My Musical Theater Voyage of Discovery; The Kander and Ebb Files -- Zorba
For years I have said that ZORBA may very well be my favourite Kander and Ebb score. After examining my cds for the purpose of my blogging, I am no longer sure. I know I love it. I know it may be their most original score. I know they certainly tapped into their inner Greek to find it. I know I listen to it often. These reasons are enough for me; I don’t need to examine it any further. Zorba is simply one of the scores I love the most, out of musical theater history. Something in that show, something in that score, speaks – nay—sings to me.
I don’t listen to the original cast album with Herschel Bernardi and Maria Karnilova. Sorry, folks. I listen to the revival cast album for four very excellent reasons. Anthony Quinn. Robert Westenberg. Debbie (then) Shapiro. And I listen to this cast album, especially, for Lila Kedrova. I have loved Lila Kedrova since, as a teen, seeing the film TORN CURTAIN. I have examined some of her other films (including Zorba the Greek) and it can be said: I am a FAN. When Zorba toured through Dallas I went to see it and had the thrill, the pleasure, the honour of waiting at the stage door to meet Miss Kedrova and get an autograph (which I had the brains to NOT sell on Ebay during a bleak financial crisis). I didn’t meet Anthony Quinn. He was great but I was there for her. She moved and moves me, so. Her tracks on this recording are pure magic. Only Love is heartbreakingly beautiful and Happy Birthday is soul touching. No Boom Boom is delightfully funny and Goodbye Canavaro is sweetness personified.
Mr Quinn – not a great singer. Who cares? He IS Zorba. His rendition of Woman is so completely complete that I don’t know if another actor who happens to be a better singer could do it more justice. I feel the soul of Zorba rolling out of the headphones or speakers into me. I love Zorba and his philosophies; I feel like many of them live inside of me. I quote, often, from this recording, these two lines:
“Let’s do it quick, here and now, like men quit: smoking, drinking or a love affair.”
“I never loved a man as much as you.”
I may vary the words or the delivery each time I say these sentences but I say them and often because I cannot find a more eloquent way of expressing these emotions, these philosophies.
It is only fitting that I finish my dissertation on Zorba with Miss Debbie Shapiro Gravitte. You see, the song LIFE IS is extremely important in our house. Pat and I live by this song. We sing it (and have been for 23 years) all the freakin’ time. We play the song all the freakin’ time. It is a magnificent anthem for those of us who optimistically live our lives for the simple sake of being alive. Unlike many people who fritter their lives away by being worried, depressed, angry, paralyzed by fear, we do what is in our power to live our lives – even if it is just to step outside of our door and raise our faces to feel the sun shine down on our skin, even for a few minutes every day. So to hear one of the all time great voices of the American musical theater sing this song is a gift, It is a gift from her, from John Kander and Fred Ebb, from Broadway. And it isn’t only this song we get to experience from Miss Gravitte on this cd – I am also thrilled by the few sentences she does of ONLY LOVE, by the full out belting arrangements she does of every number she has on this cd (oh my gosh, THE CROW is chilling). Debbie Shapiro Gravitte has worked her way into the mosaic that is my life and my personality and, like the ruby slippers, there she is – and there she stays.
I am made happy and proud by my devotion to the musical called ZORBA.
In fact, I would go back to work as an actor and learn how to sing, just to play that man.
I don’t listen to the original cast album with Herschel Bernardi and Maria Karnilova. Sorry, folks. I listen to the revival cast album for four very excellent reasons. Anthony Quinn. Robert Westenberg. Debbie (then) Shapiro. And I listen to this cast album, especially, for Lila Kedrova. I have loved Lila Kedrova since, as a teen, seeing the film TORN CURTAIN. I have examined some of her other films (including Zorba the Greek) and it can be said: I am a FAN. When Zorba toured through Dallas I went to see it and had the thrill, the pleasure, the honour of waiting at the stage door to meet Miss Kedrova and get an autograph (which I had the brains to NOT sell on Ebay during a bleak financial crisis). I didn’t meet Anthony Quinn. He was great but I was there for her. She moved and moves me, so. Her tracks on this recording are pure magic. Only Love is heartbreakingly beautiful and Happy Birthday is soul touching. No Boom Boom is delightfully funny and Goodbye Canavaro is sweetness personified.
Mr Quinn – not a great singer. Who cares? He IS Zorba. His rendition of Woman is so completely complete that I don’t know if another actor who happens to be a better singer could do it more justice. I feel the soul of Zorba rolling out of the headphones or speakers into me. I love Zorba and his philosophies; I feel like many of them live inside of me. I quote, often, from this recording, these two lines:
“Let’s do it quick, here and now, like men quit: smoking, drinking or a love affair.”
“I never loved a man as much as you.”
I may vary the words or the delivery each time I say these sentences but I say them and often because I cannot find a more eloquent way of expressing these emotions, these philosophies.
It is only fitting that I finish my dissertation on Zorba with Miss Debbie Shapiro Gravitte. You see, the song LIFE IS is extremely important in our house. Pat and I live by this song. We sing it (and have been for 23 years) all the freakin’ time. We play the song all the freakin’ time. It is a magnificent anthem for those of us who optimistically live our lives for the simple sake of being alive. Unlike many people who fritter their lives away by being worried, depressed, angry, paralyzed by fear, we do what is in our power to live our lives – even if it is just to step outside of our door and raise our faces to feel the sun shine down on our skin, even for a few minutes every day. So to hear one of the all time great voices of the American musical theater sing this song is a gift, It is a gift from her, from John Kander and Fred Ebb, from Broadway. And it isn’t only this song we get to experience from Miss Gravitte on this cd – I am also thrilled by the few sentences she does of ONLY LOVE, by the full out belting arrangements she does of every number she has on this cd (oh my gosh, THE CROW is chilling). Debbie Shapiro Gravitte has worked her way into the mosaic that is my life and my personality and, like the ruby slippers, there she is – and there she stays.
I am made happy and proud by my devotion to the musical called ZORBA.
In fact, I would go back to work as an actor and learn how to sing, just to play that man.
posted by StephenMosher at 10:05 AM
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