BLT III - clip from 1980 WEST SIDE STORY Revival — Page 4

When you're a Jet,
you're a Jet all the way,
From your first pirouette
To your last grand jete...

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I am so glad I started to read this thread with posts beginning in 2005, and am grateful to Pal Joey for bumping it up through the years. My favorite bits of Pal Joey's contributions are describing production stage manager Ruth Mitchell using the first names of Larry(Kert), Carol(Lawrence) and Chita(Rivera) while blocking the 1980 cast members. Secondly, I loved hearing about Pal Joey's descriptions of Leonard Bernstein sighing loudly at the back of the house at the Miami orchestra's mistakes, going down the aisle with his jacket over his shoulders and whispering to the conductor, and finally his taking over the conducting of the orchestra, inspiring them, and the subsequent superior playing by the orchestra. This thread also motivates me to finally read the biography of Leonard Bernstein by Humphrey Burton(c.1993) which has been sittting on my bookshelf unread for all these years.

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Updated On: 5/24/08 at 08:30 AM

Could be...

Who knows?

Something's coming--something good?

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Brian Kaman was the Baby John who made that up.

Wonder whatever happened to him... ;-{

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I wonder where he is, and I hope he's well.

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I just read through this entire thread. PJ, your story Ivie Anderson had me grinning from ear to ear. Just think, you impressed Leonard Bernstein...and did a little duet with him. That's a memory I would never forget either!

I had no idea you worked on the WSS revival. Forgive me. As I said, I thought some of the casting was quite bad. I didn't want to name names, but everyone else has, so I may as well go for it! Ken Marshall couldn't sing and totally lacked charisma. I imagine him making every entrance hunched over, his pale, skinny arms dangling lifelessly at his side despite the excitement of his new-found love, witnessing the death of his best friend and murdering his lover's brother. I mean, when you're playing Tony, you have to show a little spark, at least. Mr. Marshall was just depressing! (I'm sure he's a very nice man though.)

Nevertheless, I KNOW that whatever contributions you made improved the show exponentially! I think the title of your memoirs should be Scatting with the Maestro.

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So does the word maestro for that matter!

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No apologies necessary, PJ. Your stories continue to entertain.

Now, tell us why Arthur turned on you!

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Aw, I knew there had to be a reason why you hate Arthur.

I would love to hear the stories!

Why am I reading this?

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Hey, Pal Joey, I'm trying to be NICE!

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PalJoey, I don't believe you've included the coda to this story, which I love: the note from Bernstein.

PJ has a little note in his possession, written on one of Bernstein's correspondence cards. Lenny struck through the printed name and then wrote a short message, concluding with: "You're a fine lad, and a big spirit."

The funny part is that in Bernstein's scrawl, it looks as though he actually called PJ a "big sh!t."

(I'm not being mean; PJ is always the first to point this out.)