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| Barbara Cook Memorial | |
| Posted by: Duke1979 08:25 pm EST 12/18/17 | |
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| Would appreciate posts from anyone who was able to attend. Her voice will live forever. An incredible loss. | |
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| re: Barbara Cook Memorial | |
| Last Edit: AlanScott 12:13 am EST 12/19/17 | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 12:09 am EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: Barbara Cook Memorial - Duke1979 08:25 pm EST 12/18/17 | |
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| I started typing this up earlier and was almost done and then I got a phone call. So now I'm posting it and others have posted in the interim, with the result that I'm repeating some of what others have posted. So forgive me. I don't feel like re-editing it now. It was wonderful and very moving. Sheldon Harnick started with a little story about being out of town with She Loves Me. He and Jerry Bock had just written "Ice Cream." They played it for Cook. She loved it, and she said, "Let's put it in the show tonight." They wondered if that would be possible. For one thing, could she learn it that quickly? She said that since she was supposed to be writing a letter, she could have the lyrics in front of her, and the melody was simple, and it didn't seem like the song would require complicated staging. They played it for Hal Prince and Don Walker. Walker said it would be simple to orchestrate and he could have it ready for that evening. So it went in that night, and stopped the show, and Harnick said she stopped the show with it at every performance after that. There were also very moving and funny reminiscences from Michael Kaiser, Jane Summerhays, Roy Furman, Frank Langella, and Adam LeGrant (Cook's son, which I imagine most folks here know but maybe some don't), as well as from most of the people who also sang. Those were Jessica Molaskey and John Pizzarelli ("I Got Rhythm"), Kelli O'Hara ("Make Someone Happy"), Renee Fleming ("Hello, Young Lovers"), Vanessa Williams and Norm Lewis ("So Many People"), and Audra McDonald ("Go Back Home"). There were video tributes from people including Sondheim and Hugh Jackman. There were also, as you may expect, videos of Cook performing and being interviewed. Among the former was something I did not know existed: Cook singing "Will He Like Me?" on TV. Unfortunately, that was a incomplete clip, far from the whole song. I was told afterward that it was from the Merv Griffin Show, and that she sang it while She Loves Me was in previews, but if the date on imdb is correct for Cook's only Griffin appearance, it was actually from before they left for New Haven. I wish they had showed that one complete. And there was a funny very clip from a short-lived soap opera she was on around 1954, titled Golden Windows. In the clip, she played a young woman about to sing in public for the first time, and she's talking to the main character of the series, another singer (played by Lelia Martin) who is more experienced, about how nervous she is to be singing in public. And Leila Martin's character tells her to think of one person to whom she would like to sing the song, and sing it for that person. And then we cut to Cook's character singing "Lover, Come Back to Me" very badly. It's not often you get to hear Barbara Cook sing badly (on purpose). She did it very well. There was a funny story from Summerhays about an email she received from Cook one night around 3 a.m. Cook was a night owl, which several people talked about. Anyway, Cook was in rehearsal for or perhaps soon to go into rehearsal for Sondheim on Sondheim. Cook wrote Summerhays that she had been given "I Read" to perform, and she was working on learning it. In the email, she went through every single meter change in song: one bar of this, one bar of that, one bar of this, three bars of that, one of bar of this, two bars of that. and so on. When Cook completed her list of every meter change in the song, she wrote, "What the fuck was he on when he wrote this?" (Perhaps a paraphrase, but pretty close.) She then wrote, as you might expect, that she loved the song and it was incredibly rewarding to work on it. Adam LeGrant told one particularly funny and cute story. He talked about his mother having a great appetite for everything, including food, something that he shared with her. He said that when he was young, they were on a trip to Berlin together. They were having dinner in a restaurant, and it wasn't very good. They were finishing or had finished their not-very-good meal when she said to him, "Would you like to go for another dinner?" So they found another restaurant, and had a second dinner, which was better than the first. I was so glad to be there for this. James Lapine is to be congratulated for putting it together so well. |
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| re: Barbara Cook Memorial | |
| Posted by: SRMHAYES 03:58 am EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Barbara Cook Memorial - AlanScott 12:09 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| Just lovely. Thank you for sharing with us. XOXOXO | |
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| re: Barbara Cook Memorial | |
| Posted by: BillEadie 03:31 am EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Barbara Cook Memorial - AlanScott 12:09 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| Many thanks to all for sharing highlights from the memorial. Was it recorded for public viewing, and if so, is there any indication when it will be shown or made available? Bill, in San Diego |
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| re: Barbara Cook Memorial | |
| Last Edit: AlanScott 06:23 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 06:19 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Barbara Cook Memorial - BillEadie 03:31 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| I saw no cameras so I don't think it was even shot for TOFT. Maybe there were cameras somewhere and I just missed them, but unfortunately I don't think it was preserved for public viewing. I hope I'm wrong. | |
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| re: Barbara Cook Memorial | |
| Posted by: Billhaven 11:06 pm EST 12/18/17 | |
| In reply to: Barbara Cook Memorial - Duke1979 08:25 pm EST 12/18/17 | |
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| The memorial was beautifully directed and produced by James Lapine and Lincoln Center. There were many film clips from her television performances including Alfred Hitchcock Presents (where she is doing a very sensual shimmy). The speakers were all concise, funny and heartfelt. Leading off was Sheldon Harnick (who got a huge ovation) telling a wonderful story of how he and Bock played their new song "Vanilla Ice Cream" for Cook on a morning out of town in Philadelphia. Cook loved it and said "Why don't we put in in tonight?"They gave it to Milton Rosenstock to be orchestrated that afternoon, rehearsed it and put it in the show that very night. It stopped the show. The performances were all fine, understated, and very moving including Kelli O'Hara singing "Make Someone Happy", Renee Fleming singing "Hello, Young Lovers" and Audra Mcdonald performing "Go Back Home". Frank Langella had a very fine tribute with a great anecdote about an evening at Barbara Walter's dinner party. The funniest AND most stunning film clip (introduced by Sondheim) was Cook singing "In Buddy's Eyes" in a rehearsal room with a completely transfixed audience of her fellow performers Lee Remick, Mandy Patinkin and Sondheim. Everyone riveted except for Elaine Stritch who was fussing with her shoes, her cigarette, her underwear drawing attention to herself (at least she didn't inject herself). The evening ended with Ms. Cook's son Adam LeGrant who was funny and touching and talked about his mother in very human terms. It was a perfect send-off for someone who Langella called a true artist. |
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| re: Barbara Cook Memorial | |
| Posted by: SRMHAYES 04:00 am EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Barbara Cook Memorial - Billhaven 11:06 pm EST 12/18/17 | |
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| I would LOVE to see that video! Stritchy really was a piece of work! | |
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| re: Barbara Cook Memorial | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 06:34 pm EST 12/19/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Barbara Cook Memorial - SRMHAYES 04:00 am EST 12/19/17 | |
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| What they showed was from the Follies in Concert DVD. It seems to be out of print right now except as part of The Stephen Sondheim Collection, but lots of used copies are available and easy to find for reasonable prices, and I would guess some libraries have it. So if you haven't seen it, it's not tough to find it. | |
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| re: Barbara Cook Memorial | |
| Posted by: Haberville (Haberville@aol.com) 11:04 pm EST 12/18/17 | |
| In reply to: Barbara Cook Memorial - Duke1979 08:25 pm EST 12/18/17 | |
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| My friend Ron Fassler just posted this on Facebook. He was at the memorial this evening and wrote this account: https://medium.com/@ronfassler/major-barbara-bfc72d5a0631 |
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