All tagged Fanny

Zoosical: Showtunes About Animals

Animal lovers that are Broadway lovers (and vice-versa), here is a collection that was designed just for you. I was on a long drive and a showtune came on that was about an animal. I started thinking about how many Musical Theatre songs that I could find were about animals (These are things I think about on car trips and during nights of insomnia). By the end of the car trip, I had come up with these. Please share with me any others you might think of. I hope you enjoy my corny need to catalogue such things in list form. 

Broadway Blip: Fanny

How can a musical be such a hit in one decade, then become almost obscure the next? Fanny is a musical that was a minor hit in its day, had a healthy Broadway run, was predominantly a critics’ darling, garnered one Tony Award for Walter Slezak, but never received a Broadway revival and is seldom discussed today. Based on Marcel Pagnol's trilogy of plays entitled MariusFanny and CésarFanny has a book by S. N. Behrman and Joshua Logan and music and lyrics by Harold Rome. Directed by Joshua Logan and choreographed by Helen Tamiris, Fanny opened at Broadway’s Majestic Theatre on November 4, 1954 where it ran 888 performances. The cast included Florence Henderson as Fanny, Ezio Pinza as Cesar, William Tabbert as Marius, and Slezak as Panisse. 

Revive This Musical: PLEASE!

It’s a big season for Broadway revivals with Spring Awakening having opened and Fiddler on the RoofDames at Sea, and She Loves Me on their way to us in the next few months. Certain shows get revived again and again (Gypsy, anyone?) while others take their sweet time getting back to Broadway. Today’s blog entry is a plea to producers, as I go decade by decade (starting with the 1930s), making the case for the musicals most-deserving of revival in each ten-year span.