Starting Here, Starting Now

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Starting Here, Starting Now is a musical revue with lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr. and music by David Shire. With a cast of three and three musicians, the revue explores a variety of romantic relationships.

Musical theatre work that combines songs, music, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance

Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals.

A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932. Though most famous for their visual spectacle, revues frequently satirized contemporary figures, news or literature. Similar to the related subforms of operetta and musical theatre, the revue art form brings together music, dance and sketches to create a compelling show. In contrast to these, however, revue does not have an overarching storyline. Rather, a general theme serves as the motto for a loosely-related series of acts that alternate between solo performances and dance ensembles.

David Shire songwriter from the United States

David Lee Shire is an American songwriter and composer of stage musicals, film and television scores. The soundtracks to The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, The Conversation and All the President's Men, and parts of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack such as "Manhattan Skyline", are some of his best-known works. His other work includes the score of the 1985 film Return to Oz, and the stage musical scores of Baby, Big, Closer Than Ever, and Starting Here, Starting Now. Shire is married to actress Didi Conn.

Contents

Productions

The revue was first produced at the Manhattan Theater Club in 1976 under the title Theater Songs by Maltby and Shire. In March 1977, the show moved to the Barbarann Theater Restaurant in New York City, where it ran for 120 performances. The cast featured Loni Ackerman, Margery Cohen and George Lee Andrews. The original cast album was nominated for a Grammy Award, and the 1993 London production also produced a cast album. [1] The revue continues to be frequently produced.

New York City Largest city in the United States

The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States and thus also in the state of New York. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km2), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.

Loni Ackerman is an American Broadway musical theatre performer and cabaret singer.

George Lee Andrews is an American actor and singer. He holds the Guinness World Record for the most performances in the same Broadway show, having appeared in the musical Phantom of the Opera on 9,382 occasions over a period of 23 years.

After Maltby and Shire graduated from Yale, they wrote many songs for shows that either closed out of town or were never produced. Their songs tend to be "story songs", each giving the character(s) a chance to explore a mini-drama. The two writers decided to assemble these songs into a revue, grouping them by theme. [2]

Synopsis

Act I explores the humorous, joyful, melancholy and angry ups and downs of city romances. In Act II, the songs present characters who have had unlucky experiences in love and life and who have a chance at a new start.

Song list

The Original Cast recording was released in 1977 by RCA (ASIN: B000002W3D).

Notes

  1. ↑ 1993 cast album
  2. ↑ Description of the revue and its background

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References

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