Sun 11/10 @ 3PM
The Musical Theater Project was formed about 25 years ago with the mission of preserving and honoring 20th-century American musical theater in songs, stories and social history through local live performances and in national radio broadcasts, online discussions and recordings.
The organization’s next live program, 1962 On Stage and Screen is to be presented at 3:00 pm on Sunday, November 10 at Wiley Auditorium in University Heights.
It will feature selections from Stephen Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a musical farce which tells the tale of ancient Rome in which a slave named Pseudolus schemes to win his freedom by helping his young master Hero win a beautiful courtesan. Songs of the delightful show include “Lovely, ““Everybody Ought to Have a Maid” and “Comedy Tonight.”
Another 1962 musical featured in the program is Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse’s Stop the World—I Want to Get Off , which places the spotlight on the much-put-upon Littlechap. Each time something unsatisfactory happens in his life, he calls out “Stop the World!” It features the classic song “”What Kind of Fool Am I?” which won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year.
No Strings is a Richard Rodgers/Samuel Taylor romantic musical which broke new ground as the first Broadway musical to depict an interracial love story. It centers on a successful Black American fashion model who, while in Paris, meets and falls in love with a Pulitzer Prize-winning white American writer. The Broadway production starred Diahann Carroll and Richard Kiley and featured such songs as “The Sweetest Sounds” and the classic, “No Strings.”
The Music Man, with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, concerns conman Harold Hill, who sells band instruments and uniforms to naïve Midwestern townsfolk, promising to train the members of the new band. Prim librarian and piano teacher Marian sees through him, but when Harold helps her younger brother overcome his lisp and social awkwardness, Marian begins to fall in love with him. He risks being caught to win her heart. The libretto includes “Goodnight My Someone,” “Seventy-Six Trombones,” and “Till There Was You.”
GYPSY is a musical fable with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. It is loosely based on the memoirs of strip tease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, and focuses on her mother Rose, whose name has become synonymous with the ultimate show business mother.
The musical contains many songs that became standards, including “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” “Small World,” “Together (Wherever We Go)”, “You Gotta Get a Gimmick”, and “Let Me Entertain You.” It is frequently considered one of the crowning achievements of the mid-twentieth century’s conventional musical theater.
The program will be co-hosted by Founding Artistic Director Bill Rudman and Nancy Maier and features Eric Fancher and Cindy Smith.
For tickets go to musicaltheaterproject.org/products/1962-on-stage-and-screen
[Written by Roy Berko, member: Cleveland Critics Circle and American Theatre Critics Association]
University Heights, OH 44118