Changing the World, 30 Musicals at a Time

The sixth annual New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) is raring to begin on September 28 and will run through October 18. Yesterday afternoon, a press preview of numbers from nine of the musicals to be included in the festival was held at New World Stages. Below are my pix of the event, with captions that list the titles of the shows and songs represented as well as the names of the performers. Since its inception, NYMF has spawned such musicals as Altar Boyz, [title of show], and Next to Normal, so you really owe it to yourself to check out this year's bill of fare. For complete information, visit www.nymf.org.

Under Fire: "Feel the Fire" (Caesar Samayoa and company).

Fat Camp: "Is Her Butt Bigger Than Mine?" (Carly Jibson and Ryah Nixon).

Judas & Me: "Rome" (Nick Blaemire and Doug Kreeger).

Anjou: "Those Who Refuse Mother's Wishes" (Leisl Lar and Jym Carlo Heneidi).

Above are two photos of excerpts from The Happy Enbalmer, featuring Daniel Reichard, Megan Sikora, and company.

All Fall Down: "Why Don't I Ask?" (Jenn Collela).

Street Lights: "Georgetown" (Kevin Curtis).

The Cure: "Who I Am" (Michael Buchanan and Manu Narayan).

I leave you with the above two photos of moments from Hurricane, a show that has a cast of 30 -- the largest in NYMF history!

Bye Bye Bea

One of the supreme comic actresses of our time was honored yesterday as family, friends, and fans gathered at the Majestic Theatre to celebrate the life of the beloved stage and screen star Bea Arthur. Among those on hand to offer reminiscences were Rue McClanahan, Norman Lear, Adrienne Barbeau, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, Zoe Caldwell, Rosie O'Donnell (pictured above), and BiIlly Goldenberg, the good friend who collaborated with Arthur on her wonderful show Bea Arthur on Broadway.

The event was hosted by Angela Lansbury, who starred with Arthur in the Broadway musical Mame and who began the memorial by singing her bosom buddy's big solo number from that show, the wonderfully appropriate "The Man in the Moon (is a Lady)." Lansbury recalled that she first got to know Arthur when they were "getting in shape" for their roles in the Jerry Herman musical: "I had seen her, of course, in Fiddler [on the Roof}, but it was very evident that in Mame's Vera Charles, Bea had found her comic element. And under the direction of her then-husband, Gene Saks, we shared one hugely successful year together in Mame at the Winter Garden.

"Onstage, yes, we were bosom buddies," said Lansbury (pictured at right). "But it wasn't until years later, after we both had successful TV series under our belts, that we really got together. We found that we were neighbors living the California life, and that's when we became, actually, bosom friends. Our kids got to know each other, and Bea was right there with Peter, my husband, and me during the last summer of his life. She would come over to our home laden with food, delicacies, and always a risqué story. It was during those difficult times that I got to know the real Bea and the understand the depths and the sensitivity that were so much part of her nature."

Norman Lear, who first brought Arthur to national prominence by giving her a guest spot as Cousin Maude in his groundbreaking TV show All in the Family and subsequently "spun her off" into her own starring role on the equally groundbreaking Maude, spoke of her comic brilliance: "I've lost a lot of friends this year, several quite recently, but no one seems less gone to me or more alive to me than Bea. I'm sure that's because laughter lingers -- and no one made me laugh like Bea Arthur. I've spent most of my life in the company of extraordinary laugh-makers, but Bea had me laughing in nooks and crannies of my body that I didn't even know existed. She was in total control, and I was silly putty in her hands. She'd make one of her low-voiced, open-faced, slashing and insightful comments, and I'd plotz. Then, as if she had no idea what she had said to get such a reaction, she'd say 'What?!' And the tears would roll down my cheeks. I've said it often, I'm sure it's true, that laughter adds time to our lives, and I'm sure that Bea Arthur added -- minimum -- 20 years to mine."

Sheldon Harnick -- who wrote the song "Garbage," which Arthur introduced in the Shoestring Revue of 1955, and later worked with her again when she played Yente in Fiddler on the Roof -- said of "Garbage" that "no one else ever performed it or understood it half as well as Bea Arthur. Standing forlornly under a street lamp, Bea sang [the song] with the utmost conviction, and the fact that her rendition seemed so heartfelt brought out the essential inanity of the lyrics. But over and above her interpretation, there was something else that Bea brought to the song, something that cannot be taught or directed: an unerring sense of comedy."

There were also warm remembrances from Chita Rivera, who danced to "Garbage" while Arthur sang it: "She would always say to me, 'I love you so friggin' much' -- of course, using the other word. Bea was funny, strong, and brave. I found her loving and frightening at times, like all of us. Her silence often said so much more than a huge monologue; she would allow you to imagine what she was thinking. That was really funny. The one thing I wanted for Bea was for her to stop walking down Ninth Avenue in her bare feet. it drove me nuts! Because she lived in California and I was in New York, we rarely saw each other. But she will always be my Bea, as well as one of the great dames of my life."

Adrienne Barbeau, one of Arthur's co-stars in Maude, related that "Bea taught me how to eat hard-boiled eggs." Moved to the point of tears, she remarked that "Maude was the first TV show I ever did, and working with Bea spoiled me for everything else that came afterwards. We were so blessed to be able to share her life and career with her. She was a consummate professional."

One of the most extraordinary moments of the memorial came when Carol Arthur DeLuise read a letter in praise of Arthur from the legendary comedy writer Larry Gelbart, who died just last week. There were also tributes from Bea's sister, Kay Gray, and from her sons, Matt and Danny Saks. Rue McClanahan (pictured at left) offered a touching reminiscence of Bea's loving support of her following the death of Rue's mother, then followed it up with a hilarious story of Arthur's unprintable remark about their Golden Girls co-star Betty White.

Towards the end of the program, there was a lovely tribute from Carl Siciliano, executive director of the Ali Forney Center for homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth -- one of Arthur's most beloved charities. He announced that one of the center's new residences will be named for Arthur in loving memory of her generous support.

Backstage at Broadway on Broadway

This year's edition of Broadway on Broadway, the annual free concert in Times Square, covered a lot of ground -- from Memphis to Chicago to the South Pacific, in fact, with stops in Washington Heights (In the Heights), Sweet Apple, Ohio (Bye Bye Birdie), Nigeria (Fela!), and other far-flung locales. Here are my backstage pix of this always exciting event, plus a couple of in-performance photos.

You can't stop the beat!!!

Cheyenne Jackson and Kate Baldwin, the gorgeous stars of Finian's Rainbow.

Memphis star Chad Kimball and composer David Bryan (of Bon Jovi fame).

Sahr Nqaujah, who plays the title role in Fela!

Shrek's Sutton Foster (left) and Daniel Breaker (right) with Ben Crawford, who will be taking over the show's title role as of November 10.

Here are pix of some of the stars of the eagerly awaited revival of Ragtime: Christiane Noll and Ron Bohmer, who play Mother and Father...

...Bobby Steggert (Younger Brother)...

...Quentin Earl Darrington (Coalhouse Walker, Jr.)....

...and Stephanie Umoh (Sarah).

Here's hottie John Stamos, a.k.a. Albert Peterson in the Roundabout's revival of Bye Bye Birdie...

...and here are four of the refreshingly age-appropriate actors who play teenagers in Birdie: Matt Doyle, Julia Knitel, Allison Strong, and Allie Trimm.

Javier Muñoz and Christopher Jackson, a.k.a. In the Heights homeboys Usnavi and Benny.

Alice Ripley, who won a Tony Award for her role of Diana in Next to Normal...

...and Aaron Tveit, who has returned to the role of her son Gabe after starring in the out-of-town tryout production of the upcoming Broadway musical Catch Me If You Can.

Rock of Ages star Constantine Maroulis with the fabulous Kerry Butler, who will soon join the cast.

James Carpinello, a.k.a. Stacee Jaxx in Rock of Ages.

The ever-alluring Deidre Goodwin of Chicago.

Laura Osnes, late of Grease and now playing Nellie Forbush in Lincoln Center Theater's South Pacific.

Ryan Silverman and Jennifer Hope Wills, the current Raul and Christine in The Phantom of the Opera.

Superior Donuts star Michael McKean, who hosted this year's Broadway on Broadway, led the singing of the finale: Kander and Ebb's "New York, New York."

At a pivotal moment in the first act of Mame, the title character turns to her bosom buddy and enthuses, "Oh Vera, I can't wait to hear that overture!" I'm sure we all share the sentiment. There's nothing like a good overture to whet our appetite for the show we're about to see or the recording we're about to hear. Charles Burr, one of the best-ever writers of cast album liner notes, put it succinctly and unforgettably when he described the Mame overture as "a kind of menu in music for the feast to follow."

Sadly, very few new musicals have traditional overtures -- primarily because of a perceived lack of attention on the part of audiences, who are thought to need some sort of visual stimulation in order to keep them focused and make them feel the show has actually started. All the more reason to celebrate the overtures of musicals past. And while we're in a celebratory mood, let's also applaud the recent Broadway revival mini-trend of having classic overtures played by large orchestras in full view of the audience, as in Lincoln Center's South Pacific and the most recent productions of Gypsy and Oklahoma! Then, of course, there's the City Center Encores! series, which regularly affords us the same treat.

Here are my own personal choices of the 12 greatest overtures ever written, listed in chronological order based on when each show opened and followed by some runners-up. Since Broadway overtures are almost always the work of the arranger/orchestrator rather than the composer, I have listed all involved parties for each entry. (Two overtures that might well have made this list have been excluded because they're technically ineligible: the terrific Kiss Me, Kate "overture" that's heard on the original cast album of that show is actually the entr'acte, and the lush overture heard on the now-out-of-print Hello, Dolly! cast album with Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway was written expressly for the recording and never played in the theater.)

Please feel free to email me and let me know which of your favorites aren't among my winners and runners-up -- but before you do, note that my choices were made only from the pool of overtures that were written to be performed as purely musical pieces, with no accompanying action on stage. That's why the legendary openings of Carousel, Follies, A Little Night Music, and any number of other shows are not mentioned below. So, are you ready? Here comes the downbeat...

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SHOW BOAT; music by Jerome Kern, orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett.
It wasn't until 1988, when the late John McGlinn's landmark complete recording of Show Boat was released, that most people alive today got a chance to hear the overture to this seminal musical as it was heard at the Ziegfeld Theater in 1927. Whereas the various overtures heard on various revival cast albums of the show are much lighter and brighter overall, the original is a generally dark-hued, symphonic, mini-masterpiece. It opens with an almost shockingly dissonant chord that leads to a bleak statement of the "misery" theme. After snatches of melodies from "Can't Help Lovin' That Man," "Where's the Mate For Me?" and "It's Getting Hotter in the North," we hear the unsettling "Mis'ry's Comin' Aroun'" -- the choral version of which was cut from the original production -- followed by strains of "Ol' Man River." Those two dark themes and the "misery" theme continue to dominate the overture until we finally get a full statement of an up-tune, "Why Do I Love You." This in turn brings us back to "Mis'ry's Comin' Aroun'," as if to drive home the point that the show's characters have plenty of travails and tragedies to go along with their joys and triumphs.

FINIAN'S RAINBOW; music by Burton Lane, orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett and Don Walker.
There's something about the beginning of this overture that's very special. An arresting tremolo is followed by brief snatches of "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" that eventually lead into a full statement of this lovely melody in its entirety. Later on, we get to hear a swinging treatment of one of the most headily romantic show songs of all time, "Old Devil Moon," and an exciting orchestration of "On That Great Come-and-Get-It Day" This is one of those cases where the original cast album recording of the overture is far from the best, because the piece was severely truncated due to the time limitations of 78rpm recording technology. Indeed, the OBC version doesn't even include "Old Devil Moon"! The only note-complete recording I know of may be found on an album titled Another Openin', Another Show, conducted by the late, great Lehman Engel.

SOUTH PACIFIC; music by Richard Rodgers, orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett.
The Lincoln Center Theater revival of this classic show is still going strong, so if you haven't yet taken advantage of the opportunity to hear (and see) the show's sweeping overture played by a 30-piece orchestra, I urge you to do so a.s.a.p. My favorite sections of the piece are the opening and closing statements of the majestically beautiful "Bali H'ai" theme. For my money, the performance of this overture on the original cast recording is the best, even though about two minutes of music are trimmed and the the sound is mono. If you want stereo, the LCT cast album is the obvious choice, and it gives you the full version; but I also like the (trimmed) version on the 1965 Music Theater of Lincoln Center cast album starring Florence Henderson and Giorgio Tozzi.

PETER PAN; music by Mark Charlap and Jule Styne, orchestrations by Albert Sendrey.
This show might have been a mess, as a troubled gestation led to the original score by "Moose" Charlap and Carolyn Leigh being augmented with several songs by Jule Styne, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green. But as it turned out, Peter Pan is a cohesive delight, and so is its magical overture. The OBCR performance is good but the monaural sound is a little thin, so you should also listen to the (slightly reorchestrated) overture on the studio cast album starring Cathy Rigby.

MY FAIR LADY; music by Frederick Loewe, orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett.
As I've previously written, if the thrilling fanfare that begins this overture doesn't set your pulse racing, you've probably already shuffled off this mortal coil. Said fanfare leads into an almost breathless statement of "You Did It," a song that has a relatively minor place in the score but is perfect for getting the show going with the musical equivalent of an adrenaline rush. The rest of the overture -- including beautiful orchestrations of "On the Street Where You Live" and "I Could Have Danced All Night" -- is also pretty great. The best recorded performance is to be found on the original Broadway cast album, even though it's mono rather than stereo. Other excellent versions are on the 1976 Broadway revival cast album, the original German cast album, and the studio cast recording that stars Kiri Te Kanawa and Jeremy Irons. Whatever you do, avoid the cast album of the 2001 London revival, the first production to stupidly jettison the brilliant original overture and replace it with a vastly inferior new piece.

CANDIDE; music by Leonard Bernstein, orchestrations by Hershy Kay.
While there is brilliance throughout the Candide score, I'm convinced that the tremendous popularity of this sparkling overture is largely responsible for the fact that the show has been revised and revived countless times even though, to be honest, it never really works. By the way, this overture is rare in featuring some musical material that was written specifically for the piece itself rather than consisting entirely of instrumental settings of songs from the show. The OBCR version is expertly conducted (by Samuel Krachmalnick) and well recorded in stereo; for even better sound and an even larger orchestra, check out Bernstein's 1960 performance with the New York Philharmonic.

GYPSY; music by Jule Styne, orchestrations by Sid Ramin and Robert Ginzler.
What can I say that hasn't already been said? The brilliant treatment of the stirring, recurring "I had a dream" motif alone would mark this overture as genius, but the truth is that it's musical theater heaven from start to finish. Although the OBCR performance is definitive, any number of subsequent recordings are also excellent. In fact, the only unsatisfactory reading is the one you'll find on the London cast album starring Angela Lansbury. Beginning without the traditional timpani roll and cymbal attack (horrrors!), it's further marred by weird tempos and two flubbed trumpet notes that the album producer somehow allowed to get by. This performance is unique in doing a disservice to the Broadway overture that is most often cited by enthusiasts as the best of the best.

FUNNY GIRL; music by Jule Styne, orchestrations by Ralph Burns.
Another symphonic gem. The show is pretty much all about Fanny Brice -- or, rather, Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice. Yet the theme that dominates the overture is "Nicky Arnstein, Nicky Arnstein," Fanny's plaintive invocation of the name of the dashing gambler who's the love of her life. This unforgettable phrase opens the overture in the brass, recurs throughout as played by other instruments (strings, French horn, xylophone), and then is blasted out again by the trumpets at the very end after an almost desperately upbeat statement of "Don't Rain on My Parade," as if to drive home the point that Fanny can't help lovin' that man of hers.

SWEET CHARITY; music by Cy Coleman, orchestrations by Ralph Burns.
Yet another overture that achieves its power through a near symphonic development of the musical themes contained therein. This one rivets our attention from the get-go with a brazen trumpet statement of the vaguely sinister, pounding, tawdry figure that begins one of the show's most famous songs, "Big Spender." The body of the overture includes such sprightly tunes as "If My Friends Could See Me Now" and "I'm a Brass Band," but the piece ends with that same brazen trumpet theme, foreshadowing that Charity Hope Valentine's search for true love will be thwarted by the brutal fact that she makes her living as a "good-time girl."

MAME; music by Jerry Herman, orchestrations by Philip J. Lang.
The string tremolo at the beginning, followed by that tremendously exciting upward surge, is the best part of this tantalizing "menu in music." I also love the fanfare leading into the march that in turns leads into a sparkling arrangement of "Open a New Window," and -- of course -- the wonderfully brassy treatment of the title song that caps the overture. Along the way, we also get to hear a fabulously jazzy rendition of "That's How Young I Feel."

NO, NO, NANETTE; music by Vincent Youmans, orchestrations by Ralph Burns, musical direction by Buster Davis.
I have no idea what the overture of the original 1925 production of this show sounded like, but the piece that (as I understand it) Davis and Burns came up with for the landmark 1971 revisal unquestionably deserves a place of honor in any survey of Broadway's greatest overtures. According to Don Dunn's fascinating book The Making of No, No, Nanette, the orchestra's run-through of the overture during the sitzprobe buoyed the demoralized company of a show that smelled like a flop but went on to become a smash hit. Listening to the cast album, it's easy to understand why.

THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA; music by Adam Guettel, orchestrations by Guettel and Ted Sperling, additional orchestrations by Bruce Coughlin.
If you saw Piazza during the first two weeks or so of previews at Lincoln Center Theater, you got to hear its overture intact. Thereafter, this transcendently beautiful piece -- which prominently features the show's lyrically yearning title song -- was cut so severely that what remained could scarcely even be called a brief prelude. As noted above, the cut was made under the assumption, perhaps correct, that Broadway audiences won't sit tight and listen to an overture unless something is happening on stage at the same time. Luckily, the cast recording documents what was lost in performance.

Runners up: Oklahoma!, The King and I, Kismet, The Most Happy Fella, Bye Bye Birdie, Camelot, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Man of La Mancha, Promises, Promises, Sugar, Mack and Mabel, On the Twentieth Century, Merrily We Roll Along.

Sleeping Around With Sondra Lee

Lots of people claim to have had sex with Marlon Brando, but Sondra Lee offers convincing evidence to support her claim of having done the deed. In her newly published memoir, puckishly titled I've Slept With Everybody, Lee reproduces letters and postcards from the icon that don't absolutely confirm the liaison but do attest to an intimate relationship. You go, girl!

"Marlon and I remained friends until he died," the delightful Ms. Lee told me in a recent interview. "I wouldn't say we kept in very close contact, but we did consult each other quite a bit. I would yell at him! My book is about people like that. They're extraordinary people. I guess we all are.

"Every word in the book is true," Lee insists. "I don't lie -- except about my age, which I never mention. And I never mention the name of my second husband, because he was a shit." (She does write fondly of her first husband, Sidney Armus, who musical theater buffs know for his having created the role of "social director" Itchy Flexner in Wish You Were Here.)

Even if Lee's name doesn't immediately ring a bell, chances are that you have enjoyed her as Tiger Lily opposite Mary Martin in the classic TV version of the Broadway musical Peter Pan (which was broadcast several times in the 1960s and later was briefly available on VHS and DVD), and/or as Minnie Fay on the original cast recording of Hello, Dolly! Tiger Lily was a terrific role in which to display her dancing talent, and though Lee has only two brief solo vocal lines on the Dolly! album -- "To form a more perfect Union" and "Could they be misleading us?" -- she imbues them with oodles of charm, humor, and personality.

Among her other Broadway credits are High Button Shoes and Hotel Paradiso. One of the most intriguing items on her résumé is a little-known play called Sunday in New York, written by Norman Krasna, directed by Garson Kanin, and produced by David Merrick, with a cast that included Pat Harrington, Sr., Pat Stalney, Conrad Janis, and...Robert Redford!

It's an axiom that everybody in show business knows everybody else, and that definitely applies to Sondra Lee. In the course of her adventures as an actress, dancer, director, and teacher, she also worked with such folks as Gower Champion, Hanya Holm, Ben Hecht, Claire Bloom, and Federico Fellini. (Were you aware that Lee makes an appearance in La Dolce Vita?) The quotes on the back cover of her book -- from Matthew Broderick, Angela Lansbury, Charles Busch, and Jules Feiffer -- give a hint of the deep pool of her friends and colleagues.

This is not to say that Lee got along with everyone. When you get your hands on her book, make sure to read the part about her feud with Eileen Brennan during the run of Hello, Dolly! It's poison candy! On the other hand, Lee was best buds with Jerome Robbins -- a man who, for all his genius, was personally despised by many of his associates.

"I loved him," says Lee of Robbins, with whom she worked on High Button Shoes, Peter Pan, etc. "He was part of my education, and he took care of me. I think it's because we were both funny looking. I mean, he wasn't exactly a raving beauty, and neither was I. But I think I touched him in some way; I wish I knew what it was. Perhaps it was my talent or my humor, or the fact that I was vulnerable in a way that he was as well."

If you'd like to pick up a copy of I've Slept With Everybody and have it signed by the author, make a note that Lee will be interviewed and will do a signing at Barnes and Noble's Lincoln Center Triangle store on Tuesday, September 15 at 7:30pm. Be there for more of the skinny on Marlon, Jerry, Federico, et al.