On behalf of The Concert Singers, I welcome you to our 2006 Summer Program of songs from Broadway and Hollywood musicals. We thank the session and staff and people of Covenant Presbyterian Church for making their Fellowship Hall available to us. So sit back and enjoy some great music, and ice cream, which I see some of you already are.
Israel Baline was born in Siberia in 1888, and his family came to New York in 1893. He had to work at a young age simply to survive. While working as a singing waiter, he had his first song published. His name was misspelled on the copy, but he kept the new name: Irving Berlin. You just heard There’s No Business Like Show Business, which Irving Berlin wrote for the 1946 Broadway show Annie Get Your Gun; this arrangement was by Mark Brymer. In 1946 Herb and Dorothy Fields were working on making the life of Annie Oakley into a musical comedy. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were part of the production team, and would have written the songs, but they were committed to other projects. So they turned to Irving Berlin, who was not certain if he could do it. They had asked him on a Friday, and on Monday he showed up with the songs written, both words and music. "There’s No Business Like Show Business" was almost cut, because Rodgers and Hammerstein didn't like it.
It Had To Be You was written in 1924 by Gus Kahn (lyric) and Isham Jones (music). It was used in the 1936 short film Melody in May, sung by star of stage, screen, and radio Ruth Etting, and the1944 feature film Show Business, where it was sung by Eddie Cantor. It was sung by Betty Hutton in Incendiary Blonde (1945), and I'll See You in My Dreams, the 1951 biopic of lyricist Gus Kahn. This arrangement is by Russ Robinson.[In my not-so-humble opinion, if the same individual writes both the lyric and the music of a song, one or the other suffers. There have been some highly successful writers of both music and lyrics, such as Meredith Willson and Stephen Sondheim. But two unqualified exceptions to this rule are Irving Berlin and Cole Porter.] Next we present a medley of Cole Porter songs. "Another Op’nin’, Another Show" is from the 1948 hit Kiss Me Kate. "From This Moment On" was originally written for the 1950 show Out Of This World, but not used; it was later inserted in the film version of Kiss Me Kate, and was used in the 1999 Broadway revival. [Unfortunately, when I was in KMK last summer, we used the 1948 version. I played Harrison Howell, and in the 1999 version this song is a duet between Howell and the female lead, Lilli. So I didn't get a song.] And "Just One of Those Things" is from the 1935 show Jubilee.
In 1983 there opened on Broadway a show called Baby, about three different Chicagoland women, of different ages, who become pregnant at the same time. Here to sing from that show a song about how it is often Easier To Love a baby than one's spouse is Charles Greenwood.
I Got Rhythm (1930: m. George Gershwin; m. Ira Gershwin; arr. Schmutte; from Girl Crazy; used in the musical films Girl Crazy [1930 & 1932]; Rhapsody in Blue [biopic of GG]; An American in Paris; and When the Boys Meet the Girls; in the show Girl Crazy, both Ethel Merman and Ginger Rogers made their Broadway debut.) In 1996 the story of Girl Crazy was reworked with more Gershwin songs as Crazy for You.
Followers of The Concert Singers may remember back to our 2001 jazz show when we presented Steve Zegree's arrangement, of "On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever)" from the 1965 show (and 1970 film) of the same title; words by Alan Jay Lerner; music by Burton Lane. We now present another of Steve Zegree's arrangements of Broadway songs. Here is I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face from the 1956 Lerner and Loewe show My Fair Lady.
Israel Baline was born in Siberia in 1888, and his family came to New York in 1893. He had to work at a young age simply to survive. While working as a singing waiter, he had his first song published. His name was misspelled on the copy, but he kept the new name: Irving Berlin. Our next song is one of Irving Berlin's earliest compositions, written for the 1915 show Stop! Look! Listen! It wasn't a hit back then, but it became a hit when it was included in the 1948 film Easter Parade. Here is Barbara Miller to sing I Love a Piano.
In 1975 there opened on Broadway the musical show Chicago, based on a 1927 play of the same name, about an aspiring chorus girl named Roxie who murders her lover, but parleys her notoriety to fame, but soon discovers how fickle a mistress fame really is. The show was eclipsed for the major awards that year by A Chorus Line, but was successfully revived in 1996. We present And All That Jazz (1973: w. Fred Ebb; M. John Kander; arr. Kirby Shaw), the opening number from the show in which Velma, twice the murderess, introduces us to the slinky world of jazz, sex, and bootleg liquor.
Time After Time, by Sammy Cahn (w) and Jule Styne (m), was introduced by Frank Sinatra in the 1947 film It Happened in Brooklyn; the film also featured Katherine Grayson and Jimmy Durante. This arrangement is by Kirby Shaw.
In 1943, Rodgers and Hammerstein revolutionized the American musical theater with the show Oklahoma! The audience could actually care about the characters, and both the songs and the dance numbers were part of the story, rather than being diversions from the story. They so revolutionized Broadway, that the new form of muscial theater was called "The RH Factor". In 1951, at the height of their success, R and H released The King and I, loosely based on the story of the Welsh widow, Mrs Anna Leon-Owens, who became governess to the children of the King of Siam. In this number, to be sung by Cynthia Rothschild, Lady Liang, the "head wife" sings of her duty and love to the king: Something Wonderful.
Now we present another medley of Cole Porter songs. Most of these songs were from films, rather than Broadway shows, and those from shows were later used in films.
At this time we are taking a break. See you in about fifteen.
You just heard The Joint Is Jumpin’, as arranged by Mark Brymer, used in the show Ain’t Misbehavin’. The 1978 show Ain't Misbehavin' revived the revue format with beguiling vignettes built around the songs of Fats Waller, and ran for 1,604 performances. It received a Tony award for Best Musical. We present the 1929 Waller song that gave the revue its title, in an arrangement by Kirby Shaw.
Frank Loesser was a Tin Pan Alley composer and lyricist, well known for the World War II song "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition", as well as the songs for the shows Where's Charley?, The Most Happy Fella, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. In 1950 he wrote his most popular show, based on several Damon Runyon stories about gamblers and street missionaries, Guys and Dolls. Here is Rich Falstrom to sing Luck Be a Lady Tonight.
No doubt THE art form of the 20th century was film. The form came to its own in the 1930s with sync sound and color. And the greatest year for films was surely 1939, with such greats as Gone with the Wind, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, and The Wizard of Oz. The music for The Wizard of Oz was written by Harold Arlen, with lyrics by E. Y. "Yip" Harburg. The most famous song was almost cut, because it "slowed down the action". Fortunately it was not, and it won an oscar. Our arrangement is by Teena Chinn.
In 1933, after writing songs for the film As Thousands Cheer, with its big hit "Easter Parade", Irving Berlin got the idea for a musical play about American holidays, but it never happened. However, Paramount released the film Holiday Inn in 1942, with a Berlin song for each of the holidays of the year at which the inn is open. It was expected that "Be Careful, It's My Heart" for Valentine's Day would be the big hit. When it was decided to remake the film in color, with a new title, White Christmas, Irving Berlin was asked to write some new songs, one of which will now be sung by the trio of Joanne Rachford, Teressa Syta, and Kelly Peters: Sisters.
Rodgers and Hammerstein had another triumph in 1949 with what Leonard Bernstein described as the greatest of American musical comedies, South Pacific. We present two selections from South Pacific, one sung by the women, the other by the men.
Our next song, I’ll Be Seeing You (1938: w. Irving Kahal; m. Sammy Fain) was introduced in 1938 in the show Right This Way, which ran for 15 performances. In 1979 it was featured in the show The 1940's Radio Hour, which did a little better: 105 performances. But it was better known from the 1944 film I’ll Be Seeing You, starring Ginger Rogers and Shirley Temple.
The Gershwins wrote They Can't Take That Away From Me for the 1936 film Shall We Dance. This arrangement is by Carl Strommen.
We now have a very special piece, written as incidental music for Oscar Wilde's play Lady Windermere's Fan. We now present The Last Ball, with lyric by Kincaid Jones and music by our very own keyboardist Dr Stephanie Hutchinson!
Optional Others:
"The Way You Look Tonight" was first sung by Fred Astaire to Ginger Rogers in the 1936 film Swing Time. The music is by Jerome Kern with lyric by Dorothy Fields. This arrangement is by _________ Knowles.
"Summertime" is the opening number in George Gershwin's 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The story was based on the novel by DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy, and he wrote the lyric for this song. This arrangement is by _________ Robinson.
In 1992 there opened on Broadway the show Jelly’s Last Jam, a biographic look at the life story of pianist, band leader, and composer Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton. Part of the story took a frank look at racial attitudes within the black community. The show included many early jazz tunes, including "Doctor Jazz", from 1926 by Joe "King" Oliver. This arrangement is by Kirby Shaw.
Israel Baline was born in Siberia in 1888, and his family came to New York in 1893. He had to work at a young age simply to survive. While working as a singing waiter, he had his first song published. His name was misspelled on the copy, but he kept the new name: Irving Berlin. In 1911 he wrote his first hit song, part march, part Scott Joplin, and part Swanee River: "Alexander's Ragtime Band". This arrangement is by Mark Hayes.
Beguine is a slow dance similar to the rhumba that originated in the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. It would unlikely be known outside of the Caribbean except for Cole Porter's song. What made Porter's song widely known was the MGM move Broadway Melody of 1940, starring Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, and George Murphy. The highlight of the film is Astaire and Powell tap-dancing to "Begin the Beguine". Before rehearsing the number, both Astaire and Powell were so intimidated by the others supposedly superior dancing ability that it was quite awhile before they were willing to refer to each other by their first names.