A Little Bit of Broadway

Paint Your Wagon
1951


Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s second Broadway show (following Brigadoon) was set in a Gold Rush California town. Paint Your Wagon didn’t win any major awards, but it’s a show filled with lots of wonderful songs. The film version in 1969 starred Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood as the old miner and the young miner. They did their own singing and were roundly ridiculed for it. Maybe that’s the reason it’s never had a Broadway revival?

I'm on My Way
Rumson
What's Goin' On Here?
I Talk to the Trees
They Call the Wind Maria
I Still See Elisa
How Can I Wait?
In Between
Whoop-Ti-Ay
Carino Mio
There's a Coach Comin' In
Hand Me Down That Can o'Beans
Another Autumn
All for Him
Wand'rin' Star

Ben Rumson – James Barton
Jennifer – Olga San Juan
Julio – Tony Bavaar
Rufus Smith
Robert Penn
Dave Thomas

1968 saw a delightful spoof of those 1930’s big, lavish movie musicals. Dames at Sea provided the first big role for a young Bernadette Peters.
Dames At Sea
The Beguine
Raining In My Heart

American singer Kathryn Grayson died on February 17th at the age of 88. She trained for opera, but instead chose the silver screen and got to sing with Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Howard Keel and Mario Lanza. After movie musicals hit that big dry spell, she did theatre, television, cabaret and opera.
They‘ll never believe me – Song and Dance
Smoke gets in your eyes – Lovely to look at
Make Believe – Showboat with Howard Keel

I had a phone call from someone who just couldn't believe Dirty Harry Callaham would ever sing in a film. Well, he did. Here's Clint Eastwood singing I talk to the trees. And since we have it here, here's Lee Marvin for a bit of Wanderin' Star.