Posted by Philip Crosby @ 10/24/2002 06:40 AM PST

Incidently - is Lerner's song "How could you believe me..." the longest title for a song? Does anyone know of such trivia?

Posted by Craig @ 10/24/2002 06:44 AM PST

I know I am in a minority, but my favorite Lerner is the score to CLOSE A LITTLE FASTER... I mean DANCE A LITTLE CLOSER. I almost listed it the other day as one of my guilty pleasures. I also think the lyrics to Meg's two songs from BRIGADOON ("Real Love Of My Life" and "My Mother's Wedding Day") are comic gems, especially as sung by Susan Johnson on the mid-50s studio recording of the score (still not available on CD).

Craig--- I have read that "How Can You Believe Me..." is the longest title but I have no definite proof. How I long to have heard it sung by the person it was written for: Judy Garland.

Posted by William E. Lurie @ 10/24/2002 06:53 AM PST

All the obvious Lerner choices, of course, but I also love "You're All The World To Me" from Royal Wedding and thanks to Tony Bennett, the song has finally become a standard after being overshadowed by the clever staging in the movie.

I admire Lerner's lyrics for Lolita, My Love but I'm not entirely happy with his updated book. The story should have been left in the late 40s. Someday, I hope to find a theatre company with courage enough to stage this show despite the ranting and raving picketers outside. (Oddly enough, I have NEVER meant a woman who has read Lolita who had anything negative to say about the book -- it seems you have to NOT read the book in order to truly hate it.)

Posted by Robert Armin @ 10/24/2002 07:27 AM PST

And Susan Johnson is GREAT on Brigadoon!

Incidentally, I saw Pamela Britton in a WWII-era movie the other night and I still find it hard to believe she was the original Meg. Most people know her as the landlady on My Favorite Martian but this film was made several years before she did Brigadoon.

Posted by Robert Armin @ 10/24/2002 07:30 AM PST

I, too, love "Dance a Little Closer." But one of my favorite Lerner lyrics is "A Woman is How She Loves" from "Coco."

Posted by JMK @ 10/24/2002 07:41 AM PST

The film I remember Pamela Britton from was the 1945 MGM musical "Anchors Away" where she played a character named Brooklyn who was a waitress at a Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles and in love with Frank Sinatra. This was the movie where Gene Kelly danced with Jerry the Mouse. And didn't Pamela Britton also play "Blondie" on radio or television in the late 40s or early 50s?

Posted by William E. Lurie @ 10/24/2002 08:10 AM PST

Well, absent and truant though I be, and also truant and absent, it is because the creative juices are flowing and deadlines are a-nearing. All will revealed in time. (There! I can be just as mysterious as Bruce about these things!)

But I am still listening to Laurie Beechman in my office, and I have to nominate "There But for You Go I". An incredible song, really, and not to be moved is to have a heart of stone.

Posted by William F. Orr @ 10/24/2002 08:21 AM PST

My favorite Lerner lyric is "One More Walk Around the Garden." Makes me cry every time.

"How Could You Believe Me..." is not the longest song title. I seem to remember that honor belonging to the great Hoagy Carmichael (who deserves a lot more appreciation than he gets, imho), tho I don't remember the title. Who's got a Guinness (Book of Records, not ale)?

Posted by Pam @ 10/24/2002 08:22 AM PST

Found it! (The internet is a wonderful thing.)The longest song title is:

'I’m a Cranky Old Yank in a Clanky Old Tank on the Streets of Yokohama with my Honolulu Mama Doin’ Those Beat-o, Beat-o Flat-On-My-Seat-o, Hirohito Blues'

Posted by Pam @ 10/24/2002 08:27 AM PST

Pam - but Astaire never sang that diddy! ;)

-C

Posted by Craig @ 10/24/2002 08:29 AM PST

this just in from playbill.com

Report: Amour's Legrand Plans Stage Version of His "Rochefort" Film

Now that his musical Amour is up and running at Broadway's Music Box Theatre, composer Michel Legrand plans to bring Jacques Demy's film, "The Young Girls of Rochefort," to the Paris stage.

Legrand told Variety that he plans to mount a "Girls" production "next year at the Palais de Congres in Paris. It will be a very, very large production." The Palais de Congres seats a whopping 4,000 theatregoers. Although Amour also premiered in France — under the title Le Passe Muraille — there is no word whether "Rochefort" will make it to Broadway. No director or opening dates have yet been announced for the Paris production, which will feature the Legrand score.

The full text is available by clicking on the link in my post...

Posted by Craig @ 10/24/2002 08:36 AM PST

I, too, like Dance A Little Closer as well as some of the Burton Lane collaborations. And Brigadoon was the first show I did in high school, and will always remain near and dear to me. *And when that studio recording came out with Mr. Barrett, Ms. Luker et al, I was so overjoyed. One of my favorite show recordings.

Well, back to the gray and cool day here in Richmond. Yesterday was glorious - even got a little warm in the afternoon. The perfect Fall afternoon for walking around town, and doing next to nothing. Which is what I did - or didn't do. Well, today's a different story, and I must do something, so.. Later.

Posted by Jose C. Simbulan @ 10/24/2002 08:42 AM PST

The Pamela Britton movie I saw was "Letter For Evie," the film she made after "Anchors Aweigh." I know her well from the latter, but had never see the former. It was basically the same character, though.

Posted by Robert Armin @ 10/24/2002 08:53 AM PST

I just got an email that Adolph Green passed away last night. What a loss--condolences to the family.

Posted by JMK @ 10/24/2002 09:14 AM PST

My favorite Lerner song: Little Prince.

Sad day! Adolph Green was one of the last links to the MGM Golden Years of musicals made by the Freed Unit, not to mention sterling works for Broadway.

Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 10/24/2002 09:24 AM PST

Re: Adolph Green - But what a life! And what a legacy. I can tell you that I adored working with he and Betty when I did the Bells are Ringing revival cast album. The Party's Over on earth, but it's just beginning wherever Adolph has journeyed to.

Posted by bk @ 10/24/2002 09:26 AM PST

Playbill On-line says it will have a complete Adolph Green bio up soon. That's where I heard of his passing. What a great talent!

I have lots of Lerner favorites, especially two songs from Camelot (I played Mordred oh so many years ago in an outdoor production with a castle and real horses). I love Before I Gaze at You Again (it's one of my favorite songs) and I Loved You Once in Silence both by the lovely Miss Julie Andrews. From On a Clear Day..., Melinda, What Did I Have that I Don't Have? and Wait Till We're Sixty-Five (I'd like to play the William Daniels role someday). I love Show Me from My Fair Lady and some of my favorite Lerner work also comes from the aformentioned Dance a Little Closer and I first heard it via Mr. BK and Jason Graae on his Charles Strouse album Your'e Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile. The two songs are the title song Dance a Little Closer and There's Always One You Can't Forget

Posted by Ben @ 10/24/2002 09:58 AM PST

Maybe we should augment today's topic to include favorite Adolph Green stories. Here's mine:

He was attending a very bad play, and during one scene the actor's line was "I have tasted death. Do you know what death tastes like?" And Green shouted out: "It tastes just like chicken!"

He will be missed.

Posted by Pam @ 10/24/2002 10:06 AM PST

I had the pleasure of meeting Adolph Green almost 15 years ago now, at a symposium the theatre company at which I worked was holding, honoring George Abbott on what was then his 100th birthday. Mr. Green was kind, generous, funny, charming and a delight to be around. It never fails -- the great ones always are. He and Lenny are beginning a new score even as we speak...

Posted by Philip Crosby @ 10/24/2002 10:21 AM PST

The NY Times obit is massive!

Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 10/24/2002 10:47 AM PST

Not Adolph! Does this mean that the musical film is truly dead? I kept hoping that Betty and Adolph would write one more movie to show today's filmmakers how to do it. I just watched all the extras on the "Singin' In The Rain" DVD and I refuse to accept the fact that half the team whose screenplay shaped the whole movie will never be heard from again. "Singin' In The Rain", "The Bandwagon", the highly under-rated "It's Always Fair Weather"... and that's just a fraction of their screen work. In the last few years I have seen staged productions or readings of "Bells Are Ringing", "Do Re Me", "Say Darling", "Billion Dollar Baby" and "Halleujah Baby", just a small part of their work for the stage. They did book, lyrics, both depending on what was needed. And that doesn't even mention their talent performing their own work. I hope the mid-80s televised version of "A Party With Betty Comden and Adolph Green" will be rushed into DVD release. The Betty and Adolph tribute at Carnegie Hall a couple of years ago showed their versatility. Rumor had it that they were working on a couple of unannounced projects over the last few years. Let's hope that Betty can finish them alone. My heart goes out to Betty and Phyllis. All the theatres on Broadway combined could not hold the people who will miss him.
* * * * * * * *
On another topic, did anyone here ever see DANCE A LITTLE CLOSER? I was surprised by the comments that I am not the only one who likes the score. Was this another case of a show that came off great on disc but awful on stage? Was it the book? I've seen the film of "Idiot's Delight" which it is based on, and even the presence of Gable and Mrs. Thalberg can not make it watchable. Perhaps it was not a good idea to try to make musical of it. All I know is that it is a wonderful score.

Posted by William E. Lurie @ 10/24/2002 11:11 AM PST

I DID meet Bett Comden once when she spoke at Carnegie-Mellon; and if we're talking degrees of seperation, Sister Violet (Janet Fanale) was doing a lot of typing, filing and sorting for Mr. Green only last year. Very sad to hear of his passing, but what a legacy he has left for us, right on down to ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY's "The Legacy."

Count me in as a fan of the Lerner & Strouse musical collaboration, DANCE A LITTLE CLOSER. Except for the one song which keeps repeating its single line, I think the score is mighty fine, and that Robertson and Cariou do wonderful things with their songs.
I'm quite partial to "Another Life" with its allusion to an iron bed.
"Love of My Life" from BRIGADOON
"How Could You Believe Me..." and more importantly, "Too Late Now" from ROYAL WEDDING.
The cab scene between Nina Foch and Gene Kelly in AN AMERICAN IN PARIS' second half.
"Wand'rin' Star" and "How Can I Wait" and "Another Autumn" and "They Call the Wind Maria" from B'way's PAINT YOUR WAGON.
"A Milion Miles Away Behind the Door" from Hollywood's PAINT YOUR WAGON.
"Little Prince" and "Be Happy" from THE LITTLE PRINCE.
"I Remember it Well" and "The Parisians" and the title song from GIGI.
"Say A Prayer for Me Tonight," cut from MY FAIR LADY, used later in GIGI.
"The Heather on the Hill" and "Almost Like Being in Love" - BRIGADOON.
"Without You" and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" from MY FAIR LADY.
"One More Walk Around the Garden" from CARMELINA.
"He/She Wasn't You" from ON A CLEAR DAY.
I'm also beginning to think that there's probably not a Lerner lyric that I DON'T LIKE!

Posted by td @ 10/24/2002 11:55 AM PST

Oh oh oh.. tomorrow can we do Loesser?

Posted by Craig @ 10/24/2002 12:07 PM PST

Betty and Adolph (their names are forever linked) were both terrific to me when I met with them to discuss my production of Say, Darling! in 1996. They both came opening night along with Mrs. Jule Styne, and have been gracious and friendly ever since.

Phyllis Newman made it to the Sondheim concert on Monday but I don't think Adolph was able to make it. Betty Comden, who is moving much slower these days, was actually kept out of the show until the management deigned to let late-comers enter the theatre. Can you imagine? I was actually going to call Betty on Tuesday, but in my inimitable style I neglected to do so. I actually said to my wife Monday night that he would be gone very soon. I'll miss not seeing them together.

Posted by Robert Armin @ 10/24/2002 01:40 PM PST

Dance A Little Closer really was not a very good show. And the brilliant Brent Barrett was woefully under utilized as half of a gay couple on ice skates! Their song -- "Why Can't the World Go and Leave Us Alone" --demonstrates Lerner's lack of inspiration.

Posted by Robert Armin @ 10/24/2002 01:45 PM PST

Robert---
I didn't know that you directed that wonderful production of SAY DARLING. I was there the same night as Betty, Adolph and Mrs. Styne. You made excellent use of that unusual space. Didn't that production feature Karen Ziemba's husband and David Canary's brother?

Regarding Ms. Comden Monday night, I don't care who a person is... if he or she can't be on time then he or she should watch the show on the lobby television until he or she can be seated without bothering people who did arrive on time. If Mr. Sondheim himself arrived late the same thing should apply to him.

Posted by William E. Lurie @ 10/24/2002 01:52 PM PST

William -- that was me. And yes, Bill Tatum and John Canary were in the cast.

I remember a benefit concert for Richard Rodgers in the early 70s and Rodgers was VERY late. They had the good sense to hold the show for him. But, of course, I agree that people should get there on time or be held outside for a reasonable amount of time.

Posted by Robert Armin @ 10/24/2002 02:06 PM PST

Strange but true. My favourite L & L song is also "Little Prince".I also rather like "There But For You" and "In Loved You Once In Silence".

Posted by Tom Guest (from OZ) @ 10/24/2002 03:13 PM PST

I may have mentioned this a few weeks back but I recently discovered a L & L song hiding behind a Vic Damone single from the fifties. The song is "A Toujours" which was written for Gigi. The melody is used in the film but not the lyric. (It was on the "b" side of Damone's "The Only Man On The Island").
Don't you love trivia.
Ron P & Michael S - mail being posted today.

Posted by Tom from OZ @ 10/24/2002 03:36 PM PST

Well, I think that my errantness and truantness has been simply unforgivable. I do have an excuse, though.
Over the weekend and Monday, I was participating in an overnight visiting program at Northwestern University in Evanston IL. It is a wonderful place. I visited both theater and non-theater classes, and stayed in a dorm, which was arranged around a performing arts theme. I LOVED IT!!! I really want to go to Northwestern next fall. Best of all, I think that I have the grades and essay writing ability to get in. I think that I'm going to write it about my recall of and interest in theatrical trivia.
Since then, I have been simply swamped with homework, the hated marching band, and the incredibly exciting rehearsals for A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which, as you may remember, I am playing Bottom. Midsummer is simply wonderful. I have never felt this well-prepared for a play this far in advance.
But now I am back. I will follow the fold, and stray no more.

I am deeply saddened by the death of Adolph Green. He was truly an amazing talent, and one of the theater's great figures. I hope that this will cause some of his work to be better appreciated, and more produced. (i.e. The Town, Wonderful Town, On The 20th Century. Incidentally, 20th Century is being done by the Shaw Festival in Summer 2003, and it will probably be spectacular.)

Anyway, I must be off to do homework. Sigh.

Regards,
Zev

Posted by Hapgood @ 10/24/2002 04:08 PM PST

I was very sorry to hear of Adolph's passing today, and I too consider myself lucky to have had a chance to work with him. However, I have to say my favorite memory of him was the first time I met him, at the closing performance of On the Town in Central Park. I spotted him in the audience sometime during the show, so I rushed over to his seat at curtain and caught him (and Betty) before they left. I babbled over them like a teeny-bopper at an N*SYNC concert, telling them how thrilled I was to meet them and how I had just finally tracked down a copy of their "A Party With..." album on CD (which had by then gone out of print). I think they didn't really know what to make of a teenage boy treating them like a rock star, but I know they were amused and flattered.

Posted by dlevy @ 10/24/2002 04:13 PM PST

We'll have to do favorite Comden and Green sometime soon in honor of Adolph.

Favorite Alan J. Lerner:

All of "My Fair Lady" but particularly "Without You" and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face."

"Before I Gaze at You Again" and "I Loved You Once in Silence"

"What Did I Have That I Don't Have"

"There's Always One You Can't Forget"

"You Haven't Changed at All"

"You're All the World To Me"

"Open Your Eyes"

Posted by Kerry @ 10/24/2002 04:22 PM PST

I suddenly find it all too
appropriate that I happened to
watch Bells Are Ringing
just last night. I seem to have
an unnerving knack for doing
such things, as I happened to
watch Clue (a pleasure
for which I have no guilt) the
night before Madeline Kahn's
death.

Posted by Jed @ 10/24/2002 04:40 PM PST

I remember arriving in NYC early morning on May 12, 1983 after driving all night from Montreal. I remember telling my friends that there was a new Alan Jay Lerner musical that just opened and explained he's the guy who wrote My Fair Lady and Camelot. As we got closer to NYC I heard them talking about Dance a Little Closer and hoped it was a good review and was shocked to hear that it closed! This was the first time I ever heard about a show closing on opening night! Of course I later read about other shows that suffered the same fate.

I wish that Lerner's songs to Love Life and The Day Before Spring were better know. Thank god for Ben Bagley for recording a whole slew of them and other people like John McGlinn as well.

Paint Your Wagon is another score I would like to hear complete as the Broadway cast recording seems woefully incomplete. Then of course there is the film version with additional material by Andre Previn who did COCO with AJL. Not much to recommend from that score with exception "Gabriel"

But his songs for Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, Gigi and some of On a Clear Day are all wonderful.

I even think 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has a lot to recommend to it and one just has to listen to it recorded under the title White House Cantana. Once again Ben Bagley recording some of the songs kept me wondering what the rest of the score was like.

Take Care of This House, Seena, Duet For One, President Jefferson March, Bright and Black and Lud's Wedding are just some of the stand out songs from that score.

He also wrote lyrics to a couple of films, Royal Wedding & Little Prince.

YOU'RE ALL THE WORLD TO ME of couse was the dancing on the ceiling song, but most people don't remember that. There are also some other songs that were written for the film but that were cut that were also recorded (Ben Bagley again did them first)

Little Prince had some great numbers in it. The title song, Snake in the Grass sung and danced by Bob Fosse. Trying to remember the othe songs as well. There is one with Richard Kiley sing a song while flying a plane and other with Donna Mckechnie. Lerner always claimed that Stanley Donen ruined the film the way he cut up the score.

Although not a song he wrote the great narration for THE GIRL HUNT BALLET from The Band Wagon.

The only song I remember from Lolita is Sur les quais which BK recorded.

Carmelina has It's Time For a Love Song, Why him?, One More Walk Around the Garden from its score that has much to recommend. I even used the last song to underscore a video I shot a memorial celebration of a cousin who passed.

As for Dance a Little Closer. I like Why Can't The World Go and Leave Us Alone! I'm surprise it never became a fav in the gay dance bars a little souped up with a dance beat. The title song, There is Always One You Can't Forget, I Never Want to See You Again, Another Life are songs that I enjoyed from the score.

Finally of course there is final incompleted musical of My Man Godfrey. I heard a song from it somewhere and remembering it wasn't bad.

Posted by Michael Shayne @ 10/24/2002 05:31 PM PST

Since I mentioned Ben Bagley I would like to list the songs that can be found on his recordings of AJL songs

Alan Jay Lerner Revisted :

Progress (Love Life).....Roddy McDowall & Nancy Walker

Love Song (Love Life).....Jerry Orbach

I Love You This Morning (The Day Before Spring) .....Blossom Dearie

This Is My Holiday (The Day Before Spring).....Roddy Mcdowall & Blossom Dearie

Sunday Jumps (Royal Wedding).....Nancy Walker

The Day Before Spring (The Day Before Spring).....Blossom Dearie

God's Green World (???).....Jerry Orbach

Economics (Love Life).....Dorothy Loudon

You Haven't Changed At All (???).....Roddy McDowall & Nancy Walker

You're All the World To Me (Royal Wedding).....Blossom Dearie

Every Night at Eleven (Royal Wedding).....Roddy McDowall

Mister Right (Love Life).....Dorothy Loudon

This Is the Life (Love Life) .....Jerry Orbach

Open Your Eyes (Royal Wedding).....Dorothy Loudon

You've Got a Hold On Me (What's Up).....Anne Hampton Callaway

My Last Love (What's Up).....Dorothy Loudon

I'm Your Man (Love Life).....Robert Marks & Arthur Siegel

A Jug of Wine (The Day Before Spring).....Dorothy Loudon

My Love Is a Married Man (The Day Before Spring).....Ann Hampton Callaway

Sue les Quais de Ramsdale, Vermont (Lolita, My Love)......Dorothy Loudon

A Toujour (Gigi).....Ann Hampton Callaway

Too Late Now (Royal Wedding).....Dorothy Loudon

There are more from Kurt Weill Revisited and if anyone is interested I can post those too.

Posted by Michael Shayne @ 10/24/2002 06:11 PM PST

In addition to the title song of "Little Prince," there was "I Need Air," "Be Happy," "I'm On Your Side," "You're A Child," "I Never Met A Rose", "Why is the Desert?", "A Snake in the Grass," and "Closer and Closer and Closer."

I've always been wild about Gene Wilder's "Fox" and his participation in the "Closer and...." song is wonderful. I think "Why is the Desert" perfectly delightful and a wonderful tune!

Kiley's rendition of "Little Prince" is heartbreakingly beautiful, IMO.

I love this film! And I'd love a complete "score recording" (if only Paramount was approachable, eh, Nick?!!!).

Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 10/24/2002 06:13 PM PST

These are wonderful posts today, in my opinion (IMO, in Internet lingo). I am home, fed, and ready to dig in to the Carry On box, which I just picked up.

Posted by bk @ 10/24/2002 06:50 PM PST

BK:

Lucky you! I went to Best Buy and couldn't find it! I', looking forward to them. I saw That's Carry in a little town in South Portugual. It was in English with Portugese subtitles. Of course I was the only won laughing in the theater.

Posted by Michael Shayne @ 10/24/2002 07:01 PM PST

Ah, another Lerner favorite (and one that seems to resonate with me a lot these days): "I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore."

Posted by Kerry @ 10/25/2002 12:59 AM PST

Had the pleasure of meeting Mssrs. Comden & Green after a performance of "On The Town" a couple of years ago. They were both very approachable, quite warm and willing to take a few moments to chat with a total stranger (we briefly discussed what it was like to have one of their shows back on Bdwy). The combination of their talents with Leonard Bernstein's produced some of the most interesting musical numbers pre-Sondheim - both "Wonderful Town" and "On The Town" were well ahead of their times.

Posted by Phil @ 10/25/2002 05:43 AM PST

To Hapgood:

As a highly satisfied Northwestern graduate (class of '79) good luck -- it's a wonderful place and, Chicago is an amazing theatre city.

Posted by Philip Crosby @ 10/25/2002 07:15 AM PST