25 March 2021 Music on Thursdays Online: Musicals 1960 to 1990

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Music on Thursdays - Online

Thursday 25th March 2021

Musicals: 1960 to 1990

Guest Host: Peter Steadman

Available: from Thursday 25th March

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Musicals: 1960 to 1990

Programme

Richard Rodgers (1902-1979)
Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim (b 22nd March 1930)
from the musical Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965)
Do I Hear a Waltz

sung by Melissa Errico playing Leona

Jerrold Lewis "Jerry" Bock (1928-2010)
Lyrics: Sheldon Mayer Harnick (b1924)
Book: Joseph Stein (1912-2010)
from the musical Fiddler on the Roof (1964)
Sabbath Prayer

Acting and Orchestral Ensemble from the
2004 Broadway Revival of Fiddler on the Roof

James (Jimmy) van Heusen (1913-1990)
(born:Edward Chester Babcock)
Lyrics: Sammy Cahn (born Samuel Cohen) (1913-1993)
from the musical film Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)
Thoroughly Modern Millie

Sung by Julie Andrews, in the role of Millie

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
from the musical Company (1970)
The Ladies Who Lunch

Elaine Strich

Baron (Andrew) Lloyd Webber (b1948)
Lyrics: Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (b1944)
from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1972)
Close Every Door

Donny Osmond, with a children's choir

Baron (Andrew) Lloyd Webber
Lyrics: Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice
from the film of musical Jesus Christ Superstar (1970)
Pilate's Dream

Barry Dennen

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
from the musical A Little Night Music (1973)
Send in the Clowns

Glynis Johns

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
from the musical Pacific Overtures (1976)
Pretty Lady

Patrick Kinser-Lau · Timm Fujii · Mark Hsu Syers
Pacific Overtures Orchestra · director, Paul Gemignani

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
from the musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979)
A Little Priest

Imelda Staunton and Michael Ball

Alan Irwin Menken (b1949)
Lyrics: Howard Elliott Ashman (1950-1991)
from the musical Little Shop of Horrors (1982)
Feed Me (Git It)

Rick Moranis and Levi Stubbs

Music & Lyrics: Gerald Sheldon "Jerry" Herman (b1949)
from the musical La Cage aux Folles (1982)
I Am What I Am

Walter Charles

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
from the musical Sunday in the Park with George (1984)
Finishing the Hat

Mandy Patinkin

Howard Lindsay Goodall (b1958)
Lyrics: Baron (Melvyn) Bragg (b1939)
from the musical The Hired Man (1984)
Song of the Hired Men

National Youth Music

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
from the musical Assassins (1990)
The Ballad of Guiteau

Elizabeth Pattey, John Kleimo, Adam Dienner
Darren Wagner, Tim Reilly, Evan Cooper

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
from the musical Into the Woods (1990)
Moments in the Woods

Emily Blunt

Bonus Scene - Finale

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
from the musical Into the Woods (1990)
Finale: Midnight/No One Is Alone/Children Will Listen/Into the Woods

Bernadette Peters, Chip Zien, Joanna Gleason, Tom Aldredge
Kim Crosby, Danielle Ferland, Ben Wright

Concert duration: 66 minutes + finale

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Where do I begin ?

I have played this role so frequently over the last 12 months, that I am beginning to feel like one of those familiar voices on Gardeners' Question Time. So, like them, I am not going to describe every possibility, but give you a very personal selection from three wonderful decades of musical theatre.

These choices come from musicals in which I have had some involvement, or that I have enjoyed in the theatre or on screen. I have scanned lists of over 400 musicals, and reduced these to 24 that fit the description. Clearly, we only have time to hear excerpts from a third of those.

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In the 1980s and 1990s, Dick Vosburgh used to present concert performances of less often performed musicals. I remember going along to the Barbican for a concert performance with so much movement in it that it could almost be called semi-staged. It was Do I Hear a Waltz ? The music was by Richard Rodgers, with words by Stephen Sondheim, who was 91 on Monday.

I hope you too will enjoy our opening item, the song of the show, Do I Hear a Waltz?

Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) 5m05
Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim (b 22nd March 1930)
from the musical Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965)
Do I Hear a Waltz

sung by Melissa Errico playing Leona
in the May 2016 production by Encores!
at the New York CityCenter

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At College, in 1976, I was cast in the title role of a musical.

There were several downsides to this. I am a singer, but it was not a singing role. Not even a speaking one. I am not a dancer, but I had to dance with the male lead, several times. I have no head for heights, yet the director thought it ideal to place me on top of the set, holding onto a chimney, as the curtain opened and while, at one point, the set was being turned to reset for the next scene.

Oh, and the final red flag that should have said DO NOT CAST THIS STUDENT was that I play no stringed instruments, yet I had to appear to play the violin, in the title role in Fiddler on the Roof!

Apart from the twice nightly terror of climbing onto and down from the set's revolving centrepiece (the outside and the inside of a house) it was a wonderful experience. Cast and crew were allowed to return to College to rehearse through the weekend before term started and that was a great bonding experience. I will always remember the Sunday lunch where we sang the musical's Sabbath Prayer in place of saying grace.

Here is a video, made under lockdown conditions, and that has that same spirit of an entire cast and company coming together. You will also hear the overture running over the credits after the 3-minute Sabbath Prayer:

Jerrold Lewis "Jerry" Bock (1928-2010) 6m05
Lyrics: Sheldon Mayer Harnick (b1924)
Book: Joseph Stein (1912-2010)
from the musical Fiddler on the Roof (1964)
Sabbath Prayer

Acting and Orchestral Ensemble from the
2004 Broadway Revival of Fiddler on the Roof
at the Minskoff Theatre, New York City

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I find it strange now to think that this next musical comes one year after Cabaret. Yes, I have skipped the ever-popular Berlin piece. I love it. I am not sure how many times I have seen the Liza Minelli film. I have read the book (Goodbye to Berlin) and I regret to say I cannot recall where I saw the musical on stage.

But it has become one of the awful compromises of today's selection. Instead, I am going to call on a musical film I have only watched twice, once at the Dominion Theatre, Cardiff, when it launched in the UK, around 1967/68, and once on television. It starred the singer with probably the most perfect diction of all time, for Julie Andrews was Thoroughly Modern Millie.

One recurring piece of business throughout the film is the difficulty Millie has in placing her long beaded necklace. She does not quite have the attributes to make sure it always rests as it should do, as it hangs over her chest. This side, that side, in between, outside... but the beads never stay in the right place.

Let's get with the beat of the title song from this 16-award winning, 1967 hit film. Although most of the music came from film musicals composer Elmer Bernstein, this song and a couple of others were penned by a duo:

James (Jimmy) van Heusen (1913-1990) 2m50
(born:Edward Chester Babcock)
Lyrics: Sammy Cahn (born Samuel Cohen) (1913-1993)
from the musical film Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)
Thoroughly Modern Millie

Sung by Julie Andrews, in the role of Millie

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Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and the lyrics for his musical comedy Company which first played on Broadway in 1970, before coming to London's West End in 1972.

George Furth wrote 11 one-act plays. Sondheim asked Harold Prince to read them, and both agreed there was material here for a musical about marriage in New York, presented from the point of view of a central character.

I didn't really struggle to choose a number from this musical. Although, I do have regrets about leaving out other joys you will find on YouTube such as The Little Things You Do Together, Sorry-Grateful, Marry Me a Little, Being Alive - you can see the theme of relationships in just the titles.

Elaine Strich opened the show on Broadway and she came with it to London too. Her unique vocal sound will always be remembered for one song, and as well as the recording, I have found an extra item showing how difficult, perhaps painful, it was laying down the track for the Broadway cast recording of The Ladies Who Lunch:

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim 3m25
from the musical Company (1970)
The Ladies Who Lunch

Elaine Strich in 1982 for TV

EXTRA 7m10

From a 'behind the scenes' 1970 documentary featuring Elaine Strich at the recording sessions for the Broadway cast recording of her number, The Ladies Who Lunch, from Sondheim's Company

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I remember going to the the South Bank production of Follies, but I thought better of including a number from it here lest this become a Sondheim concert. I would have no objection to that, but we probably want more variety here. [He'll be back though.]

These next two musicals have religious themes. Both were penned by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. I shall pick one number from each, and place them side by side here. It's interesting to compare them with the sophistication of Sondheim's work in the same decade. Admittedly he is at least 10 years older than those youngsters, and had had the good fortune to receive early guidance from Oscar Hammerstein II.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a musical with very little spoken text, virtually entirely 'sung-through', yet originally written as a musical to be performed by a school. I have chosen Close Every Door. While from the film of Jesus Christ Superstar we will hear Pilate's Dream, sung by original Broadway cast member Barry Dennen.

My connections? Joseph I have known and loved for many years and I used to play many of the numbers on the piano. An excellent College production just locked it more firmly in my heart. With JC Superstar, I saw the film, several times, and again, played the music. I met the late Barry Dennen and he later became a friend's much respected step-father. Perceptive Barry understood me at 17 far better than I understood myself.

Baron (Andrew) Lloyd Webber (b1948) 3m35
Lyrics: Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (b1944)
from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1972)
Close Every Door

Donny Osmond, with a children's choir, at
Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Royal Albert Hall Celebration

Baron (Andrew) Lloyd Webber
Lyrics: Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice 1m45
from the film of musical Jesus Christ Superstar (1970)
Pilate's Dream

Barry Dennen, in the role of Pilate

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When something goes wrong in the circus the call goes up - allegedly - 'Send in the Clowns'. Sondheim's most famous and most successful song covers a moment in a lady's life when she has been rejected and has lost the bravado she normally shows to all around. She needs time to regain her composure.

The song's short phrases, with hard consonants at the end of each line, suit someone who is going to act the song perhaps more than sing it. I could opt for Judi Dench here as she did it wonderfully on the South Bank (where I heard her) and in a celebrated performance at the Royal Albert Hall. Instead, let us hear Glynis Johns. Like Judi Dench, here is an actress who had some voice, but lacked the breathing control of a trained singer. Sondheim heard this voice and wrote Send in the Clowns especially for her, in what he had planned to be an entirely speaking part.

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim 2m50
from the musical A Little Night Music (1973)
Send in the Clowns

Glynis Johns in the role of Desiree

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Let us linger with Sondheim a little as we turn to Pacific Overtures, a show I saw at the Donmar Warehouse. It was a late summer's day in 2003, when I had been in town and felt I needed something to round off the day before the drive home. I popped into the Donmar box office and, yes, they did have a ticket for that evening. It was right on the front row, to one side. No hesitation at all! I snapped it up.

This show is not easy casting. Sondheim calls for a company of male, Asian actors who play all parts, and if that was not challenging enough, they are joined by a chorus of Western girls, representing Westernization, for... the final 1m42 of the show!

Pretty Lady is sung by three British sailors (you will love their accents!) who have mistaken a young girl for a geisha. The musical is full of these mis-readings between the Japanese and Western cultures. You may read the titles as 'musical overtures from the Pacific Ocean' but the term comes from an 1853 note from US Admiral Perry to the Emperor of Japan, where he describes his intentions as 'very reasonable and pacific overtures', while making it perfectly clear that a large force will be joining him later, if needed.

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim 3m00
from the musical Pacific Overtures (1976)
Pretty Lady

Patrick Kinser-Lau · Timm Fujii · Mark Hsu Syers
Pacific Overtures Orchestra · director, Paul Gemignani
from the Original Broadway Cast of Pacific Overtures

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Meanwhile, in London in 1978 we were watching Evita. I saw the show at the Prince Edward Theatre where I may have been sitting on the heating pipes. It was warm.

I hope you will forgive me as I move on to a more musically interesting musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Would you like a little priest? This is the final song in Act One of the musical, sung by the leads, Mrs Lovett who bakes the pies, and Sweeney Todd who supplies the, well, the, um, ... 'ingredients'. Listen out for some lovely rhymes here, such as:

LOVETT:
It's priest. Have a little priest.

TODD:
Is it really good?

LOVETT:
Sir, it's too good, at least!
Then again, they don't commit sins of the flesh,
So it's pretty fresh.

TODD:
Awful lot of fat.

LOVETT:
Only where it sat.

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim 7m05
from the musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979)
A Little Priest

Imelda Staunton as Mrs Lovett and Michael Ball as Sweeney
from the 2012 London cast recording

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Another production I am delighted to move straight past is Pump Boys & Dinettes. The friend I went with and I decided we would sit through the whole dreadful thing in case the second act was any improvement on the first, It was not. There was no reason at all to 'pop back stage afterwards' and congratulate Bobby Crush.

But what is this massive plant appearing on the horizon. Why, it's Audrey. And this is Little Shop of Horrors. My very talented brother-in-law, Richard Eliot, directed some superb shows for Teddington Theatre Club (which is where he met my sister). I took two sets of friends to see this one. The shows were always sell-outs, and this horror comedy rock musical (says wikipedia) was no exception.

If you have never seen this show then the song Feed Me tells you everything you need to know (apart from the love angle, that is.)

Alan Irwin Menken (b1949) 4m30
Lyrics: Howard Elliott Ashman (1950-1991)
from the musical Little Shop of Horrors (1982)
Feed Me (Git It)

Rick Moranis as Seymour, and
Levi Stubbs as the voice of Audrey II

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I have enjoyed both the original French-Italian film of Jean Poiret's play La Cage aux Folles, (The Cage of Madwomen) and later the musical film The Birdcage.

The play tells the story of a gay couple – Renato Baldi, the manager of a Saint-Tropez nightclub featuring drag entertainment, and Albin Mougeotte, his star attraction – and the madness that ensues when Renato's son Laurent brings home his fiancée Andrea and her ultra-conservative parents to meet them.

At the end of Act One, drag artiste Albin sings a number that Gloria Gaynor was to bring to fame later that same year of 1983. The song became an anthem for a movement, in a world that was a-changing, and it was a great disco-beat number too.

Music & Lyrics:
Gerald Sheldon "Jerry" Herman (b1949) 5m35
from the musical La Cage aux Folles (1982)
I Am What I Am

Walter Charles as Albin in the first Broadway run

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I am a non-stopping service when it comes to Starlight Express. I never saw that Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe success.

Instead, I shall take a breather with Sunday in the Park with George. 'George' is the French pointillist painter Georges Seurat. His mistress and model is named Dot.

The title comes from one of Seurat's most famous paintings, Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte - A Sunday afternoon on the island of the Great Basin. Click on the picture to enlarge it, if your device allows.

Unfortunately, I missed the first London run of the show at the Royal National Theatre in 1990. I have only seen this production as a TV screening.

Here the artist sings of Finishing the Hat:

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim 3m20
from the musical Sunday in the Park with George (1984)
Finishing the Hat

Mandy Patinkin as Georges in the original Broadway show

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Now we come to a musical which my brother-in-law put on in 1998. He was thinking about The Hired Man while we were at Edinburgh the previous August with his production of my one-hander Desparate Lines. We went to see a brilliant youth production by a drama group from Cumbria, the birthplace of the man who wrote the book - Melvyn Bragg.

Young (then) composer Howard Goodall worked with Bragg to create this musical about life around Wigton in the 1890s to 1920s. Richard Eliot borrowed from the Cumbrian youth production a fine young trumpeter who was waiting to join the army where he hoped to continue with his music. We enjoyed this link with Edinburgh and even more so with Cumbria, home for both this lad and the author.

A few years later we saw a dear friend in a production by DDOS - Dorking Dramatic & Operatic Society at Dorking Halls. It can be such a joy to see how different directors' visions of one's favourites bring new insights.

A lot of well-known performers have come to us via the National Youth Music Theatre including a famous comedy partnership. It is where David Walliams and Matt Lucas first met. Here comes The Hired Man, from the August 2014 NYMT production at the St James's Theatre, London, so please listen out for that all-important trumpet as you enjoy the energy of this opening chorus:

Howard Lindsay Goodall (b1958) 7m45
Lyrics: Baron (Melvyn) Bragg (b1939)
from the musical The Hired Man (1984)
Song of the Hired Men

National Youth Music, Theatre August 2014

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56m45 I have looked at my list again, and there is no hope of finishing within the hour, plus I have been reminded that I only add up the running time of the musical excerpts. I never remember to include the time it takes to read my ample prose.

So if I am already sinning greatly, there seems no reason to hold back with these final two items. They come from the same lyricist, composer, and crossword-compiler, who will be 91 this year.

Slightly out of date order, I am going to bring you a number from Assassins which I saw at the Donmar Warehouse during its London premiere run in 1992. The cast included Anthony Barclay, and Henry GoodmanThis description from wikipedia describes the musical well:

Using the framing device of an all-American, yet sinister, carnival game, the semi-revue portrays a group of historical figures who attempted (successfully or not) to assassinate Presidents of the United States, and explores what their presence in American history says about the ideals of their country. The score is written to reflect both popular music of the various depicted eras and a broader tradition of "patriotic" American music.

I have chosen one of several 'ballads' of the various assassins, The Ballad of Guiteau. Charles J Guiteau shot President James Garfield who died two months later.

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim 6m15
from the musical Assassins (1990)
The Ballad of Guiteau

Elizabeth Pattey (Sarah Jane Moore), John Kleimo and Adam Dienner (President Garfield and Secretary Blaine)
Darren Wagner (Charles Guiteau), Tim Reilly (Balladeer)
Evan Cooper (Proprietor)

Filmed at Ephrata Performing Arts Center, Pennsylvania, in October 2013

Sadly, EPAC suffered from a minor flood in May 2020 during the COVID closure, and from a fire in November 2020.
Like us, the theatre went online, but hopes to be back live by May 2021, COVID rules permitting..

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I absolutely love Into the Woods, a retelling of all the famous Grimm fairy stories of our childhood. There is a twist, of coursse, this is Sondheim, so we do not get 'happy ever after'. No, he finds the darkness in the characters, their faults. For example, Litte Red Ridinghood (sic) is probably a shoplifter, given half a chance (which in this musical she is), and Prince Charming turns out to be a coward and a cad of the worst order.

Sondheim's love of language comes out in lines like 'her withers wither with her' (talking of beanstalk Jack's cow). It has been really difficult to choose one item from this magical musical. There is a strong line of things being 'in the moment' that runs through the play so I will offer you the Baker's Wife singing Moments in the Woods.

But I will cheat further by adding the musical's finale as an optional extra. There have to be some perqs of devising our online format!

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim 3m20
from the musical Into the Woods (1990)
Moments in the Woods

Emily Blunt as the Baker's Wife in the Walt Disney Pictures film production, released in 2014 66m20

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Bonus Scene - Finale

I leave you with the full finale from Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. This is a recording by the original Broadway cast which included the wonderful Bernadette Peters as the Witch.

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim 3m20
from the musical Into the Woods (1990)
Finale: Midnight/No One Is Alone/Children Will Listen/Into the Woods

The original Broadway cast, recorded for American Playhouse, 1991. Songs: You Are Not Alone, Children Will Listen, and Into the Woods (reprise).
Bernadette Peters (Witch), Chip Zien (Baker)
Joanna Gleason (Baker's Wife)
Tom Aldredge (Narrator/Old Man), Kim Crosby (Cinderella),
Danielle Ferland (Little Red Riding Hood), Ben Wright (Jack).

So, you see, it does turn out all right in the end, it was just a very rocky Sondheimian journey to get there.

I hope you have enjoyed this wander through 30 years of musical theatre. And I apologise if I have slated a musical you loved - except if that was Pump Boys & Dinettes. I mean. Really?

Peter Steadman

+Dedicated to the memory of my sister Hilary Eliot who loved musical theatre

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We hope you have enjoyed this Musicals Selection Concert
with selections made by Peter Steadman for Music on Thursdays

Watch your email and this website
for news of next Thursday's Ibrahim Aziz viols concert,
recorded 'as live' especially for Leatherhead's Music on Thursdays

18 March: Music for Lutes

1 April: Ibrahim Aziz, recorded 'as live' - the viol

We continue with weekly video selection concerts until the end of June, with hopes of going live at Leatherhead Methodist Church from July 1st.

The first Thursdays in April, May and June will be further special recordings for
Music on Thursdays.

Viols player Ibrahim Aziz is preparing a concert recording for us, for Thursday 1st April.

comments welcome: musiconthursdays@gmail.com

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