Girls, I have no idea what goes on with the planets and constellations on this day, but something must have. Because, on this very same day, at 22 year intervals, two iconic musicals opened on Broadway this very evening!!!!!!
Back in 1959, just two days before my fifth birthday, and six years before Julie Andrews would take that famous Alpine twirl, what would be Rodgers and Hammerstein's final show, "The Sound Of Music," opened tonight at the Lunt Fontanne Theatre!!!!!!
Hard to imagine at the time, I did not know a thing about it. But, with "Do Re Mi" soon becoming a Top Ten hit, thanks to Mitch Miller And His Gang, and the SOM Broadway kids (whom, by that point, I was ready to become; I would have donned a wig to play Gretl!!!! And, darlings, you can bet i would have upstaged Mary martin and Theodore Bikel!!!!), my theatrical instincts were initially tapped. I figured child stardom was my ticket out of suburbia, but, unfortunately, my mother was no Mama Rose!!!!!
Can anyone still name the Broadway kids????? I can, darlings!!!!! So, in descending order, from Liesl to Gretl:
Laurie Peters
William Snowden
Kathy Dunn
Joseph Stewart
Marilyn Rogers
Mary Susan Locke
Evanna Lien
And that is from memory, darlings!!!!!!
Patricia Neway played the Mother Abbess, and I have heard from people who were there that, when she hit the final note on "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," the theater's rafters and chandeliers shook!!!!!
Good as this show was, would you believe it beat out "Gypsy" for the "Best Musical" TONY Award???? And that, much as we love Mary Martin, she beat out Ethel Merman's career defining role of Mama Rose in "Gypsy" as "Best Actress"???????
It was a lovely show onstage, and the Original cast Album is still glorious to listen to, but, girls, as we all know, once Julie did that twirl on film, there was no going back!!!!!!!!
But the hills WERE alive on this very evening--52 years ago!!!!!
NOW--
Exactly thirty years ago tonight, at what was still called the Alvin Theatre, opened what turned out to be the final collaboration between Harold Prince and Stephen Sondheim (What is it with this evening and final collaborations????)--"Merrily We Roll Along."
I can recall the heightened anticipation of everyone surrounding this show. Honey, every young person in town auditioned for it, and while I did not, I gave it some thought. (I later would audition for a production of it in Jersey, and go on to sing some of its more celebrated songs!!!!) Then the rumors started flying; with people walking out of previews in droves, and things being changed every night!!!!
I even had a small personal stake in it; a coworker whom I had worked with in my early days in New York, at the NYU Bookstore, Maryrose Wood, was a featured player in it--the first contemporary I had known to "make it to Broadway"-- so I was especially proud of her!!!!
But it got to the point where I went to see the show during one of its last previews, (which turned out to be on Halloween night, and where I met my longstanding, but, unfortunately now, departed, friend, David Semonin) because I was not sure if it would survive to opening. The show looked pretty set to me, then!!!!!! But what blew everyone away was the gorgeous, evergreen score, and performers like Ann Morrison and Lonny Price!!!! I went back to see 'Merrily' the Saturday after it opened, and it looked changeless to me from last time, but that score!!!!!! I sweated bullets till they released the cast album!!!!!
Thirty years ago tonight, darlings????? Can you believe it???? I hardly can!!!!! The poster and album cover became iconic too, and, you can bet Theater Queens all over New York were, during this period, going on rooftops, and pointing to water towers!!!! You know I was, loves!!!!!!!
Two shows in one evening--"the hills are alive" (SOM's opening song) and "The Hills Of Tomorrow" ('Merrily's'). And here we are to celebrate!!!! So you know what CD's I will listen to, tonight, darlings!!!!! You do the same!!!!!
And remember,"Dreams don't die, so keep an eye on your dreams!"
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