HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO THE LION KING

Well, friends, today marks the 10th anniversary of "The Lion King" on Broadway, but sadly due to the strike (now in its fourth day) there will be no 10th anniversary performance tonight. How sad, that all of these Broadway producers could not negotiate with a union that makes these amazing productions possible anyway. I was a little surprised to discover that out of seventeen songs, Elton John and Tim Rice have only written nine, without others being written by Ed Mancia and Julie Taymor (the director) herself."The Lion Sleeps Tonight" which was in the movie version seems to be excluded from the official Broadway list of the score's songs. Well today is the anniversary in 1965 of the only Broadway musical to be penned by Sammy Cahn, the great lyricist and Sammy Fain (the amazing composer. It was called "Skyscraper" and starred Julie Harris and Peter Marshall (of "Hollywood Squares" fame) and also the late lovable Charles Nelson Reily. I guess the story of a female Walter Mitty just didn't wow anybody in the cynical mid 60's as it only played 242 performances. Neither composer nor lyricist attempted another Broadway show. Well, John Nugent wasn't having any luck getting a job so I hired him, myself and put him in the lab. He seems to be adapting well here.