Everyone needs a happy place, and on this week’s Dress Circle (6/26 7:00 p.m.), we’re going to share some of the songs that take us to ours. It was extremely difficult to pare down our choices because it seems that there are many more songs that make us happy than we thought.
For Ted, there is a mixture of moving melodies and up-tempo numbers from two by Jerome Kern beginning with the incredibly moving song from “Very Warm for May” entitled “All the Things You Are” in its original arrangement, to the manically upbeat “You Can’t Stop the Beat” from “Hairspray” by Shaiman and Whitman.
Michael, on the other hand, seems to need to bop a bit to find true happiness. His often silly choices include one of the Menken and Schwartz songs from “Enchanted” titled “Happy Working Song” because Ted had already chosen “That’s How You Know” from the score as well as two songs from a forgotten score by Coleman and Stewart for “I Love My Wife.” They are “Hey There Good Times” which we featured last week and “Scream” both performed by the four members of The Band who actually won a Drama Desk Award as a conglomerate Best Supporting Actor, and the musical takes place in Trenton, NJ!
You’ll also hear some of Ted’s happy songs from “Wonderful Town,” “Victor/Victoria,” and Sondheim’s “Road Show.” Michael’s other songs of happiness come from “The Book of Mormon,” the London production of “Children of Eden,” “Fade Out, Fade In,” and the stage version of “The Little Mermaid.”
Join us this week for a look into our psyches that isn’t as terrifying as it might have been as we show you just some of the songs from musicals that hit the happy button for us.
