My favourite musicals, growing up, were CAMELOT (especially "What do the
simple folk do?" and "Take me to the fair"), CANDIDE ("The Best of All
Possible Worlds", "I am easily assimilated", and "Make our garden grow" -
which can still always bring tears to my eyes), KISS ME KATE (I loved "We
open in Venice" and "Brush up your Shakespeare"), "You're a Good Man,
Charlie Brown" (all of it! I was a huge Peanuts fan), GODSPELL (all of
it), OLIVER ("Consider yourself", "Who will buy" and "Where is love"), MAN
OF LA MANCHA (all of it - I was precocious, what can I say?), and FIDDLER
ON THE ROOF ("Far from the home I love" and "Tradition"). Ah - and also
THE FANTASTICKS ("Soon it's gonna rain", "Try to remember") and LOST IN
THE STARS (all of it - just gorgeous music). Oh, and BRIGADOON, and 1776
(which remains a fave), and THE THREEPENNY OPERA, and....
I always HATED the songs that kids were supposed to like from musicals -
like "Whistle a happy tune", "Happy talk", "Do re mi", "Dites-moi", etc.
Even when I was pretty little, I can remember being some what nauseated by
these "simple songs" - I always felt they were condescending. I was much
happier when my mother would sing "Make believe" from SHOW BOAT - one of
her "standards" - than when she would trot out one of those kiddies songs,
or worse, one of those nonsense songs that she had a particular penchant
for, like "Abba dabba honeymoon" and "Mairzy-doatz" (ARGH! I detested
those songs and still do!). On the other hand, I remember loving "Swing on
a Star" - and particularly "Strangers in the Night"...the latter because I
had a seventh grade teacher who insisted on singing it with the words
"Strangers in my Tights".
K
===
On Neil Shicoff - http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html
On yours truly - http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
---
Read Hillaire Belloc's unabashedly biased
yet surprisingly insightful essay on Islam
http://www.ewtn.com/library/HOMELIBR/HERESY4.TXT
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