The initial rhymes are really repetitions. GROSS: Let me ask you a couple of things about the title song that we just heard. And over the years, little by little, it's made its way into the mainstream of shows that get performed. But through the years it got performances, and I began to get letters - Jerry Bock and I both got letters from companies who performed it saying, we love the show. And for about two years, if I remember correctly, it seemed to be dead, which was both bewildering and depressing. It seemed, at the time, to have a limited audience that when - as a matter of fact, when it closed, I was quite distressed because I loved the show so. Oh, I don't remember what the other shows were, but I think it's true that "She Loves Me" is a very literate, rather gentle show and, as some people have called it, caviar. HARNICK: The context, meaning other shows? The liner notes were written by the producer of this reissue, Larry Lash, and he implies that audiences really wanted brassier entertainment then "She Loves Me" at the time that it opened on Broadway. GROSS: It closed after a little over 300 performances. SHELDON HARNICK: Oh, it certainly is because, along with "Fiddler On The Roof," I think it's the favorite show that I've ever been connected with. Is this very good news for you that "She Loves Me" has been reissued? Are you glad to see it back in print again? TERRY GROSS: Sheldon Harnick, welcome to FRESH AIR. It's wrong now, but it won't be long now before my love discovers that she and I are lovers. My teeth ache from the urge to touch her. But now today she likes me, and tomorrow, tomorrow - ah. How could she when she doesn't know it? Yesterday she loathed me. And to my amazement, I love it, knowing that she loves me. Here's the title song.ĭANIEL MASSEY: (As Georg Nowack, singing) She loves me. The 1963 cast recording of the musical "She Loves Me," after being long out of print, had just been reissued. We begin with our 1988 interview recorded with Terry Gross. We're going to listen to excerpts of three of our interviews with him. Sheldon Harnick has been a frequent guest on FRESH AIR. Stephen Sondheim said Harnick was one of his favorite lyricists for his, quote, "grace, charm and perfection of setting," unquote. UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Singing) Tradition, tradition, tradition, tradition, tradition, tradition.ĭAVIES: Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock also wrote the Broadway musicals "Fiorello!," a musical about political corruption "She Loves Me," a love story between two pen pals set in Budapest and "Tenderloin," set in the red-light district of 1860s Manhattan. You may ask, why do we stay up there if it's so dangerous?ĭAVIES: That's Zero Mostel in the original Broadway cast recording of "Fiddler On The Roof." It ran for 3,242 performances, which, at the time, was a Broadway record. ZERO MOSTEL: (As Tevye) A fiddler on the roof - sounds crazy, no? But in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof, trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. In 1964, he and his writing partner, composer Jerry Bock, brought to life a small Jewish village in Czarist Russia. One of Broadway's great lyricists, Sheldon Harnick, died last week at the age of 99.
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