So occasionally I have access to a car that has Sirius Radio service, and I've enjoyed listening to much of what is broadcast on "Broadway's Best Channel 77." Today I happened to be in my friend's car while they broadcast the complete cast album of Mayor: The Musical. So it's another vehicle (pun intended) for expanding my Year.
It's the high-flying 80s and Mayor Ed Koch is shaking up the establishment in New York City. According to the Broadway database, this show only ran for 70 performances, which surprises me, because the lyrics are hysterical and the premise funny. And I'm not even a New Yorker.
Maybe it cut a little too close to home, since Koch was still Mayor when this show opened in 1985. Some of the humor is lost on me because it involves local issues or New York personalities of the time. The best songs are those that poke fun at attributes of the City or it inhabitants. Maybe that's what cut a little too close?
Lenny Wolpe is a good singer but isn't given the best stuff to sing here. The funniest stuff is for the chorus: "You Can Be A New Yorker, Too!" and "March of the Yuppies", the latter which lampoons Koch's clean-up of the City.
Mayor: The Musical
Music lyrics by Charles Strouse (he redeems himself for imflicting Annie on us!)
Book by Warren Leight
Cast: Lenny Wolpe, Nancy Giles (who you may know as a commentator for CBS Sunday Morning), Ilene Kristen
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