EXCLUSIVE: In a tribute shared completely with Deadline, musical theater impresario Sir Cameron Waterproof coat has remembered Tom Lehrer, the musical comedy legend, who has died on the age of 97.
Lehrer died on July 26 at his dwelling in Cambridge, Massachusetts, abandoning a legacy of satirical musical songs, together with “Poisoning Pigeons within the Park” and “The Vatican Rag,” which poked enjoyable at mid-Twentieth century America. He largely disappeared from public eyes within the Nineteen Seventies and spent the remainder of his life in academia, instructing arithmetic.
Waterproof coat, the West Finish producer behind reveals together with Hamilton and Les Misérables, collaborated with Lehrer on Tomfoolery, a musical revue of Lehrer’s songs, which opened on the Criterion Theatre in 1980.
In his tribute, Waterproof coat remembers his pal’s “wickedly witty mind” and pitching Tomfoolery to Lehrer, saying he’s “profoundly grateful” for the chance to get to know an “extraordinary man.” Under is Waterproof coat’s full tribute to the expertise who created 1959’s “The Parts.”
“Tom Lehrer was a really particular type of genius – a grasp of language, arithmetic and contagious melody who’s wickedly witty mind outlined an period of musical satire and influenced everybody else that adopted him. On the piano he was a maestro of devilish allure and beautiful timing, in a position to make a tune about drug habit, ‘The Outdated Dope Peddler’, sound like a lullaby. However in actual life he had no ambition to be a performer and was really fairly modest and shy – writing these outrageous songs for the delight of his mates and friends.
“Ultimately, he was persuaded to look in concert events around the globe, however he solely did so in order that he might journey – at another person’s expense. By the early Nineteen Sixties, he was not solely uninterested in touring but additionally writing, utilizing the excuse that ‘Political satire had turn into out of date when Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize!’ Tom needed to return to his ‘day-job’, instructing arithmetic and working lessons on The Historical past of Musical Theatre on the facet.
“I had grown up within the mid-50s listening to recordings of his fantastic songs and shortly after I had produced my first worldwide hit ‘Facet by Facet by Sondheim’ within the mid-70s, I immediately obtained the concept Tom’s materials may also work as a stage revue. After we met, he was disarmingly grateful for me desirous to ‘Exhume and repackage his meagre ouvre and foist it on a beforehand unsuspecting viewers,’ so long as ‘I used to be to ship him some sums of cash occasionally’ – that was the closest we ever obtained to a contract! That was Tom – wry, beneficiant and completely authentic.
“It was the beginning of what Tom calls ‘An ideal blendship’ that lasted over 50 years, and I’m profoundly grateful that I had the privilege of attending to know such a unprecedented man so nicely. Tom’s legacy is timeless, his humour nonetheless terrifyingly related and I prefer to suppose he’s on the brink of stage the ‘Vatican Rag’ behind the Pearly Gates. Standing room solely, in fact.”
