Audra McDonald: 'Mr. Snow'

from the soundtrack of my life and the musical 'carousel'.

this weekend on pbs 'live from lincoln center' we get to see an uncut true to the original version 'carousel'
audra mcdonald won her first tony award in the 1994 revival.

here audra sings 'mr. snow' from the show that won her that first of her tony awards. i love this woman.
 wow!

'Carousel' Next Weekend 'Live from Lincoln Center'

i've always had a problem with the film 'carousel'. one of the better broadway musicals was transformed into a bit of a  'messy' film. it went from location to studio shots within given scenes that looks totally disjointed with lousy continuity. by today's standards it seems 'cheesy'. although the totally filmed location scenes were beautiful and shirley jones was quite the lovely julie jordan the film just does not hold up. and hollywood then 'cleaned up' the death of billy bigelow taking away the horror of it all. it was hard enough to accept the death of a leading man in a broadway musical at that time but for hollywood the manner of death was too much to handle. it's okay ruin a film for the sake of practice and standards. duh! thank the gods those days are over.

however, in 1994 lincoln center revived the classic musical stunningly. it also introduced us to audra mcdonald who won her first tony award for playing carrie pipperidge. i felt like i had finally seen 'carousel' as it was intended. and yes billy bigelow died as written. it just made more sense.

next weekend we have a newly revived production on 'live from lincoln center'. i have not seen it but i believe the talented kelli o'hara and nathan gunn will more than justify your viewing. and it will be nice to have the original material finally filmed as written. at least i am hoping it is.

sadly ms mcdonald will only introduce the show and not be in it. she damn well could still have pulled it off carrie pepperidge 19 years later. 

so save the date 4/26 and enjoy one of rodgers and hammerstein's best.

Happy Birthday Shirley a Film Musical Legend and Oscar Winner

i haven't done a lot of birthdays lately but c'mon it's shirley jones. oscar winner for 'elmer gantry' ms jones charmed as laurie williams and julie jordon 'oklahoma' and 'carousel' respectively.

from 'oklahoma'

'many a new day'

'out of my dreams'

'o-k-l-a-h-o-m-a' medley

from 'carousel'

'if i loved you'

shirley won her well deserved oscar for 'elmer gantry' playing against type to the shock of musical fans everywhere.

shirley also played marian paroo in one of my least favorite translations from stage to screen in 'the music man'.

'marion the librarian'

'till there was you'

as musical films began to fade shirley took to the small screen in the silly 'the partridge family'. 

happy birthday shirley

Remembering Gordon Macrae on His Birthday

i've never given gordon macrae his due. truth be told it was mr macrae  in both 'oklahoma' and 'carousel' that started me on my musical path. i honestly don't know much of his work other than these two films. i just never got into post 1950 musicals. i found them 'light'. it was curly and laurey williams, julie jordon and billy bigelow who introduced me to, at that time, the 'modern' musical or the 'book musical'. in so far as his costar in both these films, shirley jones, celebrates her birthday at the end of this month i'm splitting the treasure they gave us along with the team who changed the musical forever collaborators richard rodgers and oscar hammerstein.

 'oklahoma'

'soliloguy' from 'carousel'