“My heart is with this company, my heart is with Disney/Pixar.”
- Jodi Benson accepting the Disney Leyend Award (August 19th, 2011)Happy 50th Birthday, Jodi!
Broadway Birthdays: Jodi Benson. Voice of Ariel from The Little Mermaid, and Doria Hudson from Smile the musical.
The above audio is the Broadway’s Act 1 Finale as sung by Howard Ashman and Marvin Hamlisch.
After the show closed, Howard and Marvin went back to the original idea for the act finale. The ideas that are portrayed are basically the same: plenty of teenage girls with plenty of teenage anxiety.
Below is the licensed act 1 finale title “Until Tomorrow Night” that is given to the people after the rights were released for people to perform the show.
I personally have a hard time picking which of the two I like most, so I’m awfully curious what my followers think! Which song do you guys think deserves to hold to hold the place of “Smile“‘s act one finale?
So here we have part 2 of “Young & American”. If you missed the first part you can find it HERE.
The second half starts off with Maria, who is performing a musical cooking demonstration. In the plot, many of the girls are complaining about her mashing avocados late at night, keeping them up.
Then we have Doria’s poem, which is one of my favorite moments in the show. As she recites, she ironically takes off her clothes until she is only in a one piece.
Howard Ashman, lyricist, writer of the book, and director of the musical “Smile” working with Jodi Benson, who played the leading role of Doria.
The cast of girls (including Jodi Benson, voice of Ariel from “The Little Mermaid”) in “Smile”, a musical with music by Marvin Hamlisch (“Chorus Line”) and lyrics and book written by Howard Ashman (“Little Shop of Horrors”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Little Mermaid”)
Book/Lyrics… Howard Ashman
Music… Marvin Hamlisch
Cast:
Brenda Freelander, mother, former pageant contestant, and pageant coordinator… Marsha Waterbury
“Big” Bob Freelander, head judge, husband to Brenda.. .Jeff McCarthy
Doria Hudson, contestant from Yuba city… Jodi Benson
Robin Gibson, Atelope Valley contestant, shy, unsure of herself… Anne Marie Bobby
Shawn Christianson, La Jolla constestat, outgoing, smart, visible youthful glow… Tia Riebling
Maria Gonzales, Salinas young american miss contestant, a spicy, sassy Mexcian girl… Cheryl-Ann Rossi
Tommy French, pageant choreographer, could care less… Michael O’Gormon
Ted Farley, an out of town radio host, Emcee of the pageant… Dick Patterson
After Howard Ashman’s musical “Smile” played at the Lunt Fontanne Theatre in New York City, the movie “The Little Mermaid” that starred Jodi Benson as the voice of Ariel (and was the leading role in “Smile”) was adapted for the Broadway stage. It just so happened that the stage version of “The Little Mermaid” played in the very same theatre!
So this is one of my favorite songs from the show. I’ve got two versions lined up here, and I’m curious to hear from people which they like the most?
First we have the originator of the role, Jodi Benson. This recording is a post-production recording given out to people considering doing the show. It is often misunderstood that this is a “Demo” recording.
Next we have one of my favorite Broadway singers, Kerry Butler, in a live performance.
