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| re: Tell me I’m not the only one here thinking it was the Harold Rome musical | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 10:23 am EDT 04/02/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Tell me I’m not the only one here thinking it was the Harold Rome musical - WaymanWong 01:06 am EDT 04/02/21 | |
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| Big fan here. Especially FANNY, which I think is gorgeous, and I so wish they had left the songs in the movie instead of just underscoring. Laura |
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| re: Tell me I’m not the only one here thinking it was the Harold Rome musical | |
| Last Edit: WaymanWong 11:38 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 11:35 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Tell me I’m not the only one here thinking it was the Harold Rome musical - showtunetrivia 10:23 am EDT 04/02/21 | |
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| Encores! did ''Fanny'' in 2010 (with James Snyder and Elena Shaddow), but I really wish they'd revive ''Destry Rides Again.'' It's got two great Rome ballads (''I Say Hello'' and ''Anyone Would Love You''), and ''Are You Ready, Gyp Watson?'' is sheer genius. |
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| Link | 'Destry Rides Again': 'Are You Ready, Gyp Watson?' with Dolores Gray & Marc Breaux (and Michael Kidd's Tony-winning choreography) |
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| Another Harold Rome musical fan | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 12:39 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 12:26 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Tell me I’m not the only one here thinking it was the Harold Rome musical - showtunetrivia 10:23 am EDT 04/02/21 | |
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| Harold Rome also wrote a musical version of "Gone With the Wind" which was produced in London and I think also in Tokyo. I've never heard the recording; can anyone testify to its quality? I do like his scores to his other shows. "Fanny" has a wonderful score, and the Encores version of this was one of the best. The original starred Tony winner Walter Slezak, Ezio Pinza (later succeeded by Lawrence Tibbett) and Florence Henderson. "Destry Rides Again" also produced by David Merrick, starred Dolores Gray and Andy Griffith, and would seem to be a terrific candidate for an Encores production. I have the "Pins and Needles" recording which featured Barbra Streisand, and it is very clever and entertaining. Regarding "Wish You Were Here", it's one of the few shows I recall reading about where the creators went back after opening to actually continue working on the show after the reviews to make it better. Plus a long slot on Ed Sullivan's tv show finally turned it into a hit. Does anyone know who the two actors are featured on the original cast recording? The show had a lot of people who became names. Beside Tony winner Sheila Bond, the show featured Jack Cassidy and Patricia Marand years before "It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman", Larry Blyden, Phyllis Newman, Florence Henderson (in a one-line role plus chorus), Reid Shelton and Tom Tryon (actor and later novelist). Are there any photos featuring the show's swimming pool? I couldn't find it with a web search. I remember seeing Florence Henderson in concert at the old Village Gate in the first of what was supposed to be a series of one-person Broadway performers telling stories with music where she said Harold Rome used to repeat words again and again in his songs, which if you read them, sounded kind of funny, but worked when set to music. She sang "I Have to Tell You" which she had sung in "Fanny" to illustrate the point. Rome would also use this repeating word technique in the title songs of "Fanny" and "Wish You Were Here", too. Eddie Fisher had hits with both of these songs. It's kind of forgotten in the whole Debbie Reynolds-Eddie-Elizabeth Taylor scandal and Carrie Fisher's stories about him, but what a great voice he had! As I said above, a well-cast "Fanny" still works beautifully in performance and should be revived more often. If there are candidates for movies of musicals that should be remade, I'd vote for "Fanny" and "Irma La Douce" to be done with their songs intact this time! |
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| re: Another Harold Rome musical fan | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 01:40 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
| In reply to: Another Harold Rome musical fan - PlayWiz 12:26 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
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| The OLC album of Gone With the Wind is a good recording and worth having. Not one of Rome's best, but a solid score. Harve Presnell and June Ritchie are Rhett and Scarlett. Brian Davies (Rolf in Sound of Music and Hero in Funny Thing/Forum) plays Frank Kennedy. I'm sure Sheila Bond is the girl on the cover of the Wish You Were Here liner notes. I would guess that the guy most likely is Paul Valentine, but it could be Sidney Armus. There's a picture of the pool on pages 8 & 9 of the liner notes for the RCA Victor OBC CD. My grandmother loved Eddie Fisher and we watched his TV variety show every week in addition to The Ed Sullivan Show. When Fanny opened on Broadway, Fisher had Florence Henderson as his guest. They did a few numbers from Fanny. When the obscure musical Hazel Flagg was running on Broadway, Fisher performed "How Do You Speak to an Angel?" on his show. My grandmother was so taken with his rendition of the song that she took me to Goldblatt's the next day to buy the OBC LP. I was only 5 years old, but I kept telling her "Grandma, I don't think Eddie Fisher will be on the record. He only sang that song on TV, not Broadway." Anyway, she didn't listen to me. However, we were never able to find the album at Goldblatt's or any other store. Decades later in 2004 when Sepia released the OBC album on CD, I was amazed to discover that Eddie Fisher's version of "Angel" was indeed on the album as a bonus track. So Grandma, you were right after all. |
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| re: Another Harold Rome musical fan | |
| Posted by: Ned3301 03:59 pm EDT 04/03/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Another Harold Rome musical fan - BroadwayTonyJ 01:40 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
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| The man posing with Sheila Bond in Wish You Were Here's key art is John Perkins, an actor who specialized in roles calling for an athletic physique. You can see him also on the cover of the old paperback of Genet's The Balcony, as he played the Executioner in the off-Broadway staging. |
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| re: Another Harold Rome musical fan | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 03:00 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 02:59 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Another Harold Rome musical fan - BroadwayTonyJ 01:40 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
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| Thanks for all of that, Tony! If it is indeed Paul Valentine, I think he is super in a duet with Jacqueline McKeever in "We're Not Children" on the OCR of "Oh, Captain!" That's a very fun score with some super orchestrations. His vocal is very sexy, and looking at his bio, he was a ballet dancer, had a relationship with Sally Rand (of bubble dance fame) and was married to Lili St. Cyr, the famous strip tease artist immortalized at the end of "Zip" in "Pal Joey" by Rodgers and Hart! Not sure about Sidney Armus. I think "Gone With the Wind" may have had a revival in London in more recent years. |
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| re: Another Harold Rome musical fan | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 04:12 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Another Harold Rome musical fan - PlayWiz 02:59 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
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| I checked out some pictures of Paul Valentine. He was a really good-looking guy back in the late 40's and early 50's. He played Joe Stefanos in the great film noir, Out of the Past. He was gangster Kirk Douglas' enforcer or capo (I guess you could call him), similar to the character of Al Neri in The Godfather. I believe he is the guy on the Wish You Were Here cover. He sings "Summer Afternoon" and "Relax" in the Rome musical. Thanks for the mention of Oh Captain!. I'm going to dig out the CD and listen to it tomorrow. It has a very enjoyable score with a great cast. |
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| CALL ME MISTER | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 12:51 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
| In reply to: Another Harold Rome musical fan - PlayWiz 12:26 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
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| Also high on my list of shows I am longing to see (but likely never will) is CALL ME MISTER, Rome and Arnold Auerbach’s revue centering on soldiers readjusting to civilian life after the war. With strong satirical jabs at the postwar housing shortage and the idiotic military bureaucracy (redtape), comedy and sex (Betty Garrett, take it away!), and a stand against racism in “The Red Ball Express” in which the black soldier who served honorably cannot get a job because of his race, this is much overlooked score. Laura |
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| re: CALL ME MISTER | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 02:04 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
| In reply to: CALL ME MISTER - showtunetrivia 12:51 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
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| Decca's OBC album has 10 of the show's 14 musical numbers. It's a fine recording and Betty Garrett, of course, is great. Northwestern U. did a production of the show in Nov., 2006, and they were actually able to convince Garrett to star in it. The show was a limited run, probably just 5 or 6 performances. As luck would have it, my partner and I were in New York at the time seeing Broadway shows, so we missed catching Betty Garrett in Call Me Mister. The Chicago Tribune panned the production but gave Garrett a rave. | |
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| re: CALL ME MISTER | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 02:09 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
| In reply to: re: CALL ME MISTER - BroadwayTonyJ 02:04 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
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| I love that album. I had the honor of seeing Betty Garrett a couple of times at Theatre West, the LA theatre she and her husband founded with the Bridges clan. They have a musical theatre scholarship named for her, and used to stage concert productions of rare old shows as fundraisers. Laura |
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| re: CALL ME MISTER | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 11:17 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
| In reply to: re: CALL ME MISTER - showtunetrivia 02:09 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
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| I saw Betty Garrett many years ago in her delightful one-woman show, and the highlight was ''South America, Take It Away'' from ''Call Me Mister.'' It's got one of Rome's most playful lyrics. In his salute to Latin dance, he rhymes ''rhumba'' with ''vertebrae lumba'' and ''cucumba'.'' And he wraps up this comic song with ''All this goin' and comin' to, this fancy Latin drummin' to, numbs my plumbin' .'' |
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| Link | Betty Garrett: 'South America, Take It Awayt'' from Harold Rome's ''Call Me Mister'' |
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| Is there any video of Betty Garrett doing "South America, Take It Away!"? | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 03:58 pm EDT 04/03/21 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 03:54 pm EDT 04/03/21 | |
| In reply to: re: CALL ME MISTER - WaymanWong 11:17 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
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| I love that recording. Betty Garrett had already been an understudy to Ethel Merman. But Garrett's terrific performance of "South America, Take It Away!", as well as the rest of her performance in "Call Me Mister" was her ticket to a contract at MGM where, among other things, she co-starred with her on-screen love interest Frank Sinatra in 2 films. Unfortunately, the House Un-American Committee allegations against her husband Larry Parks (and being a loyal wife), impacted her film career in the 1950s and pretty much destroyed his. Apparently the two of them did serve as (perhaps vacation) replacements on Broadway for Judy Holliday and Sydney Chaplin during the Broadway run of "Bells Are Ringing" at one point. She did have a big career resurgence by becoming a regular on two of the number one tv series of the 1970s, "All in the Family" and "Laverne and Shirley" later on though. She was always a very enjoyable performer, and I'm glad I got to see her in the Roundabout "Follies" where she and Joan Roberts were among the highlights. | |
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| re: Is there any video of Betty Garrett doing "South America, Take It Away!"? | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 06:27 pm EDT 04/03/21 | |
| In reply to: Is there any video of Betty Garrett doing "South America, Take It Away!"? - PlayWiz 03:54 pm EDT 04/03/21 | |
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| Link | Betty Garrett: 'South America, Take It Away' (1990) |
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| Thanks so much, Wayman! That's a little-seen, but historic performance! | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 07:43 pm EDT 04/03/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Is there any video of Betty Garrett doing "South America, Take It Away!"? - WaymanWong 06:27 pm EDT 04/03/21 | |
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| Betty Garrett still had plenty of voice there, moved great and looks like she remembered a lot of her original staging, so this is a great historic record of her very funny show-stopping number! Thanks again! | |
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| re: CALL ME MISTER | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 02:46 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
| In reply to: re: CALL ME MISTER - showtunetrivia 02:09 pm EDT 04/02/21 | |
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| I was able to see her on stage in the 2001 revival of Follies at the Belasco. The production was very uneven, but it was a thrill to see legendary stars like Garrett, Joan Roberts, Polly Bergen, Jane White, and the others. | |
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