My Favorite Things

MarqueePolitics is turning two this month, and this blogger is turning the big 27. With these milestones on the horizon, it got me thinking.

I’m often asked about my favorite performances, and to identify which ones made the biggest impact on me.  With my birthday right around the corner, I thought that this would be an appropriate time to reflect on the performances that have never quite left me.

Phantom/Miss. Saigon/Cats

“Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.”

All it took was: a crashing chandelier, helicopter landing and dancing cats.  These were first shows I ever saw (ages 3, 6, 7).  Their combination of: high emotions, grand spectacle and memorable pop scores sent my young imagination soaring.  I often call them the holy trinity of musicals, because it was these three shows that introduced me to the great love of my life, the theater.

Evita – 1979 Original Broadway Cast Recording

I had an epiphany in high school, and it was the first time I ever listened to the original Broadway cast recording of Evita.

The rock opera’s themes of politics, revolution and media manipulation hooked this young politico at age 16.  Evita was further electrified by Patti LuPone’s fierce portrayal as Argentina’s First Lady and her ambition to succeed at all costs.  Despite having the album for the 11 years, not a week goes by when LuPone and the original Broadway cast of Evita can been heard from my apartment, giving this show a touch of star quality!

Elaine Stritch at Liberty – 2002 Broadway Production

Rare, intense, humorous, honest and a triumph of the human soul.

I was lucky enough to attend the last Broadway matinee performance of this show.  From that Sunday afternoon, I learned that human’s can triumph over any adversity as long as we don’t stop fighting.  Accompanied by a songbook of classic Broadway hits, Stritch walked the audience thru her: fights with alcoholism, struggles with love, triumphs working with Noel Coward and Stephen Sondheim, and life’s journey from being raised in Detroit to having her name adorn Broadway marquees.

Great actors leave it all out on the stage and Stritch set the bar for generations to come.

 Company – 2006 Broadway Revival

Company, more than any other show, changed my perspective on life.

My parents split when I was very young, and what understanding of marriage I had came from television.  Because of that, I never understood the emotional complexity involved when two people enter into a relationship, and what I did know was very one-sided.   Company threw cold-water on that idea, teaching me that relationships are about sharing your life with somebody, not just some-body.  Theater is often a reflection of life through art, and its through art that we learn so much about ourselves as individuals.

The Audience

The one constant in all these productions is the audience, and I’ve been lucky to have always had a supporting audience of my own.  While I won’t use their names, I want recognize the friends and family who have encouraged my love of the theater: My parents who introduced me to the musical at age 3, grandparents who were always game to see a show on Broadway – even if they didn’t quite “get it”, Chief of Staff, and dear friends living across the country in: New York, Pittsburgh, Rockville, San Diego, Seattle and Washington, DC.  All of which I owe a debt a gratitude for indulging in my life’s great passion!

The cast albums to all shows mentioned above are available on amazon.com.

Furthermore, video productions of: Cats, Company, Elaine Stritch at Liberty and Phantom may also be found at amazon.com.

Review: Elaine Paige at The Birchmere

Last Thursday at 8:06 p.m., the earth stopped when a musician at a black Steinway piano played the chords: D-D-E-G-E-G-E-D and a 4’11, 64 year old British lady announced to the crowd, “It  won’t be easy, you’ll think it strange…”  Yes, the time-space continuum of the nation’s capital paused, sat and listened to Elaine Paige make her American concert debut in one of the greatest shows to ever be performed in the history of Washington, DC.

Paige is not a household name, and you’ve probably never heard of her; however her voice has dominated radio and the international theater scene for the last 40 years.  She was the first EVER woman to portray on-stage, Eva Peron in Evita, Grizabella in Cats, Florence in Chess, not to mention reviving some of the theater’s greatest female roles  including: Edith Piaf in Piaf, Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard and most recently Carlotta in the Kennedy Center’s smash hit production of Follies.

Despite becoming an overnight sensation with Evita in 1978, Paige never made it to America until two decades later replacing Tony-winner Betty Buckley in the original Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard.   Even after receiving rave reviews on the Great White Way, recording numerous hit records, having a top rated BBC radio show and performing for countless heads of state (including President Reagan), Paige never embarked on a US concert tour, until now.  Hence what made last Thursday so special.

Paige’s show is a combination of her two albums: Encore and Elaine Paige – Celebrating 40 Years on Stage, making it part autobiographical and part hit parade.   For her musical hits, Paige performed each song in the character and context of the show.  This is quite a departure as her theater contemporaries tend to put their own spin on a song.

Not Paige, she stuck with the music, lyrics and even stage direction for how she originally performed each song.  The result of her performance showcased the beauty that is the perfect marriage of music and lyrics in a show tune.  Each song became a mini-scene from her performance repertoire.  If that wasn’t enough she even performed one song in French, “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” from the show Piaf.

It was clear throughout the 90 minute concert that the audience recognized Paige’s extraordinary performance and they rewarded with her several, roaring standing ovations throughout the show.  Paige was clearly touched, as she even teared up at the audience’s response to her performance of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina.”  When the audience cheered her mention of the flop musical Chess, Paige became overcome with emotion.  A bond had formed between performer and audience.

Paige is currently touring the US with her show, and you should use every LEGAL method possible to get tickets.  Her show is testament to the notion that great performers simply only need an empty stage and a piano to create something truly special.  At the end of her show, it seemed that Paige had played every audience request except one: please keep performing in the states!

And with her grand departure from the stage, the earth resumed its rotation and Washington went about its business.

Ms. Paige’s set list includes: All That Jazz, Broadway Baby, Hello Young Lovers, Easy To Be Hard, Yesterday, Don’t Cry For Me Argentina, As If We Never Said Goodbye, I Get A Kick Out Of You, Non Je Ne Regrette Rien, If You Loved Me, I Know Him So Well, Memory and With One Look.

Ms. Paige’s Tour Schedule maybe found here: http://www.elainepaige.com/news.html

A Valentine’s Day Mixtape

I grew up as a product of the 1990’s, which meant that when you really liked someone, you gave them a mix tape.    Although the older I get, the more I realize that relationships and love aren’t as black-and-white as they first appear.  This Valentine’s Day, whether you’re single or in a relationship, I’d like to give you a mix tape featuring some of the best romantically-themed songs from Broadway that address the complexity of love.

I’d Be Surprisingly Good For You – Evita

It’s probably the most unconventional pick-up line in a musical, but let’s face it, there are relationships built on exactly this notion – I’d be surprisingly good for you.  For Gen. Juan Peron, Eva’s proposition in Act I meant an entryway through which he could rally unions and the lower classes of Argentine society for his political career.  Nevertheless, Eva’s proposition gives definition to the notion that some relationships aren’t exactly built on love.

I Won’t Send Roses – Mack & Mabel

Flop musicals, like bad relationships, are painful to go through, but sometimes they yield unexpected joys.  Mack & Mabel may have only played 66 performances in 1974, but the show yielded one of the greatest romantic songs of all-time, the Act I heart-breaker, “I Won’t Send Roses.”  What’s striking is that so many songs are written to end relationships. This song makes it clear as to why the relationship can never happen to begin with.

Losing My Mind – Follies

Everyone has had heartbreak, but what makes “Losing My Mind” so dramatically beautiful is the honesty with which Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics.  Set late in Act II of Follies, “Losing My Mind” is sung by a woman who suddenly discovers that after 30 years, the man she first loved, doesn’t love her back and never did.  Throughout the song, she goes onto to explain what losing that love means to her.

Maybe This Time – Cabaret

We’ve all been on dates that have gone horribly wrong.  I remember one date where the girl proceeded to tell me how her psychiatrist medicates her so that she can fly on planes.  Still, after every bad date, we leave thinking, “Maybe this time, I’ll be lucky.”  Hence what brings up the Kander and Ebb song expressly written for Liza Minnelli and the movie version of Cabaret.

Sorry-Grateful – Company

This is Stephen Sondheim’s second appearance on this list, and yet a deserved appearance.  After the novelty of a relationship wears off, we’re all left wondering whether we’re sorry to be coupled-up, or grateful to have someone.  For men in particular, Sorry-Grateful puts both music and lyrics to exactly that feeling.

And yes, the actor singing the song in this video is Stephen Colbert

Shall We Dance – The King and I

Relationships are full of ambiguity, and “Shall We Dance” is a perfect interpretation of that feeling.  On paper, the song is literally about Anna teaching the King to dance.  By the sub-context reflects a song where the emotional, physical and sexual chemistry of the lead characters click at the right moment.