Popular Broadway Songs [Youtbe Clips]

Once on This Island

What a delight it is to enter the world of Once on This Island...The hallmark ingenuity, warmth and intensity bordering on excess that characterize [director] Arden's style is recapitulated everywhere within the production, from the frankly stupendous singing... to the electric choreography... Everyone is working on the same crammed page. - Jesse Green, The New York Times

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Long before Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty wrote Ragtime and Anastasia, they made their name with Once on This Island in 1990. The first Broadway revival opened Sunday night and Ahrens & Flaherty have to be pleased with the results.

Once on This Island unfolds as a group of storytellers—caught in the midst of an unrelenting storm—recount the tale of Ti Moune, a Caribbean island country girl in love with an aristocrat.

Director Michael Arden takes the framing device one step farther by setting the storytellers on an island left the aftermath of a devastating hurricane. (It may seem ripped from the headlines, but he started working on this concept a year ago.) “We are taking a look at disaster, like we’ve seen in Haiti, and how that can be a metaphor for how we all rebuild,” Arden has said.


Once on This Island’s score has been rebuilt by creating a new sonic palette built on multi-layered vocal orchestrations, along with instruments made out of found objects, including trash bins, flexible piping, and more. Starobin and composer Flaherty have retained segments of the score’s traditional Broadway musical pit instrumentation.

The cast of storytellers who transform into gods, peasants, and wealthy island dwellers boasts Miss Saigon Tony Award winner Lea Salonga (Erzulie, goddess of love), Glee groundbreaker Alex Newell (Asaka, mother of the earth), Merle Dandridge (Papa Ge, demon of death), and Quentin Earl Darrington (Agwe, god of water), as well as Tony nominee Phillip Boykin (Tonton Julian).

Hailey Kilgore, an 18-year-old Broadway newcomer who was a student at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy at the time of her audition, is cast in the breakout role of Ti Moune, a young peasant girl who is sent on a journey by the gods.

The reaction from the critics for this revival have been... spectacular.

There has probably never been a production quite like the stunning new Broadway revival at Circle in the Square. Emphasizing the musical's themes of natural disaster and economic inequality, director Michael Arden brings an unexpected dose of gritty realism, while also honoring its gorgeous score of dynamic group numbers and tender ballads. Vocal fireworks and full-bodied dance choreography imbue spirituality and joyful theatricality. - Matt Windmand, amNY

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All the notices are like that. Reviewers all mention both choreography by Camille A. Brown and Stephen Flaherty's music and vocal arrangements. Hailey Kilgore, Lea Salonga, Alex Newell, and Phillip Boykin were also singled out for praise. But the biggest nods were for former Broadway star and now two-time Broadway director Michael Arden. He may be the new front-runner for a best director Tony in June. And here's an interesting tidbit: Arden's assistant director is Book of Mormon and Les Miserables star Nikki M. James branching out in to a new direction herself.

For more information

• Once On This Island Broadway Review from Double D Reviews.
• Gypsy Robe Ceremony: Once On This Island - Actor's Equity takes you backstage at Circle in the Square for the opening night gypsy robe ceremony. The Gypsy Robe goes to the chorus member with the most Broadway credits. It then brings luck to the rest of the cast.
• Stars Ask the Stars at the Opening Night of Once on This Island - Theatermania plays their game where they ask stars attending the opening to record questions that their reporters put to the cast when they arrive for the party.
• Remember Michael Arden? His last role was as the title character in Hunchback of Notre Dame. Last year he married his partner Andy Mientus. Andy played Marius opposite Nikki M. James as Eponine in the last revival of Les Miserables. So, yes, Marius and Quasimodo got married - which sounds like Victor Hugo fan fiction.

SpongeBob SquarePants

For what it's worth - and we're talking millions of dollars here - you are never going to see as convincing an impersonation of a two-dimensional cartoon by a three-dimensional human as that provided by Ethan Slater at the Palace Theater. Mr. Slater plays the title role in "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical," the ginormous giggle of a show that opened on Monday night. - Ben Brantley, The New York Times

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Topdog in 1998: "A musical version of The Lion King?? What a dumb idea! How could you put cartoon animals on stage and expect people to care about them?

Topdog in 2016: "A musical version of SpongeBob SquarePants? What a dumb idea! How do you expect a Broadway audience to care about a manic undersea sponge and his pun-dropping loony friends??

Sometime I get it horribly wrong. This is apparently one of those times because for most critics SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical which opened last night was an evening of delightful entertainment.

Are you ready? The splashy new Broadway musical SpongeBob SquarePants, whose arrival was greeted in some circles with sneers of anticipatory derision, turns out to be a joy. Like its irrepressible yellow hero, played by the peppy and limber-limbed Ethan Slater, the show is unabashedly committed to imagination and dorky enthusiasm. As SpongeBob and his squirrel friend, Sandy (Lilli Cooper), labor to save their undersea town-the cheekily named Bikini Bottom-from a local volcano, the wonders of Tina Landau's production pour from the stage in a ravishing stream of color and invention that sucks you into its merry, silly currents. - Adam Feldman, Time Out New York

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SpongeBob definitely breaks the rules. Rather than a single composer, it has an eclectic score of original songs by Sara Bareilles, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend and others. No big stars (though there are some Broadway favorites like Wes Taylor (Smash) as the villain and Gavin Lee (Mary Poppins) as an octopus who tap dances on four legs. It also cost a reported $20 million, so it will have to run years to break even. But with good reviews and a solid brand to sell when it eventually tours, that may all be money very well spent.

Ethan Slater has been singled out by everyone for playing the unmistakable title character without having to stuff himself inside a sponge costume.

Ethan Slater, in his Broadway debut, perfectly captures SpongeBob's enthusiastic approach to life from the moment he's discovered curled up inside the pineapple he calls home. Slater, who's been with this project for nearly five years through workshops and the Chicago tryouts, has the signature nasal voice down pat and he moves like a latter-day Ray Bolger, though with considerably more athleticism. - Barbara Schuler, Newsday

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The choreography is by Christopher Gattelli (Newsies). Broadway composer Tom Kitt (Next to Normal) pulled together the score with arrangements that lent a cohesive feel. And the whole production is conceived and directed by Tina Landau - who, much like another female director in 1998 (Julie Taymor), went way out on a limb with this and found all her risks tremendously paid off.


For more information

• "SpongeBob SquarePants" on stage - CBS goes behind the scenes and meets the cast, director and musicians.
• Spongebob Squarepants Broadway Review! - Double D review
• Broadway's Spongebob Squarepants Performs BIKINI BOTTOM DAY on 2017 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Favorite Songs

Seasons of Love from Rent by Jonathon Larsen

Favorite Dances

The Penguin Dance ("Jolly Holiday") from Mary Poppins by Richard and Robert Sherman. This version is in French ("Danse des pingouins "). Choreography by Dee Dee Wood and Marc Breaux.


The magic that Disney brings makes you forget what is happening technically and you are just taken up enjoying these delightful creatures dance with Dick Van Dyke.

Waitress

Sara Bareilles and Jason Mraz sing "It Only Takes A Taste" from Waitress . They are both currently appearing in the show.


(Normally this number is done on stage and not in Central Park.)

A Christmas Story


Tonight (December 17) in the USA the Fox network broadcasts a live performance of the Pasic & Paul musical A Christmas Story.

Mama Mia


The trailer for the Mama Mia sequel was released yesterday. Sophie is pregnant, and what's happened to Donna? Also, Donna's reviled mother shows up and it's... Cher!

The new movie opens this summer.

Hamilton


Not only did Lin-Manuel Miranda give the world another sit-down production, he released a spectacular Ham4Ham video for the fans with the London company doing a mash-up of British pop songs with music from the show. In one amazing continuous tracking shot, we have Lin and the cast taking us from the basement of the Victoria theater to the top of the set.

Happy Christmas to all!

There are lots of shows with good songs. Hamilton is much more than that: it’s a game-changer. It’s a vital, revolutionary work that raises the musical theatre bar in the way Show Boat and West Side Story did in their day. - Tony Peters, Radio Times

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Hamilton opened Wednesday night in London, and the reviews were pretty universal hats-in-the-air raves. You can see a preview of the company doing "My Shot" at the Broadway World website.

So, there are now four companies performing the musical (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and London) with a new US touring company going in to rehearsal this winter to start dates in other cities in the USA. That covers the usual locations, and I know once these are running they will start planning for other countries - Japan and Australia have been mentioned.

Mame


Mame is the 1966 Jerry Herman musical that was his follow up to the smash Hello, Dolly! - and turned out to be almost as big a hit. It is adapted from the play Auntie Mame that itself was based on the 1955 Patrick Dennis novel.

It also gave us a holiday song that has outlived even the reputation of the hit musical: "We Need a Little Christmas".


Angela Lansbury was already a respected film actress, with notable roles from Gaslight in 1942 to The Manchurian Candidate in 1962. While Jerry Herman wrote the role for Judy Garland, the producers wouldn't cast her. Mary Martin was offered the part, however she turned it down. Lansbury had gotten good notices in the Stephen Sondheim flop Anyone Can Whistle the year before and got the part. It made her a Broadway star - though others followed her in the role including Celeste Holm, Ann Miller and Ginger Rogers.

Lucille Ball did the part in the 1974 movie. The film also featured Robert Preston as well as Bea Arthur (Vera Charles) and Jane Connell (Agnes Gooch) repeating their parts from Broadway.

Mame has never been successfully revived on Broadway. Angel Lansbury came back for a revival in 1983, but it lasted only 41 performances. Papermill Playhouse did a production with Christine Ebersole in 1999 and The Kennedy Center in Washington DC mounted a revival in 2006 starring Christine Baranski - but neither show transferred to New York.


With the success this year of Bette Midler in Hello, Dolly!, someone has to be thinking of bringing back Mame with another star. Patti LaPone? Idina Menzel?

For more information

• Patrick Dennis is the pseudonym for Edward "Pat" Tanner. In the late 1950s he became the first writer to have three books on the New York Times bestseller list at the same time. Though he was married for over twenty years and had two children, he was bisexual and well known in the New York Greenwich Village gay scene.
• Here is a young Ben Platt playing Patrick opposite Michele Lee as Mame at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles back in 2004. (Video deleted.)

RIP Heather Menzies-Urich

"I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly." - Louisa in the song "So Long, Farewell"

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For those of us who grew up on the movie The Sound of Music it is a sad Christmas. Heather Menzies-Urich died last night. Heather was known to audiences all over the world as Louisa, the blond second Von Trapp daughter in the 1965 film.

She also starred in several TV shows, including Logan's Run with Gregory Harrison.

Heather was the wife of late TV/Film actor Robert Urich. She spent most of her time in the last 15 years since Urich's death devoted to raising money and awareness for cancer research.


Last year Charmain Carr who played Liesel, the oldest Von Trapp daughter passed away. All of the actors who played the children in the film have remained close and have come together periodically to celebrate the movie. From Variety:

Ted Chapin, president and chief creative officer of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, praised Menzies-Urich’s efforts to keep the movie fresh for new generations.

“Heather was part of ‘the family.’ There is really no other way to describe the members of the cast of the movie of ‘The Sound of Music.’ And of ‘the kids,’ Heather was a cheerful and positive member of the group, always hoping for the next gathering,” Chapin said. “We are all lucky to have known her, and she will happily live on in that beautiful movie. We will miss her.”

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Xanadu

Happy New Year! For those dealing with cold temperatures that would rather stay inside here is a treat - a bootleg of the original Broadway cast of Xanadu.


I think the show itself sums this up best as "Children's theater for gay men over 40." Kerry Butler's breathy soprano with her "disguise" of leg warmers and an Australian accent certainly conjures Oliva Newton John.

But the unexpected breakthrough star was Cheyenne Jackson. He was the original Sonny in the workshop productions with Jane Krakowski as Clio/Kira. But by the time the show was ready to go to Broadway both had film/TV commitments and had to bow out.

Jackson was replaced by James Carpinello who had starred in another movie to Broadway adaption - Saturday Night Fever. The show was in great shape in previews when disaster struck - Carpinello broke his leg in three places during one of the skating routines. The producers turned to Jackson who had finished his movie. After four days of rehearsal he went in to the show and became something of a sensation when it opened - not the least because of the short shorts he wore through the roller skating sequences.

If you don't want to see the whole play, the PBS series In the Life did a good profile on the show to give you a taste of what it is about.

Xanadu

Xanadu opened in July 2007, but had to wait until May 2008 for Tony nominations. To keep them in the public's mind they did a series of informal backstage YouTube videos based on the premise that they had hired a ruthless Tony campaign director named Cubby Bernstein.

This is the sixth short video in the series, and I think GH members may find it entertaining.


(Note the wall of short shorts in Cheyenne's dressing room.)

Sunset Boulevard


On Boxing Day BBC Radio 4 rebroadcast their 2004 Irish production of Sunset Boulevard starring Petula Clark and Michael Ball. You can listen to it on the BBC Radio site until January 28. This is the whole musical - start to finish.

News


Last week Broadway shows posted record sales - however most got those astronomical numbers by adding extra holiday shows. They will need that money because now we move into the post-holiday slump when audiences become scarce.

But that makes this the ideal time to stop and take stock of the winners and losers so far and see what's coming this spring.

It's been a pretty strong start to the current Broadway season. There is one monster hit as well as several new shows with great reviews and strong starts.

A Hit Show That May Change Broadway

That would be Springsteen on Broadway that sold out it's initial set of tickets long before it opened. This would have been a hit if Bruce Springsteen just came out and did a concert. But he did more than that - coming up with a script that wove stories from his career with acoustic interpretations of his songs. The run is now extended to June 30 2018 and completely sold out. Some tickets are available at resale for $1000 - $6000 a piece.

What Bruce has done has to resonate with other top artists like Sting, U2, and Paul Simon who have all tried their hand at Broadway as composers - and all lost a ton of money on thier projects. Bruce is doing something infinitely easier and raking in the dough. This will not go unnoticed and artists in residence on Broadway may soon be the new trend.

Other Hits

In addition to Springsteen, there were three other musicals that opened to great reviews and strong ticket sales. These shows should have no problem surviving the winter slow season and racking up some Tony nominiations.

The Band's Visit shot to the top of the critic's lists and is doing good, if not quite spectacular business. This is more of a Sondheim-like thinking person's musical and is still the front runner for the top Tony Award in June. (Though, competition is coming in the spring.)

Once on This Island is the only revival so far, and it has invigorated this 1990s property that most people had forgotten. But a Caribbean fable and love story following a devastating storm feels much more relevant today and the inventive in-the-round production using found materials for instruments gives it an authentic feel.

SpongeBob SquarePants seems like it would be the worst possible commercialized cash grab from the Nickleodean channel pimping out their hit TV show. But everyone that sees it is touched by the genuine optimism and uplift the title character generates and the creative and fun production. This is what Charlie & the Chocolate Factory was supposed to deliver last year. This show will definitely run and the tour will probably sell out across the country.

The Flops

Prince of Broadway was a revue (and a review) of producer/director Hal Prince's career and like predecessors Fosse and Jerome Robbins's Broadway it was a collection of great numbers from hit shows. But even with a talented cast this "greatest hits" didn't add up to more than the sum of its parts and felt more like a variety show than an insight into one of Broadway's legendary personas. It closed in the fall.

What's Coming Up in the Spring



For two years the back half of the 2017-2018 season has been defined by the arrival of one play and one musical. That play is Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the musical is Disney's Frozen. Everything else is frosting on the cake - several jukebox musicals, a couple of revivals and then Mean Girls.

Here is the order they will open, and again, I have added a couple of plays in to the mix.

• Escape to Margaritaville (March 15) is the Jimmy Buffett jukebox musical that has been touring the US for the last three months. The Parrotheads will certainly be there, but we will have to see if it can charm the rest of the public.
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• Rocktopia (March 20) is a limited engagement concert that mashes up rock and classical music. I don't know if this would actually be classified as a "musical", but it is something different in a season where producers seem to be willing to try anything to see if it "sticks".
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• Frozen (March 22) needs no introduction; this is the Disney juggernaut that has been defining the season for the last two years.
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• Angels in America (March 25) stars Andrew Garfield and Nathan Lane as they bring this revival over from London. This material is the great American play of my time and hopefully it will speak to the next generation.
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• Mean Girls (April 8) is the product of husband/wife team of Tina Fey and Jeff Richmond. They got good notices in their out-of-town tryout in Washington DC.
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• Carousel (April 12) stars Jesse Mueller and Joshua Henry in the Rogers & Hammerstein classic. I have a good feeling about this.
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• My Fair Lady (April 19) is directed by revival-master Bartlett Sher and stars Lauren Ambrose and London stage vet Harry Hadden-Paton as Eliza Doolittle and Professor Henry Higgins, joined by Norbert Leo Butz and Diana Rigg. I have been looking forward to this for years, but now that it's cast I have a bad feeling about this.
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• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (April 22) is not a musical, but probably the biggest play to open since the original Angels in America in the 90s. This could outsell Frozen.
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• Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (April 23) is the surprise opening. We thought that maybe the Cher jukebox musical might open - and it will, but in the fall. That spurred the producers of the Donna Summer diva musical to bring theirs in this season to avoid comparisons. Des McAnuff (Jersey Boys) writes and directs and Sergio Trujillo choreographs.
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• The Boys in the Band (April 30) is the 1968 groundbreaking play that brought gay characters front and center for the first time. This opens days after the Tony deadline, so technically it is not part of this season. But it stars Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, and Andrew Rannells and is directed by Joe Mantello. Though they won't be eligible, expect to see the four boys handing out Tony Awards in June to promote their show.

Anatomy - Opening Numbers

Comedy Tonight from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Musicals are singular beasts. They don't just tell a story, they take us on a ride with big emotions and characters. As a result they are not just a mix of random songs, but tend to have some things in common. And in 2018 I thought we could celebrate some of those traditions.

The first thing you often encounter is the Opening Number - a chance to set up time, place, and tone for the story and maybe meet an important character or two.

The master of the Opening Number is probably Jerome Robbins. When A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum was having trouble out-of-town in 1962, Mr. Robbins came in to watch the show. He pointed out that the opening number ("Love is in the Air") was nice, but misled the audience to think they were going to see a romantic comedy. They needed a new song to set up the evening of farce. Stephen Sondheim wrote that new song, and Robbins came back to stage it. The night it went in - the show worked.


Other Jerome Robbins opening number masterpieces include "Tradition" from Fiddler on the Roof and "Prologue" from West Side Story.

Anatomy - Opening Numbers

Belle from Beauty and the Beast

Another classic opening number is the Howard Ashman and Alan Menken number "Belle" (also sometimes known as "Little Town") that opens the animated film Beauty and the Beast, and later the stage show and live-action film. It introduces our protagonist as well as the setting in the backwards town she lives in. It also tells us to expect to see a full-blown musical and not just a couple of songs cut in to the story - this piece is very theatrical.



Theater critic Frank Rich noted in 1991 that the best Broadway musical he saw that year was Disney's animated Beauty and the Beast. That was a mark of the skill that the writer - the late Howard Ashman - brought to the project. Howard came to fame by writing the script and lyrics for Little Shop of Horrors off-Broadway (which has it's own awesome opening number, "Skid Row"). For Disney he and Menken wrote The Little Mermaid, Beauty, and Aladdin. Unfortunately Ashman died of AIDS complications just before Beauty was completed, so he never saw the universal acclaim his animated musical earned - including a nomination that year for Best Picture.

Anatomy - Opening Numbers

Oh What a Beautiful Morning from Oklahoma

So, you've got a musical about cowboys in Oklahoma and there is a love story and some drama. What's your opening number?

You might think it could be nice to have some happy small town farmers and ranchers singing about how great it is to live in rural Oklahoma. (Good idea, but Rogers & Hammerstein decided to use that as the closing number.)

Hmm.. well most musicals at the time opened with a lot of pretty dancing girls doing a jazzy song. But it's hard to justify dancing girls and jazz in a story that starts out on a farm on the prairie.

Instead, Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein decided to open Oklahoma! exactly the same way that the play on which it is based, Green Grow the Lilacs opens: an old woman churning butter being surprised by our hero - the cowboy who's in love with her niece.


It worked. People immediately sat up and took notice. The creators sent the message that this wasn't going to be a conventional musical with singing villagers and dancing girls. There was a seriousness of purpose here. And this was no ordinary cowboy - he was something of a folk poet - kind of like Will Rogers.

Here we have another type of opening number. It still introduces the tone, style, time and place of the story. But primarily it introduces the main character and gives us a feel for what makes them tick. "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast has these elements as well. It also describes the famous opening of Rogers & Hammerstein's last musical - The Sound of Music.

Anatomy - Opening Numbers

Welcome to the Renaissance from Something Rotten!

Continuing the look at how opening numbers work in a musical - director Michael Blakemore once said "When the curtain goes up on a musical the audience is in trouble. They don't know where they are or what's going on. My job in the opening number is to get them out of trouble."

This is exactly what director-choreographer Casey Nicholaw does in the opening to the Shakespeare parody musical Something Rotten!. At first glance this seems utterly conventional - happy villagers singing and setting the background for the play. However more than telling us where and when we are, they are setting the tone for show - much like "Comedy Tonight" from Forum.


They show us that the evening is going to be a mash-up of old and new styles - from Elizabethan folk music to R&B to Broadway jazz. And they are doing this for a good story-telling reason - they are making the point that after hundreds of years of the same old same old, suddenly in Shakespeare's time there was a new mix of ideas about religion, politics, and art. There was new technology and a New World across the ocean. In short, the world felt as new and modern to them as ours does to us.

Casey Nicholaw also staged the brilliant "Hello!" to open Book of Mormon.

Special thanks for presenting these opening numbers from these great musicals, the theatrical equivalent of an hors d’oeuvre for any sumptuous banquet, a felicitous gesture to ease in the new year.

“The hors d’oeuvre is precisely as practical as fins on a sports car or pinstripes on a Yankee. You don’t need any to get the job done — eating or driving or playing ball. But you need them to get in a certain state of mind. An hors d’oeuvre calmly invites an eater to approach whatever follows not merely with physiological expectation but with gastronomic attentiveness. There should only be one.”

Anatomy - Opening Numbers

Thanks for the kind words. As long as I know people are enjoying the discussion, I will keep it going.

Of course, not all musicals have opening numbers. Some do very well without them. My Fair Lady opens on the Covent Garden scene with the rich opera goers mingling with the poor vendors - which is a pretty good metaphor for the class drama that will follow. Phantom of the Opera begins on the flashback auction scene with no real music until the chandelier ascends, the curtains rise (and rise and rise) and we go back in time. So it isn't a formula or hard and fast rule that you need an opening number to orient the audience. However, whatever happens I think Michael Blakemore's advice about getting the audience out of trouble still holds.

Sometimes the opening number just doesn't work. One example is "Merano" from Chess. In a way it is nothing more than your typical operetta opening with happy villagers singing about how excited they are to show off their town to the arriving visitors. (This is the only decent staged version I can find - but it's in Swedish. Here is the audio from the concept album.) The problem is, the musical isn't about Merano - the Italian town is just an arbitrary location for the chess tournament. We don't meet anyone important to the story until the next number. What's more the high choral style of the piece is nothing like the pop rock that we will be hearing for the rest of the evening. It kind of fails on all counts and leaves the audience perplexed.

The final opening number I'll put up here is pretty spectacular. The Bob Fosse and Kander & Ebb musical Chicago has a great tone and time specific number - "All That Jazz". (Here it is in the Broadway revival.) But film director Rob Marshall takes that as a starting point and not only introduces our two main characters, he takes us through their crimes and sets up the whole story to follow. All in a single song.


I can't think of any way that you could cover this much plot, character, and theme in just seven minutes. In addition it sets up the all-important storytelling conceit - that Roxie wants to be a musical star and all the songs (except this first one which happens in real time on stage) are happening in her imagination.

A good opening number orients the audience, introduces character, shows us how music will be used, and sets our expectations for the show we are about to see. At the end we should be interested and want to know more.