Has Glee covered Sex Ed?

In addition to Tab Hunter, Lorna Luft, Maxwell Caulfield, Michelle Pfeiffer, the Double Trouble twins, Connie Francis, Adrian Zmed, Eve Arden and The Great Christopher MacDonald, this number also features Andy Tennant (the guy in the blue sweater that leans on Maxwell Caulfield at 0:23 and later make that terrible pistil/pistol pun). He danced in Grease, was a member of the Blue Team in Midnight Madness, and went on to direct Drew Barrymore in Ever After and The Amy Fisher Story.



The Movie: Grease 2
The Song: Reproduction
Music and Lyris: Dennis Linde

This has been your daily showtune.

When do you know you're a show queen?

When you realize the music stuck in your head is underscoring for the transtion between "The Destruction" and the final reprise of the title song from Carrie.

(photo lifted from Carrie... A Fan's Site)

God bless Ann Miller: The week in revue

I guess I have a lot to catch up on. Last week was pretty rough. I had taken the muscle relaxers my doc prescribed for my headaches last Sunday and I was stoned off my ass on Monday. Could barely get any work done. So I stopped taking them.

Wednesday I was meeting with my boss and could barely concentrate. I was trying to fake it but eventually fessed up to the fact that I was having major difficulties processing any of the materials we were going over. He's an MD so we talked about probable causes. I tried to blame the muscle relaxers, but as soon as I heard myself say that the side effect was lasting three days after I took the last dose, I knew that it wasn't true. (Not that that can't happen, it just wasn't the case this time.) I ended up telling him about the other meds I'm on, something I try to avoid doing ever, but like I said, he's an MD, so I figured he'd at least approach the situation clinically, which I guess he did. He asked if I needed any time off, but that seemed silly to me at the time. The conversation then turned to whether my psychological irregularities were going to affect my performance here - he threw in some jazz about the most important thing being my my well-being but, while I'm sure he (thinks he) meant it, came across as lip service. He's very matter-of-fact. It's on the the things I like about him. There are a lot of things I like about him, which is its own sort of problem but I'll get ot that some other time. Maybe. He needed to hear that I was taking some kind of action to address the situation (not crazy about that phrasing, but I was desperate to avoid the word "issues") so I figured I'd better tell him about the other meds.

Okay so that was Wednesday. Thursday I made it downtown and felt awful as soon as I stepped off the train. But I figured , What the hell, I'm already here, so I went in to work. I surveyed my desk, contemplated all the work i had to get done and went home an hour after I arrived Slept until noon. I can't really explain what was wrong, I just felt crappy. The thing that bothers me the most is that Shelby was on vacation last week, so I didn't get to see him on Thursday and maybe the whole thing was psychosomatic. Later in the day I was in the mood for some gritty crime drama and got ready to watch Hardcore, which had just arrived via Netflix, but decided to call Annika first. We ended up giggling a lot, which left me in a better mood, so I watched On the Town instead.

Friday I went to work and the headache was back. But I was lucid again, so I stayed at work. I think I took some Vicodin, but can't remember for sure. Friday night was a movie night at Paul's. Lotsa fun but very few people showed up, despite the number of positive responses on the evite. It seriously pissed me off. He puts a lot of work into these nights and people just seemed to disregard it. Anyway, it was Cult Movies 101. Started with Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, which was pretty fucking awesome. Then a surprisingly good print of Todd Haynes's Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, which was also pretty fucking awesome. I had to bolt before Pink Flamingos. Just too damn tired.

That brings me up through Friday.

My Weekend

Friday night I watched the first act of the 1983 Broadway revival of Mame, with Angela Lansbury. very good video for its age. A really splendid production that only lasted for a month and sent Lansbury off to Cabot Cove. I also spent a lot of that evening chatting. I'm trying to not write about my adventures in that chat room for a few reasons: my handle there links directly to this blog and I keep forgetting to change that; it just doesn't seem right to reveal the activities of an invite-only chat room; and, most important, the more I write about it, the more seriously I take it and the more seriously I take it, the more embedded I become in that particular microcosm. And I fucking hate microcosms.

Anyway, my whole point for bringing the chatting up is that I'm having difficulty with other gay men who seem to be much better at adulthood than I am. It brings out my insecurities - not hard to do, granted - which have been really hitting me hard this week. And they flared up again on Friday night over some nonsense that I can't even remember today. I needed a friend and luckily Annika was home. We ended up giggling a lot. We do that sometimes.

Oh, I also referred to the fact that I watch Family Guy. A chatter made a snide comment about the fact that I watch television and I told him to bite my shiny metal ass. Later it occurred to me that people who don't watch TV are probably not going to understand Futurama references, but that's his problem.

Just sort of hung out on Saturday. Spent a lot of time cataloguing cast recordings. Finished watching Mame and realized that the second act really devolves into drag queen camp but is still enormously enjoyable. Had dinner with Josh, who is moving to Vega$. Got home and watched Chicago.

Somehow Chicago has acquired the reputation as one of the less-worthy Oscar winners. Bollocks to that. It was a brilliant fucking musical then and it remains so. It actually looks better in retrospect, considering the stage musical adaptations that have come since: Rent's problems began with most of its cast being way too fucking old, but certainly don't end there. Dreamgirls's book scenes were woefully lacking the energy present in the musical numbers. Sweeney Todd had Helena Bonham Carter acting brilliantly but singing in head voice. I was disappointed in Hairspray, which was a great deal of fun, watered down the racial context of the stage musical, which really watered it down from John Waters's original film. I think of all of those films as missed opportunities, which makes Chicago all the more remarkable, even with its occasional overzealous editing.

Yesterday was just lovely. My friend John split up with his partner earlier this year and they had season tickets to everything. So he took me to see Ain't Misbehavin' at the Goodman and it was outstanding. The original cast album of the show is easily the most played album in my entire collection, and that's saying something. I've listened to it hundreds of times and have never gotten sick of it. I brought it with me to work at the Alley and even they loved it.

John is the biggest stud I've ever met. I don't know anyone who gets laid as often as he does. It's mind-boggling. We couldn't do anything after the show because he had to go meet up with someone else. He's hooking up with two guys from Cypress tonight that he spent part of the weekend with. Crazy.

(And yes. We do.)

Will they all be showtunes?

Pick an Album for Every year You've Been Alive (or, This Oughta Kill Some Time)

A new meme from The AV Club:

You're supposed to pick a favorite album for each year you've been alive. You can pick a record based on what you like now, or what you would havem picked that year assuming you were old enough to care.

Your undoubtedly incomplete reference guide: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_years_in_music

You can also go to castalbum.org (http://www.castalbums.org/recordings/?date=1976&page=1) and just change the year as needed.

I was gonna keep this private until I finished, but I may save it publicly for the hell of it.

1976: Pacific Overtures (Original Broadway cast recording)

1977: Annie (Original Broadway cast recording)

1978: Ain't Misbehavin' (Original Broadway cast recording)

1979 (tie): Evita (Premiere American recording)
1979 (tie): Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Original Broadway cast recording).

1980: 42nd Street (Original Broadway cast recording)

1981: Merrily We Roll Along (Original Broadway cast recording)

1982: Pac-Man Fever (Buckner & Garcia)

1983: My One and Only (Original Broadway cast recording)

1984: Sunday in the Park with George (Original Broadway cast recording)

1985: Theatre of Pain (Mötley Crüe)

1986 (at the time): The Phantom of the Opera (Original London cast recording)
1986 (in retrospect): True Blue (Madonna)

1987: Into the Woods (Original Broadway cast recording)

1988: The Premiere Collection: The Best of Andrew Lloyd Webber (Compilation)

1989: Batman (Prince)

1990: I'm Breathess (Madonna)

1991: Beauty and the Beast (Soundtrack)

1992: Erotica (Madonna)

1993: Patti LuPone Live! (highlights)

1994: The Threepenny Opera (London Donmar Warehouse cast recording)

1995: Jagged Little Pill (Alanis Morissette)

1996: Rent (Original Broadway cast recording)

1997: Much More (Betty Buckley)

1998: Ray of Light (Madonna)

1999: magnolia.: Music from the Motion Picture (Aimee Mann et al.)

2000: American III: Solitary Man (Johnny Cash)

2001: 42nd Street (Broadway revival cast)

2002: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More With Feeling (Television soundtrack)

2003: Blackout (Dropkick Murphys)

2004: Fine and Dandy (Studio cast recording)

2005: The 25th Annual Putnam County Speling Bee (Original cast recording)

2006: See What I Wanna See (Original Off-Broadway cast recording)

2007: Legally Blonde (Original Broadway cast recording)

2008: South Pacific (Broadway revival cast recording)*
*This is the only 2008 album I've purchased this year and have actually listened to. I've heard a live boot of Adding Machine and suspect that I will love the album, but since I haven't actually heard the album, it seems unfair to add it to this list.

I was going to add some notes throughout, but decided to let the list stand on its own, with the exception of 2008. The difficult thing with the past few years is that most of the albums I buy have been around for a while. So far, my favorite acquisitions of 2008 is Diahann Carroll Sings Harold Arlen Songs (1957) and Alan Jay Lerner Revisited (1969). Also, much of what I listen to has not been commercially released, including one track of 2008's South Pacific.

(Non-sexual) Things That Keep Me Awake at Night

The term, "the full monty" entered the American vernacular with the release of the film, The Full Monty.

In the world of the musical The Full Monty, that film does not exist. And yet, they use the term.

I like it when my paradoxes involve strippers.

OK! at 65

Sixty-five years ago tonight, Oklahoma! opened at the St. James on Broadway and musical theatre was never the same again. Eveyone who has ever been connected with theatre in one way or another probably has an Oklahoma! story. Our high school did the show when I was eleven, and I vividly remember watching the cast perform a sneak preview of "The Farmer and the Cowman" and "All 'Er Nuthin'" at a choral concert in a gymnasium. I saw the complete show when it actually went up and can still close my eyes and see the staging of "Kansas City," the dream ballet at the end of the first act," and "It's a Scandal! It's an Outrage!" I remember being disappointed when I saw the movie and the latter wasn't in it.

In 1993, to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary, Agnes de Mille (who died later that year) appeared on the Tony Awards. Gregory Hines - who has also left us - brought her on stage in her wheelchair. She got a standing ovation and then read a speech about the show that has stayed with me ever since. Last year, I got out my tape of the '93 Tonys (which has sadly not weathered the test of time very well) so I could hear that lovely speech again, which I have transcribed below. Enjoy.

Rodgers and Hammerstein gave us their tale of a light and brilliant calibre that has not been surpassed. And yet, Oklahoma!! was not a hit opening night. I was there. I've been present at hits, and this wasn't one. The audience was the regular Theatre Guild opening night: Spotty. Dull. Jaded. [this got an enormous laugh] I had eight front row balcony seats and I couldn't fill them. And the [advance] press wasn't that good, it was - mixed.

Four days later, I found myself in the middle of a volcano. 'What happened?' A New York reporter told me, 'The biggest hit of the twentieth century!' And I believe, taking into consideration all its translations and international companies and recordings, it still is.

But what's its appeal? First, of course, its extraordinary score. But then the subject, which is the love of our native land. Home. Roots. During the war, I remember the triple row of enlisted men standing every night at the back of the theater, pitched and laughing at this pleasant comedy. Standing and watching with their tears streaming down their cheeks. They were going out to die. And this play meant what they were dying for. This was home.

Oklahoma.

New York, Oregon, Utah, Texas, Georgia, Vermont, Oklahoma. Home.

Home. O.K.

Hundreds of Broadway musicals have come and gone in the past 65 years. Some have had an extraordinary impact on the form, but there has never been another Oklahoma!

Yeeow!

Brisk, lively, merry and bright

We spin and we spin and we spin and we spin,
Playing a game no one can win.

I've had a lot on my mind lately. A couple of things in my life may be in for some major changes, and I think that this sense of suspended animation is having a domino effect on my unconscious, stirring up a lot of other neuroses in turn.

I'd like to go into everything that's bothering me. I'd fucking love to go into everything that's bothering me, but part of the problem is that, despite the insomnia, I don't have enough time to do anything. So you're going to have to settle for this incredibly - and increasingly - vague post. In a week, I'll probably re-read it and not know what the hell it is I meant. Or at least I would if I ever re-read any journal entry in any of the various diaries I've kept in my life. But I don't.

Last night, while trying to fall asleep, I found myself rationalizing my love of musical theatre. Or maybe it was this morning on the train. I have no idea. One of the conclusions I came to was the abundance of truths to be found in great lyric-writing. The above is a perfect example of how I've been feeling lately. It's from the title song of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Allegro (1947) (the title of this post comes from same.) The spinning isn't just the chaos of living, but the cycle of life, the spinning of the globe on its axis and around the sun. Calling life "a game no one can win" reveals a cynicism not usually found in the work of Hammerstein.

He revisited this same idea in The Sound of Music (1959). In the show, Max and Baroness Schrader have two songs that were both cut from the film. In "No Way to Stop It," Elsa and Max explain to Georg their laissez-faire philosophy towards life, politics and, um, the Nazis:*

MAX
While somersaulting at a cock-eyed angle,
We make a cock-eyed circle 'round the sun.
And when we circle back to where we've started from,
Another year has done.

And there's no way to stop it.
No, there's no way to stop it,
If the earth wants to roll around the sun.
You're a fool if you worry.
You're a fool if you worry
Over anything but little number one.*

The same world, still spinning, and there's not a damn thing we can do about it. It's the polar opposite of the cock-eyed Nellie Forbush's sang about in South Pacific. Both can exist and should, in the same world and in the same person.

Of course, theory and practice are nodding acquaintances at best.



*The other song, "How Can Love Survive," is a droll number about Georg and Elsa's relationship being doomed from the start because they're both rich and therefore have nothing to overcome. (Elsa: "You're fond of bonds and you own a lot. / I have a plain and a diesel yacht. / Max: Plenty of nothing you haven't got. / Both: How can love survive?) Buy the cast recording.

Who are you? What have you sacrificed?

Rocking out to the 1996 BBC broadcast of Jesus Christ Superstar at work. Tony Hadley as Jesus. Roger Daltrey as Judas. Frances Ruffelle (Miss Eponine herself) as Mary. I have never been in greater danger of singing at full voice here.

Showtunes of the Day: February 18, 2008

The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart: 1967. Haley, these Chocodiles, Oh my God. These Chocodiles, Oh my God. Oh my God, Haley, these Chocodiles.

George M!: 1968 original Broadway cast (Cohan): It goes well with Don't Know Much About History, the book I'm reading. It's no secret that we did horrible things to the Native Americans when we got here, but what everyone conveniently forgets is that they were totally stealing cable. Also, it has Bernadette Peters.

Company: 2001 Brazilian cast. (Sondheim) I don't speak a word of Portugeuse. And yet, I know that the actress playing Amy overplayed the "suicide note" line in "Getting Married Today." Yes, dear, your chatacter is neurotic. We get it.

Now if only I could get my hands on Diana Ross and The Supremes Sing and Perform Funny Girl...

Showtunes of the Weekend: Tim Rice/Murray Head/Concept Album Version

I spent the weekend at my parents' house and loaded up the iPod for the train ride back and forth.

Here to there: Jesus Christ Superstar: 1970 concept album. It is Lent, after all.

There to here: Chess: 1984 concept album.

It wasn't until I got on the train that I realize that both shows had lyrics by Tim Rice and featured singer Murray Head.

Yeah, I didn't really find that interesting, either. But I felt like blogging

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

The Mystery of Edwin Drood: 1985 Original Broadway cast recording (Holmes) The first release of the cast album - which has since gone out of print - had all of the murderers' "Out on a Limerick" and "Confession" tracks. The second release contained only one "Out on a Limerick" and two "Confession"s, but added the previously unavailable "Moonfall Quartet" and "Ceylon." I own the second release and thanks to some online friends (hi Irwin!) was able to obtain the missing tracks from the first release, which also included George Rose's spoken, "A Message from Your Chairman" and combine them with all of the tracks from the second release to one master album that mercifully fits on one disc.

Jimmy: 1969 Original Broadway cast recording (Jacob & Jacob). Frank Gorshin follows in the footsteps of Tom Bosley as the Mayor of New York City. Sort of. I didn't finish it. I turned off my iPod when I heard that Heath Ledger had died.

Showtunes of the Day

Girl Crazy: 1943 Film soundtrack. (G. Gershwin/I. Gershwin) Judy Garland: Making Mickey Rooney tolerable since Love Finds Andy Hardy.

Preppies: 1983 Original Off-Broadway Cast(e) recording (Angelo, Portnoy). A friend recommended this as a guilty pleasure. Sample dialogue:

TEACHER: Math: If you bought a thousand shares of Standard Oil in 1920, and it's value increased at a compounded rate of 10% a year, what would you have now?

STUDENT: Old money.

High quality stuff.

Legally Blonde: 2007 Original Broadway cast recording (O'Keefe & Benjamin). Didn't get to the whole thing yesterday. Lotsa fun, but doesn't really stand up to scrutinization. Just like the movie.

Haiku Appreciation Is a Lost Art

Lately I've been obsessing over Pacific Overtures. I've the three studio-produced cast albums. I've got both published versions of the script. What I don't got is the video of the original Broadway production that was made for Japanese television, but never shown in the US. Now, I know a lot of collectors and I figure one of them has to have it and may be willing to make a copy for me. Here's how I posted my request:

The show-loving man
Having no film of his own
Asks the internet

When was the last time you saw someone post a request online for anything as a haiku?

See, Pacific Overtures is about Japan and the song "Welcome to Kanagawa" contains the following:

The nest-building bird

Seeing the tree without twigs,

Looks for new forests.

Several people responded to my post with suggestions, etc. as to how I can obtain this video. But not one single person commented on my haiku!

What the hell?

Showtunes of the Day

Kiss Me, Kate: 1987 Royal Shakespeare Theatre cast (Porter) Back to studio-produced cast albums of shows I know well-enough that I can actually pay attention to my job, while still absorbing the full effect of the recording. And since they just ended "Anopther Op'nin' of Another Show" with a "Yay!" I already know not to expect much from this one.

Mr. President: Original 1962 Broadway cast (Berlin) Robert Ryan. In a Broadway musical. Opposite Nanette Fabray.

Legally Blonde: Original 2007 Broadway cast. (O'Keefe & Benjamin) The opening number is called "Ohmigod, You Guys." It's delicious.

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.

Musicals of the Day

I can listen to my ipod at work, which is pretty danged awesome. With the trading and downloading of OOP cast albums that I don't do because that would be wrong, I've gotten really behind in my show tunes. So, while I theoretically could listen to non-theatre music, I probably won't. Hence, "Musicals of the Day," instead of "On the iPod Today" or "Arts & Crafts with Linnea Quigley."

Pacific Overtures: Original Broadway cast recording (1976, Sondheim) This isn't a new one, I just needed something to wash the taste of the 1987 ENO recording out of my mouth.

The Madwoman of Central Park West: Original Broadway cast (1979, various) The OBC was composed entirely of Phyllis Newman. I've been looking for this one for a long time, so me happy.

State Fair: 1962 Film soundtrack (Rodgers/Hammerstein) Ann-Margret.

Scrooge: Film soundtrack (1970, Bricusse) I listened to this last week, but can't remember a single song, which either means it was really boring, I was actually paying attention to my work, or both. Figured I should give it another whirl before burning and shelving. (update: boring)

Michael Kidd 1915-2007

Here's what you need to know about Michael Kidd:

The 1953 Broadway musical Can-Can (1953) featured Gwen Verdon, who stopped the show cold with Kidd's "The Garden of Eden Ballet" on opening night and promptly went back to her dressing room to change costumes. So great was the audience's ovation that she was rushed back onstage to take another bow - clutching her costume in front of her, as she had not quite finished changing. Verdon won the Tony that year - her first of four - and became a star overnight Credit the dancer for the performance. Credit the choreographer for the dance.

Kidd also won a Tony Award for Can-Can - his third of five. The others were Finian's Rainbow (1947), Guys and Dolls (1950), Li'l Abner (1957) and Destry Rides Again (1959).

(Complete Broadway credits here.)

Kidd was one of the few choreographers (Fosse was the only other, really) to work successfully both on Broadway and Hollywood. His Guys and Dolls dances were re-created for the 1955 film. Other films include The Band Wagon, Star!, Hello, Dolly! and something about a bunch of horny backwoodsmen...




And on top of everything else, he was in Smile.

New York Times obit.