The Best of Broadway

It's morning now. But my mind is a mad jumble of sensations, of memories of fragments of melodies, of lyrics from various songs, of dramatically spoken words, of the jarring and harmonious sound of jazz music from various instruments in isolation and all together, of three figures in black , white, red,  emerald and a motley of other colors and styles from the 1920s, 1960s and now.  I had given a talk on the philosophy of postmodernism a few weeks ago. Last night, I experienced it: the indifferent juxtapositioning and cross-over of time, of space, of styles, of taste, of cultures, of artistic genres like drama, instrumental music, of lyrics, of solos, trios, of rhythms, of pace, of moods, of reality, of illusion upon the one-dimensional uniformity of indistinguishable and equalizing simultaneity. A very odd feeling. But a strangely exhilarating one. I am referring to my experience last night at the Cultural Centre where the HKPO put up a rather unusual performance called "The Best of Broadway" under the clarinetist conductor Carl Topilow, with assistance from three American Broadway singers Christian Noll (1), Debbie Gravitte (2) and Doug LaBreque(3).

I don't think I can start better by setting out without any comment the programme because to do them justice, I'd probably need to write 10 blogs:

Julie Styne ( Music) & Bob Merrill (Lyrics)                      Funny Girl: Overture

Julie Styne (Music) Stephen Sondheim (Lyrics)           Gypsy: All I Need is the Girl

                                                                                               Together Wherever We Go (1 + 2 + 3)

                                                                                                Funny Girl:  Don't Rain on My Parade (2)

Cole Porter:                                                                          Begin the Beguine (3)

Frederick Loewe (Music) Alan Jay Lerner (Lyrics)        My Fair Lady: I Could Have Danced All Night (1)

James Van Heusen (Music) Sammy Cahn (Lyrics)     Thoroughly Modern Millie ( 1 + 2 + 3)

Harry Warren                                                                        42nd Street

Leonard Bernstein (Music) Lillian Hellman (Libretto)    Candide Glitter and Be Gay (1)

Andrew Lloyd Webber (Music) Trevor Nunn (Lyrics   )    Cats (2)

Marc Shaiman (Music)  Scott Wittman, Marc Shaiman (Libretto)    Hairspray : You Can't Stop the Beat ( 1 + 2 + 3)

John Kander (Music) Fred Ebb (Lyrics)                             Chicago: Overture and All That Jazz ( 1 + 2)

                                                                                                  All I Care About is Love ( 1+ 2 + 3)

John Kander (Music) Fred Ebb (Lyrics)                             Cabaret (2)

Claude-Michel Schonberg (Music) Herbert Kretzmer (Lyrics)   Les Miserables: On My Own (1)

Bjorn Ulvaeus & Benny Andersson (Music & Lyrics)         Mamma Mia!:  Medley (1 + 2 + 3)

Leonard Bernstein (Music)                                                   West Side Story: Overture

Stephen Schwartz (Music & Lyrics)                                     Wicked: Defying Gravity (2)

Andrew Lloyd Webber (Music) Charles Hart (Lyrics)       Phantom of the Opera: Phantom of the Opera (1+ 3)

                                                                                                    Music of the Night (3)

I like the way the singers stepped on to the stage with carefully measured steps in sync with the rhythm of the music,  the way they twisted their waist, swung their hips, swayed their bodies, raised or lower their arms and hands, opened and closed their fingers, kicked their feet, put on exaggerated expressions on their faces to blend in with the mood of the songs they were singing.  There is an informality which you never seem to get in a "classical" concert. It is obvious everything is done to flatter and woo the audience. I'm not complaining. Not at all a bad thing to get away once in a while from the humdrum of our daily lives and  indulge ourselves a little in the world of make-belief, if only for an hour or two. If it did not bring us anything else, at least, it would make us forget for a brief moment our urgent and what seem interminable duties, tasks and chores, our worries, our anxieties and the petty annoyances of the realities of life in a stressed out megapolis. The audience loved it. So did the singers and the orchestra. We had three encores in which the audience joined in by enthusiastically clapping their hands in rhythm with the music. Even Mr. Chu who at once stage thought of leaving after the intermission because of the bad quality of the sound from the mikes of the singers in the first few songs by the female singers, which appeared completely "over" the sonic  thresholds of the electronic equipment, said he was glad he did not do so when it ended ! He left a happy man. So did I.

<

<