Editing Song and Dance

{{Short description|1982 musical}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox Musical
|name=Song and Dance
|image= Songanddance.jpg
|imagesize=300px
|caption= 
|music= [[Andrew Lloyd Webber]]
|lyrics= [[Don Black (lyricist)|Don Black]]<br />[[Richard Maltby Jr.]] (additional)
|book= 
|basis= 
|productions= 1982 [[West End theatre|West End]]<br />1983 Australia <br />1985 [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]]<br />2007 [[Israel]]
<!-- Please do not include production-specific (acting, directing, etc.) awards -->
|awards= 
}}
  
'''''Song and Dance''''' is a [[Musical theater|musical]] comprising two acts, one told entirely in "[[Song]]" and one entirely in "[[Dance]]", tied together by a unifying love story.

The "Song" act is ''[[Tell Me on a Sunday]]'', with lyrics by [[Don Black (lyricist)|Don Black]] and music by [[Andrew Lloyd Webber]], about a young [[United Kingdom|British]] woman's romantic misadventures in [[New York City]] and [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]]. The "Dance" act is a [[ballet]] choreographed to ''[[Variations (Andrew Lloyd Webber album)|Variations]]'', composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber for his [[cellist]] brother [[Julian Lloyd Webber|Julian]], which is based on the A Minor Caprice No. 24 by [[Niccolò Paganini|Paganini]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Lloyd Webber |first=Andrew |title=Unmasked: A Memoir |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |year=2018 |isbn=9780008237592 |location=London |pages=369, 370, 376, 379, 380, 416, 417, 421, 424, 425, 448, 451, 452, 453}}</ref>

==Background==
The ''Song'' portion was written specifically for [[Marti Webb]], and presented at the [[Sydmonton Festival]] in the summer of 1979. It was subsequently recorded and aired as a one-hour television special by the [[BBC]] the following January.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber|last=Richmond|first=Keith|publisher=Virgin Publishing|year=1995|isbn=185227557X|location=London, England|pages=[https://archive.org/details/musicalsofandrew00rich/page/69 69, 81, 82]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/musicalsofandrew00rich/page/69}}</ref> The ''Dance'' portion was recorded in 1978, and nearly became incorporated into ''[[Cats (musical)|Cats]]''. The opening sequence was utilized as the theme music for London Weekend Television's ''[[South Bank Show]]''.

Producer [[Cameron Mackintosh]] proposed that the two pieces be combined under the umbrella title ''Song and Dance'' to acknowledge the primary aspect of each act, billing the piece as "a concert for the theatre".<ref name=":0" />

Black altered some of the songs from the original album and worked with Lloyd Webber on new material: "The Last Man in My Life", "I Love New York" and "Married Man", the latter set to the same tune as "Sheldon Bloom". A new orchestration of the ''Variations'' for a sixteen-piece theatre orchestra was produced from the original symphonic version played by the [[London Philharmonic Orchestra]] but [[Harry Rabinowitz]] retained the baton for the stage production. "When You Want to Fall in Love", with a tune previously released by Marti Webb and [[Justin Hayward]] as "Unexpected Song" which itself was later added to the score, was used at the climax of the dance section to meld the two halves.<ref name=":0" />

==Productions==

===1982 London===
The musical had its world premiere on March 26, 1982 at the [[Palace Theatre, London|Palace Theatre]], where it ran for 781 performances, directed by [[John Caird (director)|John Caird]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> [[Marti Webb]] performed the ''Song'' half; she subsequently was succeeded in February 1983 by [[Gemma Craven]], who had performed the show for a month during Webb's holiday in August the previous year.<ref>{{Cite news |date=23 July 1982 |title=The Arts: Theatres |pages=15 |work=[[Financial Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=4 February 1983 |title=The Arts |pages=13 |work=[[Financial Times]]}}</ref> Craven was followed by [[Lulu (singer)|Lulu]] and [[Liz Robertson]].<ref name=":1" /> Carol Nielsson, Webb's original understudy took over the role with two hour notice when Lulu damaged her voice after a foldback monitor failed during a performance. The ''Dance'' portion was choreographed by [[Anthony Van Laast]] and featured [[Wayne Sleep]] and Jane Darling. Stewart Avon-Arnold also appeared as a contemporary dancer in the second act.

The set and lighting was designed by [[David Hersey]], costumes by Robin Don, and sound by Andrew Bruce and Julian Beech.

The original recording of the London production was made live on the opening night using a recording studio then built into the Palace Theatre. The album was produced by [[Martin Levan]], who also co-designed the sound system for the show.

Soon after the production closed, the show was filmed for a television broadcast, with [[Sarah Brightman]] and Wayne Sleep in the lead roles.

===1983 Australia===
The Australian production of the musical opened at the [[Theatre Royal, Sydney|Theatre Royal]] in [[Sydney]] on 4 August 1983.  It featured Gaye MacFarlane and [[John Meehan (dancer)|John Meehan]] in the leading roles.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Barnes|first1=Colin|title=So what's all the song and dance over?|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=uYZWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ruYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6970%2C2017664|access-date=8 April 2016|work=The Sun-Herald|date=7 August 1983|via=Google News}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/109597 |title=Song and Dance |website=AusStage}}</ref>

===1985 Broadway===
In anticipation of a Broadway run, director and lyricist [[Richard Maltby Jr.]] was approached to adapt the first act for an [[United States|American]] audience.<ref name=":1" /> The [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] production, choreographed by [[Peter Martins]], opened on September 18, 1985 at the [[Royale Theatre]] conducted by [[John Mauceri]], and closed on November 8, 1986, after 474 performances and seventeen previews.<ref name=":0" /> [[Bernadette Peters]] starred in ''Song'' for nearly thirteen months; she was succeeded by [[Betty Buckley]] for the final four weeks. ''Dance'' featured [[Christopher d'Amboise]] and [[Gregg Burge]]. Amongst the many changes to the show, the characters were all given names, with 'the girl' now known as Emma.

Singer-songwriter [[Melissa Manchester]] starred in a subsequent six-month US national tour of the show in 1987, starting in [[Dallas]], Texas and ending in [[Tampa]], Florida.<ref>{{cite news |title=Melissa Manchester Steps into 'Song and Dance' Role |url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/1987/06/25/melissa-manchester-steps-into-song-and-dance-role/ |access-date=24 May 2023 |work=Sun Sentinel |date=25 June 1987}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Harrison |first=Thomas B. |title=Melissa Manchester: Pop music pro enters a new stage with 'Song and Dance' |work=St. Petersburg Times |date=8 December 1987 |location=Florida |page=1D}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Theater: Summer Theater |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/110646968 |work=The New York Times |date=9 August 1987 |page=G16 |id={{ProQuest|110646968}} |quote=Civic Light Opera Co.: Song and Dance (starring Melissa Manchester) |via=ProQuest}}</ref>

The Broadway production received eight [[Tony Award]] nominations, with Peters winning the award for Best Actress in a Musical.<ref name="Tonys">{{cite news |last=Bennetts |first=Leslie |title=Tony Nominations Are Announced |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/06/theater/tony-nominations-are-announced.html |access-date=24 May 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=6 May 1986}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Dekic |first=Megan |title=The Playbill Vault Celebrates Tony Award Winner Bernadette Peters |url=https://www.playbill.com/articles/the-playbill-vault-celebrates-tony-award-winner-bernadette-peters-com-202805 |website=Playbill |access-date=24 May 2023 |date=28 February 2014}}</ref>

The recording of the Broadway production, featuring Peters in the entire first act but none of the music from second act, was recorded in 1985 by RCA Victor.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ruhlmann |first=William |title=''Song & Dance – The Songs'' Review |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/song-dance-the-songs-original-broadway-cast-mw0000191904 |website=AllMusic |access-date=17 July 2019}}</ref>

==Synopsis==
''Song'' focuses on an English girl who has recently arrived in New York City. Following an argument with her boyfriend, they decide to break up. She writes to her mother in England about what happened, and that she has met a new man, Hollywood producer Sheldon Bloom, with whom she travels to California. She eventually realizes that Sheldon has only been using her as a trophy, and she ends things once and for all.

The woman returns to New York disappointed and meets a younger man who she finds more fulfilling. When he has to leave on a business trip, the woman can't bear to let him go. Her friend later comes over to tell her about the man's infidelity, and she asks him for the truth.

Depressed, the woman walks through the city streets. She meets a married man and reflects on whether their affair is wrong. The married man comes by to confess his love; however, she realizes that she has been using him. In the end she decides that it was not the end of the world to have no one.

''Dance'' explores the story of the younger man, his various relationships and his commitment issues. At the end, the man sees the woman, and they make up, joining both at last in Song and Dance.

==Musical numbers==
{{Col-begin}}
{{Col-break}}
'''London'''
# "Overture"
# "Let Me Finish"
# "It's Not the End of the World"
# "Letter Home to England"
# "Sheldon Bloom"
# "Capped Teeth and Caesar Salad"
# "You Made Me Think You Were in Love"
# "Capped Teeth and Caesar Salad" (Reprise)
# "It's Not the End of the World (If He's Younger)"
# "Second Letter Home"
# "The Last Man in My Life"
# "Come Back with the Same Look in Your Eyes"
# "[[Take That Look Off Your Face]]"
# "Tell Me on a Sunday"
# "I Love New York"
# "Married Man"
# "I'm Very You, You're Very Me"
# "Let's Talk About You"
# "Let Me Finish" (Reprise)
# "Nothing Like You've Ever Known"
# "Let Me Finish" (Finale)
{{Col-break}}
'''Broadway'''
# "Overture/Take That Look Off Your Face"
# "Let Me Finish"
# "So Much to Do in New York"
# "First Letter Home"
# "English Girls"
# "Capped Teeth and Caesar Salad"
# "You Made Me Think You Were in Love"
# "Capped Teeth and Caesar Salad" (Reprise)
# "So Much to Do in New York (II)"
# "Second Letter Home"
# "[[Unexpected Song]]"
# "Come Back with the Same Look in Your Eyes"
# "Take That Look Off Your Face" (Reprise)
# "Tell Me on a Sunday"
# "I Love New York/So Much to Do in New York"
# "Married Man" (included on Original Broadway Cast recording, not performed on stage)
# "Third Letter Home"
# "Nothing Like You've Ever Known"
# "Finale – Let Me Finish (Reprise)/What Have I Done?/Take That Look Off Your Face (Reprise)"
{{col-end}}

==Cast albums==
The London Cast released an album on Polydor Records. (2683087).
1985 Broadway cast (Bernadette Peters) RCA Victor 68264 (Only The Songs segment. The Dance segment was not recorded)

===Charts===
{|class="wikitable 
|-
!scope="col"| Chart (1983)
!Peak<br />position
|-
|Australia ([[Kent Music Report]])<ref name=aus>{{cite book|last=Kent|first=David|author-link=David Kent (historian)|title=Australian Chart Book 1970–1992|edition=illustrated|publisher=Australian Chart Book|location=St Ives, N.S.W.|year=1993|isbn=0-646-11917-6|page=283}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"| 92
|}

==Critical reception==

Reviewing the London production, the ''[[Financial Times]]'' theatre critic Michael Coveney claimed, "It is a long time since I have sat through a more ostentatious, less theatrically coherent evening."

In [[Frank Rich]]'s review of the Broadway production for ''[[The New York Times]]'', he wrote: "Miss Peters is more than talented: As an actress, singer, comedienne and all-around warming presence, she has no peer in the musical theater right now. In her half of ''Song & Dance,'' she works so hard you'd think she were pleading for mercy before a firing squad. Yet for all the vocal virtuosity, tempestuous fits and husky-toned charm she brings to her one-woman musical marathon, we never care if her character lives or dies."<ref>{{cite news |last=Rich |first=Frank |title=Stage: 'Song & Dance,' with Bernadette Peters |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/19/arts/stage-song-dance-with-bernadette-peters.html |access-date=24 May 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=19 September 1985}}</ref>

[[John Simon (critic)|John Simon]], in ''The New York Magazine'', noted that the unseen men seemed "nebulous and unreal, so too, does the seen woman", and in the ''Dance'' half, "things go from bad to worse."  However, he wrote that "Miss Peters is an unimpeachable peach of a performer who does so much for the top half of this double bill as to warrant its immediate rechristening 'Song of Bernadette'. She not only sings, acts, and (in the bottom half) dances to perfection, she also, superlatively, 'is' ".<ref>{{cite book |last=Simon |first=John |title=John Simon on Theater: Criticism 1974-2003 |date=2005 |publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation |isbn=1-55783-505-5 |pages=359–361}}</ref>

==Awards and nominations==

'''Original London production'''
{| class="wikitable" width="95%"
|-
! width="5%"| Year
! width="20%"| Award 
! width="45%"| Category
! width="20%"| Nominee
! width="10%"| Result
|-
| rowspan="2" align="center"| 1982
| rowspan="2"| [[Laurence Olivier Award]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Olivier Winners 1982 |url=https://officiallondontheatre.com/olivier-awards/winners/olivier-winners-1982/ |website=Official London Theatre |access-date=24 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524030543/http://www.olivierawards.com/about/previous-winners/view/item98516/Olivier-Winners-1982/ |archive-date=24 May 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref>
| colspan="2"| [[Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in a Musical|Outstanding Achievement in a Musical]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical|Actress of the Year in a Musical]]
| [[Marti Webb]]
| {{nom}}
|}

'''Original Broadway production'''
{| class="wikitable" width="95%"
|-
! width="5%"| Year
! width="20%"| Award Ceremony
! width="45%"| Category
! width="20%"| Nominee
! width="10%"| Result
|-
| rowspan="13" align="center"| 1986
| rowspan="4"| [[Drama Desk Award]]<ref>{{cite web |title=1986 Awards |url=https://www.dramadesk.org/awards/nominees-and-recipients/1986-awards/?submit=Search |website=Drama Desk Awards |access-date=24 May 2023}}</ref>
| [[Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical|Outstanding Actress in a Musical]]
| [[Bernadette Peters]]
| {{won}}
|-
| [[Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical|Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical]]
| [[Gregg Burge]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography|Outstanding Choreography]]
| [[Peter Martins]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music|Outstanding Music]]
| [[Andrew Lloyd Webber]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Grammy Award]]<ref>{{cite web |title=29th Annual GRAMMY Awards {{!}} 1986 |url=https://www.grammy.com/awards/29th-annual-grammy-awards |website=Grammy.com |access-date=24 May 2023}}</ref>
| colspan="2"| [[Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album|Best Musical Show Album]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| rowspan="8"| [[Tony Award]]<ref name="Tonys"/>
| colspan="2"| [[Tony Award for Best Musical|Best Musical]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical|Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical]]
| [[Bernadette Peters]]
| {{won}}
|-
| [[Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical|Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical]]
| [[Christopher d'Amboise]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Tony Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score]]
| [[Andrew Lloyd Webber]], [[Don Black (lyricist)|Don Black]] and [[Richard Maltby Jr.]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Tony Award for Best Costume Design|Best Costume Design]]
| [[Willa Kim]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Tony Award for Best Lighting Design|Best Lighting Design]]
| [[Jules Fisher]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Tony Award for Best Choreography|Best Choreography]]
| [[Peter Martins]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical|Best Direction of a Musical]]
| [[Richard Maltby Jr.]]
| {{nom}}
|}

==See also==
*''[[Tell Me on a Sunday]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{official website|http://www.reallyuseful.com/shows/song-dance}}
*{{ibdb title|4377}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081210065653/http://www.musicalheaven.com/s/song_and_dance.shtml Information and midi files for the show]
*[http://www.andrewlloydwebber.com/shows/?show= Song and Dance Profile of the show, andrewlloydwebber.com]

{{Andrew Lloyd Webber}}
{{Don Black}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1982 musicals]]
[[Category:West End musicals]]
[[Category:Broadway musicals]]
[[Category:Musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber]]
[[Category:British musicals]]
[[Category:Sung-through musicals]]
[[Category:Tony Award–winning musicals]]
[[Category:Musicals set in New York City]]
[[Category:Musicals set in California]]