We’re featuring a week of musical theater tunes from music researcher and longtime NYFOS subscriber Amy Asch. This post originally ran on June 30, 2017. June 30 [well, July 24th this time around] is close enough to July 4 that I’d like to conclude this week with “Ballad for Americans,” a patriotic cantata for soloist, […]
Read MoreWe’re featuring a week of musical theater tunes from music researcher and longtime NYFOS subscriber Amy Asch. This post originally ran on June 29, 2017. It was not consciously planned, but the songs I chose to start and end this week are both idealistic. By contrast, today’s pick involves serial murder and cannibalism. For those […]
Read MoreWe’re featuring a week of musical theater tunes from music researcher and longtime NYFOS subscriber Amy Asch. This post originally ran on June 28, 2017. “April in Paris” was recorded by all the big mid-century pop singers; secondhandsongs.com lists more than 60 versions. But my favorite recording omits the lyric. Here is the Count Basie Orchestra, swinging […]
Read MoreWe’re featuring a week of musical theater tunes from music researcher and longtime NYFOS subscriber Amy Asch. This post originally ran on June 27, 2017. In this April 1926 recording (made in London for English Columbia), George Gershwin plays and Fred Astaire sings and taps. To paraphrase the Passover Haggadah: if George Gershwin plays and […]
Read MoreWe’re featuring a week of musical theater tunes from music researcher and longtime NYFOS subscriber Amy Asch. This post originally ran on June 26, 2017. I first encountered Candide in a college production that my high school’s Thespian Club attended. It was exciting and irreverent and the “Make Our Garden Grow” finale had me walking on air. […]
Read MoreAND Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe: A Snake in the Grass Villain songs are fun to hear and to perform. I suspect they are fun to write too. These two—minor blips in a major career—have a delicious playfulness that I hope you’ll enjoy as much as I do. “Fiasco” is from Coco (1969). The […]
Read MoreOne of the joys of my work on The Complete Lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner was getting to know Love Life and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, fascinating, flawed shows that don’t have original cast albums. Both are concept musicals with brilliant songs, unusual structures, and pointed social critiques.
Read MoreToday’s song is one of my favorite ballads. It’s from the 1951 movie musical Royal Wedding, which is not a great film. Lerner later said his own contributions made him cringe. But a score that has “Too Late Now,” “You’re All the World to Me” (to which Fred Astaire danced on the ceiling!) and the audacious “How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You, When You Know I’ve Been a Liar All My Life” is not chopped liver.
Read MoreIf Alan Jay Lerner wrote nothing except My Fair Lady, he would have justly earned his place in Broadway’s pantheon. It was a magnificent artistic achievement and an enormous popular success – smashing all box office records. Among his other beloved Broadway and Hollywood musicals are Brigadoon, Gigi and Camelot, each giving decades of pleasure to audiences and performers.
Read MorePerhaps you’ve heard that 2018 is the centennial year of a major musical theatre writer. But did you know that Leonard Bernstein was not the only Broadway legend born in August 1918? This week I invite you to celebrate lyricist, librettist and screenwriter Alan Jay Lerner.
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