Previous chapter
Next chapter

Chapter 89: Being Alive

Showtunes & theatrical pop

Get ready for a very dramatic, incredibly extra set of songs (and only some of them have the excuse of being written for the stage.) Artists like Scott Walker and Richard Harris lean into that ripe, campy quality with bizarre lyrics about gold-toothed barmaids and melting cakes. Others, though, play it deadly real. “Cabaret” is both flamboyantly huge and truly devastating, and “Being Alive” plays like a real epiphany, as if the distancing conceit of the theater has dropped away entirely.
1. Jim Bryant, Marni Nixon & Robert Banas

Maria

2. The Platters

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

3. Richard Harris

MacArthur Park

4. Julie Andrews & Charmian Carr

The Lonely Goatherd

5. Liza Minnelli

Cabaret

6. Scott Walker

The Girls From the Streets

7. Mandy Patinkin

Finishing The Hat

8. Elton John

Someone Saved My Life Tonight

9. Company Ensemble

Being Alive

10. Michael Crawford

The Music Of The Night