Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me”: From Jazzy Scherzo to Ballad

Among the timeless and unforgettable melodies of George Gershwin is Someone to Watch Over Me. The song was composed in 1926 for the musical, Oh, Kay!, where it was performed by Gertrude Lawrence, who sang it as a lonely, impassioned soliloquy to a rag doll. Although the lyrics were written primarily by Ira Gershwin, Howard Dietz assisted while the former was hospitalized for six weeks as a result of a ruptured appendix. …

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Remembering Chita Rivera

Chita Rivera, the dynamic American singer, actress, and dancer, passed away last Tuesday, January 30th. She was 91. In 1957, Rivera was catapulted to stardom when she created the role of Anita in the original Broadway production of West Side Story. Among the musical’s iconic moments was Rivera’s dazzling performance in the first act ensemble dance number, America. Later, she recalled the excitement of “watching Leonard Bernstein setting down notes that would later be …

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“Wouldn’t It Be Loverly”: Julie Andrews in “My Fair Lady” in 1961

The 20- year-old Julie Andrews was experienced as a British Vaudeville actress, but “young and green” on the Broadway stage, when, in 1955, she was cast in the role of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. After a rocky start during rehearsals, where she interacted with the temperamental Rex Harrison (Henry Higgins), Andrews remembers the experience as “the great learning period” of her life. She recalls an intense, uninterrupted 48-hour period during rehearsals when …

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Remembering Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett, the American jazz singer, passed away late last week. He was 96, just two days shy of his birthday. A devotee to the Great American Songbook, Bennett was, perhaps, the last exponent of the mid-twentieth century crooner style  of singing. Among his signature songs was, I Left My Heart in San Francisco. As styles changed with the rise of rock and roll, Bennett launched a spectacular comeback in the 1980s, …

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Stephen Hough Plays Richard Rodgers: “March of the Siamese Children”

During his seventeen year partnership with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers did more than write memorable tunes. The team of Rodgers and Hammerstein was concerned with a new, more sophisticated kind of American theater in which music furthered the plot and revealed the character and setting. For weeks, before any writing took place, they would immerse themselves in the dramatic details of the play. Often, their works explored settings which Broadway …

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Remembering Angela Lansbury

Angela Lansbury, the legendary star of film, stage, and television, passed away last Tuesday. She would have turned 97 on October 16. Beginning in the 1940s, the Irish-British-American actress earned acclaim on the silver screen with prominent roles in films which included Gaslight (1944), National Velvet (1944), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), and The Manchurian Candidate (1962). Between 1984 and 2003, she starred in the popular CBS television series, Murder, She Wrote. Lansbury’s …

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Gershwin on Piano Roll: “Sweet and Lowdown” and “That Certain Feeling”

George Gershwin’s delirious foxtrot, Sweet and Lowdown, was written for the 1925 musical, Tip-Toes. With lyrics by Ira Gershwin, the farcical comedy centers around a three-member vaudeville act which, through duplicity, attempts to snare a wealthy millionaire. The melody exemplifies the high-flying euphoria of the Roaring Twenties, with jazz and blues harmonies and exuberant, tumbling rhythms. George Gershwin’s 1926 performance is preserved on piano roll: The song, That Certain Feeling, was also written for Tip-Toes. It’s …

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