70, Girls, 70 [Original Broadway Cast]

by 70 Girls 70 / O.C.R.

Overview

The conventional wisdom is that composer John Kander and co-librettist and lyricist Fred Ebb's 70, Girls, 70, based on the play Breath of Spring, flopped as a Broadway musical in the spring of 1971 because of a combination of bad luck (one of its intended stars, David Burns, literally died in Philadelphia) and an overabundance of shows of the same type. (A revival of No, No, Nanette and Stephen Sondheim's Follies, both also featuring senior citizens as stars, preceded it.) It may be, however, that the show was simply too slight an entertainment. The idea concerned a hotel for poor, aging people who went on a crime spree, stealing clothing. Typical for Kander and Ebb, there was also a show within a show, such that it was really about a group of old Broadway troupers playing poor, aging people in a hotel going on a crime spree, which allowed for songs like "Broadway, My Street." And also typical for the songwriting team, Kander turned out 1920s pastiche music (appropriate for the over-70 performers), while Ebb simultaneously celebrated and satirized the material. Typical was "Coffee in a Cardboard Cup," in which Lillian Hayman and Goldye Shaw explained that "the trouble with the world today" was that "everything is hurry up." Meanwhile, Lucie Lancaster and Gil Lamb addressed the question of septuagenarian sex in "Do We?" Star Mildred Natwick finally examined the inevitable question of death in "The Elephant Song" before her character actually did die, which did not keep her from coming back at the close for the affirmative closer, "Yes." There were, thus, a few good songs, even if 70, Girls, 70 was a minor effort from a major Broadway team. ~ William Ruhlmann

Product Details

Release Date:	05/19/1992
Label:	Sony Music Distribution
UPC:	0074643058926
Rank:	138495

Tracks

1. Old Folks
2. Home
3. Broadway, My Street
4. The Caper
5. Coffee in a Cardboard Cup
6. You and I, Love
7. Do We?
8. Hit It, Lorraine
9. See the Light
10. Boom Ditty Boom
11. Believe
12. Go Visit Your Grandmother
13. 70, Girls, 70
14. The Elephant Song
15. Yes
16. Finale

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Lillian Roth   Primary Artist
Steve Mills   Primary Artist
Lucie Lancaster   Primary Artist
Joey Faye   Primary Artist
Jay Velie   Primary Artist
Abigail Lewis   Primary Artist
Beau Tilden   Primary Artist
Dorothea Frietag   Primary Artist
Ruth Gullette   Primary Artist
Lloyd Harris   Primary Artist
Tommy Breslin   Primary Artist
Coley Worth   Primary Artist
Bobbi Tremain   Primary Artist
Gil Lamb   Primary Artist
Goldye Shaw   Primary Artist
Mildred Natwick   Primary Artist
Lillian Hayman   Primary Artist
Hans Conried   Primary Artist
Thomas Anderson   Primary Artist
Henrietta Jacobson   Primary Artist
Oscar Kosarin   Musical Director

Technical Credits

John Kander   Composer
Fred Ebb   Composer
Fred Plaut   Engineer
John Guerriere   Engineer
Steve Mills   Performer
Thomas Z. Shepard   Producer,Remixing
Thomas Anderson   Performer
Stanley Prager   Production Supervisor
Hans Conried   Performer
Lillian Hayman   Performer
Mildred Natwick   Performer
Ken Mandelbaum   Liner Notes
Goldye Shaw   Performer
Lillian Roth   Performer
Henrietta Jacobson   Performer
Lucie Lancaster   Performer
Joey Faye   Performer
Jay Velie   Performer
Don Walker   Orchestration
Mike Danner   Translation
Dorothea Freitag   Dance Arrangement
Tim Tiedemann   Engineer,Remixing
Floriana Bivona-Lockner   Translation
Abigail Lewis   Performer
Beau Tilden   Performer
Dorothea Frietag   Performer
Ruth Gullette   Performer
Lloyd Harris   Performer
Tommy Breslin   Performer
Coley Worth   Performer
Bobbi Tremain   Performer
Gil Lamb   Performer
Oscar Kosarin   Vocal Arrangement
Charles Burr   Liner Notes
Joe Masteroff   Adaptation