Don't thumb your nose, but take a tip from mine

Me when the alarm goes off. Obviously.

Oh, bollocks! Another fabulous - and really hot - weekend, pleasantly pottering in the garden and enjoying the scents of jasmine, roses and pinks, is over with a jolt. Back to the grind...

Not all is lost, however. Sharing a birthday with another odd assortment, including Che Guevara, Paul O'Grady, Steffi Graf, Boy George (60 today), Harriet Beecher Stowe, Archbishop of Monmouth Rowan Williams, Rod Argent, Lang Lang, Burl Ives, Antony Sher, Julie Felix, Sam Wanamaker, Alan Carr, Dorothy McGuire, Siobhán Donaghy of the Sugababes, and - erm - Trump...

...it would have been the multi-talented composer, songwriter and jazz pianist Cy Coleman's birthday today [read my tribute on what would have been his 80th way back in 2009]. Famed for his standards such as Witchcraft, Nobody Does It Like Me, It's Not Where You Start (It's Where You Finish), The Best Is Yet to Come and many more, and (of course) his magnum opus (with lyricist Dorothy Fields) the musical Sweet Charity, he also wrote (with Carolyn Leigh) the ill-fated musical Wildcat for Lucille Ball. It sank without trace, but, on this Tacky Music Monday, to cheer us all up a bit, here's the choon from it that did endure - and a house favourite here at Dolores Delargo Towers to perform it for us!

Bea Arthur - Hey Look Me Over

Hey look me over, lend me an ear
Fresh out of clover, mortgage up to here
Don't pass the plate folks, don't pass the cup
I figure whenever you're down and out, the only way is up
And I'll be up like a rosebud high on the vine
Don't thumb your nose, but take a tip from mine
I'm a little bit short of the elbow room, so let me get me some
And look out world, here I come

Nobody in the world was ever without a prayer
How can you win the world if nobody knows you're there?

Kid, when you need the crowd, the tickets are hard to sell
Still, you can lead the crowd if you can get up and yell

Hey look me over, lend me an ear
Fresh out of clover, mortgage up to here
I'm a little bit short of the elbow room, so let me get me some
And look out world, hear me shout world...
And look out world, here I come!

Have a good week, dear reader. I'll be taking plenty of fag breaks if the weather continues to be like this - and even if you don't smoke, I'd suggest you do too!

Nobody Does It Like Them

It was Friday Night is Music Night on Wednesday night! Confusing though that sounds, Madam Arcati and I were overjoyed once again to get tickets in the BBC draw to be in the audience for a recording of Radio 2's longest-running music show (and, indeed the world's longest-running orchestral music programme on radio) - and all of it in celebration of the composer of many a fave choon here at Dolores Delargo Towers - Mr Cy Coleman!

As I said in my recent blog for the man's birthday, Cy "wrote a whole raft of our favourites from the Great American Songbook - not only those in one of my fave musicals 'Sweet Charity'". His music was beloved of legends such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jnr, Shirley Bassey and Tony Bennett, and he won five Tony Awards, two Grammys and three Emmys. No wonder the Beeb finds him worth celebrating.

And what a celebration!

In the exemplary company of the BBC Concert Orchestra (conducted by Mike Reed), and hosted by long-serving TV hostess (and former "action woman") Anneka Rice, the evening covered all aspects of Mr Coleman's career, from his time as a jobbing composer mainly working with lyricist Carolyn Leigh out of the legendary Brill Building, to notable Broadway success with writers such as Dorothy Fields, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, to his later success with Barnum and City of Angels. The orchestra, and chorus Capital Voices, indeed had great fun romping through some of his "big music" numbers, not least Come Follow The Band, Hey, Look Me Over, Join the Circus, Big Spender and The Rhythm Of Life.



The lead singers included the gorgeous Michael Xavier (who we have seen on stage many times - as "Miss Great Plains" in the faboo drag-queen-talent-competition-musical Pageant at The Vaudeville Theatre in 2000; in 2008 playing Rock Hudson in Rock at the Oval House Theatre; at the Friday Night is Music Night West Side Story special in 2007; and as "The Wolf / Cinderella's Prince" in 2010 in Into The Woods at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre) who sang some splendid solos - including Sinatra's favourite Cy Coleman tune, Witchcraft and the standard It's Not Where You Start (It's Where You Finish) - as well as providing a remarkably harmonic backbone to the ensemble numbers.

Here he is in that aforementioned Into The Woods production, duetting with Simon Thomas on Agony:

Into the Woods: Agony

Mr Xavier also duetted with the other male lead on Wednesday evening Mr Tam Mutu (Les Misérables; Love Never Dies; Dr Zhivago) on You're Nothing Without Me (from City of Angels) - Mr Mutu's "showstopper", however, was his brilliant The Best Is Yet To Come.

Miss Siobhan Dillon, a contender on the reality show How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? and West End starlet [and real-life girlfriend of Mr Mutu, as Miss Rice revealed] really let loose on the Shirley MacLaine numbers If My Friends Could See Me Now and I'm a Brass Band, as well as a rather fab version of Lost and Found (from City of Angels; lyrics by David Zippel: "If you're not celibate, we could raise hell a bit"). She also did a rather touching duet with Mr Mutu on The Colours of My Life (from Barnum), as well as with Mr Xavier on I Like Your Style from the same show.

Swansea's finest Miss Ria Jones, however, got all the campest showbiz numbers - as she should do, being the understudy who triumphally stole the show in Sunset Boulevard when leading lady Glenn Close went off sick [in fact Ria created the role way back in 1991]; she also starred in Evita, Chess, Les Mis and Victor/Victoria [and she is the sister of famed drag queen Ceri Dupree] - such as Nobody Does It Like Me, Hey, Look Me Over, Big Spender and You Can Always Count On Me (again from City of Angels), as well as the lovely love song (made famous by Blossom Dearie) I Walk A Little Faster.

Here's a mere snippet of Miss Jones' talents:

Ria Jones - As If We Never Said Goodbye

In its entirety - "re-takes" and all - this was another wonderful night out at the glorious Hackney Empire, which we enjoyed immensely. I wonder when it will be broadcast?

Friday Night is Music Night on the BBC.

It's better than being a party-poop

Mr Cy Coleman, whose 87th birthday it would have been tomorrow, wrote a whole raft of our favourites from the Great American Songbook - not only those in one of my fave musicals Sweet Charity, such as Big Spender, If My Friends Could See Me Now and There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This, but also such standards as The Best is Yet to Come, Nobody Does It Like Me, It's Not Where You Start (It's Where You Finish), You Fascinate Me So, Hey, Look Me Over and Witchcraft.

But on this Tacky Music Monday it's an interesting version of one of his "novelty songs" (more familiar in its rendition by Miss Peggy Lee, of course) to which we turn to cheer us up as we stagger back to the office...

Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore and Sylvia Lewis - The Doodlin' Song

Cy Coleman (born Seymour Kaufman, 14th June 1929 – 18th November 2004)

Read my tribute to Mr Coleman on his 80th.

Have a good week...

Nobody does it like...

Today would have been the 80th birthday of the fabulous composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist Cy Coleman.

In a career that spanned eight decades (from his debut as a child piano prodigy), Cy wrote dozens of songs and shows for some of the greats, including Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra, Gwen Verdon, Shirley MacLaine and Tony Bennett. Among the standards Cy wrote were such wonderful songs as Witchcraft, The Best Is Yet To Come, Nobody Does It Like Me and Hey, Look Me Over.

But it was his partnership with the magnificent grande dame of American theatre Dorothy Fields that produced the masterpiece for which he is most remembered (and one of my favourite musicals ever) - Sweet Charity. Although he continued to write, produce and perform right up until his unexpected death in 2004, he could never quite match the eternal success of this classic!

Here are a few samples of the prodigious musical talent of Cy Coleman...

Sweet Charity (trailer)

Shirley MacLaine, Chita Rivera and Paula Kelly - There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This

Linda Clifford - If My Friends Could See Me Now

Dame Shirley Bassey - Nobody Does It Like Me

Tony Bennett - The Best Is Yet To Come

Read Cy Coleman's entry in the Internet Broadway Database