Best Songs From Best Scores: 1965 - 1966

Imagine a season with this deep a roster of Best Score nominees: Mame, Man of La Mancha, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, and Sweet Charity. When the least of them is a beloved score from a short-run musical that was later a film with one of the world's greatest stars, I'd say it was a terrific year for the musical! Seriously, the other three are, for me, no-skip recordings, and they are each on my list of all-time favorite shows.

Best Songs From Best Scores

1965 - 1966

  

Nominee: Mame

Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman

Best Song: Heartbreaking Duet: "My Best Girl"

If you were/are fortunate enough to have an "Auntie Mame" type person in your life (mine was my Nonna), then this whole show probably gives you all the feels. This song in particular makes me cry literally at just the thought of it. I know what that kind of love and devotion first hand.

Best Song:Character Entrance - Production Number: "It's Today"

As much as I love this jazzy number just listening to it, I'll never forget Angela Lansbury sliding down a spiral staircase in a gold pantsuit while playing a bugle. What an entrance! And what a song of making the most out of each moment we are alive!

Best Song: Bitchy Duet: "Bosom Buddies"

An absolute classic. What could I possibly add to the discourse around this number? It is funny, biting and a real tribute to friendship.

  

Nominee: On a Clear Day You Can See Forever

Music by Burton Lane Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner

Best Song: Character Introduction - Solo:  "Hurry! It's Lovely Up Here" - Daisy Gamble

A crazy premise - she can make flowers grow just by singing to them + a sweet delivery of even sweeter sentiments, and you get one heck of a character piece. Barbara Harris was one of a kind.

Best Song: Title Number: "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" - Dr. Mark Bruckner

I'd listen to John Cullum sing the phone book, but this is a great title number, that is warm and even catchy. Talk about an ear worm! It's not exactly a toe-tapper, but it sticks with you long after the song is over...

   

Nominee: Sweet Charity

Music by Cy Coleman and Lyrics by Dorothy Fields

Best Song: Production Number: "Big Spender" The Fan-Dango Girls

I'll bet that as you are reading this, you can hear the opening notes of this classic. What's great about the song is that it works just as well when you can only hear it as when you see what goes with it. And those infectious lyrics... fun, laughs, good time indeed!

Best Song: Title Number:  "Sweet Charity" - Oscar

Ok, so technically, this song isn't one of my favorites in the OBCR, but I love the version of the song from the 1986 revival. It is an unabashed song of adoration. I'd kill to have someone love me enough to sing me a song like this one!

Best Song: Production Number: "Rhythm of Life" Daddy Johann Sebastian Brubeck and His Worshippers

I love everything about this song - the catchy, infectious tune, the snappy wordplay of the lyrics, the skewering of organized religion. On a no-skip cast recording like this one, how great that it starts act two so that it is easy to play over and over! (60s shows should be played on vinyl...)

WINNER: Man of La Mancha

Music by Mitch Leigh and Lyrics by Joe Darion

Best Song: Character Introduction: "Man of La Mancha (I, Don Quixote)" - Miguel de Cervantes/Don Quixote de La Mancha

I love how this song is integrated into the story, as the storyteller becomes the story before our very eyes. And the way it builds and builds... no matter who sings it is a thrill ride of a song.

Best Song: Counterpoint Quartet: "I'm Only Thinking of Him" - The Padre, The Housekeeper, Antonia and Dr. Carasco

This song walked so "A Model of Decorum and Tranquility" could run. But seriously, clever counterpoint songs, if done well, develop character and further the plot. This is a gold standard of the sub-genre.

Best Song: Soul Searching Ballad:  "What Does He Want of Me?" - Aldonza

You probably thought the classic ballad, "The Impossible Dream" would make this list, and it is a great song for sure. But for my money, this song that gives us Aldonza at her most vulnerable and confused. Dare she let herself feel love? Dare she let this crazy man in? No one has ever seen her before. What a beautiful song?

Broadway Ladies: Ms. September 2014: Alysha Umphress

Ms. September 2014

Alysha Umphress

WHY SHE'S MS. BROADWAY: I picked this month's Ms. Broadway because she really fits what I initially intended these recognitions to be: a celebration of an established, but on-the-rise actor/actress.  I've been fortunate enough to have seen Ms. September in every show she's done on Broadway.  I will never forget her debut in American Idiot and marveling at her presence.  I couldn't take my eyes off of her - quite an accomplishment considering the sensory overload of that production!  And I joined the roar of cheers and applause at her sassy, scene-stealing moment in "Too Much Too Soon."  Since then, it's been fun to watch her work in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, and in her replacement turn in Priscilla Queen of the Desert.  Now, I am excited to see how terrific Alysha Umphress will be as she steps up to a major role in the new revival of On the Town.

HEAD SHOTS

ALYSHA ON THE RED CARPET

with Cristin Milioti

with our friend, Cody Williams

with Michael Esper

REGIONAL (Funked Up Fairy Tales, Beaches: The Musical)

Funked Up Fairy Tales

Beaches in rehearsal

Beaches in performance

ON BROADWAY (American Idiot, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Bring It On, On the Town)

American Idiot

Priscilla Queen of the Desert

On a Clear Day...

Can't see her? She was an unseen soloist

in the song "Legendary" from Bring It On

On the Town 

(photos from the Barrington pre-Broadway run, and Broadway rehearsals)

Jeff
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Broadway Ladies: Ms. June 2014: Jessie Mueller

Ms. June 2014

Jessie Mueller

WHY SHE'S MS. BROADWAY: DUH!  It's been a long time coming... after a very successful career in Chicago, she made her Broadway debut (and earned her first Tony nomination) in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, where she wowed the critics, who otherwise dismissed the show.  Then she played the exotic Helena Landless in the acclaimed revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, followed by a replacement stint in Nice Work If You Can Get It. In between all of that she appeared in a concert version of Carousel, and the Shakespeare In The Park revival of Into the Woods.  But to date, she will be remembered for her Tony-winning star turn as Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.  The consummate stage actress - at home in children's theatre, doing Shakespeare, or in musicals in the ensemble, supporting roles or the leading actress - she has everything it takes to be Ms. Broadway for today AND tomorrow!

TONY TIME!

FUN FACTS:

• She was born on February 20 in Evanston, Illinois.
• Everyone in her immediate family is in "the biz" - Mom, Dad and siblings Andrew, Matt and Abby (she's in Kinky Boots)!
• She's a 2005 graduate of Syracuse University.
• She's won two Joseph Jefferson Awards for her work in Chicago-area theatre (Carousel and She Loves Me), and she was named 2011 Actor of the Year by the Chicago Tribune!
• When she was in Henry IV with the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, the company went to The Swan Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon!

3 of the Mueller Siblings

HER CAREER IN CHICAGO
(Including Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Marriott Lincolnshire and The Goodman Theatre, and roles in shows including SHE LOVES ME, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, GUYS AND DOLLS, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, and SHOUT! THE MOD MUSICAL, and many others!)

Animal Crackers

A Christmas Carol

A Little Night Music and "The Ant and the Grasshopper"

Shout! The Mod Musical

Guys and Dolls

Sleeping Beauty

HER CAREER IN NEW YORK
(OFF-BROADWAY: INTO THE WOODS, CAROUSEL.)

(BROADWAY: ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER, THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT, BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL)

ON VIDEO:
Some DROOD mayhem:

As Cinderella in The Publis's INTO THE WOODS

As Amalia in SHE LOVES ME

Jeff
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