Q & A: 6/29/04
A: Many times performers have been nominated for or won awards in the featured or supporting category even though it was obvious that they were playing the leading character. Sometimes this happened simply because of billing. The Unsinkable Molly Brown was nothing if not a vehicle for its leading lady, but Tammy Grimes won a featured Tony simply because her name was below the title on opening night.
No doubt that rule still held in 1969, when William Daniels, who was billed below the title in 1776, was nominated in the featured category. Daniels protested this rule, maintaining that the role of John Adams was the central character, as indeed it was. So Daniels refused his featured nomination, allowing his fellow 1776 player Ron Holgate -- who was actually playing a supporting role-- to win the prize.
Q: I consider the film On A Clear Day You Can See Forever a guilty pleasure, a picture I can't quite believe ever got made given the show's mediocre success. Whatever its shortcomings, its existence is justified--for me, anyway--if only because Barbra Streisand got to record the superb score. But I've long wondered about the deleted material from Clear Day, including a futuristic sequence. I believe two or three musical numbers were filmed but unused, including the song "E.S.P." Has this material ever turned up? Any chance it would be included on a DVD release? I seem to recall that these songs were available on an LP of rare movie musical material years ago. Can you shed any light?---Marc Kochanski
A: The Clear Day film is indeed a guilty pleasure. Streisand's singing is terrific, and the role of Daisy Gamble was an interesting metaphor for Streisand's own split persona, the gawky kid from Brooklyn and the glamorous diva.
The only commercially released recording I have of a cut number from the film is Jack Nicholson's rendition of "Who Is There Among Us Who Knows?," featured on Cut! Out Takes from Hollywood's Greatest Musicals. Perhaps another reader has information about the material you mention.
I also have a tape of a fuller version of the soundtrack score, apparently derived from Paramount studio discs. This includes "Wait 'Til We're Sixty-Five," a song from the stage Clear Day that got cut from the finished film, sung by Larry Blyden and Streisand and featuring some new lyrics. Also present on the tape is Nicholson's "Who Is There Among Us Who Knows?," in which he's joined by Streisand, and a version of "She Wasn't You" sung by leading man Yves Montand.
Q: I seem to remember a PBS series of shows devoted to lyricists, and it was something like the Broadway show Side By Side By Sondheim and featured some of its cast. Do you recall this?---Virginia Cooke
A: The British television series Song By Song was an off-shoot of the successful London/Broadway revue Side By Side By Sondheim that starred and was created by Ned Sherin host/narrator, David Kernan, Millicent Martin, and Julia McKenzie. Most of the programs were shown in this country on PBS. All of them were hosted by Sherin, and Kernan appears in all of them. For the record, here's the list of the programs I've seen and the performers who joined Kernan and Sherin:
Ira Gershwin: Millicent Martin, Julia McKenzie, guest Derek Griffiths
Alan Jay Lerner: Martin, Gemma Craven, guest Lena Horne
E. Y. Harburg: Georgia Brown, Clarke Peters, guest Leonard Rossiter
Lorenz Hart: Karen Morrow, Elizabeth Counsell, guest Elisabeth Welch
Dorothy Fields: Martin, Marian Montgomery, guest Elaine Stritch
Howard Dietz: Nancy Dussault, Diane Langton, guest Linda Lewis
Oscar Hammerstein II: Polly James, Lewis, guest Stritch
Sheldon Harnick: Martin, McKenzie, guest Howard Da Silva
Johnny Mercer: Martin, Helen Gelzer, guest Horne
Noel Coward: Craven, Cleo Laine, guest Ian Carmichael
Frank Loesser: Martin, Peters, guest Barbara Cook
Cole Porter: Liz Robertson, Morrow, guest Welch
Irving Berlin: Martin, Cheryl Kennedy, guest Howard Keel
British theatre lyricists not shown in the U.S.: James, Brown, guest Bertice Reading
Q: Given the Broadway success of all three Disney musicals, I think it's strange that the show based on Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame has never played this country, even though it played for several years in Germany. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.---Robert R.
A: The stage version of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame had a run of several years in Berlin, under the title Der Glöckner von Notre Dame. It was a vast improvement over the film, which was rather too cutesy a treatment of a serious property. And the film's score was likewise greatly enhanced for the stage. In fact, the Glöckner CD is one of the most enjoyable theatre recordings of recent years, the Alan Menken-Stephen Schwartz score very impressive. Dance of the Vampires' Michael Kunze did the German translation of Schwartz's lyrics and James Lapine's book.
With set design by Heidi Ettinger and projections by Jerome Sirlin, Der Glöckner was an elaborate production, but one that could be scaled down. I prefer Der Glöckner to all three four, if you count King David of Disney's Broadway productions. There has been talk of a live-action television version of the Menken-Schwartz-Lapine show, with Avenue Q director Jason Moore most recently attached to the project. In any case, I think the stage version of Hunchback worthy of a U.S. tour that might include a Broadway stand, but I have to assume that the folks at Disney don't agree.
Of course, there was also Notre Dame de Paris, the hit French pop-opera version of the same Victor Hugo novel. That one had an extended run in London and also played Las Vegas, where it was not a success. But Glöckner's score is vastly superior.
Q: I am curious as to your opinion about a London performer, Maria Friedman. She did a show at the Cafe Carlyle a month ago as well as in September, and I had the pleasure of seeing it. It was amazing. Now she is starring in the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical The Woman in White, alongside the amazing Michael Crawford. Do you think there is any chance of her coming to Broadway soon, either with The Woman in Whiteor another show?---Laurie Scalf
A: I've only seen Maria Friedman in the Royal National Theatre production of Lady in the Dark and in The Witches of Eastwick. She can also be seen as The Narrator in the commercially released video of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I did not see Friedman in such other stage vehicles as Sunday in the Park with George also at the National, Passion, or Ragtime. But I know she's a strong, distinctive performer. I have also enjoyed her work on recordings, particularly on the cast recordings of Passion and Lady in the Dark and on JAY's studio cast of Cabaret.
Friedman's stage musicals have generally not been commercial hits; even her one lightweight show, Eastwick, was not a success, although it stuck around for a while. The Woman in White could very well be her first commercial stage hit. And because her cabaret shows have been well received here, I would think there's a good chance she'd want to repeat her Woman in White role on Broadway if and when the show goes to Broadway.
Q: I know that George Chakiris won an Oscar for his role as Bernardo in the movie of West Side Story. Did he also play the part in the original show?---Jack Riley
A: George Chakiris appeared in the London production of West Side Story, but he played Riff, with Chita Rivera repeating her Broadway role of Anita. Because the original Broadway cast recording was made available in England, no full London cast recording of West Side Story was made. Instead, the production's Tony and Maria, Americans Don McKay and Marlys Watters, made a 45 EP disc of four songs from the show. But there's also an English studio-cast recording of West Side Story, released on several labels over the years I have it on Society, that features Chakiris as Riff.
Q: Years ago, I remember reading that there was a recording made of the score from the 1987 show Teddy and Alice. Can you clear up this question?---Dennis
A: A musical about President Theodore Roosevelt's relationship with his daughter Alice, Teddy and Alice used pre-existing music by John Philip Sousa, as adapted by Richard Kapp. Kapp also composed some totally new tunes for the show, while Hal Hackady Minnie's Boys, Goodtime Charley provided the lyrics.
No cast recording was made, but there was a CD on the ESSAY label called Sousa for Orchestra that includes six songs from Teddy and Alice, orchestrated for the recording by Phil Lang. They're sung by Gordon Stanley, who was Teddy in the show's workshops and backer's auditions and understudied Len Cariou's Teddy on Broadway; Meg Bussert, who starred in Broadway revivals of Brigadoon, The Music Man, and Camelot; and Ron Raines, repeating his Broadway role as Alice's suitor Nick Longworth.
Q: I am about to purchase the original London cast recording of She Loves Me and was wondering if you could explain the script and score changes made for this production. I notice "Days Gone By," "I Don't Know His Name," "Will He Like Me?," and "Where's My Shoe?" among other items are missing. Was this the case onstage or were they judiciously excised for the recording? Also what is your opinion of "Heads I Win"?---Kevin
A: This is a question I've always wanted the answer to. I used to assume that because the 1964 London cast recording of She Loves Me was given only one LP, as opposed to the Broadway version's two, that those songs were omitted on the London recording simply because the complete score is too long to fit on a single LP.
But some years ago I happened to pick up a program from the London She Loves Me. I'm referring to the 1964 London premiere production, not the 1994 London revival. While the song list includes all of the original song titles, including those not on the recording, someone checked off and noted as "cut" four songs listed on the tunestack page. These were "Days Gone By," "Will He Like Me?," "Tango Tragique," and "Days Gone By" reprise. So perhaps those numbers were dropped from the London production during the run. The London She Loves Me played 189 performances. Still, the omissions on the album are probably due primarily to LP length constraints.
Like just about everything Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick ever wrote, "Heads I Win" is a quality song. It's not superior to "I Resolve," the Broadway song it replaced, but it was perhaps geared to London Ilona Rita Moreno's more sinuous style.
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