Broadway Revisited
(5/26/09): 09-22; May 30, 2009

The season's new compact discs, books, and videos.

Gypsy overture-- 1; fades under)

Hi, this is Art Hilgart and this is Broadway Revisited, a weekly exploration of the songs and shows, composers and lyricists, and performers who created the American musical theater.

(Music up, then fade)

Our program today is another seasonal sampling of new books, records, and videos-- the spring's new paper and plastic. We'll start with the new dvds, beginning with the rags to riches Bollywood musical Slumdog Millionaire. This rousing song won this year's Academy Award for Best Song.

1. Jai Ho 3:39

That was A.R. Rahman's Oscar winning song Jai Ho, from Slumdog Millionaire.

Another new dvd has another success story, one about a puppet who becomes a real boy-- Walt Disney's fully restored 1940 classic, Pinocchio. The dvd also has a French soundtrack, and for this scene, in which Pinocchio dances with girl puppets in a puppet show, we've combined the French and English versions.

2. I've Got No Strings 3:15

That song from the new dvd of Pinocchio was written by Ned Washington and Leigh Harline.

Warner Home Video has issued another Doris Day collection, this one with four musicals-- It's a Great Feeling, Starlift, April in Paris, and Tea for Two. Tea for Two is an adaptation of the Vincent Youmans Broadway show, No, No, Nanette. In this number we'll hear all three of the stars-- Doris Day sings, Gene Nelson dances, then Gordon MacRae sings.

3. I Know that You Know 2:20

That Vincent Youmans song was one of the numbers in Tea for Two, one of the four musicals in the newest Doris Day Collection.

Fox has issued a dvd of the 1948 Sam Goldwyn musical, A Song Is Born. The story involves Danny Kaye as a reclusive musicologist learning about jazz for a chapter in an encyclopedia. The musical numbers are all jazz related, and in this one we hear an all-star jam session.

4. A Song Was Born 2:31

We heard Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet, Lionel Hampton, Mel Powell, and Louie Bellson in one of the several numbers in the new dvd of the 1948 Danny Kaye movie, A Song Is Born.

Warner Video has begun an internet only service, Warner Archive, offering dvds of films with little commercial potential. One of these is the 1954 film of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. Written in 1728, with lyrics using popular airs, it has a claim to be the first musical comedy. Laurence Olivier is the star of the movie, as the highwayman Macheath. We'll hear him in two songs. In the first, from early in the film, he sings of his marriage to Polly Peachum. Later in the story, he's in prison, where he's visited by Polly and another of his several wives.

5. With Polly United 1:07 / How Happy Would I Be with Either :36

That was Laurence Olivier as Macheath, with two of the dozens of ballads in the Warner Archive dvd of the 1954 film of John Gay's 1728 hit, The Beggar's Opera.

By coincidence, the first of the season's new compact disc releases is the original cast recording of the 1976 Lincoln Center revival of The Threepenny Opera, the Kurt Weill-Bert Brecht 1928 transformation of John Gay's 1728 original. In the revival, Macheath was played by Raul Julia.

6. Ballad Of Gracious Living 2:12

That was Raul Julia, who was nominated for a Tony for his performance as Mack the Knife in the 1976 revival of The Threepenny Opera. The cast album is one of eight new cds offered on the internet through ArkivSong.com. Another is DisinHairited, a compilation of nineteen songs not used in the original Broadway staging. Here's one about a high-school dropout.

7. Going Down 2:28

That number cut from Hair was sung by Gerome Ragni, who wrote the show's lyrics with co-star James Rado to Galt MacDermot's music. The new cd, DisinHairited, is available from ArkivSong.com.

The success of Hair probably inspired the 1970 off-Broadway hit The Last Sweet Days of Isaac, another rock musical about flower children. Here's Austin Pendleton with one of the songs.

8. Touching Your Hand Is Like Touching Your Mind 1:53

The cast album of the 1970 off-Broadway hit The Last Sweet Days of Isaac, is another new Arkivsong release. The show was written by Nancy Ford and Gretchen Creyer. Nancy Ford, who wrote the music, is from Kalamazoo, Michigan, which by the way, is the home of the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, who fund national distribution of Broadway Revisited.

The next new compact disc from Arkivsong is another show inspired by a previous one. The Pulitzer Prize winner Fiorello was about the squeaky-clean Mayor LaGuardia. Jimmy is about a previous New York mayor, the thoroughly corrupt James J. Walker. Here Walker's cronies are persuading the New York state assemblyman to run for mayor. And to reunite with the wife he had dumped.

9. The Little Woman 3:16

That was Frank Gorshin, who played Mayor Walker in the 1969 Broadway show Jimmy, with songs by Bill and Patti Jacob. The cast album is now available through Arkiv.

And there's still another new cast album compact disc from a show inspired by an earlier one. Like Guys and Dolls, Let It Ride was about New York gamblers, and it even used one of the stars from Guys and Dolls, Sam Levene, as the principal horse player. Let It Ride is based on the 1936 play Three Men on a Horse, and Sam Levene was in the original cast of that, too. Here's one of the songs.

10. There's Something About A Horse 2:21

Jay Livingston and Ray Evans wrote the songs for Let It Ride.

The 1975 Broadway show Hazel Flagg, based on the movie Nothing Sacred, is about a small town woman who has been given a fatal diagnosis. A reporter sees a story in her wish to spend her last days living it up in New York and arranges the trip and the publicity. She learns that the diagnosis was due to mixed-up test records, but she decides to keep quiet and enjoy the trip. Here's Helen Gallagher, the star of Hazel Flagg.

11. I Feel Like I'm Gonna Live Forever 1:26 / You're Gonna Dance With Me, Willie 2:35

That was Helen Gallagher with a pair of the songs for Hazel Flagg, written by Jule Styne and Bob Hilliard, and the original cast album has just appeared on compact disc.

There were seven editions of Leonard Sillman's New Faces, from 1934 to 1968, and the most successful was New Faces of 1952. Here are three of the new faces-- Ronny Graham, Robert Clary, and Eartha Kitt.

12. Opening 2:10 / Bal Petit Bal 2:56

Along with Ronny Graham, Robert Clary, and Eartha Kitt, the cast of New Faces of 1952 included Carol Lawrence, Paul Lynde, and Alice Ghostly, among others.

The 1956 edition of New Faces has also just appeared on compact disc The new face from that edition who became famous was Maggie Smith. She wasn't in this number, roughly based on Arthur Schnitzler's play La Ronde.

13. Perfect Night (La Ronde) 6:24

None of these eight Victor and Columbia original cast albums has been available on compact disc before. Broadway Masterworks-- a combination of the Victor and Columbia labels-- has issued them though the internet, on ArkivSong.com, spelled Arkivsong.

There are two remarkable new books among the winter's new publications. Steven Suskin's The Sound of Broadway Music is a virtual encyclopedia on Broadway orchestrators and orchestrations. He covers the history of the profession, the working relationships between the orchestrators and the composers, choreographers, and directors, and the process of orchestrating. There are biographies of the major orchestrators and discussions of the orchestrations in many of the most important shows. Again, the book is The Sound of Broadway Music, by Steven Suskin.

Our opening and closing music is taken from the overture for Gypsy, and from this Suskin book I learned that it was fashioned from the songs of Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim by Sid Ramin and Robert Ginzler.

There's a lot more about Gypsy-- and other shows-- in another new book: Mainly on Directing, by playwright-director Arthur Laurents. At age 90, he has not only written this engaging book but directed two of this season's Broadway hits-- the revivals of both Gypsy and West Side Story. He also wrote the original books for both shows.

The narrative is personal, and he salts detailed experiences with several shows and actors with insightful observations of the art of directing. Mainly on Directing, by Arthur Laurents, is entertaining as well as informative.

We have time for a couple more new compact disc reissues, these on the DRG label. The first is from Julie London sings the Choicest of Cole Porter, followed by a track from Jeri Southern Meets Cole Porter.

14. In the Still of the Night 2:40 Which? 2:40

Julie London sang Cole Porter's In the Still of the Night, which was almost cut from the M-G-M film Rosalie. Jeri Southern sang the clever but rarely heard Which?, from Porter's 1930 show Fifty Million Frenchmen. Both songs are from new discs on the DRG label.

(Gypsy overture-- 2; to end)

You can find the details about today's new releases with links to the internet-only sources, along with playlists, program schedules, and stuff on our website at broadwayrevisited.com. Or you can e-mail me-- the address is Art@broadwayrevisited.com.

And please join us again next week for another Broadway Revisited. It's produced with the assistance of Martin Klemm, in the WMUK studios of Western Michigan University. And I'm Art Hilgart.

Total music: 46:29; Estimated talking: 11:25; Intro/outro: :30; Estimated total: 58:24

Promo (15): That's Laurence Olivier singing one of the ballads in his film of The Beggar's Opera, and it's one of the season's new videos, compact discs, and books we'll cover this week. The Spring's new paper and plastic, on Broadway Revisited..