I saw this when it was originally broadcast, which by many people’s reckoning is many years ago. Just as then, knowing how tragically Lorenz Hart hated himself and the fact that no matter how beautiful we may be at some brief point in our lives, if we live long enough we will be someone and love someone with a figure less than Greek, a smile a little weak, I am reduced to tears by the words of “Funny Valentine.” It captures so beautifully the frailty of all of us and the exhilaration and inevitable disappointments of love.
Think about this: Hart, Rogers, Berlin, Hammerstein, Gerhwins, And Porter all in the same era. There’s been nothing like it since. Their music is timeless.
You could also make an argument for the 60's: Lennon/McCartney, Dylan, Bacharach/David, Goffin/King, Motown Writers and on and on. I think the 1920s and the 1960s, for whatever reason, saw the greatest popular songwriters off all time, at their peak - Let's hope the next wave isn't too far away!
you probably dont give a shit but if you are bored like me atm you can stream pretty much all the new movies and series on InstaFlixxer. I've been binge watching with my brother recently =)
One thing I will never understand is how some people can not like musicals. One thing I will never understand is how some people can not like musicals. Musicals make me happy; they cause in me a sense of gratitude and appreciation for life. I'm very demanding about what I lend my attention to, and I consider myself cultured and well-educated, and I am aware that from one perspective the musicals are nothing but corny. But most musical comedies, far from setting off corniness alarms in me or causing any kind of rejection, instead lift me up and make me feel glad to be alive. Classical music is too often highbrow and scornful of the "popular", but musicals unpretentiously offer windows into the human soul and a higher level of life; in them, both performers and audience wholeheartedly enter into the music. Of course, not every musician is having an epiphany at every moment, but the fact that their actual goal is to give joy and hope to people makes musicals' music much more genuinely musical than the highly abstract and cerebral classical music that we've all been brainwashed to think is somehow "superior". But if superior literally means above, I have had far "superior" experiences watching musical comedies much more frequently than I've been deeply moved by any classical piece.
@Robert Haskell, for people like us it is hard to understand. I suppose it is similar to sports for me. Most people like or love team sports. The sports section may be all they ever read of news, or it will at least be the first thing. With very few and and many far apart exceptions sports bore me to death. It’s like watching grass grow. So, ultimately, I suppose it’s simply different strokes for different folks. We’re simply built differently. I wish I knew more people like you.
Thank you, so much for this. Just one thing, Mr. Hart DID write some happy love songs: "Where or When", "My Heart Stood Still, "With a Song in My Heart", "I Could Write a Book", "This Can't Be Love", "Blue Moon". "The Blue Room", "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", Lover", "My Romance". "Have You Met Miss Jones?", "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World". "Wait Till You See Her", and I imagine there are more. What a guy!
Lorenz Hart was an unspeakable genius. That mid-line rhyme was also executed incredibly by Cole Porter. A lost treasure of an art form. Hart was miserable all his life, but what he gave to humanity is joy upon joy.
Jana Meehan, Well said. Lorenz Hart was gay and had literally a too large head for his body, he was also short in stature and an alcoholic...When Richard Rodgers wrote a melody, 9 times out of 10 he had to have a piano shipped to whatever hospital ward Lorenz Hart was in drying out in. Then Hart wrote a lyric very fast.
although not of their generation, I grew up with their music. Along with the Gershwins, they wrote some of the most beautiful and lasting songs that will be remembered forever
Rebecca Luker. Wow she looks so young here. 😯 She looks so pretty and still looks divine now as well. She has not changed at all. She ages with grace 💗
Thank you so very, very, very much for this magical post! To see actual "home footage" of Jumbo w/Jimmy Durante and "Babes In Arms" with The Nicholas Brothers in rehearsal is beyond price. TREASURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you again!
Love Richard Rodgers' wonderful tunes and as an amateur composer I got to meet my idol twice around the time of "Rex"! The music holds up as great as ever if not better, if that is possible.
In 1979 I was standing in front of a B'way theater, ticket in hand, waiting for the doors to open, when I slowly realized that an elderly gentleman was standing almost next to me and was looking at me. It was Richard Rodgers. The show was "I Remember Mama". Rodgers was there meeting and greeting people who came to see his show. Just as if it was his first B'way show. Sad to say, it was his last show - he died later that year. I didn't say anything to him. I mean, what can you say when you're standing next to God!?
Beautiful songs !! Blue Moon was revived by the Marcels (1961), and Where Or When by Dion & the Belmonts (1960). Also the Supremes made an album of Rodgers & Hart songs. Such memories.
Of course both Sinatra and Linda Rondstadt made American Songbook albums with Nelson Riddle which moved their careers to new levels. I especially like Rondstadt’s albums and Je vais all three of them.
Lorenz Hart was truly one of God's gifts to humanity. That such rapture and joy emerged from such pain. And he died in the same hospital in which I was born... my one connection to that greatest of men. May he rest in peace eternal.
@Jana Meehan, how right you are! I have always loved and adored Rodgers and Hammerstein but Lorenz Hart's lyrics are pure genius. Both clever and genuine, he so understood the human heart (sorry for the pun, it's not my fault!). To this day I can't understand why he hasn't been celebrated as much as other's have.
I became familiar with Rodgers and Hart through... "The Supremes sings Rodgers and Hart" album. Fell in love with this musical partnership. Read Lorenz Hart autobiography in the 1970's after reading a article in "After Dark" magazine. Which I still have to this day. Hart's lyrics are subtle, intelligent, and sophisticated. So, sad he ended up in the gutter of life being a drunk running from his private life. It can happen too any of us without knowing and not holding on to God's unchanging hand through his son Jesus the Christ.
The very first song in this show was sung by a lady seated on a divan. Going back to see it again, I think she was heavily expecting a baby. This is an outstanding show. I recall Ben Bagley did albums of seldom heard songs by R&H and others. Ben left a real treasure trove before he passed away. Some of those songs can be heard here on YT.
This is the same woman, Rebecca Luker, who sings the high part in "Sing For Your Supper" later in this show... So unless those two segments were recorded months apart?... I am not sure she was expecting while singing "Falling In Love With Love".
I thought it was her! Was looking in the comments for an answer. I don’t think she’s pregnant, it’s probably the style of the dress that’s creating the illusion? I looked online and it says she has two stepsons.
Thank you for posting this. Up to now, I had to be content watching the clips of "Mountain Greenery" and "Where or When" elsewhere on YT - and I was happy. With this - talk about an embarrassment of riches.
It's impossible to pick Rodgers and Hart's greatest songs but I'll try anyway. 1. My Funny Valentine 2. I Could Write a Book 3. Bewitched 4. Isn't It Romantic 5. Where or When
Miles Davis and John Coltrane brought me here. #My_funny_Valentine #It_never_entered_my_mind #My_favourite_things Songs in Jazz that stayed in my heart and play all day in my mind.
This was produced for PBS Television. Remember to donate to your local PBS programming. They get very, very little government funding and are probably one or two elections from being entirely defunded. They are the best broadcast television that’s still on the air.
I don’t know why that woman is saying that Larry didn’t like Oklahoma!. From Richard Rodgers Biography: “ After the final curtain we all went over to Sardi’s to await the New York Times review. As we jostled our way into the restaurant, I suddenly saw a little man break through the crowd. It was Larry. Grinning from ear to ear, he threw his arms around me. “Dick,” he said, “I’ve never had a better evening in my life! This show will still be around twenty years from now!” And I knew he meant it.”
Larry didn't think that Oklahoma (then Green Grow the Lilacs) was his kind of material, and wasn't confident he could write a folksy, Americana-type show. His thing was really more an urban, sophisticated, witty style, so he was probably right.
Violetta, “that woman,” as you refer to her, was Larry Hart’s sister in law. Libby Moyer is correct in saying Hart didn’t want to collaborate on turning Green Grow the Lilacs, a play by Lynn Riggs, into a musical.
she also said he didn't tell "Dick" - he pretended to like it for his friend. "That woman" was with him that night at the theater and afterward - pretty sure she knows what she's talking about, she was his sister-in-law and great friend.
I have often marveled at the huge difference between a Rogers & Hart musical and a Rogers & Hammerstein, One so sophisticated (Rogers & Hart) and the other so schmaltzy (Rogers & Hammerstein),
@Joe Wagner We remember the songs Rogers & Hart wrote but the plays they were in are pretty forgettable. Rogers & Hammerstein created both memorable plays and memorable music; Rogers & Hammerstein are part of the American Zeitgeist as Rogers & Hart are not.
The shows are just spectacle, the music is schlock, the performers are technicians. The soul of nyc is gone since they cleaned up Times Square and tossed aside any architectural standards.
@@Marcel_Audubon People can compare from memory. The songs of Rodgers and Hart, although well known, were not known as Rodgers and Hart but rather some beautiful music they heard somewhere. But Rodgers and Hammerstein's songs are unmistakable as Rodgers and Hammerstein. Ordinary people know their music and can sing them from memory.
Fantastic documentary. Hate the studio performances throughout, though. I think they try too hard, there's no room for wit or inspiration. But the coverage of their biographies is priceless.
