By Marilyn Lester***On a recent night in… Manhattan (where else), the song of the same name, music by Richard Rodgers and lyric by Lorenze Hart, had a swell birthday party. To celebrate 100 years—the tune was written for the 1925 revue Garrick Gaieties—producer Scott Perrin created a salon by invitation for the occasion, with those in attendance partying like it was… 1925.
Before there was a “Theme from New York, New York” there was “Manhattan” (well, there still is). The number of times the latter has been covered over its century qualifies as sung by a cast of thousands, from Ella Fitzgerald to the Supremes to The Flying Karamazov Brothers and beyond. Who could resist “We’ll have Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island too…” You probably know the words!
Perrin’s luxe pre-war apartment is somewhat of a legend too. It’s the ancestral seat of the Perrin family, lately dubbed “54 Above” for its proximity above the nightclub below. Perrin senior was orchestra leader Forrest Perrin and his mother the comedy writer Lesley Davison. The Perrin living room over many, many years saw a wealth of celebrities visit and party. If, as they say, the walls could talk. And naturally, the room features twin baby grand pianos.
Those pianos were delightfully manned by Tedd Firth and Billy Stritch, plus pianist Ted Rosenthal with vocal contributions by the entirely Marvelous Marilyn Maye, who (it’s no secret) was a toddler when “Manhattan” hit the Broadway stage and became a sensation. And of course music abounded with sing-alongs invited. The glory of the Great American Songbook was mined for its roots and tunes scarcely heard in that downstairs cabaret room, or anywhere in Manhattan these days. How about “Three Musketeers,” “April Fool,” “On With the Dance” and “Sentimental Me” among others.
But wait, there was more! filmmaker and vocalist Amber Edwards debuted a newly discovered Rodgers and Hart comedy number titled “Queen Elizabeth” written for The Garrick Gaieties. The song was long believed lost to time, but thanks to Marc Horowitz, Senior Music Specialist at The Library of Congress, a recently uncovered Richard Rodgers’ original pencil sketch was unearthed, from which a lead sheet was constructed. “Queen Elizbeth” is a cheeky number, but it was, after all, the Roaring Twenties.
Happy Birthday, “Manhattan!” Here’s to another glorious century of our “isle of joy.”
