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NORTH SHORE TO W E R S 20 North Shore Towers Courier n 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION n June 2015 40 • 40TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL ISSUE • The Little Musical that Could Average Broadway ticket cost: Balcony, $7.00 / Orchestra, 1975 1975 MUSIC Third Time’s the Charm Music is in flux in the mid-70s. The singer/ songwriter genre, so prevalent at the start of the decade, with acts such as Simon and Garfunkel, Carole King and James Taylor, is waning and disco was in its infancy, still a couple of years from storming the charts. Elton John continues to dominate the pop landscape, and after his initial two releases quickly faded into obscurity, Bruce Springsteen’s third, “Born to Run,” explodes on the charts. “Love Will Keep Us Together,” by the husband and wife team, The Captain and Tennille is the top single of 1975. The couple, Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille, met while singing back-up for The Beach Boys in the early 1970s. Unsigned to a major label, they were married Valentine’s Day 1974 while driving through 22 states to promote their single “The Way I Want to Touch You.” They are eventually signed by A&M Records and the rest, as they say, is history, including their marriage, which sadly ended in 2014 after 39 years. After rejecting names like “The Portable Crushers” and “The Vague Dots,” David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, and Chris Franz settle on “The Talking Heads,” which they found in an old issue of TV Guide. They play their first gig at CBGB’s in Manhattan. The year ends with Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” sitting atop the charts for the final five weeks of 1975, holding the position for the first four weeks of 1976. DID YOU KNOW? At the time in 1975, the conversion of North Shore Towers from rental apartments to co-ops was touted as the most expensive conversion in New York City’s history TOP-10 HITS FROM BILLBOARD’S YEAR-END HOT 100 CHART 1 Love Will Keep Us Together, The Captain and Tennille 2 Rhinestone Cowboy, Glen Campbell 3 Philadelphia Freedom, Elton John 4 Before the Next Teardrop Falls, Freddy Fender 5 My Eyes Adored You, Frankie Valli 6 Shining Star, Earth, Wind & Fire 7 Fame, David Bowie 8 Laughter in the Rain, Neil Sedaka 9 One of These Nights, The Eagles 10 Thank God I’m a Country Boy, John Denver Average concert ticket cost: $2.05 One singular sensation outperformed razzle dazzle on the Great White Way in 1975, with both “A Chorus Line” and “Chicago” opening during the season. On paper, “Chicago” look to be unbeatable, with music by the legendary songwriting duo of John Kander and Fred Ebb; direction and Roxie Hart, and Jerry Orbach as Billy Flynn. Based on the 1926 play of the same name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, who was assigned to cover the 1924 trials of murderesses Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner for the Chicago Tribune, “Chicago: A Musical Vaudeville” opened on June 3, 1975, at the 46th Street Theatre, and ran for a total of 936 performances, closing on August 27, 1977. Unfortunately, the production had the aspiring actors vying for a job, had little glitz and no glamour, but it did have music by Marvin Hamlisch and direction and choreography by Michael B e n n e t t . An unprecedented box office and critical hit, “A Chorus Line” opened at the Shubert Theatre on July 25, 1975, and later received twelve Tony Award nominations, winning nine, in addition to being awarded the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The original Broadway production ran for 6,137 performances, becoming the longestrunning production in Broadway history u n t i l surpassed by “Cats” in 1997. But “Chicago” would have the last laugh. Its 1996 (and stillrunning) revival holds the record for the longest-running musical revival on Broadway. And its 2002 movie adaptation, which starred Richard Gere, Renée Zellwegger and Catherine Zeta-Jones won the Academy Award for Best Picture. choreography by the incomparable Bob Fosse, and starring Chita Rivera as Velma Kelly, Gwen Verdon as misfortune of opening the same year as the highly successful “A Chorus Line”. The musical about a group of $15.00 1975 BROADWAY


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