HUMMING AT THE PHOTO CALL
By Peter Filichia
A picture is not only worth a thousand words, but it can also be worth quite a few songs.
That occurred to me as I was humming many a show tune while attending Photo Call: The Theater Photos of Joan Marcus and Carol Rosegg.
Glad I caught it before it concludes on September 28. You should, too. Best of all, the exhibit at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is, to use Pseudolus’ favorite word, free.
As for Marcus and Rosegg, this is not the first time that these two uber-professional theatricalphotographers have been linked. In 1994, they began sharing studio space. So, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of their splitting the rent, they’ve brought some of their favorite photographs to Lincoln Center for a terrific retrospective.
The many photos, some on slide-by-slide screens and some as framed pictures, almost got me to sing what Marcus or Rosegg had captured. But there were many other people at the exhibit, so I decided that humming – much softer and far less obtrusive– was the way to go.
First up in the hum parade was “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee.” The photograph of Jenny Powers, playing Rizzo in the 2007 revival of GREASE, made her look very happy while singing the iconic song. As I hummed, I realized for the first time that songwriters Jacobs and Casey used that precise, six-word title which gave away their big joke. Why didn’t they simply call the song “Look at Me”?
Smart lyricists know to obfuscate, so that they won’t lose laughs from those who’d read in advance the song listing in the Playbill. (Some theatergoers do.)
And yet, this time-honored practice either evaded Jacobs and Casey or they didn’t care. And even if a substantial percentage of GREASE’s 6,072 Broadway audiences knew that Sandra Dee was about to be mentioned, there were many other lines for them to savor in the atypical waltz.
Even a photo of Lysistrata’s Children, a play I knew nothing about, got me humming the title song from THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD. Nice to know that after Lysistrata’s, um, strike, that she really made up for lost time and had so many babies.
“One Singular Sensation” was the logical song to hum from A CHORUS LINE when I saw the photo of a smiling Michael Bennett. Yes, that had to have been the best year of his life. A CHORUS LINE would become Broadway’s longest-ever-running show in September of that year, which led to a mammoth celebration that we’re still talking about 41 years later.
Seeing Jason Robards Jr. in a photo from Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land made me hum a song fromANNIE. No, Robards never did the smash-hit musical (although he would have made a fine Warbucks). But in 1967 he was to be the star of Softly, a musical that never happened. Lyricist Martin Charnin and composer Harold Arlen wrote for it a song called “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile.”
(No, it’s not the song we know, for it has a completely different melody and set of lyrics. But there’s that title.)
I hope my humming did justice to “Some Other Time,” one of the most beautiful show tunes of all time. That the ON THE TOWN film dropped itwas enough to make me hate the movie. The picture of the 1997 revival with its three full-of-life sailors in Times Square shows their excitement, but what really dated the photograph was the store shown in the background: Blowout Video.
“Pinball Wizard.” There’s Michael Cerveris, playing Tommy in the musical that was prefixed by THE WHO’S. Cerveris is in a white light, all to indicate purity, of course, while everyone else is in sinful red.
Above him shows the gradations of possible pinball wizardry: Good, Excellent, Super and Genius. They’re pretty good adjectives for describing Cerveris’ Broadway debut.
The photo for AVENUE Q shows Trekkie Monster with a smile is so large that he must have just been online. So, you probably know what song I was humming.
“Prisoners of Love.” There’s Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane in their opening night tuxes. And yet, this photo is not actually a scene from THE PRODUCERS, but a publicity shot to sell the show (which didn’t need selling as long as those two were in it).
Each is holding a Tony. And in addition to a picture being worth a thousand words, this picture is worth eight questions.
Were these Tonys two of the (record-setting) 12 trophies that the production had won?
Did Lane bring his own Tony that he won for A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM?
Or was his second Tony that he’d won for this very musical – which would mean the picture was taken after June 3, 2001, the date on which he’d received it?
Did Matthew bring his from home, too?
If so, which one did he bring?
Was it the first that he had won for BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS?
Was it his second that he had won for HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING?
In fact, did he bring both so that Nathan could keep his at home?
“My Personal Philosophy.” This photo, from YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN’s much underrated 1999 revisal, shows that production’s crown jewel: Kristin Chenoweth.
She played Sally Brown, who was holding a piece of paper on which she had apparently written some of the words that songwriter Andrew Lippa had written for her. The paper is almost translucent, so from underneath, you can see that words have been printed on it.
However, this picture is on one of the slides that stays around for a few seconds and then moves on. So, I didn’t have time to decipher what was on the paper. That’s what I get for concentrating on my humming. When you attend, take the time to see if you can read what it says – unless, of course, you,too, are too busy humming “My Personal Philosophy.”
“All That Jazz.” As I saw Bebe Neuwirth emerging from the just-risen elevator in the CHICAGO revival, I hummed along until I got to my favorite lyric which – apologies, fellow exhibit attenders – I sang aloud:”Oh, I love my life.” Yes, living near Broadway is its own reward.
And speaking of CHICAGO, make sure you go to the back left-hand wall of the first room and see a framed yellowed page from The Arizona Republic.
The writer is touting the upcoming tour of the Tony-winning revival. The photograph accompanying the piece shows the two performers in their “Nowadays” pose atop the caption that tells us who’s playing Roxie and Velma.
Carol Rosegg and Joan Marcus.
Yes. Instead of getting their proper credit, the two photographers mistakenly received a performing credit. And if we’re ready to castigate the person who wrote the caption, remember that there’s a little bit of good in everyone.
Peter Filichia can be heard most weeks of the year on www.broadwayradio.com. His new day-by-day wall calendar – A SHOW TUNE FOR TODAY – 366 Songs to Brighten Your Year – will be released on October 15th, but is now available for pre-order on Amazon.
