Rod gilfry some enchanted evening jay
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THEATER | A classy “South Pacific” at the Ordway
The dashboard of my aging luxury sedan demands that the car be supplied with high-octane fuel exclusively, and I dutifully obey. I don’t entirely understand what, if any, difference it makes, but I imagine it being something like the difference between giving a talented singer an Andrew Lloyd Webber song and giving him a Rogers and Hammerstein song: there’s performance, and then there’s performance.
(This is not the first time an automotive metaphor has occurred to me when reviewing a musical, and I think it’s because like a car, a musical wants to take you on a ride. When things go well, you enjoy the entire journey—with all its ups and downs. When they don’t, you feel bored and queasy, and just want the ride to be over.)
Rogers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific is now playing at the Ordway, in a touring production mounted by Lincoln Center Theater. The fact that the company uses
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The Most Happy Fella
1956 musical
For the race horse that won the Triple Crown in 1970, see Most Happy Fella. For the album by Julius Watkins and Charlie Rouse, see The Most Happy Fella (album).
The Most Happy Fella is a 1956 musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Frank Loesser. The story, about a romance between an older man and younger woman, is based on the 1924 play They Knew What They Wanted by Sidney Howard. The show is described by some theatre historians and critics as operatic. The original Broadway production ran for 14 months and it has enjoyed several revivals, including one staged by the New York City Opera.
It was broadcast in a live telecast of The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday, October 28, 1956, the night of Elvis Presley's second appearance on that show. That broadcast was seen in some 168 stations in North America and garnered a 34.6 rating, a 57% share, with an estimated audience of 56.5 million viewers.[1]
Background and history
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Kurt Weill Discography
Stage Works
Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny. Anja Silja, Anny Schlemm, Wolfgang Neumann, Kölner Rundfunkorchester, Jan Latham-König, cond. Capriccio digital C75-159/1-3, CD 10 160-61. (Reissued 2015 on Capriccio C7184.)
Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny. Lotte Lenya; Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg, cond. CBS Masterworks CD M2K 37874. (Reissued 2003 as Sony Classical SM2K 91184; reissued 2006 as Membran International 223250-311; reissued 2007 as Line Music 5.00959; reissued 2011 as Sony 88697856212 (Sony musikdrama House series)).
Die Bürgschaft. Frederick Burchinal, Dale Travis, Margaret Thompson, Westminster Choir, Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra, Julius Rudel, cond. EMI 7243 5 56976 2.
Down in the Valley. Soloists; Fredonia Chamber Singers; Kammerchor der Universität Dortmund; Orchester Campus Cantat 90; Willi Gundlach, cond. Capriccio 60 020-1.
Down in the Valley. Marion Bell, William McGraw, Kenneth Smith, RCA Victor Orchestra and Chorus,