ReDISCoveries: The Most Happy Fella (2000 Studio Recording, Disc Three)

ReDISCoveries: The Most Happy Fella

(2000 Studio Recording, Disc Three)

Jeff has kindly invited me to revisit and review some of the older cast recordings in my collection. Every other week or so, I’ll write about a new CD, offering some general impressions followed by my thoughts about each individual song. This week I conclude a three-part series on the 2000 complete studio recording of Frank Loesser’s The Most Happy Fella.

Although my love for this show, or really any show, is largely a function of its music, The Most Happy Fella also boasts one of the most emotionally complex and thematically coherent plots of any musical I’m aware of. Comical Italian accents aside, the show somehow just rings true, with a love story fully grounded in reality - something which is not true of many musicals, even objectively great ones. And though there are plenty of things about the show that could be called old-fashioned (probably even for 1956), the plot and the characters feel very modern, reacting to joy and heartache in familiar ways. Maybe “timeless” is a better word for it than “modern.”

In the third act, discussed below, Tony learns that Rosabella is pregnant with Joe’s child, conceived on their wedding night, but he comes to understand her mistake and therefore to forgive it. Nonetheless, this would seem to be a very unstable way to start a life together - can Tony really trust her, and can she ever really shake off the suspicion that he still resents her for what happened? The show deals with this question head-on by emphasizing the symmetry between Rosabella’s mistake and a series of early mistakes that Tony made, setting the stage for her one-night stand. As he himself points out, he sowed confusion and desperation by sending her Joe’s picture instead of his own; before that, he didn’t even have the courage to talk to her when he first saw her in the restaurant. Together they address these lapses by replaying what should have been their first meeting; we finally learn that Rosabella is really Amy, and the show leaves us confident that their marriage will be a successful one.

The recording concludes with six songs which were cut at various stages of the show’s development (some were later restored for certain productions). Although all were cut for a reason, it’s not due to lack of quality: with maybe one exception, all are as good as the rest of the songs in the show. Three of them focus on Tony’s sister Marie, and their inclusion would have turned her into a fully fleshed-out character rather than the cookie-cutter semi-villain we see in the existing show. But in a musical that’s already about three hours long, I suppose something had to give!

THE SONGS

I use a star (*) to mark the songs I particularly like, and my overall favorite gets two

stars (**). This recording includes spoken dialogue, and I’ve combined a few shorter

musical segments, so this review doesn’t exactly follow the track listing on the CD.

Prelude / Abbondanza (reprise): The act begins with a brisk recapitulation of the music that began the first act (which is, incidentally, not part of any song in the score), followed by a return of Tony’s Italian staff preparing for a “real” celebration of the marriage of Tony (Louis Quilico) and Rosabella (Emily Loesser). The following book scene includes some very beautiful and dramatic underscoring.

I Like Everybody: Cleo’s (Karen Ziemba) impatience with Herman’s (Don Stephenson) passivity reaches an inflection point here. This isn’t my favorite song in the score, but the recitative leading up to it is nice, and this version incorporates some clever counterpoint between the two.

*Song of a Summer Night: Tony’s doctor (William Burden) knows that Tony and Rosabella need to talk, so he leads Tony’s staff for a walk into town. The doctor may be a tertiary character, but Loesser manages to give him two very gentle, lovely songs, counting the first verse of this one, which then develops into a gorgeous choral number that wouldn’t be out of place in a church. “It’s a kind of lovers’ music,” as they all aptly sing, though we know that their friends’ love is about to be tested.

**Please Let Me Tell You: Tony has thrown Rosabella out after she admits to carrying Joe’s child, but first she offers her apologies in this extraordinary melodramatic aria. Her short phrases are repeatedly interrupted by fortissimo orchestral outbursts that express her anguish more effectively than any words ever could. I don’t think anything quite like it has been heard on stage before or since. 

In the scene that follows, Joe is preparing to leave town; he bids farewell with an affecting mixture of dialogue and his unique style of music. 

She Gonna Come Home Wit’ Me: The drama reaches a climax here as Rosabella also arrives at the bus station to head back to San Francisco; Tony comes in thinking she is leaving to be with Joe, who he intends to kill; but seeing that she’s leaving on her own, pregnant and with nowhere to go, he of course decides to forgive. The underscoring is again very beautiful and effective in this crucial scene, which continues to drift between spoken dialogue and brief sung segments in the style of the bench scene from Carousel. 

I Made a Fist: This brief song happily concludes the Cleo/Herman storyline as he impresses her by finally standing up for himself.

I Canno’ Leave You Money:Tony will raise the child as his own, but Rosabella - who we now find out is really Amy - fears he will always resent her. He assures her this is not the case by taking his own share of the blame, and together they decide to begin again by re-enacting a better version of their meeting in San Francisco.

Finale: The long-delayed celebration of our central couple’s love is finally taking place, and in this brisk finale we’re treated to a lovely recapitulation of “My Heart is So Full of You” and the title song.

Exit Music: I could listen all day to this suite of all the big numbers from this singular score. This was back when the exit music really did last long enough for the audience to leave the theater!

BONUS TRACKS

House and Garden: This pretty little introspective song for Rosabella, in which she tells Cleo about her domestic dreams à la “Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm,” certainly matches the rest of her music in the show. Clearly from the first scene of the show set in San Francisco, apparently it’s been cut and put back in and cut again over the decades. My feeling is that its inclusion probably would delay the real start of the drama too significantly to be worthwhile.

Tony and Marie Duet / Nobody’s Gonna Love You Like I Love You: This is a greatly extended version of a scene from the first act of the show between Tony and his sister Marie (Nancy Shade), before he decides to send Joe’s photo to Rosabella. We certainly get a fuller picture of Marie’s personality, and her love and concern for her brother, rather than the jealousy and bitterness that comes across in the show in its final form. With so much else going on in the show, I can see why Loesser decided not to spend so much time developing another character.

Eyes Like a Stranger: This matching aria for Marie from later in the first act would have further helped flesh out her character, and these songs certainly give the singer some elaborate and challenging music to sing. It’s not surprising to learn that this material has been included in some opera-house versions of the show.

Is it Fair?: This is yet another passage centered on Marie, this time showing off her more familiar resentment as she encourages Tony to get his marriage annulled. Apparently this scene was cut early on and never seen on stage.

I’ll Buy Everybody a Beer: This Act Three song for the doctor was replaced by “Song of a Summer Night.” In this case, I have no qualms saying Loesser made the right decision, because the moment calls for the serene beauty of that song rather than this more boisterous one.

*Wanting to Be Wanted: This beautiful aria for Rosabella was replaced by “Somebody Somewhere,” which is thematically similar but much warmer in tone. Sung here by Jo Sullivan Loesser (above center) - the original Rosabella and the composer’s widow, still in fine voice here - this song foreshadows the dramatic musical landscape of “Please Let Me Tell You.”

 

ReDISCoveries: The Most Happy Fella (2000 Studio Recording, Disc Two)

ReDISCoveries: The Most Happy Fella

(2000 Studio Recording, Disc Two)

Jeff has kindly invited me to revisit and review some of the older cast recordings in my collection. Every other week or so, I’ll write about a new CD, offering some general impressions followed by my thoughts about each individual song. This week I continue with a three-part series on the 2000 complete studio recording of Frank Loesser’s The Most Happy Fella. (Catch up with Part One HERE.)

This unique musical has often been described as operatic, and indeed many productions in recent decades have been undertaken by opera companies rather than theater groups. It’s certainly operatic in scale, requiring a large orchestra and chorus and some legitimate vocal chops for the romantic leads. It’s also operatic in texture, with wall-to-wall songs punctuated by only a few brief dialogue scenes. Substantial orchestral passages can be found not only at the start of each act, but sprinkled generously throughout the entire score.

However, I think it is the perspicacious use of several different musical styles that makes this show such a unique achievement. Some of the show’s most famous songs are in a quite traditional Broadway style, perhaps even a little “retro” for a musical that premiered in 1956. Most of the music for the comic supporting duo, Cleo and Herman, falls into this category, from the hilarious waitress’s lament “Ooh! My Feet,” to the classic “Standing on a Corner,” to their explosive duet in “Big D.” Far from being operatic, these songs wouldn’t sound out of place in a vaudeville show.

Another recurring musical style is the pseudo-Italianate vibe in songs like “Abbondanza,” written for Tony’s household staff, and the title song itself. Though this music is somewhat cliché, it quickly establishes both character and setting early in the show. Yet another style is assigned to Joe, whose music in “Joey, Joey, Joey” and “Don’t Cry” is full of restless longing and an erotic tension that will prove dangerous. 

Of course, the central story of the developing love between Tony and Rosabella is told through songs that really can be called operatic, with their lush arrangements, late-Romantic dissonant touches, and oversized emotions. Songs like “Rosabella,” “How Beautiful the Days,” and, most especially, “My Heart Is So Full Of You” chronicle the pair’s growing affection for each other in grand style.

The show’s second act, discussed below, is all about this blossoming romance, which seems to be thriving despite the machinations of Tony’s sister, Marie. Unfortunately, at the end of the act, Rosabella discovers that she will not be able to leave her one-night affair with Joe in the past, as she had hoped to.

THE SONGS: DISC TWO

I use a star (*) to mark the songs I particularly like, and my overall favorite gets two stars (**). This recording includes spoken dialogue, and I’ve combined a few shorter musical segments, so this review doesn’t exactly follow the track listing on the CD.

Prelude to Act II: The second act begins where the first left off, with an insistent and portentous rising bass figure, reflecting the confusion that has led Rosabella (Emily Loesser) into the arms of Joe (Richard Muenz). It gives way to a grand but rather cold statement of the “I Don’t Know Nothing About You” theme that started the romance between her and Tony (Louis Quilico). Overall, this one-minute prelude is a succinct musical reminder of where things stand at the top of the act.

Fresno Beauties/Cold and Dead: The vineyard workers sing about coming home to the titular beauties in this energetic, Latin-tinged choral number. In probably the most jarring instance of the show’s repeated theatrical conceit - an abrupt, mid-phrase halt in the action so that central characters can sing what they’re feeling - Rosabella and Joe separately conclude that their interlude is now “cold and dead, dead and buried,” in a tense and strange duet that is really a double monologue.

Love and Kindness: Tony’s doctor (William Burden), who will play a significant role in the show’s climax, gets his own gentle solo here, suggesting that Tony enjoy his convalescence with his new bride rather than rushing his recovery from the first-act car accident. 

Happy to Make Your Acquaintance: In the first of a pair of matched songs, Rosabella helps Tony learn some useful English phrases. The song is fun, the lyrics clever, and - most importantly - we sense that the clouds and confusion are starting to lift, and the new husband and wife are starting to like each other. Even better, Tony has sent for Rosabella’s waitress friend Cleo (Karen Ziemba) to keep her company.

I Don't Like This Dame: Tony’s sister Marie (Nancy Shade) tries to enlist Cleo’s support in opposing his union with Rosabella. Cleo, in another scene-stopping moment, tells us rather than her: “I don’t like this dame! I’m getting pains in my head. But since I’m company right now I guess I can’t suggest her dropping….”

Big D: In another of the show’s “hit songs,” Cleo and Herman (Don Stephenson) discover they have a hometown in common. With this traditional Tin Pan Alley-sounding song, a duet that develops into a full-on production number, the romantic future of our comic leads is secured.

*How Beautiful the Days: In one of the score’s loveliest and tenderest songs, Tony repays Rosabella for her English lesson (in “Happy to Make Your Acquaintance”) by teaching her how to say the days of the week in Italian. Unlike many musicals, which take for granted that the romantic leads are perfect for each other, this show is about two strangers gradually falling in love despite many obstacles. These two “teaching” songs are particularly vivid illustrations of their growing affection. The duet grows into a trio, and then a quartet, as Marie complains that “those two make me feel so lonely and sad,” while Joe decides to leave, singing “ya never been to New Mexico.” The vocal writing is gorgeous here.

Young People: The young people are dancing, and Marie is still spreading her poison: “Young people gotta dance, dance, dance… why should they bother with you and me?” Tony is trying not to take the bait: “Because they like us,” he replies, but Marie continues her attempts to undermine his relationship with Rosabella.

Warm All Over: Hoping to counter Marie’s toxicity, Rosabella assures Tony that she feels “warm all over, with a tender love for you,” in this short and seductive aria.

Old People: Nonetheless, sitting in his wheelchair but surrounded by young people dancing and celebrating, Tony thinks Marie is right: “Young people gotta live, live, live; old people gotta sit there and die.”

(There follows a book scene where Herman teaches Cleo how to paste labels to jars, her new job at the vineyard. This is the only scene that was cut from the Original Broadway Cast Recording, but it’s included on this set. I have to say that it’s a weird experience to listen to it without the accompanying visual gags, and without an audience to laugh at the vague innuendo.)

I Like Everybody: After Herman fails to stand up to bullying from a coworker, Cleo complains about his passivity, but he insists that nothing upsets him; he doesn’t care that he “strikes everybody as chump number one.” 

I Love Him: Tony’s reluctance to treat Rosabella as a wife, a result of his sister’s sabotage, has begun to weigh on her. She complains about it to her friend Cleo, who urges her to talk to Tony: “Don’t tell me kid, tell him. Tell him exactly how! And like they say in a musical comedy, here he comes now!”

Like a Woman Loves a Man: Rosabella seizes on Cleo’s advice and, in this increasingly breathless transitional song, tells Tony that she wants to hold him “not like a child, but like a woman holds a man.” 

**My Heart Is So Full of You: Rosabella’s successful pleadings lead directly to this duet, the ecstatic high-point of the “romantic/operatic” part of this epic score. “My wife, she’s a-love me now,” Tony sings joyfully, as Rosabella asks, “What other wish could I wish? What other plan could I plan?” For once, things seem perfect for our central couple. 

Hoedown: The townspeople have gathered again to celebrate Tony and Rosabella’s union, now that he has recovered from his car accident and they are truly a married couple. Unfortunately, Rosabella has almost fainted from the activity; Tony’s doctor tells her she is pregnant, and she realizes that the baby must be Joe’s. She confides in Cleo who, for once, has nothing helpful to say.

*Mamma, Mamma: In this poignant prayer of a song, Tony expresses to his mother in heaven his happiness and pride in finding Rosabella: “How you like your dumb, funny-looking boy? He was wait-a so long. He’s a-find such joy.” Of course we know what Tony does not, that this state of joy won’t last long, another masterful use of dramatic irony. Both of the first two acts end on this kind of emotional cliffhanger, an excellent way to keep an audience invested in a sprawling show like this one.

Next time I will continue with the final CD of this three-disc recording, which includes the show’s final act and several cut songs.

ReDISCoveries: The Most Happy Fella (2000 Studio Recording, Disc One)

 ReDISCoveries: The Most Happy Fella

(2000 Studio Recording, Disc One)

Jeff has kindly invited me to revisit and review some of the older cast recordings in my collection. Every other week or so, I’ll write about a new CD, offering some general impressions followed by my thoughts about each individual song. This week I begin a three-part series on the 2000 complete studio recording of Frank Loesser’s The Most Happy Fella.

Having fallen in love with The Most Happy Fella decades ago through its recordings, I finally had the good fortune of seeing a well-performed, if bare-bones, production at the now defunct Dicapo Opera in New York in 2012. Two years later, we had the extreme pleasure of witnessing an absolutely sublime version of the show as part of New York City Center’s Encores! series. Although this musical is of course best appreciated on stage with a huge orchestra and ensemble, the preponderance of singing and music over spoken dialogue makes for a very satisfying listening experience.

Fortunately, although The Most Happy Fella isn’t performed particularly often, it is extraordinarily well-documented through two vivid recordings, each shepherded by legendary producers. The Original Broadway Cast Recording, from 1956, was produced by Goddard Lieberson, who insisted on preserving virtually the entire show, including dialogue - as rare an event then as it is now. Unfortunately for my 21st-century ears, it’s a mono recording. The newer set discussed here is the studio edition produced by John Yap, well known for his complete versions of classic musicals (I’ll get around to his Anyone Can Whistle sooner or later). This one is absolutely complete, including some cut songs as a bonus, and boasts music performed by the National Symphony Orchestra. (There’s also a truncated recording of the 1992 two-piano Broadway revival. I’ve listened to it and I know it has its admirers, but it’s just not the real thing for me.)

This week’s post covers Disc One of the recording, which contains the complete first act of the show. Tony, a middle-aged Italian immigrant who owns a Napa vineyard, has been courting a city-dwelling waitress he calls Rosabella; they have never met, only exchanged letters. Borrowing a photo from his attractive foreman Joe, he persuades her to come and marry him. When she arrives and finds that Tony is not who he claimed to be, she marries him anyhow, but her confusion leads her into an unfortunate coupling with Joe.

 

In the coming weeks I’ll address the remaining two discs in turn, and will offer some further thoughts on this unique show and its masterly score.

THE SONGS: DISC ONE

I use a star (*) to mark the songs I particularly like, and my overall favorite gets two stars (**). This recording includes spoken dialogue, and I’ve combined a few shorter musical segments, so this review doesn’t exactly follow the track listing on the CD.

Overture: The quality and lushness of this recording announce themselves with the first fanfare of this traditional potpourri overture, which deftly combines unusually brief snippets of the show’s major musical themes without sounding too disjointed.

*Ooh! My Feet!: We immediately know that San Francisco waitress Cleo (Karen Ziemba) is in a bad state from the dispiriting string vamps that begin this gem of a comic song. All of us who have worked in food service can commiserate with her as she offers a pointed update to “This Little Piggy.” The loud, discordant orchestral recapitulation after Ziemba’s glorious final note is a nice bonus.

I Know How It Is: Cleo and her best friend (Emily Loesser) - whose name we won’t know for a long time but who will soon go by “Rosabella” - do some further commiserating about their lecherous boss to some desultory recitative, as the latter discovers the amethyst tie-pin that sets the drama into motion. 

My Dear Rosabella/I Don’t Know Noting About You: Now we hear the first hint of the Puccini-adjacent operatic style that will characterize the show’s central love story. It’s rather charming that this passage has the words of one of the pair (Tony) sung by the voice of the other (Rosabella), reading a note that he left with the pin. The little sudden orchestral bursts, retreating as quickly as they arise, succinctly evoke the letter-writer’s passion as well as his timidity, which will prove to be a prototypical tragic flaw.

**Maybe He's Kind-a Crazy/Somebody, Somewhere: In the jagged introduction, Rosabella considers replying to the note, to Cleo’s stern objections (“He could be… a small-town Jack the Ripper! To start with, he’s a lunatic of a tipper.”). Rosabella’s reply about “wanting to be wanted, needing to be needed,” set to the first of the show’s many lush, soaring love songs, leaves little doubt that Cleo’s warnings will fall on deaf ears. At this point I should mention one of the great features of this score: most of the songs, like this one, are very concise, making their point in two or three laser-focused minutes and coming to a satisfying end before they have a chance to overstay their welcome.

The Most Happy Fella: The action switches to Napa Valley, where Tony (Louis Quiliico) revels in his ongoing postal romance with Rosabella. I have to admit that these brash Italian-sounding pastiches, like something out of a vintage Olive Garden commercial, aren’t my favorite part of the score, but they quickly establish Tony’s character, and Quilico’s voice is a superb fit.

I Don’t Know Noting About Her: Tony answers his sister Marie’s (Nancy Shade) objection to the long-distance romance with this fuller statement of the sentiment first expressed in his letter to Rosabella. The interplay between Tony’s stratospheric melody and Marie’s earthbound recitative is used to great dramatic effect here.

Standing on the Corner: In this classic of pure musical comedy, Tony’s employees, led by Herman (Don Stephenson), lament that they’re stuck “watching all the girls go by.” The lyrics do most of the work here: I can offer no improvement on the maximally pithy “brother, you can’t go to jail for what you’re thinking.”

*Joey, Joey, Joey: Tony’s foreman Joe (Richard Muenz) is ready to move on from the vineyard, as is his way. His languid, longing music is a powerful match for the evocative imagery of the lyrics (“the wind blows in the bunkhouse like a perfumed woman, smellin’ of where she’s been”). You know who this character is and what he wants from life in the first few lines.

Soon You Gonna Leave Me, Joe: This is a bit of a throwaway musically, but it’s necessary for the story: Tony needs to get a picture of the much more handsome Joe for the purpose of deceiving Rosabella so that she’ll come and marry him.

*Rosabella: After a quick prayer of forgiveness to his mother, Tony expresses his fears and his excitement at meeting Rosabella in this brisk, bright waltz. Tony’s actions early in the show must have seemed just as shady to the show’s first audiences as they certainly do now; Loesser’s music and lyrics do the hard work necessary for us to root for him anyhow, and this song is the perfect example of that.

Abbondanza: In another high-energy Italianate number, household staff prepare for the next day’s wedding celebration for Tony and Rosabella, who hasn’t even arrived yet. (It’s unclear whether any Celeste pizzas were served.)

Plenty Bambini: Setting himself up for an impending fall, Tony sees his neighbor’s kids and imagines his own family life with Rosabella. This is another song that helps persuade us to wish the best for him despite his subterfuge. 

Sposalizio: “All the neighbors and all the neighbors’ neighbors” join forces for this stirring production number. By this time we’ve learned that Joe - whose likeness Tony has passed off to Rosabella as his own - will be staying for the wedding; this song drips of dramatic irony, as the townspeople joyfully anticipate an event that we (and Tony) know will be a clusterfuck.

I Seen Her at the Station: In this brief, dryly comic number, we learn that no one has met Rosabella at the train station, leaving the postman to bring her to Tony’s vineyard.

Benvenuta: Tony’s staff welcome Rosabella, with Tony inconveniently present to translate their Italian greetings. We don’t hear from Rosabella yet, but her sense of confusion is palpable, signaled especially by a churning two-note motive that will soon return at the end of the act.

Such Friendly Faces: In halting phrases, Rosabella introduces herself to Joe, who she thinks is Tony. The words and music here border dangerously on the seductive (“tell me, aren’t you glad I’m here, you know, here beside you?”), before Joe realizes what’s going on and tells her the truth.

No Home, No Job: To a swirling accompaniment reminiscent of the theme from Vertigo, Rosabella realizes what she’s gotten herself into, forced to marry an “old man” who we now learn has been severely injured in a car accident. This is one of several moments in the show where the action freezes momentarily to allow a character to react to a difficult situation. It’s not exactly a novel theatrical device, but I think it’s used judiciously here.

*Don't Cry: After a quick ceremony, Rosabella is married to the laid-up Tony, but Joe is the only one available to comfort her after a confusing day - which he accomplishes with his characteristically scorching music and lyrics. As the orchestra intones that menacing two-note phrase ever more insistently, Joe leads Rosabella inside the house to the act’s inevitable conclusion.

Next time I will continue with Disc Two of this three-disc recording.

2014 in Review: The Best of the Best

Yesterday, I named my best musical and play moments of the year (HERE).  Today, I'll name my favorite/best individual elements of the shows on and off Broadway in 2014.

Non-Performance Bests

Best Broadway Show Logo (Musical): Hedwig and the Angry Inch Any version.  It manages to be subversive and mainstream, rock and roll and showtune, sensual and sexy.  Just like the show it advertises.

Best Broadway Show Logo (Play): This Is Our Youth It reeks of disenfranchised youth.  It is trendy and grungy. The RENT generation has grown up and this is the play for them.

Best Show Logo Do-Over: If/Then I liked the original to begin with, especially the two color schemes. But I really love the realistic/photographic version even more.

Best Box Office Do-Over: The Marquis Theatre Box Office.  Have you seen the latest version on 46th Street?  Hip!

Best Upper-Level Theatre Seating: The American Airlines Theatre.  You can sit comfortably even as other people go past you to find their seats!  And it doesn't feel like you are a mile from the stage, either.

Best Theatre District Dinner: Virgil's BBQ.  HUGE portions, fast, attentive service.  And you won't go broke, either.

Biggest Loss to the Theatre District: The closing of my beloved Cafe Edison.  Please re-open...

Virgil's

Cafe Edison

Best Loss to the Theatre District: The removal of the scaffolding around the former Milford Plaza Hotel.  How nice to be able to walk on that block of 8th Avenue and not rub against a few dozen strangers.

Best Idea, Worst Execution: The Tony Awards Pop Up Shop.  I'm all for temporary, topical shopping.  But stock it with more stuff next time, okay?

Performance Bests

Best Use of Projections: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Wow.  What else is there to say?

Best Set Morphing (Play): The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Wow. Did you really think all of that would happen in a geometric box?  I was shocked.  Over and over.

Best Set Morphing (Musical): Hedwig and the Angry Inch Wow. Did you really think all of that would happen on an up-cycled fake musical set?  I was shocked.  Over and over.

Best Strobes (Play): The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time It only lasted a few seconds at a time.  But my appreciation for what some people must live with every second of their lives will last a lifetime.

Best Strobes (Musical): Hedwig and the Angry Inch The amazing-ness of "Midnight Radio" was all the more so because of those amazing blinkers.

Best Costume Quick Change (Small-scale): Side Show What a transition into "Stuck With You."

Best Costume Quick Change (Large-scale): Aladdin Not once, but twice.  25 people look like a cast of hundreds in both "Friend Like Me" and "Prince Ali."

Best Show Economy: TIE Allegro and Violet Both shows were trimmed to 90 intermission-less minutes or so.  And both were all the better for it.

Best On-stage Chemistry - Siblings: Erin Davie and Emily Padgett as Violet and Daisy Hilton in Side Show.

Best On-stage Chemistry - Bros: Tony Yazbeck, Clyde Alves and Jay Armstrong Johnson as Gabey, Ozzie and Chip in On the Town.

Best On-stage Chemistry - BFFs: Laura Benanti and Heidi Blickenstaff as Rosabella and Cleo in The Most Happy Fella.

Best On-stage Chemistry - Forbidden Love: Sutton Foster and Joshua Henry as Violet and Flick in Violet.

Best On-stage Chemistry - Period: Kelli O'Hara and Steven Pasquale as Francesca and Robert in The Bridges of Madison County.

Special Bests

Best Replacement: Michael C. Hall in Hedwig and the Angry Inch I thought he was better than NPH.

Best Alternate: Taylor Trensch in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Can Alex Sharp be any better?

Best Pinch-hitter: Curtis Holbrook in If/Then A vast improvement on Anthony Rapp.  Sorry, Rentheads.

Who or what did I leave out?  What would you have picked?  Let me know!  Email: jkstheatrescene@yahoo.com or Twitter: @jkstheatrescene

Jeff