Larry's Extraordinary Journey

Only a fifteen minute walk from my apartment is a wonderful theater called Symphony Space. Each year, they produce a show, or should I say marathon of musical theater, called Wall-to-Wall Broadway. Some years they feature the works of one specific composer. Other years, like this year, they cover a wider spectrum of Broadway Musical Theater. But every year, one can be assured of twelve hours, that's right, twelve hours of extraordinary, bordering on sublime musical theater! And all of Wall-to-Wall Broadway is free!!!

Even the most ardent of musical theater fans is unlikely to be able to sit through the entire performance, but I did my best. In total I saw approximately 8 hours of the show. I'm not going to list every song or every performer for you would be likely to fall asleep before I was done, I would likely end up with a bad case of writer's cramp. Anyway, here are the highlights:

"The Wizard and I" from Wicked, performed by Chelsea Krombach. I have yet to see this long-lived show, but want to more than ever, after Ms. Krombach's performance.

This was followed by an hour of songs that had been dropped from shows before they made it to Broadway. Two songs from Gypsy, titled "Nice She Ain't" and "Mama's Talkin' Soft", along with a song from Cabaret, titled "I Don't Care Much", stood out among these.

But it was Doug Kreeger's performance of "Being Alive" from Company that first brought me to my feet. What a voice! What a song!

An hour long interview with producer and director Harold Prince was fascinating and really drove home for me the time, work and money involved in bringing a show to Broadway.

Songs from yet to be produced shows were compelling. Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler performed a song from the musical version of Ever After, that was enchanting, along with a couple of other delightful tunes. Also to look forward to: The Kid, based on the book by Dan Savage. Book by Michael Zam, Music by Andy Monroe and Lyrics by Jack Lethner.

Rebecca Luker from Mary Poppins sang "Embraceable You", Andrew Smonsky from South Pacific sang "Younger than Springtime" Michael Cerveris sang "Pinball Wizard". Later, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of In the Heights, was interviewed by Sheldon Harnick, lyricist for Fiddler on the Roof. Miranda went on to perform a rap version of "Tradition" which required audience participation. It was incredible!

Then the orchestra came on stage. Every song and performance was pure magic. The best among the best included:

"September Song" performed by George S Irving, who appeared in the original production of Oklahoma back in 1943! In his 80s and still going strong!

"Soliloquy" from Carousel performed by Brian Stokes Mitchell was another show stopper. As many of you know, Carousel does it for me, and when I saw Mr. Mitchell perform "Soliloquy" my breath was literally taken away.