Closer Than Ever is the Songs for a New World of the late 1980s.
It opened in ’89, and every musical theater student (including this blogger) had the OCR on CD or even Cassette (!), as well as a song or two from the Maltby & Shire revue in their book (“What Am I Doin’” was my song de choice).
Thankfully, I’m not starring in the critically acclaimed and recently extended run of Closer Than Ever at The York, but Jacquelyn Piro Donovan, George Dvorsky, Julia Murney and Sal Viviano are, which is why you should be excited that I’m giving away tickets to see it for free!
How do you win?
Closer is a musical revue or a “bookless book musical”, as described by the authors themselves. And the musical theater canon is actually ripe with revues based on the work of composers.
In the comment section below (email subscribers click the link below), give me the name of a composer that you would like to see “revued” . . . and bonus points if you name the revue. Need an example? Yes, It’s Another Revue of His Songs: The music of Stephen Sondheim.
Go and good luck! (PS, if you don’t have the Closer Than Ever OCR, get it . . . it’s a must for any serious collection.)
(Got a comment? I love ‘em, so comment below! Email subscribers, click here then scroll down, to say what’s on your mind!)
——
FUN STUFF:
- Take my Get Your Show Off The Ground Seminar on 8/18. Only TWO spots left. Click here to register.
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72 Responses to The Sunday Giveaway: 2 Tickets to Closer Than Ever!
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Connected: The music of Steven Schachlin
Two come to mind immediately:
Jim Steinman – Rock and Roll Love Story
John Denver – Country Boy on a Jet Plane
Better to Skip The Book: The Songs of Frank Wildhorn
Zing! I love that title.
YOU MADE ME LAUGH !!!!
GREAT TITLE.
TELL ME…..
HOW
HOW
HOW
HOW
HOW
DOES THIS MAN GET SO MANY OF HIS FLOPS PRODUCED ON BROADWAY?…UNLESS HE IS SPENDING ALL HIS OWN MONEY…..
“THE CIVIL WAR” – O M G
THE BEST, ‘THE’ BEST THREE HOUR NAP I’VE EVER HAD IN THE THEATER….THE ST. JAMES THEATER, IF I’M NOT MISTAKEN….EVEN JERRY ZAKS COULDN’T HELP THIS ONE….
The Whole “Kitt” and Caboodle – The Music of Tom Kitt
Heart And Music: The Songs of William Finn
Into the Words: The songs of Sondhiem
They’re Playing My Songs: The Music of Marvin Hamlisch
Thoroughly Tesori
Brown Out: A Musical Review (Jason Robert Brown)
Bring Miranda to the Heights
Razzle Dazzle: The Music of Kander and Ebb
Nothing Is Too Wonderful To Be True: The Music of David Yazbek
“What I Did For Love”~The Music of Marvin Hamlisch
Jason Robert Brown- The Last 17 years. (Songs for a New World opened in 95)
Oh Yes, They’re playing my Song, a revue of the music of Marvin Hamlisch
I Write The Songs (But Not That One) – The Barry Manilow Songbook
Revue-ing the Situation: The Music of Lionel Bart
Schwartz: Made Up Words
Because We Can’t Sing Them at Auditions: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber
Hahaha. Thumbs up for that one!
He’s Got Wicked Magic To Do: The Music of Stephen Schwartz
Blue Moon – Rogers & Hart Revue
Another opening, another show: The music of Cole Porter
one singular sensation marvin hamlisch
Styne After Styne (the music of Jule Styne)
The Wonderful World of Menken (Alan Menken)
“So Much More Than Tomorrow” the songs of Martin Charnin
My Strongest Suit: The Lyrics of Tim Rice
“What a Night This is Going to Be–Like Wow!”, the songs of Marian Grudeff and Ray Jessel, the best songwriting team you’ve never heard of.
They Had It Coming: The Music of Kander & Ebb
Hail to the King: the Songs of Carole King
Once on this Lucky Stiff Favorite Year of Seussicalness, Ragtime and Anastasia Christmas Carol Island
by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens
Younger than Hammerstein: a musical revue of Rodgers and The Hamm
How about– “This Man Basically Wrote Your Childhood in Disney Songs: An Alan Menken Revue” XD (all of my favorite Disney music was written by this man!)
Truly Terrible: The Show tunes of Bono And The Edge
No Respect: The Music of Frank Wildhorn
Loesser is More: The Tin Pan Tunes of Frank Loesser
Under The Keys: The Music and Man, Alan Menken
How Lucky We Are: The Music of Ahrens and Flaherty
Your Song: The Music of Elton John
I would love to see a Carol King Revue. Wouldn’t that be amazing? The obvious title is Tapestry and why not? It’s her most beautiful song in my opinion and her most successful album.
i might agree with this…
The Brown Note:
The Music of Jason Robert Brown
Leslie Bricusse:
If Scrooge, Goldfinger & Willy Wonka walked into Bar…
[Representative Graphics surround/encompass each noun]:
1) Chains
2) A golden gun…
3) A chocolate bar…
4) AND a bar/measure of music…
OR
The Candy Man of Musicals
Walked into a Bar
A Fifth Jew in the Room
The Music of William Finn
They’re Playing His Songs: The Music of Marvin Hamlisch
Yeah he wrote Wicked but he’s written more: The Music of Stephen Schwartz(excluding Wicked)
Why Don’t I Have a Tony? The Music of Stephen Schwartz.
Rodgers & Heart: the man behind decades of Broadway music.
“Pop Goes the Wildhorn”: The Music of Frank Wildhorn
Smile: The Song of Charlie Chaplin
Broadway Ain’t No Honeymoon: the Songs of Composer and Lyricist Jason Robert Brown
Gee, I was gonna take this seriously.
Most of the composers listed herein are already exceedingly well known and touted on Broadway. So, I’m gonna fall back on a writer that doesn’t get a lot of mention anymore, but was prolific and highly successful – owing that he left New York and wrote most of his music in LA.
A serious revue of Harry Warren’s music is due – long over due. The man had hits for four decades, almost as secret a successful writer as Jules Styne (few people have a clue just how many hit popular songs Styne really wrote outside of the theater.)
And Warren’s library easily suggests simple plot lines that can be woven to tell a non-dialog story told in nothing but song lyric, about couples that meet in the 1920s-30s, separate during the war years and are reunited in the ’50s.
I’ll let someone else come up with the clever-pithy show title.
A…My Name Is Alice
(Songs by Zippel, Holzman & Lucy Simon)
Hear It Forever More: The Songs of Flaherty and Ahrens
WALL-TO-WALL WALLOWITCH…
the bewitching songs of John Wallowitch.
Hi Y’all, Dolly! – A Dolly Parton Musical Revue
There’s Only Us: The Songs of Jonathan Larson
Here Today, Gwon Tomorrow : The songs of Adam Gwon
When in Rome: The songs of Harold Rome
Cole Mining: The lost songs of Cole Porter
Beyonce: She Run da World
The Doug Katsaros EXTRAVAGANZA! Brought to you “By Mennon”
or:
The Many Hawaiian Shirts, umm Songs, of Doug Katsaros!
john williams–who needs words anyway?
An Incomplete Kitt; Songs From Tom Kitt, So Far.
The Music, the Mirror, and the Red Shoes: A Review of Marvin Hamlisch
Sing Your Own Song: The Music of Goldrich and Heisler. And I would gladly star in it, since I sing their music almost every day at my piano.
Call On Jerry! The music of Jerry Herman. (OK we already had Jerry’s Girls…but it’s time for a new review since we’ve had so little of him for so long!)
The Gospel according to Stephen Schwartz
How about the late, great Marvin Hamlisch? He wrote so many wonderful songs for Broadway and the movies. Some included The Way We Were sung by Barbra Streisand, Nobody Does It Better sung by Carly Simon, from the James Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me, and all the songs from the long running show A Chorus Line. Some titles of a revue of his life could be Marvin Does It Better, A Chorus for Marvin, or The Way I Was: The Story of Marvin Hamlisch. ( He actually wrote an autobiography entitled The Way I Was.
One Singular Sensation – musical genius, Marvin Hamlisch
The ABC’s of Music: The Songs of Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five