Leftovers

Now that the 2003-2004 season has come and gone, I’d like to mention a few things that I’ve wanted to cover in this column but haven’t yet had a chance to.

Do you know who was listed as “executive producer” of Just Be a Man About It, a touring show that came to Newark Symphony Hall? No less than Jesus Christ. (I still have the postcard advertising the show if you want to look at it.) What does this prove, you ask? Everybody wants to get into show business!

I was fascinated with another postcard I received. It advertised AccuBroadway.com, which offers “more than 20 channels of all-Broadway Internet radio, available on your windows PC.” To illustrate what the station plays, the postcard displayed logos from shows from various decades. What is the musical of the “the ’00s” according to this outfit? Hairspray, with which few could argue. The ’90s? City of Angels, which surprised me, and not just because it opened on December 11, 1989, technically making it an ’80s show. But I’ve long felt that this Tony-winner has already fallen through the cracks, and productions are pretty rare. I would have expected the card to display Rent or even one of the Disney musicals instead. The ’80s are represented by Into the Woods (aha, not one of the British extravaganzas) and the ’70s, fittingly enough, is given to A Chorus Line. But the ’60s show turned out to be the most surprising of all. No, not Fiddler or Dolly or La Mancha, which were the top-three runners of the decade. Not Hair, Mame, or How to Succeed…, the next three top-runners of the decade. The AccuBroadway people chose instead the 43rd longest-running musical of the decade. Nevertheless, it is a masterpiece and I’m delighted to see the proper respect given to She Loves Me.

So, while I was waiting for a haircut in a Massachusetts barbershop recently, all there was left for me to read was a copy of that new hip magazine Maxim. As I turned the pages and saw record reviews and computer game reviews and movie reviews, I was getting angry because I knew that such a publication would never deign to acknowledge Broadway. But wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, there was a page dedicated to musical theater, with shows rated from 1 to 5. You may quarrel and/or be surprised with the rating system: A 5 is deemed “Ethel Merman,” a 4 “Liza Minnelli,” a 3 “Julie Andrews,” a 2 “Chita Rivera” (I resent that), and a 1 “Nathan Lane.” Anyway, Maxim gave a 4 to Assassins, Avenue Q, and The Boy from Oz, but a 3 to Taboo, and a 1 to Mamma Mia!. Some may be saying, “Hmmm, if the magazine went to press late enough to include Assassins, why did it also include the long-closed Taboo?” Because Taboo was actually still open when the magazine went to bed. So how could the periodical rate the not-yet-open Assassins? In fact, Maxim fully admitted that “We’re guessing” it would be a 4. Considering how well the Tony-winning production at Studio 54 turned out, I think their guess might have been on the low side.

Are you tired of that telephone company’s ad campaign that asks, “Do you hear me now”? Wouldn’t you like it better if it featured the song that Larry Grossman, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green wrote for A Doll’s Life — “Do You Hear Me Now?”

For years, when I got my ballot for the Theatre Hall of Fame — you’re asked to give 10 names with your first choice being worth 10 points, your second 9, etc. — I always put Peter Stone first. Every year, he was denied, except this year — because he died. What a shame that the man whose 1776 will never, ever die couldn’t receive this honor while he was alive.

Got a fascinating e-mail from Bert Fink, the vice president at Rodgers and Hammerstein, which holds the rights to Irving Berlin’s shows. He was responding to my recent piece on Goodspeed Opera House’s current production of Berlin’s Call Me Madam, in which Sally Adams (read: Perle Mesta) is named ambassador to Lichtenburg (read: Luxembourg). Fink noted, “In 1946, Irving Berlin bought a beautiful townhouse at 17 Beekman Place (I can hear you humming along with Agnes Gooch even now!) He lived in it for the rest of his life – 42 more years in fact, until he died at age 101 in 1989. The following year the house was put up for sale and purchased by…(drumroll:) The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg! If you were to visit the house today, you would see the Royal Flag of Luxembourg and the Duchy’s Crest over the front door, with an engraved plaque to the side, immortalizing Berlin’s connection to the house – and, via Call Me Madam, to Luxembourg itself. A dedication ceremony was held in December of 1993, with the Berlin daughters attending, and students from the Juilliard School performing songs from Call Me Madam. Today, the building is known officially as the Luxembourg House, and it serves as that nation’s offices for the Permanent Mission of Luxembourg to the United Nations, the Consulate General of Luxembourg, the Board of Economic Development and the Luxembourg National Tourist Office. And just when you thought the Berlin-Luxembourg axis had been exhausted, here’s one more: when the Irving Berlin postage stamp was issued by the USPS in September of 2002, I received a call from the Consulate, requesting a large print of the stamp, suitable for framing, that they could hang in the front reception area. Why? They were justifiably proud of their connection to the house’s former owner of course – but also this: the stamp was based on a photo of Berlin by the famed photographer Edward Steichen and Mr. Steichen was – you guessed it – a native of Luxembourg, born Eduard Jean Steichen.” Thanks, Bert, for once again reminding us that sometimes there’s God so quickly.

At the party after the Theatre World Awards, I ran into Frankie Fain, son of composer Sammy Fain, who wrote the music for the 1964 flop, Something More. He was livid with me — so livid that I think he would have thrown his drink in my face had his glass not been empty. His issue was that earlier that day, I’d reported that Ken Bloom had stated in his book American Song that “I Feel Like New Year’s Eve,” a song from Something More, had a melody not by Fain, but by Jule Styne. I told him I’d check with ASCAP musical theater guru Michael Kerker, who said he’d check with Alan Bergman, who co-wrote the lyric with his wife Marilyn. “And,” Kerker said, “though I agree with you that it sounds like a Jule Styne melody, Alan insists that Sammy wrote it.” Apologies to all.

Finally, let me tell you about the high school production of Damn Yankees that I saw last month in Jersey City. Oh, did the audience go wild when Joe Boyd was changed into Joe Hardy — because Joe Boyd had been played by a white actor while Joe Hardy emerged as a black man. Well, when you think of it, most every performance record in baseball that once belonged to a Caucasian has since been broken by a African-American. So maybe Mr. Applegate knew what he was doing after all.

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[To contact Peter Filichia directly, e-mail him at pfilichia@aol.com]