Peter Pan, part 5 December 28, 2007
Posted by Jeff in Comden and Green, Musicals, Peter Pan, Theater.add a comment
The titles for this telecast of Peter Pan (most of which are cut out of this tape), were designed by Sherman Labby, the late husband of my good friend Katherine Orrison. They were based on the design of the original 1904 novel of the James M. Barrie play.
Peter Pan, part 4 December 27, 2007
Posted by Jeff in Comden and Green, Musicals, Peter Pan, Theater.add a comment
Cyril Ritchard (1897-1977) played the roles of Mr. Darling and Captain Hook; the latter was his best-known role, for which he won a Tony award.
Besides Captain Hook, he may today be best remembered as Sir in The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd, the 1965 Leslie Bricusse-Anthony Newley musical. Here’s an excerpt of his best-known song, “A Wonderful Day Like Today”.
Peter Pan, part 3 December 26, 2007
Posted by Jeff in Comden and Green, Musicals, Peter Pan, Theater, Trivia questions.add a comment
Mary Martin (1913-1990) was, along with Ethel Merman, one of the last performers to make a lifetime star career for themselves almost exclusively on Broadway and television, while making almost no movies in Hollywood.
Peter Pan, part 2 December 25, 2007
Posted by Jeff in Comden and Green, Musicals, Peter Pan, Theater.add a comment
The 1954 Broadway production of Peter Pan got mixed reviews and only ran 152 performances, although both Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard won Tony awards. Some people have claimed that the show was deliberately closed so that it could be shown on television. However, the first TV showing on March 7, 1955 was the highest-rated television show up to that time, and Martin won an Emmy.
Peter Pan, part 1 December 24, 2007
Posted by Jeff in Comden and Green, Musicals, Peter Pan, Theater.1 comment so far
Sometime in the summer of 1960, my parents took me to my first Broadway musical, live in a theater: The Sound Of Music with Mary Martin. Six months later, I saw my second Broadway musical, also live, with the same star — but it wasn’t in a theater …
“I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plan” October 27, 2007
Posted by Jeff in 1946 through 1960, Comden and Green, Dance, Fred Astaire, Movies, Musicals, Theater.add a comment
From The Band Wagon (1952), four Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz musical numbers for the price of (n)one …
“Dancing In The Dark” August 26, 2007
Posted by Jeff in 1946 through 1960, Comden and Green, Dance, Fred Astaire, Movies, Musicals, Theater.6 comments
“I don’t think a dancer should smoke,” says Gabrielle Gerard (Cyd Charisse) to Tony Hunter (Fred Astaire) early on in The Band Wagon (1952). And, indeed, Astaire chain-smokes through the movie. But by the end, Gabrielle is in love with him — and bumming smokes off him as well.
I am a huge fan of backstage stories — my screenplay Equity is proof of that — and I can think of few as fun and as realistic as this one. With music by Arthur Schwartz and lyrics by Howard Dietz (yes, “Dancing In The Dark” does have lyrics), the title and several songs come from the last Broadway revue Fred did with his sister Adele before she retired in 1931. And here he is, at the age of fifty-four, keeping up with dancers some of whom are less than half his age.
“I Can Cook, Too” July 18, 2007
Posted by Jeff in Comden and Green, Musicals, Theater.add a comment
Nancy Walker (right, with Cris Alexander as Chip) was Hildy, the brash taxi driver in the original cast of Bernstein, Comden and Green‘s On The Town.
If all you know her for is Rhoda Morgenstern‘s mother and Rosie in the Bounty commercials, you’re in for a treat.
“I Can Cook Too” December 18, 2006
Posted by Jeff in Comden and Green, Musicals, Theater.add a comment
Nancy Walker (right, with Cris Alexander as Chip) was Hildy, the brash taxi driver in the original cast of Bernstein, Comden and Green‘s On The Town.
If all you know her for is Rhoda Morgenstern‘s mother and Rosie in the Bounty commercials, you’re in for a treat.
The dream Coney Island December 11, 2006
Posted by Jeff in Classical, Comden and Green, Music, Musicals, Theater.add a comment
Betty Comden and Adolph Green introduce the second-act ballet music from On The Town.
“Lonely Town” December 4, 2006
Posted by Jeff in Comden and Green, Musicals, Theater.1 comment so far
In the concert version of On The Town, Thomas Hampson plays Gabey, the sailor who falls in love with the girl on a Miss Turnstiles poster.
Betty Comden, 1915-2006 November 26, 2006
Posted by Jeff in 1946 through 1960, Comden and Green, In memoriam, Movies, Musicals, Theater.add a comment
Right: Betty Comden and Adolph Green
For the next few days it may seem that the non-blog is taking a morbid turn. They say death comes in threes; last week it came in four …
Along with Adolph Green, Betty Comden was the last of a generation of classic Broadway lyricists and book writers. For such quintessentially New York characters, they were uniquely at home both in Broadway and Hollywood; they would have been acclaimed if if they had written nothing else but the screenplays of The Band Wagon, It’s Always Fair Weather and Singin’ In The Rain.
Subscribe to the non-blog by Email (courtesy Feedburner)
This is not my blog. 