't rely on that in this role. He's doing a whole different kind of characterization, and I think that's really cool. [To Kind:] The only thing I'm concerned about is that you keep cracking up every time you look at Matt. What's gonna happen when you see him with blonde braids and a dirndl?

Matt McGrath: I've seen Charles perform in benefits, and I was in a reading of Red Scare on Sunset. That didn't go forward to a production for one reason or another, but it was an honor to work with Charles and the rest of the cast. I think his whole canon should be revisited.

Halston: That would be fine with me! I already know all my lines from all the plays. They're so well written. When we went back to look at our parts [in The Lady in Question], it came back so easily.

Barrett Foa: The documentary about Charles and his company [Charles Busch is The Lady in Question] is so useful for those of us who didn't know the history.

Halston: You can read about our company in the Yale Drama Review and a lot of other theater quarterlies and journals. They all mention Charles' work as seminal. It was crazy, nutty, and so much fun doing those shows at the Limbo Lounge. We'll never see that kind of theater again. When I've done shows like Hairspray and Gypsy on Broadway, I've found that all the young gay boys are very worshipful of Charles. My door was always open, and they would come in and say, "Tell me about the '80s!"

Foa: I went to see the movie Die Mommie Die the day it came out, and I immediately became a huge fan of Charles.

Busch: It's interesting when people get to know your work at different stages in your career. There are a lot of young people who know me only from the two cult movies, and that's great. Allergist's Wife is done pretty often by stock and amateur groups. Vampire Lesbians and Psycho Beach Party are also done a lot, but The Lady in Question not so much. I think it's daunting because it can be an expensive show to produce; it needs a lot of costumes, a double-decker set with a staircase. It used to bug me that some critics described the show as a hilarious spoof of B movies. That's not true at all! This would have been a deluxe star vehicle, something that Joan Crawford or Norma Shearer would have starred in at MGM.

Kind [to Busch]: Do you mind it when people use the words "parody" or "spoof" to describe your plays?

Busch: I think of them more as hommages. We do send up the conventions of 1940s films, but I like to think that this play works on several levels; it makes you laugh, but you can also get into the suspense and root for the heroine to escape. That's my metier as a performer, to play a female character with as much psychological insight as I can but also to comment on the star acting conventions of the past. It's a tightrope I'm walking, and everybody has to walk it with me.

Halston: Some very skilled, very talented actors just cannot do that. When you find people who can, like this cast, you realize it's a special talent.

Busch: I'd love to do The Lady in Question as a movie, to open it up and film it in black and white.

Halston: There was a TV commercial for the show when we did it the first time, and it was fantastic.

Busch: Yes. It was directed by Paris Barclay, who went on to become a famous TV director. It was in black and white, and we had all these set-ups. I think we had to close the show because we spent so much money on the commercial, but it was very stylish.

Halston: The commercial is in the documentary. I can't tell you how emotional it was to see that movie. I've been stopped on the street and I've gotten emails from people all over the country, telling me how moved they were by what I said about the '80s and the AIDS crisis. Charles and I went to promote the documentary in San Francisco; we went to every screening at the Castro Theater. The audiences were terrific. Now, we're excited because it looks like The Lady in Question is going to be the best-selling play of the Bay Street season. It's an amazing experience for us to be doing it again.

LET'S ALL PLAY "CAST THE REVIVALS!"

Now that the summer doldrums are here and there are no Broadway openings to look forward to in the near future except Grease (!!), I thought it might be a good time to play one of my favorite parlor games, "Cast the Revivals!" Here are some suggestions for particular roles in upcoming productions on and off Broadway. Feel free to give me your feedback, whether "That's a great idea!" or "How asinine," and to offer your own ideas. None of us will win anything for our efforts, but it can be fun to see how our own casting concepts compare to those of the professionals.

South Pacific:
This is a major event: Lincoln Center Theater is reviving the only show among the acknowledged masterpieces of Rodgers and Hammerstein that has never been seen on Broadway since its original production. Word on "the street" is that the beautiful and supremely talented Kelli O'Hara, who co-starred in LCT's The Light in the Piazza, is favored for the role of Ensign Nellie Forbush. She'd be great in the part, but if this casting doesn't come about for one reason or another, I'd like to suggest Nancy Anderson (photo left). In such previous shows as Wonderful Town (Broadway) and She Loves Me (Paper Mill), Anderson has proven not only that she possesses oodles of stage presence and has a great voice, but also that she looks right and has a definite feel for period musicals.

The great operatic baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky has been mentioned for Emile DeBecque, and that casting would be just too marvelous for words. If it doesn't happen, how about Metropolitan Opera stalwart Dwayne Croft as Emile? (A few years ago, this would have been a dream role for Placido Domingo, but I think he's a bit past it now.) Of course, the problem with signing opera stars for Broadway shows is that they're often booked years in advance. If no such gents are available, I hope LCT gives some thought to Martin Vidnovic, who still sounds amazing and has just the right look for Monsieur DeBecque.

As for Lieutenant Joe Cable, the possibilities are myriad. Harry Connick did a fine job as Joe in the TV movie version of SP, but I doubt he'd be available for the LCT production, and he's now a little long in the tooth for the part. I suggest Steven Pasquale, Wayne Wilcox, or Matthew Morrison, all of whom played Fabrizio in The Light in the Piazza in one city or another. And here's an intriguing alternative: What about Spring Awakening star Jonathan Groff as Cable? Groff is more boyish than the role is usually cast, but this would only point up the fact that many war heroes are just kids barely out of high school or college. Can you imagine how heartbreaking Groff would be singing "Younger than Springtime" and "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught?"

Guys and Dolls:
Jane Krakowski triumphed as Adelaide in the recent London revival, and it would be great to see her reprise this plum role on Broadway. If not, how about Alison Fraser, who came close to stealing the recent City Center production of Gypsy in the role of Tessie Tura? To those who'd argue that Fraser is a bit too mature for the role, I would point out that Adelaide is supposed to have been engaged to Nathan Detroit for 14 years. Bearing that in mind, here's another idea for Adelaide that sounds crazy but might just turn out to be inspired: Ellen Greene, the original Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors. I'm not sure of Greene's actual age, but I've seen her on and off stage recently, and she looks fantastic. She never got to play Audrey on Broadway, so it could be a blast to see her in the somewhat similar, sweet-but-kinda-dumb-blonde role of Adelaide. Just a thought!

For Nathan Detroit, I'm thinking Brad Oscar or Richard Kind. For Sky Masterson and Sarah Brown, I'm thinking Marc Kudisch and Sarah Uriarte-Berry. Ernie Sabella would be great as Big Jule, and Todd Buonopane would stop the show with Nicely-Nicely Johnson's "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat."

The Ritz:
Most of the principal cast of the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Terrence McNally's bathhouse comedy has already been announced, but not the pivotal role of Michael Brick, the detective who looks like Sam Spade and talks like Mickey Mouse. This would have been a great part for David Hyde Pierce, if he weren't busy playing another detective in Curtains. If the Roundabout wants a TV stars, maybe they could get Eric McCormack or Neil Patrick Harris. But my personal choice for Brick is Christopher Sieber, who has proven time and again that he's a comic genius.

Pygmalion:
The Roundabout has announced Jefferson Mays as Henry Higgins and Claire Danes as Eliza Doolittle. Wouldn't it be wild if they could get Danes' boyfriend, Hugh Dancy, to play Freddy Eynsford-Hill? I realize that he's a rising stage and screen star, and wouldn't normally accept such a small role, but he might do it for Danes in this limited run production. As Colonel Pickering, I'd love to see the beloved Broadway veteran George S. Irving; as Eliza's father, how about Barry Humphries, a.k.a. Dame Edna?

City Center Encores!:
I'm not going to attempt to cast Juno, because I don't know the show well enough, but I'll take a shot at No, No, Nanette and Applause. Encores! has announced Beth Leavel as Lucille Early and Rosie O'Donnell as the maid Pauline. I'd like to see Noah Racey or Gavin Lee opposite Leavel as Billy Early, with Harvey Evans or George S. Irving as Jimmy, and Debbie Reynolds or Jane Powell as Sue. Jersey Boys' Daniel Reichard or the aforementioned Jonathan Groff (photo right) would be perfect as naive young Tom Trainor. As for Nanette herself, the perhaps too obvious choice is Sutton Foster. Another possibility? Meredith Patterson. If she got the part, maybe her equally talented husband Shonn Wiley could play Tom?

Grey Gardens star Christine Ebersole will be playing Margo Channing in Applause, so it might be fun to see Erin Davie -- who played Young Edie Beale in Act I of GG -- as the conniving Eve Harrington. Tom Wopat would be an excellent choiice for Bill Sampson, while Brooks Ashmanskas, Mario Cantone, or Jesse Tyler Ferguson would be hilarious as the swishy Duane.

Musicals in Mufti:
The York Theatre Company will be honoring librettist Joseph Stein with semi-staged concert presentations of four of his shows. I'm not familiar enough with all of them to suggest casting, but for Zorba, I'd love to see Marc Kudisch and Judy Kaye, who received excellent notices as the title character and Mme. Hortense in last year's L.A. Reprise! production.

For The Baker's Wife, wouldn't it be fabulous to have engaged couple Laura Benanti and Steven Pasquale as Genevieve and Dominique? This might not be possible, as both are committed to TV series -- but I can dream, can't I? If they can't do it, I'd suggest Sarah Uriarte-Berry as the unhappy Genevieve and the golden-voiced David Burnham as her "beautiful young man," who turns out to be a real prick. Another great choice would be Max von Essen, who was terrific as Dominique in the recent Paper Mill Playhouse production. As for the cuckolded baker Aimable, I'm gonna stick my neck out and suggest Paul Sorvino, who played that part in the original production (as a replacement for Topol). True, Sorvino was disastrous as Tony in the New York City Opera's recent revival of The Most Happy Fella, but that was because he didn't bother to learn the part cold. The Mufti shows are performed with scripts, so this wouldn't be an issue; and Sorvino's singing voice is still in spectacular shape, despite his age. What do you think?