How Could I Forget This, Darlings?????????????

                                                  This day must be the Creme De La Creme of Musical Theater Week, girls, because, in addition to the birthdays mentioned, two genuine  classics of the Musical Theater opened this very evening, albeit in different years.

                                                     On this night, back in 1959, the curtain went up on Rodgers and Hammerstein's final offering, "The Sound Of Music."  Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel head the cast, with Lauri Peters as Liesl, Kurt Kasznar as Max, and Marion Marlowe as the Baroness. Not to mention TONY Winner, Patricia Neway, who, as Mother Abbess, was said to shake the rafters nightly upon hitting the final notes of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain, at the end of the First Act.  And don't forget Marilyn Rogers--who died last year, at the age of 63, as Brigitta!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That is MY role, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                         Then, just 22 years later, in 1981, another gem opened, though it did not run as long as the previous show. But it has had a long and interesting post-Broadway original-life!  And that, of course, is Stephen Sondheim's "Merrily We Roll Along," a show reflective of my youth, since it was cast with performers my age, at the time.  It meant a lot to me, then, and its message, as I grow older, becomes unbearably poignant each time I listen to it now, or witness a present day incarnation. And that
Holy Trio of a cast--Jim Walton, Ann Morrison, and Lonny Price, are still unsurpassed!!!!!!!!!

                                                            You have to wonder what was in the stars, for this day to be so special, and in such special terms, as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So, tonight, pull these two off your shelves, and give them a listen!!!!!!!!!!!!  You know I will, dolls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                               And remember--

                                                                "TILL----YOU----FIND----YOUR----DREEEEAAAAAMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"