My Musical Theater Voyage of Discovery; The Divas File
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THE DIVAS FILE:
I have arranged my Ipod in a way that is unique to my own filing system – which Pat and other people tease me about a LOT. My dvds at home are grouped in genre or by star and THEN they are filed alphabetically. It really does get me razzed quite a lot. My Ipod is fixed by male vocalists, female vocalists, musical theater, movie music, classic music, instrumental soundtracks … and so on and so forth. So while I was writing the stories about exploring all the musical theater imported into my Ipod, I went from Z to A (remember – I started at the end of the list), until I got to Sondheim, Kander and Ebb and Jerry Herman, all of whose music is actually filed by composer. My God, this sounds complicated. Now that I have finished going through all that list (and making deletions and adding new music to learn), I have to admit – there are a few musicals that I didn’t touch upon because they are filed by STAR. In true gay boy form, those musicals and the stars of them are:
Julie Andrews
Camelot was a big part of my childhood. As a boy I discovered Julie Andrews. As a teen I discovered Camelot. I love the songs from this show; I loved listening to Richard Burton sing; I LOVED listening to Robert Goulet sing (for years, when I had the urge to sing, the first song to come to my lips was If Ever I Would Leave You). My passion for this musical rages, to this day, even though I have seen productions of it and realized the problems, inherent in the script; even though I have listened to (or read online) complaints from armchair critics who want to tear down this lovely and lush musical. I happen to like Camelot. I like it a lot; and as long as I am a fan, a devotee, an aficionado of the artform of musical theater, I will find myself getting out the cd or spinning the dial on my Ipod to listen to the cast recording, once more, and to sing along.
Cinderella isn’t really a cast album from a Broadway musical. It’s a tv show. It just feels like a Broadway musical because it is Rodgers and Hammerstein and because, after the popularity of both the Julie Andrews tv special and the Leslie Ann Warren tv special, people began doing it AS a stage musical. So I look at it as just that: a stage musical. The thing is, I don’t really listen to it all that often – I have to admit that it is a little sweet for me. Ok, it’s a lot sweet for me. Saccharine. Nevertheless, I like listening to Julie Andrews sing and I do listen to her solo cuts, sometimes her duets with the Prince (sooo sweet) and I admit that I do love to listen to The Stepsisters’ Lament, as well as the Impossible/It’s Possible number. Otherwise, the rest of this cast album I just sort of let slide – though I cannot bring myself to delete any of the numbers. What can I tell ya, it’s Rodgers and Hammerstein.
The King and I is actually a studio recording Julie Andrews did with Ben Kingsley. Not a big fan of the studio recordings, I wouldn’t really have paid it any mind except that it is Julie Andrews and Ben Kingsley – and it is their tracks on this studio recording that I have in my Ipod. I don’t really care about Lea Salonga singing the Tuptim tracks and I certainly don’t care about Peabo Bryson doing the Lun Tha tracks. They are both too pop-y for my tastes. If I want to hear Tuptim, I go for Joohee Choi and if I want to hear Lun Tha I, def, go for Jose Llana or Martin Vidnovic. I don’t need the tracks on this studio recording that don’t involve Julie Andrews – and Ben Kingsley is, actually, just a mild pleasure because it is Ben Kingsley. At the end of the day, it is just all about Julie Andrews.
My Fair Lady was one of my earliest discoveries in musical theater. It wasn’t the earliest – I think we’ve established that those were Hello, Dolly! Oliver! Mame and The Sound of Music. However, having been lead to the library record album bins by those four, I discovered the likes of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Dear World, The Music Man, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Funny Girl and, of course, My Fair Lady. My friend, Brady, says he prefers Gigi to My Fair Lady. Ladeda. Pardon me while I play the grand piano. I think Gigi is lovely. I don’t care. This is My Fair Lady. It starts with one of the greatest overtures ever written (no – it’s not the greatest but it IS in the top five – we’ll do the overture talk another time). Aside from the fact that every word, every note of the score is an absolute perfection, we do have the beyond perfection of Mr Harrison and the newcoming Miss Andrews. This was the show that made her a star… and it is a show that I could listen to over and over. Mind you, the revival cast with Christine Andreas does NOT thrill me. A die-hard Andreas fan, I listen to her cuts (though not all of them are really thrilling enough to warrant a listening) – but I don’t care for the Ian Richardson tracks. As far as the London revival cast recording goes (Jonathan Pryce and Martine McCutcheon) he is alright – pleasant enough to enjoy but not good enough to erase the memory of Rex Harrison – and she is divine (I love her tracks on the cd). There is a studio recording made with Jeremy Irons and Kiri te Kanawa that I made the grave error of buying and never listened to all the way through because it is Unbearable. No. If I want to hear My Fair Lady, I listen to this recording… the original recording with Julie Andrews.
And, yes, I will say this: I listen to the movie soundtrack. I love Marni Nixon.
Putting it Together. Oh, I am so angry I missed seeing this show. It was playing just before I moved to New York and it closed before I got here. Oh, I am so angry that I missed it. It is an absolute perfect combination. Sondheim done by Julie Andrews, Stephen Collins, Michael Rupert and Rachel York… dang nab it. Christopher Durang is mildly entertaining on the cast album but I rarely play his tracks unless he is singing with someone else in the show. I listen to this cd a LOT. A REALLY lot. In fact, aside from the remarkable tracks performed by Julie Andrews and the loveliness of Stephen Collins’ numbers and that Michael Rupert voice (for a very long time he was my favourite boy voice on Broadway and he remains one of my favourites but Chris Seibert, Brian James and Cheyenne Jackson sort of nudged him out of the way, during recent years), Rachel York is sublime, turning in one of my top two favourite renditions of The Miller’s Son (the other being performed by Liz Callaway). I love this revue – the concept, the execution, the performances, the sophistication. I love it and I listen to it. I’m sad that it didn’t retain some of the glamour and sophistication when it moved to Broadway. It is no reflection on the great Carol Burnett or George Hearn; it is certainly no reflection on John Barrowman. They are just different people than the original off Broadway cast. I don’t care for Bronson Pinchot and I really can’t stand Ruthie Henshall – that might have had something to do with it. I did see the show, live, with David Engel in for Bronson Pinchot and that made it a LOT more enjoyable. He DOES have elegance and sophistication. Pinchot and Henshall just seem vulgar and nuveau. This entry, though, is not about that production: it’s about the one with Julie Andrews. One of my favourite musical cds: one I actually listen to.
Victor Victoria. Tch. Saw it. Didn’t like it. Didn’t hate it. Didn’t like it. Still…. The title track is bouncy and fun. The ballad Living in the Shadows is lovely. The song Paris By Night is really pretty. That’s why those tracks are in my Ipod. None of the rest of this cd is. It just isn’t necessary. Though. With all the flaws, with all its’ faults, what I walked away from, after seeing Victor Victoria is that I saw Julie Andrews live. Nobody can ever take that away from me. I saw Julie Andrews live.
Barbra Streisand
Funny Girl. Ok. I’m a gay male. So Funny Girl is in my blood. Funny Girl is a part of my genetic makeup. I love this musical so much. I love the cast album, I love the soundtrack. I watch my dvd of it, listen to my cds of it and I sing along. I love the songs from Broadway that were cut for the movie, I love the songs from the movie that were added. I love everything about Funny Girl. I even love it when it is being performed in regional theaters by women who can never hope to live up to Barbra Streisand’s genius. Funny Girl is just one of those shows that deserves every ounce of love it gets from every gay boy (and the odd not gay boy) that loves it. Funny Girl is simply marvelous; from the first notes of the incredible overture to the final notes of the finale, every single song on this cast album is worth listening to – even the songs that Streisand doesn’t sing on. I like Henry Street. I like Find Yourself a Man. I like Who Taught Her Everything She Knows. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE Cornet Man. I love The Music that Makes me Dance (a LOT). I LOVE WHO ARE YOU NOW. I love I Want to Be Seen With You. And, natch, I love the famous songs – Don’t Rain on, Greatest Star, People and all the rest.
I think it is fair to say that Funny Girl is one of my happy places.
I Can Get it for You Wholesale is a fun little musical that a lot of people don’t really remember (even though Bloom and Vlastnick placed it on their list of the 100 greatest musicals). It did give the world Barbra Streisand. Ladeda. Is it one of my favourites? Not really. Maybe I just don’t get it. I listen to it from time to time – I leave it all in my Ipod because I want to like it. I want to be smart and sophisticated and like it. I want to keep it alive by listening to it, while the rest of the world has forgotten it, in favour of listening to She Loves Me or Guys and Dolls or West Side Story. So, in my Ipod, there it is and there it stays… even though I don’t really have a strong enough appreciation of it to do a detailed analysis in this story…
I have arranged my Ipod in a way that is unique to my own filing system – which Pat and other people tease me about a LOT. My dvds at home are grouped in genre or by star and THEN they are filed alphabetically. It really does get me razzed quite a lot. My Ipod is fixed by male vocalists, female vocalists, musical theater, movie music, classic music, instrumental soundtracks … and so on and so forth. So while I was writing the stories about exploring all the musical theater imported into my Ipod, I went from Z to A (remember – I started at the end of the list), until I got to Sondheim, Kander and Ebb and Jerry Herman, all of whose music is actually filed by composer. My God, this sounds complicated. Now that I have finished going through all that list (and making deletions and adding new music to learn), I have to admit – there are a few musicals that I didn’t touch upon because they are filed by STAR. In true gay boy form, those musicals and the stars of them are:
Julie Andrews
Camelot was a big part of my childhood. As a boy I discovered Julie Andrews. As a teen I discovered Camelot. I love the songs from this show; I loved listening to Richard Burton sing; I LOVED listening to Robert Goulet sing (for years, when I had the urge to sing, the first song to come to my lips was If Ever I Would Leave You). My passion for this musical rages, to this day, even though I have seen productions of it and realized the problems, inherent in the script; even though I have listened to (or read online) complaints from armchair critics who want to tear down this lovely and lush musical. I happen to like Camelot. I like it a lot; and as long as I am a fan, a devotee, an aficionado of the artform of musical theater, I will find myself getting out the cd or spinning the dial on my Ipod to listen to the cast recording, once more, and to sing along.
Cinderella isn’t really a cast album from a Broadway musical. It’s a tv show. It just feels like a Broadway musical because it is Rodgers and Hammerstein and because, after the popularity of both the Julie Andrews tv special and the Leslie Ann Warren tv special, people began doing it AS a stage musical. So I look at it as just that: a stage musical. The thing is, I don’t really listen to it all that often – I have to admit that it is a little sweet for me. Ok, it’s a lot sweet for me. Saccharine. Nevertheless, I like listening to Julie Andrews sing and I do listen to her solo cuts, sometimes her duets with the Prince (sooo sweet) and I admit that I do love to listen to The Stepsisters’ Lament, as well as the Impossible/It’s Possible number. Otherwise, the rest of this cast album I just sort of let slide – though I cannot bring myself to delete any of the numbers. What can I tell ya, it’s Rodgers and Hammerstein.
The King and I is actually a studio recording Julie Andrews did with Ben Kingsley. Not a big fan of the studio recordings, I wouldn’t really have paid it any mind except that it is Julie Andrews and Ben Kingsley – and it is their tracks on this studio recording that I have in my Ipod. I don’t really care about Lea Salonga singing the Tuptim tracks and I certainly don’t care about Peabo Bryson doing the Lun Tha tracks. They are both too pop-y for my tastes. If I want to hear Tuptim, I go for Joohee Choi and if I want to hear Lun Tha I, def, go for Jose Llana or Martin Vidnovic. I don’t need the tracks on this studio recording that don’t involve Julie Andrews – and Ben Kingsley is, actually, just a mild pleasure because it is Ben Kingsley. At the end of the day, it is just all about Julie Andrews.
My Fair Lady was one of my earliest discoveries in musical theater. It wasn’t the earliest – I think we’ve established that those were Hello, Dolly! Oliver! Mame and The Sound of Music. However, having been lead to the library record album bins by those four, I discovered the likes of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Dear World, The Music Man, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Funny Girl and, of course, My Fair Lady. My friend, Brady, says he prefers Gigi to My Fair Lady. Ladeda. Pardon me while I play the grand piano. I think Gigi is lovely. I don’t care. This is My Fair Lady. It starts with one of the greatest overtures ever written (no – it’s not the greatest but it IS in the top five – we’ll do the overture talk another time). Aside from the fact that every word, every note of the score is an absolute perfection, we do have the beyond perfection of Mr Harrison and the newcoming Miss Andrews. This was the show that made her a star… and it is a show that I could listen to over and over. Mind you, the revival cast with Christine Andreas does NOT thrill me. A die-hard Andreas fan, I listen to her cuts (though not all of them are really thrilling enough to warrant a listening) – but I don’t care for the Ian Richardson tracks. As far as the London revival cast recording goes (Jonathan Pryce and Martine McCutcheon) he is alright – pleasant enough to enjoy but not good enough to erase the memory of Rex Harrison – and she is divine (I love her tracks on the cd). There is a studio recording made with Jeremy Irons and Kiri te Kanawa that I made the grave error of buying and never listened to all the way through because it is Unbearable. No. If I want to hear My Fair Lady, I listen to this recording… the original recording with Julie Andrews.
And, yes, I will say this: I listen to the movie soundtrack. I love Marni Nixon.
Putting it Together. Oh, I am so angry I missed seeing this show. It was playing just before I moved to New York and it closed before I got here. Oh, I am so angry that I missed it. It is an absolute perfect combination. Sondheim done by Julie Andrews, Stephen Collins, Michael Rupert and Rachel York… dang nab it. Christopher Durang is mildly entertaining on the cast album but I rarely play his tracks unless he is singing with someone else in the show. I listen to this cd a LOT. A REALLY lot. In fact, aside from the remarkable tracks performed by Julie Andrews and the loveliness of Stephen Collins’ numbers and that Michael Rupert voice (for a very long time he was my favourite boy voice on Broadway and he remains one of my favourites but Chris Seibert, Brian James and Cheyenne Jackson sort of nudged him out of the way, during recent years), Rachel York is sublime, turning in one of my top two favourite renditions of The Miller’s Son (the other being performed by Liz Callaway). I love this revue – the concept, the execution, the performances, the sophistication. I love it and I listen to it. I’m sad that it didn’t retain some of the glamour and sophistication when it moved to Broadway. It is no reflection on the great Carol Burnett or George Hearn; it is certainly no reflection on John Barrowman. They are just different people than the original off Broadway cast. I don’t care for Bronson Pinchot and I really can’t stand Ruthie Henshall – that might have had something to do with it. I did see the show, live, with David Engel in for Bronson Pinchot and that made it a LOT more enjoyable. He DOES have elegance and sophistication. Pinchot and Henshall just seem vulgar and nuveau. This entry, though, is not about that production: it’s about the one with Julie Andrews. One of my favourite musical cds: one I actually listen to.
Victor Victoria. Tch. Saw it. Didn’t like it. Didn’t hate it. Didn’t like it. Still…. The title track is bouncy and fun. The ballad Living in the Shadows is lovely. The song Paris By Night is really pretty. That’s why those tracks are in my Ipod. None of the rest of this cd is. It just isn’t necessary. Though. With all the flaws, with all its’ faults, what I walked away from, after seeing Victor Victoria is that I saw Julie Andrews live. Nobody can ever take that away from me. I saw Julie Andrews live.
Barbra Streisand
Funny Girl. Ok. I’m a gay male. So Funny Girl is in my blood. Funny Girl is a part of my genetic makeup. I love this musical so much. I love the cast album, I love the soundtrack. I watch my dvd of it, listen to my cds of it and I sing along. I love the songs from Broadway that were cut for the movie, I love the songs from the movie that were added. I love everything about Funny Girl. I even love it when it is being performed in regional theaters by women who can never hope to live up to Barbra Streisand’s genius. Funny Girl is just one of those shows that deserves every ounce of love it gets from every gay boy (and the odd not gay boy) that loves it. Funny Girl is simply marvelous; from the first notes of the incredible overture to the final notes of the finale, every single song on this cast album is worth listening to – even the songs that Streisand doesn’t sing on. I like Henry Street. I like Find Yourself a Man. I like Who Taught Her Everything She Knows. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE Cornet Man. I love The Music that Makes me Dance (a LOT). I LOVE WHO ARE YOU NOW. I love I Want to Be Seen With You. And, natch, I love the famous songs – Don’t Rain on, Greatest Star, People and all the rest.
I think it is fair to say that Funny Girl is one of my happy places.
I Can Get it for You Wholesale is a fun little musical that a lot of people don’t really remember (even though Bloom and Vlastnick placed it on their list of the 100 greatest musicals). It did give the world Barbra Streisand. Ladeda. Is it one of my favourites? Not really. Maybe I just don’t get it. I listen to it from time to time – I leave it all in my Ipod because I want to like it. I want to be smart and sophisticated and like it. I want to keep it alive by listening to it, while the rest of the world has forgotten it, in favour of listening to She Loves Me or Guys and Dolls or West Side Story. So, in my Ipod, there it is and there it stays… even though I don’t really have a strong enough appreciation of it to do a detailed analysis in this story…
Liza Minnelli
Even though I keep all my Liza music together, when the time came to write about Kander and Ebb, it didn’t feel cohesive to separate the Liza music from the K&E music; so I actually DID include Flora the Red Menace, The Rink and The Act (and my bootleg of Chicago when Liza was in it) in those previous stories. If you are interested, feel free to scroll down and find the stories I wrote about the Kander and Ebb musicals.
And that ends my diva files – because those are my divas.
Well, three of them, at least.
posted by StephenMosher at 7:55 AM
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