When I restored "Dearest Enemy" in 2001-2002 for the Richard Rodgers Centenary, I had to write a 5-minute Intermezzo to cover the scene change at the end of Act Two before the Epilogue. Around 1997 or so, I went with Mary, Bruce Pomahac, and Ted Chapin to the YMHA on East 14th Street to see a rather poor staging of the musical. The young actors were fine, but the character actors were poor and not very good. Before the show, Mary kept raving about the show and how much she loved the Act Two song "Bye and Bye," a great Rodgers and Hart tearjerker.
At intermission, Mary looked so bewildered, Ted clearly didn't care for it, Bruce was curious about what materials existed (very few, actually), and I kept saying the show was better thjan what we were seeing. Mary kept saying, rather hopefully, that she looked forward to "Bye and Bye."
So . . . In 2001, I decided that I would write the Intermezzo - which did not exist - as my love letter to Mary Rodgers, and I would base it on "Bye and Bye," which is also my favorite song in the score. When The Village Light Opera Group premiered my reconstruction in June 2002, Mary and her sister Linda came to the final performance, I saw them after the show. Mary grabbed my hand and said, "This is marvelous! You have to come tell me how you did this." Then she and Linda talked about the need to record it. Well, ten yearts later we did, and here's my love letter to Mary Rodgers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdOfqZANYR4&list=PLfibsLLQzU02gGkWaGES6SI8eTiZcaADe&index=23
