philipsmountain

<p>This song always reminds me of a song I did in the play The Man Who Came To Dinner. You know. One of the black and white movies you watch at Christmastime with Betty Davis playing such a low key character you might not recognize her.</p><p><br></p><p>In act 2, a performer named Beverly Carlton visits the main character Sheridan Whiteside, a radio broadcaster, who is holed up in a suburban home because of a fall, much to his endless displeasure. The character of Beverly Carlton was based on the flamboyant playwright and composer Noel Coward. He glides into the room filling the air with his worldwide escapades and then sits down at the piano. He introduces the song he is about to sing as one from his new play. It is titled, What Am I To Do.</p><p><br></p><p>Here is the only singing recording I could find of it. It is often omitted from productions of this play. </p><p><br></p><iframe class="ql-video" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" src="https://youtube.com/embed/eHuBIHEJZ34" width="100%" height="100%"></iframe><p><br></p><p>The song begs to be sung more melodramatically than here and (sorry) but with more clear enunciation because the lyrics are brilliant. Written by Cole Porter in 1939, this is supposed to be done by someone like Noel Coward, not Tom Waits. </p><p><br></p><p>I had to accompany myself when I did it. The one and only time I played piano on stage. Mostly I just played flourishes in between the sung lines and at the beginning and end. Flourishes I'm good at. Reading piano music I never had patience for. There was an umpire who was quoted as saying, "I call 'em as I see 'em. And if I don't see 'em, I make them up. That's what I did.</p><p><br></p><p>Thank you for listening.</p>