It's delightful, it's delicious, it's dlevy!
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Listening to the Austrian cast recording of Kiss of the Spider Woman and I think I recognize the name of the actress playing Aurora. Google confirms: Yamil Borges, who played Morales in A Chorus Line: The Movie.
“And” is the bastard step-child of the score to A Chorus Line. Omitted from the original cast recording, cut from the film… I was thrilled to hear it would finally be recorded as part of the 2006 revival’s cast recording… only to find it was left off the general release, only offered to eMusic subscribers as a bonus track.
It’s not an important enough piece of music to make me want to sign up for the service, so I forgot about it, until today when it fell into my lap.
“Hello. My name is Murray Karp. Maybe you heard of me? I used to teach Drama One at the High School of Performing Arts.”
“Something” from Upstairs At O’Neals’ (1982), by Doug Bernstein and Denis Markell, performed by Bernstein.
Marvin Hamlisch’s funeral service this morning. I didn’t think I could write anything about this. But now I feel like I just have to. It was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever experienced. At 7:30AM, I was walking through Central Park, wearing all black, nervous and sad. Walking into Temple Emanu-El on 66th Street, within minutes, I was part of a 600-person choir rehearsal, all singing “What I Did For Love”. Hundreds of people. Some of our greatest composers and lyricists were there, amongst the chorus, honoring Marvin, including Sheldon Harnick, David Shire, Andrew Lippa, Maury Yeston, and Craig Carnelia and David Zippel, two of his great collaborators. I stood next to Anita Gillette, in front of a row of A Chorus Line alums, and behind Jonathan Tunick. And it was the most unbelievable thing.
Marvin Hamlisch performs a piano version of the unused overture he wrote for A Chorus Line.
Ugh YouTube why isn’t there a video of Alyson Reed, you know, DANCING this song on you?
That’s okay, this song for me is all about my own memories of seven-year-old me singing this song while dancing around the bathroom wearing a towel.
This image, which appeared on the original movie poster, soundtrack album, vocal selections, etc. for A Chorus Line: The Movie used to drive me nuts, even as an eight-year-old. Not only does the pose have nothing to do with anything you’d see in the film — and certainly not in those costumes! — but I’m pretty sure some (all?) of these models aren’t actually in the film, at least not on the line.
When I was little, my parents took me to see a lot of live theater. At first, our excursions were primarily to community theaters and semi-professional productions. When I was eight years old, they took me to my first “first-class” production, the first national tour of Big River. I was already familiar with the show from our cassette of the original cast recording, but I was so swept away by the magic of theater that I was hooked for life. Before long, that cassette was supplemented by a paperback copy of the script and the piano/vocal selections of the score. I loved the show so much, I wanted to own a piece of it, and this was how I did it.
I am tempted to count the omer this year using showtunes, but I doubt I can stick with it. Either way, “One.”
(And before you take issue with my use of the clip from A Chorus Line: The Movie, let me say a) it’s better than the one from Baryshnikov on Broadway and b) I was about seven years old when this film debuted and I was obsessed, so all valid criticism fails in the face of nostalgia.
Remember when I counted the omer last year using showtunes? Yeah, I’m not doing that again, but feel free to jump back in the archives and relive the glory.
