Julie Andrews (3:21)

Yay, Jan.

James Marino (3:22)

I think last time we saw Jan was in November or something like that. It's too, too long, Jan. But Jan is a theater journalist who writes the B.L. broadway and Me and host the Broadway radio podcasts, Stagecraft and all the drama. She has thrice served as a Pulitzer Prize juror. Hello, Jan. Hi. And we should mention, Jan, that your latest all the drama is now in the public feed. The Patreon listeners got it about a week or so ago. It's the gin game, the 1978 winner for the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Jen. What? How do you do all this? How do you do all this?

Jan Simpson (4:12)

But the Gin Game, I think is one of the parts of winners that lots of people know because it gets done.

Michael Portantier (4:21)

Sure does. Sure.

James Marino (4:24)

It's sort of the other end of, of the fantastics.

Peter Filicia (4:31)

Yeah, I can see your point. But as long as the two people of a certain age, as they say, are available. You're going to see the Gin Game.

James Marino (4:44)

This week in the Broadway radio feed. Matt Tamineni, of course, did last week on Broadway where he recapped what happened in the news in the last week. And that's his Monday show and his Wednesday show is the grossest report. And he tied that into the the announcement that Galileo is coming to Broadway. You know, if you listen to Broadway radio very carefully, Matt has talked about Galileo coming to Broadway long before this announcement. So put your, put your tight listening ears on. And we all know that it's getting hot on Broadway when role as far as Joey woods and Jeremy Kushner are coming to Broadway this fall. So in our review section at City Center Encores, this month's encore is High Spirits. Peter and Michael have made their way over to City center to see this. So, Peter, why don't you get us started on High Spirits.

Peter Filicia (5:57)

Yeah, it's hard for me to believe that it is almost 62 years to the day that I saw it on February 28, 1964 in his tryout in Boston. So it was great fun to revisit it again. Actually, this is the fifth time I've seen a production of it, so it is a favorite of mine. I think the score is excellent beyond belief and I'm very glad that Encores finally got around to doing it. It was, it was rumored for a long time that it was going to happen and many of us really gave up hope that it was going to happen. But it finally did happen and it's a very fine production. Certainly I'm tremendously impressed by the cast. After all, Rachel Dratch has a small part playing the maid who turns out to be a very important character by the end of the show. Katrina Lenk playing Elvira, who, after all, was the first wife of Charles Condamine, who was played by Stephen Pasquale. And now he has a second wife because she died. You know, I was sorry that the line was dropped of how she died. Elvira died according to the original play, and I think it's in the musical, too. But it was, it was cut out by editor and adaptive Billy Rosenfeld. And again, I could be wrong. It may not be in the musical, but what Noel Coward wrote way back when he wrote Blight Spirit, was the fact that she was listening to the BBC playing a classical piece of music, and they did it so poorly that she laughed so hard that she died. So, I mean, that's a great joke and I was sorry not to see it in the show. But again, it may not be in the musical. So I'm not going to blame Billy for that necessarily. Anyway, so, yes, so here's Charles Condamine, who's going to do a book about the occult and what have you. And so he's going to invite Madame Cardi to come over. She's a happy medium, as the lyric goes, and she is going to have a seance. And there's Ruth, the second wife, who's not at all pleased when the first wife, Elvira, shows up. Okay, so that's a pretty good complication. But the score by you, Martin and Timothy Gray, Good Lord, what a great score. It really is. It's, it's, it's terrific. And especially with a great 11 o' clock number that actually, to be fair, comes around 10 o', clock, if indeed we were starting at 8 o' clock, called Home Sweet Heaven. Now, what's really interesting is the fact that if you look at the original Noel Coward play, Elvira gives a quick reference to the fact that she was playing backgammon with Genghis Khan and then she was summoned to come to Earth. Okay, Timothy Gray, and you, Martin, ran with that. They said, oh, wow, what a great idea for a song. And Home Sweet Heaven is about the fact that Elvira wants to go back and see all these people that we, we have known through history. And beautifully done. It's, it is a list song, of course, but the rhymes are delicious and always you will Hear a Laugh on and Joan of Arcs, the type of sparks, the dullest party. So it's lines like that that really make delusion. But it's a terrific number, and I'm sorry that it didn't get an encore, because it deserves it. And there are plenty of extra lyrics that even Noel Coward wrote. Once he heard the song, he said, oh, I can add some lyrics to that. So it should have really happened that we had an encore. And I also have to say that Jessica Stone may have made a mistake by having Katrina Lenk on the balcony when delivering this song. Now, I understand that she's closer to heaven, I get it. But nevertheless, this is a song that should be sung front and center. It really is a song that deserves that. And I'm telling you, I can pinpoint exactly on the Colonial Theater stage where Tammy Grimes was when she sang the Duke of Prussia, I Call Him Freddie is Living by Mistake with Mary Baker Eddy. Now, frankly, as a teenager, I didn't know who Mary Baker Eddy was, but once I found out that she was instrumental in the Christian Science Church, which, after all, has its headquarters in Bost, in a beautiful building, by the way, then I understood why the Boston audience erupted in great applause and laughter. So, anyway, so that's the best song in the show. It's a true Showstopper, a true 11 o' clock number, even though it comes too early. And. But also, let's talk about Andrea Martin, who played Madame Marcardi. Yes, she did have to rely on her book. And at one point, when she's dealing with a Ouija board, you would think that she. She was fine with the song, but frankly, the lyrics were on the. Paste it on the other side of the Ouija.

Jan Simpson (10:46)

So.

Peter Filicia (10:46)

So she did have to rely on the book more than the other people did. But she was quite delightful and she has such wonderful physical energy that she was great fun to watch. So, all in all, a very nice evening. High Spirits always has the problem of being a musical that's based on a very urbane and sophisticated play. And under those circumstances, it did have a tough time when it went up against hello, Dolly, Funny Girl, which happened that same season, so. And opened just slightly before really Funny Girl opened March 26. This opened April 7. On April 4, anyone can whistle Open. But that didn't turn out to be much of a barrier, needless to say. But anyway, the point was, this was quite a time, and High spirits did manage 376 performances, but it's a better show than that.

James Marino (11:43)

All right, Michael, what Did you think?

Michael Portantier (11:46)

Let me preface my remarks by saying again, I saw the show and I know Light Spirit pretty well, but I wanted to refresh my memory. And for anyone Who Cares, the 1945 film of blight Spirit with Rex Harrison, et cetera, et al. Is viewable complete on YouTube in full Technicolor. It was an early Technicolor film for, For England. They. They didn't embrace color as early as we did here in, in. In Hollywood. So there it is for you in case you want to refresh your memory. And it's a really wonderful movie. The, the pacing is what struck me in just watching. Beginning to watch a few min. It's. It's done at a breakneck pace. I think they felt it really important to keep. Keep the pace up because of the, the style of dialogue that, that Coward writes and he was very much involved with the production of the film. And the whole thing is, I think, about an hour and 37 minutes. So of course it helped that they were able to cut out the intermissions, but that gives you an idea of how quick it is. Really, really excellent. Boy, do I have to disagree with this, Peter about the score for this show.

Peter Filicia (13:16)

Wow.

Michael Portantier (13:16)

I don't think we disagree that often, but I think, I think a lot of the songs are delightful in themselves, but I, I don't think they add very much to the show. And, and I. I guess I'm in the camp of people who feel that the jazziness of this score, while it's very, very entertaining, really is kind of at odds with the, with the story. One issue here is that, as I said to someone else, I wonder what this musical would have been like if it had been written 10 years earlier or 15 years earlier. Because since it was written in the 60s, apparently the adapters felt, you know, I guess rightly that they. They felt that they needed a chorus. And so who were that chorus going to be? Because there was no equivalent to a chorus in the play. So they decided that Madame Arcadi, her crowd should be a bunch of beatniks, as they're called, who hang out in a coffee house. Now if this had been written in 1955, I don't, you know, I think they would have made another decision and maybe it would have been a better one because to me, the, the beatniks seem as out of place here as they do when the hippies show up in the last five minutes of the movie of Sweet Char. So I think all of that is. Is a problem. Also, as delightful as the songs are Some of them don't really make complete sense. In Faster Than Sound, Elvira is singing about basically being able to fly all over the world. And, you know, from what we know of ghosts, they're not able to do that. They're tethered to one place. So that. That's completely wrong. And Home sweet Heaven, although there are delightful little rhymes and puns in it and all those references, you know, I mean, are we really supposed to think that people like Salome and Jack the Ripper would end up in heaven?

Peter Filicia (15:27)

Well, I do agree with Jack the Ripper. I thought that was bizarre. Yes.

Michael Portantier (15:31)

And what about Salome? She wasn't exactly an upstanding, moral character. And a few others. Anyway, so. Yeah, I. I really.

Peter Filicia (15:41)

God, for.

Michael Portantier (15:42)

Yeah, yeah, no, I got you. I gotcha. Yeah, I really. I think. I think the score is very variable in quality.

Peter Filicia (15:50)

You know, may I say something here? And that is the fact that I once said that that Go into your trance, which is the number Michael's talking about with all the beatniks. The first one, you see, I said that Madame Marcati should sing that when she's first at the Condamine Resonance, that she would say, go into your trance. And actually, you, Martin, called me up and said, what a great idea we should have done. So that's kind of interesting. Go on.

Michael Portantier (16:15)

I have heard someone told me that they have seen productions, or at least one production of this show where they cut out the chorus completely. And, you know, I think I would do the same thing.

Peter Filicia (16:26)

Yeah. It's not necessary, I'll grant you that.

Michael Portantier (16:28)

Yeah, yeah, sure. I mean, keep. She can still sing both of those numbers. Yeah, but without them. Yeah. Anyway. But all right. So all of that said, really excellent production. I thought Philippa Sue.

Peter Filicia (16:40)

Yeah.

Michael Portantier (16:41)

Was almost a revelation.

Peter Filicia (16:43)

I should.

Michael Portantier (16:44)

Because. Just because her, you know, the character was so different from what we've seen her in before. I should have mentioned her. Yeah. No, that's okay. And I. And I, you know, I did see her opposite Stephen Pasquale, her husband, in Guys and Dolls down in dc, so it was fun to see them playing opposite each other again in very, very different roles. Rachel Dratch stole the show with her, you know, with just her running around the stage. She was amazing. It was. What was your feeling, Peter, about the major change or addition that Bill Rosenfeld did in the adaptation was that he added Noel Coward as a narrator, played by Campbell Scott, who also doubled in the role of Dr. Bradman? I thought it worked pretty well. What did you think?

Peter Filicia (17:39)

Yeah, fine. No problem. At all. And for a presentation like this, there's no problem having a narrator, right?

Michael Portantier (17:46)

Exactly. And whom. Yes. And I think there was a big question mark next to Katrina Link name when she was announced for this. Many people did not like her in Company. I did, I did too, but I know many people did not. And, and people wondered if she could handle an ethereal character like this one, because I don't think she's played ethereal before, but I thought she did beautiful job and she looked beautiful. A shout out to the makeup people. Let's see. Makeup designer Katie Gel, who really convincingly made both Elvira and then eventually Ruth look like ghosts, you know, And I guess the lighting does the, the lighting contributed to that as well. Lighting by Bradley King. So, yes, I saw Bill Condon at Intermission Performance. I went to, and I went up to him, said, isn't it fun? You know, I said, we'll never see this again. He said, well, that's why we're here. That's why we're all here. I did see, as I think I mentioned, I, I, I hard have very little memory of it, but I saw one production in my life before this, and it was the St. Barts Players. Yeah. And again, I, I, I really, I really remember very little about it, except that I thought the same thing, a lot of the same things. Then I thought the, the score didn't really fit the, the show. So. But regardless of all my reservations, I agree with the universal opinion that this is exactly the kind of show that encores should do.

James Marino (19:35)

All right, so this production, what do we have left here.

Peter Filicia (19:45)

Today.

Jan Simpson (19:47)

At.

Peter Filicia (19:49)

It's the best you're gonna do.

James Marino (19:51)

Yeah. So if you are listening to this and you haven't seen it, you very likely won't see it. Michael, you bring me those people who didn't like Katrina Lincoln, I will fight them. Bring me people.

Michael Portantier (20:05)

Well, me, me too. But, but, you know, I, I did seem to me that, that quite a lot of people did not like her in that. Although a lot of it may have just been a lot of people didn't like the character being made into a woman, which I agree with that, actually.

James Marino (20:25)

Well, I just, I'm happy to point out that their opinion is wrong.

Julie Andrews (20:32)

Okay.

James Marino (20:34)

For the record, of course. So, Jan, you made it over to Irish Rep, where you saw making a show of myself. So tell me about this Mary Kate o'. Flanagan.

Jan Simpson (20:54)

Mary Kate o' Flanagan is a storyteller, and she's won several awards both in her, her native Ireland and here in the United States. For spinning yarns. This is a very, very small production. It's done in the basement of that small black box area of the Irish Rep, which seats, I don't know, maybe 60 people. There is no set, there are just some curtains. She's very simply dressed. And it's a one woman show where she tells stories. I've got a pet peeve right now about the proliferation of one person shows. There are so many of them and the majority of them are trading in on some trauma that the person has experienced.

Michael Portantier (22:04)

And.

Jan Simpson (22:06)

At the beginning, for a while, I was trying to be empathetic, then sympathetic, and I think I'm now in a phase of why should I care? Get a therapist. So one of the things that I really admired about this piece is she is telling us about her life, but it's not trauma related. She's almost magical in the way she tells her stories. They're mesmerizing. She has this wonderful, soothing voice. Her mother was British, her father Irish. She grew up in rural Ireland. But she does not have a pronounced Irish accent, so she's very easy to understand. The show runs just 75 minutes. It is surprising, surprisingly moving, as she tells six stories. And she also knits them together with commentary about why stories are so important to us and why we tell stories to one another, stories about our own lives. I tend to be pretty stoic when I see a show. I chuckle here and there. I almost never cry. And at one moment, to my surprise, I found myself weeping at one of her stories. And later I read another critic writing about it who was also surprised to find herself weeping. And the stories are funny, but they're also obviously touching. I've been telling everyone I know, I've been urging people to go see this very small show. And I'm happy to say that most of the people, actually all the people who have responded to my urgings have loved it too. It's a small show, but really worth seeking out. Making a show of myself at the Irish Rep.

James Marino (24:33)

So, Jan, I guess I shouldn't invite you to my one man show called My Flight Was Canceled. We had one performance at the American Airlines Admirals Club at Dallas Fort Worth yesterday.

Jan Simpson (24:45)

Probably not.

Michael Portantier (24:46)

Flight was Canceled.

James Marino (24:47)

My Flight was Canceled. That's my one man show.

Jan Simpson (24:51)

And actually I'm looking for that title soon.

James Marino (24:56)

Well, making a show of Myself at the Irish Rep, as Jan mentioned, running through March 1st. And we'll have a link to that in the show notes. You know, Peter, if I took My Flight Was Canceled and put a colon. Put the Musical My Flight was canceled. Colon the Musical. I could think that I Wish My Life were like a musical which you saw at the Soho Playhouse. Yes, indeed.

Peter Filicia (25:23)

I did this. Well, it's funny because Jen's mentioning one person shows and I would. I went there expecting that I Wish My Life were like a Musical would be a one person show. No, it isn't. It's a four person show. Two men, two women singing songs about musicals. And I think it's the smartest and sassiest musical review in town. I enjoyed it immeasurably. The writer is Alexander S Burmange. B E R M A N G E and there he is writing about life upon the wicked stage and how exciting the wicked stage is as well. Wonderfully tuneful music, very incisive lyrics. When he talks about various parts of people being in musicals. Well, what he is, what he has here is four people sitting backstage musing about their lives in musical theater. And indeed one of them talks about the fact that even when he's sick he has to go on, which is really admirable these days. Should we have a moment of silence for all the trees that had to be cut down for the paper that's put in understudy slips and playbills. So it's really nice to hear somebody talk about the fact that he's so devoted. It reminds me when I saw the Apple Tree with Barbara Harris who was so sick, I don't know how she got through the performance and yet there were times when her voice broke. But she was there that night and so that was. That reminded me of that when this guy was singing the song. A song about divas, certainly. Yeah, they. They made us sound like. There's such terrific ideas. I will grant you that. Songs about auditions. Yes, indeed. Songs about super fans, which certainly is very relevant today with Taffy Brodus at Actner talking about seeing Operation Mincemeat 13 times, which I'll admit is chump change compared to Pat Costa who made more than 500 trips to Jekyll and Hyde. But anyway, Song about super fans. Really every. Everything he does is so incisive with wonderful, wonderful perceptions that I really do believe that this show deserves much more of a venue than the Soho Playhouse, which indeed is. Is where a lot of show starts off, where the boys in the Band started off. So as hoping that it makes a leap and continues because it really deserves to. Tremendous work all around by the performers. All four of them are really, really quite wonderful. And I'm very, very delighted that Meline Whitehead and does a very good job of talking about kissing a show song, we have to kiss. She and her leading man have very different opinions of how that kiss should go. So, so that's really good. Tyler Gallag, the guy who plays the person who's not that quick to kiss. So he's, he's extraordinarily good as well. And Elizabeth Mandel has a lot to do in the show, too. She's one who sings about the auditions coming in with a number that she really believes is one that nobody else will sing. And then turns out everybody else is singing. So that's a real problem. So, anyway, really terrific. And it's only there till February 28, but I say get there to the Soho Playhouse, which is on Van Damme Street. If you're taking the subway, the E and the C, get to Spring street and you're right there.

James Marino (28:59)

All right. I Wish My Life Were Like a Musical. At so place playhouse through February 28th. We'll have a link to that in the show notes. Peter, when you said two men, two women, musical review I always like, is this another Joe DiPietro show?

Peter Filicia (29:14)

Well, sure. I mean, that does come to mind, certainly. I love you Perfect. Now change. And I hope this show has the success that I love you Perfect. No, change has had and continues to have. I mean, it's been, they've worked on it. They've, there are new additions, new songs. And so if you go to see it now, you won't see the same show you saw in the 90s.

James Marino (29:38)

Okay, next up, Jan and Peter were over at Studio Sea View to see the Unknown. So Jan, why don't you get us started on this?

Jan Simpson (29:50)

This is another one person show. But, but, but this is a show that I like and it's by the monologist David Kahle. And David Kahl writes a lot of one person shows. He often performs them himself. But there have been a few where other actors come in and perform his one person show. His one person shows, however, have multiple characters. And so there's a complete story, there's a complete play within his shows. And the person who has come in to do this one is Sean Hayes and Sean Hayes, David Kail, directed by Lee Silverman, who often works with David Kale to shape his plays. And this one is about a middle aged gay writer who has a writer's block and he is attempting, he writes plays and musicals and, and he just hasn't got any idea about what to write about next. And so his friends offer to loan him their cabin, which is in a remote place, no cell service, no Internet connection, so that he can just sit there and concentrate on writing. When he gets there the first night, he. He hears something, and it sort of spooks him because he hears someone singing a song. And it's actually a song he wrote. But when he looks around the house, when he looks outside, he can't find anyone. The play the Unknown bills itself as a thriller. So you're sort of expecting the haunted house thing where he's going to stay there. But unlike in most of those movies, he's smart. The next day, he leaves the house. This is nuts. This is not spoiling anything because it happens at the beginning of the show. He gets the hell out of there, comes back to the city, to the village where he lives, and he takes himself out for a drink at the bar Julius, the celebrated gay bar in Greenwich Village. And there he meets someone, and they strike up a conversation. And then a story begins to unfold that. You're not really quite sure who the people are, who this guy is, who he's met. If the story the guy has told him is really tr Is not convinced that this is really true. He begins to look into. Takes him into a series of events that I don't want to spoil too much because you should see. Was a little bit hard to keep track of what was true, what wasn't true. But it really didn't matter to me because Sean Hayes is so engaging and so good. And he was particularly good at just a slight change in his voice, a little bit of a gesture, making clear who the characters were as they spoke. I think they're like seven, eight characters in the play. And he does this. The sound design is fantastic in this play. Has to do a lot of work and does it well. Well, I think because the show advertises itself as a thriller, it may disappoint some people who go for that purpose because there aren't a lot of jump scares. It was perfect for me because I don't like jumping. I don't like. And so I'm calling this a bump scare. She it just prods you a little bit and you go, oh, aha. I get it. Oh, like that. And it's just, I think, great fun. What did you think, Peter?

Peter Filicia (34:51)

Oh, I agree entirely. I was mesmerized. It held my attention. I got more and more involved in the story, trying to figure it out. There are so many red herrings that say, oh, now I get it. Now I see what's happening. Oh, no, I don't and so it's really quite wonderful. Yes. That sound. My God, I. Here we are talking about sound. But I mean, really the thing was when Jan mentioned that he hears the song sung outside, I really thought there was an actor in the audience. Singing was so spectacular. And the way the sound moved around, around what supposedly is the house. There is no set to speak of. Amazing sound design. So that's terrific. But, you know, the play's the thing. And there's no question that you get more and more involved saying, could it be this, could it be that? I don't know. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. And by the end, I'm sure that anything he's talking about really happened. We'll see if you agree. But it's so, so strange a story, all things considered, though I can't imagine that anybody wouldn't be lured into this one. And more and more and more down a certain rabbit hole, so to speak. It's.

Julie Andrews (36:13)

It.

Peter Filicia (36:13)

It really is spectacular. And he's quite wonderful. And what's really great is, you know, the last time we saw him, he was tremendous as Oscar Levant. Yes, indeed. And he was playing that character. This character bears no relationship whatsoever. So we really see a different side of him. And this does not remotely seem like the guy who used to be on Will. And I mean this. He really is a chameleon and we're very lucky to have him.

James Marino (36:42)

Okay, so the unknown at Studio Sea view runs through April 12th. And we'll have a link to that in the show notes with Peter and Jane with. With Sean being such a. A well known figure and Studio Seaview seeming to be very progressive in breaking all norms these days. Do you see that? Maybe they'll try a limited run on Broadway with this.

Peter Filicia (37:22)

I wouldn't be a bit surprised. Certainly this is. There are theaters on 44th street that are going to be empty soon. So. Y. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. February 23rd, not one show will be playing on 44th street in that block that we know. So. And I know I've mentioned that before, but anyway. And I'm not sure that the shows that are coming in will necessarily run all that long, but we'll see. See, you know, but I. I really do hope that this continues somewhere. And I can't imagine that Sean Hayes came to town just to think that it would be a show at an Off Broadway theater. He certainly has the credentials to bring in people. I remember Lonnie Price directed him in Finian's Rainbow playing OG in a production that didn't come to town. But he said it was just so amazing to have dinner with him. And it took a long time because so many people came up to. To say, oh, I loved you and Will and Grace and all that. So that certainly is calling card.

Jan Simpson (38:37)

And.

Peter Filicia (38:39)

We do feel that we're very lucky to have him because he does embrace so many different aspects of a great performer. So we're. So. I hope it does move.

Jan Simpson (38:53)

I don't know if it will.

Peter Filicia (38:55)

I understand that. But.

Jan Simpson (38:57)

Yeah, they had that. That play Angry Allen at the Sea.

Michael Portantier (39:02)

View earlier in the season with another celebrity. Yeah.

Peter Filicia (39:07)

Yeah.

Jan Simpson (39:08)

And it didn't move. I think that that is the sort of model that they're using and also that the Lortel is using where they bring in significant names for short runs and give them really, a showcase kind of production, a really good piece where they can really sink their teeth into. Sean Hayes has a podcast that he co host. He's of any. Produces other podcasts. He's a very busy guy. He's a very smart guy. I think his Will and Grace residuals allow him to pick and choose what he wants to do. And there was a piece in the New York Times where he talked about this was a big challenge. It is a really big role, a really big thing to get your arms around. And it scared him a little, and that's why he wanted to do it. And so I think he's picking his projects on the basis of that as opposed to necessarily where it is. It's the what of it.

Michael Portantier (40:33)

You know, Interesting. Another theater that. That has sort of that model is the Shed, arguably.

James Marino (40:39)

Right. Yeah.

Michael Portantier (40:42)

One has to wonder if any of these big stars are. Are saying, I'd rather not do Broadway.

Jan Simpson (40:53)

I wonder the other way. I wonder if it gives them cred. I'm a real theater person.

James Marino (41:00)

Yeah.

Jan Simpson (41:00)

I mean, off Broadway.

Michael Portantier (41:02)

Yeah. That's almost. That's. That would be part of it. It's. You know, I'm sure they all have their own reasons, but it's interesting.

Jan Simpson (41:10)

Yeah.

James Marino (41:13)

All right, so Unknown studio seaview through April 12th. We talked about that link in the show notes. We're all good.

Julie Andrews (41:23)

Good.

James Marino (41:24)

All right. Michael, you got over to the Skirball at NYU to see Kramer Fauci. So tell us about. Is this similar to Frost Nixon? I don't know anything about this, so.

Michael Portantier (41:39)

I guess maybe in some ways. Yeah. I really wanted to mention this. I forgot to mention it before, but it only runs through the 21st of February, so. So you might want to put it on your calendar. It's a really Fascinating piece, just because of the concept of. Is based on. It's an actual transcript basically of a television confrontation between Larry Kramer, the playwright and screenwriter and AIDS activist, and Anthony Fauci that took place actually on TV back in the height of the AIDS epidemic or. And pandemic, or plague, as is the word that Larry Kramer keeps using for it. And these two had a very, very interesting fraught relationship where they both respected each other greatly. But there was also a lot of anger, especially on Larry's part, because he felt that things weren't being done as well or as fast as they should have been in those very tragic times. So as soon as I heard about the content, I, I thought I wanted to see this. And then I heard that the two actors, the two main actors are Thomas J. Ryan as Larry Kramer and Will Brill as Anthony Fauci, both of whom I really like. So then I wanted to see it even more. The huge bright red flag on all this is that the person who conceived and directed it is Daniel Fish, who offered up a travesty of Oklahoma. On Broadway a few seasons ago and won a Tony award for it. But anyway, we won't get into that. I was thinking, though, before I saw Kramer, Fauci, I thought, well, what could he possibly do? Given the content of this, it sounds like it's very simple. What could he do to screw it up? Well, all right, let me count the ways you arrive. And there is the back wall of the theater is a huge bank of very, very, very bright lights shining directly into the faces of the audience to the point where you won't be able to look directly at the stage. For all of the pre show show, you'll have to spend your time talking to the friend you came with, or I would say reading your program. But for some reason they do have a program, but they don't give it to you till after the show's over. No reason for that because there's no spoilers in it. So just another perverse little item. So that was the first thing that happened that I thought, oh, well, okay, here we go. Then there's a woman who, a wonderful actress named Jennifer Seastone who plays the role of all of the people who called into this show to ask questions or make comments to Kramer and Fauci. And she, her acting is phenomenal, but she has to contend with. He puts her on roller skates for some reason and she skates across the stage while asking some of the questions. Then she shows up in a chicken suit, a huge chicken suit, and this is what this actress has to contend with. And then some of the staging is just completely perverse. Thomas J. Ryan is way upstage at the beginning. He walks off stage at another point and keeps talking. About halfway through the show, they wheel on this youth huge machine that starts to spout foam that eventually almost covers the entire stage. And the audience sits there for about literally seven minutes in silence, watching it spew this foam all over the stage, which then eventually Thomas J. Ryan has to clean up with a broom. What that is supposed to mean, I don't know. Maybe it's supposed to symbolize the tremendous proliferation of AIDS victims, but it wouldn't seem to be that, because when the. When the show starts, we're already supposed to be at the height of the epidemic. So I don't think that's what it meant. I don't know what it meant. All of this weird, strange, perverse stuff just to call attention to the director, which to me is not what a director's job is. So. But aside from all of that, I would say hold your nose, you know, at the direction and go see it for the performances and also for the, you know, just the. It's such a fascinating story about these two, who, as I said, had such mixed feelings about each other. Great respect, but also often tremendously at odds with each other because of their. Their different perceptions of. Of what needed to be done and how quickly it needed to happen.

Jan Simpson (47:00)

I knew Larry and.

Michael Portantier (47:03)

Yes, you.

Jan Simpson (47:05)

Everybody had a contentious relationship with Larry.

Michael Portantier (47:09)

Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

Peter Filicia (47:10)

Yeah.

Jan Simpson (47:12)

And obviously the relationship between him and Tony Fauci was of a different order. But I don't know anyone who knew Larry well who did not fall out with Larry. Larry. I mean, our last conversation, and I'm sorry to say this, was with us screaming at one another on the phone. And yet, you know, there is still a fondness I have for him. He was. He was. He was a passionate person.

Michael Portantier (47:55)

Oh, yeah. Well, you. You are in great company. Another person, another example is Barbra Streisand when she, you know, finally. He wanted. He. For years, he wanted a film of the normal heart, and she. Finally. She wanted to do it. And. But then. And he just kept haranguing her because she couldn't get it together. And then. And then actually, Ryan Murphy wound up making the movie. But, yeah, she's definitely on the list as well.

James Marino (48:27)

All right, Kramer Fauci at NYU Skirball is running through February 21st. We'll have a link to that in the show notes. So, Jan, you went down to Tafana Ah, theater for a new audience. The Polanski center to see Coriolanus. Tell us about this.

Jan Simpson (48:47)

This is one of. At least for me, one of Shakespeare's least known and least produced plays. It's a play about a brilliant general who wins a decisive victory for Rome against. Against their enemies, who are called the Volscians. I don't know who they were in real history, but he comes back to Rome the conquering hero, and people want to make him a politician, one of the councils who leads the Republic of Rome. But because Rome is a republic, in order to do this, he needs to get the consent, the approval of the common people, and he's too proud to do that. He's very disdainful of them. And this eventually leads to his being banished from Rome. He is so angry about this that he takes up with the Volscians to seek retribution against Rommel and is about to lead an attack against his former homeland when his mother and his wife and his child come to him and beg him not to do this. His mother is really important because she's the person who raised him to be so proud. And so for her to humble herself and to beg him not to do this is. Is a symbolic act that he recognizes. He decides not to attack Rome, and so the Volscians then turn around and kill him. So there's a lot of back and forth.

James Marino (50:42)

And.

Jan Simpson (50:45)

I had to look all of this up before I went because. And I had to look all of this up when I came back because this was a very confusing production of the play. It used both race and gender neutral casting in a way that was confusing, particularly if you don't know the characters in the way we know the characters in Hamlet or we know the characters in Macbeth. You're looking, who was that? And then they also double cast. And so wasn't that his kid? But now that's. And so that was very confusing. There are a lot of crowd scenes that are done in the audience with people running forward and so on. It's set in a contemporary setting, so they at first look just, you know, like normal people running up and doing this. But there are a lot of these scenes where they're running through the audience and it seems as though the people who were in the crowd were cast from, like, the freshman year of some nearby drama school, because they don't seem very sure of themselves.

Julie Andrews (52:14)

But.

Jan Simpson (52:15)

But the part of the direction that really didn't work for me is the director had the idea of using cameras to film or tape record what's going on. On stage, and then to show it on this big cube that hangs up over the stage. But instead of looking like what we see on the stage, it's turned into the kind of avatars that are like in a video game. And it was just very, very confusing. And it just seems to me if you're going to do a Shakespeare play that people don't really know.

Peter Filicia (53:16)

You can.

Jan Simpson (53:17)

Put it in a different setting. They don't have to wear white sheets, you know, bed sheets, to show that they're Roman or something like that. But they. But we need to be able to identify the characters, identify the action, what's at stake. And as I said, having come back to see. After having seen this play, I had to read a synopsis of it again to understand what I was seeing. So this was a no for me. And it's unfortunate, at least in a way, at least to me, because it's the final play by. Under the auspices of Jeffrey Horowitz, who has been the mainstay, the main artistic director, the main force behind a theater for a new audience out at the Polanski Center. And he's stepping aside for a new artistic director to come in. And he's done some interesting things out there, and this seems a weird one to go out on, but I guess he just decided, you know, just gonna go for it.

James Marino (54:43)

Leave it all on the field.

Jan Simpson (54:45)

Yeah, yeah.

James Marino (54:47)

And we did. All right. So the Tragedy of Coriolanus Theater for a new audience at the Polonsky Shakespeare center runs through March 1st. We'll have a link to that in the show notes. Peter, you were over at Manhattan Theater Club to see the monsters. So tell us about the this.

Peter Filicia (55:09)

Well, what's really significant about the monsters? I want to give out a shout out to Tori Alexandre and Deleon Dallas, who I did not see. And I don't know if anybody will ever see them because they are the understudies for Agner Mizel and Okira. D. Okonedomoen. Now, why am I talking about the understudies? It's all very nice when you're an understudy, study that you get the job. And then, of course, you have to learn the part, you have to learn the blocking. There's a lot to do, and you may never go on. Well, in this show, not only do you have to learn the lines and the blocking, which you have to learn is how to box. Yes. The monster is about a guy who's a boxer and his half sister who he hasn't seen in a long time. Who gets interesting in boxing as well as well, he's going to teach her how to box. So there's a lot of real fight direction in this play. Good Lord. I would say that perhaps 20% of it really involves people, the two of them fighting, genuinely fighting. So Jerry Rodriguez did the fight. Direction is terrific. Ricky Tripp did choreography, which may very well figure into that fight direction. But Ngoziani Wanu, who wrote the play and directed at it, really is asking a lot of her performers that they. Especially for a short run, which this is only a few weeks, it'll be there. But my God, to watch these people go through all this is really, really something. They're banging their knees on the floor, on the stage. It's, it's. They're really going to have problems in the years to come with all the. They're doing to their, their bodies. Because I'm telling they go through a lot of. Okay, so what's the real story? The. The actor who is simply known as Big with capital letters by the way, and his half sister known as Lil, capital letters as well. For whatever reason, Big is really surly and angry and does. Hasn't dealt with her in 15 years and isn't particularly interested in dealing with her now. And yet every now and then is tender. He offers her a ride home after he hears how far she has to travel on the bus and. But we do get a moment where we really see him as a human being. And it's in a flashback. He's trying to take us. He's studying for a secret civil service exam. Okay. That's what he's doing. He admits that he's already failed the test once and now he's determined that he's going to get it right this time around. Well, obviously he doesn't. And that's why he has to turn the boxing. He's a black man. There aren't that many opportunities for him. It's always been a situation where blacks men have gone into the entertainment business of the boxing business in a way to really rise above minimum wage jobs. And this is what he goes into. Even though you can tell he really isn't that crazy about doing this for a living. But it's all he can really do. But he does get interested in teaching his half sister, who indeed is quite a feisty young lady. It really, in a way you say yourself, well, she's really terrific and he really isn't as terrific. But it's the party has to play. He has to be a real Stonewall guy. And there's a fascinating line where she refers to him as an enigma, sigma in a teddy bear in a cement block. And that's who he is. He does have a soul. He does have a heart. He does. But he's gone through so much that he has to protect himself. And that's why he's such a cool, cool, cold, ice cold character. And will she bring him up? Will she indeed make him a human being or will he defeat her?

Julie Andrews (59:16)

Her?

Peter Filicia (59:17)

That's the real question. Where are the monsters involved? I'm not going to tell you because neither one of them seems like a monster. And yet that line does turn out to be very significant and comes all together at the end of the play at the place exactly where it should come. So frankly though, I'm telling you, if I found out the understudies are going on, I want to go back and see them. But really, what a task this must be taking on this job, knowing that you may never go on and that you have to rehearse so many different things than you would in an ordinary play. So quite a show.

James Marino (59:59)

All right, the Monsters at Manhattan Theatre Club is running through March 22nd. We'll have a link to that in the show. Notes last in our review views this morning. Jan, you were over at the Shed where you saw the Other Place. So tell us about this.

Jan Simpson (60:17)

I was really interested in seeing this because I was a great fan of the Revisal of Oedipus that just closed on Broadway with Mark Strong and the great Leslie Manville. I will not say her name without saying great before it because she's great fair. And so this play was billed as the Antigone story, sort of the next phase in the story of this tragic family. The writer and director Alexander Zeldin says in the play notes that people should not think of this, even though it's billed as an Antigone esque story, should not think of it as Antigone. However, he goes out of his way to draw parallels with his character. His main character is named Annie. She has an uncle named not Creon, but Chris. She has a sister named Izzy. Instead of Iphigenia. There is a guy who hangs around and talks about the future and so on who is in Tureseus, he's Terry. However, the main thrust of and there are ashes. What to do with the ashes of in this case, not a brother who has died as in the original Antigone, but this a father to the two young women, Annie and Izzy, who has died several years in the past. Now like a decade or more ago, as the play opens. And it's set in the house where they had grown up, which the uncle has now taken over and is now remodeled. And what he wants to do is scatter the ashes at a memorial bench that he has set up for his brother in a nearby park. But Annie doesn't want the ashes to move from the house. And the entire play is about the tension between what to do with the ashes. About two thirds of the way through, there is a reveal. Something happens. And we're then supposed to think it's not about the ashes, it's about this incident that has happened. The play flirts with all kinds of themes, with themes about grief and incest and infidelity and mental illness, all of most of which are dealt with in one way or another in the original Antigone. But the original play also deals with the broader subject of where do you owe responsibility to your family or to the laws of the greater the traditions of your family or the laws of the greater society? This plays for me, didn't seem to know what it wanted to. What its message was, the production, the staging of it. There was. We talked just a few minutes ago about the great sound design of the unknown. This seemed just the opposite to me. There were all kinds of sounds that were thrown in the. That really didn't sort of make sense. There was this big screen that was hanging over the stage that would tilt at times, but I couldn't figure out why it was tilting when it was tilting. One moment it disappeared, then it came back. It just seemed like a lot of directorial flourishes in the way that Michael was just talking about at the Kramer Fauci Kramer Fauci play. Thank you. It seemed like that and it was very, very unsatisfying and very disappointing. And maybe to me, if he had just done away with the names that were so similar to the original Antigone, if he'd done away with the ashes because they actually don't come to be that important and just written the play from centered around that pivotal scene. I don't want to spoil that for people who may go and who may enjoy the play if he had just written his own play and done it. What I was thinking of this morning is people may remember Arthur Miller's View from the Bridge. And Arthur Miller intentionally sat down to write a Greek tragedy, a modern day Greek tragedy, but he came up with his own story. He used the structure, the sort of mood of a classical Greek tragedy, but he made it all his own. And I wish Zeldin had done the same thing. I think it would have been a more successful endeavor. As it was for me, it was a big disappointment. Friends who have seen it have felt similarly. One friend emailed me a couple of days after we saw it together and she said, the more I think about this play, the more I dislike it. And on the other hand, it is a play that I've continued to discuss with people and. And so as much as we all disliked it, we're still thinking about it and still talking about it. So it must have had something going for it. I just wish it had had more.

James Marino (67:03)

You can take that team out behind the Shed, teach them a lesson. All right. The other place at the Shed is running through March 1st. We'll have a link to that in the show notes. So all four of us lost. Lost a friend last week.

Peter Filicia (67:25)

Yeah.

James Marino (67:27)

Harry Hahn, you know, has. Is a giant in the journalism business on Broadway who passed away at the age of 85. So, Jan, tell us about some memories about Harry.

Jan Simpson (67:45)

Well, like everyone else, I was really fond of Harry and I really respected him. He was. Both he and I serve on the board of the Outer Critics Circle. And at first I was thinking, you know, Harry was sort of our anchor. And then I thought, no, that's the wrong word. Harry was our compass. Harry, even as he went into his 80s and even after strokes and really declining health, Harry saw everything.

Peter Filicia (68:31)

He.

Jan Simpson (68:32)

Nothing made Harry happier than an oddly timed production, by which I mean, if there was a matinee and then a five o' clock show that he could get to after the matinee and then an 8 o' clock show that he could see in the evening and maybe some sort of cabaret afterwards, that was Harry's happy place. He went and he saw everything. He knew everyone in the business. His enthusiasm for theater never, ever waned. And he was always supported by his wonderful and wonderfully patient husband, Charles Nelson. They were just a dynamic duo showing up at everything and loving it. To say, Harry, I mean, we always say this when someone passes, he's going to be missed. They don't make them like him anymore. But truer words were never spoken about anyone else than about Harry.

Peter Filicia (69:50)

I have similar feelings. And Harry was a nominator for the Theatre World Awards and in fact was very instrumental in my succeeding John Willis as the head of the nominating committee and the emcee of the Theatre World Awards. I don't. I don't know if it would have happened without Harry's endorsement of me. And he was always so effusive with his praise at the end of every ceremony. So, yes. And of course, I saw Harry a lot because I have that dynamic too. I will certainly go to four shows in one day. And as I always say, my father was a plumber. That was work. This isn't, you know, so. And we used to laugh about that when I to talk about that with him. So a great guy. And wow, going to his apartment so meticulously arranged with all these biographies because he had as much interest in film as he had in theater. And so he really had everybody's biography or autobiography or memoir, however you want to put it. They were there. So. So, yes, indeed, he will be missed. And I miss him. I already.

James Marino (71:01)

Michael, how about you?

Michael Portantier (71:03)

Well, I also saw Harry a lot, not only at the theater, but he and Charles Nelson lived in my building. Charles still does. And one way in which they don't make them like Harry anymore, I think, was that his style of writing. He had a wonderful, I would say, old school style of writing. It always struck me as he would be the kind of person who would have written for. For like Variety back in the day, you know, like Baffle, Box Office. And he and I, boy, he really was a veteran. I first became aware of him, it must have been like maybe 40 years ago. He used to fill in for Liz Smith as a gossip columnist when she was, I guess, at that time. Was it the Daily News? I think so, yeah. And that's when I first heard his name. And then I, you know, and then I later wound up meeting him and then spending lots of time with him at the theater and elsewhere. So, yeah, so it's an amazing body of work and also tremendously prolific because he wrote regularly for Playbill and so many other publications. So, yes, I am told this is not official, but I'm told that there are plans for a memorial service at a Broadway theater in the fall.

Jan Simpson (72:39)

Yes, you say he was prolific. I think a lot of theatergoers will be aware of Harry because of his writing in place Playbill. And there was one period of time where you would go through Playbill and you would see, like there would be maybe 10 stories, let's say, and there would be. This is not an exaggeration, there would be six bylines of Harry Hahn. But what people didn't know was the other four were also Harry. They made him put his pseudonym because they couldn't have 10 articles by Harry Hahn. He just. He was prolific. You're right, he was prolific. He wrote. He loved writing about the Theater. I'm sorry, I just am going on and on because. Really adorable.

Peter Filicia (73:32)

I understand why.

James Marino (73:34)

Yeah. So as if we hear more information about this, this memory of Harry that'll happen in the fall at a Broadway house will let our listeners know. So if you are in town, you can attend it. Michael, I suspect that on March 30, Monday, March 30, at 7:30pm you will be at the Metropolitan Opera House to.

Michael Portantier (74:02)

See.

James Marino (74:04)

Lamb of God. Tell us about this upcoming one night only event.

Michael Portantier (74:12)

Actually, I don't plan to be there because as I may have mentioned, occasionally I'm very much against organized religion. And this is billed as a powerful musical retelling of the Passion of Christ as experienced by those who were there. Mary the Mother, played by Jessie Mueller. Mueller John, played by Santino Fontana. Mary Magdalene played by Anna Zavelson. Martha played by Joy woods and others. So I'm only mentioning this because I think it will be of great interest, obviously to many theater aficionados because of the cast, but, you know, I won't go for that reason. And also even more so because. Because it's being presented in partnership with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, AKA the Mormons. So. So I had, you know, mixed feelings about even mentioning it, but I think it's a major event because of the cast. So I did want to call people's attention to that.

James Marino (75:27)

Yeah, that's a huge cast. Look at that.

Michael Portantier (75:30)

Yeah.

James Marino (75:32)

So yesterday having been valid Valentine's Day, the Museum of Broadway. I don't know if this was on purpose in coordination, but it seems so, right, because the Museum of Broadway had an exhibit called so in Love with Broadway. Michael, tell us about this.

Michael Portantier (75:51)

Yes. It opened the day before Valentine's Day, February 13th. And I'm not sure how long, you know, but it's gonna be there for a while, I think. And it's called. It showcases the greatest love stories of Broadway, past and present, through unforgett character pairings. In terms of costume displays, there's a lot that's going to be there. I'll just name a few of them. Forbidden love will be represented by costumes from Romeo and Juliet that were worn by Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler, designed by Enver Charkata for the recent production 2024 production. Romantic Love costumes from the Music man as worn by Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster designed by Santo Loquasto. And we all know what happened with those two in real life, so that's interesting. First love costumes from Melchior Moritz and Vendla in Spring Awakening, as worn by Jonathan Groff, John Gallagher Jr. And Lea Michel, designed by Susan Hilferty and really many others. I just can't mention all of them, but it sounds really interesting. If you have not yet been to the Museum Broadway, this might be a good excuse to do so.

Peter Filicia (77:14)

All right.

James Marino (77:16)

Also, we had some news this week that it reminded me when we were talking earlier of Lee Silverman having having directed the Unknown at Studio Sea View, that Suffs is coming to PBS.

Michael Portantier (77:34)

Oh, right.

James Marino (77:36)

May 8th. So put it on your calendar. May 8th. If you get PBS where you are, then check it out. There's a link in the show notes to the Great Performances website with Suffs and more information. Hopefully we'll find out if you'll find out if you can get it in your area.

Jan Simpson (77:57)

Hopefully it's a really worthwhile production. I wish it had run longer.

James Marino (78:02)

Yeah, just so great. All right, and a little preview of next week. We have Georgia Stitt coming to chat with us next week. So before we wrap it up and get to our brain teaser and our musical moment, I want to remind everybody that you can subscribe to these broadcasts by going to the front page of broadwayradio.com there's a subscribe link that way each and every time there's a new episode of this Week on Broadway be automatically downloaded to Apple Podcast Feedback. You of course, you don't have to get us an Apple podcast. There's many ways to get us. One of them is Patreon P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com BroadwayRadio is where you can support all of Broadway radio's offerings, plus get us a little bit early and a few bonus things here and there. Contact information for Peter, for Michael, for Janet, for me, can be found in the show notes@broadwaymedia.com as well as links to some of the things we've talked about today. So, Peter, do you have an answer to last week's brain teaser?

Peter Filicia (79:05)

Indeed I do. This performer appeared on Broadway in a musical that was considered so bad that it closed during previews. A bit more than six years later, this same performer appeared in a movie musical that did open, but was by and large considered as bad as that stage musical. In the film, this performer and the character shaved the same first name. Well, we're talking about Sally Kellerman, who played Sally Hughes in the much reviled 1973 movie the Musical of Lost Horizon. That was six years after she played Mag in the musical version of Breakfast at Tiffany's, which called it a Life after four previews, Tony Janicki got it first and for a change, on his first try, followed by Paul Whitty, Stephen Sokoloff, Arthur Robinson, Lee Cohen, Jack Leshner, David Robinson, and Brigad. This week's question. One of Elvis Presley's early movies that was tangentially based on a Broadway comedy had him singing a melody that would show up in a Broadway musical only a matter of months later, it said, had new lyrics by a lyricist who many years earlier had written an Oscar winning song that we can all sing word for word. The lyricist gave it a completely different title and lyric. The composer didn't mind. Okay, so what's the Broadway musical? What's the name of the song? Who's the lyricist? What was the Oscar winning song? Who's the composer? What's the Presley film? What's the comedy that inspired it, and the title of the song that was used in the film.

James Marino (80:40)

If you need to look at the list of those questions, we do publish this brain teaser in the show notes so you can get those 99 questions there. Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, email this in multiple parts to us@trivia broadwayradio.com we'll let you know if you're on the right track. So, Michael, what do we have in this week's musical moments?

Michael Portantier (81:05)

Well, first, a shout out to our very knowledgeable listeners. Last year, last week, excuse me, we featured songs from Rent. And I was going on about the lyric in no Day But Today where Mimi sings Forget Regret, Regret, or Life is Yours to miss. And I thought, you know, what a wonderful, simple but brilliant little phrase, Forget Regret. And I wondered aloud if, you know, Jonathan Larson was the first person to think of it. Well, Arthur Robinson wrote in to say that in the movie Two Tickets to Broadway. That phrase is included in one of the songs in that movie. And the lyric is by Leo Robin, who I always have thought of as one of the most underrated talents.

Peter Filicia (81:59)

I thoroughly agree.

Michael Portantier (82:00)

Yeah. Of Broadway. So if someone had to come up with it, I'm not surprised that it was him. And as Arthur Robinson says, he may not have been the first person. It's hard to say, but yes, forget regret. A beautiful line. Whether it was first thought of by Leo Robin or. Or anyone else this week, it's always a good time for Julie Andrews. I say, that's my motto. And somebody posted something that. At first I thought it was an error. They posted a clip from the Julie Andrews show and it said 1965. But now I'm very well aware that she had her variety series in the 70s. But somehow, somehow I was completely unaware that she had an hour long TV special in 1965 called the Julie Andrews show on NBC, full color with Gene Kelly as her special guest. And also the new Christie Minstrels, which was a music group that was very hot at the time. Now think about it. 1965, this would have been the height of Julie Andrews fame. I'm not sure exactly when it aired in 65, but that was the year of the release of the Sound of Music and of course, Mary Poppins had come the year before. So I. So sure enough, the whole show is available in full color on YouTube and I watched the whole thing. A lot of it is actually quite bad just because of the special material and the concepts of some of the. Some of it's very twee and some of it's very overproduced. The best parts are where she's just performing alone or with. With Gene Kelly. They do, among other things, they do Just in Time from Bells of Ringing, a lovely little duet of that. And Julie does quite a bit of dancing with him in it. And she really was a wonderful dancer as well as her other great talents. So we have two clips from that special here. We've included a link to the entire show in the show notes, but our two audio clips. The opener is on A wonderful daylight today from the roar of the grease paint smell of the crowd. And the Closer is not a show tune, but I'm sure it's been heard on Broadway. And Julie sings it so beautifully that I had to include it. And it's Auld Lang Symphony. So please enjoy these two clips from the Julie Andrews show coming to you from 1965.

James Marino (84:47)

All right, so on behalf of Michael Portantier, Jan Simpson and Peter Felicia, this is James Marino saying thanks so much for listening to Broadway radios this week on Broadway. Bye Bye.

Julie Andrews (85:12)

Will take a cover of kindness yet for old lands I For old lands I my dear for old land day min. Will take a car of kindness yet for the sake of old lands I.

Jan Simpson (86:04)

Good night.