One show on Broadway

I Wish It So; Dawn Upshaw

I have seen more musical shows in London’s West End than I have on New York’s Broadway. I only needed to see two shows in order for that to happen. The only show I’ve seen on Broadway happened in 1987 when a small group of us came upon some tickets for a Monday night showing of “A Chorus Line”.

During my several trips to London I have seen “Starlight Express”, “Sunset Boulevard”, “Me And My Girl”, “Notre Dame de Paris” and “Les Miserables”. I saw “Les Miserables” three times. I consider it one of my favorite musicals, if not my favorite musical.

So many favorite songs come from the theatre. Some songs outlast the memory of the show that featured them. That’s certainly so with Gershwin, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin songs.

I like it, however, when a musician gets my attention with songs from the theatre that I have never heard before. Dawn Upshaw did this very thing on her album “I Wish It So”. With the exception of “I Feel Pretty” by Leonard Bernstein and “My Ship” by Kurt Weill, I didn’t know any of these songs at the time that I bought the CD. Since then I’ve heard quite a few.

On the album, she fixed her gaze upon four composers: Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Kurt Weill and Marc Blitzstein. Bernstein and Sondheim are famous, of course. Kurt Weill achieved world-wide fame with the “Three Penny Opera” and its popular song “Mack The Knife”. Blitzstein, though – here was someone with whom I was not acquainted. But I like what I heard.

I have since seen a wonderful movie called "Cradle Will Rock” (NOT “The Hand That Rocks The Cradle”) which features the character of Marc Blitzstein. Hank Azaria, of Simpsons fame, plays the part of Mr. Blitzstein who wrote a musical show called, as chance would have it, “The Cradle Will Rock”. This movie tells the story of the original production of the show, directed by Orson Welles and produced by John Houseman. So, of course, Welles and Houseman are characters in the film, as are Diego Rivera and his wife Frida.

Anyway, Ms. Upshaw brings these songs to dazzling life, despite their obscurity. Or, perhaps more accurately, because of their obscurity.

Credits: To Kurt Weill, for “Mack The Knife”. Do you have any idea how many people have sung that song?