not the buckinghams, after all

Every time I saw anything mentioning this musical, the 1967 song is the one that got plated and cranked up to full volume by my mental jukebox.

 

"Hey baby, they're playing our song
The one we used to hear when
We used to get along
Hey baby, they're playing our song
Let's get back together
That's where we belong

It's the one with the pretty melody
It's the one that made you
Fall in love with me
It made us feel so groovy
We fell in love, just like in the movies"

 

Although the Buckinghams' tune, one of five that made the Top 40 that year, isn't mentioned as the inspiration, I feel sure it had an impact.

"They're Playing Our Song", the musical that had my toes tapping at the Tybee Post Theatre tonight, was about the on-again, off-again real-life relationship between the lyricist and the music composer (Carole Bayer Sager and Marvin Hamlisch, respectively).

Sure sounds like the song inspired them to put their love on the stage!

(smile!)

As would be expected, the play was essentially a two-person show, though they each had their own trio on inner voices that manifested onstage to accompany them when they were creating music.

Very cool... and definitely set in a more innocent time, before the fear of AIDS and other long-term STDs put a crimp in one-night stands. 

That sets it firmly in the '60's and 70's decades.

That made it a timely play when it came out on Broadway in 1978, leading to it being such a success that it won the Tony Award in 1979!

I can certainly understand why!

Here on the beach stage, Sandra Nix and Billy Clark Taylor were fabulously cast as Sonia - who was always clad in cast-off stage costumes - and Vernon - every bit as nerdy as his name would suggest, right down to his argyle sweater vests.

Absolutely delightful...and exactly the right choice for me tonight.

Right place, right time!

(smile!)