Can comedy be Inspirational?  You bet.  I’m Tired from Mel Brook’s Blazing Saddles sung by the inimitable Lili von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn) and Springtime For Hitler from The Producers both written by Mr. Brooks are two cases in point.  They make you laugh.  They make you feel instantly better.  That’s Inspirational.  Here are my Top 3.

COMEDY
1. Cocktails For Two — Spike Jones / Sam Coslow and Arthur Johnston

Coslow was the first Broadway songwriter to be hired by Paramount. During his decade with Paramount, he wrote songs for many of their films, including most of the early Bing Crosby pictures. “Cocktails For Two” (1934, with Arthur Johnston, for Murder at the Vanities) was one of them.

But it was the Spike Jones approach to the song that really killed me and still does today.  His “send up” arrangements of popular songs of the day were simply hysterical.  Weird Al learned a lot from Spike.

2. I Wanna Go Back To Dixie — Tom Lehrer

Probably may favorite comedy writer of all time, this clever, funny man always made me laugh.  His albums are just full of great satirical songs.  If you don’t know Tom Lehrer’s music and need a good laugh (and who doesn’t?) rush right out and buy a couple of his albums.  Stephen Sondheim said that one of the hardest things to do in a song was to make people laugh out loud.  For Tom Lehrer, it was a breeze.

3. Gee, Officer Krupke – From West Side Story // Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein

Clever, truly funny and a great character study, this song is a masterpiece of theater comedy.  Here Stephen Sondheim with the terrific musical support of Leonard Bernstein pulls out all the stops and simply nails the moment in resplendent and oh so funny comedy.

RIFF (sings)
Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke,
Ya gotta understand–
It’s just our bringin’ upke
That gets us outta hand.
Our mothers all are junkies,
Our fathers all are drunks.
Golly Moses — natcherly we’re punks.

And then later…

My Daddy beats my Mommy,
My Mommy clobbers me,
My Grandpa is a Commie,
My Grandma pushes tea.
My sister wears a mustache,
My brother wears a dress.
Goodness Gracious, that’s why I’m a mess!

BROADWAY
1. The Impossible Dream – From Man Of La Mancha / Lyrics by Joe Darion and Music by Mitch Leigh

The first time I saw this show with Richard Kiley who won a Tony Award for his performance as Cervantes/Quixote, was a moment in the theater I shall never forget.  I was sitting in the old Anta Theater in Greenwich Village in a 2/3 round house where I could see the reaction of much of the audience.

As Mr. Kiley wound his way through this perfectly written quest song, Suddenly an older man in a grey suit stood up in the audience to the right of me with tears streaming down his face holding on for dear life to the seat in front of him and continued to watch the performance, spellbound and deeply moved.  Then to the left of me another man did the same with the same tears and the same deep emotion.  By the end of the song there were about ten similar incidents – all men – standing in silent tearful ovation.  It was the most powerful moment I ever witnessed in the theater.

I decided then and there that I wanted to write for the theater.

2. If I Loved You – from Carousel / Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein

Originally from St. Louis, I didn’t grow up a Broadway baby.  I did not see a musical until I was in college, so I was not at all familiar with the theater.  While in college in my senior year, I directed a production of Carousel as my senior project.  I totally fell in love with the experience and decided then and there that this was what I wanted to do the rest of my life.  At the time I thought it was to direct.

If I Loved You captured the magic of the theater like nothing I had ever experienced before.  Its haunting melody courses through the show as love song, deeply emotional reprise and powerfully evocative underscoring.  It taught me how to use music fully in a theatrical production.

3. The Overture — from West Side Story / Leonard Bernstein

My mentor, Jack Eyerly, asked me one day to accompany him to the University of Illinois to see a performance of their Concert Orchestra.  Naïve and doubtful, I pictured a marching band in uniform playing college fight songs.  I did not especially want to go, but one did not turn down Jack Eyerly.

The concert orchestra was 100 strong in a gorgeous hall and the uniforms, of course, black tie.  These kids were good!  They opened with Leonard Bernstein’s Overture from West Side Story and I was completely bowled over by the sound, the playing, the arrangement and orchestration and the majesty of Bernstein’s score.  I sat spellbound as the music washed over me and was hooked on orchestras for the rest of my life.

RUNNERS UP
I Can See It – from The Fantasticks / Music by Harvey Schmidt and Lyrics by Tom Jones.
I Loves You Porgy – from Porgy and Bess / George and Ira Gershwin
Come To Me, Bend To Me – from Brigidoon / Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and Music by Frederick Loewe.

Join us tomorrow for Part 5 – The Finale.