Profile for GYPSY3

Lehman Engel's autobiography:THIS BRIGHT DAY,c.1974 is a wonderful book, very well written and informative. I can still picture him in the pit conducting "Li'l Abner","I Can Get It For You Wholesale", Take Me Along", and "Bajour", among others. And all those wonderful studio cast recordings he made of musicals from the 1940's.He was a great talent!

I don't know anything about a stage musical about Florenz Ziegfeld but I can recommend the 1936 Hollywood film entitled "The Great Ziegfeld", starring the wonderful William Powell. The production numbers surpass that of any other Hollywood musical and there are numbers by actual Ziegfeld stars such as Fanny Brice, Will Rogers, and Ray Bolger. The film, over 3 hours long, is very entertaining. Co-incidentally, I am listening to the OBCR of "Funny Girl" as I am writing this.

Leonard Bernstein: ON THE TOWN Jule Styne: GYPSY Rodgers and Hart: PAL JOEY Cy Coleman: WILDCAT (Impossible to find!) Frank Loesser: THE MOST HAPPY FELLA Charles Strouse: BYE BYE BIRDIE George Gershwin: PORGY AND BESS Harold Rome: FANNY Leroy Anderson: GOLDILOCKS(with Elaine Stritch)

It was so gratifying to me to have someone earlier mention the overture to GOLDILOCKS. I saw the show twice in 1958 and loved the score. It starred Elaine Stritch, Don Ameche, Pat Stanley, Russell Nype and Margaret Hamilton (the wicked witch of the West).The music was by Leroy Anderson and the orchestrations were by Anderson and the prolific and fabulous Philip J. Lang.Orchestrators rarely get the credit that they deserve.

Re.THE KING AND I, there simply wasn't room on the OBCR to include the 14 minute ballet "The Small House of Uncle Thomas". It can be heard in its entire form on the 2 disc JEROME ROBBINS' BROADWAY album. What a wonderful show that was! There is dance music missing from the two vaudeville numbers on the OBCR of GYPSY. That music IS on the Tyne Daly and Bernadette Peters CD's.

The Rodgers & Hammerstein musical ME AND JULIET from the early 1950's had a song titled "The Theatre is Dying" which contrasted many of the thoughts expressed in this thread with people naming the shows then running which were worthwhile and successful. Such will always be the case, although the great expense of going to a Broadway show these days is a definite handicap, notwithstanding TKTS.

I love all of the old theatres for their interior architecture, and murals.I just wish there was more leg room. The Shubert organization owns most of these old theatres and they really take care of them, refurbishing them when needed. The Broadway Theatre was refurbished prior to the opening of GYPSY in May, 1959. There were huge faux windows which were back lit on both sides of the orchestra level. When the lights went down just prior to the overture, the drapes on both sides of these "windo...