#jule styne

[audramcdonald]

Audra McDonald stars as Rose in the Broadway revival of Gypsy (Majestic Theatre, 2024)

[operaqueen]

Barbra Streisand, in the original Broadway production of Funny Girl. New York, 1964.

[thelonelyqueenofthenight]

New music scores have been added to my collection.

Gypsy — Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim

Cabaret — Fred Ebb and John Kander

Into The Woods — Stephen Sondheim and book James Lapine

[gregorygalloway]

Anchors Aweigh premiered in New York City on 19 July 1945.

Very loosely based on Natalie Marcin's 1943 short story, "You Can't Fool a Marine," Anchors Aweigh was a hit at the box office and was nominated for 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Gene Kelly), Best Cinematography - Color (Charles Boyle and Robert Planck), and Best Song ("I Fall in Love Too Easily" by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, sung by Frank Sinatra). It received an Oscar for Best Score (Georgie Stoll).

The film is now best remembered for the sequence where Gene Kelly "dances" with Jerry (the mouse from Tom and Jerry). Walt Disney was initially approached about providing Mickey Mouse for the sequence, but Disney was in substantial debt at the time and decided to focus on their own projects. Kelly went personally to Hanna and Barbera's office and convinced them to provide the animation.

[musicalsman]

MR. WONDERFUL ORIGINAL 1954 CAST RECORDING. DECCA RECORDS.

[princesssarisa]

I find it interesting that Disney's animated versions of Cinderella and Peter Pan were both followed fairly soon (in the case of Peter Pan almost immediately) by popular live action musicals on the same subject, which aired on TV.

The Styne/Charlap musical of Peter Pan starring Mary Martin premiered just a year after the Disney version, while Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, which was produced in part as an attempt to copy Peter Pan's success, premiered seven years after Disney's.

Both live action musicals are in some ways more faithful to their respective source materials than the Disney versions. Yet I feel as if traces of their Disney predecessors exist in both of them.

Both versions of Peter Pan include an ecstatic song about flying when Peter and the Darling children soar away to Neverland ("You Can Fly!"/"I'm Flying"), a celebration song with the Indians after Peter comes back from rescuing Tiger Lily ("What Makes the Red Man Red?"/"Ugg-a-Wugg"), a lullaby about a mother's care that makes the boys homesick ("Your Mother and Mine"/"Distant Melody"), and an ode to Captain Hook sung by the pirates after Wendy and the boys are captured ("The Elegant Captain Hook"/"Captain Hook's Waltz"). Of course the Broadway musical has many more songs than the Disney version, but four of the Disney version's six songs have exact counterparts in the musical.

As for Disney's Cinderella and the Rodgers & Hammerstein version, they both make the story's message less about kindness and virtue than earlier versions (although of course their Cinderellas are kind and virtuous) and more about hope and optimism: "Have faith in your dreams and someday... the dreams that you wish will come true," or "Impossible things are happening every day."

[itsgrapes-exe]

GYPSY CLOSING NEXT MONTH

[fascinating-yarn]

Gypsy: the best musical that mentions Fanny Brice.