Best Songs From Best Scores: 1989 - 1990

Today, we continue our new series, Best Songs From Best Scores, in which we take a look at the numbers from a season's Best Original Score Tony nominees. Of course, "best" is in the eye ear of the beholder, and we are pretty sure you won't always agree with our choices. So, please feel free to let us know what you think via email or Twitter!

This time, we decided to look at the 1989 - 1990 season, which included two shows really in need of a first class Broadway revival. The others were a less-than-successful Andrew Lloyd Webber opera and a splashy (if unnecessary) musicalization of a beloved movie musical. Some thirty-two years later, each one holds up pretty well, and there are many worthy songs to consider. Here are the ones we like the best:

Best Songs From Best Scores

1989 - 1990

Music and lyrics by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane

Best Song: Act One Closer: "The Trolley Song" - Esther and the Ensemble

One of several classic tunes in the score, this was a showstopper, including a moving trolley and a boisterous ensemble. But let's face it, anyone who sang this song would pale in comparison to Judy Garland, but damn if Donna Kane didn't give her a run for the money! I still remember the goose bumps I got when she belted that last note, "at the end of the liiiiiiinnnneee!" It's a classic for a reason.

Nominee: Grand Hotel: The Musical

Music and lyrics by George Forrest, Maury Yeston and Robert Wright

Best Song: Dance Number: "We'll Take a Glass Together" - Otto Kingelein, Baron Felix von Gaigern and Company

In a show that was literally non-stop movement, there were several standout dance numbers, this one really stopped the show cold. A dying Otto is living out his last days in high style with his cashed-in insurance money and meets the Baron, really a cat burglar with his eye on Otto's wallet. This ode to joyous excess brings each to a life-changing epiphany, and the audience to screams of delight. One of the great numbers ever. 

David Carroll, Michael Jeter and Company

Best Song: Character Number: "I Want to Go to Hollywood" - Flaemmchen

Talk about emotional! This "I Want" song is part jazzy Charleston, part terrifying memory play. Flawlessly sung and danced by all five different people I saw do the role, I was tapping my toes and wiping away tears at the same time! 

Jane Krakowski

Nominee: Aspects of Love

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Charles Hart and Don Black

Best Song: Rousing Number: "Hand Me the Wine and the Dice" - Giullietta, Rose and Company

I've since come to really enjoy and appreciated this under-appreciated gem. I still maintain that what they did with "Love Changes Everything" for the Tony Awards that year was a vast improvement over how it is done in the show. But I was immediately smitten with this catchy and thrilling number. A celebration of life, love and taking chances, this song is gloriously sung following a significant death. What a tribute!

Ann Crumb and Michael Ball

WINNER: City of Angels

Music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by David Zippel

Best Song: Duet: "What You Don't Know About Women" - Gabby and Oolie

With a jazzy score that is superb from overture to walk-out music, there isn't a weak number in the bunch. This sharp as a tack and venomous argument against men is full of exciting wordplay that had the audience holding its collective breath so as not to miss a single word. That final crescendo of words was met with thunderous applause.

Kay McClelland and Randy Graff

Scott Waara and The Angel City 4

Best Song: End Credits (Walk-out Music): "The Theme from City of Angels" - Jimmy Powers and the Angel City 4/Orchestra

In the theater, this was the music the orchestra played as the audience left. On the cast recording, it is included with full lyrics. And those lyrics are a doozie! As sharp and funny as anything in the rest of the score, it nails that film noir/40's detective feel. It starts with "You only go around once, and then they tuck you in with a spade," and only gets better from there. I hope that when they finally get around to reviving this wonder work, the powers that be include this number as more than walk-out underscoring.   

30 Years Ago Today: Grand Hotel: The Musical

Following 31 previews which began on October 16, 1989, Grand Hotel: The Musical opened on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre 30 years ago today.

Like most of you, I call many shows my "favorite." I have several that I would say are favorites for different reasons, and Grand Hotel is one of them. There are many reasons for this, but it largely comes down to this: it is a nearly perfect synthesis of story, character, and theme, told in a never ending swirl of movement and music. Many, many musicals try to achieve this, very few accomplish it. Today, I'd say both Come From Away and Hadestown are similar, albeit, in completely different ways.

Over the years, I've had the pleasure of seeing the show twice on Broadway, and almost a dozen performances of the national tour. If seen it regionally, and I've even directed it. To this day, each time I listen to the glorious Broadway cast recording, I seem to find something new to think about, a performance to savor, a rekindled memory.

It is, simply, a show that really sticks with me.

Grand Hotel: The Musical Facts & Statistics

• 31 previews, 1,017 performances
• Opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre, where it played through January 27, 1992. It transferred to the Gershwin Theatre on February 3, and closed there on April 25, 1992.
• The show is based on a novel by Vicki Baum, and the subsequent film.
• Book by Luther Davis. Music and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest and additional music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and music by Wally Harper.
• The concept, direction and choreography was by Tommy Tune.
• The score is a conglomeration of two scores, actually. There was a score written for an earlier attempt at musicalizing the property called At the Grand.

Sadly, the original Baron, David Carroll became ill not long after the show opened and left the production. As it took almost two years for the cast recording, Mr. Carroll was unable to contribute, and, in fact, passed away during the recording. Fortunately, a live version of him singing "Love Can't Happen" is included on the album. 

For me, the wonderful performances I've gotten to see also stick with me. Both Rex Smith and Brent Barrett were superb Barons, and Lynnette Perry and Delyse Lively-Mekka were fabulous Flaemmchen, and Chip Zien was a good Kringelein. But no one compared to the original turns by Jane Krakowski and Michael Jeter. Like I said, I sure have been fortunate.

Time flies. It is difficult to wrap my head around the show celebrating thirty years. It says a lot about a production when it is as vivid to me all these decades later. I'm not entirely sure I'd like a revival. It will be nearly impossible to replicate, let alone improve upon.

A link to a great Playbill article about the show HERE. 

Here's a great compilation of scenes from the original cast:

📸: M. Swope

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#TBT: Playbill: Meet Me in St. Louis: May 1990

The look and scale of Meet Me in St. Louis was emblematic of shows in the late 80's/early 90's. Everything about it was huge - the sets (including a gigantic, multi-floor, rotating Victorian house, an ice rink and a to-scale trolley), the costumes (turn of the last century garb for each of the seasons) and a huge cast (43), featuring stars of yesterday, today, and (they hoped) tomorrow. And still it fell mostly flat. Maybe recreating a beloved movie musical that starred beloved movie musical stars wasn't that great an idea.

My reasons for seeing the show were 3-fold. First, I wanted to see all of the Tony nominees for Best Musical before the Tonys. Second, I wanted to see George Hearn again, and the great Betty Garret, too. Plus, I didn't want to miss the much talked about young cover boy making his Broadway debut - Jason Workman, Theater World Award-winner. The other two new "names" touted as "the next big thing," Donna Kane (in the Judy Garland role) and little Courtney Peldon (in the Margaret O'Brien role). Neither went further on Broadway, though Kane played Fantine at some point. And third, there was some minor scandal surrounding the producers - a South African company headed by the show's director, Louis Burke and choreographer, Joan Brickhill. It was the innocent 80's - who didn't love a scandal?

Was the show good? Not really. It was beautiful to look at, and the highlights were just what you'd think they'd be: "The Trolley Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."

Meet Me in St. Louis
Gershwin Theatre
17 previews, 252 performances
May 1990 Company: George Hearn, Milo O'Shea, Charlotte Moore, Betty Garrett, Donna Kane, Courtney Peldon, Rachel Graham, Juliet Lambert, Christopher Scott and Jason Workman

The company included future Tony Award winner Rachel Bay Jones in her Broadway debut!

Check out "Dear Playbill"! It's educational! Did you know what "labanotations" are?

Though the shows were of uneven quality (many would close soon after this - including Meet Me in St. Louis - in the annual post-Tonys purge), there were plenty of opportunities to see some master Thespians. Among them: Tom Hulce, Gregg Edelman, James Naughton, Timothy Hutton, Barnard Hughes, Mary Louis Parker, Robert Morse, Eileen Heckart, Maggie Smith, Rex Harrison, Glynis Johns, Stewart Granger and Robert Morse.

Off-Broadway, on the other hand, was full of long-running hits: Driving Miss Daisy, Closer Than Ever, and Nunsense were personal favorites.

Some production photos:

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