Good morning, all! DR TCB, thank you for saving yesterday's number of posts. It was an Olympian feat and you were in the right neck of the woods to accomplish that,
Last night's weird dream was about army shows to boost morale and I was in charge; I had a staff including Howard McGillin (no, Fred, I am not making this up!) and most of the dream was about looking for comedy writers.
Today, back to Toyland for more edits with Mr Kennon. I look forward to it.
In 1983, I worked on a fantastic concert of ONE TOUCH OF VENUS for the New Amsterdam Theatre Co,, produced by the late wonderful Bill Tynes. Paula Laurence, who played the comedy lead role of Molly, played the role again, and she was very funny ("If anyone needs me, I'll be down at the corner having my tongue torn out."). Paige O'Hara, whose then-husband had an option on the show for a revival, was a Venus much like Mary Martin, Leroy Reams was the barber and object of her affection Rodney Hatch, Ron Raines was the art collector Savory Whitelaw, Susan Lucci was the bitchy fiancee and Peggy Cass was her mother. It was quite good and very very funny. Encores! did it several years later with Melissa Errico as Venus, but I don't fnd the rest of the cast nearly as good. There's been a complete recordng of the show with Errico under construction from John Yap for around ten years now, and I dount it will ever be released.
John McGlinn did a complete performance with Paige O'Hara and Kim Criswell as Molly for the BBC radio series of complete musicals and I have the whole performance on CD if anyone would like a copy.
TOD:
I wish the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CITY OF MAHAGONNY with Teresa Stratas would be released on single DVD (it's in a $200+ set of Levine performances); Weill's score is amazing, with two of my favorite songs "Havanna Song" and "Alabama Song."
"Mandalay Song," "Surabaya Johnny" from HAPPY END
"J'attends un navire" and "Le roi d/Aquitaine" from MARIE GALANTE.
"One Life To Live" from LADY IN THE DARK, although the three complete dream sequences are fantastic mini-operas
"Ballad of the Robbers" and "It Never Was You" from KNICKERBOCKER HOLIDAY; I cannot wait for the new recording!
We still need a complete recording of the unexpurgated Marc Blitzstein version of THREEPENNY OPERA.
A major Kurt Weill disaster was the day EMI pulled the plug on the John McGlinn recording of a complete LOVE LIFE, which was cast and set to go. In EMI's defense, dealing with McGlinn must have been horrible, no matter how many diva conductors were on their roster.
