Born On This Day- August 22nd... James Kirkwood

In an interesting reversal of our usual bedtime ritual, The Husband went to sleep early & I stayed up late & watched a very remarkable documentary- Every Little Step. The film travels behind the scenes of the auditions for 2006 revival of A Chorus Line to investigate the the interplay among the hopefuls. The film establishes a parallel between the events of the play itself & the offstage experiences of the aspiring performers who are auditioning. The filmmakers also work in a layer that pertains to the original inception of the musical, & its evolution from an idea by gay director/choreographer- Michael Bennett, who recorded an ensemble of dancers speaking confessionally & used that as the basis for the book of the show.

The filmmakers play those original tapes back, on-camera, resurrecting old ghosts. Composer Marvin Hamlisch also turns up revealing a racy little nugget about the history of the song- Dance: 10; Looks 3 . The film features extensive footage of the auditions themselve, on songs such as At The Ballet & I Can Do That, interweaving an aura of suspense throughout the narrative of who will eventually cast in the production itself. The title of the documentary is a reference to the lyric of that old war horse of a musical number One ("One singular sensation, every little step she takes").

Writer James Kirkwood reached the peak of his fame when A Chorus Line*, the celebrated musical, opened at the Public Theater in 1975. Executing a concept by choreographer Michael Bennett, with music by the late, great Marvin Hamlisch & lyrics by Edward Kleban, Kirkwood joined with co-writer Nicholas Dante to develop a script based on the tape-recorded reminiscences of Broadway "gypsies," the young men & women who sing & dance in the chorus lines of musicals. In 1976, his contributions to the show brought Kirkwood a Tony Award & a Pulitzer Prize.

James Kirkwood was a born in LA. His father was a director & his mother was silent film star- Lila Lee. Kirkwood was well known in the world of theater through his work as an actor, playwright, & comedian.His novels include P.S. Your Cat Is Dead (1972), Good Times, Bad Times (1968) & Some Kind of Hero (1975). He was a capable creator of popular fiction & most have gay elements, & a most of his work was adapted for the stage or screen. There Must Be A Pony is a thinly disguised story of his life with his mother that was made into a TV film with Elizabeth Taylor & Robert Wagner.

Kirkwood will always be best known for writing the book for a A Chorus Line, for which he won a Tony in 1976, as well as a New York Drama Critic's Circle Award & the Pulitzer Prize. A Chorus Line is credited with being the first Broadway musical to deal with homosexuality in a matter-of-fact way - the concept for the show came from gay choreographer Michael Bennett.

Frank Rich: "A Chorus Line was also the first Broadway musical to deal matter-of-factly with homosexuality, & from an inside point-of-view that makes its gay men seem far more accessible than the martyrs & oddballs that typified stage homosexuals in mainstream American drama of the post-Boys In The Band, pre-AIDS era."

Like The Wizard Of Oz, A Chorus Line shares the myth of finding acceptance & identity as an outsider seeking a place that feels ineffably like home.

A Chorus Line was still playing when James Kirkwood died from AIDS-related cancer at his home in NYC in 1989.

*Tiny footnotes: I auditioned for the first touring A Chorus Line in LA & didn't get very far, as I am only a serviceable dancer ("he moves well for not being a dancer"). My pal Walter Kennedy made the cut & was offered a role at the same time that has was asked to join a well known dance company. He chose the dance troupe, without regret, I believe. When I lived in NYC in the mid-1970s, I was briefly friends with Rebecca York who played Diana on Broadway.

Born On This Day- August 10th... Gary Beach

He is one of those working actors that I admire so very much. Gary Beach is a talented Tony Award-winning American actor, most noted for his roles in musical theatre, often on Broadway:

Beach has had notable performances on Broadway over the past few decades, including Lumiere in Beauty & The Beast, & as Roger DeBris in The Producers, for which he won a Tony Award in 2001. He returned to Broadway in La Cage aux Folles(playing the role played by Nathan Lane in the film The Birdcage, with whom he worked in The Producers.)

He reprised his role as Roger De Bris on stage in The Producers at the same time that film version was simultaneously released. He became the first person in Broadway history to play the same role on both Broadway & film at the same time.

Beach appeared as Thénardier, the role that he originated in the original LA production, in the recent cast of the revival of Les Misérables on Broadway.

Beach is currently playing the role of King Arthur in the lengthy tour of the Monty Python musical Spamalot.

Beach just completed his second production of Hello, Dolly!, as Horace Vandergelder, one of my own favorite roles, this time at the Jupiter Theater in Florida, formerly Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre. Reynolds owned the dinner theater from 1979 until 1997. In a few weeks, Beach will be playing Horace at the North Shore Theater in Beverly, Massachusetts with Lorna Luft, who I think might be an inspired choice, as Dolly Levi.

Beach lives with his partner, real estate agent- Jeff Barnett, in Palm Beach. They were one of the first same-sex couples to get married in New York. Beach turns 65 years old today.

Born On This Day- August 1st... Lionel Bart

He hosted some of the most famous parties in the Mod London of the 1960s, with guests including Princess Margaret, the Rolling Stones, Noel Coward, Rudolf Nureyev, The Beatles. Joan Collins, Tom Jones, Muhammad Ali & groups of hippies. His London home was known as the ‘Fun Palace’.

Sometimes the host would join his guests, up to 600 of them, as they danced, drank & drugged.  At other times, he preferred to lie in his sound-proofed bedroom behind a 2-way mirror, watching the party. On a table by the front door was a glass bowl stuffed with cash, to which his guests could help themselves. A second bowl contained cocaine, to which they were also welcome.

His generosity knew no bounds, his extravagance no limits. Lionel Bart, the son of an East London tailor, small, Jewish & gay, had made millions from songwriting.

In the 1960s, Bart was the epitome of London cool. His songs, including Little White Bull& Big Time, were at the top of the pop charts &he was responsible for the book, lyrics & music for the hit musical- Oliver!  Yet, Bart ended up an impoverished addict living in shabby obscurity.

Lionel Bart was born to Jewish refugees in London’s East End. Growing up short, skinny, & with sticking out ears & a big nose, he got by entertaining  with his quick wit, making up rude lyrics to well-known songs.

Bart won a scholarship to the prestigious St Martin’s School of Art in the West End of London & became part of the Soho crowd when he was just 16 years old.

In 1948, aged 18, he was called up for National Service with the RAF. On an outing from his airbase, he went to see David Lean’s film of Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist.

Bart discovered, groomed, & wrote #1 hits for Brit rockers- Tommy Steele & Cliff Richard. He could not read or write music; he sang into a tape recorder for someone else to transcribe, & he had no formal musical training. He believed in keeping melodies & lyrics simple. Bart: “I never spent  more than an hour on a tune. Songs should be like sneezes… spontaneous.”

Despite his chart success, Bart dreamed of having his songs performed in the theatre. His break came at the Stratford Theatre in East London, writing songs for a play called Fings Ain’t What They Used T’Be,  a Cockney comedy. The show was an immediate hit, transferring after a year to the West End. The Royal Family attended, despite its risque scenes & dialogue.

In 1959, Lionel began work on the songs and story for what would become his masterpiece, Oliver! But the tale of orphans & poverty was a hard sell to producers. Eventually, one producer agreed to stage it on a tiny budget. On opening night there were 23 curtain calls. The reviews were ecstatic. Oliver! ran for 6 years,  a record for a British musical.

Bart became phenomenally wealthy. He spent his earning on tailored suits, custom shirts, & leather boots. He had his nose fixed. He collected cars: a Mercedes-Benz convertible with a built-in telephone (this was in the Sixties!), Bentley Continental, & a Facel Vega, the fastest, coolest sports car in the world. Bart mixed with the old showbiz: Judy Garland & Noel Coward became good friends, & the new: The Beatles, the Stones, Michael Caine, & Terence Stamp.

Oliver!moved to Broadway in 1963 to tremendous acclaim & terrific box office. He wrote the theme song for the second James Bond film- From Russia With Love.

But personal happiness eluded Bart. He had one steady boyfriend, then a series of casual lovers, but he did not publicly come out until 1971, 4 years after homosexuality was de-criminalized.

In 1962, he wrote another musical, Blitz!, based on his wartime childhood in the East End. It had an 18 month run, but neither Blitz! nor his next musical- Maggie May, came close to the success of Oliver!.

In 1967, Oliver!was made in to a hit film, winning 6 Oscars,  including Best Film & Score. He was invited to Hollywood to write for films movies, but in Hollywood, his inspiration deserted him.

Bart resorted to making ridiculous demands, like having a giant teddy bear travel in the front seat of his chauffeur-driven car. He returned to London, to discover that his 21 year old lover, had stolen his expensive possessions including clocks, paintings,&  antiques. Bart was devastated by the betrayal. He sold the Fun Palace, moving to a small mews house in South Kensington.

He wrote another musical- La Strada, based on the Fellini  film.  It opened on Broadway in December 1969 & closed after one performance.

The 1970s were a downward spiral for Bart. In January 1970, he was arrested for drunk driving. The death of his mother, to whom he was devoted, had a heartbroken Lionel drinking & drugging more heavily.

Broken & bankrupt, Bart sold the rights to his published music & the stage rights to Oliver!. Haunted by failure, Bart & his friend Keith Moon, were downing several bottles of vodka a day & ingested every illegal substance brought to them. In February 1971, he was arrested for possession.

In 1977, the producer Cameron Mackintosh brought Oliver! back to the West End. It was, again, a massive hit & was revived again in 1983. Though Mackintosh paid him as an adviser, it was not enough to save Bart, financially or emotionally. Having sold most of his possessions, he moved to a modest flat in West London, falling further into addiction.

In 1994, Cameron Mackintosh produced another revival of Oliver!, directed by the young director- Sam Mendes, which proved its enduring appeal.It made millions & Mackintosh generously gave Lionel a share of the royalties.

In 1999, however, the years of abuse finally caught up with Bart & he died of liver cancer, leaving the money to his friends & charities, a fraction of the millions he had been worth at his peak in the 1960s.

For Bart, it was never about making the money, as much as he loved spending it. Bart: “It’s the kicks that matter, nothing else. I just want to write musicals. I want to stand up & shout to the biggest audience I can get.”

Your host, far right, as Fagin in 1978

Oliver! was an obsession in my early teens. The role of Fagin was my most coveted part in my youth. I was consumed with a desire to do this role. I already had the part memorized by the time I was 15 years old. By the time I was actually cast, in 1978, at a mere 24 years old, I was ready to give the character my very best. Fagin remains the only true leading role I have ever performed, although he doesn’t appear in the first 35 minutes of the piece & in my production, the little lad who played Oliver received the final curtain call. I am told that I was rather revelatory in the role. Fagin is my favorite character in 55 years of performing. I loved working with the young cast & remain friends on The Facebook with the young actors that played the Artful Dodger & the title role, & with several of the boys, some of whom are now grandparents.

Depression & disappointment drove me to drink & drugs, but I hope I learned a lesson from a skinny little Jewish gay boy from rough East London who couldn’t even read music: money can’t buy happiness, but it sure can help.

Born On This Day- July 14th... Post Apocalyptic Bohemian Favorite, Arthur Laurents

"Writers are the chosen people. I am happiest when sitting alone & putting my daydreams & fantasies down on paper.”

As the story goes... late for his place on a panel discussion, Arthur Laurents burst on to the stage draped in mink & announced: "Behold, a living legend!". Stephen Sondheim, also on the panel, looked up & said: "Wrong on both counts".

I just ate up his pair of memoirs- Original Story By & Mainly On Directing, chock full of great dishy theatre & Hollywood stories. He is important to me in the many ways. I admire him & his work, but most especially because he wrote the book for my favorite musical- Gypsy, which I find to be a near perfect piece of theatre. He directed 3 revivals of Gypsy,including my favorite version with my good close personal friend Angela Lansbury in 1974, & Tyne Daley in 1989 & 2009’s Patti Lupone outing.

In 2010, at 92, he directed a revival of West Side Story, a classic for which he wrote the original lean & strong book. In this production, it was Laurents's conceit to have most of the the Sharks & their girls, who are from Puerto Rico, speak & sing in Spanish & the cast would all be young & if not Puerto Rican, at least Hispanic. Laurents has explained that the idea came from his partner of 52 years- Tom Hatcher (Laurents & Farley Granger were lovers in the late 1940s), who saw & loved a production of the musical in South America. It was also Hatcher that urged Laurents to revive Gypsy! with Patti LuPone, so that the Sam Mendes directed production with Bernadette Peters would not be the last Gypsy in Laurents's lifetime.

Laurents has won 4 Tony Awards & been nominated for 6 Oscars, winning for the screenplay of The Turning Point. He was by all accounts, a real son of a bitch... but, what a talent.

His career had barely started when he was drafted into the Army in 1941. Laurents spent the war years writing training films & radio propaganda shows. He had also had come to terms with his homosexuality, & he soon lost count of the sexual experiences he had while in the Army. In Original Story By, he speaks of his lifetime of gay encounters, referring to his partners as “those unremembered hundreds.”

As a gay man living as openly as possible during some of this country's most dangerous times, Laurents was a role model of discretion & living the way he wanted to, despite public opinion & cruelty against homosexuals everywhere.

The last line of Laurents's memoir- Original Story By, speaks of Tom Hatcher, who was Laurents' partner for more than 50 years: "As long as he lives, I will." But, Hatcher died in 2006  & Laurents, in his 93rd year, adjusting to life without him. When they first became a couple, Laurents claims his mother was more disturbed that Hatcher was a gentile than that her son was gay.

Laurents led a wild life: "I drank an awful lot, I drugged an awful lot. But I think I have a built-in governor, because at any point I would say OK, I've had enough, & I'd go home to bed. I assumed everybody could do that. I was never one for going to bars, that kind of thing. I was a hopeless romantic. Well, no one could have that much sex & be entirely romantic, but the dangerous side never appealed to me."

But Hatcher was the great love of his life & their life together is one of the great love affairs. Laurents: "Tom & theatre, that's what my life has been. & that's what my book is - an effort to say thank you by doing what I can to make the theatre indestructible & to keep Tom alive."

"From Tom's pool, you can see into the heart of his garden. In summer, we swim laps every day. Often, we walk through the park, then sit on that bench, looking at the view. Yesterday, we sat there a little longer than usual, just looking at the changing light, not saying anything. But Tom reads my mind: 'You're going to live 20 more years,' he assured me."

Laurents worked in many genres. The stage was his first love, & he wrote for it for 65 years, creating comedies, romances, & serious dramas that explored questions of ethics, social pressures & personal integrity.

Laurents made his exit, upstage center, in May 2011. This is a partial list of his contribution to popular culture:

Librettos: Gypsy, Nick & Nora, West Side Story, The Madwoman of Central Park West, Hallelujah, Baby! Do I Hear a Waltz?, & Anyone Can Whistle

Direction: Anyone Can Whistle, La Cage aux Follies, The Madwoman of Central Park West, Gypsy (1974, 1989 & 2008), I Can Get It for You Wholesale (with a very young Barbra Streisand) & Invitation to a March

Plays: Invitation to a March, A Clearing in the Woods, The Time of the Cuckoo, The Bird Cage, Home of the Brave, & Jolson Sings!

Screenplays: Anastasia, The Turning Point, The Way We Were, Gypsy, West Side Story, Bonjour Tristesse, Summertime (from his play The TimeOf The Cuckoo), Anna Lucasta, Home of the Brave, Rope, Caught, &The Snake Pit

Has your life been touched by any of his work? I would be interested to know. If you are a fan, what is your favorite version of Gypsy?

This still gets to me every time... good-byes & regrets.

Born On This Day- July 10th.... Jerry Herman

As a little 10 year old musical comedy queen, I would practice kick stepping my way down the staircase at our house as my imaginary chorus sang my character’s name (I think sometimes they were actually just singing-Steve!). My parents had just been presented me with the Original Broadway Cast album Hello, Dolly! & I was having a difficult time recovering from the excitement of such infectious tunes. These hummable songs personified the “show tune”. They were tuneful, optimistic, & deceptively simple songs. I had been raised on Lerner & Lowe & Rodgers & Hammerstein, but this new guy was really getting to me. I didn’t know it in 1964, but Jerry Herman would be providing me with a musical number for descending a staircase for the next 4 decades.

Jerry Herman, who writes the music & lyrics, produced super successful & contagious tunes for the musicals: Hello, Dolly!, Mame, Dear World, Mack & Mable, & La Cage Aux Folles.

In these musicals our misunderstood leading lady would introduce a song early in the first act that stated her life philosophy: I Put My Hand In There, It’s Today, Each Tomorrow Morning, Look What Happened To Mabel, & A Little More Mascara.

The first act would end in her big soliloquy, where our heroine lifts her own spirits: Before The Parade Passes By, If He Walked Into My Life Today, I Don’t Want To Know, or I Am What I Am.

That brings us to the big “staircase” number, when the chorus celebrates how their lives have been changed by the mere presence of this woman with the title songs from Dolly & Mame, When Mabel Comes In The Room, One Person, & The Best Of Times. The song- One from A Chorus Line is a parody & homage to these songs.

Despite the formula, these shows & their wonderful & skillful songs make for superior theatre experiences. Some were super hits & others became cult favorites. Herman is the only songwriter to have 3 musical on Broadway at the same time. Many of his compositions have become pop standards. Louis Armstrong’s version of Hello, Dolly! outsold The Beatles in 1964. The movie versions of Hello, Dolly!& Mame are considered, by most fan of musical theatre, to be duds, but as a very young man I was thrilled by the film of Hello, Dolly!& saw it about 20 times. I still love Barbra (decades too young for the role) as Mae West as Dolly Levi. I was very touched that Wall-E discovered emotions from a dilapidated 20th century tape containing a loop of Put On Your Sunday Clothes.

Herman has stated that he will no longer be writing for the theatre:

“I think my style of musical has come and was very, very good to me, but is gone now. I think it's better to know when to leave than to end up with two or three shows that didn't make it. I left at my height."

Herman has long been openly gay, & was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1985.  He is one of the fortunate ones who survived to see experimental drug therapies take hold & is still, as he turns 81 years old today, as one of his lyrics proclaims, “alive & well & thriving.”

Herman’s 1983 musical- La Cage Aux Folles was a critical & commercial smash, & also a political & social turning point.  Never before had a pair men held hands in a musical, or sung a love ballad to one another.

George Hearn’s star turn as Za Za, belting out what is probably the most dramatic Act One closer of all time- I Am What I Am, is a forceful call for dignity & acceptance, a surpassingly stalwart statement in the first days of HIV from a composer/lyricist who declared all along that he wanted only to entertain people.

I had the good fortunate to play Horace Vandergelder in Hello, Dolly! at Seattle Civic Light Opera in the late 1980s & during performances, of course I would close my eyes as the male chorus was singing the title number, & what I was hearing was “Hello, Horace!” or better yet- “Hello, Stephen!”& I was step kick-stepping down that large staircase.

Born On This Day- July 4th... Gertrude Alice Dagmar Klasen

Gertrude Lawrence had hordes of adoring audiences in both Britain & the USA. She was the first true international superstar, a cockney who conquered adoring audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

Lawrence’s appeal went far beyond the sophisticated international elite, she lived in the USA through most of her career, & toured the country so widely as to be a front-page celebrity from coast to coast. The Gershwins wrote Oh, Kay!,for her, where she was the first to sing Someone To Watch Over Me. Noel Coward wrote Private Lives, one of the greatest comedies of the 20^th century for her, & together they created the sparkling characters of Elyot & Amanda. Kurt Weill & Moss Hart wrote Lady in the Dark for her; Rogers & Hammerstein wrote The King & I for her, & most theater people agree that Joe Mankiewicz wrote the movie All About Eve, about her.

But by the time of her early death at the age of 54, she had made only a handful of films, now seldom seen, in which the camera failed to capture her allure. Those who never saw her magic light up a stage are left with only the recordings of her haunting & precarious singing voice as proof to her greatness.

She was Noel Coward’s best buddy for 40 years. Coward, who met her when they worked together on stage when she was 14, describes her face as “far from pretty, but tremendously alive”. Lawrence was lifelong friends & a frequent collaborator with lesbian & comic genius-  Beatrice Lillie.

Without her theatrical make-up, she was quite plain, one reason, perhaps, why her success was confined to the stage & never repeated on screen. When the curtain went up, a strange transformation would occur. Coward: “Sometimes, in Private Lives, I would look at her across the stage & she would simply take my breath away.”

At their first meeting, Lawrence told the 13-year-old Coward a few 'mildly dirty stories' & later took him into a bedroom and introduced him to the facts of life. It has been suggested that Lawrence may have been the homosexual Coward's only heterosexual experience. Coward denied this vehemently & told Gore Vidal that he had never had sex with a woman.

Vidal: “Not even with Gertie Lawrence?”

Coward: “Particularly not with Miss Lawrence.”

Lawrence had one short-lived marriage & there was a long succession of lovers, male & female, including the married actor/manager Sir Gerald du Maurier. His daughter, novelist Daphne du Maurier, bitterly resented Lawrence's role in her father's life because of the distress it caused her mother & extracted a sort of revenge by becoming Lawrence's lover.

Another love affair was with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Fairbanks: “She was very temperamental, very jealous, could be exhausting, moody, difficult - but also enchanting & alive & very funny.”

But the most controversial relationship of all was her fling with the Prince of Wales - the future Edward VIII & Duke of Windsor. Their affair infuriated his mother, Queen Mary, who disapproved of Lawrence for ever after.

By the peak of her fame in the 1930s, Lawrence was massively in debt. Her NYC lawyer observed that she spent money “like an entire fleet of drunken sailors”. To the amazement of her friends, she married the wealthy American impresario & theatre owner, Richard Aldrich.

Coward disliked him, but cabled with his customary wit: “Dear Mrs A, Hooray Hooray. At last you are deflowered. On this as every other day I love you. Noel Coward.”

Like other friends, he doubted she really loved Aldrich, but the marriage gave her financial security. Lawrence continued to have affairs with members of both sexes while a married lady.

One of her last lovers was Yul Brynner, 35 & married, was virtually unknown when he was cast in The King & I, with the 52 year old Lawrence’s name above the title & his below it.

Throughout rehearsals, there were many complaints from Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein about her singing flat. She became increasingly temperamental, & the director, the very gayJohn Van Druten, was not tough enough to handle her.

Brynner exuded masculine authority & sexual magnetism. When he spoke, Lawrence listened. Largely due to his influence, the show became a hit. But the complaints about Lawrence’s singing increased. Rodgers & Hammerstein wanted her out of the show.

Lawrence, who was in love with Brynner, had no intention of quitting, but 18 months into the run, during the heat of a NYC summer, she collapsed. She was dying from cancer of the liver. 

She told her lawyer from her hospital bed: “I don't think I'm going to get out of this place. See that Yul gets star billing. He has earned it.” She wasn't just talking about his acting.

When Lawrence died on September 6, 1952, they dimmed the lights on Broadway & in London's West End.

When Oscar Hammerstein told Brynner he would now receive top billing, he started to cry. Hammerstein : “He told me, & I believed him, that losing Lawrence was a tremendous price to pay for advancement. It was the only time I ever saw him cry.”

There is a rather good film based on Lawrence’s life that is filled with first rate musical numbers- Star!,with Julie Andrews as Lawrence. The 1968 film, directed by Robert Wise, mostly gets it right.

Born On June 13th... Paul Lynde

My favorite Paul Lynde anecdote:

In the early 1960s, Lynde was on trans-continental flight. A child was not being supervised by her parents & was running up & down the aisle making noise & annoying the other passengers. The mother obviously thought this behavior was precious. When Lynde could take no more of the child's shenanigans, he rose from his seat & approached the mother & stated: "Madam. if you don't control your child this instant, I will have to fuck her."

Lynde was one of the first personalities that I identified as gay when I was a child. I thought his way with a salty one liner & his unique delivery was just too funny. I loved him in the film of Bye Bye Birdie, in a role he originated on Broadway. He was only just barely a closet case with his camp & snarky demeanor & delivery.In 1965, Lynde was involved in an accident in which his 24 year old lover, fell  8 stories to his death from the window of their hotel room in San Francisco's Sir Francis Drake Hotel after a night of drinking games. The event was witnessed by a pair of policemen, but the story was largely kept out of the press. In 1976, a People magazine article on Lynde featured him with Stan Finesmith, his “chauffeur/bodyguard.”  In 1978, Lynde was arrested outside of a gay bar in Salt Lake City. After the arrest, he lost his guest starring role on The Donny & Marie Show.

Peter Marshall: “Paul, why do Hell's Angels wear leather?”

Paul Lynde: “Because chiffon wrinkles too easily.”

Peter Marshall: “What's the one thing you should never do in bed?”

Paul Lynde: “Point & laugh!”

Peter Marshall: "In The Wizard Of Oz, the Tin Man wanted a heart, & the Lion wanted courage. What did the Straw Man want?”

Paul Lynde: “He wanted the Tin Man to notice him.”

Peter Marshall: “At a recent hearing, opponents of fluorinated water claim that when it is in in a person's system it can cause an uncontrollable desire for sex.”

Paul Lynde: “HEY, CULLIGAN MAN!”

Peter Marshall: “Paul, any good sailor knows that when a man falls off a ship you yell 'Man overboard!' What should you shout if a woman falls overboard?”

Paul Lynde: “Full speed ahead!”

Peter Marshall: “What is said to be wasted on the young?”

Paul Lynde: “A whipping.”

Lynde was club performer, director, recording artist, actor on Broadway, in films, TV, cartoons & summer stock, & one of Hollywood's finest chefs & hosts. Lynde: “I can't even get 3 weeks off to have cosmetic surgery!”

Lynde spent a lifetime engaged in ongoing personal struggles in private life, as the tabloids occasionally reported, but he remained appreciated by those in his profession, friends & fans. He was perhaps most famous just for being Paul Lynde.The enigmatic Lynde:  “I don't know who the hell Paul Lynde is, or why he's funny, & I prefer it to be a mystery to me. An actor shouldn't undergo psychoanalysis, because there are a lot of things you're better off not knowing.”

Lynde was found dead in his Beverly Hills home by his friend Paul Barresi on Monday, January 11, 1982. He was just 55 years old. Lynde enjoyed a precarious life of men, drinking & partying.

Born On This Day- May 29th... Beatrice Lillie

I feel heavy hearted that the baby queers & even the Gen Xers don't know about, or care about many of the personalities that engaged the gay people that came before them. I recently mentioned Mae West & Raquel Welch in the same sentence & a small group of 20-something gay boys looked at me with totally blank faces. It was as if I had been speaking in Hebrew.

Beatrice Lillie was an incomparable artist: comedienne, actress, & known in the 1920s- 1950s as "the funniest woman in the world. " She was born Constance Sylvia Gladys Munston, in Canada. She began her stage career in London in 1914 & she became famous for her performances in music hall & in intimate revues.

Lillie made her American debut in 1932 where she developed her own TV series during the 1950s. She appeared in films including On Approval (1944) & Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), although she worked primarily on the stage. In 1952, she created her own show; incorporating her greatest bits in An Evening with Beatrice Lillie which opened on Broadway. This show received rave reviews & she toured with it across the globe 3 times. She won a Special Tony Award for her performance in 1953. She starred on Broadway in High Spirits & replaced Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame. Lillie wrote her autobiography Every Other Inch a Lady in 1972 before a suffering stroke in 1974.

After her death, Sir John Gielgud stated: "She was The Mistress of the Absurd, I remember Bea standing dramatically against a pillar dressed in a flowing gown which she lifted suddenly to reveal her feet shod in roller skates on which she gravely skidded across the stage".

With her trademark cropped hair style with a smart hat, holding a long cigarette holder, she was a true original, an enemy of pomposity, & the sentimental. Fortunately, many of her satirical & surrealistic comic songs: There Are Fairies At The Bottom Of My Garden, Weary Of It All, Wind Round My Heart, & my favorite- This Is My First Affair ("so please be kind & please be quick"), are preserved on record.

In the first half of the 20th century, Lillie was one of the most sought after celebrities, the darling of the social set, & the toast of two continents. Cole Porter wrote his "story of a nightmare weekend"- Thank You So Much, Mrs. Lowsborough-Goodby, for her, & Noel Coward wrote the delightfully gossipy I've Been To A Marvellous Party just or her. She gave the first public performance of Mad Dogs & Englishmen.

In 1920 she was married to Sir Robert Peel, making her Lady Peel, a name she used at social affairs. She eventually separated from her husband (but never divorced him). Lillie had love affairs with many women, including actresses: Tallulah Bankhead, Eva Le Gallienne, Gertrude Lawrence & Judith Anderson.



"Did I ever give you a lift after a party at Joan Crawford's?"

Born On This Day- May 17th... Lyricist Bob Merrill

I possess a great passion for the art of the popular song. I have a large library of books by & about 20th century songwriters including everyone from Irving Berlin to Sting, Occasionally mentioned as one of the worst songwriters of all time based on his penchant for coming up with best selling novelty songs: If I’d Known You Were Comin’, I'd Have Baked a Cake, Honeycomb, How Much Is That Doggie In the Window?, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania & Mambo Italiano.

Unfair when Bob Merrill is responsible or the music or lyrics for successful Broadway musicals: New Girl In Town, Take Me Along, Carnival, & Funny Girl. But, by the other turn, he gave us the monumental flops: Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Henry, Sweet Henry, Sugar, & The Red Shoes. He also wrote the book & lyrics for the Angela Lansbury vehicle Prettybelle , & the music & lyrics for the Robert Preston musical The Prince of Grand Street , both of which closed during their Boston tryouts. He was nominated for the Tony Award 8 times, but never won. He was nominated for an Oscar for the song- Funny Girl.

Merrill finally tired of the Broadway grind & turned to writing screenplays: the 1975 film Mahogany, starring Diana Ross, WC Fields & Me, with Rod Steiger; Chu Chu & the Philly Flash with Carol Burnett; & Portrait of a Showgirl, starring Rita Moreno, Leslie Ann Warren & Tony Curtis.

Suffering from depression, Bob Merrill took his own life on February 17, 1998 in Los Angeles, California.

Born On This Day- May 11th... Great American Songwriter, Irving Berlin

He was not gay, & he was a Jew who wrote the best selling Christmas song of all time. His life spanned more than 100 years & he composed over 1000 songs. Irving Berlin was born Israel Beilin in 1988, his exact place of birth is unknown, although his family had been living in Tolochin, Russia, when they immigrated to New York in 1893. When his father died, Berlin, just turned 13, worked the streets in various odd jobs, singing for pennies, then as a singing waiter in a Chinatown Cafe. In 1907 he published his first song, Marie from Sunny Italy, & in 1911 he had his first major international hit - Alexander's Ragtime Band.



For 5 decades, Irving Berlin composed ballads, dance numbers, novelty tunes & love songs that defined American popular song for much of the century. Irving Berlin standards include: How Deep Is the Ocean, Blue Skies, White Christmas, Always, Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better, There's No Business Like Show Business, Cheek to Cheek, Puttin' on the Ritz, A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody, Heat Wave, Easter Parade, Let's Face the Music & Dance, & God Bless America.

He wrote for Broadway & Hollywood. He composed 17 complete scores for Broadway musicals & revues, including the phenomenal score for Annie get Your Gun. Among the Hollywood movie musical classics with scores by Irving Berlin are Top Hat, Follow The Fleet, On The Avenue, Alexander's Rag Time Band, Holiday Inn, This Is The Army, Blue Skies, Easter Parade, White Christmas & There's No Business Like Show Business. His songs have provided memorable moments other films, from The Jazz Singer in 1927 to Home Alone in 1991. Among his many awards are a dozen Grammys, 2 Tony Awards & the Academy Award for White Christmas in 1942.


In 1978, a jaw-droppingly handsome young man with deep blue eyes, stood center stage, straight up & still & with a sweet pure tenor, sang the 1924 Irving Berlin tune- What’ll I Do? for an audition. I was impressed with his looks & his talent. More than a year later this young man would tell me that he was in love with me while Harry Nillson sang What'll I Do on the stereo in the background. This man would eventually become my Husband & I would spend more than half of my life at his side. What’ll I Do remains my favorite Irving Berlin song, although I love them all. I also have quite a soft spot for You Can’t Get A Man With A Gun:

Oh, a man may be hot...
But he's not... 
When he's shot! 
Oh you can't get a man with a gun!

Snatch- The Musical

The start of my day is a quick look at the NY Times site- On This Day In History, in hopes that it will plant the seed of an idea for a post. This morning I took note of the 52nd anniversary of the opening of the tiny musical- The Fantasticks. The original production ran a total of 42 years & 17,162 performances, making it the world's longest running musical & the longest-running uninterrupted show in the USA . The original production at the Sullivan Street playhouse closed January 13, 2002, after 17,162 performances. Alumni include: Jerry Orbach (the original lead), Liza Minnelli, Elliott Gould, F. Murray Abraham, Glenn Close, Keith Charles, Kristin Chenoweth, & Bert Convy.


I am not sure why reading about the anniversary didn't immediately prompt a post. The event certainly didn’t deserve a shrug from me, because this theatre piece ended up playing such a major part in my life. Possibly, despite a bright & inventive score, I just don’t care that much for this famous musical. I find it to be a bit twee. This is rather unfair, as the show has been very good to me.

The Fantasticks is the show that I have been in the most productions, 5 so far in my life (let’s hope I am done, but you never know). I have played all the male roles except for El Gallo, the romantic baritone lead. I am baffled as to how this one role eluded me.


1977, when I Left NYC for a teaching job in Spokane, I was invited by the department head of the university, to play the boy’s father in a summer production of this chestnut. I was glad to be busy & to make friends right away, jumping into my new life.


In Seattle, circa in1983, I landed the role of the girl’s father in a production being produced by the theatre company that I wanted to work for something fierce- Pioneer Square Theatre. This version is my favorite. It was directed by a highly talented & hot director, & the entire team was the cream of the Seattle Theatre Community crop. The show was produced in a beautiful natural amphitheater in the Snoqualmie Falls National Forest. A lovely sylvan glen with a stream running through it, made a perfect set for the show. I adored the cast & the experience made for a very pleasant way to spend the summer, the pay was good, & it got my foot in the door of a theatre company that would soon play a most important part in my personal history.


I played the boy’s father again, in a long run at a dinner theatre in 1986, a part I took just for the salary (nothing wrong with that) & I was glad for the job. The production was average & there were some strong tensions within the cast. The leading man was replaced halfway through the run, & yet I made lifelong friends with the 2 cast members that I car pooled with, & the young man that played my son (who identified as straight & had a girl friend) took to wanting to making out with me backstage. I was flattered & obliged.


The first time I appeared in The Fantasticks was in one of the 1000s of yearly high school productions. A Catholic girl’s school chose to do a production (an unusual choice, there is only 1 female role) & the nuns had changed the 2 fathers to be mothers & cast females in all the roles except the male lead & the part of Mortimer-The Old Indian, which I was extended a special invitation to play. At 15 years old, I already had a reputation for being able to convincingly play older, in this case, much older parts.



In The Fantasticks libretto, El Gallo offers to stage the phony kidnapping of the girl- Luisa, he refers to the proposed event as a "rape", although he makes it clear that he uses the word only in its traditional literary sense (Latin "rapere") of "abduction", explaining that many classical works, including Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, use the word in this sense. In his song It Depends on What You Pay he describes different kidnapping scenarios, comic & outlandish, that he classifies as the "Venetian rape", the "Gothic rape", the "Drunken rape", etc. The good Sisters of the Girls School were concerned & offended by the word –RAPE & deemed to change the word to- “SNATCH”, which the nuns found a perfect 1 syllable replacement for the offending word. The cast had the thrill of singing- “so the kind of SNATCH depends on what you pay”. Being a naughty boy & given to re-writing lyrics to be dirty anyway, I was thrilled & in a little bit of theatrical heaven. The plays abduction is set to music & named in the list of musical numbers as- The Rape Ballet, which became of course- THE SNATCH BALLET.

A production shot of me as one of the fathers 

The Fantasticks was revived off-Broadway in 2006, & continues to play at the newly named- Jerry Orbach Theatre.

Born On This Day- May 2nd... Stephen Daldry

Silver Fox- Stephen Daldry has directed only 4 films, but he received an Academy Award nomination for each of them: Billy Elliot. The Hours, & The Reader. The Hours won Best Actress at the Academy Awards for Nicole Kidman. Recently, he directed a stage musical adaptation of Billy Elliot which earned him a Tony Award (his 2nd) for Best Director of a Musical. His film version of The Reader, & again, won Best Actress at the Academy Awards for Kate Winslet.. I think he is a stunning talent. Billy Elliot was a brilliant first film & I never grown tired of seeing it. Last year Daldry directed the Oscar nominated Extremely Long & Incredible Manipulative with an Oscar nomination for Max Von Sydow, in a role with no dialogue.

Daldry identifies as a gay man because people prefer it ("they don't like confusion"), He is married to performance artist Lucy Sexton with whom he has a daughter, Annabel Clare, born in 2003. He was previously in a relationship with set designer Ian MacNeil for 13 years. With such a modern arrangment, maybe there would be room for Stephen to have a boyfriend named Stephen. He is just my type. Perhaps he could direct me to my Oscar in an all senior version of Noel Cowards' Design For Living opposite Helen Mirren & Patrick Stewart.

"What's so funny is when people say, 'Oh, does that mean you're not gay anymore?' And you go, 'Oh, give me a break. What do you mean?' We wanted to have kids! We thought we'd get married and have kids. We're allowed to do everything. I refuse to be boxed in to the idea that 'Oh, no, I can't have kids 'cause I'm gay.' I can have kids if I'm gay. And I can also get married and have a fantastic life...To all questions [having to do] with my marriage, the answer to everything is yes. Do I have sex with my wife? Yes. Is it a real marriage? Yes. Am I gay? Yes."

Very Glad To Be Unhappy... The Sad Song Of Lorenz

In 1980, I appeared in a musical revue- Rodgers & Hart. I had the thrill of singing: I Could Write A Book, Isn’t It Romantic & Where Or When. It was my understanding that I was very good. I do have a way with a song, a dance & an audience.

Lorenz Hart was born 118 years ago today- May 2nd. Hart wrote over 500 songs with the most sophisticated lyrics for the most enthralling melodies. But this is a sad story. He agonized over life. His felt that he was a misplaced person, whose job was to observe the beautiful people, then put ravishing words in their perfect mouths, to make them sound & feel as smart as they seemed.

Richard Rodgers, the Broadway composer, enjoyed long collaborations with the 2 most prominent lyricists of the American musical. He worked with his first partner- Lorenz Hart, from 1919 until Hart's death, at 48, in 1943. He teamed with Oscar Hammerstein II from the groundbreaking Oklahoma! until 1943 with Hammerstein's death, in 1960. His work with Hart makes their tunes particularly non-Hammerstein in flavor.

Written 70 to 90 years ago, mostly for now forgotten Broadway shows & movies, brittle & world-weary tunes: Manhattan, Blue Moon, My Funny Valentine, Where or When, The Lady Is a Tramp, Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered, & many more, sound both of today & timeless. They sing with confident wit, & confidential despair about hearts ready to break, melt or explode. Rodgers' melodies get you humming & dreaming, but the subject & style of these songs come straight from Hart's heart.

Hart was very short of stature & unattractive in face. Lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, "a man who seemed deprived of the happiness his lyrical gifts gave to others.” He was profoundly alcoholic & gay. Hart found little enjoyment in his homosexual experiences. Terrified of intimacy, he would wait for sex partners to fall asleep, then creep out of bed & curl up on the floor of his bedroom closet to get some sleep. Several of Hart's acquaintances confirm that he went to private orgies, but strictly as a voyeur. He found watching from the sidelines less stressful than joining in. He seems to have been incapable of any intimacy, & sought solace in the sexual company of hustlers & the occasional chorus boy. His erratic behavior & troubled ways moved the very straight Rodgers to eventually choose another writing partner.

Offered the chance to write what would become Oklahoma!, Hart sensibly said no thanks. (It's hard to imagine a less Hart-ish show.) After the opening night performance, Hart walked into Sardi's & told Rodgers, "This is one of the greatest shows I've ever seen in my life, &it'll be playing 20 years from now."

Rodgers & Hart collaborated one more time though. In 1943, they did 5 new songs for a revival of their 1927 hit A Connecticut Yankee. The last lyric Hart wrote was for To Keep My Love Alive, sung by a noble lady who tires easily of men,15 husbands &15 early funerals:
"Sir Philip played the harp; I cussed the thing.
I crowned him with his harp to bust the thing.
& now he plays where harps are just the thing,
To keep my love alive."

Just before the opening of the show, Hart had been on a drinking & hustler binge, & when he arrived at the theater an exasperated Rodgers refused to let him enter the theatre. Hart sat in the November rain on a curbside drinking & crying. 2 days later, ill with pneumonia, he was taken to Doctors' Hospital where he died 3 days later. He was just 47 years old. Now he plays where harps are just the thing.

Some of the Hart lyrics:


• Bewitched, Bothered, & Bewildered
• Blue Moon
• Dancing on the Ceiling
• Falling in Love with Love
• Glad to Be Unhappy
• Have You Met Miss Jones?
• He Was Too Good to Me
• I Could Write a Book
• I Didn't Know What Time It Was
• I'll Tell The Man In The Street
• Isn't It Romantic?
• It Never Entered My Mind
• It's Easy to Remember
• I've Got 5 Dollars
• I Wish I Were in Love Again
• Johnny One Note
• The Lady Is a Tramp
• Little Girl Blue
• Lover
• Manhattan
• The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
• Mountain Greenery
• My Funny Valentine
• My Heart Stood Still
• My Romance
• Ship Without a Sail
• Sing for Your Supper
• Spring Is Here
• Ten Cents a Dance
• There's a Small Hotel
• This Can't Be Love
• To Keep My Love Alive
• Where or When
• With a Song in My Heart
• You Took Advantage of Me

Hart's bitter sophistication paired well with my own sensibilities & my whiskey-voiced interpretations & I had several Rodger's & Hart songs in my repertoire. It Never Entered My Mind fit my range & disposition rather perfectly. Maybe I should dust it off.