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[0:00] Paul Lazarus: Hi, this is Paul Lazarus. In the 1980s, I produced and hosted a radio series called Anything Goes, a celebration of the American musical theater. Now, the Broadway Podcast Network is bringing back these shows. This is the conclusion of a three-part tribute to musical theater legend Lehman Engel. Engel was Broadway's true jack-of-all-trades, composer, conductor, author, teacher. Tony Award-winning Engel is perhaps best known for founding and leading the BMI Musical Theater Workshop. This tribute originally aired in 1982. We are pleased to have today an example of Lehman's own composition, The Shoebird, a ballet based on a Eudora Welty short story, received its world premiere in 1968 in his hometown of Jackson, Mississippi. A quote from The Shoebird. I'm not really clever, said the parrot honestly, but I hope to make the most of the brains I have. Have you ever thought of trying that?

[2:23] ♪ Musical number: "The Shoe Bird" — composed by Lehman Engel ♪

[3:23] Paul Lazarus: An excerpt from The Shoebird Ballet, composed by Lehman Engel. For the past 20 years, Lehman has been director of a workshop for young writers under the auspices of Broadcast Music Incorporated. Two members of the workshop, Skip Kennan and Ellen Fitzhugh, composer and lyricist of Off-Broadway's recent Herringbone, wrote a song that they performed at the Shoebird Theater Tribute. We didn't know whether to write the kind of song that always made you cry. Or the kind that left you amazed and proud. Or packing the decks and laughing out loud. So the way we decided to go was with one of those songs of no specific vernacular. Spectacularly. Nothing in particular.

[4:32] ♪ Musical number: "A Perfectly Beautiful Song" — performed by Skip Kennan and Ellen Fitzhugh ♪

[6:28] Ed Kleban: Ed Kleban, lyricist of A Chorus Line and a long-standing member of Lehman's Workshop, spoke at the Schubert Theatre Tribute. I'm Ed Kleban. I was a student and friend of Lehman's below these 20 years. Lehman was a man of elegant temperament. A gentleman. Capital G. He made a difference. He could change your life. Life for him was an act of largesse. He was content to share his buoyancy, his fierce intellect, his sly and uncompromising tastes with you. He taught more than theatre songs. He would put you on to the best operas, the best arias, the best restaurants, the best dishes. He could fix your love life for you. Along with all your other collaborations. He was himself an ace collaborator and lover.

He taught life as well as art. The newspapers omitted mention of children. There were in fact hundreds. For 20 years we were his children. He loved us and we loved him back. With varying talent but unvarying love. We brought him our clumsy hopes and with infinite patience and energy he tried to show us how to actually do it. But when we got it right he couldn't have been more pleased. He was a very very generous man. Raisin, Whorehouse, Herringbone, Little Shop, Nine, Chorus Line, a whole generation of Lehman Engel theatre songwriters with a whole other generation to come. When Raoul Julia comes out tonight at 46th Street Theatre and sings That's All That I Want he is making Lehman very happy.

When Ellen Green sings Somewhere That's Green at the Orpheum she is making Lehman very happy too. And tonight in this theatre as they have for eight years when Maggie and Sheila and Bebe sing at the ballet they will be singing for Lehman Engel who made it all possible.

[8:47] ♪ Musical number: "Guido's Song" — performed by Raúl Julia ♪

[12:03] Paul Lazarus: Raúl Julia from the soon-to-be-released original cast recording of Nine. Composer Alan Menken recorded Somewhere That's Green as a tribute to Lehmann Engel from his score to Little Shop of Horrors.

[12:16] ♪ Musical number: "Somewhere That's Green" — performed by Alan Menken ♪

[14:43] ♪ Musical number: "Somewhere That’s Green" — performed by the cast of "Little Shop of Horrors" ♪

[19:06] Eudora Welty: May I just tell you that Arnold Schoenberg, the great German composer, wrote a memorable harmony book. And the first line in that book is what I can echo, which was, quote, from my students have I learned this book. Author Eudora Welty, who grew up with Lehman Engel, a lifelong friend, spoke at the Schubert Theatre Tribute. I'm Eudora Welty from Jackson. I'm sort of a go-between between Lehman's hometown and his other hometown, Jackson. When Lehman wrote his book, Known to Everyone Here, I know very eminently, Words into Music, which was, as you know, a manual, a libretto dedicated to all the students in his workshop, as he put it, past, present, and future. I was last year at the New York Times, and I'm reading you just a paragraph which puts all that off, because it's like sharing an early snapshot of Lehman with his friends.

The author of this book and its president, Buell, grew up in the same hometown. One night, the magician came, Thurston, or was it Blackstone, to the Century Theatre, and waiting for the curtain to go up, the Jackson, Mississippi, audience was fairly wild. Near me on the front row balcony, little boys were swinging like monkeys from the rain. Stepping down the aisle of the orchestra, a handsome, stylish little boy about my own age, seven or eight, who showed nothing but aplomb, escorted his party of three beautiful little girls to their seats. He took his own on the aisle, where he sat looking entirely self-contained. I thought, that little boy knows how the magician does it.

[24:01] Lehman Engel: Could we start, please, with the overture in broad two. It's very good, but you need to relax. Could we have an A, please, a la, oboe. La. It's not too much trouble. Well, you'll follow me, I hope. If you do, you're crazy.

[25:22] Paul Lazarus: You've been listening to Anything Goes with Paul Lazarus, and a very special tribute to a very special man, Lehman Engel. We would like to thank all the friends of Lehman Engel, who are far too numerous to mention, for providing the material for today's program. And I'd especially like to thank Bill Young, who helped with every aspect of this program, and who, in fact, read portions from Lehman Engel's autobiography today, this bright day.

[28:28] ♪ Musical number: "Wonderful Town Overture" — conducted by Lehman Engel ♪

[28:44] Paul Lazarus: You've been listening to the conclusion of a three-part tribute to musical theater legend, Lehman Engel. Anything Goes Backstage with Broadway's Best is produced and hosted by Paul Lazarus. For more information, visit anythinggoespl.com. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate and follow us. Thanks for listening.