Intermezzo at 1 p.m.: Music from Broadway Musicals in honor of Rainbow Stages production of Mary Poppins
This summer has been a busy and very vibrant one for Canada’s largest and longest running outdoor theatre, Rainbow Stage. From June 27th to July14th they presented Mabuhay! A brand-new musical written by Joseph Sevillo and Joshua Caldo.
On August 15th Rainbow Stage kicked off their production of a true family classic, Mary Poppins. A Musical based on the stories of P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney Film with original music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman.
This week is your last opportunity to take in Mary Poppins, and in tribute to this audience favorite and another successful season at Rainbow Stage, we here at Classic 107 will take a dive into the world of the Broadway Musical.
Monday August 26: Bernstein-West Side Story Suite (1957) Arrangement for violin and orchestra by William Brohn (2001)
Inspired by Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, the story is set in the mid-1950s in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. The Sharks, who are recent migrants from Puerto Rico, and the Jets, who are white, compete for dominance of the neighborhood, and the police try to keep order.
The first production marked Sondheim's Broadway debut. It ran for 732 performances before going on tour. The production was nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, in 1958, winning two.
Accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by David Zinman , violinist Joshua Bell performs William David Brohn’s ’arrangement of West Side Story Suite. The arrangement was written ten years after Bernstein’s death, but his daughter, Jamie, in her liner notes, suggests that the Bernstein would have approved.
Tuesday August 27: Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein- Orchestral Suite From South Pacific (1949)
The plot centers on an American nurse stationed on a South Pacific Island during World War II, who falls in love with a middle-aged expatriate French plantation owner but struggles to accept his mixed-race children. A secondary romance, between a U.S. Marine lieutenant and a young Tonkinese woman, explores his fears of the social consequences should he marry his Asian sweetheart. The issue of racial prejudice is candidly explored throughout the musical,
The original Broadway production enjoyed immense critical and box-office success, became the second longest running Broadway musical the second-longest running to that point (behind Rodgers and Hammerstein's earlier Oklahoma),and has remained popular ever since.
Wednesday, August 28: Andrew Lloyd Webber- Orchestral Suite from Evita (1978)
Evita concentrates on the life of Argentine political leader Eva Peron, the second wife of Argentine president Juan Peron. The story follows Evita's early life, rise to power, charity work, and death.
The musical began as a rock opera concept album released in 1976. Its success led to productions in London's West End in 1978, winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical, and on Broadway a year later, where it was the first British musical to receive the Tony award for Best Musical.
Thursday: August 29: Alan Lerner, and Frederick Loewe- Orchestral Suite from My Fair Lady (1956)
The story of My Fair Lady is based on the 1938 film adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play Pygmalion. It concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from Professor Henry Higgins, a phonetician, so that she may pass as a lady. Despite his cynical nature and difficulty understanding women, Higgins grows attached to her.
The musical's 1956 Broadway production was a notable critical and popular success, winning six Tony Awards, including Best Musical It set a record for the longest run longest of any musical on Broadway up to that time and was followed by a hit London production. Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews starred in both productions.
Friday: August 30: Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein- Orchestral Suite from Showboat (1927)
Show Boat is based on Edna Ferber’s best-selling 1926 novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock workers on the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River showboat, over 40 years from 1887 to 1927. Its themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love. The musical contributed such classic songs as Ol’ Man River, Make Believe and Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man.
The quality of Show Boat was recognized immediately by critics, and it is frequently revived. Awards did not exist for Broadway shows in 1927, when the show premiered, or in 1932 when its first revival was staged. Late 20th-century revivals of Show Boat have won both the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical(1995) and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival (1991).
Tune in all week in the 1pm hour to hear this fabulous music from these iconic musical scores!
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