The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    A Theatrical Friday Afternoon at the Haikulodeon

    By MrSmith1 on Fri, 03/18/2016 - 6:25pm |

     

    The curtain rises on this week's heap of haikus:

     

    The other night, I was watching PBS, and they showed a wonderful documentary from 2013, entitled, "Broadway Musicals, a Jewish Legacy."   I found myself getting extremely emotional, even though I'm not Jewish.  Maybe something about the idea of stories of outsiders written by outsiders made me kvell.   Maybe I was being reminded of why I loved performing in musicals when I was young ( and mourning for how much I miss it. )   Maybe I've just become a weepy old man that cries easily.  Well, I wouldn't be the first Dagblogger to fit that description, now would I?  

    Anyway, since, I have written here before about my love for musicals,  I felt it might be fun to explore the topic in today's Haikulodeon offering.   Have fun.     

    .

     

     

    double haiku:
     
    Pricey velvet seats;
    Orchestra, on the aisle ...
    It's Broadway, baby!

    The house lights dim, the
    overture strikes up, and I
    feel alive once more!

     

     

    ---

     

     

    If you syncopate
    a fascinatin’ rhythm,
    will you strike a chord?
     

     

     

    ---

     

     

     

    Lovers speculate
    how the world would be diff'rent
    if their love were true.

     

    ---

     

     

     

     

    I can't continue ...
    Lost ticket to Paradise
    Love nearly was mine.



    ---

     


     

     

    My old aunt Eller,
    sits alone, churning butter ...
    Beautiful morning.

     


    ---


     

     

     

     


    I was unaware,
    lonesome;  didn't have a clue
    until there was you

     

     

    ---

     

     

     

     

    Fish gotta swim, and
    birds gotta fly, I can't help
    lovin' whom I love.

     

     

     

    ---

     

     

     

     

     

    We have never met,
    just written to each other
    Will he know my heart?

     

    ---

     

     

     

     

     


    My heart's so full
    of you, there is just no room
    for anything else. 

     

     

    ---

     

     

     

     

    When your world crumbles
    and it looks as though all is lost ....
    Glitter and be gay

     

     

    ---

     

     

     

     

    We're one hand, one heart
    Our journey has joined, our paths
    now interwoven.

     

     

     

    ---

     

     

     

    Not just for an hour
    I'll be loving you always
    That's when I'll be there

     

    ---

     

     

     

     

    When there's outrage and
    Tyranny oppresses you ...
    Make them hear you!

     

     

    ---

     

     

     

    Anger for Revenge!
    Will subside without a plan,
    Welcome, Sweeney Todd!

     

    ---

     

     

     

    Strong belief systems
    can overcome innocence
    Surprising results!

     

    ---

     

     

     

    I saw everything!
    I was someone in a tree.
    History observed.

     

     

     

    ----

     

     

    To close on a bit of a sad note, I woke up to read that actor Larry Drake had died.  I think it was our mutual friend, Charles Averill, that first introduced me to Larry Drake when we were all in Oklahoma attending college in the late 60's / early 70's.    Larry was a big guy, but gentle and funny. When I briefly attended Graduate School at the University of Oklahoma (It think it was either the fall of '73 or '74 ... ), Larry and I performed in the musical Oklahoma together. I played the peddler, Ali Hakim (The part Eddie Albert played in the movie) and Larry played Jud Fry (Rod Steiger in the movie.) I used to watch Larry do his solo song, "Lonely Room", every night, and for the first time realized the part was more complex than simply being the villain who sets the plot in motion. Larry made me feel such empathy for this poor farmhand, who wanted everything that Curly wanted, and yet, because he wasn't handsome or as polished and well-mannered as Curly, was denied what his heart desired.

    Larry had great stage presence and so it was no surprise when I heard he got the part on LA Law, another part to which Larry brought great tenderness and one that enabled a lot of people to see a developmentally challenged person as a real, 3-dimensional human being, with all the flaws and challenges and triumphs they encounter as they go through life . Larry won two well-deserved Emmys for that part.

    I have known so many remarkable people in my life. What a blessing it has been. RIP Larry Drake.

     

     

    ****
    Sorry, I will clean all this up later.

     

    P.S"    In honor of St. Patrick's Day ... "I'll take you home again, Kathleen" sung by Josef Locke:
     

     

     

     

    ^^^^

     

     

    Comments

    Smith, I know we share a love of musicals. I have watched the PBS show, really moving.

    This really dates me, my first Broadway show was Porgy and Bess, Cab Calloway and Eartha Kitt. Somewhat later a music group I was in got a gig at a Jewish Eternal Light Dinner at the Waldorf when Kitt canceled at the last minute. 

    Well, Smith, we have the memories, don't we? Peace, my friend.

    And yet, why do I laugh at a line like this:

    "If you wake up in the morning,....and, ....you're not angry,...you're an idiot".

    Irony is the antidote to consciousness.


    by Oxy Mora on Sat, 03/19/2016 - 4:32pm


    Thanks Oxy.  Wow, Porgy and Bess.  I think I've written before about how my first experience of Broadway was when as a 9 year old, my parents took me to see The Unsinkable Molly Brown.   The PBS show really got me thinking about the uniqueness of Musical theater.  It is  a rare art form that can, through the simultaneous stimulation of multiple senses, so thoroughly move us.  Theater is capable of setting off an emotional catharsis, and musical theater even more so.  I was trying to think of the many ways we can be moved by musical theater;   the loss of love, the triumph of love, the righteous anger of the aggrieved, the embrace of a comedic vision in the midst of tragedy, the simple perfection of joy, etc.    I tried to include as many of those as I could think of.   I'm sure there are a lot more, but these were all scenes that, at some point, moved me either to tears or to tears of joy.


    by MrSmith1 on Sat, 03/19/2016 - 5:00pm

    Thanks for all the links.

    I fell apart during Chorus Line when, I think it was Paul, one of the dancers injured his leg and had to drop out. It's odd how individual scenes get you, perhaps connects with an emotion that is already central to you.


    by Oxy Mora on Sat, 03/19/2016 - 5:15pm


    Yes, which was, in fact, one of the origins of theater; as cathartic event.   I remember briefly meeting Michael Bennett when I was an NBC page and he had come to be interviewed  on the local news show.  Looking back, it was probably to promote his new show, Chorus Line, but I liked him for his earlier work on Sondheim's Follies ... The local news show were using what we all referred to as their Star Trek set, which was all enclosed and so I was there to help guest find their way on and off the set.  The only thing I could find was a blue NBC card and for the first and only time, I asked someone for an autograph while I was at work.  He was very nice to oblige and I still have that autograph.


    by MrSmith1 on Sat, 03/19/2016 - 5:43pm

    Well, the evidence is in, Oxy ..  Singing Show tunes is good for you ... 


    by MrSmith1 on Tue, 03/22/2016 - 5:51pm

    Hey, Smith. I think it's true, especially in a group. Helps reconnect the neurons. I haven't done any singing for five years, really miss it. Out here in the boonies, I'm stuck with listening to Sirius, Broadway channel. But I can blast it out and sing along without alerting the neighbors.

     


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 03/22/2016 - 6:57pm

    Thanks, some great performances. And don't forget the short piece from South Pacific in which Rogers and Hammerstein nearly caused the collapse of Murrica values into communism :

     


    by NCD on Sun, 03/20/2016 - 12:17am

    Yes, Oscar Hammerstein was a proud Liberal, who started pushing that envelope in 1927 with Showboat, and twenty years later, when South Pacific opened on Broadway, he didn't mince words or make the meaning ambiguous, he laid it in their laps ...  so to speak.


    by MrSmith1 on Sun, 03/20/2016 - 1:43am

    The Friday after next is April 1st.  I like to try a Haikulodeon Challenge.  It's difficult, I don't know if I can do it, but I also think it might be fun, so I'm giving us almost two weeks notice to think it over.  Here's what I'd like to try;  On Friday, April Fools Day, I'd like to try doing a Palindromic heap of haikus.  That is, every haiku must have at least one line be a palindrome.   And every comment should follow the same rule.  One line has to be a palindrome.  Sound like fun?  Sounds a little scary too, right?  Well, that's why I'm giving everyone, including myself, advanced notice.  Don't post your palindromic haikus until April 1st.    Let's see if we're up to the challenge.  God lives, evil dog!


    by MrSmith1 on Sun, 03/20/2016 - 6:49pm

    Them be fightin' words.
    I will endeavor lifting
    gauntlet fairly thrown.


    by moat on Sun, 03/20/2016 - 9:32pm

    Hi moat!!  

    It is ambitious
    to run a daunting gauntlet
    lots get thrown by it.


    by MrSmith1 on Sun, 03/20/2016 - 10:22pm

    Palindrome problem:
    Reflection doubles image.
    Odd becomes even.

    Haiku is odd by nature.
    Repeat the five or seven?


    by moat on Mon, 03/21/2016 - 7:59pm

    Don't overthink this.
    odd numbers, break even thoughts
    ergo v. ogre


    by MrSmith1 on Mon, 03/21/2016 - 10:31pm

    This is a yoke, right?


    by Oxy Mora on Mon, 03/21/2016 - 10:49pm


    A yoke is a yoke.
    Scrambled? Delicious. Oxen
    yokes? ... leave a bad taste.


    by MrSmith1 on Mon, 03/21/2016 - 11:13pm