Anybody who knows me well knows that I believe Guys and Dolls is the greatest Broadway musical of all time. I'm also quite fond of Most Happy Fella and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, as well as assorted songs Frank Loesser wrote for other things. (I cannot, however, defend Greenwillow.) That makes it no surprise that I bought my ticket well in advance for the most recent Kennedy Center Broadway Up Close and Personal show, which was last night's tribute to Loesser.
Before that performance, there was the world premiere of Of Mice and Manhattan on the Millennium Stage. (That's the free nightly performance series at the Kennedy Center.) Emily Loesser (Frank's daughter) introduced the piece by explaining that her father wrote little songs about animals as a sort of songwriting practice. The family had been looking for something to do with them for some time and, along with the Kennedy Center's Theater for Young Audiences, had commissioned Barry Kornhauser to write a book (and Gerry Olin Greengrass to write some additional lyrics) to turn them into this children's musical, which was presented in a concert version. The story involves a mother mouse, Dora Squeak, and her son, Pip. The father mouse, Obediah, had never come home from the lab one day, so Dora and Pip have just been getting by in their mouse hole next to an apartment above Katz's Deli. Then, disaster strikes. People (eek! people!) have moved into the apartment.
Dora overhears the daughter asking her father if they can go to the zoo and, when he says he is too busy that day but that the animals get fed every day, she gets the idea that they should move to the zoo. Only they don't know where it is. Their journey takes them around Manhattan and introduces them to several other animals - dogs on the street, an owl who lives at City Hall and tries to devour them, museum beetles in the Museum of Natural History, a sheep in Sheep Meadow, a bookworm at the library, etc. Interestingly enough, all of the animals sing.
I won't tell you how the whole thing turns out, but I found the piece quite charming. I hope they go forward with full-up productions in the future.
As for the event I was actually there for, it consisted partly of Michael A. Kerker interviewing Jo Sullivan Loesser and partly of a group of performers doing Frank Loesser's songs. I should mention that other sessions in the series had the interviews with the actual composer or lyricist, but Loesser died in 1969 so that isn't possible. Jo has certainly done a lot to keep his legacy alive, but her interview responses were largely along the lines of "that's right" or "wasn't that a wonderful song" with just a few revealing anecdotes.
It's really the music that people are there for and that was certainly pleasing. Don Pippin played piano, with Noah Racey, Ron Raines, Susan Egan, and Emily Loesser (and Jo) singing. I was very impressed with Noah Racey as a song and dance man. (Yes, he got to do "Once In Love With Amy.") What I found most revealing was Susan Egan's comedic skill, particularly in her performance of "They're Either Too Young or Too Old." I will note that they did not perform any songs from Greenwillow, though there was a piece from Senor Discretion Himself. At least there was plenty of material from Guys and Dolls, including "Luck Be a Lady Tonight" (sung by Ron Raines) which is as near perfect a Broadway song as they come.
All in all, it was an entertaining evening - a fine tribute to a fine composer / lyricist.
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