Choice Music on Music Choice
Time-Warner Cable sent me a letter saying that my cable box was about to become obsolete and that I’d have to get a new one. I did and found that now I get the channel that so many of my friends in and out of town have told me about: Music Choice’s Show Tunes, Channel 637.
Music Choice offers 45 channels devoted to all kinds of music, starting with channel 601: “Hits from the ’90s.” It takes a while before they get to us, but at least we’re represented. The Show Tunes channel plays a song while, against a gray background, a graphic identifies the song (say, “Adelaide’s Lament”), album (Guys and Dolls: 1992 Broadway Cast), and artist (Faith Prince).
You may assume that this kind of song — the overexposed classic — is routinely played on the channel. Well, yes, I did run into “Do Re Mi” and “If I Loved You” more than once during my weekend visits. But I was delightfully surprised at how many obscurities showed up, too. I certainly wouldn’t have expected “Words, Words” from Bajour, “I’ve Never Said I Love You” from Dear World, “I Always Knew” from Annie Warbucks, “The Shag” from Steel Pier, or “Change in Me” from The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public. It’s one thing to hear the overture to Finian’s Rainbow but quite another to hear the overtures for High Spirits and By the Beautiful Sea, which I did. Yet none of those was the ultimate stunner. That distinction didn’t even go to “Escape Me Never” from Robert and Elizabeth, a 1964 London musical that never got closer to Broadway than the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. No, what really astonished me was hearing the unmistakable vamp of a song from a London musical that never came anywhere near America: Charlie Girl. Not only did “My Favourite Occupation” take the airwaves but, a few hours later, “Fish and Chips” from the same score made an appearance. The choosers at Music Choice sure know and like Charlie Girl!
They don’t always choose from original cast albums. Soundtracks are occasionally represented, which can make for a refreshing change. (I’d forgotten that some of the lyrics of “A Little Brains, A Little Talent” were altered for the Damn Yankees movie.) Sometimes there are show songs from solo albums, such as “Come the Wild, Wild” from Jerry Hadley’s Standing Room Only album. I sigh a bit during the cover recordings, even when they’re as good as Rosemary Clooney’s “Taking a Chance on Love.” I still prefer Rosetta LeNoire on the 1964 revival cast album of Cabin in the Sky. For that matter, I’d prefer a different cut from that recording: “Not a Care in the World.” That’s always going to happen with a channel like this; you’re bound to take issue with what the choosers chose. But, really, if you were going to play the title song from Hello, Dolly!, wouldn’t you select the original 1964 recording and not the anemic rendition from the 1994 revival album? On the latter, when Carol Channing sings, “I feel the room swaying,” you do get the impression that she’s just about to faint.
After each song, a new one starts immediately — and I mean immediately, without a second’s worth of breathing room. Yet there is a delay of about 10 seconds before the new information comes up on the screen. This makes for an inadvertent guessing game where you see if you can surmise the song and show from the first few notes. A sour chord followed by the line “I’d like to propose a toast” isn’t hard to make out but I was stumped by the opening notes of what turned out to be Sarah Brightman’s “One More Walk around the Garden.”
Also on screen is a picture of the show’s album cover. The Music Choice choosers seem right up to date, for the Oliver! cover is the orange “Deluxe Collector’s Edition” that RCA Victor recently released. But, occasionally, in place of the cover is a square that says, “album art not available.” Surprisingly, this happens when they play Avenue Q. (Wasn’t someone from Music Choice invited to the famous pizza party?) But the very fact that a song from Avenue Q is here (“There’s a Fine, Fine Line”) and so is a song from Wicked (“What Is This Feeling?”) shows that everything’s up to date at Music Choices. There’s more here than “Kansas City.”
In addition, certain facts flash on the screen for 30-second stints. There’s “Broadway Bits,” where we learn that “My Fair Lady and South Pacific were the biggest Broadway hits of the ’50s.” This note was a bit ungracious, given that “Lida Rose” from The Music Man — a ’50s show, too — was playing at the time. And, if we’re going to get technical, South Pacific
opened in 1949, though it was still one of the biggest hits of the ’50s.
Alas, I did catch some outright mistakes. “From 1946 to 1961, Oklahoma! was Broadway’s longest-running show.” Longest-running musical, yes; show, no. The play Life with Father held that distinction for most of those years. “The partnership of Rodgers and Hammerstein lasted 20 years.” No, 16. “Carol Channing first appeared on Broadway in Never Take No for an Answer (1944).” The actual title was No for an Answer and the year was 1941. “Jason Howard was a replacement in the Broadway revival of The Rothschilds (1970).” While the original Rothschilds did open in 1970, the revival opened in 1990 — Off-Broadway, by the way. “John Raitt appeared on Broadway in Zorba.” No, only on tour and in stock.
Some of the facts seem startlingly obvious. (“Robert Goulet starred in Camelot with Richard Burton and Julie Andrews.”) Some facts I consider irrelevant for I’ve never cared to know the name of an actor’s current wife, girlfriend, or boyfriend. So “Hilton McRae is married to actress Lindsay Duncan” makes me yawn — but that’s better than “Robert Goulet survived prostate cancer” or “Carol Channing appeared in the comedy Skidoo.” Given that this channel celebrates Broadway, why mention Channing’s participation in a stinker of a movie like Skidoo? Those who don’t know the picture might assume that Skidoo was once a Broadway comedy, and why should we take responsibility for that turkey?
While “Someone to Watch over Me” played from the 1955 studio cast album of Oh, Kay!, the graphic said of its singer, “Barbara Ruick played the Reno barmaid in the 1974 movie California Split.” Is that the best they can do for her? How about that she was in the film version of Carousel? Oh, wait — that’s the next credit that comes on screen. And while there’s nothing wrong with saying that “Zero Mostel died on September 8, 1977,” the writer might have added that it happened while Mostel was in Philadelphia for the tryout of a play called The Merchant. Lest you think that the channel only offers death dates, it celebrates birthdays, too — sometimes too assiduously. “Julie Andrews was born on October 1, 1935” is one thing, but do we really need to know that “Jodi Benson’s SON was born on January 8, 1999?”
Finally, someone should stagger the selections a little more. Not five minutes after Goulet sang “The Impossible Dream,” there was Ernie Sabella warbling “I Like Him.” That’s much too much of one show in much too brief a span. Still, all in all, I’m very grateful that Music Choice allows people to choose musical theater songs.
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[To contact Peter Filichia directly, e-mail him at pfilichia@theatermania.com]
