January 11, Birthday of Mary Rogers (1931-2014)

Since July, I have been concentrating solely on female composers.  You can read about that in my post from July 19.  If I can’t find one born on the calendar day, I won’t post.  On with today’s composer.

“Mary Rodgers (January 11, 1931 – June 26, 2014) was an American composer of musicals and an author of children’s books.”   (Wikipedia)

Mary Rodgers was the daughter of Richard Rogers, the composer of many great musicals.  I didn’t know he had a daughter who composed, let alone that she composed the first musical I ever saw–“Once Upon a Mattress.”  That was the vehicle for a very young Carol Burnett when it was shown on television in 1964. The first two songs below come from “Mattress,” which was a huge hit.

She followed this with the music for “The Mad Show,” an Off-Broadway musical review based on Mad Magazine. I’ve included three of the songs. The second of these, “Well it Ain’t” is a parody of Bob Dylan. She wrote the next one, “The Boy From,” a gay parody of “The Girl from Ipanema,” with Stephen Sondheim. It’s a bit daring for 1966 with these lyrics:

“Why are his trousers vermillion?
His trousers are vermillion.
Why does he claim he’s Castilian?
He thayth that he’th Cathtilian.
Why do his friends call him Lillian?
And I hear at the end of the week
He’s leaving to start a boutique.”

“Yesterday I Loved You”	“Sensitivity”
“Hate Song”	“Well it Ain’t”
The Boy From	The Boy From