Ben Bagley

Ben Bagley (October 18 1933, Burlington, Vermont – March 21, 1998) was an American musical theatre and record producer.

Bagley moved to New York City during the early 1950s, and at age 22 he produced his first hit, "Shoestring Revue", starring (among others) Beatrice Arthur and Chita Rivera, and with songs by Charles Strouse, Lee Adams, June Carroll, and Sheldon Harnick.

The glowing notices from "Shoestring" enabled him to mount a more lavish and sophisticated revue the following year, "The Littlest Revue". This featured the young, unknown Joel Grey, Larry Storch, and Charlotte Rae; as well as Tammy Grimes making her off-Broadway debut. Contributing lyricists and composers included Vernon Duke, John Latouche, Ogden Nash and others. (Particularly memorable was a snappy number by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, called "Good Little Girls." Performed by flame-haired newcomer Beverly Bozeman, this song had actually been written for Bette Davis for an unproduced 1950 stage musical.) Critics noted the revue's pleasant songs and dull, overlong sketches: it closed after a month, possibly because its venue, the Phoenix Theatre at 2nd Avenue and 12th Street, was too inaccessible for the casual theatergoer. Bagley sprang back a few months later with "Shoestring '57" at the Barbizon-Plaza on Central Park South, and this turned out to be his most successful show yet (119 performances).

Bagley's 1965 Off-Broadway revue "The Decline and Fall of the Entire World as Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter" drew on the composer's lesser-known songs. It ran for 15 months in New York, starring Kaye Ballard, Harold Lang, Bobby Short, Tammy Grimes, and Dody Goodman, among others. Following that, it ran for 13 months in San Francisco, before moving to the regional theater stage. According to "Variety", the show "helped pave the way for later Broadway revues like "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Sophisticated Ladies", which surveyed the work of a single composer."

Shortly after his 1958 revue, "Shoestring Revue in Fort Worth", Bagley was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He was hospitalized until 1960. During this time of sickness and recuperation, he learned what true friendship was and what else he could do with his career.

He founded his own recording label, Painted Smiles Records, and through it produced 48 albums, the "Revisited" series, which promoted the body of work collectively referred to as "Great American Songbook": songs by the likes of Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Kurt Weill, Cole Porter, Leonard Bernstein, Harold Rome, Howard Dietz & Arthur Schwartz, Frank Loesser, Noël Coward, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Alan Jay Lerner, and DeSylva, Brown, & Henderson, performed by some of the leading jazz and the theatrical singers of the day, as well as many great theatre and film actors not generally known for their singing ability.

"Playbill" has called Bagley's liner notes for his "Revisited" albums "odd and iconoclastic." The recordings themselves are "hardly scholarly and sometimes downright unpleasant to listen to (note the antic, drowsy, caffeinated, tinny arrangements and uneven voices — a festival of sharps and flats)." However, "the discs are nonetheless embraced by fans hungry to explore old, mothballed material by extraordinary songwriters."

The Painted Smiles "Revisited" Series

*"George Gershwin Revisited" with Barbara Cook, Bobby Short, Anthony Perkins, and Elaine Stritch.
*"Leonard Bernstein Revisited" with Nell Carter, Estelle Parsons, John Reardon, Chita Rivera, Arthur Siegel, and Jo Sullivan.
*"Kurt Weill Revisited, vol. 1", with Paula Laurence, Ann Miller, John Reardon, Chita Rivera, Arthur Siegel, and Jo Sullivan.
*"Kurt Weill Revisited, vol. 2", with Ellen Burstyn, Nell Carter, Blossom Dearie, Tammy Grimes, Estelle Parsons, John Reardon, Arthur Siegel, and Jo Sullivan.
*"Rodgers & Hart Revisited, vol. 1" with Dorothy Loudon, Danny Meehan, Charlotte Rae, Cy Young, Ann Hampton Callaway, Arthur Siegel, and Sandy Stewart.
*"Rodgers & Hart Revisited, vol. 2" with Blossom Dearie, Gloria De Haven, Dorothy Loudon, Bibi Osterwald, Charles Rydell, Bobby Short, Ann Hampton Callaway, Arthur Siegel, Sandy Stewart, Dennis Deal, The Wyss Sisters, Marcus Neville, and Willard Beckham.
*"Rodgers & Hart Revisited, vol. 3" with Nancy Andrews, Blossom Dearie, Johnny Desmond, Estelle Parsons, Anthony Perkins, Lynn Redgrave, and Arthur Siegel.
*"Rodgers & Hart Revisited, vol. 4" with Nancy Andrews, Blossom Dearie, Johnny Desmond, Anthony Perkins, Lynn Redgrave, and Elaine Stritch.
*"Rodgers & Hart Revisited, vol. 5" with Ann Hampton Callaway, Mary Cleere Haran, Dorothy Loudon, Arthur Siegel, Sandy Stewart, and Susan Stroman.
*"Cole Porter Revisited, vol. 1" with David Allen, Kaye Ballard, Ronny Graham, Bibi Osterwald, Bobby Short, Ann Hampton Callaway, Arthur Siegel, and Sandy Stewart.
*"Cole Porter Revisited, vol. 2" with Carmen Alvarez, Kaye Ballard, Blossom Dearie, Edward Earle, Laura Kenyon, Karen Morrow, Alice Playten, and Charles Rydell.
*"Cole Porter Revisited, vol. 3" with Georgia Engel, Helen Gallagher, Dolores Gray, Lynn Redgrave, Arthur Siegel, and Elaine Stritch.
*"Cole Porter Revisited, vol. 4" with Katharine Hepburn, Blossom Dearie, Helen Gallagher, Dolores Gray, Patrice Munsel, Arthur Siegel, Kaye Ballard, Ann Hampton Callaway, and Sandy Stewart.
*"Cole Porter Revisited, vol. 5" with Ann Hampton Callaway, Arthur Siegel, Sandy Stewart, Tommy Tune, and Julie Wilson.
*"Noël Coward Revisited" with Laurence Harvey, Hermione Gingold, Nancy Andrews, Edward Earle, Ann Hampton Callaway, Myvanwy Jenn, Barbara Lea, and Arthur Siegel.
*"Frank Loesser Revisited" with Blossom Dearie, Johnny Desmond, Rhonda Fleming, Madeline Kahn, Bibi Osterwald, Gloria Swanson, Margaret Whiting, Jo Sullivan, Colin Romoff, and Emily Loesser.
*"Irving Berlin Revisited" with Richard Chamberlain, Blossom Dearie, Dorothy Loudon, Bobby Short, Ann Hampton Callaway, Arthur Siegel, Sandy Stewart, and William Cantor.
*"Oscar Hammerstein Revisited" with Cab Calloway, Blossom Dearie, Alfred Drake, E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, Dorothy Loudon, Patrice Munsel, Elaine Stritch, and Gloria Swanson.
*"Alan Jay Lerner Revisited" with Blossom Dearie, Dorothy Loudon, Roddy MacDowall, Jerry Orbach, Nancy Walker, Ann Hampton Callaway, Robert Marks, and Arthur Siegel.

References

* " [http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117469883?categoryid=15&cs=1 Ben Bagley, dead at 64: Developer of theatrical revues] ," "Variety", April 16, 1998.
* Jones, Kenneth, " [http://www.playbill.com/news/article/101592.html Ben Bagley Lives! His Decline and Fall Revue Begins to Beguine in Florida Aug. 23] ," "Playbill", August 23, 2006.
*" [http://www.showmusic.com/PaintedSmiles/index.htm Painted Smiles Special Offer] " from ShowMusic.com
*" [http://www.rnh.com/org/index.php?page=biographies&person_id=6 Ben Bagley (1933-1998)] " by the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization.
* Bloom, Ken. "The Decline and Fall of The Entire World as Seen Through the Eyes of Ben Bagley." SHOWmusic. Fall 1996: Pg42-46, 68.