Spring 2009. You’re watching the new musical Next to Normal. You had missed its off-Broadway production a year prior, which had gotten a mixed-response, and you’re curious as to why people are more on board with the Broadway incarnation. The musical opens on the Goodmans, a quintessential suburban family, as Mom (Diana Goodman) helps her teenaged children (Gabe and Natalie) and husband (Dan) get out the door on a typical morning. A crack starts to show as Diana is packing lunches and soon begins covering the counters and floor with sandwiches. The evening becomes an exploration of Diana’s struggles with bipolar disorder, the slew of treatments that are often worse than the disease (which will ultimately include electroshock therapy), and the toll it takes on the entire family. Even though the subject matter is serious (and taken seriously), there’s a lot of humor. Alice Ripley’s Diana has rock vocals and amusingly unpredictable reactions, blended with touching pathos. It makes sense that Ripley is a manic ALL CAPS twitterer IRL. After Natalie brings her new beau (Henry) over for an ill-fated dinner, she expresses her frustration at living in that shadow of an absentee brother who garners a disproportionate amount of Diana’s love and attention (“Superboy and the Invisible Girl”)

Catch up with all the songs to date!

Spring 2005. You’re at Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a new musical based on a Steve Martin movie you’ve been meaning to watch. To be honest, the main reason you’re here is to see Sherie Rene Scott and Norbert Leo Butz reunite after they starred in Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years back in 2000. The show opens on the French Riviera and boasts a bright jazzy score with genuinely funny lyrics by David Yazbek. You meet Lawrence Jameson, a refined con-man (John Lithgow) who is on the lookout for a mysterious, more infamous con-man known only as “The Jackal.” Lawrence comes across a course American con-man named Freddy (Norbert Leo Butz), deduces Freddy is The Jackal, and initiates a guarded partnership between the two. They join forces with a hilarious scheme that has Freddy posing as Lawrence’s deranged brother to fend off one of Lawrence’s past victims (who NOT Sherie Rene Scott—when does she show up?) As much as Freddy and Lawrence enjoyed their collab, they realize the Riviera’s con-man economy can only support one of them. They make a wager: they will select a target and whoever is the first to swindle her out of $50,000 gets to stay while the other will leave town. (Have they not seen Guys and Dolls or My Fair Lady? Don’t they know that making a bet on a woman in a musical never ends out like they think it will?) When they hear that a soap heiress, Christine Colgate is coming to town, they decide to make her their mark. A crowd gathers, humming and looking upstage in anticipation of Christine’s arrival, only for a woman in the crowd (Sherie Rene Scott, finally) to turn around and say, “oh, that’s me” before launching into an infectious and charming introductory number (“Here I Am” ).

It’s 1998, and you’re one of the lucky few to catch Parade during its short run at Lincoln Center Theater. You’ve heard good things about the score by a talented young composer, Jason Robert Brown, but you’re a bit apprehensive about the show’s subject matter. You’re settling in for an evening that will explore a rape and murder in Atlanta, the trial of the falsely accused Leo Frank, and the antisemitism-fueled lynching after Frank’s death sentence is commuted to life in prison. “So why is it called Parade?,” you ask as you flip through the Playbill before it starts. That question is soon answered. The lights come up on a Confederate soldier singing to his unseen sweetheart before he leaves to fight in the Civil War. As he leaves, the scene transforms into a Confederate Memorial Day parade fifty years later (1913). The soldier, now an old man, again sings with pride about the community he fought to protect as the chorus sings along and Confederate flags wave (“The Old Red Hills of Home”). It’s a glorious rousing song, which makes its sentiment all the more chilling. This is the Atlanta Leo Frank, a New York Jew, lives in, and he will learn first hand the lengths to which they will go in order to preserve their delusions of pre-Reformation glory.

It’s 1998, and you’re watching Ragtime a lavish and epic musical that takes the scale and scope of the 1980s British mega-musical and filter it through distinctly American voices and material. The expansive narrative focuses on three distinct groups in New York at the turn of the 20th Century—upperclass suburban whites, Eastern European immigrants, and African Americans—along with notable celebrities of the day like Harry Houdini, Emma Goldman, and vaudeville star/murderess Evelyn Nesbit. It seems like a lot, but there’s an excellent opening number that explains everything quite clearly. Mother tends the home in New Rochelle. While Father is away on an expedition, mother discovers a black baby buried in her garden, which she learns belongs to a young woman named Sarah. Mother takes in Sarah and her baby, even as she knows her husband would find it unthinkable were he around. When the baby’s father, ragtime pianist Coalhouse Walker, hears about Sarah’s condition, he woos her in his new Model T (befriending Mother in the process). Reconciled, the couple and baby take the car on a country picnic and imagine the world of opportunity available to them (“Wheels of a Dream”). As the narrative proceeds, a fire chief initiates a confrontation with Coalhouse and destroys his car. Sarah attends a political rally hoping to appeal to the Vice Presidential candidate, but when someone mistakenly claims she has a gun, the security detail beats her to death. Coalhouse leads a series of violent protests and demonstrations, ultimately dying at the hands of police. In the face of all this tragedy, the musical ends with a reprise of “Wheels of a Dream,” a radical act of hope that the true American dream of liberty and justice for all will prevail…eventually.

Catch up with all the songs to date!

It’s 1992, and you’re watching the musical Falsettos. It’s the Broadway premier of two off-Broadway musicals from the 80’s, now presented as a single piece. William Finn wrote its eccentric score and co-wrote the book with director James Lapine. The simple set is a red platform and a freestanding door, with furniture coming and going as needed. The opening number, “Four Jews in a Room B******g,” sets the irreverent tone. It’s a contemporary story about idiosyncratic New Yorkers: Marvin, his son Jason, his ex-wife Trina, his boyfriend Whizzer, and his therapist Mendel (who starts dating Trina). The first act covers these shifting relationships and the new type of “tight-knight” family that evolves (even as Marvin and Whizzer’s romance falls apart). The storytelling is impressionistic, told through non-linear songs and sequences, which are themselves full of non-sequitors and surprising turns of phrase. It’s like if ADHD was a musical. (Not that anyone really understands ADHD, because it’s the 90s.) The second act takes place two years later and adds “the lesbians from next door”: Charlotte (a doctor) and Cordelia (a Kosher caterer). As the adults start to plan Jason’s Bar Mitzvah—and Whizzer and Marvin start to reconcile—Dr. Charlotte worries about a mysterious new disease affecting gay men, a disease that soon affects Whizzer. The gang gathers in Whizzer’s hospital room on an “up” day, hopeful that things will improve (“Days Like This”).

Catch up with all the songs to date!

An introduction to the 100Showtunes. More info at 100Showtunes.com

Fall 1983. You’re at La Cage Aux Folles, a new musical with a score by Jerry Herman—who wrote some of the biggest hits of the 1960s but hasn’t been so lucky lately—and a book by Harvey Fierstein. Fierstein made his Broadway debut a year prior, writing and starring in the smash hit play Torch Song Trilogy, which mad him one of the most visible and open gay celebrities in America. The musical opens on a line of chorines leading an opening number about gender ambiguity at a drag club in St. Tropez, “We Are What We Are.” Georges, the club’s owner and emcee, lives with his flamboyant husband Albin, who performs as Zaza, the club’s leading act. The couple’s adult son, Jean-Michel makes a surprise visit to announce that he is engaged, and his financé’s parents (the Dindons) want to meet his family. There’s just one little problem—Papa Dindon is a conservative “return to family values” politician whose primary political objective is shutting down drag clubs, and Jean-Michel has been concealing his parents’ relationship and careers. Georges and Jean-Michel butch up the apartment behind Albin’s back and make a plan to hide Albin while bringing in Jean-Michel’s birth mother to meet the Dindons. After discovering this plot, Albin takes the club’s stage in full Zaza regalia, dismisses the other dancers, and sings a powerful, anthemic version of the opening number, “I Am What I Am.”

La Cage Aux Folles was almost a musical called The Queen of Basin Street with a New Orleans setting, a book by Jay Preston Allen, a score by Maury Yeston, choreography by Tommy Tune, and direction by Mike Nichols. New producers came on board and insisted on a new creative team, bringing in Harvey Fierstein, the hottest playwright in town, and Jerry Herman. (Nichols went on to direct a different Americanized adaptation for film—The Birdcage.) Herman and Fierstein must have seemed like an odd pairing at first—Fierstein defied the odds when his edgy downtown play became a long-running Broadway hit, while Herman was wholesome, possibly even old-fashioned, and hadn’t had major success in over a decade. (A revival of his last hit, Mame, was bombing spectacularly on Broadway when La Cage… opened.) But the partnership resulted in a musical that was both unabashedly queer and a good old-fashioned American crowd-pleaser. The act one closer, “I Am What I Am,” still resonates deeply today and has basically become the Gay National Anthem. Herman’s biggest hits were about larger-than-life personalities who defy convention and help others lead more authentic lives—so perhaps he had been writing about drag queens the whole time.

Recommended Recording: ”I Am What I Am,” La Cage Aux Folles (1985 Australian Cast)

Australian actor Jon Ewing delivers a powerful rendition of “I Am What I Am.” The orchestra is straight up fire—I don’t know what they did, but it’s somehow more epic than any other rendition I’ve heard.

Alternate Performances

La Cage… has received ~12 cast recordings, including Berlin, Italian, Columbian, Mexican, and Japanese casts (but not French). New York City Encores! has added it to their 2026 season, featuring Billy Porter, Wayne Brady, and an all-Black cast.

* 1983 Original Broadway Cast - George Hearn starred as Albin. He was most know for stern, authoritative stuff without a hint of camp on him (unless you count dating Dixie Carter for a few years). But he sounds like he’s having a blast on the upbeat numbers, and his gravitas and rich baritone anchors a thrilling rendition of “I Am What I Am.” Powers that be still thought a man in drag was too much for the Tony telecast, so Hearn sang “I Am…” in a tux with no wig or makeup.

* Gloria Gaynor recorded a disco version of “I Am What I Am” shortly after the show opened, and it became an international hit. Based on her current politics, it doesn’t seem like she ever really listened to the words.

* 2010 Broadway Cast - This production of La Cage… came over from London. On paper it seemed completely unnecessary—La Cage…had just been revived on Broadway in 2005–but in that short time, our perception and relationship to drag changed significantly, in no small part due to RuPaul’s Drag Race, which began in 2009. The production reflected a sleeker, sexier approach to drag than the more camp aesthetic of the 80s. Douglas Hodge came over from London, reprising his precise and hilarious Albin. (Kelsey Grammer played Georges and, like Gloria Gaynor, apparently managed not to internalize anything he heard, said, or sang in that production.) Harvey Fierstein took over the role of Albin for the last few months of the run. Jeffrey Tambor was supposed to play Georges at that time, but he struggled and was gone within two weeks.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

* The Rat Pack - Sammy Davis Jr. keeps giving me reasons to like him. He sang “I Am What I Am” on a television special, prefecing it by telling everyone to walk-not-run to see La Cage…. What a guy!

* Audra McDonald has been singing “I Am What I Am” for several years. It opens her 2018 album Sing Happyand her 2024 special Audra McDonald at the London Palladium.

* Glee has somehow not performed “I Am What I Am.” Make it make sense.

In the Wings

You may have noticed a “Listen to this post” widget on top of this page and wondered what that was about. I’ve sneakily started recording voiceovers of me reading the posts. I had been reading them aloud to myself to help with editing, and figured I might as well press record. (Turns out, it’s a lot harder than that, and voice over actors deserve a lot of credit.) I might get out No. 34 before the end of the year, or I might blink and wake up in January. Until then, I recommend the documentary, Words and Music by Jerry Herman which is available on youtubeand does a wonderful job of putting his career in context. And I know I said way back during my ground rulesthat I wouldn’t allow myself to discuss the Tony Awards, or I’d never stop, but the 1984 showdown between La Cage… and Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George is legendary, especially Herman’s acceptance speech, which many felt was an explicit rebuke of Sondheim. There’s like 40 years of discussion you can read up on if you’re so inclined.

Late May, 1978. You’re one of the few people on this green earth to see a Broadway performance of Working, a new musical with a book and direction by Stephen Schwartz and a score divvied up by Schwartz and a diverse team of other composers and lyricists (Michele Brourman, Susan Birkenhead, Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, Mary Rodgers, and James Taylor). You see a parade a working stiffs—truckers, housewives, a teacher, a mason, a millworker, migrant farm workers, even an escort (Patti LuPone in a non-signing role). They talk (or sing) to you about their jobs in monologues taken from a book by oral historian Studs Terkel, and the matter-of-fact descriptions of their daily labor often lead to insights about their life, dreams, and place in the world. Although transitions connect one song/monologue to the next, the people you meet mostly take turns sharing their stories and don’t really interact with each other. However, the first act ends with a moving ensemble number in which everyone reflects on unfulfilled potential and dreams deferred (“If I Could’ve Been”). You go into intermission thinking, “If the rest of the show is as good as that number, we have a hit.” It’s not, and Working closes three weeks after it opens.

Stephen Schwartz had three smash hits in New York under his belt when he conceived of Working. Unlike these other hits, Schwartz would maintain full control over this production, serving as director and co-librettist, in addition to some songwriting duties. But Schwartz did not compose the entire score himself, instead bringing on a number of collaborators with different styles and backgrounds to flesh out the diverse cast of characters that appear in Studs Terkel’s book. Trailblazing composer and actress Micki Grant wrote some of Working’s most memorable songs, including the moving first-act finale, “If I Could’ve Been”. With 1972’s Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope, Grant made history as the first woman to write book, music, and lyrics for—and star in—a Broadway musical (a feat that wouldn’t be replicated for over 50 years). …Cope ran for over two years, and its cast recording won a Grammy, making Grant, the first female composer AND the first black composer to be so honored. A follow-up, Your Arm’s Too Short to Box with God, ran for over a year. And yet Grant is best known today for her (stellar) contributions to Working, a 24-performance flop instead of her hits. The cast recordings of …Cope and …Box with God never made the transition to CD or digital formats, and those topical revues have proven difficult to revive. Fortunately, Working continues to generate interest and productions, introducing Grant’s work to new generations.

Recommended Recording: ”If I Could’ve Been,” Working: a new musical (1978 Original Broadway Cast)

Lynne Thigpen—whom gumshoes of a certain age will recognize as the Chief from Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?—leads off as the primary soloist, supported by a killer vocal arrangement for the ensemble. It’s a perfect track.

Alternate Performances

Working has received five cast recordings, all of which reflect a slightly different version of the show.

* 1982 TV Cast - Working was adapted for an episode of PBS’s American Playhouse. It’s a new production, rather than a taping of the original staging, featuring Studs Terkel as himself “interviewing” the various subjects. It’s a very literal presentation that even further separates the different characters from each other instead of creating an ensemble. But Thigpen gets to sing “If I Could’ve Been.” Other performers include James Taylor (singing his own trucker song), Rita Moreno, and Patti LaBelle.

* 2000 LATW Cast - L.A. TheaterWorks is a company that presents audio versions of great plays. In 2000 they recorded Working, one of their few musicals. Scott Schwartz (Stephen’s son) directs this recording that features the all of the monologues and scenes, in addition to the songs. The recording also captures a few revisions, like a new song for a grocery store cashier, that were at one time part of the standard licensed edition. The show would get one further renovation, making this edition of the show somewhat obsolete. But it’s a great performance, and Working translates well to a radio-type presentation. And Bat Boy fans will be pleased to know Kaitlin Hopkins sings “Millwork.”

* 2017 London Cast - Director Gordon Greenberg began working on a revised Working in 2008. Schwartz aided in the fresh look, which got two new songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, a few regional productions, and a 2012 off-Broadway presentation with the fantastic Prospect Musicals. This edition of the show, which is now the standard licenses version—got recorded following a limited run in London.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

Neither The Rat Pack, nor Audra McDonald, nor Glee covered “If I Could’ve Been,” which is a missed opportunity for all (especially me).

In the Wings

I’ll get song No. 33 and maybe even No. 34 out before 2026, but as Lorenz Hart would write, who knows where or when?Until then, I recommend looking into Mary Rodgers (daughter of Richard Rodgers), Craig Carnelia, and Susan Birkenhead, three other under-appreciated writers who made great contributions to Working. (James Taylor also wrote great stuff for the show, but I think he’s been adequately lauded.)

Catch up with all the songs to date!

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It’s 1966, and you’re nearing the end of Sweet Charity’s first act. The evening thus far has been stylish and sexy, dominated by the unmistakable staging of Bob Fosse and a score by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields that matches his freak. The show also marks the triumphant return to stage of Gwen Verdon, Fosse’s wife and muse. She plays the titular Charity Hope Valentine, a taxi dancer who maintains a sunny optimism despite perpetual heartbreaks. The musical opens with a lover pushing Charity off a bridge and stealing her purse. That’s followed by caper that starts with a movie star with a jealous girlfriend and ends with Charity exhaling a cigarette into a garment bag while trapped in a closet. Charity recounts her tale to Nickie and Helene, her fellow dance hall hostesses, and they dream of alternate futures. (“There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This”)

Bob Fosse began as a Hollywood dancer who shifted to Broadway choreography beginning with 1954’s The Pajama Game. By 1966, he had married Gwen Verdon and successfully transitioned to being a fully fledged Director-Choreographer. But neither he nor Verdon were able to match their 1950s successes in the first half of the 60s. With Sweet Charity, Fosse became a true Broadway auteur, with the entire production, from writing to staging to design, a product of his specific vision. At the center of this vision was Verdon—she was the ideal interpreter of Fosse’s movement, and Charity was the ultimate showcase of her talents. She rarely leaves the stage, and almost every scene is an opportunity for her to ingratiate herself to the audience, either because she’s leading a showstopping routine, revealing her vulnerability in a bittersweet solo, or reacting comically to the events around her.

For the Charity writing team, Fosse turned to America’s most commercially successful playwright, Neil Simon, and composer Cy Coleman, both of whom worked with Fosse on the modestly successful 1962 musical Little Me. Coleman had previously collaborated, somewhat unhappily, with lyricist Carolyn Leigh, and opted to forge a new partnership with Dorothy Fields (who, incidentally, had written lyrics and contributed to the book for Broadway’s most recent Fosse/Verdon joint, 1959’s Redhead). Fields’ witty, sophisticated lyrics proved a perfect match for Coleman’s urbane music that could be jazzy and sultry or celebratory in classic Broadway style. The partnership sadly only produced one more Broadway musical before Field’s death. But Charitylaunched Coleman into the upper echelon of Broadway composers, and he became one of the few Golden Age writers to find continued success in the 80s and 90s.

Recommended Recording: ”There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This,” Sweet Charity (1966 Original Broadway Cast)

There are at least two songs from …Charity that are much more familiar than this number. But there is a method to my madness. (1) I wanted something that, at least musically, gave a sense of the extent of dance in the show. (2) I wanted to highlight Coleman’s musical range and Fields’ lyrical dexterity. (3) I needed to showcase Gwen Verdon. Even though Charity gets relatively little to sing in this number—just a brief final refrain before the dance break—you can sense the depth of humanity in her voice. Helen Gallagher (Nickie) and Thelma Oliver (Helene) get to have a lot of fun with their respective verses, and the latter’s reading of “check your pants” will stay with you forever. These comedic verses exemplify Fields’ wit and ability to write for distinct characters. And the driving, rhythmic score captures their excitement and frustration, while also tying together a memorable chorus, character-driven solos, and a particularly satisfying dance break.

Alternate Performances

Sweet Charity has received ~15 cast recordings, including Dutch, French, German, and Italian casts and a 1994 studio recording of the complete score. Sutton Foster led a 2016 Off-Broadway revival that did not get recorded. Debbie Allen led an acclaimed 1986 revival that was Fosse’s last Broadway production. Its recording is finally available on streaming services.

* 1967 Original London Cast - Juliet Prowse led the London Sweet Charity and eventually played the role to great success in Las Vegas as well. She’s perhaps a better—or at least more traditionally pleasing—vocalist than Verdon, if not as distinctive, and the recording captures the spirit of the material and the era So if the warble in Verdon’s voice is a bit much for you, this is worth seeking out.

* 1969 Film - Although Fosse had a career in Hollywood before he ever came to Broadway, Sweet Charity marked his debut as a film director. The movie did not simply restage the theatrical production. While much of the choreography remains, the piece is clearly reconceived for film, with stylish montages and sequences that walk the line between literal and surreal. Shirley MacLaine starred, with Verdon on set to coach her through the role. It was not well received at the time, but it’s a rather spectacular debut and “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This” is the best synthesis of Fosse’s visions as a stage and film director. It’s worth all 6 minutes and 18 seconds. (Having Chita Rivera and Paula Kelly—who appeared in the London production—as Nickie and Helene is a tremendous added bonus.)

* 2005 Broadway Revival - The late 1990s saw a massive resurgence of interest in Fosse, following hit revivals of Cabaret, and Chicago, and the retrospective revue, Fosse. So a revival of Charity was perhaps inevitable. After years of rumored casting—Jenna Elfman and Marisa Tomei were each at one point attached—a pre-Broadway tour launched starring TV’s Christina Applegate, directed by Chicago’s Walter Bobbie, and choreographed by Wayne Cilento (an original cast member of A Chorus Line who choreographed Wicked and hasn’t really needed to work since). When Applegate broke her foot on the pre-Broadway tour, the production almost died on the road until Applegate put her own money into the show to keep it afloat. It opened with a whimper—neither Bobbie nor Cilento had a vision that could match Fosse’s concept—but Applegate is really quite endearing on the cast recording.

Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?

* Rat Pack - Sammy Davis Jr. appears in the movie version of Sweet Charity as Big Daddy, the leader of a counter-culture “church” that Charity and her beau, Oscar, visit in act 2 (because Oscar belongs to a “church of the month club”). The scene is very much of its time, and quite silly (in ways that are both intentional and unintentional). But the song that grows out of it, “The Rhythm of Life” is an absolute banger. Davis Jr. has also recorded other two other …Charity songs, “I’m a Brass Band” and “If My Friends Could See Me Now.”

* Glee- “Big Spender,” Sweet Charity’s most enduring hit, appears on two episodes of Glee. In season 1, episode 19 (“Dream On”) an unnamed character sings it at a Les Miserables audition. In season 3, episode 1 (“The Purple Piano Project”), Sugar Motta, the untalented daughter of the local piano magnate, uses it for her (unsuccessful) audition to join New Directions.

In the Wings

I didn’t intend for last week to be an off week, but here we are. I should be on track to drop song no. 32 next week. But we’re also into The Holiday Madness, so we’re just gonna have to see. Until then, here’s a fun video that showcases various different endings Sweet Charity has had through the years (including some really nice scene work from Christina Applegate). Also, this 2017 Seth Rudetsky column has a fun anecdote about Chita Rivera filming “…Better Than This” for the movie. (The anecdote starts halfway down the page.)

Catch up with all the songs to date!