The idea for The King and I started with Gertrude Lawrence (or at least her manager). She purchased the rights for Margaret Landon’s 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam, thinking it would be a perfect vehicle for her return to Broadway musicals. Rodgers and Hammerstein were initially reluctant to take on the assignment when offered. First, they didn’t think Landon’s episodic novel had a usable dramatic structure (though these fears were assuaged by viewing its 1946 non-musical film adaptation). But mostly, they didn’t want to write a star vehicle. They preferred making stars to writing for established ones, especially those with reputations for “diva” behavior and bad pitch. Obviously, they ultimately gave in and wrote one heck of a part for Ms. Lawrence. The King, meanwhile, was written as more of a supporting role with basically one song, the sing-speaky “A Puzzlement.” But Yul Brynner was such a sensation in the role that it soon became the viewed as an equal or larger role than Anna’s. And if it wasn’t played by Brynner, it didn’t count. Gertrude Lawrence sadly died in 1952, while the original production was still running. Brynner, on the other hand, would go on to play The King for 44 years, including in the 1956 film (winning an Oscar), an odd 1973 television series, two Broadway revivals, and multiple national tours for a total of 4,625 times on stage.

As a song, “Shall We Dance?” is really incomplete without ALL of the elements of a musical—book, score, performance, costumes, scenery, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. There are really only vocals for a verse and a couple of refrains, with the orchestra playing the rest. But when you add the dialogue over those musical interludes, it becomes a three-act play, and the culmination of 3 hours of building tension. And THEN when you add a beautiful gown with a massive hoop skirt spinning around a conveniently sparely furnished thrown room, thirty seconds of polka becomes one of musical theater’s most romantic moments.

Recommended Recording: ”Shall We Dance?,” The King and I(1996 Broadway Revival Cast)

The 1996 Broadway revival of The King and I was the first major American production in a post-Yul Brynner world. Director Christopher Renshaw approached the material as a celebration of Thai culture, replacing some of the English dialogue in the court with Thai, adding new procession featuring an elephant (the country’s national symbol), and casting all Asian roles with Asian actors, which had not happened prior to that point. (Yul Brynner was a Russian with an exotic look.) Lou Diamond Philips had the unenviable task of being the first actor not named Yul to open a production of The King and I on Broadway, and he did it with hair! The fact that he was already a movie star definitely helped. The intense and magnificent Donna Murphy played Anna. The production leaned heavily into their chemistry, at least if the Forbidden Broadway parody is to be believed. But this production really did have a lasting impact on The King and I’s legacy and how it’s perceived today. A 2000 London staging of the same production starred Elaine Paige and Jason Scott Lee and also produced a lovely cast recording.

Alternate Performances

The King and I has received ~40 cast recordings, including Norwegian, Israeli, Flemish, German, Greek, and Korean casts. Julie Andrews and Ben Kinglsey led a studio recording (using the film’s arrangements). Saruman himself, Christopher Lee, led a complete recording of the score.

• Yul Brynner - Yul Brynner appears on 3 cast recordings. The OBCR is a nice snapshot in time, though it doesn’t really capture what makes Gertrude Lawrence a star. (This brief snippet starts to give me an idea). As is the case with older recordings, the OBCR is heavily truncated and sounds like it was recorded in a tin can. The 1956 film is absolutely gorgeous and preserves Brynner’s performance and Jerome Robbins’ choreography (mostly seen in his wonderful “The Small House of Uncle Thomas” ballet). Deborah Kerr played Anna. Marnie Nixon dubbed the singing, but she and Kerr worked closely together to make it a seemless performance. But the 1977 revival produced what is probably my favorite of all K&I recordings. It would have been my recommended recording, but it is fully out of print—not even uploaded to YouTube! Constance Towers is an excellent Anna, and the two have them have fantastic chemistry. (Check out their performance on a Jerry Lewis MDA telethon in 1977 and the lifetime that passes as he grabs her waist.)

• 1999 Animated Film - The King and I made the exeedingly rare transition from stage to animated feature, from the studio that brought us Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. The music is well executed (Christiane Knoll sings Anna and Martin Vidnovic plays the King), the plot is heavily revised, and the whole thing is fascinating in a train-wreck kind of way. It must be seem to be believed, but you can also live a full productive life without accepting that this movie is real.

• 2015 Broadway Revival Cast - Bartlett Sher, who had triumphed with his revival of South Pacific, helmed the most recent Broadway K&I. It followed the tradition set by the 1996 revival of casting a movie star as the King (Ken Watanabe) and a beloved Broadway leading lady as Anna (Kelli O’Hara). It was well received, though not as enthusiastically as either the ‘96 K&Ior Sher’s South Pacific. The production went to London in 2018 (with O’Hara having the gumption to play a Brit in England!) and recorded a proshot (which is apparently much cheaper to do in the UK than in the US). The taping is not currently streaming anywhere (legally), but hope springs eternal.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

• The Rat Pack - According to IMDB, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford sang “Shall We Dance” on a televised special Frank Sinatra’s Welcome Home Party for Elvis Presley. Beyond that, both Frank and Sammy have each recorded several other K&I songs.

• Audra McDonald has definitely performed in concerts that featured other people singing selections from The King and I, but she hasn’t recorded any herself.

In the Wings

With this, our 4th playlist is officially underway. While you wait for No. 42 to drop, I would recommend reading about the real King Mongkut, who led an eventful life. The real Anna Lenowens is also fascinating—largely because she made up most of her personal history! Also, if you’re looking for other versions of the song, note that there is an unrelated Gershwin song called “Shall We Dance” from a movie of the same name. But thatmovie is not to be confused with the 2004 Richard Gere/J Lo movie, which took its title from the K&I song.

Catch up with all the songs to date!

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What Makes Something a Star Turn?

We’re looking at shows where a central “star” is essential to the musical’s DNA. Shows where pretty much every element is in service to the star role’s arc or the leading actor’s performance. Shows where your first question upon hearing it’s being produced is, “who’s playing [Star Role]?” But this seemingly narrow selection criteria nevertheless contains a wealth of variations that we will explore:

• roles written for a specific performer

• shows or songs that became forever tied to a performer’s legacy

• roles that turn anyone who plays them into a star

• Roles/songs that comment on the nature of fame itself.

The star turn is practically as old as musical theater itself—George M. Cohan’s hits were as much vehicles for his style of performance as anything else. But by the rise of the mega-musical in the 1980s, the show (or even the producer) became the star, and you’d be hard pressed to find an actor’s name on the poster at all. We’ve come back to the star turn in the sense that casting super famous movie stars is one of the more reliable ways to sell tickets these days. But few people are writing musicals specifically for these movie stars. Oh, Mary! is the best example of the classic sort of star turn out there today (even though it’s a play): every casting announcement is an event, and you can’t wait to see what they bring to the part (and what the role brings out in them).

Previously Mentioned Star Turns

We’ve already covered quite a few “star turns,” (and we’ll hit a few more even after this playlist is complete). Some examples from the vault:

• “Give My Regards to Broadway,” Little Johnny Jones (1904)

• “Anything Goes,” Anything Goes (1934)

• “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” Annie Get Your Gun(1946)

• “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” Gentlemen Prefer Blondes(1949)

• “I Could Have Danced All Night,” My Fair Lady (1956)

• “If I Were a Rich Man,” Fiddler on the Roof (1964)

• “Cabaret,” Cabaret (1966)

• “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This,” Sweet Charity(1966)

• “Send in the Clowns,” A Little Night Music (1973)

• “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” Dreamgirls (1981)

• “I Am What I Am,” La Cage Aux Folles (1983)

• “Defying Gravity,” Wicked (2003)

In the Wings

We’re going to dive right into our first Star Turn, song No. 41, next week. While you wait, a reminder that you can:

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Our Notable Creatives

• George Abbott

• Lynn Ahrens

• Jerry Bock

• Jason Robert Brown

• Cy Coleman

• Betty Comden

• Russell Crouse

• Micki Grant

• William Finn

• Stephen Flaherty

• Adolph Green

• Sheldon Harnick

• Jerry Herman

• Tom Kitt

• James Lapine

• Howard Lindsay

• Terrance McNally

• Cole Porter

• Joseph Stein

• Shaina Taub

• Jeanine Tesori

• Gwen Verdon

• David Yazbek

• Brian Yorkey

Is It Covered By The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

One of my favorite parts of this process is making these Venn diagrams, even if I’m really sweating about fitting 60 more names on one of them.

In The Wings

It’s crazy to think that it’s been 13 months since I started this newsletter! A special round of applause for the 65 or so of you who have been along for the journey this whole time! But I also want to give a shoutout to more recent followers—thanks for finding me! I also want to express sincere gratitude for anyone who has shared or recommended 100Showtunes (which is ever so easy and fun to do!).

I’ll announce the theme for Playlist IV next week and reveal song No. 41 the following week. Until then, keep marching on.

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It may be premature to dub Shaina Taub a “Notable Creative” being that Suffs marked her Broadway debut as a writer and performer. But she’s only the second woman in history to star in a Broadway musical while also writing music, lyrics, and book. (The first was Micki Grant…in 1971.) In the 10 years leading to Suffs on Broadway, Taub:

• appeared in the original off-Broadway casts of Hadestown, and Natasha Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812).

• wrote scores for, and performed in, adaptations of Twelfth Night and As You Like It for the Public Theater’s PUBLIC WORKS program.

• released 3 solo albums.

• wrote lyrics (to Elton John’s score) for the musical version of The Devil Wears Prada .

• wrote the theme song to Julie’s Greenroom (the Netflix show starring Julie Andrews and a gaggle of Jim Henson puppets).

• wrote songs for the second season of AppleTV’s animated musical series, Central Park.

In a time when many aspiring composers can spend 11 years trying to get a single musical off the ground, Taub seems to be an indefatigable source of ideas. Even more important—she’s proven she can refine those ideas and do the work that takes a show from promising to excellent. Suffs received a mixed response off-Broadway, with critics finding it overstuffed with ideas, characters, and tonal shifts. What opened on Broadway was more focused, thematically clear, and impactful. A writer who can seemingly find musical inspiration in a shopping list while also having the discipline to edit and revise should prove to be unstoppable.

Recommended Recording: ”Keep Marching” Suffs (2024 Original Broadway Cast)

I admit that the cast recording can be a little bit challenging if you haven’t seen the show. The ear worms come through, but there are so many characters and plot threads that it can feel like you’re always playing catch up. But “Keep Marching” works without much context at all—it pretty much sets itself up in the first verse. The earnest and optimistic song is admirably unafraid of being “cringe.” We’re in a narrow window in which this song can be a bit of a discovery for many readers. I’ve already heard it at one Pride event, and I just feel like you’ll soon be hearing it anytime a group of idealistic women+ perform. I can see it eventually becoming like “Seasons of Love” where we spend a few years resenting its ubiquity before embracing it as a classic.

Alternate Performances

So far, there’s only one full recording of Suffs. It’s currently on tour, and if it’s stopping near you, I recommend checking it out.

• Broadway Inspirational Voices Edition - The Broadway Inspirational Voices recorded a version of “Keep Marching” in support of Broadway Votes and Joy to the Polls. It’s a bit rough to try to think optimistically about the 2024 election in hindsight…but I also feel like this could be an evergreen recording to trot out every 4 (or 2) years until it works.

• Pro-Shot - A proshot was recorded with the original Broadway cast, and it will premiere on PBS as part of Great Performances on Friday, May 8. I’m really glad it was preserved in this way (especially since, as I mentioned earlier, there are limits to what you can comprehend based on the recording alone). Let this also serve as a reminder to support your local PBS station.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

• Audra McDonald- According to a Shaina Taub bio that appears many places on the internet, Audra McDonald has sung Taub’s music. But damned if I know what or where or when.

• Glee - Alex Newell, who played Unique Adams after placing second on the reality competition series The Glee Project, is a featured soloist on the Broadway Inspirational Voices version of “Keep Marching.”

In the Wings

We’ve now completed our third playlist, Notable Creatives! Next week will be a brief “scene change,” with the next playlist theme to be announced the following week. Until then, I would recommend looking up the “cancel suffs” protest.

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In the late 90s a group of composers started emerging as a next wave of musical theater writers, with challenging commercially risky works typically presented by the growing force of institutional non-profit off-broadway theaters (Playwrights Horizons, Lincoln Center, etc.) These composers usually had three names and were almost exclusively male. Jeanine Tesori (who, like Jason Robert Brown and Tom Kitt, began her career as a music director and arranger), entered the chat with her musical Violet, an intimate off-Broadway chamber piece about a young woman with a scar across her face who takes a bus to meet a faith healer. With Thoroughly Modern Millie, she found the big Broadway hit that continues to elude her contemporaries. Though much of its score came from the 1960s movie it’s based on, Tesori’s original contributions blended seamlessly with, and frequently outshone, the existing material. Her next piece was a return to the the off-Broadway aesthetic with the magical-realism memory play, Caroline, or Change (book and lyrics by Tony Kushner). Her career has continued to dabble in big budget family shows(Shrek the Musical) as well as quirky off-Broadway works and, more recently, opera. Through it all she’s shown incredible versatility, working with a variety of collaborators in a range of musical styles. With Fun Home, Tesori found the perfect blend of her sensibilities. On one hand, it has dark subject matter adapted from an unconventional source, ripe for complex musical scenes. It also delivers a number of satisfying crowd-pleasing songs. (I’ve been sitting behind the same gaggle of tipsy subscribers at my local Broadway touring series for years. They love a jukebox musical or anything bright and shiny and look through their phones during quieter more challenging shows. The big showcase numbers in Fun Homehad them locked in.)

Librettist Lisa Kron’s background made her an ideal candidate for adapting Bechdel’s graphic novel. She co-founded the theater company The Five Lesbian Brothers, in addition to writing two successful innovative autobiographical plays. She had never written a musical before, but luckily for everyone one of Tesori’s secret powers is turning playwrights into lyricists, and Kron rose to the challenge with witty lyrics that organically sit on the music. The libretto is a master class in adaptation finding a dramatic through-line in the fragmented source material and capturing its specific distinctive tone. Many of Fun Home’s major plot points are, at least on paper, as bleak as a musical can get. But it’s surrounded by warmth and humor in a way that feels totally unified. It really shouldn’t work at all, but instead it’s become one of the most produced shows in America. And Kron may not have invented the 3-actresses-as-1-lead structure, but we sure did start seeing it A LOT following Fun Home’s success (see Summer, The Cher Show, and The Notebook to name a few).

Recommended Recording: ”Ring of Keys” Fun Home (2015 Original Broadway Cast)

Sydney Lucas originated the role of Small Alison off-Broadway at the age of 10, and continued with the show for its Broadway run. She gave an uncommonly intelligent performance with both quiet intensity and childish naivety. When I saw her on Broadway, there was a moment where she gave Bruce a chilling knowing glare that is forever etched in my mind. The producers wisely chose to use her complete performance of “Ring of Keys” as their Tony number, and it’s one of the all time greats. For a time, I worried no one else would be able to do the song justice—that it needed a uniquely perceptive kid like Lucas. But by now I’ve seen a number of professional and amateur productions, and the song always works. Because that’s what great writing does—it maps out the journey in words and music, creating a roadmap for whoever performs it.

Alternate Performances

Thus far, Fun Home has only received two cast recordings—and honestly, it’s more like 1.5. Lea Salonga starred in a Philippines production that was not recorded, nor was the original London cast recorded.

• 2013 Off-Broadway Cast - Fun Home was first recorded during its extended off-Broadway run at the Public Theater. This is the 0.5 recording I mentioned. Much of it is reused on its Broadway counterpart, with some bits re-recorded to reflect cast changes (most notably the role of Medium Alison), and some other tweaks to the material. This edition went out of print once the OBCR came out.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

• Audra McDonald has not recorded anything from Fun Home (though we the people deserve her take on Helen’s big ballad “Days and Days.”) As far as I can tell, the only Tesori work in Audra’s repertoire is the lullaby “Lay Down Your Head” from Violet, which closes her album How Glory Goes. It’s the aural equivalent of a hug.

In the Wings

We’re almost at the end of Notable Creatives—No. 40 will close out our third playlist. To be honest, I’m not sure when I’m going to get that out—the next couple of weeks are going to be a whirlwind as I prepare to perform in Shoeless: a Musical Tale of Cinderella with the North Coast Men’s Chorus (and featuring Nina West!). Until then, you may want to look up “The Bechdel Test,” an idea that started as a strip in her comic Dykes to Watch Out For, then became an earnest metric that grew in popularity until Bechdel was like “y’all, it really was not that serious.” (I’m paraphrasing, but you’ll figure it out.) Oh, and someone made a Lego music video of this song.

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Next to Normal began as a musical called Feeling Electric. As the original punny title might indicate, the show leaned heavily into satire and criticism of the mental health industry. But as the show evolved and the characters became more fully realized, the now-titled Next to Normal became a show at odds with itself. Was it a sincere portrait of familial strife, or a provocative comedy meant to prompt audiences to say “I can’t believe they said that in a musical!!”? When reviews of the off-Broadway production pointed out this dichotomy unfavorably, the creative team got back to work. For regional tryout that summer, they cut down the jokey satire numbers and thoughtfully delved into the very real consequences of severe mental illness, though still with caustic wit and a driving rock score. The newly cohesive version ran for a year and a half, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, and has become a favorite of regional and community theaters.

Despite what his wholesome looks might suggest, Tom Kitt has become the go-to guy for rock on Broadway. Prior to his first Broadway score (for the shortlived musical version of High Fidelity), he had a career as a music director and arranger. He frequently serves in those capacities on jukebox musicals like American Idiot, Jagged Little Pill, and Hell’s Kitchen. Brian Yorkey built a reputation as a playwright and director with a particular knack for working with and writing for teens. In addition to writing musicals with Tom Kitt and others, Yorkey created the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why.

Recommended Recording: ”Superboy and the Invisible Girl,” Next to Normal (2009 Original Broadway Cast)

This is one of the top cast recordings of the aughts, with career-defining performances for everyone involved. Aaron Tveit and Jennifer Damiano give star-making performances, and I particularly love how their voices sound when they harmonize together on the last verse. This was also the first song I ever heard from Next to Normal, thanks to this Broadway.com video featuring the cast in the recording studio. In Alice Ripley’s brief section (beginning at 1:13), you can get a sense of how wild her performance was. I’ve seen four other Diana’s since, and none of them had the same comedic edge. In 2024, Tom Kitt remastered the recording in honor of its fifteenth anniversary. It rebalances the mix between vocals and musicians, emphasizing the rock sensibility of the score.

Alternate Performances

Next to Normal has received nine cast recordings, including Korean, Argentinian, Italian, Czech, and Dutch casts (though many of them are not readily available in the USA).

• 2013 German Cast - This production starred Pia Douwes, a Dutch musical theater star best known for creating the title role in Elisabeth, a landmark 1992 Austrian musical that is popular just about everywhere except America. She has an impossibly large range and can play just about any role (in just about any language)…and has done so. It’s a treat to hear her on this live cast recording.

• 2021 Riverdale Cast - Riverdale is an absolutely insane show that, on top of doing the most with every storyline, has a musical episode most seasons in which they take songs from a given show and recontextualize them to be about Archie and co. Earlier musical episodes centered around the high school musical, with some songs being seen in rehearsal/performance while others appeared in unrelated story lines. The Next to Normal episode from season 5 takes a different approach (maybe because they’ve graduated high school by this point). Betty’s mom is going through a depressive episode and listens to the Next to Normal recording obsessively, prompting its numbers to appear in everyone’s lives. “Superboy and the Invisible Girl” becomes a solo number for Veronica about feeling unseen in her relationship with Archie. Even though these episodes aren’t accurate presentations of the show, they always seem to tap into the source material’s original tone, so the songs still hit like they should emotionally.

• 2024 London Cast - Despite being popular throughout Europe for 15 years, Next to Normal never played London until a new 2024 production at the intimate Donmar Warehouse. While the original production leaned into the rock and comedic aspects of the show, this production doubled down on the suburbia of it all. Cassie Levy puts herself through it as Diana, while Jack Wolfe takes a quieter, more haunting approach to Gabe. The revival didn’t transfer to Broadway but instead received a proshot that aired on PBS as part of Great Performances. It’s currently steaming on PBS and BroadwayHD.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

• Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey have a talent for writing bespoke musicals that highlight the unique talents of its leading lady. See Next to Normal and Alice Ripley, If/Then and Idina Menzel, Freaky Friday and Heidi Blickenstaff. I am simply asking that they do for Audra McDonald what they have done for others.

In the Wings

As you wait for song No. 40 to drop, I recommend checking out this recording of a song called “Costco” from back in Next to Normal’s Feeling Electric days. This is often cited as one of the songs that felt tonally out of place in the off-Broadway production, and it was soon jettisoned forever.

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It’s pretty difficult to write a song that is legitimately funny. Writing a song that one finds funny after listening to it for 20 years is almost unheard of. But that’s David Yazbek for you! How can you not be delighted by a lyric like this?:

I mean

The air is French

That chair is French

This nice sincere sancerre is French

The skies are French

The pies are French

Those guys are French

These fries are French!

David Yazbek made his Broadway debut in 2000 with The Full Monty. He came to the theater with a background writing for The Late Show with David Letterman, jingles, and music for children’s tv. His first theatrical score kept pace with the laughs from the source material while also mining it for emotionally satisfying material. While the follow-up, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels wasn’t as critically successful (and ran about half as long), it proved Monty wasn’t a one-off fluke and established Yazbek as Broadway’s funniest composer. He has proved surprisingly prolific as well with four subsequent eclectic projects including the ambitious-but-flawed Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, the deeply felt The Band’s Visit, Tootsie, and the recent musical about a corpse, Dead Outlaw. He also co-produced Buena Vista Social Cluband was a producer on its cast recording.

Recommended Recording: ”Here I Am,” Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005 Original Broadway Cast)

Sherie Rene Scott is a national treasure. Her bright, seemingly indestructible belt is paired with clinical precision and an uncanny deadpan delivery that I find endlessly amusing. Listen to how deftly she handles the lyric with perfect vocal placement. While …Scoundrels marked a reunion for Scott and Norbert Leo Butz, long simmering tensions between them came to a head during the production, and they didn’t really appear onstage together after it until they created a show about their fallout called Twohander which played at 54 Below in 2019 and should be on Broadway (or anywhere) right now.

Alternate Performances

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels has only received one other cast recording—a 2008 Mexican Cast, starring Eugenio Derbez. It apparently was only sold at the theater and isn’t available digitally.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

• Audra McDonald, Glee, and David Yazbek all competed against each other at the Grammy’s this past weekend for their contributions in the Best Musical Theater Album category. Audra was nominated for Gypsy, Gleeks Jonathan Groff and Darren Criss were nominated for Just in Time and Maybe Happy Ending respectively, and Yazbek was nominated for Buena Vista Social Club. (Also, Just in Time, a Bobby Darrin jukebox musical, has big Rat Pack energy. I’m just sayin’.) Buena Vista… won..

In the Wings

Before I leave you to fend for yourselves as you await the release of song no. 38, it’s vitally important that you know David Yazbek wrote the theme song to Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?. If you don’t know what that is, stop what you are doing and listen to it right now.

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Parade has enough similarities with Ragtime that I have been hesitant to put them next to each other on this list. They’re both (1) historical dramas exploring tensions between Jewish, affluent white, and Black communities (2) set in the first decades of the 20th century that (3) feature lush scores for large ensembles and (4) were produced by Livent. (The Hal Prince revival of Show Boat is the third infinity stone in the Livent Theatrical Universe of turn-of-the-Century musical dramas). Livent boasted an innovative approach to producing as the first publicly traded theatrical production company. They mounted huge artistically successful award-winning productions and seemed to reap fiscal rewards to match. Unfortunately, their cheery financial outcomes were, in fact “accounting irregularities” (i.e fraud). This creative bookkeeping came to light during Parade’s run, leaving co-producer Lincoln Center with the bill and making Livent founder Garth Darbrinski the first person to serve a lengthy prison sentence for musical theater1.

Felonies aside, Parade symbolized a passing of the torch to a new generation of theater makers. On one hand, you have the legendary Harold Prince, who conceived of and directed the piece. Playwright Alfred Uhry, best known for the quaint play and movie Driving Miss Daisy, wrote the book. These established creators joined forces with newcomer Jason Robert Brown. Brown had been building a reputation as a conductor and arranger, but his only stage composition was the off-Broadway song cycle Songs for a New World, which had a limited run in 1995. But its score, full of big sings and compelling stories, made an impression, especially on Harold Prince, whose daughter Daisy directed revue. In choosing Brown for Parade, Prince seemed to anoint Brown as the Next Sondheim—what else would you call a young composer-lyricist working with Harold Prince on a new musical that tackles challenging and unconventional themes? Brown’s score quickly became a favorite of theater fans who also devoured Songs…, and his folllow-up to Parade, the doomed-marriage two-hander The Last Five Years. These scores dominated cabaret acts and terrorized audition accompanists for years. Brown’s career since then has been an eclectic mix of “commercial” comedies, like 13 (Ariana Grande’s Broadway debut), and more serious fare, like The Bridges of Madison County. His latest work is about another famous murder in Georgia, a musical version of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil written with performance artist and playwright Taylor Mac. It announced a 2025 Broadway run that has yet to materialize, but it could potentially happen at any point when a suitable theater becomes available. Or never. At the very least they continue to pay for a URL and web-hosting.

Recommended Recording: “The Old Red Hills of Home,” Parade(1998 Original Broadway Cast)

Simply put, this recording is a cultural landmark, and, sadly, Broadway has seen few scores and recordings at this scale and grandeur since.

Alternate Performances

Parade has received 3 cast recordings (including the Original Broadway Cast).

• 2007 Original London Cast - Rob Ashford directed an entirely new production for Parade’s London premiere. The 2-disk cast recording captures a good amount of revision to the book and score. The production, at the small Donmar Warehouse, took more of a reduced “chamber approach” to the score, with reduced orchestrations. It’s a good supplement to the OBCR.

• 2023 Broadway Cast - By the time Parade saw its first Broadway revival in 2023, the show had amassed enough fans to make the production a sell-out hit. This production started as a Gala concert for New York City Center (like the current hit Ragtime revival). Jason Robert Brown was now the established, accomplished author watching a new crop of creators, like director Michael Arden, breathe new life into the show. Ben Platt defies the haters and sounds great, though Micaela Diamond’s Lucille is the big standout for me.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

• Audra McDonald included a rendition of “You Don’t Know This Man”—in which Frank’s wife, Lucillle, defends her husband—on her first solo disk, Way Back to Paradise. The album, which was released a year before Parade opened, is comprised of songs by emerging writers, many of whom had three names: Jason Robert Brown, Michael John LaChiusa, Ricky Ian Gordon, Adam Guettel (grandson of Richard Rodgers), and Jenny Giering.

In the Wings

While you wait for song No. 37 to drop, you can explore an alarming amount of resources about the real life basis of Parade at leofrank.org. If you’re more interested in the other true crime associated with this musical, there’s Show Stopper: The Theatrical Life of Garth Darbinski, which is currently streaming for free on Tubi. If you don’t want to read about crimes at all, there’s this blog post by Jason Robert Brown, following the opening of the London production, that explains the some of the show’s revisions.

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Ragtime is one of those musicals that is deeply beloved by fans of the art form2, even if it has never really penetrated the popular consciousness. The original Broadway production is one of the great triumphs of the decade with a peerless cast elevating an already glorious score. The extravagant production, which required merging two shuttered theaters into one new expansive house, was also its undoing. Critics were blinded by its largess, prompting baseless accusations that is was style over substance3. It ran for two years, but ultimately failed to attract crowds sufficient to sustain a production of that magnitude4. The show continues to loom large in the heart of theater aficionados, thanks to the exemplary work of Terrence McNally, Stephen Flaherty, and Lynn Ahrens. McNally’s book is a masterclass in adaptation, neatly fitting a sprawling novel with three distinct story arcs into a cohesive and impactful narrative. And Flaherty and Ahrens’ score is one of Broadway’s finest, capturing all of the flavors of 1900s America with a contemporary flair. It rarely gets better than this.

Recommended Recording: ”Wheels of a Dream,” Ragtime (1998 Original Broadway Cast)

Ragtime’s original cast recording is one of the most essential theater albums of the 90s. Ken Mandelbaum’s 1998 review for playbill.com puts it best: “I won’t even begin to single out for praise individual numbers, as there are too many superb ones; suffice it to say that this is a major score, one of the finest of recent years.…It’s likewise unnecessary to discuss the leads separately, as they are all glorious, and offer deeply felt performances.” The leads on this particular track are the peerless Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell.

I truly think we would be a better country if everyone saw Ragtime every couple of years. I’ve seen four different productions in my life, and it feels urgent and relevant in a different way each time. Listening to the new recording this past week, the Coalhouse/Sarah story felt unbearably pertinent. But I have to believe we are better than what is happening right now.

Alternate Performances

The Original Broadway Cast recording of Ragtime is the only complete commercial recording for the score. The original London production—an entirely new staging with a notable cast—criminally didn’t get recorded at all.

• The Original Cast Again (and Again) - In 1996, a single-disk “Songs from Ragtime” album came out following the Toronto try-out. It features a different Emma Goldman than its Broadway counterpart, and a couple of the numbers would get notable revisions before NYC. It’s an interesting peek at a musical in development. In 2023, much of the Original Broadway Cast reunited for concert to benefit the Actor’s Fund. It was originally scheduled for 2020, but was delayed due to Covid-19. Marin Mazzie, the original Mother, passed away in 2018, so Kelli O’Hara played the role for the concert. The evening was filmed and has been announced for both cinematic and television releases, only for both to be cancelled shortly after news broke.

• 2010 Broadway Cast - A Kennedy Center (RIP) revival, smartly staged by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, transferred to Broadway in 2010. Its minimal production may have been more cost effective, but it failed to attract significant audiences. It’s preserved with a one-disk “Songs from Ragtime” recording.

• 2025 Broadway Revival Cast - New York City Center presented a concert version of Ragtime for their 2024 gala. Lincoln Center then transferred that production to Broadway, where it has, for the first time, been playing like a hit, extending past its limited run at least until July 2026. Its cast recording came out last week. While the recording features a number of baffling cuts—enough that I wouldn’t even consider it a complete recording, though it has more than either of the “Songs from…” disks—it captures the fine performances, particularly Joshua Henry’s Coalhouse. Nichelle Lewis—the underappreciated star of the recent The Wiz revival—meets the unenviable challenge of tackling one of Audra McDonald’s signature roles and making it her own. The production makes a very…strong choice with the final note of the final “Wheels of a Dream” reprise. Not having seen the whole production, I can’t really comment on the correctness of that choice, but at least they committed to it.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

• Audra McDonald - Ragtime marked the first time Audra created a role in a musical on Broadway, and it firmly established her as one of the top performers of her generation. Her little hum after Coalhouse sings “they’ll take to him like cats to cream” has lived rent free in my mind for 28 years. “Your Daddy’s Son,” Sarah’s lullaby in which she explains why she buried her baby, is Audra at the height of her powers. I also love this performance of the opening number on The Rosie O’Donnell Show in which Audra out-sings the entire company on the last note.

• Glee - At age 11, Lea Michele created the role of The Little Girl (the daughter of Tateh, the center of the immigrant storyline) in the original Broadway production of Ragtime. She has a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance at the top ofthis performance of “Our Children” on Rosie.

In the Wings

As you wait for song No. 36, there’s lot of Ragtime stuff to look into. Playbill ran this oral history of Ragtime’s genesisaround the time of the reunion concert. Among many highlights, in includes Audra McDonald describing hearing “Wheels of a Dream” for the first time. Joshua Henry and Nichelle Lewis have been singing “Wheels of a Dream” for anyone who’ll have them. There’s also this performance of the song from a “Ragtime Fan Film” that I really enjoy.

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In 1979 a wholly original composer-lyricist, William Finn, wrote and directed a one-act musical called In Trousers about a married man, Marvin, who realizes he is gay. While it showcased Finn’s raw talent, it’s loose structure revealed room for improvement as a dramatist. In 1981, Finn collaborated with director and playwright James Lapine on a sequel, March of the Falsettos, launching a decades-long collaboration between the two. Nine years later1, Finn and Lapine completed the “Marvin Trilogy” withFalsettoland, in which the characters confront the AIDS crises. This was the most successful installment yet, getting a commercial off-Broadway run. Hartford Stage was the first to present these latter-two shows as a single evening, directed by Graciela Daniele. The enthusiastic response to Hartford’s production led to a Broadway pairing of the one-acts calledFalsettos, directed by Lapine and featuring most of the original off-Broadway cast. This somewhat jumbled path to Broadway was perhaps fitting for the work of Finn, whose thru-sung shows don’t typically follow narrative conventions. While the “book” of Falsettos doesn’t feature much dialogue, Lapine’s contribution provided an organization and structure that clarified the narrative and heightened its emotional impact while allowing Finn to be Finn.

In the summer of 2006 I was a stage management intern for Barrington Stage Company’s new Musical Theater Lab series, and Bill Finn was the series’ artistic director. He was gruff, opinionated, and unpredictable, but also very kind. And once I got acclimated to his rather chaotic modes of communication, I could appreciate how much of a genius he really was, and how clearly he could see the moments he wanted. Pretty much every conversation started with me thinking “what is happening” and ended with me realizing “oh, yeah, that’s good.” As a longtime teacher at the NYU Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program, Finn championed new voices and urged them to defy convention and put themselves and their craziest ideas on the page, writers like Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop) and Will Aronson (Maybe Happy Ending). I expect Finn’s influence will continue to manifest in the years to come.

Recommended Recording: “Days Like This,” Falsettoland (1990 Original Off-Broadway Cast)

March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland each received cast recordings following their respective off-Broadway openings. When Falsettos opened on Broadway, the powers that be decided not to make a new recording but rather re-issue the previous two recordings as a set, despite the fact that these recordings didn’t reflect rewrites and cast changes made for Broadway. But they’re both classic recordings that perfectly capture the spirited performers expertly navigating the quirky score.

Falsettos has many songs that are more popular than “Days Like This.” But I chose this song because:

1. It’s my favorite—the opening bars of the accompaniment are so fun and bouncy!

2. It features people singing different musical lines separately, and then singing them on top of each other, which will ALWAYS work for me.

3. It features the entire cast, and each character is vividly rendered within a few bars (aside from Dr. Charlotte, who doesn’t get much to do in this song).

4. It’s a great example of Finn’s rhymes that are as preposterous as they are revealing (ex: “Go ahead be good and pissed. / ‘How can I help?,’ says the wiry psychiatrist,” or “I am up to my ass / in a Kosher morass,” to name a few .)

Alternate Performances

Falsettos had only received 3 cat recordings. Individual songs tend to get recording more often (“What More Can I Say” is a particularly popular choice.)

• Justice for Barbara Walsh - Though a Hartford production inspired what became Falsettos, the Broadway bow functioned more as a transfer of the off-Broadway productions. Michael Rupert, Stephen Bogardus, and Chip Zien continued in the roles they created off-Broadway in both shows (Marvin, Whizzer, and Mendel respectively2). Alison Fraser played Trina in both In Trousers and March of the Falsettos, while Faith Prince played the role in Falsettoland. When it came time to cast the role for Broadway, the team decided not to choose between Fraser and Prince and instead went with option C, the Hartford Trina (Barbara Walsh). But Walsh never got to record her performance! You can at least see her perform “I’m Breaking Down” on a talk show. (The song first appeared in In Trousers before being worked into the Broadway Falsettos) The original Broadway cast also added Carolee Carmello as Cordelia, which is another thing we deserve to have on record.

• 2003 LATW Cast - LA Theaterworks recorded a 10th Anniversary edition of Falsettos, recording its full Broadway version for the first time. Michael Rupert, Stephen Bogardus, and Chip Zien reprised their roles, but the women and Jason were recast. Unlike most (if not all) other LATW productions, this disappeared into the ether after it’s first presentation…at least as much as anything can disappear when the internet exists. It’s an uneven performance and audio capture that mostly highlights the difference between recording a staged reading and a true studio recording. But still, it was the only accurate recording of Falsettos for thirteen years and maybe should have been more available.

• 2016 Broadway Cast - 24 years after it first opened on Broadway, Falsettos finally got an honest-to-god English-language cast recording of the revised show. Lapine again directed the production, which was filmed and screened in movie theaters, aired as part of Live from Lincoln Center, and now streams on BroadwayHD. It’s honestly still a little jarring for me to hear someone besides Rupert/Bogardus/Zien in these roles, but it’s an excellent, long overdue recording.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

• Audra McDonald introduces the proshot of Falsettos as the host of Live from Lincoln Center.

In the Wings

Happy new year! I can’t believe we are officially more than 1/3 of the way through this project. As you patiently await the release of song No. 35, I recommend checking out the album Infinite Joy: The Songs of William Finn, a retrospective concert of Finn’s work (up to 2001) with an all star cast. Finn himself takes a mic a few times, to give you a sense of his one-of-a-kind personality.

As I mentioned in the previous profile, I’ve started adding voiceover narrations. Now there is a podcast feed for these narrations that can you add to the platform of your choice. You can search “100 Showtunes: The Podcast” on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. An RSS feed link is at the bottom of this email. The newsletter is still the main focus of this project, but the audio edition may fit into your day a little easier!

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La Cage Aux Folles was almost a musical called The Queen of Basin Street with a New Orleans setting, a book by Jay Preston Allen, a score by Maury Yeston, choreography by Tommy Tune, and direction by Mike Nichols. New producers came on board and insisted on a new creative team, bringing in Harvey Fierstein, the hottest playwright in town, and Jerry Herman. (Nichols went on to direct a different Americanized adaptation for film—The Birdcage.) Herman and Fierstein must have seemed like an odd pairing at first—Fierstein defied the odds when his edgy downtown play became a long-running Broadway hit, while Herman was wholesome, possibly even old-fashioned, and hadn’t had major success in over a decade. (A revival of his last hit, Mame, was bombing spectacularly on Broadway when La Cage… opened.) But the partnership resulted in a musical that was both unabashedly queer and a good old-fashioned American crowd-pleaser. The act one closer, “I Am What I Am,” still resonates deeply today and has basically become the Gay National Anthem. Herman’s biggest hits were about larger-than-life personalities who defy convention and help others lead more authentic lives—so perhaps he had been writing about drag queens the whole time.

Recommended Recording: ”I Am What I Am,” La Cage Aux Folles (1985 Australian Cast)

Australian actor Jon Ewing delivers a powerful rendition of “I Am What I Am.” The orchestra is straight up fire—I don’t know what they did, but it’s somehow more epic than any other rendition I’ve heard.

Alternate Performances

La Cage… has received ~12 cast recordings, including Berlin, Italian, Columbian, Mexican, and Japanese casts (but not French). New York City Encores! has added it to their 2026 season, featuring Billy Porter, Wayne Brady, and an all-Black cast.

• 1983 Original Broadway Cast - George Hearn starred as Albin. He was most know for stern, authoritative stuff without a hint of camp on him (unless you count dating Dixie Carter for a few years). But he sounds like he’s having a blast on the upbeat numbers, and his gravitas and rich baritone anchors a thrilling rendition of “I Am What I Am.” Powers that be still thought a man in drag was too much for the Tony telecast, so Hearn sang “I Am…” in a tux with no wig or makeup.

• Gloria Gaynor recorded a disco version of “I Am What I Am” shortly after the show opened, and it became an international hit. Based on her current politics, it doesn’t seem like she ever really listened to the words.

• 2010 Broadway Cast - This production of La Cage… came over from London. On paper it seemed completely unnecessary—La Cage…had just been revived on Broadway in 2005–but in that short time, our perception and relationship to drag changed significantly, in no small part due to RuPaul’s Drag Race, which began in 2009. The production reflected a sleeker, sexier approach to drag than the more camp aesthetic of the 80s. Douglas Hodge came over from London, reprising his precise and hilarious Albin. (Kelsey Grammer played Georges and, like Gloria Gaynor, apparently managed not to internalize anything he heard, said, or sang in that production.) Harvey Fierstein took over the role of Albin for the last few months of the run. Jeffrey Tambor was supposed to play Georges at that time, but he struggled and was gone within two weeks.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

• The Rat Pack - Sammy Davis Jr. keeps giving me reasons to like him. He sang “I Am What I Am” on a television special, prefecing it by telling everyone to walk-not-run to see La Cage…. What a guy!

• Audra McDonald has been singing “I Am What I Am” for several years. It opens her 2018 album Sing Happyand her 2024 special Audra McDonald at the London Palladium.

• Glee has somehow not performed “I Am What I Am.” Make it make sense.

In the Wings

You may have noticed a “Listen to this post” widget on top of this page and wondered what that was about. I’ve sneakily started recording voiceovers of me reading the posts. I had been reading them aloud to myself to help with editing, and figured I might as well press record. (Turns out, it’s a lot harder than that, and voice over actors deserve a lot of credit.) I might get out No. 34 before the end of the year, or I might blink and wake up in January. Until then, I recommend the documentary, Words and Music by Jerry Herman which is available on youtubeand does a wonderful job of putting his career in context. And I know I said way back during my ground rulesthat I wouldn’t allow myself to discuss the Tony Awards, or I’d never stop, but the 1984 showdown between La Cage… and Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George is legendary, especially Herman’s acceptance speech, which many felt was an explicit rebuke of Sondheim. There’s like 40 years of discussion you can read up on if you’re so inclined.

1

Pardon my French, but why the FUCK is this 1978 French plot device so relevant in 2025 America?

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Stephen Schwartz had three smash hits in New York under his belt when he conceived of Working. Unlike these other hits, Schwartz would maintain full control over this production, serving as director and co-librettist, in addition to some songwriting duties. But Schwartz did not compose the entire score himself, instead bringing on a number of collaborators with different styles and backgrounds to flesh out the diverse cast of characters that appear in Studs Terkel’s book. Trailblazing composer and actress Micki Grant wrote some of Working’s most memorable songs, including the moving first-act finale, “If I Could’ve Been”. With 1972’s Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope, Grant made history as the first woman to write book, music, and lyrics for—and star in—a Broadway musical (a feat that wouldn’t be replicated for over 50 years). …Cope ran for over two years, and its cast recording won a Grammy, making Grant, the first female composer AND the first black composer to be so honored. A follow-up, Your Arm’s Too Short to Box with God, ran for over a year. And yet Grant is best known today for her (stellar) contributions to Working, a 24-performance flop instead of her hits. The cast recordings of …Cope and …Box with God never made the transition to CD or digital formats, and those topical revues have proven difficult to revive. Fortunately, Working continues to generate interest and productions, introducing Grant’s work to new generations.

Recommended Recording: ”If I Could’ve Been,” Working: a new musical (1978 Original Broadway Cast)

Lynne Thigpen—whom gumshoes of a certain age will recognize as the Chief from Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?—leads off as the primary soloist, supported by a killer vocal arrangement for the ensemble. It’s a perfect track.

Alternate Performances

Working has received five cast recordings, all of which reflect a slightly different version of the show.

• 1982 TV Cast - Working was adapted for an episode of PBS’s American Playhouse. It’s a new production, rather than a taping of the original staging, featuring Studs Terkel as himself “interviewing” the various subjects. It’s a very literal presentation that even further separates the different characters from each other instead of creating an ensemble. But Thigpen gets to sing “If I Could’ve Been.” Other performers include James Taylor (singing his own trucker song), Rita Moreno, and Patti LaBelle.

• 2000 LATW Cast - L.A. TheaterWorks is a company that presents audio versions of great plays. In 2000 they recorded Working, one of their few musicals. Scott Schwartz (Stephen’s son) directs this recording that features the all of the monologues and scenes, in addition to the songs. The recording also captures a few revisions, like a new song for a grocery store cashier, that were at one time part of the standard licensed edition. The show would get one further renovation, making this edition of the show somewhat obsolete. But it’s a great performance, and Working translates well to a radio-type presentation. And Bat Boy fans will be pleased to know Kaitlin Hopkins sings “Millwork.”

• 2017 London Cast - Director Gordon Greenberg began working on a revised Working in 2008. Schwartz aided in the fresh look, which got two new songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, a few regional productions, and a 2012 off-Broadway presentation with the fantastic Prospect Musicals. This edition of the show, which is now the standard licenses version—got recorded following a limited run in London.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

Neither The Rat Pack, nor Audra McDonald, nor Glee covered “If I Could’ve Been,” which is a missed opportunity for all (especially me).

In the Wings

I’ll get song No. 33 and maybe even No. 34 out before 2026, but as Lorenz Hart would write, who knows where or when?Until then, I recommend looking into Mary Rodgers (daughter of Richard Rodgers), Craig Carnelia, and Susan Birkenhead, three other under-appreciated writers who made great contributions to Working. (James Taylor also wrote great stuff for the show, but I think he’s been adequately lauded.)

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Bob Fosse began as a Hollywood dancer who shifted to Broadway choreography beginning with 1954’s The Pajama Game. By 1966, he had married Gwen Verdon and successfully transitioned to being a fully fledged Director-Choreographer. But neither he nor Verdon were able to match their 1950s successes in the first half of the 60s. With Sweet Charity, Fosse became a true Broadway auteur, with the entire production, from writing to staging to design, a product of his specific vision. At the center of this vision was Verdon—she was the ideal interpreter of Fosse’s movement, and Charity was the ultimate showcase of her talents. She rarely leaves the stage, and almost every scene is an opportunity for her to ingratiate herself to the audience, either because she’s leading a showstopping routine, revealing her vulnerability in a bittersweet solo, or reacting comically to the events around her.

For the Charity writing team, Fosse turned to America’s most commercially successful playwright, Neil Simon, and composer Cy Coleman, both of whom worked with Fosse on the modestly successful 1962 musical Little Me. Coleman had previously collaborated, somewhat unhappily, with lyricist Carolyn Leigh, and opted to forge a new partnership with Dorothy Fields (who, incidentally, had written lyrics and contributed to the book for Broadway’s most recent Fosse/Verdon joint, 1959’s Redhead). Fields’ witty, sophisticated lyrics proved a perfect match for Coleman’s urbane music that could be jazzy and sultry or celebratory in classic Broadway style. The partnership sadly only produced one more Broadway musical before Field’s death. But Charitylaunched Coleman into the upper echelon of Broadway composers, and he became one of the few Golden Age writers to find continued success in the 80s and 90s.

Recommended Recording: ”There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This,” Sweet Charity (1966 Original Broadway Cast)

There are at least two songs from …Charity that are much more familiar than this number. But there is a method to my madness. (1) I wanted something that, at least musically, gave a sense of the extent of dance in the show. (2) I wanted to highlight Coleman’s musical range and Fields’ lyrical dexterity. (3) I needed to showcase Gwen Verdon. Even though Charity gets relatively little to sing in this number—just a brief final refrain before the dance break—you can sense the depth of humanity in her voice. Helen Gallagher (Nickie) and Thelma Oliver (Helene) get to have a lot of fun with their respective verses, and the latter’s reading of “check your pants” will stay with you forever. These comedic verses exemplify Fields’ wit and ability to write for distinct characters. And the driving, rhythmic score captures their excitement and frustration, while also tying together a memorable chorus, character-driven solos, and a particularly satisfying dance break.

Alternate Performances

Sweet Charity has received ~15 cast recordings, including Dutch, French, German, and Italian casts and a 1994 studio recording of the complete score. Sutton Foster led a 2016 Off-Broadway revival that did not get recorded. Debbie Allen led an acclaimed 1986 revival that was Fosse’s last Broadway production. Its recording is finally available on streaming services.

• 1967 Original London Cast - Juliet Prowse led the London Sweet Charity and eventually played the role to great success in Las Vegas as well. She’s perhaps a better—or at least more traditionally pleasing—vocalist than Verdon, if not as distinctive, and the recording captures the spirit of the material and the era So if the warble in Verdon’s voice is a bit much for you, this is worth seeking out.

• 1969 Film - Although Fosse had a career in Hollywood before he ever came to Broadway, Sweet Charity marked his debut as a film director. The movie did not simply restage the theatrical production. While much of the choreography remains, the piece is clearly reconceived for film, with stylish montages and sequences that walk the line between literal and surreal. Shirley MacLaine starred, with Verdon on set to coach her through the role. It was not well received at the time, but it’s a rather spectacular debut and “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This” is the best synthesis of Fosse’s visions as a stage and film director. It’s worth all 6 minutes and 18 seconds. (Having Chita Rivera and Paula Kelly—who appeared in the London production—as Nickie and Helene is a tremendous added bonus.)

• 2005 Broadway Revival - The late 1990s saw a massive resurgence of interest in Fosse, following hit revivals of Cabaret, and Chicago, and the retrospective revue, Fosse. So a revival of Charity was perhaps inevitable. After years of rumored casting—Jenna Elfman and Marisa Tomei were each at one point attached—a pre-Broadway tour launched starring TV’s Christina Applegate, directed by Chicago’s Walter Bobbie, and choreographed by Wayne Cilento (an original cast member of A Chorus Line who choreographed Wicked and hasn’t really needed to work since). When Applegate broke her foot on the pre-Broadway tour, the production almost died on the road until Applegate put her own money into the show to keep it afloat. It opened with a whimper—neither Bobbie nor Cilento had a vision that could match Fosse’s concept—but Applegate is really quite endearing on the cast recording.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

• Rat Pack - Sammy Davis Jr. appears in the movie version of Sweet Charity as Big Daddy, the leader of a counter-culture “church” that Charity and her beau, Oscar, visit in act 2 (because Oscar belongs to a “church of the month club”). The scene is very much of its time, and quite silly (in ways that are both intentional and unintentional). But the song that grows out of it, “The Rhythm of Life” is an absolute banger. Davis Jr. has also recorded other two other …Charity songs, “I’m a Brass Band” and “If My Friends Could See Me Now.”

• Glee- “Big Spender,” Sweet Charity’s most enduring hit, appears on two episodes of Glee. In season 1, episode 19 (“Dream On”) an unnamed character sings it at a Les Miserables audition. In season 3, episode 1 (“The Purple Piano Project”), Sugar Motta, the untalented daughter of the local piano magnate, uses it for her (unsuccessful) audition to join New Directions.

In the Wings

I didn’t intend for last week to be an off week, but here we are. I should be on track to drop song no. 32 next week. But we’re also into The Holiday Madness, so we’re just gonna have to see. Until then, here’s a fun video that showcases various different endings Sweet Charity has had through the years (including some really nice scene work from Christina Applegate). Also, this 2017 Seth Rudetsky column has a fun anecdote about Chita Rivera filming “…Better Than This” for the movie. (The anecdote starts halfway down the page.)

Catch up with all the songs to date!

“If I Were a Rich Man” is one of the most instantly recognizable solos in Broadway history. If a show or movie needs a quick establishing shot showing that someone was in a musical, there’s a good chance you’ll see them in dressed like a Russian peasant at the turn of the 20th century with his arms raised singing about how he’d “bidi-bidi bum.” It also encapsulates what made Fiddler…, at one time, Broadway’s longest running musical2. Fiddler…was a labor of love for the writers—Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, and Joseph Stein—and director/choreographer Jerome Robbins. They spent years developing it in a time when shows could go from conception to opening night in a matter of months. They had major concerns about the universal appeal of the somewhat niche subject matter. Robbins would ask what the show was about, not what happens but what its centered around thematically. They realized it was about the conflict between honoring and evolving tradition in a rapidly changing world. Fiddler…became an early version of the “concept musical,” in the sense that every scene and song explored a different faced of the theme. However, they explore these themes through seemingly traditional, linear narrative. In “…Rich Man” Tevye imagines an “old world” version of success, centered on forgotten luxuries (like stairs) and religious devotion. Everyone in the audience feels the sentiment of wanting to be wealthy, even if the examples Tevye mentions are not directly relatable. Bock and Harnick’s score filtered traditional folk styles through a modern Broadway sensibility, with witty lyrics that nonetheless felt appropriate for the characters. Joseph Stein’s book finds a central driving action in a collection of short stories. Although neither Bock, Harnick, Stein, nor Robbins reached this level of success again—but few other musicals are this well written and have experienced the same continued popular appeal.

Recommended Recording: ”If I Were a Rich Man,” Fiddler on the Roof (1964 Original Broadway Cast)

This is about as definitive as a performance gets by one of theater’s most distinctive comics. The creative team utilmately took issue with Zero Mostel’s tendency to go off script, but he tows the line on this recording. His squaking geese alone are worth the price of admission.

Alternate Performances

Fiddler… has received ~59 cast recordings, plus many “___ Sings/Plays Songs from…” albums. The song “If I Were a Rich Man” had an exepected second life when Louchie Lou & Michie One adapted and interpolated the song into the 1993 reggae song “Rich Girl,” later remade by Gwen Stefani in 2004.

• 1971 Film - Norman Jewison’s screen adaption was the last successful hoorah of the Road Show musicals, and opened while the musical was still running on Broadway. Topol, who opened Fiddler in London, stars as Tevye. (The creators didn’t want Mostel because of his mugging and character-breaking during the original run). It’s a good movie full of beautiful location shots and period costumes with a talented cast. It’s also incredibly serious and long, and the realistic settings are basically what Boris Aronson’s Broadway set wanted to avoid. John Williams (yes, that John Williams, the Jaws and Star Wars guy) won his first Oscar for adapting and conducting the score.

• A Shoggoth on the Roof (2003) - There are ~59 cast recordings of Fiddler…, but only one is a full fledged parody about H.P. Lovecraft Lore. 2003’s A Shoggoth on the Roof is that cast recording. “If I Were a Rich Man” becomes “If I Were a Deep One.”

• 2018 Off-Broadway Cast - Fiddler has seen many Broadwaay revivals, including three recreations of the original production and two largely new stagings that were met with mixed reviews. A 2018 revival performed in Yiddish (with English supertitles), however, proved so successful in it’s original limited National Yddish Theatre Fokslbiene run that it went on to an extended commercial run and a return engagement. Steven Skybell stars as Tevye. “If I Were a Rich Man” translates to “Ven Ikh Bin a Rotshild.”

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

• The Rat Pack - Sammy Davis Jr. did a great performance of “If I Were a Rich Man” on a 1969 variety show. A 1977 special, Frank Sinatra and Friends includes opera star Robert Merrill singing “…Rich Man” which then segues into Sinatra, Merrill, and Dean Martin singing “The Oldest Established” from Guys and Dolls.

• Audra McDonald has not recorded anything from Fiddler… that I can find, but she is no stranger to Bock and Harnick, recording songs from Fiorello!, She Loves Me, and The Apple Tree.

In the Wings

Song No. 31 will drop next week. But before we go, I need you to watch this video of Josh Groban playing Tevye in high school musical—it’s seriously amazing. If you want some fun lore, I suggest looking up “Fiddler on the Roof Joseph Stein It’s So Japanese.” If books is more your speed, I recommend Barbara Isenberg’s Tradition! The Highly Improbable, Ultimately Triumphant Broadway-to-Hollywood Story of Fiddler on the Roof, the World’s Most Beloved Musical

Catch up with all the songs to date!

ACUTALLY, ANOTHER NOTE: Since I’ve started this project, posts keep ending up seeming prophetic, or somehow aligned with current events. So I’ve planned on posting this song today for weeks, without clocking that it would follow what proved to be a historic election day. While I won’t take any credit for the timing, I certainly echo the sentiment that NYC sure is “a hell of a town” today!

Winter, 1945. You’re at a performance of On the Town. Perhaps you are familiar with the ballet Fancy Free which formed the basis of this musical. Perhaps you’re just aware of composer Leonard Bernstein and choreographer Jerome Robbins as prodigious rising talents. When the overture begins, you hear music that is both jazzy and elegant, much like the works of George Gershwin, but also wholly original. The lights rise on a dock in New York City in the early morning. Some laborers set the scene before a trio of protagonists enter (one of whom is played by the co-lyricist/librettist): three sailors who just disembarked for 24 hours leave. They sing with great excitement about this “helluva town” where they will spend the day (“New York, New York”).

In April 1944, choreographer Jerome Robbins and composer Leonard Bernstein—both in their mid-20s—debuted a ballet about sailors spending a day of leave in NYC called Fancy Free. The Notable Creatives I want to focus on here are three additions to the team who helped expand the short ballet into a full-fledged Broadway musical: director George Abbott and librettist/lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Comden and Green made their Broadway debuts with On the Townas both writers and performers. Their final Broadway show, Will Rodgers Folllies opened 47 years later, capping off a successful collaboration including musicals with Julie Styne and Cy Coleman, and the screenplay to Singing in the Rain. In the early 1940s, they had a nightclub act called The Revuers, and occasionally had musical help from Green’s onetime roommate: Leonard Bernstein. This wildly talented group of pals wrote a joyous, genre defying piece that fit perfectly in the rapidly evolving post-Oklahoma! landscape.

“Mr. Abbott,” was a remarkably industrious writer and director of Broadway musicals and comedies. By 1944 he was already well established as the director of many Rodger’s and Hart hits. He was the adult in the room—30 years older than the writers and producers—and his involvement lent credibility to expierimental work and helped the production secure the needed financing. His last Broadway credit as a director, a revival of his aptly named 1926 play, Broadway, opened on his 100th birthday. (It closed 2 days later—he lived for 8 more years).

Recommended Recording: ”New York, New York,” On the Town (2014 Broadway Cast)

Aside from its original Broadway production, On the Town has never really caught on with audiences like one might expect. Major Broadway revivals in 1971 and 1998 closed after brief disappointing runs and failed to produce cast recordings. This elegant 2014 revival wasn’t a smash hit, but it ran for nearly a year and produced the first and only comprehensive cast recording of an American production. It’s also one of the rare recordings that isolates the title song and doesn’t merge the song with other movements from the opening, or put it in some other medley. Even then, the piece is a a lot more expansive than its familiar chorus—there’s a lot of dancing going on.

Alternate Performances

On the Town haas received ~11 cast recordings, including an early truncated recording with members of original cast, a 1995 complete recording, and a 2019 Takarazuka recording1. It appears in numerous specials about New York City. It is often parodied, including a memorable episode of The Simpsons where Bart and Milhouse get a sugar high and sing “Springfield, Springfield.” When a sailor shows up and signs “New York, New York,” the kids redirect him “thattaway”

-1949 Film - MGM bought the film rights before the show even opened. The movie was a hit and starred Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin as the sailors. While Comden and Green adapted their libretto for screen, the movie is not a particularly faithful adaption, with most of Bernstein’s score being dismissed as “too challenging” for film audiences and replaced with new songs by Roger Edens.

-1960 Studio Cast - Because On the Town opened before cast recordings were commonplace, there was no real record of the score until Goddard Lieberson produced “the first full-length recording” in 1960. Bernstein himself conducted with Comden and Green reprising their roles.

-1992 Concert Cast - A 1992 concert, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, features a cast comprised of jazz, opera, and Broadway greats. A readily available album captures the concert. The concert was also taped and made available on VHS and Laserdisc(!), but has not made the leap to more modern formats.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

• The Rat Pack - Frank Sinatra starred in the 1949 film adaptation of On the Town. “New York, New York” was on of the few Bernstein songs to make it into the movie, allthough “It’s a hell of a town” became “It’s a wonderful town.”2 He’s more strongly associated with Kander and Ebb’s “Theme from New York, New York,” just in case having two songs with the same name isn’t confusing enough.

  Audra McDonald performed “New York, New York” as part of the company for Leonard Bernstein’s New York, a 1997 TV special and album celebrating Bernstein’s 3 NYC-centric musicals. She also sings “A Little Bit in Love” from Wonderful Town and West Side Story’s “Tonight” as a duet with Mandy Patinkin.

• Glee ends season two, episode 22 (“New York”) with the kids heading to the City that Never Sleeps for a competition. As they explore NYC in search of inspiration for a song, they sing a mash-up of Madonna’s “I Love New York” and On the Town’s “New York, New York.”

In the Wings

Song No. 30 will drop next week. Until then, I would recommend watching this 83 second video about Comden and Green that packs a lot if information into its merciful running time. It’s a promo for a 2020 concert that I did not see, but wish I had. I would also recommend watching this segment of a 1991 interview with George Abbott in which he discusses On the Town. The interviewer sounds like a Leslie Jordon character, and Abbott is literally 104. But thank goodness someone held onto that tape this long.

Catch up with all the songs to date!

Anything Goes is the rare pre-Oklahoma! musical that is regularly revived professionally and performed by student and community theaters (usually in one of its many revised forms). The plot is rather nonsensical, but the nautical setting, opportunities for tap dancing, and infectious Cole Porter score make for a memorable evening. Cole Porter is one of the fundamental songwriters of the early musical, along with the Gershwins, Rodgers, Hammerstein, Kern, and Berlin. His songs evoke a champagne and tuxedo elegance that mirrored Porter’s own lavish lifestyle (just as his topical, clever, and often shockingly vulgar lyrics reflected his hedonistic tendencies). Though married to a woman, he was a barely discreet and quite infamously active homosexual—he was America’s sassy gay best friend. Who else would or could write lines like:

If Mae West you like

Or me undressed you like

Why nobody will oppose?

When every night the set that’s smart is intruding in nudist parties in studios

Anything goes

Anything Goes also marks the birth of the Howard Lindsay/Russell Crouse partnership. The musical began rehearsals with Lindsay as director and a book written by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse with a plot that included a shipwreck and human trafficking. Then a real life ocean-liner wrecked, killing 138 people. But Bolton and Wodehouse were back in London at that point, leaving Lindsay to address the libretto issues, in addition to directing. He brought on Russel Crouse, and the pair collaborated for another 28 years on shows like the long-running charmer Life with Father(in which Lindsay also starred), the Pulitzer-prize wining political comedyState of the Unionand musicals with Porter, Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, and Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Recommended Recording: ”Anything Goes,” Anything Goes (1987 Broadway Cast)

Despite a successful off-Broadway revival and several film adaptations, Anything Goes did not appear on Broadway for over 50 years following its original 1934 run. The Lincoln Center revival followed a trend of writing new books for old musicals that began with a “revisal” of No, No Nanettein 1973. Jerry Zaks’s direction, Michael Smuin’s dazzling choreography, and a new book by Timothy Crouse (Russell Crouse’s son) and John Weidman, created the sleeper hit of the season against such notable fare as Phantom of the Opera and Into the Woods. This version more or less became the standard edition most people perform today. Patti LuPone took on the role of Reno Sweeney, revealing comedic chops and a mastery of the American Songbook that surprised people who only knew her from Evita and Les Mis. I realize there is a certain irony of emphasizing Porter’s lyric writing and recommending a performance by Patti LuPone, who never met a consonant she liked1. But this song is a legitimate tongue twister with enough 1930s references to inspire a week’s worth of Wikipedia searches, so I would recommend reading them anyway.

Alternate Performances

Anything Goes has received ~16 cast recordings, including an heavily truncated 1935 Original London Cast, a Studio Cast featuring Mary Martin (who never passed up an opportunity to tackle a Merman role), and a 1988 complete recording of the original score constructed by John McGlinn.

• 1936 & 1956 Films - Anything Goes was adapted for film twice, though both versions alter the plot and score significantly from its original inception. Both feature Bing Crosby and supplement the Porter score with songs by entirely different composers. The 1936 version at least preserves a version of Merman’s performance as Reno, captured close to the time of the original production.

• 1962 Off -Broadway Cast - This recording is the first genuine cast recording of a major production of Anything Goes that features a score entirely by Cole Porter. It was the first production to bolster the score with familiar Cole Porter titles from other shows, and several of these interpolations (“Friendship,” “It’s De-Lovely,” and “Let’s Misbehave”) stayed with the show in the ‘87 revisal. Eileen Rodgers is a wonderful Reno, and it’s a charming recording. While most revivals follow the ‘87 revision, this edition of the show is available for licensing. (No author is credited with the revisions to the libretto.)

• 2011 Broadway / 2021 London Revival - The 2011 Broadway Anything Goes worked from the 1987 script and added a few tweaks. Kathleen Marshall directed and choreographed, and Sutton Foster had a tremendous personal triumph playing somewhat against type as the urbane Reno. 10 years later she reprised her performance in a 2021 London remounting of the Broadway production. A proshot preserves this production, making it the only screen version of Anything Goesthat actually features the story and score of the musical .

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

• The Rat Pack - Frank Sinatra starred in a heavily abridged 1954 television adaptation of Anything Goes as an episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour. He played the equivalent of the Billy Corcoran character, but was named Harry Dane for some reason. Merman and Sinatra are not a match made in heaven and probably shouldn’t have even been made in 1950s television.

• Glee season 3 episode 1 (“Purple Piano Project”) features a mash-up of “Anything Goes” and “Anything You Can Do” from Annie Get Your Gun. A pair of aspiring attendees of NYADA—who happen to be doppelgängers of Kurt and Rachel—perform the mash-up at a NYADA interest meeting, prompting Kurt and Rachel to burst into tears at the realization that they will face more competition for their dreams than they realized.

In the Wings

And we’re off! Song No. 29 will drop next week. Until then, there are basically limitless Cole Porter recordings to pass the time. My personal favorite is this version of Carolee Carmello singing “Night and Day” from a 1997 concert.

Notable Creatives focuses on the essential creators we should learn about and celebrate before moving on to other topics. In Turning Points, the songs served as delegates to represent a show that was the main discussion topic. In Songs Everybody Should Know, the show was sometimes incidental, as the song itself had a life of its own. Here, the narrative for each profile will focus more on the Notable Creatives being highlighted, with songs/shows selected to highlight their most iconic contributions to the Broadway Musical.

What Defines a Notable Creative?

Generally speaking, this list includes people who are responsible for at least two Broadway musicals that are still somewhat regularly produced or discussed today. (Though my gut check and arbitrary whim carries just as much weight as this metric.) Sometimes I will be highlighting the whole creative team, sometimes just select individuals. While orchestrators, musical directors, designers, producers, cast members, and stage mangers also play pivotal roles in a show’s genesis, for the purposes of this list, the “creative team” refers to the writers, director, and choreographers. Ultimately, as is the case with all playlists in this project, the theme is a framework to explore some great songs, not a definitive statement as to who is and is not “Notable.”

Previously Mentioned Notable Creatives

I consider the following previously mentioned artists to be “Notable Creatives” per the criteria defined above:

• Michael Bennett

• Irving Berlin

• Leonard Bernstein

• Bob Fosse

• George Gershwin

• John Kander and Fred Ebb

• Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe

• Trevor Nunn

• Diane Paulus

• Harold “Hal” Prince

• Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II

• Jerome Robbins

• Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boubil

• Stephen Schwartz

• Stephen Sondheim

• Susan Stroman

• Charles Strouse

• Jule Styne

• Andrew Lloyd Webber

In the Wings

Next week will be an off week, so song No. 28 will drop on (approximately) Oct 22.

While you wait, a reminder that you can:

• Share this substack with a friend! I think we’re having a good time, and would love to have more people at the party! Forward a profile you particularly enjoyed, or just tell them to go to 100showtunes.com.

• Catch up on previous playlists: Turning Points and Songs Everybody Should Know

• Follow @100Showtunes on Instagram.

  

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• Eubie Blake

• George Gershwin

• Irving Berlin

• Ethel Merman

• Mary Martin

• Bernadette Peters

• Jule Styne

• Carol Channing

• Julie Andrews

• Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe

• Charles Strouse

• Jennifer Holliday

• Henry Krieger

• Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boubil

• Idina Menzel

• Kristin Chenoweth

• Stephen Schwartz

While we’re in pop quiz mode, do you remember the key people from Turning Points?

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

I really like Venn diagrams, and laying out the songs like this always surprises me. I’m also already worried about fitting 100 songs on one of these.

A diagram for SESKs only:

A diagram for all 27/100 showtunes revealed to date:

In the Wings

• We are now officially done with our 2nd Playlist. What song was your favorite?

• Next week (10/15) I’ll debut the theme for Playlist III. Any guesses as to what it might be?

• Song No. 28 will most likely drop on 10/29 with 10/22 being an off week (because I’ll be busy preparing for a murder mystery fundraiser the preceding weekend).

  

  Thanks for reading 100Showtunes! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Stephen Schwartz had 3 simultaneous smash hits in the 1970s (Godspell, Pippin, and The Magic Show), followed by some heartbreaking flops, near misses, and redemption in Hollywood with animated films. He read Gregory Maguire’s Wicked novel and thought it would make a great musical. Universal Studios had already purchased the rights for a movie version, but when Schwartz came to them, they decided to produce it on Broadway first. The development process was a bit rocky—some people are still feuding over it—and the critical response was underwhelming. There is a lot of story to tell and not nearly enough time to tell it, so it’s a bit of a mess from a dramaturgical perspective, especially in the second act (Winnie Holzman’s book veers significantly from the novel’s plotting after intermission). But it was populer-lar with audiences who loved the Oz mythology, the iconic pair or leading ladies and their relationship, the whimsical and spectacular sets and costumes (by Eugene Lee and Susan Hilferty), and Stephen Schwartz’s infectious score. “Defying Gravity” became the signature showtune of the 00s. And once YouTube appeared a couple of years into Wicked’s run, fans began uploading bootlegged compilations of every Elphaba from every tour and production across the globe, comparing and obsessing over every riff and phrasing choice.

Recommended Recording: ”Defying Gravity,” Wicked (2003)

This is the defining cast recording of the 2000’s. It’s the 5th best-selling cast album of all time and 3x Platinum certified. Idina Menzel’s performance set a standard for singing (and, specifically, high belting) that launched a thousand BFAs. The vocal expectations are a bit of a liability, requiring Elphaba standbys and understudies ready to “green up” at a moment’s notice, sometimes mid-show. And yet, during Wicked’s pre-Broadway run in San Francisco, the creative team had concerns that Kristen Chenoweth’s Glinda overpowered the show and spent the months between the San Francisco run and Broadway opening correcting this balance. This is a performance that is in a theater kid’s bones. So much so that when the movie version came out with some extra measures near the end, you could almost feel literal whiplash for the first couple of listens.

Alternate Performances

Wicked has received.~5 cast recordings, which is a preposterously low number for a show that has been this successful for 20+ years.

• 2007 Stuttgart Cast - This recording—one of only 2 international casts—features the stunning Dutch actress Willemijn Verkaik, who has played Elphaba more than 2,000 times in three languages. It recently became readily available in the US, but before that the easiest way to hear at least some of these tracks (as well as tracks from the Tokyo cast) was on the 5th Anniversary edition of the OBCR.

• A Very Wicked Halloween: Celebrating 15 Years on Broadway (2018) - This NBC (owned by Universal) special celebrated the 15th anniversary of Wicked. Rather than attempting a grand fully staged concert, it features a number of solo performances and duets by original cast members, Adam Lambert (a former Fieryo), Ariana Grande (singing “The Wizard and I” well before the movie had a director, let alone a schedule or a cast), and a collection of Elphabas and Glindas through history. Many of these performances appear on a 15th anniversary edition of the OBCR.

• 2024 & 2025 Films - When they first announced the film, directed by John Cho, would split the musical in two, it felt like a blatant cash grab. But it turns out, the story needs more room. The musical moves as a breakneck pace without much room for dialogue between songs, but the movie holds space for the relationships to fully develop. The magnificent Cynthia Erivo stars as Elphaba and Ariana Grande’s 15+ year mission to infiltrate Wicked finally paid off when she nabbed the role of Glinda. Their chemistry is off-the-charts-insane and their performances are nuanced and exquisitely sung. Both Ariana and Cynthia recorded their vocals live on set, and Erivo—easily one of the most talented and charismatic people on earth—also did her own “flying.” Like, what?!?!?. Wicked: For Good premiers in November, and (unlike part one) will feature some new songs. I CANNOT wait.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

• Audra McDonald - This is a message for Ms. McDonald. If you don’t have 6 Tony awards representing all 4 acting categories, you can keep scrolling. Dear Ms. Audra McDonald. Please sing “Defying Gravity.” Xoxo, Donald.

• Glee - In season 1, episode 9 (“Wheels”), Kurt (Chris Copfer) and Rachel (Lea Michele) have a diva-off audition to see who should sing “Defying Gravity” at sectionals. Kurt blows the audition on purpose because his dad started getting homophobic phone calls.

In the Wings

This is the finale of Songs Everybody Should Know! Next week will be a brief “scene change” where we wrap things up and review the key people and terms we’ve covered thus far. Then I’ll debut the theme for Playlist III! If you want to find out more about Wicked, I suggest looking literally anywhere for the next few months until the Wicked: For Good press onslaught is done.