Haines His Way

This might be long, but, I wanted to hit all of the wonderful topics of the day!

I liked Jennifer Westfeldt in KISSING JESSICA STEIN.  I don't have a problem with her on the WONDERFUL TOWN cd; she's the ingenue!  The part has been sung much better - Rebecca Luker on the double disc WT; my problem with the new recording is, IMHO, the tempi are too darn slow!

BRANDO - it's like yesterday's discussion of Hart vs Sondheim; Brando is of an era, that era is passed.  When Brando hit the screen, audiences has not seen such animal sexuality combined with his lithe, then-athletic, body and the intensity of his acting.  I would rate him as an influential actor, but, give me Ronald Colman or Cary Grant.  Brando's comedic skills leave a lot to be desired. . . .Favorite Brando performances: STREETCAR, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, LAST TANGO IN PARIS and THE NIGHTCOMERS.

RLP - please do tell us about the *other* hair.

DR Panni & DR PennyO - I'm in accord with your comments about La Streisand.  There was a time when she was "Babs," and further back, she was simply Barbra Streisand, a gangly kid with a voice to die for!  I'm glad that PennyO pointed out the Cook/Streisand phrasing, for I have always beleived that Streisand took a lot from Cook.

And, finally, Hart & Rodgers:
"You Have Cast Your Shadow on the Sea"
"It Never Entered My Mind"
"My Funny Valentine"
"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"
"Our Den of Iniquity"
"I Didn't Know What Time it Was"
"To Keep My Love Alive"
"It's a Lovely Day for a Murder"
"Johnny One Note"
"Where's that Rainbow"
"The Most Beautiful Girl in the World"

and, from THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE alone:
"He and She"
"Dear Old Syracuse"  with a small correction to Mr. Moore's note of yesterday: It's "When the search for love becomes a mania, you can take the night boat to Albania."
"Falling in Love with Love" ( I love the verse to this)
"This Can't be Love"
"The Ladies of the Evening in the Morning" ("A plum becomes a prune, a joke becomes a pun, and daughters of the moon must fade beneath the sun.)
"What Can You Do with a Man?"
"Sing for Your Supper"
"O Diogenes"
"The Shortest Day of the Year"

and, finally, my all-time favorite Rodgers & Hart song:
TEN CENTS A DANCE.


[move=left,scroll,6,transparent,100%]!   ! W E L C O M E  H O M E  J O E  !  ! [/move]

[quote author=td link=board=4;threadid=217;start=msg34271#msg34271 date=1079995855

"Dear Old Syracuse"  with a small correction to Mr. Moore's note of yesterday: It's "When the search for love becomes a mania, you can take the night boat to Alban

DR TD, that was intentional:  Rodgers & Hart's Ephesus is not so far from Manhattan:  the producer Brothers Shubert were referred to as "the boys from Syracuse" and the night boat to Albania is a reference to the night boat that used to run up the Hudson River from New York to albany, and the subject of a Kern show "The Night Boat."  My point was that most popular musicals, from Herbert's THE RED MILL of 1906 to musicals before Oscar Hammerstein promoted dramatic cohesion, could be set as far away as Holland, Ephesus, Budapest, but they always ended up in New York in their references.

Re our topic du jour, I was just reading an essay by Richard Rodgers in which he compares his various lyricists, and I came across this:

“…The following year, a Rodgers and Hart score for the Columbia Varsity Show also contained an interpolated Rogers and Hammerstein effort, “Room for One More." Oscar, incidentally, had been on the panel of judges that had selected our musical FLY WITH ME, as the Varsity Show. A few years later he even collaborated on the book for a musical WINKLE TOWN, with a score by Larry and me, but we never could sell it. The show, however, did have a song in it, “Manhattan,” that later became our first hit.”

Okay, so this got me thinking about an intriguing topic. Here’s a show by Rodgers and HartandHammerstein – and they couldn’t sell it! So I wonder how many other “dream shows” there are out there which on paper were made in heaven, but in the cold light of day (or opening night) went straight to the other place. Thoughts, DRs?…

I just checked my original list and for some reason I didn't include a song I love, SPRING IS HERE -- so bittersweet, so heartbreakingly lovely. You'd swear it was written by a Hungarian.

I did not watch the Babs Steisand show, because I find Lipton an obsequious ass and Babs an over-indulgent, self-indulgent actress and film-maker.  I used to like her as a singer, but I think she has become self-indulgent in that arena as well, far more interested in showing off her instrument than serving the song.

I just checked my original list and for some reason I didn't include a song I love, SPRING IS HERE -- so bittersweet, so heartbreakingly lovely. You'd swear it was written by a Hungarian.

Well, you know, DR Panni, it's from I MARRIED AN ANGEL of 1938 or so, set in Budapest.  I believe it's even based on a Hungarian play.  

LOL DRCHARLESPOGUE....Midwestern Hayride was IN COLOR as were all the WLW shows and that's the reason I watched most of them.  I remember seeing Bob on American Bandstand (I have a couple of his albums) - and he looked so out of place!  I guess my elephant crack was the way I remember him from the final days of the show!

I don't think the talent show made it to Indy and WLW-I, I don't remember it anyway.  Yup I met Nick Clooney a few years ago when he was a speaker at an SPJ event, nice guy.

I saw a nice bio of Clooney on TV this past weekend...lots of reminiscing by sons Rafael, Gabriel and Miguel.  There's a daughter, too, but I didn't get her name.  The show was on a local PBS station as part of a fund-raising campaign.

Well, you know, DR Panni, it's from I MARRIED AN ANGEL of 1938 or so, set in Budapest.  I believe it's even based on a Hungarian play.  

Well I did NOT know, Larry! That's one of the things I love about this site - because now I do. (Looked it up: "Based upon a play by Hungarian playwright Janos Veszary...")
That's really interesting - I'm sure Hart wasn't thinking, "How do I express a Hungarian emotional landscape here?..." But somehow he did. He probably has Hungarian genes. Most of the clever ones do, y'know.

In absolute fairness to Lulu and her recollection of a comment I made, I found the reference in the 2/21/2003 notes in the archives.  The subject that spurred my comment was about "The Fantasticks" and how "The Rape Ballet" had been removed out of deference to it no longer being an acceptable number because of subject matter:

I wrote:

I have vivid memories of a time in my military past when my commanding officer was addressing some fiscal changes that were about to come our way that would alter how we did business (i.e., doing more with less). As he put it, we would endure because, he said,"When rape is inevitable, the best thing to do is lie back and enjoy it."

Believe me when I tell you he got a hearty round of applause and lots of chuckles over that!

Since we are now being subjected to subliminal terrorism by our own government, it won't be long before everyone has caught on and a lot of this silliness surrounding "P.C." will disappear.

Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 02/21/2003 08:06 AM PST

It grieves me to see what I left unsaid.  

I can clearly see what Lulu saw, and I totally apologize for the insensitivity of the remark as it stands.

I'm sure my point was that at the time the bromide was offered,  no one took the bromide as approval of the act of rape or anything related to it.  That's what my feeling was about "The Rape Ballet" -- that it was not intentionally offensive...and I was prattling on about how I felt folks who make it disappear were being over-PC.

Lulu was right.  I was wrong by omission (and by virtue of not really thinking about what I was saying).

These days, RLP, it is a rare person, Internet or any other-wise, who will post something like you just did.  Bravo.

I et my steamed artichoke with gobs of melted butter and I am now ready to purge.  I also burned my finger on the metal thing I use to melt butter in.  I put some neosporin on it, which will hopefully help it not blister too badly.  That's the first time I've burned myself in thirty years.

Bruce, ice first, then Neosporin.  I use to use gobs of butter & slowly reduced the amount of butter until I could eat it plain or with just the tiniest amount of butter.  Try it.  It is much better for you and certainly less fattening.  

I would be remiss in my duty as the world's biggest geek if I failed to point out that today is also the birthday of Mr. William Shatner.  

Bruce so did I but if you do it slowly you can even get to the point where too much butter doesn't take good-honest.