I'm a huge fan of Broadway shows, and if you ever drop in on me listening to music, there's a pretty good chance it'll be show tunes. Because of that, I sometimes get tired of listening to the same classic songs from well-known shows over and over. But there are some terrific songs from shows that most people have never heard of, possibly because they were terrible shows that happened to have a good score (or at least a good song or two), possibly because they're dated and have fallen out of favor, or possibly because they just didn't have that "something" that a show needs to be a hit. But whatever the reason a show didn't make it, sometimes a song or two needs to be salvaged and loved. Here are a few Broadway numbers that you probably don't know, but that you should.
"Little Tin Box" from Fiorello (by Bock and Harnick)
The story of New York City mayor Fiorello LaGuardia won both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1960. In this number, a group of politicians imagine being grilled by a judge on the source of their income, one claiming he simply gave up smoking and saved his cigarette money to buy a yacht, another saying he turned in bottles for the nickel deposit to pay for his Rolls Royce, all saving up their pennies "in a little tin box." Other memorable numbers from the show: "Politics and Poker" and "I Love a Cop."
"What You Don't Know about Women" from City of Angels
One of my favorite musicals, City of Angels is the story of a writer whose characters come to life for him - characters based on people in his real life, as well as his own alter-ego, a hard-nosed, wise-cracking gumshoe. The film noir style is emphasized by having the real-life characters and settings in color and the book/film characters and sets in black and white. In "What You Don't Know About Women," the writer's long-suffering wife and his alter-ego's equally long-suffering secretary sing a duet lamenting their men's obliviousness. Other songs from this show worth listening to include "Double Talk," "Everybody's Gotta Be Somewhere," "You're Nothing Without Me," "The Tennis Song," and "Funny." "The Gentleman is a Dope"from Allegro (Rodgers and Hammerstein)
This surprisingly terrible R&H show did run on Broadway for nine months, but was never a critical success . The overblown book tells the complete (and I mean COMPLETE) life story of a man named Joseph Taylor, from the day of his birth, through high school, college, getting married, starting a medical practice, and the eventual failure of his marriage and his return to his home town. It was just about as boring as it sounds, aided by ongoing commentary from a Greek chorus. Despite the horrible book, there were a few good songs, including this commentary on Joe by his nurse, Emily, but also "You Are Never Away" and "So Far." "The Story Goes On" from Baby (Maltby and Shire)
This lovely musical is the story of how three couples in very different stages of life react to discovering that they're about to have a baby. It contains a number of sweet, moving, and funny songs that are often included in cabaret acts, since many of them tell a complete story and hold up well outside the context of the show. Other notable songs from the show include "I Want It All," "What Could Be Better?" and "Fatherhood Blues."
"Repent" from On the Twentieth Century (Coleman, Comden and Green)
This funny little musical takes place entirely on a train (the titular "Twentieth Century"), where a down-on-his-luck producer is chasing his former protege (and current ex-wife) in the hopes of riding her coattails back to success. Much slapstick hilarity ensues, including this song sung by an heiress/religious fanatic/escaped mental patient played in the original Broadway production by comedic legend Imogene Coca. The entire score is worth a listen, but don't miss "Veronique," "I've Got It All," "Our Private World," "Five Zeroes," "Life is Like a Train," and "She's a Nut" (which is well worth watching as well as listening to).
"Stars and the Moon" from Songs for a New World (Brown)
This musical is really a song cycle rather than a book musical, with the songs all focusing on moments of decision, and a small cast playing multiple roles but each still having a distinct character arc. Both the complexity of the music and the completeness of each song make them excellent choices for cabaret performances, which is where Brown's music has found much of its following, rather than through productions of the shows themselves. Other great listens from this production include "I'd Give It All for You," "King of the World" (click on the link from Brown's own impressive performance of that one), and "I'm Not Afraid."
"I Feel So Much Spring" from A New Brain (Finn)
William Finn's musicals tend to be somewhat autobiographical, and this one is no exception, having been written after he got out of the hospital where he was treated for a complicated and life-threatening malformation of blood vessels in his brain. Great songs from the show include powerful solos, trio and quartet work, and solos with complicated backup harmonies, some of the best being "Sailing," "And They're Off," and "Time and Music."
"Who Will Love Me as I Am?" from Sideshow (Krieger and Russell)
A Broadway musical about a pair of Siamese twins in a freak show in the 1930s sounds like a bizarre idea, right? And to a lot of folks, it was, but it made the careers of the two actresses playing the twins, Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner. Although neither the original production nor the revival ran for all that long, it's a quirky little show that does get produced locally on occasion (and is a wonderful performance opportunity for pairs of sisters with similar looks and voices). The best songs from the show include "The Devil You Know," "We Share Everything," and "You Should Be Loved."
"Bluer Than You" from A...My Name is Alice (Evans and Holtzmann)
This all-female revue is a collection of wonderful solos and ensemble numbers for and about women from all walks of life. Sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, sometimes both, there are songs that every woman will be able to identify with. Other great numbers from this show include "All Girl Band," "Trash," "The Portrait," and "I Sure Like the Boys."
Other songs worth listening to:
"Putting It Together" from Sunday in the Park with George
"Dressed in Your Pyjamas in the Grand Salon" from Titanic: The Musical
"Oh the Thinks You Can Think" from Seussical
"Lost in the Wilderness" from Children of Eden
"Losing My Mind" from Follies
"Astonishing" from Little Women
"Not a Day Goes By" from Merrily We Roll Along
"Lily's Eyes" from The Secret Garden
"Love Who You Love" from A Man of No Importance
"I'm Still Hurting" from The Last Five Years
"Time Heals Everything" from Mack and Mabel
"The Ballad of Booth" from Assassins
"It's All Happening" from Bring It On
"Someone Like You" from Jekyll and Hyde
"I Will Be Loved Tonight" from I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change
"A Quiet Thing" from Flora the Red Menace
"The Apple Doesn't Fall Very Far from the Tree" from The Rink
"Watch What Happens" from Newsies
"When You're an Addams" from The Addams Family
"Home" from Phantom (no, not that one, the one by Maury Yeston)
Both The King and I (which
I reviewed yesterday) and On the Town
are revivals of classic musicals, yet they are completely different types of shows.
The King and I is Rodgers and
Hammerstein at their absolute best: unafraid to tackle dark subjects like
racism, sexism, and abuse of power; a score full of popular and hummable tunes;
elaborate and realistic costumes and sets; operatic, classically-trained
voices; well-developed, subtle characters; lavish production numbers. On the Town, on the other hand, with
music by Leonard Bernstein and book and lyrics by Comden and Green (who, interestingly,
both played leads in the original Broadway production), is much more
light-hearted fare: heavy on big dance routines; broadly comedic characters and
situations; voices more suited for jazz and belting; bright, stylized, almost
cartoonish sets and costumes. Directly comparing the two productions would be
comparing apples and oranges. But oranges can be just as delightful as apples.
Originally produced on Broadway in 1944, On the Town is most well-known through
the 1949 Gene Kelly movie (although the majority of the music was changed for
the film). The stage musical was revived on Broadway (with the original Bernstein
score intact) in 1971, in 1998, and again in the current revival, which opened at
the Lyric Theater in 2014. Although I’m quite familiar with the original Broadway
score (I’m particularly fond of Nancy Walker’s rendition of the song “My Place”),
I don’t know how much of the script was changed between the original production
and the various revivals, nor how different the set is from the original. I can
say, however, that the current production has a very vintage, 1940s comic strip
feel to it, from the vibrant colors to the stylized sets to the broad humor to
the caricature characters.
Even the technical aspects of the show have quite a retro
feel to them. Instead of the high-tech video wall backdrop of the Radio City
Music Hall stage (see my upcoming review of the Radio City Spring Spectacular
for more on that) or the set wizardry of the flown-in pillars and chandeliers and
the life-size moving ship of The King and
I at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (see my previous review), this production
relies on projected silhouettes, reflecting walls, neon lights, and rear-screen
projection. The low-tech approach suits the simple, suggested, stylized sets
much better than the bells and whistles of most modern Broadway productions.
The advantage, of course, to having a show with minimal set
pieces taking up space is that you have a wide-open stage to fill with wild
dancing. And if this show does one thing to perfection, it’s the dancing.
Broadway newcomer Megan Fairchild brings her experience as a
principal dancer with the New York City Ballet to the role of Ivy, but her
skills are not limited to her dance. With a voice that even sounds terrific
when she’s standing on her head, and “sweet and innocent” oozing out of every
pore, she brings a charm to the role that has the audience wanting Gabey to
find her nearly as much as Gabey does.
The three sailors also have plenty of both dance and acting skills.
Unlike the film version, where the three sailors tend to be remembered as “Gene
Kelly and a couple of other guys” (sorry, Mr. Sinatra), the three sailors in
this production are much more evenly balanced. Tony Yazbek’s Gabey (the Gene
Kelly role) has more featured vocals (particularly ballads) and a bit more
classical dance, Jay Armstrong Johnson’s Chip has some delightful physical
comedy (managing to appear squished and confined inside a taxi which consists
of merely a bright yellow bench seat and a steering wheel), and Clyde Alves’ Ozzie’s
terrified/exhilarated romp first with a large T. rex skeleton and later with a large anthropologist manages to
reel in a couple of scenes that teeter on being too cartoonish even for this
production. The three men together have a nice, brotherly, believable chemistry
which is welcome and refreshing in a show full of caricatures and manufactured
situations. Their mission to find Miss Turnstiles is the thread of
believability which holds the show from completely flying apart into unreality.
Another delight in this particular production is the many secondary
(or tertiary, or quaternary) roles that are so well-played as to be memorable
in spite of their minor status. Philip Boykin plays multiple small roles, but
wins over the audience immediately with his glorious deep voice in the show’s
opening number, “I Feel Like I’m Not Out of Bed Yet.” Jackie Hoffman also plays
multiple comedic roles, pretty much stealing the scene in every one of them,
but most notably in her recurring role as the booze-swilling voice teacher Madame
Dilly, whose hip flask seems to magically transform her voice from a bass croak
to an operatic coloratura. Even the unnamed ensemble member with the running “So
I said…” subway gag brought it
to life with impeccable timing and a spot-on Brooklyn accent.
One final high point of the show for me was the glorious
jazzy, belty performance of Alysha Umphress as Hildy. Each of her numbers was
unabashedly in-your-face (as they should be for her character), hitting the
back wall of the theater, vocal pyrotechnics and power. When you’ve got a voice
like that, you ought to show it off.
To sum up, if ever a show was greater than the sum of its
parts, it’s this revival of On the Town.
Taken separately, most aspects of the production were good, but somehow they
all worked together to create a production that is much better than good. It’s
a helluva show!
This year’s Tony Awards ceremony covered the spectrum from
the sublime (Neil Patrick Harris’ stunning opening number) to the ridiculous (Mike
Tyson’s cameo in said opening number). NPH as host is always a home run, and the
ceremony itself ran relatively smoothly, despite a few teleprompter issues and
one notable microphone glitch, so on the whole I’d say it was a very successful
evening. The fashions were relatively subdued and uninspired, but there were a
few notable hits and misses.
The stars’ fashions were lackluster enough that I can’t even
come up with enough candidates to put them into categories, so I’ll just take
them in alphabetical order.
Laura Benanti wore a cobalt blue, Grecian-inspired dress
with a plunging neckline held in place with two satin ribbons. This dress is a
lovely example of how a gown can show a lot of skin yet still be tasteful. The
strategically-placed ribbons assured viewers that Ms. Benanti was not likely to
suffer a wardrobe malfunction, and her cascading wavy hair covered enough of
her shoulders to avoid a “too bare” look. Her natural, subtle makeup was a nice
balance to the strong color of the gown.
Lilla Crawford, star of the current revival of “Annie,” hit
the perfect balance of elegant and age-appropriate. It’s not so frilly as to be
a child’s party frock, but the full skirt and waves of sequins make it youthful
and festive, while the black and silver theme and the grown-up updo with just a
few wavy tendrils keep it formal and classy. Points to both her mom and her
stylist for coming up with this great look.
Sally Field also hits the balance of elegant and
age-appropriate in a deep green column with a softly draped bodice. A pop of another color in her clutch
or shoes might have been a nice touch, but the ensemble as is is flattering and
understated.
Megan Hilty’s gown followed the recent trend of having a
see-through maxi skirt over a shorter skirt. I’m not a fan of the look in
general, but the zig-zag hem of her underskirt and the beading at the bottom of
the train made this look more successful than many similar styles. Her updo
could have been a bit softer and more relaxed, but with that gorgeous smile and
va-va-voom curves, she’d have looked stunning in a burlap sack.
At first glance, I loved Jane Krakowski’s gown, but it lost points
under closer scrutiny. Jane has a rather straight figure that is not always
flattered by traditional red carpet dresses. She generally chooses styles that
work well for her, however, and the silhouette of this dress is no exception.
The deep, narrow V-neck and slim silver belt create the illusion of curves, and
the clingy fabric emphasizes her overall slenderness. But the random patches of
missing sequins made it look like her dress had had accidentally gone through
the washer instead of being dry-cleaned. (It’s only fair to add that my husband
agreed with my assessment of the dress – until she turned around to reveal the
large triangle-shaped cutout at the back, at which point he gave it an
automatic 10.)
Cyndi Lauper’s outfit was…well, let’s call it “true to
herself.” I actually liked the tailored cropped pants with the front slits,
especially with the fabulous strappy silver heels, but the black lace granny
shrug aged her unnecessarily – particularly since her face hasn’t aged a day
since 1983.
Judith Light’s gown looked lovely when she was standing
still to pose for photos. But she fell victim to the all-too-common red carpet
trap of not checking how the gown looks when you move in it. Despite her slim
figure, she had bulges of flesh peeping through the under-arm cutouts while
giving her acceptance speech, and there was something very unflattering going
on around her neck and throat that I found extremely distracting.
Pam MacKinnon (winner for Best Direction of a Play) also
fell victim to the movement trap. Her dress fit her poorly, with the high
square shoulders riding up like football pads whenever she moved her arms, and
a too-tight bodice squishing her chest. But then, when your best accessory is a
shiny new Tony Award, you can get away with a lot.
Andrea Martin is another actress who, like Sally Field,
knows how to dress a slender but older figure well. Her black satin sheath with
just a touch of lace at the neck was simple, elegant, and flattering. She’s not
a fussy, girly-girl type, and this dress managed to be both feminine and well-suited
to her personality and style.
Patina Miller’s flowing watercolor-print dress was by far my
favorite of the night. I loved the gathering at the waistline that
created a faux “bow” that sat snugly against her body, the subtle deepening of
color from neckline to floor, and the handkerchief-style hem. The style both softened
and flattered her muscular frame.
Presenter Martha Plimpton’s scarlet sheath with just a hint
of train draped beautifully on her figure. The see-through panel at the top
with lace embellishments was just enough to stop it from being boring, although
I wish the panels hadn’t run quite so far down the sides of the dress.
Side-boob is rarely a good look even in a cutting-edge couture gown, but in a
simpler dress like this it merely looks like a mistake.
Condola Rashad is one of the most gorgeous women I have ever
seen, so she could have worn anything and would still have looked stunning, but her deep
plum princess-seamed gown with trumpet hem and sweetheart neckline made her
look even more stunning. And as for having perfect accessories, the matching
gemstone necklace was second only to having her proud (and equally
well-dressed) Daddy on her arm.
Finally, here is proof that certain women can get away with
wearing just about anything. Cicely Tyson’s gown was a gorgeous royal purple
that made her perfect skin absolutely glow in such a way that you hardly noticed
the pointy-ruffled monstrosity she was wearing. But when you’ve been performing on
Broadway for 54 years and you finally get your first Tony nomination at age 79,
you get to wear whatever you want.
This weekend, I was privileged to attend a performance of
the musical “Newsies” at the Nederlander Theater in New York City. I first saw
the movie “Newsies” many years ago, starring a very young Christian Bale and
featuring Bill Pullman and Max Casella (of “Doogie Howser” fame). Disney
revised the musical for the stage, adding some songs and changing around a few
characters, and the show opened on Broadway in 2012, receiving 8 Tony Award
nominations (including best musical, best book of a musical, best director of a
musical, and best scenic design) and winning the Tony for both choreography and
original score. The plot is based on a real-life newsboys’ strike in New York City
in 1899, and tells the story of a group of “newsies,” young boys who buy newspapers
at a penny for ten “papes” to sell on the streets. When the owner of “The World”
newspaper, magnate Joseph Pulitzer, decides to up the price by half a penny in
order to increase the paper’s circulation (and his own profits), the boys band
together and strike, recruiting the help of a girl reporter, eventually
bringing the entire city of New York – and Pulitzer himself – to its knees.
What makes this musical unique is that the ensemble – and the
vast majority of the cast – is comprised of young men between the ages of about
15 and 25. This gives the show a style and energy unlike any other. The most
similar show I can think of is “West Side Story,” with its athletic, all-male
dance numbers like “When You’re a Jet” and “Cool”. But where WSS intersperses
those dance numbers with all-women’s numbers like “America” and mixed-gender
dances like “Mambo,” “Newsies” is all boy. (Okay, there’s one number where one
girl joins in, but it only serves to highlight the boys.) And let’s be honest:
boys do not dance like girls. Nor do they dance like older men. And in fact, “dance”
is hardly a complete description of the choreography in this show. There are cartwheels,
handsprings, flips, walking on hands, and full tumbling passes running the
length of the stage. There’s a tap number and a prop-driven number dancing on
torn newspaper pages a la Gene Kelly. Choreographer Christopher Gatelli makes
use of the boys’ flexibility, strength, balance, athleticism, and most noticeably their stamina
and endurance to create a hugely energetic, vibrant, electric dance ensemble. The
energy level maintained throughout each number, and indeed throughout the
entire show, is frankly mind-boggling. And his choreography is not only
exciting and interesting, but it serves to build on the characters created in
the show, giving each newsie his own personality.
The characters of the boys are crucial to the production. If
the audience doesn’t care about the newsies, they don’t care about the outcome
of the strike, and the dramatic tension is lost. But director Jeff Calhoun
gives us plenty to care about by not only giving the main character, Jack Kelly,
both the dream of getting out of the city someday and a seemingly unattainable
love interest, but by creating many unique and individual characters within the
ensemble. A few of the boys have lines that give them a backstory or a
personality – cigar-chomping Race, bookish Davey, crippled Crutchie, wise-cracking
Sniper, young and innocent Les. But even the nameless boys are not left
faceless – there’s the one who finishes every leap and every tumbling pass with
a cocky grin, the shy one who wrings his hat in his hands after a particularly
impressive leap as if apologizing for grabbing everyone’s attention, the
gymnast who walks on his hands and scampers up the set pieces like an agile
monkey.
And speaking of the set – oh, what a set it is! I’ve seen
some amazing pieces of stagecraft and scenic design in my years of watching
professional theater, but this set was one of the most memorable. There are
many stage musicals that are later adapted as movies which take a small, limited
stage set and expand it into a huge scale. “The Sound of Music” is a perfect
example: the stage gave us a grand ballroom, a room or two at the convent, and
a gazebo; the movie gave us a birds’ eye view of the Alps and seemingly the
entire town of Nonnburg. “Newsies” must somehow do this in reverse, taking the
whole city of New York and fitting it onto the stage. Scenic designers Tobin
Ost and Sven Ortel do this brilliantly with a trio of three-level modular scaffolding
and stair units that move forward and back, spin, and connect and disconnect to
create various backdrops. The front of each segment also has a drop-down screen
that is used as both a projection screen and a scrim.
These units, along with similar smaller pieces, all painted in drab, dirty-city gray, become everything
from the gates of Pulitzer’s offices to the stairway down into a makeshift
prison cell to the balconies and fire escapes of tenement buildings to a
platform for an announcement by Governor Roosevelt. These multi-use pieces
allow for seamless transitions between scenes, using the actors (and possibly a
few stagehands costumed as newsies) to move the sets while the action of a
scene is still going on, with no need for a blackout or a break in the action
of the story. The added advantage of the multi-level set is that it fills the
stage with action from top to bottom and not just from side to side, creating a
sense of being surrounded by city hustle and bustle, much like a three-ring
circus that gives the audience too much to look at all at once.
But of course, choreography and sets can do nothing without
a talented cast to bring them to life. And there is certainly no lack of talent
in this cast. Corey Cott as strike leader Jack and Kara Lindsay as young
reporter Katherine are both charming in their roles, with impressively powerful
vocals and brilliant comic timing, each throwing off witty asides with aplomb
and making wry facial expressions that stop just short of actual mugging. The
characters are well-matched in terms of their tough exteriors, hidden
insecurities, and sharp wit and intelligence, and both actors hit just the
right balance of cockiness and vulnerability to make the audience both admire
and sympathize with them.
The character of Katherine is an excellent example of how a
show can sometimes be improved by character changes. One of the major changes
from the movie to the stage show is that the reporter was originally a man
(Bill Pullman), and the love interest was the sister of two of the newsies.
Combining these two characters by making the reporter a young woman who falls for
Jack makes the youth vs. adult battle lines all the clearer, with the
youngsters acting completely without adult support, relying on their own wits
and determination alone, making their eventual victory all the sweeter. And the
increased social inequality between Jack and Katherine is an even greater
deterrent to their romance than in the original, which naturally makes them –
and the audience – all the more determined to overcome it.
But if every character were totally sympathetic, the show could
easily become saccharine-sweet. Fortunately, the sweetness is cut nicely by a
villain that the audience loves to hate, John Dossett’s nasty Joseph Pulitzer, who
is money-grubbing, self-centered, egotistical, and vengeful, taking delight in tricking
Jack and sending him to prison, and showing absolutely no concern over the
plight of the boys who are struggling to feed themselves and their families. The
audience can’t help but cheer when he finally gets his comeuppance, courtesy of
the cleverness and persistence of the youngsters he had looked down on as
insignificant and unimportant.
Over the past few years, I have been somewhat disappointed
in the quality of many of the Broadway shows that have been created. But “Newsies,”
even though not being entirely new, is proof positive that there is a new
generation ready to begin “carrying the banner” for Broadway. Based on this
production, I’d say it’s going to be in excellent hands.
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