Gratuitous Broadway Musical post

[yendi]

There's a subclass of songs that are essentially, "here's a list of things that suck; now here's something less sucky in the chorus, like friendship or lots of beer." It's the idea behind the theme songs to Cheers, Friends, and Scrubs, amongst others.

It's also the idea behind "Join the Circus," the closing number of Barnum.

I've mentioned before that I'm a huge Cy Coleman fan. He's best known for Sweet Charity and The Will Rogers Follies, but I'm partial, in particular, to City of Angels, On the Twentieth Century, I Love My Wife, and Barnum. The latter two feature lyrics by Michael Stewart (who is also better known for other musicals, in this case Hello, Dolly, 42nd Street, and Bye Bye Birdie).

Barnum was the second Broadway musical I saw, after Annie. Unlike Annie, Barnum wasn't a show aimed at kids (although it's family-friendly). It also wasn't a long-time show; I saw it within the first month of its opening, with the original cast. That cast included Jim Dale -- who won a Tony for his role, and has done a wonderful job reading the Harry Potter audiobooks and narrating Pushing Daisies, but who is still probably best known to too many folks as Dr. Terminus -- and a then-mostly-unknown local actress named Glenn Close*. The play follows the life of P.T. Barnum in his early years, as he evolves from con artist and sideshow salesman into a partner in the circus with Bailey. It's fluff, often historically dubious fluff at that, but it's comforting fluff, too. The song below -- the only one I can find online from the original cast recording -- occurs at the end of the play, and doesn't feature any Close, or a lot of Dale (although you get him about 2/3 of the way through the song). It's still a comfort song for me, though.

And, of course, 'song's post reminded me of the song today.

I've got the original cast recording at home, and have been meaning to rip it to iTunes soon. I think I'll do that tonight.

Join The Circus - William C. Witter;Jim Dale;Peter Howard


*The British version, which is the only one available on DVD, stars Michael Crawford. So I've not seen it, as listening to Crawford makes me want to claw my balls off and shove them in my ears.

Comments

[creentmerveille.livejournal.com]

*cuddles you for this*

We share a theatrical link! Barnum with Glenn Close and Jim Dale was MY FIRST theatrical experience, back when I was 5 years old... We saw it like five times (my mom had a huuuge crush on Jim Dale and even wrote to him (and she still has the signed letter he replied with). The poster from that show still hangs in my living room and "Join the Circus" (and every other song in that show) are still among my favorites, even the Swedish part of "love makes such fools of us all"... but only with the original cast; I'm with you on Michael Crawford. BLARGH.

/gush

Sorry... This post just made me exceedingly ultra superhappy and I had to gush about it. I wish like HELL someone had taped a performance and put it on DVD, though nothing will ever compare to the live performance... five-year-old-me still feels chills at the thrill that came from having the band come down the aisles of the theater playing the first notes of "Come Follow the Band". Wowee. :)

I'm sighing happily and thinking of applying to Ringling or going back to work for Cirque du Soleil now. Thank you! *laughs*

[yendi]

:-)

We could have been at the same performance, even! I'd just turned eight when I saw it.

I still remember that we were sitting on an aisle, and when "Come Follow the Band" started up, I was blown away by the idea that the show could actually come off the stage and into the aisles.

[slitterst.livejournal.com]

I saw the tour of Barnum when it hit the Kennedy Center, starring Stacey Keach. But it wasn't my first broadway show. That honor goes to Hello Dolly, starring Carol Channing.

[lovingboth]

Here, Jim Dale's 'the cute one in the Carry On films'. Stephen Fry did the UK audio books.