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Lyrics & Lyricists, 92st Y
by Linda Amile Burns Lights, camera, action! Making his L & L debut, the multi-talented
performer, playwright Charles Busch presented and hosted a dazzling program of
music and song entitled “Here’s To The Girls! – Hollywood’s Leading Ladies” on
February 7-9, 2015. He put together a terrific creative team with musical
director/arranger John McDaniel leading the band with Tom Hubbard on bass, Jack
Bashkow on woodwinds, Sean Harkness on Guitar and Ray Marchica on drums. The
cast featured 5 top-notch singers: Mr. Busch described the show as a “celebration of the extraordinary women who sang, danced and made the Hollywood musical film one of the great cultural achievements of the Twentieth Century.” This was an enormous subject to tackle and the choice was to explore how each of the major Hollywood studios, Warner Bros, Paramount, MGM, 20th Century Fox, Columbia and Universal had their own unique “house style” derived from the background and aesthetic interest of the studio moguls.
The show opened up with the entire cast singing “Here’s To The Girls”, a song from Ziegfeld Follies (1945) with music by Roger Edens, Lyrics by Arthur Freed (head of the famous MGM Freed Unit) and special lyrics by Carl Andress who served as co-creator, writer and director of the program. As each singer sang about a famous screen lady, her photo appeared on the screen until it was filled with the best, brightest and most glamorous woman of film musicals such as Ginger Rogers, Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell, Betty Grable, Mae West, Marlene Dietrich, Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Judy Garland and too many to name them all. In the Warner Bros “dames” section, the highlight was Cady singing “They’re Either Too Young or Too Old” Frank Loesser from Thank Your Lucky Stars originally performed on the screen by Bette Davis. Andrea performed “Secret Love” that Doris Day made famous from Calamity Jane (1953). Universal’s “Sweethearts” featured the cast performing Deanna Durbin’s “Can’t Help Singing” (1945) and Charles himself performed Marlene Dietrich’s “The Boys in the Backroom.” Andrea, Nancy & Zakiya sang a marvelous tribute to The Andrew Sisters with many of their hits including “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and “Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree.” The 20th Century Fox Blondes section had Erin singing some of Shirley Temple’s hits like “On the Good Ship Lollypop” and the cast performed a “Latin Craze Medley” and Zakiya paid tribute to Carmen Miranda with the “Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat.” The Queen of Columbia was the beautiful Rita Hayworth whose voice was dubbed in by other singers. Andrea’s did a hot version of “Put The Blame on Mame” from Gilda that made Rita famous. The Sophisticated Ladies of Paramount: These included Mae West, Betty Hutton and Dorothy Lamour who wore a sarong and later starred in the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby road pictures. Nancy paid tribute to Dorothy with Frank Loesser’s “The Moon of Manakoora” from The Hurricane and Zakiya “I Remember You” from The Fleet’s In. The MGM Goddesses: This studio was legendary for their incredible movie musicals with “more stars than there are in heaven.” Some of the musical ladies were Jeanette MacDonald, Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Ann Miller and Esther Williams. The studio signed Lena Horne but didn’t know what to do with her. Zakiya sang “Love” from the Ziegfeld Follies that Lena was featured in. Charles said that his favorite was Judy Garland and certainly everyone can agree that we will never see her likes again. The show closed with the cast performing a medley of some of her greatest hits and ending with the iconic “Over The Rainbow” (Wizard of Oz). Congratulations to Charles and everyone involved in putting together this ambitious and enjoyable concert that honored the great ladies of the movie musical and the songs that they made famous. 92Y Lyrics & Lyricists
Feb. 7-9, 2015 
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