All tagged Anyone Can Whistle
Angela Lansbury is a treasure of the American Theatre. Though she was born in London, she has enjoyed a long and auspicious career on American soil, first as an actress in the old Hollywood movies system in films such as Gaslight, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Harvey Girls, and also as a television star for 12 seasons of Murder, She Wrote. It is, however, for the Broadway stage that Lansbury has been her most daring and sparkling. Today, we celebrate the Broadway musicals that starred Angela Lansbury.
This might seem like a ridiculous subject for a piece about Broadway showtunes, but the more I thought about it, the more fascinated I became by the subject. In songwriting, there is no copyright on titles, so titles can repeat. I can sit down and write a song about Broadway and remembering fondly, then title it “Give My Regards to Broadway.” As long as the music and lyrics are different, it is perfectly acceptable (and legal) to do so. This got me thinking: what showtunes are there that share the same title? It turns out, there are several. Here is a sampling of some that I found.
In this day of downloads, streaming, CDs, not to mention the advent of Amazon and EBay, collecting Broadway cast recordings is a relatively easy thing to do. It is nice to have the convenience of tracking down any showtune you like with a simple search on the internet. It has made Broadway and its wonderful music accessible to all, and for that these advances will always be a wonderful part of the evolution of our technology. It has, however, taken the fun out of the once-thrilling Easter egg hunt that was a big part of cast album collecting.
Have you ever picked up a Broadway cast recording that you’d only vaguely heard of (or had never heard of), listened to it and said “This score is so good! Why isn’t this show being performed all the time?”. Just because a Broadway show has problems, it doesn’t always mean that the score is bad. In fact, many flop or troubled musicals have superior scores that will make you keep wondering “Was that musical AWFUL or WONDERFUL?”. Here are nine cast albums that will keep you wondering why that musical wasn’t a bigger hit.
