His songs had characters musing out loud about what would happen if they only had a brain/heart/courage. Alas, though his career spanned several decades, the score of The Wizard of Oz is pretty much all anyone knows about Harold Arlen (1905-1986).
Actor Adrian Marchuk and his cohorts would like to change that.
Arlen, it is said, flew under the radar (there are probably many theories why) even though he also wrote over 500 songs in the Great American Songbook, the list of popular songs known as “standards”.
Arlen’s work will be featured in Over the Rainbow, an evening of about 50 of those ditties, at Barrie’s Mady Centre on Wednesday, Aug. 23.
Marchuk, whom some folks may remember as Frankie Valli in the Canadian production of Jersey Boys, concurs that history has not been kind to this prolific composer born in Buffalo.
“Some of it is because he made his mark in Hollywood more than Broadway, some of it is because he was himself shy and retiring, and some of it is just plain bad timing.”
The thing is, everyone knows Harold Arlen... they just don't know that they know him! And I can guarantee that they'll know him and love him once the show is done.
Marchuk and his fellow cast members (with yeoman support from conductor Chris Tsujiuchi) will highlight the Arlen story with a slide presentation, and tunes like Get Happy and The Man That Got Away (big hits for Judy Garland), Ac-Cent-Chu-Ate the Positive (Bing Crosby’s classic), One for My Baby and One for the Road (Frank Sinatra)
Among the supporting cast, Alana Bridgewater is just returning from the triumphant New York City run of Soulpepper Theatre's Spoon River, and blew audiences away in the Toronto production of We Will Rock You.
Thom Allison is one of Canada's great voices, a regular lead actor at the Shaw and Stratford, and many Toronto stages, and can currently be seen in the hit TV show Killjoys. Kelly Holiff is one of Canada's best-known cabaret vocalists, having toured the last two years with superstar Colm Wilkinson, and she was seen in Barrie last year in Any Dream Will Do, as well as at the recent Stars Come Out benefit performance.
But above all, the star is Harold Arlen, whose songs are featured in Over the Rainbow, at the Mady Centre on Dunlop West, Wednesday, Aug. 23, starting at 7:30 p.m. For more information, click here.
