Loesser Is Always More

Frank Loesser is right up there with Sondheim on my list of favorite Broadway composers, but then there might not have been a Sondheim had there not been a Loesser, so maybe I should say he is my favorite. There is a humor, a bite and an unpretentiousness about his best music that I love, and though there is no doubt that he worked very hard to compose his musicals--Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed are among his best--one gets the feeling that no task was daunting enough to stand in the way of cocktail time for Frank Loesser. He doesn't take his music as seriously as Sondheim takes his, and maybe that's what makes it a little fresher, to my ear, at least. This song, Somebody, Somewhere from The Most Happy Fella, is one of the best. Though it conveys considerable emotion and is as moving as any song I know (the singer is telling about having finally found someone who cares, after all), there is a top-40 lightness to it, too. That is part of the magic, the sleight of hand, of Frank Loesser. He makes it look, and sound, easy.

This clip is my solo in last April's Shubert Alley in the Valley, the fourth annual musical revue we have performed at the Sautee Nacoochee Community Center in our area of the Blue Ridge Mountains north of Atlanta. I say "we"--a group of us who love musical theatre are passionate about this revue, which draws a full house, or houses, every year. Next year for the first time, we are scheduled to do four performances across two consecutive weekends. I'm looking forward to it.

About the video: It's the first I've posted on my blog and it takes a bit of courage to do so. It's not perfect, but I'm proud of the restraint I show here. No big hand gestures, not much movement, so the emotion in the lovely melody and lyrics can come through without distraction. The song is sung by a woman in the show, though I didn't change the pronouns in this performance. (Proud of that, too.) I do need to work on being looser and more relaxed, but it's scary being alone on stage in front of 100 people, OK? :) One more thing--the sigh at the end was something I added in our second performance. If we'd done a third, I believe I would have kept it in. I think it works. What about you?

P.S. And for a bit of levity, here is another number from the show--Hard Knock Life from Annie. I got to play Annie! What fun. I love everyone who is part of this show.