Catching Up

There are many reasons I've been lax here. First, I'm pretty sure no one's reading. Also, I have a short attention span.

Does two count as many? Whatever.

Some recent show tunes include:

Show Girl: 1961 Original Broadway cast (Gaynor) The one and only Carol Channing.

Say, Darling: 1958 Original Broadway cast (Styne/Comden & Green)

Song of Norway: 1944 Original Broadway cast member (Grieg/Wright & Forrest) Original star Irra Petina's role was taken by Kitty Carlisle on the Decca original cast album (I thinl it had something to do with contract exclusivity). So, she recorded six songs from the show, released on three 78s, which I found for $3.

LoveMusik: 2007 Original Broadway cast, live (Weill/various) Not that I own any bootlegs.

Spring Awakening: 2006 Original Broadway cast (Shiek/Sater) I like it more every time I hear it, though it is somewhat reviled by many show queens.

Judy Garland: The Complete Decca Masters (various) All four discs. In one day.

Misery: 2000 Demo recording (De Young) Based on the novel by Stephen King. It's no Carrie. But then, nothing is. (Love that artwork, though.)

I know that there have been others - I do listen to showtunes constantly. I just don't remember what any of them are.

In other news, I slipped on the el platform yesterday and gave myself a concussion.

Showtunes of the Day

It's now Showtunes of the Day. Musicals of the Day carried the implication that I would only be listening to show albums, which would negate...

Phyllis Diller: Born to Sing (1970, various). Mercifully, it's not a straight-up album of standards. She quips during the songs. Which is to say that she kills during the songs. "If I bought a hat, they'd cancel Easter."

Sugar Babies: 1979 Original Broadway cast recording (McHugh/Fields, Dubin) (mostly). Ann Miller and Mickey Rooney in a vaudeville revue. I have one of those candles in a tall jar, y'know what I mean?, that has a picture of Ann Miller pasted to it. It's AWESOME! The national tour starred Carol Channing and Robert Morse. Somewhere, there's gotta be one of those non-existant bootleg recordings of that tour. And find it, I will. Or won't, rather, because it doesn't exist.

Into the Woods: 1991 Original London cast recording (Sondheim). I discovered Into the Woods in 1993 and yet I've never heard this album. All because someone whose taste in shows I did not share and whom I haven't seen in years told me she didn't like it.

Prettybelle: 1982 cast album with most of the 1971 cast (Styne/Merrill) If you'd heard it, you wouldn't be able to stop listening to it either. Just to believe it.

Musicals of the Day: Jule Styne edition

Felt like revisiting some lesser known Styne today.

Fade Out - Fade In: 1964 Original Broadway cast recording (Styne/Comden & Green), Carol Burnett was not happy with this show

Hazel Flagg: 1953 Original Broadway cast recording (Styne/Hilliard), featuring Helen Gallagher as Carole Lombard

Prettybelle: 1982 cast album with most of the 1971 cast (Styne/Merrill) "A musical comedy tale of rape and resurrection starring Angela Lansbury as an alcoholic schizophrenic in a sanitarium? We'd be stupid not to do this!" For what it's worth, manic-depressives do do rewrites. We just get grumpy when forced to admit it wasn't right the first time.

Subways Are for Sleeping: 1961 Original Broadway cast album (Styne/Comden & Green), I've been in a Phyllis Newman kind of mood lately. Apparently.