Song Of The Day 6/1/2014: Andrea McArdle & Reid Shelton -- "I Don't Need Anything But You" (from "Annie")

Broadway Off and On: Showtunes!

You know... 'cause, the Tonys next week?

Those awards they give for... Broadway... shows... like, uh... musicals and...

...hey, where you going?

Oh, come on! We can't have mashups every week! This has relevance to current events! It's just one week! I never said this blog was exclusively anything! Please!

(sigh)

Well, for the four or five of you who are still around, these are going to be showtunes that are at least tolerable, in some cases even a little edgy. I got a song from something called Urinetown coming up later, if that gives you any anticipation.

But first we'll do something from... ah, geez, well, okay, it's from Annie. This was a musical about an orphan girl who sort of sets the bar when you're talking about somebody's "vacant eyes." She lives in an orphanage ruled over by a sadistic headmistress who's kind of a mix between Margaret Thatcher and Red Skelton. She escapes via a laundry-centered misadventure, somehow acquires the total trust of a stray dog, and goes to live with a war profiteer whose shoes seem a little soft for venture capitalism. But you don't argue with results, baby. Diabolical plotting emerges to whisk Annie away from instant wealth and prosperity until Franklin Roosevelt solves everything. Today's song is the duet between Annie and the rich guy when they realize their innate super-abilities to provide context and framing to their once one-dimensional existences: his super-rich isolationism, her chicken-broth-having inadequacies. It's very moving.

Full disclosure: I played Daddy Warbucks in a high school production of Annie. I was too self-conscious to shave my head as is traditional for the role. Had I known the future progress of my hairline I probably would have done it. Pretty sure that gaffe cost me the Drama Desk award. Also, I can't dance.