Let's "Mask Up for Shakespeare" - As the Delacorte summer plans bring NYC theater some needed optimism

 Mask Up For Shakespeare - 

as the Delacorte announcement for Free Shakespeare this summer brings a very rare touch of optimism for live theater in NYC - 

YouTube link is https://youtu.be/blbyKSx2Uu8

ALSO. FROM "AIR-KISS ME KATE" - 

Bianca/Lois Lane handles triage at the premium-price ER:   

https://youtu.be/Jk7noSqYlYQ​

"We're always here for you, darlings, when we ration.  

There's always some for you darlings, if you pay."

Lyric first heard in our virtual revue "Labor Day - The Re-opening" - Gov. Cuomo - a take on "You're So Vain"

 Our Emmy-winning Gov. Cuomo featured in a take on "You're So Vain"

https://youtu.be/ewpDo0XSGlc

A look back at our 7-minute mini-musical - where we were in May 2020

WHEN I'M STUCK AT HOME

https://youtu.be/s7mTdB7C8fg

Parody-song musical, as MJ plays a performer and her daughter making masks while not being able to perform during quarantine and dreaming about the roles she'd love to play- Make 'Em Masks, then Rose (Gypsy), Joanne (updated Company),Bianca/Lois Lane (Kiss Me Kate), and still "Home" a while longer (Dorothy)

For Valentine’s Day: - a few original theater love songs

 For Valentine’s Day: original theater love songs 

“Is It Mushy to Say I Love You” somehow passed 73,000 views

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZZfjTLHl1s

"Brooklyn Boy"

https://youtu.be/XiQRDVKvf5Q

"I Look Into Those Eyes"

https://youtu.be/5HcENPH12UU

This non-parody showtune number was on a sincere note.

 This non-parody showtune number  was on a  sincere note.   Any hope of us getting a 2021 Biden/Harris optimism like we had back in pust-crash  January 2009 with Obama/Biden? 

Back in 2008, we had a Christmas burdened by the financial crash, but somehow by Inauguration for Obama/Biden, with a smooth transition, there was optimism, and I thought maybe we could declare a do-over for the 2008 Christmas we'd emotionally missed But "someone" seemed to be working overtime to not let that optimism kick in by Inauguration Day 2021. Maybe it's not too late? "Another Christmas" - wanting do-over for a bleak Christmas when we have optimism with the new year https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfenKQ7sj1E

AND BACK TO COMEDY - A LOOK AT OUR PROPOSAL:  a perfect time to retool The Patty Duke Show 

 A sitcom idea for 2021 - so that maybe he'll think he had his second term and it was a ratings smash, the likes of which no one ever saw before.  Maybe that way, he won't even notice missing the campaign for 2024. :)

But They're Donalds, Identical Donalds! "Both Sides" of "45"

https://youtu.be/RIlQVIXZaxI​

"Vaccinating Rhythm" - maybe a little morbid lightness will make the time go faster.

 Oy, what a day! The slow progress of the vaccine may be less immediate, but maybe OK for a little morbid lightness.

"Vaccinating Rhythm" - 

https://youtu.be/fgg2pGUmZXo

Our year-end 2020 Blog Year in almost all show tune salutes or parodies

 Our year-end 2020 Blog Year in almost all show tune  salutes

January

“The Hollywood Gown” series tried to pick up where it was  interrupted in 2013 - Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt seemed to hold promise for us all 

https://youtu.be/Zp58fA38qdo

Here's our Oscars 2020 including Billy Porter's outfit https://youtu.be/Ya-MDi9yBJY

February

"Jack and MABEL”- “Type Your Troubles Away” -Jen shouts: ”The critics will love it -or else!"

https://youtu.be/RafIinDbF5A

March 

"Another Hundred Patti Fans Got Off Of Their Phones" (let's pray the revisal can be filmed!)

https://youtu.be/biOPO57uQ1M

April 

"MY FAR LADY" - "I've Sewn a Costume for Your Face"

https://youtu.be/x3RXDyle5sA

May and June

7-minute mini-musical - Make 'em Laugh plus Mama Rose, Patti-as-Joanne, Bianca/Lois Lane, Dorothy with Toto back at Home 

 WHEN WE’RE STUCK AT HOME 

https://youtu.be/s7mTdB7C8fg

July and August - 

7-minute video:  Where we were just before Labor Day- planning to re-open, for better or worse, but by a month later, better not.

https://youtu.be/8vp3LQ3x3so

That's Our Containmentt, Cuomo - You're So Vain, Elbow Connection, and more

September 

"TILL THERE IS HUGH" -  

about the Music Man ad and the hopeful spirit  it's come to signify 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6p1lzm6Rdc

October 

On Ben Brantley's end of an era as Times critic:  

I celebrated my two favorite Ben Brantley London Journal reviews:

This was about the London Journal on Imelda Staunton's scorched-earth Rose in GYPSY:

"Some Roses” 

https://youtu.be/L3YPpAOMV_w

And - Emily's (MJ McAleesejergins) Satine cover of Sheree Sano''s 2014 ”The Bodyguard” original - 

"We Got a Chance 4 Some Hottie”

 https://youtu.be/Pqkd0k6quMU

Sheree's original from 2014 still at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf5nhM026tc

November - 

In honor of David Prowse, the distinguished actor who became best known embodying Darth Vader 

“Darth of Your World”

 https://youtu.be/zBgUp7OrFbk 

December

"Have Yourself a Very Distant Christmas”

https://youtu.be/bBNVI5PCmiM

Remembering our family working with Rebecca Luker -

 In the Times obit, it's mentioned that Danny and Rebecca met on the show "Time and Again, " which Skip wrote with Jack Viertel, though they started dating the following year,  (That production must have had something in the air- Howard McGillin met his now-spouse at a reading of the show.). 

Here's Rebecca's audio of  Skip's song "Fairy Tale Life" from that production

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQJomzIbPZA

Rebecca  is also quoted: “I wish I had branched out a little more,” she said cheerily. “Maybe played a bitch or something.”

After she had done "Darling of the Day" at the York, Rebecca had mentioned that, and I wrote what was really a very detailed treatment built around her, and then a fuller story, which Bill Connington, Ellen Schwartz and Skip Kennon really developed directly for her.    We did a reading of the first act in 2008.mainly to see how she felt about the material.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Luker-Led-New-Musical-TANGLED-WEBS-Holds-Reading-20081213

Money  had been there for a workshop, but  it was the usual   manner large-cast theater projects have of losing momentum, as people's schedules don't allow them to  turn down other  work until there's a deal in place.  

Rebecca recorded the lead role for us on our demos with a lot of members of the cast from that reading.

This was one of my favorite moments where she played "against type."

And I'll Seal It With a Kiss - sung by Rebecca Luker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHf2EsIHY7Q

The almost-full recorded score is here 

http://www.ellenschwartzandfriends.com/tangled-webs