Marshall Barer

b. Marshall Louis Barer, 19 Feb 1923, Long Isle City, NY, USA, d. 25 August 1998, Santa Fe, New Mexico. An writer, songwriter and vocalist, Barer was an eccentric, witty, mercurial personality. After attending Hand Beach SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL as well as the Cavanagh College of Artwork, he worked within the marketing business being a developer and illustrator on periodicals such as for example Esquire and McCall’s. All of this time, nevertheless, he was composing songs, and later on special materials for nightclub performers. In the first 50s he fulfilled Yale alumnus Dean Fuller, plus they added phrases and music towards the revues Once Over Gently (1955, No Moste l, Jack port Gilford, Sono Osato), New Encounters Of 1956 (Tiger Haynes, Inga Swenson, and potential British stage celebrity Maggie Smith), as well as the 1957 Golden Jubilee release from the Ziegfeld Follies, starring Beatrice Lillie. Barer and Fuller, with Jay Thompson, had been also credited using the publication for the 1959 musical Once Upon A Mattress (‘Timid’, ‘Music Of Like’, ‘Gladly Ever After’, ‘Extremely Soft Sneakers’, ‘Many Moons Ago’, ‘Last night I Loved You’, ‘In JUST A LITTLE While’). This extended musical version from the Hans Andersen comic fable The Princess AS WELL AS THE Pea, which went to get a creditable 460 shows, also presented Barer’s witty lyrics, beguiling music by Mary Rodgers, and released actress-comedienne Carol Burnett to Broadway. Furthermore, the display endured, and on its 25th wedding anniversary in 1984, Once Upon A Mattress was reported to become the next most-produced musical in america – after Oklahoma! It came back to Broadway briefly in 1996/97, having a solid going by Sarah Jessica Parker. Thirty years previous, in 1966, Barer got caused Mary Rodgers once again for the Mad Display (871 shows off-Broadway). Within the same yr he shaped a lyrical collaboration with Fred Tobias for Pousse-Café (‘Somebody To Treatment For’, ‘Say thanks to You, Ma’am’, ‘Allow’s’, ‘My Center IS REALLY A Stranger’). Jazz tale Duke Ellington made up the music because of this version of Heinrich Mann’s book, Teacher Unrath, which starred Theodore Bikel, and folded after just three Broadway shows. It marked the finish of Barer’s association with Broadway, although he continuing ‘gleefully to partner his lyrics’ (as his amusing Playbill biography places it) towards the melodies of Vernon Duke, David Shire, and David Ross – alongside William Roy, Michel Legrand, J. Fred Coots, and Leroy Anderson, among several others. He actually chosen Offenbach at one stage, adapting that composer’s La Belle Helene for the unstaged La Belle. Even more familiar are music such as for example ‘I’m ONLY A Nation Boy’, which he composed with Fred Brooks, who, beneath the name of Fred Hellerman, was a founder person in the Weavers US folk group. Well known recordings of the quantity included those by Harry Belafonte, Don Williams, and in Britain, Val Doonican. Another frequently played amount of his, ‘Summertime Can be A-Comin’ In’, got music by Alec Wilder. Through the 70s onwards Barer interpreted his very own functions, and parodied those by others, in cabaret, which is the milieu where his frequently acerbic but often entertaining tracks still surface every once in awhile. One particularly interesting item, ‘On THIS KIND OF Evening As This’ (with Hugh Martin), was highlighted on Andrea Marcovicci Sings Films (1988). He was energetic until right before his loss of life, which happened some 2 yrs after he received the 1996 ASCAP Richard Rodgers Prize.