Sheldon Harnick
With Susan Hawkshaw
New York City, New York
March 21, 2000
TABLE OF CONTENTS
[Disk One]
Side a pp. 1-20
Harnick family and poetry--poems for grammar school--early violin study--writing sketches with Stanley Orzey --further study of violin in high school and with Michael Wilkomirsky--serving in the army--playing and singing for the volunteer special services unit--meeting Sol Lerner and doing sketches--attending Northwestern University--studying the violin and playing chamber music--contributing to WAA-MU shows--Charlotte Rae--Dave Garroway--influence of Finian’s Rainbow--playing in dance bands--problem with left arm--moving to N.Y. in 1950--finding a place to live and finding work--writing a song for Charlotte Rae: “The Ballad of the Shape of Things”--meeting Yip Harburg and what his advice was--first wife Mary Harmon--story of the “Boston Beguine” and its presentation by Alice Ghostley--Two’s Company--John Murray Anderson’s Almanac: “The Merry Minuet”--television making inroads into the revue form--working for Sam Liff and Len Bedsow on industrial shows: Shell gasoline, Nabisco, Buick, Columbia Recording Machines, Milliken Fabrics.
Side b pp. 20-40
Meeting Jerry Bock--Mr. Wonderful--The Body Beautiful--joining ASCAP, BMI--meeting Harold Prince and Robert Griffith--Fiorello!: playing songs on speculation for Prince and Griffith--doing research for Fiorello!--Art Carney Meets ‘Peter and the Wolf’--genesis of song “Little Tin Box”--Tenderloin-- realization that he had to get involved in the book--meeting his second wife--manner of working with Jerry Bock--“Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler.
[Disc Two]
Form, content and style in a lyric--Stephen Sondheim--problems in lyric writing: setting vowels on high notes, juxtaposition of words, homonyms, etc.--L’Amour Fantôme words and tempo--Smiling, The Boy Fell Dead--David Baker--influence of Gilbert and Sullivan--She Loves Me--Barbara Cook, Jack Cassidy--Hal Prince and Larry Kasha--off-Broadway production of She Loves Me.
Side c pp. 40-60
More on She Loves Me: Joe Masteroff’s work adapting it from Parfumerie--cutting some of the music--working with Bill Baird’s Marionettes: Art Carney Meets ‘Peter and the Wolf’—‘Man in the Moon’--working with Ogden Nash--Joe Raposo--Marionette version of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire duSoldat--Fiddler on the Roof--adapting Sholom Aleichem’s stories--getting permission from Arnold Perl--Jerome Robbins as director--doing research for Fiddler--Jerome Robbins’ influence on Fiddler--The Apple Tree: Adam and Eve, the Lady and the Tiger, Passionella--The Rothschilds--work on translations: The Merry Widow, The Goose from Cairo, L’Enfant et lesSortilèges--Rex with Richard Rodgers--work with Jack Beeson: Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines, Dr. Heidegger’s Fountain of Youth, Cyrano--Cyrano: adapting the Rostand play--use of rhyme--studying the original French translations of the Rostand--working on a musical.
[Disk Three]
Give and take between composer and librettist--production in Hagen, Germany--deepening the character of Roxane--Michel Legrand and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
Side d pp. 60-73
Working on The Umbrellas of Cherbourg translation--production at Joe Papp’s and the Cabaret Theater--television version of A Christmas Carol--L’Amour Fantôme --It’s a Wonderful Life--Joe Raposo and study with Nadia Boulanger--problem with rights for It’s a Wonderful Life--relationship between opera and music theater--Gershwin--Andrew Lloyd Webber--complexity of musical language in opera--opera by minimalists Glass and Adams--issues in N.Y. Times article on Sondheim--Dragons--learning about doing the book for a musical--second act of Dragons--reception of the original play in Russia.