Ex-actor Rick McKay took six years to film his oral history of the personalities who witnessed Broadway's golden age - roughly 1945 to 1967 - but his tenacity paid off as his illustrious cast look back at the creative period they all lived through.
His documentary is funny, tender, and tinged with a wistful sadness on the ghosts who haunt his cast's memories. As there are now 25 of the 87 interviewed still living, this increases the poignancy.
The cast reminisce on their first experience of New York, how they lived and auditioned while waiting for the big break, where they hung out and how New York and the theatre world changed around them.
In particular, his stars remember three actors whose performances still burn bright: Marlon Brando, Kim Stanley and Laurette Taylor as Amanda Wingfied in THE GLASS MENAGERIE.
Sadly, McKay didn't live to see his film sequel fully completed.
Shelf or charity shop? One for the shelf because, as well as his wonderful cast, McKay also has a dazzling treasure trove of archive material including an astonishing 1938 screen test that Laurette Taylor did for David Selznick; her natural line-readings would put Streep to shame but she wasn't employed as they felt she wasn't 'acting' as they thought it was. Standouts include Sondheim, Chita Rivera and Carol Lawrence on WEST SIDE STORY, Shirley Maclaine and Hal Prince on how she lived the cliché "understudy becoming a star" in THE PYJAMA GAME and memorable memories from Beatrice Arthur, Angela Lansbury, Ben Gazzara, Gena Rowlands, Maureen Stapleton, Uta Hagen, Frank Langella, Elaine Stritch, Kim Hunter, Julie Harris, Eva Marie Saint, Tommy Tune, Gwen Verdon, Carol Burnett, Carol Channing, and Barbara Cook among many others.
The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and,
as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast
recording of my life. So here we are... a year and 10 months in the making and we have reached the stage musical that is my favourite ever - and I cannot name one out of the four shows that I have left to consider.
I have tried every criteria, every angle and there is simply no way I can say that one of the four is better than the other. One nearly lost the shared top place when I considered productions of it that I felt had not done it justice but, with that particular show, I simply had to overlook that, bearing in mind the first I saw was definitive. So let's go... my Top Four Number One's (in alphabetical order)
First performed: 1971, Winter Garden Theatre, NY
First seen by me: 1985, Forum Theatre, Wythenshawe
Productions seen: four
Score: Stephen Sondheim
Book: James Goldman
Plot: In 1971, onstage at the derelict Weismann Theatre on the eve of it's demolition, producer Dimitri Weismann holds a reunion of the stars and chorus girls of his "Follies" which ran between the World Wars. Old songs and routines are remembered, stirring up the ghosts of their younger selves. But for former best friends and chorus girls, Sally and Phyllis and their husbands, salesman Buddy and diplomat Ben, it becomes a night of bitter recriminations and the chance for lost love to be found again... what will the cruel light of day reveal?
Five memorable numbers: LOSING MY MIND, IN BUDDY'S EYES, WHO'S THAT WOMAN, I'M STILL HERE, ONE MORE KISS
In 1965, Sondheim and writer James Goldman wanted to collaborate on a project together and agreed on Goldman's idea of a murder mystery set at a
showgirls reunion. The murder plot stalled but
the showgirls reunion intrigued them especially how regrets for what
one did and more importantly didn't do, can haunt your life. Five years later, Sondheim was keen to follow up the success of his groundbreaking COMPANY with the show's producer/director Hal Prince and choreographer Michael Bennett and, when Prince heard of the reunion idea, he had an immediate visual reference: a 1960 Life magazine
photograph of a glamorous but fragile 61 year-old Gloria Swanson, standing in the
rubble of the Roxy Cinema in New York which had opened in 1927 with her film
THE LOVES OF SUNYA. Prince felt this captured the essence of the project
- the survivor, the glamour and the ruin.
Goldman and Sondheim brought in the bittersweet marital discord found in COMPANY and FOLLIES was born. Prince's 1971 production ran for 522 performances but lost over $720,000, due of huge production costs and audience
ambivalence - despite 'names' like film stars Alexis Smith and Yvonne de
Carlo, 1950s singer Dorothy Collins, Broadway star John McMartin and veteran performers Ethel Shutta and
Fifi D'Orsay, audiences found Goldman's book too downbeat. It won seven
of the ten Tony Awards it was nominated for but failed to win Best
Musical. Cult status grew through the original cast album but sadly
Capitol Records only released it on a single album meaning a lot of the score was abridged or not recorded. The show has had two further Broadway revivals in 2001 and
2011, but lost out winning the Best Musical Revival Tony Award both
times.
1985 was my FOLLIES year! To rectify the abridged 1971 recording decision, Herbert Ross staged two concert versions at Lincoln Center to be recorded
over both nights by Thomas Z Shepherd for RCA featuring the full score with a jaw-dropping cast of Barbara
Cook, Lee Remick, George Hearn, Mandy Patinkin, Elaine Stritch, Carol
Burnett, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, etc. which is the nigh-on definitive recording. But
before this, I had seen my first FOLLIES production in
Wythenshawe, Manchester, directed and choreographed by the under-valued Paul Kerryson and starring the wonderful Josephine Blake, The production swept me away, making me yearn for a London transfer.
However, when FOLLIES finally opened in London in 1987, it was with several new songs and a more upbeat ending; producer Cameron Mackintosh had asked the creators to 'revisit' the material to make it more optimistic - Goldman was happy
to, Sondheim less so. After seeing a preview, I was outside the Shaftesbury Theatre stage door
and Sondheim came out on his own. While he signed my programme, I told him I had seen the Manchester production; he
shot me a look and asked which I preferred. Cautiously I said that,
while loving Julia McKenzie, David Healy, Dolores Gray and Lynda
Baron in the new version, I felt that Manchester had the edge for being more true to the material. He replied that while shows
can always stand a revision, it was always possible to return to the
original. Point taken Steve...
In 2006, FOLLIES reappeared in the unlikely location of the Landor Theatre in Clapham which
seated a mere 48 people above a pub! But any lack of grandeur
was compensated with a cast guaranteed to make any 1980s musicals fan giddy: Sarah Payne, Claire Moore, Adele Anderson,
Rachel Izen, Carol Ball and Roni Page among others. This small production scored over the National Theatre's opulent 2017 version in one key element which was also there in 1971: then as at the Landor, the cast were chosen not only for their talents but also because to most of the audience, they would conjure up memories of seeing them in earlier shows back in the day. For FOLLIES to truly work I believe that an audience must have that nostalgic connection to the actors onstage - particularly for those who appear in the smaller but pivotal roles of the former Follies performers, then the audience can supply their own 'ghosts' for the performers; dimly remembered memories of them in previous shows.
It was with trepidation that I watched the National's FOLLIES for the first time in 2017 - I had longed for a production to be done on that stage for so many years, could it measure up? Yes it did - despite the lack of 'names' in the smaller roles, despite Tracie Bennett's mugging through "I'm Still Here" - I got the FOLLIES I have yearned for. Because when
it hit, it hit hard and with astonishing
performances wherever you looked: Imelda Staunton's despairing Sally, Janie Dee's bone-dry Phyllis. Philip Quast's crumbling Ben, but especially Josephine Barstow's tear-enducing "One More Kiss" - that the production managed to cast one of Britain's great operatic
divas for the small role was special enough, but within the short space of her
song, you could hear a pin drop as her voice soared around the
auditorium; in a score of
unstoppable great musical moments this was one to treasure.
The truly astonishing thing about FOLLIES is that Sondheim
floors you with one fantastic song after another. It was director Dominic Cooke's first musical and he gave his production a thoroughness of vision which allowed the
musical numbers to flourish while being equally as thorough at the emotional trauma the four main characters
inflict amid the nostalgia.
So... what video to pick? FOLLIES is well represented on YouTube through productions and one-off performances of songs from the score - and with a score so all-encompassing as this how do you pick a represenative song? How's about a few.. the stinging sophistication of "Could I Leave You" sung by Lee Remick at the 1985 Lincoln Center concert and then, from the same documentary, a fascinating clip of Barbara Cook rehearsing and then performing the pure emotion of "In Buddy's Eyes" and finally, from the NT Live screening of their 2017 production, Imelda Staunton's broken Sally. lost in her obsession, singing "Losing My Mind".
The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and,
as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast
recording of my life:
First performed: 1963, Eugene O'Neill Theatre, NY
First seen by me: 2016, Menier Chocolate Factory, London
Productions seen: one
Score: Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick Book: Joe Masteroff
Plot: In 1930s Budapest, Georg and Amalia work together in a perfumery and dislike each other intensely - what they don't know is they are each other's pen-pal who they are falling in love with through their letters. As Christmas approaches, they agree to meet...
Five memorable numbers: VANILLA ICE-CREAM, A TRIP TO THE LIBRARY, DEAR FRIEND, WILL HE LIKE ME?, SHE LOVES ME
It's an untrusted word, heartwarming... one mis-step and it can lead to cloying sentimentality and no one wants to sit through two-and-a-half hours of that. So it is always a delight to find a show that is genuinely heartwarming without any of it's concomitant pitfalls - step up Bock and Harnick's SHE LOVES ME, for me a much more enjoyable musical than their more famous FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. Miklós László's original play has been the gift that just keeps giving since 1937: no less than three Hollywood films - THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER, IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME and YOU'VE GOT MAIL - have been based on the plotline and can be added to Bock and Harnick's version. After a nod to the show's Hungarian location with the keening violins that open the overture, their score is packed with choon-ful tunes - and with 25 songs listed in the programme I mean packed! Joe Masteroff's delightful book also keeps the plot moving with warm, sympathetic characters. A delightful chocolate-box of a production at the Menier two years ago has stayed with me but it's the original cast recording that made me love the show immortalizing the performances of Barbara Baxley as lovelorn Ilona, Jack Cassidy as womanizing Kodaly, Daniel Massey as Georg and, above all, the glorious Barbara Cook as Amalia, one of the key roles of her Broadway career which provided several songs to add to her repertoire for her second career as a solo artist, namely the soaring VANILLA ICE CREAM. An interesting sidenote: MGM bought the film rights and after a few years of delay were set to make it with Julie Andrews as Amalia, possibly reuniting with Dick Van Dyke as Georg but a change of management led to a restructuring for more contemporary subjects and SHE LOVED ME was dropped. The show lives on however so if it pops up near you do see it...
Sadly there is no original footage of Barbara Cook singing one of her signature songs but here she is during her second career as a solo singer in concert in Melbourne, acting and singing VANILLA ICE CREAM to perfection; it really gives you a flavour of Bock and Harnick's delightful score
My last two theatre visits of 2016 are coincidentally two shows that I have never seen onstage before but know very well through the original cast recordings - finally I know the bits that go between the songs!
SHE LOVES ME premiered in 1963 with a score by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick and written by Joe Masteroff; it was an odd case of them all just being one-show-away from their career-defining highs - 1964 saw the premiere of Bock and Harnick's FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and in 1966 Masteroff wrote the book for a little-known musical called CABARET.
SHE LOVES ME is based on the Hungarian playwright Miklós László's 1937 play "Parfumerie" and has become a bit of a well-ridden pony: James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan starred in Ernst Lubitsch's 1940 film version "The Shop Around The Corner", in 1949 it inspired a first musicalization as "In The Good Old Summertime" starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson, and nearly 40 years later the plot served as the basis for the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan film "You've Got Mail".
The original production was produced and directed by Hal Prince and was choreographed by Carol Haney (who tragically died the following year from pneumonia) and, in retrospect, provided Barbara Cook with her last great Broadway starring role playing Amalia opposite Daniel Massey's Georg. The show was a modest hit and received a scant five Tony Nominations - none for the score - it's only win being for Jack Cassidy's duplicitous Kodaly.
A London production followed in 1964 (with the dynamic casting of Rita Moreno as the lovelorn Ilona) and in 1978 Gemma Craven and Diane Langton co-starred in a BBC tv version. SHE LOVES ME had to wait 30 years for a Broadway revival however but proved popular enough to transfer to London with Ruthie Henshall and John Gordon Sinclair as the leads where it ran for a year - and history repeated itself this year with a new revival at Studio 54 which has resulted in the Menier staging it as their Christmas show.
It's odd that there is an idea that the show is a difficult proposition to revive - all it needs is the right size theatre and a well-judged cast; the show could be accused of being old-fashioned and slight - but what it affords is a show of real charm and warmth, with characters that you quietly root for and leaves you feeling entertained and smiling. A rare commodity these days when the one thing most musicals lack these days is a genuine heart.
Bock and Harnick's score keeps the songs coming - there are 16 in the first act - but they all are tuneful and move the story along. The score is what has kept the show revivable, mainly in part to the sparkling original cast recording and Barbara Cook's subsequent solo career in cabaret and concerts where she regularly featured Amalia's great songs ICE CREAM, WILL HE LIKE ME, DEAR FRIEND and even Ilona's solo A TRIP TO THE LIBRARY. Hearing them within the context of the show is like hearing from an old friend.
1930s Budapest: a small perfumerie and chemist shop is owned by Mr Maraczek, his staff include the assistant manager Georg, suave womanizer Mr Kodaly who is not-so-secretly sleeping with co-worker Ilona, the quiet Mr Sipos and the energetic delivery boy Arpad. Into their world comes the eager-to-please Amalia who has heard of a job vacancy but Maraczek isn't hiring as the shop is just ticking by, the resourceful Amalia notices however the staff have difficulty selling a new range of music boxes so proves her worth by selling one as a musical candy-box which gets her the job.
Georg and Amalia take an instant dislike to each other but their antipathy chimes with Ilona's anger at being dumped by Kodaly and Mr Maraczek's sudden unhappiness with Georg. What Amalia confides to Ilona and Georj to Sipos is that they are both in love with anonymous pen-pals who fill them with the chance of happiness in their lonely lives. Yes you guessed... they are unknowingly writing to each other.
With only a few weeks to Christmas and on the night they are due to meet for the first time, Georj, fed up by the increasingly nit-picking Maraczek, resigns and later on, after seeing to his horror that it's Amalia waiting for him in the designated meeting place with the book and rose to identify her as "Dear Friend", goes in and makes fun of her. The next day the staff hear that Mr Maraczek has tried to kill himself, his increasing bad temper had been caused by his suspicions that his wife was having an affair with Georg only for it to be revealed that her lover was Kodaly.
Georg agrees to return as manager, Arpad is promoted to salesman, Kodaly skulks off to join a rival establishment and Ilona decides she will give up on men and start reading books instead. But what of Georg and Amalia? Will love find a way? C'mon... this is 1963 Broadway!
Matthew White's heartwarming production fills the small Menier stage with bustling activity - more than one prop went flying due to the onstage business but it all added to the charm. Paul Farnsworth's lovely set and costumes add the right period flavour and Paul Pyant's lighting is an added delight. Rebecca Howell gives the show vibrant choreography that utilizes all the stage particularly in the busy romantic Café where waiters and customers dance and leap.
The cast all rise to the occasion and shine in their roles: Scarlett Strallen bursts off the stage with her lovely soprano and bubbly personality as Amalia, Mark Umbers is a slow-burn as Georg but finally flowers into a likeable hero, Les Dennis is surprisingly effective as the love-lorn Maraczek while Dominic Tighe makes a deliciously smooth Kodaly.
Katherine Kingsley is a larger-than-life Ilona who finds and delivers laughs with her cockney Ilona and rises to the challenge of her solo A TRIP TO THE LIBRARY wonderfully. Callum Howells is a firecracker as the ambitious delivery boy Arpad - although the Norman Wisdom posture could be dialed down a bit - Alastair Brookshaw is a delight as the quiet Mr Sipos while Cory English really stands out as the Head Waiter of the romantic Café, trying to convince us that he provides a suitably subdued atmosphere - as the waiters crash metal trays all around him.
I had been a bit worried that the production might not give me the show that I had waited so long to see but SHE LOVES ME is one of the best musicals they have staged and if you want to see an example of classic Broadway musical comedy then run to see it before March 4th.
A remarkable postscript: MGM bought the film rights for the show and mooted it as a vehicle for Julie Andrews. Both Harold Prince then Blake Edwards were named as directors with possible casting of Dick Van Dyke and Maurice Chevalier. The studio was bought out however and in the changing mood of the times the project was dropped.
1. How did I get into Madonna? By opening my rebel heart...
2. What was the first song I ever heard by Dusty Springfield? I ONLY WANT TO BE WITH YOU
3. How many albums by Barbara Cook do I own? 16 (not counting the cast recordings) 4. What is my favourite song by Kirsty MacColl? THEY DON'T KNOW
5. What is my favourite album by Mary J. Blige? GROWING PAINS
6. Is there a song by Aretha Franklin that makes me happy? YOU SEND ME 7. What was the first song I ever heard by Carole King? IT MIGHT AS WELL RAIN UNTIL SEPTEMBER
8. What is a good memory I have involving Beverley Knight? Bumping into her on Great Marlborough Street in the early 00s and telling her how much I loved her music
9. Is there a song by Marianne Faithfull that makes you happy? Um... SOMETHING BETTER maybe
10. How many times have I see Chris Clark live? Twice, and I count myself very lucky as she's a shy soul 11. What is the first song I ever heard by Lulu? SHOUT
12. How many albums by Brenda Holloway do I own? Three, all compilations (and all signed!)
13.Do I have a good memory involving Bessie Smith? Hearing there was going to be a 10 cd series of all her recordings 14. Have I ever seen Barbra Streisand live? Yes, once at Wembley Arena.
15. What is a good memory involving Amanda Palmer? Seeing her a few days ago and getting a big hug and kiss
16. How did I get into Peggy Lee? Through LADY AND THE TRAMP 17. What is my favourite album by Cher? My VERY BEST OF double compilation
18. What is my favourite song by Angie Stone? I AIN'T HEARIN' U. 19. What is the first song I ever heard by Grace Jones? LA VIE EN ROSE 20. What is my favourite album by Diana Ross? I'M STILL WAITING (SURRENDER in the US)
21. What is my favourite song by Bjork? BIG TIME SENSUALITY. 22. How did I get into Shelby Lynne? Through the reviews for the album I AM SHELBY LYNNE
23. How many times did I see Tammi Terrell live? Never, wipes tear away... 24. What is my favourite album by Alicia Keys? THE DIARY OF ALICIA KEYS 25. What was the first song I ever heard by Laura Nyro? WEDDING BELL BLUES
26. What is my favourite song by Mary Wells? YOU LOST THE SWEETEST BOY 27. What is my favourite song by Bernadette Peters? FAITHLESS LOVE. 28. Is there a song by Buffy Sainte-Marie that makes you happy? INDIAN COWBOY AT THE RODEO 29. What is my favourite album by Sinéad O'Connor? THROW DOWN YOUR ARMS
30. How many albums do I own by Dinah Washington? 4 cds
Originally shown on the BBC's Omnibus, this documentary covers the lead-up to two concert performances of Stephen Sondheim's musical FOLLIES at New York's Lincoln Center with the Philharmonic Orchestra.
Sondheim and record producer Thomas Z. Shepherd were unhappy that the 1971 cast recording of FOLLIES was severely edited to fit on one album so in 1985 they had the opportunity to record two semi-staged concert performances of the full score.
It stars Lee Remick, Barbara Cook, Mandy Patinkin and George Hearn with remarkable supporting performances from Elaine Stritch, Carol Burnett, Phyllis Newman, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Liliane Montevecchi, André Gregory and Licia Albanese among others.
We see them nervously rehearsing quickly-learnt songs in the few days leading up to the concerts and sharing their thoughts on the resonance of the material as they are all contemporaries.
A touching, entertaining tribute to the show and it's cast.
Shelf or charity shop? You're kidding right?
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Congratulations to the Menier Chocolate Factory which has received two New York Drama League Award nominations for Best Musical Revival with their exported productions of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC and LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (which has just opened to excellent reviews)
It's odd to think I saw both in the tiny 180-seater before they launched out into the world!
The Drama League Performance Award is a bit idiosyncratic - they nominate for a single performance award and once you have won it you cannot win it again although you can be nominated. This year quite a few favorite names are on the list:
Barbara Cook for SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM Douglas Hodge for LA CAGE AUX FOLLES Angela Lansbury for A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC Laura Linney for TIME STOOD STILL
This Award has been awarded since 1935, how strange that Cook and Lansbury, two of Broadway's great names, have never won the performance award. Angela Lansbury however did win a Unique Contribution Award last year.
For that matter the three living English Queens of the stage - Maggie Smith, Vanessa Redgrave and Judi Dench - haven't won either!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Yesterday was Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday!Last night he attended a special preview of the show SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM at Studio 54 which stars, among others, Broadway legend Barbara Cook, Vanessa Williams, Tom Wopat and TABOO's Euan Morton. Sondheim joined them on stage for the curtain call and the obligatory singing of Happy Birthday. They were then joined onstage by James Lapine, Sondheim's collaborator for SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, INTO THE WOODS and PASSION.
He announced that the Henry Miller Theatre on 43rd Street will be re-named the Stephen Sondheim Theatre when the current Dame Edna show finishes it's run there. Finally! This is a fantastic tribute from a community whom his works have sometimes appeared to work counter to the box-office interests of - but who have been enriched by his constant exploration of the form of musical theatre, as we all have.Sondheim also appears to have been blown away by the news....
Saturday, June 07, 2008
As you can see by the little widget on the right I am on the music network site Last.fm, and good fun it is too. I was poking about on there this afternoon and found a few good music questionnaires so here's one I am nicking off Janell from America:
"Post your top fifteen bands/artists, the first song you heard of theirs, a song you love, and your current favourite"
