"In A Classical Mood" instrumental, written by Albert Hague, from the season 2 episode "Sunshine Again.
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Tuesday, 31 January 2023
In a Classical Mood - Instrumental - Albert Hague - Song of the Week
"In A Classical Mood" instrumental, written by Albert Hague, from the season 2 episode "Sunshine Again.
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Monday, 30 January 2023
She Blinded Me With Science - Thomas Dolby - Song of the Week
The Lyric "It's Poetry In Motion" comes from She Blinded Me With Science" which features in the season 3 episode "The Home Front". Written by Thomas Dolby and Joe Kerr it is performed by Thomas Dolby.
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Crew Member of the Month - Christopher Gore - Creator and Writer
Christopher Gore was born on 10th August 1944 in Fort Lauderdale Florida. After graduating from Northwestern University Christopher began writing screenplays, musicals and songs.
Christopher has been described by his brother Rick as a larger than life character.
Aged 36 he wrote the Screenplay for the 1980 Movie "Fame" which gave him an Academy awards Nomination for Best Screenplay. He stated that he got the idea after watching "A Chorus Line" where one of the Characters mentions going to the School of the Performing Arts. Although David De Silva states he was the one that had the concept for "Fame". Then when Christopher moved to New York in the late 70s David helped him find an agent and then took his ideas for the movie to Christopher and they developed the concept together.
"Fame" was Christopher's first screenplay.
At the end of 1980 MGM approached Christopher to write the script for the pilot episode of the Fame TV Series, which he did by redrafting the part of the movie script. His contract for writing the screen play gave him a Consulting Producer Credit and Royalty Cheque for each episode although he never actually had any further input into the TV series.
After the success of "Fame" Christopher was eager to resume his Broadway Theatre career and began working on songs for a new musical. However, his health soon started to deteriorate and the musical was never finished.
Christopher died on 18th May 1988, aged 43 in Santa Monica of Aids.
Footage of Christopher Gore
Friday, 27 January 2023
Thursday, 26 January 2023
Albert Hague PlayBill Obituary 2001
Albert Hague, the Tony Award-winning composer who wrote music for the Gwen Verdon vehicle, Redhead, and later found acting fame as Prof. Shorofsky in the film and TV series, "Fame," died at a California hospital Nov. 12, according to newspaper reports.
Albert Hague, the Tony Award-winning composer who wrote music for the Gwen Verdon vehicle, Redhead, and later found acting fame as Prof. Shorofsky in the film and TV series, "Fame," died at a California hospital Nov. 12, according to newspaper reports.
Mr. Hague was 81 and was predeceased by his singer-actress wife, Renee Orin, who died of lymphoma in 2000 at the age of 71. The Berlin-born graduate of the College of Music at the University of Cincinnati penned music for the beloved TV special, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." His holiday tunes (with lyrics by Dr. Seuss) are still sung in Christmas concerts around the world. He studied piano and composition in Europe before coming to the United States.
Mr. Hague's career included writing incidental music for plays and being a cherished vocal coach. He also wrote the score for the 1955 Pennsylvania Dutch-set Broadway musical, Plain and Fancy, from which "Young and Foolish" and "It Wonders Me" emerged as standards. Beginning in 1997, he and his wife, who had previously performed together in clubs, put together an act called Still Young and Foolish, which played Carnegie Hall, the Cinegrill in Los Angeles, Eighty Eight's in Manhattan, and elsewhere. The Hagues were married 49 years.
"The [cabaret] show is really about our lives," Mr. Hague told Playbill On Line in 1998.
In 1959, Mr. Hague's score to Redhead, with lyrics by Dorothy Fields, won the Best Score Tony Award and the Bob Fosse show — a Victorian-era murder mystery set in London around a waxworks — caused a sensation. Largely forgotten today, despite a revival by the Goodspeed Opera House is recent years, the show was a smash at the time and beat out Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song for Best Musical, Best Score and (in a category that no longer exists) Best Authors (Mr. Hague, Fields, Sidney Sheldon and David Shaw). He said one of his most "horrendous" theatre experiences was writing the score to Miss Moffat, the flop musical based on The Corn Is Green, starring Bette Davis. It closed out of town in 1974.
Mr. Hague may best be known to this generation as Prof. Shorofsky, the music teacher from the film and TV series "Fame." Renee Orin Hague occasionally acted opposite her husband on "Fame."
The bespectacled, impish Mr. Hague said he never foresaw his acting career: "Absolutely no," he said. "It was completely out of the blue. It was very meaningful both to Renee and myself. It was, economically, an enormous jackpot to us. And it made us move to the West Coast. We always lived in New York."
The pair met in Cleveland in 1947 when Mr. Hague was scoring an ill-fated rewrite of Turandot (with book and lyrics by Maurice Valency). The show was called The Reluctant Virgin, but producers in Cleveland thought that was too racy, so it was changed to The Reluctant Lady.
In 1998, Ms. Hague told Playbill On-Line about the moment she first met Hague during rehearsals for The Reluctant Virgin: "He was just walking over to the piano. I had just graduated Carnegie Tech, and I knew that if I was coming to New York the most exciting thing that could happen to me would be to meet a composer, somebody who is doing big shows in New York. I happened to be dating my leading man at the time, and here was this tall, skinny, almost cross-eyed European guy who had enough energy for 10 people. I was sunk."
The seeds of their late-career act, Still Young and Foolish, were in their earlier act from 20 years ago, when they once billed themselves as Hague & Hague: His Hits and His Mrs.
Mr. Hague admitted later in his career he once wrote a song for Chevrolet called "I'm in Love With a Lovely Chevro-Lady," and that because he never sold his industrial and commercial pieces outright, he still owned the rights to the advertising arcana.
Mr. Hague said he was "extremely happy" with the 1998 Goodspeed Opera House revival of Redhead, the first major revival since 1959.
"The difference between Plain and Fancy and Redhead is that Plain and Fancy is constantly being done all over the country, much to our pleasure, because it's the kind of a show that has eight principal roles," Mr. Hague told Playbill On-Line. "Redhead needs a major star, and there are very few people of the caliber of a young Gwen Verdon."
Of his Redhead collaborator, Mr. Hague said, "Dorothy is one of the few geniuses I've had the pleasure to work with. One of the little secrets she tried to keep is that she never went to college, and she had an incredible use of language."
Of Hague's ill-fated Miss Moffat, Mr. Hague said, "Miss Moffat was one of the most horrendous experiences I ever had in my life. Bette Davis is a genius, but she just was not of the theatre. If Bette Davis made one syllable wrong, she got so mad at herself. She couldn't say, 'Cut!'"
Mr. Hague said Davis, who would drink heavily after performances, made an "edict" that prevented Hague from working with her at a piano, despite his being one of the most sought-after vocal coaches in New York. "I had to hire an assistant to talk to her about my songs," Mr. Hague said. "She wouldn't talk to me about the songs. She was not a musician, but she sang perfectly all right."
He said Davis once wrote him a note saying she thought his score was among the best she'd ever heard. Asked if the show was revivable, Mr. Hague said in 1998, "I have to make up my mind what I want to do with my life: Go back rewriting the old stuff or write new stuff."
Mr. Hague said he was still looking for material to musicalize, but the goal was to find something economically viable: A small cast show, for example.
"It's very difficult to find material worthy of wanting to be a musical," Mr. Hague said. "I am looking. Somebody just a couple of day ago told me they were going to send a script. I've been reading scripts. Ideally, you're looking for a good show, but one you can tell with 6 or 7 people in it."
Former New Yorkers, the Hagues made their home in southern California. Asked if he would come back to New York City, Mr. Hague said in 1998: "Everybody knows I can be bought." said Hague. "Just give me a hit show and I'll be back in a flash."
Mr. Hague is survived by two children, Janet Hague of Portland, OR, and Andrew Hague of New York City.
— By Kenneth Jones
The Home Front Broadcast Dates
Original air date in U.S.A 27th May 1984
Original air date in U.K. 20th July 1984, Repeated on The Children's Channel Autumn 1992
Original air date in The Netherlands 24th July 1984
Original air date in Italy 19th August 1986
Original air date in Belgium 15th September 1988
Original air date in France 20th May 1989
Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Albert Hague & Valerie Landsburg - Hotel - Prized Possesions
Albert Hague and Valerie Landsburg appear on "Hotel" 1987 episode "Prized Possessions".
Albert was a guest star playing Ben Garfield but Valerie was a season regular for this 5th and final season playing receptionist Cheryl Dolan. Sadly they never get meet on screen.
Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Albert Hague Still Young and Foolish 1998
Still Young and Foolish - Albert Hague and Renee Orin live released in 1998
Track Listings
1 When
We Met
2 Herbie
Fitch's Twitch
3 Early
Blue Evening
4 It
Wonders Me
5 All
Of My Laughter
6 Signs
7 Did
I Ever Really Live
8 Mr.
Grinch
9 Lizzie's
Gin
10 The
Tale Of The Old Woman
11 I
Had A Wonderful Time
12 We
Selected Tracks:
Benjamin Shorfosky - Character of the Month
Benjamin Shorofsky is a German born Music teacher at the School of the Arts. a single man, who never appears to have married he lives alone in a New York apartment.
He is wise, caring and considerate. With his stern but fair approach he hopes to teach his students life lesson as well as the musical theory they need for their chosen careers.
He is often at odds with his students particularly Bruno and Ian, who feel they know more and don't need the classical training Shorfosky gives, in order for them to obtain the success they want. Deep down they know that their teacher is right and the pupils often go to the teacher for advice.
In "Reunions" we learn that Shorofsky left Germany to escape the war leaving behind his girlfriend Freida which left him feeling very guilty for a long time. We also learn that he hates bureaucracy and anything that stifles freedom. He frequently is on opposing sides to Morloch in debates and how the School is run.
He cares deeply for his students not only offering the wise words but will also go the extra mile in order to help them with their problems. When Bruno is forced to leave school after the death of his father, Shorofsky lies in order to secure a loan to raise money for Bruno. When that fails he then takes it upon himself to find Bruno a suitable job. When Jesse is under the threat of deportation, Shorfosky offers to adopt him to help keep him in America.
When Shorofsky buys a classic car he persuades Miss Sherwood to teach him how to drive but despite her best attempts he still can't drive. However, we learn he has a great love of table tennis.
Shorofsky has a key to the School of the Arts which he seems to frequently lend to the students in order to let them access the school after hours.
In The Crazies Shorofsky is mugged on the school premises and severely injured and admitted to hospital. However, his stubbornness and his dislike of being reliant on others he discharged himself.
Much loved and respected by the faculty Shorofsky has been at the School of the Arts for many years. However, in "Back To Something New" he became disillusioned with teach and was on the verge of quitting until Ian Ware arrived and the challenge of teaching Ian kept him in his job.
In the Deal we lean that Shorofsky is writing his autobiography, which Mrs Berg is helping him with, making people think they were having an affair. Sadly we never discover if the book was ever finished.
Monday, 23 January 2023
We (Episode Version) - Albert Hague -Song of the Week
The Lyric "It's Bigger Than You, It's Bigger Than Me" comes from the Season 3 song "We", written by Albert Hague and Allan Sherman from the episode "The Deal" where it is performed by Albert Hague.
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It's Bigger Than You,
It's Bigger Than Me,
It's We.
It's Better Than One,
Stronger Than Two,
It's We.
When You Were Only You,
And I Was Merely Me,
We Never Dreamed a Beautiful Thing Like We.
Could Be.
We're Braver Somehow,
Warmer, Because Now We're Us.
That Fabulous Plus That Adds Up To You and Me.
Not You Alone
Not I Alone,
But Two in Love,
Who's Love Has Grown
Into That Special Something Known as We.
Not You Alone
Not I Alone,
But Two in Love,
Who's Love Has Grown
Into That Special Something Known as We.
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