From Broadway To 52nd Street
A Little Night Music brings up the curtain of the Shubert Theatre on February 2, 1973. Stephen Sondheim composed the music that spawned the jazz classic Send In The Clowns. Glynis Johns, Len Cariou, Victoria Mallory, Laurence Guittard, Hermione Gingold and Mark Lambert. Though it only ran for 600 performances it went on to get a movie made in 1978, directed by Harold Prince and starring Elizabeth Taylor, Lesley-Anne Down and Diana Rigg.
The Story: Based on the Ingmar Bergman comedy about sexual liaisons at a country mansion. Frederick falls in love with his former mistress Desiree’ and would dissolve his marriage to his child bride. Count Carl, Desiree’s lover, attempts to cool the romance. However at a dinner party given by Desiree’s mother, Frederick’s son, Henrik, runs off with his young mother-in-law, the Count returns to his wife and Frederick and Desiree’ are free to pursue their romance.
Jazz History: It’s the 1970s and jazz is in an evolutionary mode as the old guard makes way for a new sound. The jazz world has witnessed the release of fusion albums from Weather Report, Chick Corea and Return To Forever and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Herbie Hancock records the classic jazz/funk album Head Hunters that includes “Chameleon” and “Watermelon Man” as does drummer Billy Cobham with his recording “Spectrum” with Tony Bolin, Jan Hammer, Lee Sklar, Joe Farrell, Jimmy Owens, John Tropea, Ron Carter and Ray Barretto. In 1973 swing and bop saxophonist Ben Webster passes away on September 20th as does stride piano pioneer Willie “The Lion” Smith on October 8th. Fortunately for the many young men who haven’t been called upon, the United States is almost completely out of Vietnam.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
Promises, Promises opened at the Shubert Theatre on December 1, 1968 and ran for 1281 performances, ushering it into the blockbuster hall of fame. Composers Burt Bachrach & Hal David scored the music that rendered I’ll Never Fall In Love Again that went on to become a jazz standard. Jerry Orbach, Ken Howard and Jill O’hara star.
The Story: In this adaptation of the Jack Lemmon movie vehicle “The Apartment”, a young man (Jerry Orbach) attempts to get ahead in the world of business, climbing the corporate ladder by lending his apartment to various executives.
Broadway History: A reluctant success of Broadway is the fact that many of the plays had been turned into movies by the Hollywood film industry. When the movie studios began implementing sound technology for film screenings, musicals were some of the first productions released on the silver screen. Not only did the scripts migrate from the stage to the screen, but many actors and actresses did as well. To this day, many well-known film actors began their career on Broadway.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
Mame raised the curtain to the stage lights of the Winter Garden Theatre on May 24, 1966 with Jerry Herman composing the music sung by the stars of the show Angela Lansbury, Frankie Michaels and Beatrice Arthur. The musical, also a blockbuster, had a total of 1,508 performances. From this play came the hit tune If He Walked Into My Life.
The Story: Set in New York and spanning the Great Depression and World War II, it focuses on an eccentric bohemian, Mame Dennis, whose famous motto is “Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.” Her fabulous life with her wealthy friends is interrupted when the young son of her late brother arrives to live with her. They cope with the Depression in a series of adventures.
Jazz History: In 1966 Duke Ellington recorded Far East Suite for RCA; John Coltrane married Alice McCleod, who replaced McCoy Tyner as his pianist; alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley records Joe Zawinul’s Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! live on Blue Note; pianist Keith Jarrett performs with the Charles Lloyd Quartet; the Roscoe Mitchell Sextet records Sound in August with members of Chicago’s AACM community; drummer Buddy Rich starts up a big band which would last about twenty years; bop piano immortal Earl “Bud” Powell dies on July 31st; on October 3, Dave Lambert of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross fame is struck by a car and killed instantly while trying to help a fellow motorist on the Connecticut Turnpike; and trumpeter Chet Baker is severely beaten on the streets of San Francisco, an event related to his drug addiction while his wife Carol Baker was in the hospital for the birth of their youngest child, Missy.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street…
The Sound Of Music brought up the curtain of the Lunt Fontanne Theatre on November 16, 1959 and finished with a blockbuster run of 1443 performances. The show starred Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel. The song My Favorite Things composed by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein went on to become a jazz standard. The show won a Tony Award for Best Musical.
The Story: Based on the Trapp family story the musical takes us on their journey to escape the Nazis. Set in Salzburg, Austria just before World War II, Maria Rainer, one of the postulates from Nonnberg Abbey is wrestling with her decision to joining monastic life or pursue more secular endeavors. With the help of the Mother Abbess she is placed in the home of Captain Georg von Trapp to act as governess to his seven children. As war looms over their happy existence they escape to Switzerland over the Alps.
Details of the von Trapp history were changed for the musical. They lived in a villa outside Salzburg, Maria was a tutor for one child, the names and ages were altered, and the family spent time in Austria after Maria and the Captain were married. Opposing the Nazi regime, he declined a commission in the German Navy, left Austria for Italy, then on to London and finally to the United States. The escape over the mountains on foot provided more drama for the play.
Broadway History: Broadway theatre,commonly called simply Broadway, is theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Along with London’s West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
Pickwick opened at the 46th Street Theatre on October 4, 1965 and ran 56 performances with the music composed by Cyril Ornadel and Leslie Bricusse. The song that rose to great heights is the Great American songbook and became a jazz standard was If I Ruled The World.
The Story: Set in England in 1828, the story centers on wealthy Samuel Pickwick and his valet Sam Weller, who are in a debtors’ prison where they recall the misadventures that led to their imprisonment. On the previous Christmas Eve, Pickwick introduced his friend Wardle, Wardle’s daughters, Emily and Isabella, and their Aunt Rachael to Nathaniel Winkle, Augustus Snodgrass, and Tracy Tupman, three members of the Pickwick Club. Soon, Alfred Jingle joined them and tricked Tupman into paying for his ticket to a ball that evening. Upon learning Rachael is an heiress, Jingle set out to win her hand and eventually succeeded. Pickwick engages Sam Weller as his valet and, through a series of misunderstandings, he inadvertently leads his landlady, Mrs. Bardell, to believe he has proposed marriage to her. Pickwick is charged with breach of promise and hauled into court, where he is found guilty as charged and sentenced to prison when he stubbornly refuses to pay her compensation.
Jazz History: In 1965 Miles Davis records ESP with his new quintet; pianist/vocalist Nat King Cole dies of cancer; Herbie Hancock records Maiden Voyage, a classic modal tune, with the other members of Miles Davis’ group plus trumpeter Freddie Hubbard; trumpeter Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis form a rehearsal orchestra that is to last for years and is still in existence today; and John Coltrane records Ascension, a free jazz experiment influenced by Ornette Coleman.
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