THE BROADWAY MUSICALS YEARBOOK 2018 (RADIO PROGRAM PROMO)

 

“The Broadway Musicals Yearbook” will be heard on Artsound FM 92.7 at 5pm on Sunday 29 August and repeated at 11pm on Monday 30 August.  The show is produced and narrated by Len Power, Canberra theatre critic, music critic and radio presenter.

This week – the musicals of 2018

Jukebox musicals were big on Broadway in 2018.  There was ‘Summer: The Donna Summer Musical’, ‘Escape to Margaritaville’ featured the music of Jimmy Buffett and ‘Head Over Heels’ had music by The Go-Gos.  2018 was also notable for musicals based on films, including’ Pretty Woman’, Frozen’ and ‘Mean Girls’.  The only original new musical was ‘The Prom’.

Songs in this program include ‘No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)’, ‘Heaven Is A Place On Earth’, ‘Margaritaville’, ‘Get Up And Go’ and ‘It’s Not About Me’.

 

Listen Now: https://artsound.fm/shows/the-broadway-musicals-yearbook/

 

 

GRAND HOTEL: THE MUSICAL (STREAMING STAGE PERFORMANCE REVIEW)

 

A welcome discovery on YouTube, American Musical Theatre of San Jose’s 1994 production of ‘Grand Hotel: The Musical’ is a musical version of Vicki Baum’s 1929 novel of the same name.  A 1932 MGM classic movie starred Greta Garbo.

Originally produced under the title ‘At the Grand’ in 1958, with a score by Robert Wright and George Forrest of Kismet fame, the production was revitalized in 1989 as ‘Grand Hotel’ by director-choreographer Tommy Tune, with additional music and lyrics by Maury Yeston, for a Tony Award-winning run on Broadway of over 1,000 performances.  Australia has not seen a professional production of this show.

The musical intertwines the lives of a cast of eccentric characters through a series of fateful encounters. Whirling through the doors of the opulent Grand Hotel are faded ballerina Elizaveta Grushinskaya, the impoverished romantic Baron Felix von Gaigern, fatally ill bookkeeper Otto Kringelein, and Flaemmchen, a young secretary who is all too eager to become an American film star.

Grand Hotel is unique in that most musicals have one or two main characters that propel the story but here we see and follow the lives of pretty much everyone staying or working at the Grand Hotel, Berlin in 1928.

The San Jose staging was directed by William Ryall who had been in the original Broadway production.  It appears to be a copy of that Broadway production which was celebrated at the time for its unique impressionistic staging.

At the start of the show, the lobby of the hotel is represented by a large number of chairs and a revolving door.  Those chairs are reconfigured into different patterns to as the show progresses to signify the various locations throughout the hotel.  As scenes progress, cast members weave in and out of the action in tightly choreographed moves, maintaining an impression of a constantly busy hotel.  It works superbly.

The large professional cast give excellent performances.  There are no credits shown on this video of the production but two of the cast look and sound like the actors who played the show on Broadway – Michael Jeter as Otto Kringelein, the dying bookkeeper, and Brent Barrett as the thieving Baron.  Their duet, ‘We’ll Take A Glass’ is a genuine showstopper.

The songs by Wright and Forrest and the additional songs by Maury Yeston are very appealing and are sung very well by this company.  The copy on YouTube is not high definition but it is definitely watchable.  The camerawork has clearly been done by someone who knew the show well and focussed on the right moments in every scene.

The American Musical Theatre Of San Jose was a highly respected professional company.  It was second only to the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.  After many successful years, they hit troubled times and went bankrupt in 2008.  As well as ‘Grand Hotel’, a large number of their video-taped performances of musicals can be found on YouTube.  It’s a great opportunity to catch up with musicals we haven’t seen in Australia.

You’ll find ‘Grand Hotel’ on YouTube by searching for ‘AMTSJ Grand Hotel’.  The running time is 2hours and 1 minute.  If you only have time for a quick look, check out ‘Michael Jeter and Brent Barrett in Grand Hotel’, a clip of their show-stopping number, ‘We’ll Take A Glass’, from the Tony Awards show of 1989.  It runs for 5 minutes 33.

 

Len Power’s reviews are also published on the Canberra Critics Circle blog and broadcast on the Artsound FM 92.7 ‘Arts Cafe’, ‘Arts Starter’ and ‘Arts About’ programs.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE FUNNY - EPISODE 11 (RADIO PROGRAM PROMO)

 

 The 20th Century produced many memorable songs.  There are legendary songs associated with a particular artist - the good songs.  Then there are songs so awful they make us cringe - the bad songs.  And there's a range of just plain funny songs. We know these songs but what are the stories behind them?

Join Len Power on Artsound FM every Friday at 4pm for his selection of ‘The Good, The Bad and the Funny’.

Listen now:

https://www.mixcloud.com/artsoundfm/the-good-the-bad-and-the-funny-episode-11/

 

THE BROADWAY MUSICALS YEARBOOK 1962 (RADIO PROGRAM PROMO)

 

“The Broadway Musicals Yearbook” will be heard on Artsound FM 92.7 at 5pm on Sunday 22 August and repeated at 11pm on Monday 23 August.  The show is produced and narrated by Len Power, Canberra theatre critic, music critic and radio presenter.

This week – the musicals of 1962

1962 saw the opening of Stephen Sondheim’s ‘A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum’ and Sid Caesar played multiple roles in ‘Little Me’, based on the hilarious novel by Patrick Dennis.  Anthony Newley brought his show ‘Stop the World I Want To Get Off’ from London’s West End and Richard Rodgers composed both music and lyrics for ‘No Strings’, a controversial musical for its time about an inter-racial romance.

Songs in this program include ‘Comedy Tonight’ (Zero Mostel), ‘What Kind Of Fool Am I’ (Anthony Newley), ‘I’ve Got Your Number’ (Swen Swenson) and ‘The Sweetest Sounds’ (Diahann Carroll and Richard Kiley).

 

Listen Now: https://artsound.fm/shows/the-broadway-musicals-yearbook/

 

 

FIDDLER: A MIRACLE OF MIRACLES (DOCUMENTARY MOVIE REVIEW)

 

Fiddler: A Miracle Of Miracles

Written by Max Lewkowicz, Valerie Thomas

Directed by Max Lewkowicz

Streaming on Amazon Prime

 

Reviewed by Len Power 19 August 2021

 

 ‘Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles’ is a 2019 documentary film about the creation and significance of the 1964 musical ‘Fiddler on the Roof’.  It features interviews with Fiddler creators such as Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, Joseph Stein, and Harold Prince, as well as scholars, actors, and other musical theatre figures like Stephen Sondheim and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Based on the Tevye stories by Sholom Aleichem, the musical was developed during the early 1960s.  With music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, the show is set in the impoverished village of Anatevka in Russia in 1905.  The story centres on Tevye, the father of five daughters, and his attempts to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences encroach upon the family's lives.  It opened on Broadway in 1964 and ran for 3,242 performances.  It was made into a successful film in 1971 and stage productions continue to be produced around the world.

The documentary presents a wealth of information about the musical and its literary source.  Interviews with prominent Jewish academics provide a deeper understanding of the cultural and political background to these stories.  The story of the development of the musical is no less fascinating with first hand details provided by the surviving creative team members and other luminaries.  The film is dedicated to the memory of the producer, Harold Prince, who died during production.

Photographs from rehearsals of the original production as well as video clips from more recent performances and from the 1971 movie have been well-chosen to illustrate the narrative.

Highlights include a montage of singers and groups from the 1960s performing ‘If I Were A Rich Man’, some of them fine but others are so awful they’re funny.  ‘Hamilton’ composer and star, Lin Manuel Miranda, demonstrates that he can still remember the choreography from a 6th grade school production.  Later, at his wedding, an amateur video records an impromptu performance of him singing ‘To Life’ with his father-in-law.

Best of all is Israeli actor, Topol, who played Tevye so memorably in the film version and on stage remembering his reaction to the filming of ‘Far From the Home I love’ in a desolate location.  That 50 year old memory still brings tears to his eyes.  It makes you want to watch the movie again.

This is an excellent documentary about one of the most loved musicals of all time.  You can stream it on Amazon Prime.

My reviews are also published on the Canberra Critics Circle blog and broadcast on the Artsound FM 92.7 ‘Arts Cafe’, ‘Arts Starter’ and ‘Arts About’ programs.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE FUNNY - EPISODE 10 (RADIO PROGRAM PROMO)

 

The 20th Century produced many memorable songs.  There are legendary songs associated with a particular artist - the good songs.  Then there are songs so awful they make us cringe - the bad songs.  And there's a range of just plain funny songs. We know these songs but what are the stories behind them?

Join Len Power on Artsound FM every Friday at 4pm for his selection of ‘The Good, The Bad and the Funny’.

Listen now: 

https://www.mixcloud.com/artsoundfm/the-good-the-bad-and-the-funny-episode-10/

 

THE BROADWAY MUSICALS YEARBOOK OF 1915 (RADIO PROGRAM PROMO)

 

“The Broadway Musicals Yearbook” will be heard on Artsound FM 92.7 at 5pm on Sunday 15 August and repeated at 11pm on Monday 16 August.  The show is produced and narrated by Len Power, Canberra theatre critic, music critic and radio presenter.

This week – the musicals of 1915

In 1915, European-style operettas were still very popular on Broadway.  Rudolf Friml’s ‘Katinka’, Sigmund Romberg’s ‘The Blue Paradise’ and Franz Lehar’s ‘Alone At Last’ all had long runs.  New shows with catchy modern music and sophisticated lyrics were also attracting audiences.  Amongst these, Irving Berlin’s ‘Stop! Look! Listen’ and Jerome Kern’s ‘Very Good Eddie’ were big hits.  Patriotic songs were featured in ‘The Ziegfeld Follies of 1915’ and other revues as the First World War raged on in Europe.

Songs in this program include ‘I Love A Piano’, ‘Rackety Coo’, ‘Neapolitan Love Song’, ‘Babes In The Wood’ and the prophetic ‘Some Little Bug Is Going To Find You’.

Listen Now: https://artsound.fm/shows/the-broadway-musicals-yearbook/

 

 

THE BOYS IN THE BAND (MOVIE REVIEW)

 

‘The Boys in the Band’, now streaming on Netflix, was originally a 1968 play by Mart Crowley.  While there had been plays in the past that referenced homosexual issues in a heterosexual world, such as Lillian Hellman’s ‘The Children’s Hour’ and Robert Anderson’s ‘Tea and Sympathy’, Mart Crowley’s play was one of the first works to present a story unflinchingly centred on homosexuals and their lifestyles of the time.

At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a group of seven friends, all of whom are homosexual, find themselves dealing with the party host’s straight friend from student days who has turned up unexpectedly.  The ensuing evening is fraught with desperate and ultimately vain attempts to hide the truth about themselves from the initially puzzled straight guy.  Concealed feelings amongst the friends bubble ferociously to the surface.

The play premiered Off-Broadway in 1968 and was instantly controversial.   The original Australian production of ‘The Boys In The Band’ in Melbourne back in 1969 saw three of the actors in that production being charged with the use of obscene language in a landmark legal case.  It was the first time the F-word had been used onstage in this country and it was both shocking - and, at the time, rather thrilling - to hear it.

The play was successfully revived on Broadway for its 50th anniversary in 2018.  This time the entire cast considered it a plus to be open about their own homosexuality, a declaration that would have been a career killer back in 1968 when homosexual acts were still illegal and frowned on by society in general.

The full roster of the cast of that 2018 stage production has repeated their performances in the new Netflix film with the same director, Joe Mantello.  It’s been given a fine production and the performances, polished by the Broadway run, shine with authenticity.

Jim Parsons as Michael, the party’s host and catalyst for most of the drama in the play and Zachary Quinto, who plays his nemesis, Harold, whose birthday is being celebrated, give the most outstanding performances.  Brian Hutchison, as Michael’s straight and married friend from student days gives a fine enigmatic performance in which his sexual preference is not clear.

The rest of the cast, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Charlie Carver, Robin de Jesus and Tuc Watkins all give impressive performances of great conviction.

The first half of the film is very funny with some classic one liners.  It’s only as the story progresses and skeletons come rattling out of the closets that the drama really kicks in strongly.  The film has no shock value at all now, of course, but it’s an important work that enables today’s audiences to understand what it was like for gay people to live and find happiness in such an oppressive era.

The film was dedicated to the memory of Mart Crowley who passed away in March 2020.

It’s currently available for streaming on Netflix.

 

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE FUNNY - EPISODE 9 (RADIO PROGRAM PROMO)

 

The 20th Century produced many memorable songs.  There are legendary songs associated with a particular artist - the good songs.  Then there are songs so awful they make us cringe - the bad songs.  And there's a range of just plain funny songs. We know these songs but what are the stories behind them?

Join Len Power on Artsound FM every Friday at 4pm for his selection of ‘The Good, The Bad and the Funny’.

Listen now: 

https://www.mixcloud.com/artsoundfm/the-good-the-bad-and-the-funny-episode-9/

 

 

THE BROADWAY MUSICALS YEARBOOK 1982 (RADIO PROGRAM PROMO)

 

“The Broadway Musicals Yearbook” will be heard on Artsound FM 92.7 at 5pm on Sunday 8 August and repeated at 11pm on Monday 9 August.  The show is produced and narrated by Len Power, Canberra theatre critic, music critic and radio presenter.

 This week – the musicals of 1982

1982 saw the opening of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Cats’ on Broadway.  There was also Maury Yeston’s ‘Nine’, which was based on Fellini’s movie, ‘8½’.  ‘Pump Boys and Dinettes’ brought the country sound to Broadway and a second show by Andrew Lloyd Webber, ‘Joseph And His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’, also opened that year.

 Songs in this program include ‘Any Dream Will Do’ (Jason Donovan), ‘The Bells of St. Sebastian’ (Raul Julia), ‘The Night Dolly Parton Nearly Was Mine’ (Mark Hardwick) and ‘Memory’ (Elaine Paige).

 

Listen Now: https://artsound.fm/shows/the-broadway-musicals-yearbook/

 

 

'CREAM OF THE ALLEY' - GEORGE BASSMAN'S MUSIC BY GERSHWIN - PART 2 (RADIO PROGRAM PROMO)

 

‘Cream of the Alley’ was a 1970s American radio program.  An episode focussing on the music of George Gershwin was produced by George Bassman, an American composer and arranger.

 He was eminently qualified to produce a radio program about the music of George Gershwin.  In 1960, he produced a box set of three LP records entitled ‘The Gershwin Years’ with full orchestra, chorus and soloists all under his direction.  Many tracks from that recording are utilized in the radio program.

 Introduced by Len Power, the final of a two part presentation of George Bassman’s radio program on George Gershwin’s music, ‘Cream of The Alley’, can be heard this Saturday 7^th August at 4pm on Artsound FM.

 

BEST WORST THING THAT EVER COULD HAVE HAPPENED (NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY REVIEW)

Currently available on Netflix, the documentary ‘Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened’ takes its title from the lyric of a song in Stephen Sondheim’s musical, ‘Merrily We Roll Along’.  This unusual and compelling documentary details the journey of a much anticipated musical from auditions to opening and beyond.

After Sondheim’s Broadway smash hit of 1979, ‘Sweeney Todd’, his next show was to be a 1981 musical version of the 1934 play ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.

Such was the anticipation for this show that CBS Television started filming auditions and early rehearsals for a planned documentary.  However, when the show was a surprising flop and closed after only 16 performances, the project was shelved.

Many years later, the filmed footage was re-discovered and given to original cast member, Lonnie Price, who was now a highly respected director and writer.  He created this documentary called ‘Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened’ from the footage.  It charts the hopes and dreams of the group of young actors excited by their good fortune to be cast in the latest Sondheim musical.  Years later, cast members reminisce about the experience of being part of the show and the shock of its early closure.  Some recovered and moved on to have successful careers in showbiz but many of them were deeply scarred by the experience.

Watching the discussions and decisions being made by the creators are fascinating.  Knowing that the show was ultimately a flop makes it especially poignant as we see the enthusiasm and joy of the very young cast when told they have been cast in the show.

Original leading man, James Weissenbach, who had been replaced prior to opening night by Jim Walton, talks about the crushing blow he experienced personally.  He seems remarkably philosophical about it now.  Jim Walton, who replaced him, is also on hand to talk about being a cast member suddenly promoted to leading man.

Director of the documentary, Lonnie Price, is seen watching footage of himself during rehearsals.  It clearly has an immense impact on him.  He tells us that he has directed every Sondheim musical for the theatre over the years since but has never directed a production of ‘Merrily We Roll Along’.

It’s an electrifying, bitter-sweet documentary and anyone who’s ever been actively involved in a theatre production will find this a particularly moving experience.

‘Merrily We Roll Along’ may have been a flop on Broadway at the time but has continued to have a life ever since.

Currently part of the Hayes Theatre Company season in Sydney, ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ has been temporarily closed but the season has been optimistically extended to the 11^th of September.  If it’s possible to travel to Sydney again in time, this is a musical you should not miss.  In the meantime, watch this documentary on Netflix.

 

Len Power’s reviews are also published on the Canberra Critics Circle blog and broadcast on the Artsound FM 92.7 ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs.

 

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE FUNNY - EPISODE 8 (RADIO PROGRAM PROMO)

 

The 20th Century produced many memorable songs.  There are legendary songs associated with a particular artist - the good songs.  Then there are songs so awful they make us cringe - the bad songs.  And there's a range of just plain funny songs. We know these songs but what are the stories behind them?

Join Len Power on Artsound FM every Friday at 4pm for his selection of ‘The Good, The Bad and the Funny’.

Listen now: 

https://www.mixcloud.com/artsoundfm/the-good-the-bad-and-the-funny-episode-8/