The Cape Symphony presents Bravo Broadway! on Saturday, October 15 and Sunday, October 16, 2022.
Guest Artist
Scarlett Strallen, Vocals
Dee Roscioli, Vocals
Hugh Panaro, Vocals
Table of Contents
Program
BROADWAY TONIGHT!
Arranged by Bruce Chase
ANOTHER O'PNIN', ANOTHER SHOW from Kiss Me Kate
Cole Porter
DON’T RAIN ON MY PARADE from Funny Girl
Jule Styne & Bob Merrill
I COULD HAVE DANCED ALL NIGHT from My Fair Lady
Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe
I GOT RHYTHM from Girl Crazy
George Gershwin
76 TROMBONES from The Music Man
Meredith Wilson
YA GOT TROUBLE from The Music Man
Meredith Wilson
VANILLA ICE CREAM from She Loves Me
Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick
I DREAMED A DREAM from Les Miserables
Claude-Michel Schönberg & Alain Boublil
YOU CAN’T STOP THE BEAT from Hairspray
Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman
Intermission
OVERTURE/ALL THAT JAZZ from Chicago
John Kander & Fred Ebb
WILLKOMMEN from Cabaret
John Kander & Fred Ebb
NOT WHILE I’M AROUND from Sweeney Todd
Stephen Sondheim
SUDDENLY SEYMOUR from Little Shop of Horrors
Alan Menken & Howard Ashman
SO BIG/SO SMALL from Dear Evan Hansen
Benj Pasek & Justin Paul
DEFYING GRAVITY from Wicked
Stephen Schwartz
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA from The Phantom of the Opera
Andrew Lloyd Webber & Charles Hart
MUSIC OF THE NIGHT from The Phantom of the Opera
Andrew Lloyd Webber & Charles Hart
About Today’s Program
After a fun Broadway overture, our three Broadway veterans will join the orchestra on stage for Cole Porter’s “Another O'pnin', Another Show” from Kiss Me Kate. The 1948 show is about the production of a musical version of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, and went on to win the Tony for Best Musical. As you might suspect, this song is the opening number!
“Don’t Rain On My Parade” from Funny Girl, originally performed by Barbra Streisand, of course, is now back in popular culture thanks to the revival of the 1964 musical. Trivia note: Streisand was nominated for a Tony for Funny Girl but lost to Carol Channing in Hello, Dolly! For the 1968 film, Streisand won the Best Actress Oscar, and “Don’t Rain On My Parade” is one of her signature songs, although a new generation is now associating it with Lea Michele, the new star of the 2022 revival. Our special guest Dee Roscioli will make it her own on our stage.
British musical actress Scarlett Strallen will take us to London for "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady. Most of us associate the song with the luminous Audrey Hepburn in the 1964 film version; Hepburn’s singing voice was dubbed by a past Cape Symphony guest, Marni Nixon. Julie Andrews starred in the Tony-winning original Broadway production in 1956, but she was famously replaced for the film by the more famous Hepburn. Andrews instead made her film debut in Mary Poppins, winning the Oscar, while Hepburn was not nominated. My Fair Lady did win for Best Picture and scooped up several other Oscars.
The 1930 Broadway musical Girl Crazy by George Gershwin starred Ethel Merman in her stage debut and featured Ginger Rogers. The two female roles were later combined into the role Judy Garland played in the classic 1943 movie version. Mickey Rooney’s disobedient character is sent to an all-male college somewhere “out west” where he meets Judy’s character, the local postmistress. As was typical of their movies, Mickey and Judy end up putting on a show to raise money for the college, somehow enlisting the real Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra. Our trio of Broadway talent will perform Mickey and Judy’s big number, “I Got Rhythm.”
In 2021, The Music Man returned to Broadway with an extraordinary Tony-nominated revival led by Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster. The Cape Symphony will sound like “76 Trombones” and Hugh Panaro will channel both Jackman and Robert Preston (from the Tony-winning 1957 original Broadway show and the 1962 film) with “Ya Got Trouble.”
One of the Broadway numbers we’re doing may not be as familiar to you. It’s called “Vanilla Ice Cream” and comes from the show She Loves Me. Tony winner Laura Benanti was nominated again for her performance in this 2016 revival of the 1963 musical. While you may not recognize the title She Loves Me, you might know these movie names: The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old Summertime, and You Got Mail. That’s right, the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan rom-com! Each tells the story of two shop employees who don’t know that they are each other’s romantic pen pals.
Did you know that Les Miserables was first produced in French? The musical, based on Victor Hugo’s novel from 1862, premiered in Paris in 1980. The English adaptation appeared in London in 1985, and is the longest-running show in the West End. Les Miz, as it is commonly known, premiered in Broadway in 1987, where it won eight Tonys including Best Musical and became a global cultural phenomenon. “I Dreamed a Dream” is perhaps the most famous song from the show, and is performed by the characer Fantine, whose life is on a downward spiral. The song has been recorded by many people, including Neil Diamond, Aretha Franklin, and Susan Boyle, who performed it in a now-famous 2009 audition for the show "Britain’s Got Talent," launching her into global stardom.
“You Can’t Stop the Beat” from 2003’s Tony-winning Best Musical Hairspray is arguably one of the most high energy, danceable songs ever written for the Broadway stage. You may find it impossible to resist dancing in your seat or jumping up into the aisles!
After intermission, we’ll journey to Chicago and Berlin through the imaginations of composer John Kander, lyricist Fred Ebb, and director Bob Fosse. First, Dee and Scarlett will perform “All That Jazz” from Chicago, as Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart. Then Hugh will take us to Berlin’s Kit Kat Klub for “Willkommen,” famously performed by Joel Grey in his Tony-winning performance in the 1966 original Broadway production and his Oscar-winning performance in Fosse’s 1972 movie Cabaret.
Of course, you can’t talk about great Broadway composers and lyricists without including Stephen Sondheim. In the second act of Sweeney Todd, Mrs. Lovett’s young helper Toby grows suspicious of Sweeney, the proprietor of the barber shop upstairs from her pie shop. He sings this sweet song, “Not While I’m Around,” to Mrs. Lovett, who is a mother figure to him. The lyrics, “Nothing’s gonna harm you, not while I’m around,” are misplaced, as Mrs. Lovett is in gruesome cahoots with Sweeney Todd, unbeknownst to poor Toby.
Sticking with the horror-musical theme, Little Shop of Horrors by Alan Menken & Howard Ashman was an off-Broadway show based on a low-budget 1960 film by director Roger Corman. The 1986 film version combines horror and comedy with song and dance, starring Rick Moranis as Seymour and Ellen Greene as Audrey, with Steve Martin and cameos from Bill Murray, Jim Belushi, and John Candy. Seymour and Audrey work at a flower shop, and Seymour has purchased a mysterious plant which feeds on human blood. Although Audrey has a boyfriend (Martin as a nasty dentist), in the song “Suddenly Seymour,” she and Seymour recognize how they feel about each other.
In 2017, Dear Evan Hansen won six Tony awards including Best Musical and broke down barriers by addressing the issues teens struggle with, including bullying, mental health, and the pressures of social media. The Washington Post called it “One of the most remarkable shows in musical theater history,” the Los Angeles Times called it a “cultural phenomenon,” and the Boston Globe said that “Dear Evan Hansen feels both of-our-moment and built to last.” In Tony winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s song “So Big/So Small,” Evan’s mom Heidi Hansen lets Evan know that she realizes her failures as a mother but that she’s not going to leave him, no matter what.
Dee played Elphaba, also known as the Wicked Witch, in Wicked for a record-breaking seven years. Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz (who also wrote Godspell and Pippin) adapted the 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (a terrific read!), which of course was inspired by The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. The 2003 Broadway musical made Idina Menzel famous and made “Defying Gravity” a global hit; you'll love Dee's passionate rendition.
Meanwhile, Hugh played the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera over 2,000 times, including in the 25th Anniversary production. So naturally, we’ll present two of the incredible songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber: “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Music of the Night.” Phantom is the longest-running show in Broadway history, but it will close in February 2023 as costs of the very expensive production skyrocketed over the years. Sales have boomed since the announcement, but our audience doesn’t have to go to New York – our concert stage will become the Phantom’s subtarrenean lair below the Paris Opera House!
Enjoy “Bravo Broadway!”
Bravo Broadway! is SOLD OUT! If you have any questions about the performances, visit capesymphony.org, call the Box Office at 508-362-1111, email
With thanks to Wikipedia.
