The Friday 5: 5 Title Songs: 1996 - 2002

Next up, we run the gamut from two turn of the century musical sensations to an outright flop from one of the greatest composing teams in Broadway history.  And there's one of the greatest opening numbers ever written for the stage, and a number that launched one of the biggest careers in years! Enjoy!

THE FRIDAY 5:

5 Broadway Title Songs

1996 - 2002

RENT (Opened April 29, 1996 at the Nederlander Theatre)



From the closing cast of the long-running, prize winning juggernaut that started 23 years ago (!) featuring, among others, The Band's Visit's Adam Kantor and Kiss Me, Kate's Will Chase.

STEEL PIER (Opened April 24, 1997 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre)



Hard pressed to find a performance of the whole title song, please enjoy this excerpt and another great number from the show, "Everybody Dance." A snippet from a great Kander and Ebb score is better than nothing!

RAGTIME (Opened January 29, 1998 at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts)



Here's the entire original cast on The Rosie O'Donnell Show, chosen specifically because it offers great close ups of Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Mark Jacoby, a very young Lea Michele, and a radiant Marin Mazzie. PLUS I love how the mics pick up the two biggest, greatest divas like they are the only two people on the stage!

MAMMA MIA! (Opened October 18, 2001 at the Winter Garden Theatre)



There are other versions of this infectious ABBA number from the musical, but I thought you'd rather have this 1:20 of the always amazing Beth Leavel kicking ass with a drill gun!

THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE (Opened April 18, 2002 at the Marquis Theatre)



Here's the jazzy toe-tapper during a Today taping, hosted by Katie Couric, who interviews Tony-winner Sutton Foster (before she was a Tony-winner) after the number.

#1987

The Friday 5: 5 Kander and Ebb Shows in Need of Revival

Broadway history is full of great writing teams - Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Menken and Ashman, Pasek and Paul - all great, all with seminal works. But there is one pair whose work I greatly admire. They have written some of Broadway's greatest musicals of all time, and even their "flops" are glorious. Their works are at times dark and at times joyous, and always revealing of the human condition. And like many of the great theatre craftsmen, their work pushes boundaries and is often said to be ahead of its time.

Cabaret has been revived three times since its debut, and, of course, Chicago shows no signs of stopping. But there are many shows of theirs that seem ready for revival. This week, I look at 5 Kander and Ebb musicals I'd love to see again, along with some of my favorite songs from each. As a bonus, there's a look back at some of the people in the original casts. Here are those shows (in alphabetical order):

The Friday 5:

5 Kander and Ebb
Shows in Need of Revival

Kiss of the Spider Woman

Last on Broadway: July 1, 1995

My 3 Favorite Numbers:

• "Where You Are"
• "Kiss of the Spider Woman"
• "Dressing Them Up"
• Honorable Mention: "You Could Never Shame Me"

Interesting Original Cast Members: Merle Louise - one of the greatest supporting actresses ever: the original casts of Gypsy, Company, Sweeney Todd, La Cage aux Folles and Into the Woods.

The Rink

Last on Broadway: August 14, 1984

My 3 Favorite Numbers:

• "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer"
• "What Happened to the Old Days?"
• "The Apple Doesn't Fall"
• Honorable Mention: "The Rink"

Interesting Original Cast Members: Jason Alexander - Tony winner for Best Actor in a Musical, Jerome Robbins' Broadway, TV's Seinfeld; Scott Ellis - 8-time Tony Award nominee for direction of a play or musical; Rob Marshall (understudy) - 6-time Tony Award nominee for direction of a musical or choreography, Oscar winner

The Scottsboro Boys

Last on Broadway: December 12, 2010

3 Favorite Numbers:

• "Commencing in Chattanooga"
• "Alabama Ladies"
• "Electric Chair"
• Honorable Mention: "The Scottsboro Boys"

Interesting Original Cast Members: Joshua Henry - 3-time Tony Award nominee for leading or supporting actor in a musical, Rodney Hicks, Josh Breckenridge - both in Come From Away, Colman Domingo - book writer, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical

Steel Pier

Last on Broadway: June 28, 1997

3 Favorite Numbers:

• "Everybody Dance"
• "Everybody's Girl"
• "Steel Pier"
• Honorable Mention: "Two Little Words" (Kristin Chenoweth)

Interesting Original Cast Members: Casey Nicholaw  - Tony winner, Best Director, The Book of Mormon, 9-time Tony Award nominee for direction of a musical or choreography; Andy Blankenbuhler - 3-time Tony winner, Best Choreography, In the Heights, Hamilton, Bandstand; Kristin Chenoweth (her Broadway debut!) - Tony winner, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, 2-time Tony Award nominee for leading actress in a musical

Zorba

Last on Broadway: September 2, 1984

3 Favorite Numbers:

• "Life Is"
• "The Butterfly"
• "The Crow"
• Honorable Mention: "Happy Birthday"

Interesting Original Revival Cast Members: Debbie Shapiro (Gravitte) - Tony Award winner, Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Jerome Robbins' Broadway; Rob Marshall - see The Rink; Robert Westenberg - Theatre World Award winner for Zorba, Tony Award nominee for featured actor in a musical, Into the Woods

LEGEND: Susan Stroman

She's worked in just about every area of entertainment - stage, screen, television.  She's worked with entertainment legends like Mel Brooks, Stephen Sondheim, Harold Prince, Kander and Ebb.  She directs, choreographs, conceives shows and she even started as a performer!  She's a 13 time Tony nominee and 5 time Tony winner.  This season, she'll have four more cracks at Tony nominations and wins, too, with her direction and choreography of both Big Fish and Bullets Over Broadway.  Her endlessly creative dance moves and stunning directorial concepts make even her "flops" theatrical classics.  She is living Broadway legend Susan Stroman.

Not Broadway, but in a production
of Applause

AS A BROADWAY PERFORMER:

• Debut: Whoopee!

AS A CHOREOGRAPHER:

• Crazy For You - Tony Winner
• Picnic
• Show Boat (1994 Revival) - Tony Winner
• Big: The Musical - Tony Nomination
• Oklahoma! (2002 Revival) - Tony Nomination

AS A CHOREOGRAPHER AND DIRECTOR:

• Debut: Musical Chairs (Assistant Director/Assistant Choreographer/Dance Captain)
• The Music Man (2000 Revival) - Tony Nomination - Choreography and Direction
• The Producers - Tony Winner Choreography and Direction
• The Frogs
• Young Frankenstein
• The Scottsboro Boys - Tony Nomination - Choreography and Direction 
• Big Fish
• Bullets Over Broadway

AS CHOREOGRPHER/DIRECTOR/CONCEPTION:

• Steel Pier (Choreography and Conception) - Tony Nomination - Choreography
• Contact - Tony Winner - Choreography; Tony Nomination - Direction
• Thou Shalt Not

BROADWAY STAR MAKER ("The Big Break"):

• Norbert Leo Butz - Thou Shalt Not
• Kristen Chenoweth - Steel Pier
• Craig Bierko - Thou Shalt Not
• Harry Connick Jr. - Thou Shalt Not

HER MUSES (2 or more shows):

• Nathan Lane - The Frogs, The Producers
• Mel Brooks - The Producers, Young Frankenstein
• Kander and Ebb - Steel Pier, The Scottsboro Boys
• Karen Ziemba - Steel Pier, Contact
• Debra Monk - Steel Pier, Thou Shalt Not
• Roger Bart - Young Frankenstein, The Producers, The Frogs
• Rebecca Luker - Show Boat, The Music Man
• Shuler Hensley - Oklahoma!, Young Frankenstein
• Craig Bierko - Thou Shalt Not, The Music Man
• Norbert Leo Butz - Thou Shalt Not, Big Fish

Jeff
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