Starring: - Edward Salkin
- Dick Sarpola
- Charlie Alterman
Description:
Martin Short's 2006 Broadway show Fame Becomes Me is a love letter to old-school showbiz doubling as a send-up of self-serving celebrity memoirs. This "comedy musical" is obviously the work of someone who adores not only the golden age of Broadway but also that of a certain style of entertainment you may call vaudeville variety. The idea is that Short is looking back at his own life (with some liberties—if a celeb out there is not known for outrageous behavior, it's gotta be him) through songs and skits, and with the help of his own TV personae, such as Jiminy Glick and Ed Grimley. It helps that said songs were written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman: The cocreators of Hairspray can zippily pastiche everything from The Wizard of Oz to Wicked. For this supposed ego trip, Short has also surrounded himself with a crackerjack cast that includes MAD TV's chameleonic Nicole Parker, versatile funsters Brooks Ashmanskas and Mary Birdsong, and Carpathia Jenkins, who blows the roof off the joint with the self-explanatory "A Big Black Lady Stops the Show"-—a number that mocks the Broadway habit of hiring African-American belters for to deliver one song. In an ironic twist, Jenkins herself is woefully underutilized in Fame Becomes Me but at least she gets one of the two bonus tracks, "Frieda May's Lament," to herself.
1. Another Curtain Goes Up - Mary Birdsong
2. All I Ask (Is You Love Me)
3. Three Gorgeous Kids
4. Big Titties
5. Salesman That Got Away, The - Mary Birdsong
6. Sittin' On The Fence
7. Jackie Rogers Jr. Show, The
8. Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba Broadway
9. Hello Boy, The
10. 'The Strumpet Of Samaria'
11. Step Brother To Jesus
12. 'Backstage Courtship'
13. Married To Marty
14. Sniff, Sniff
15. 'A Dry Martin, Straight Up...With A Twist'
16. Twelve Step Pappy
17. More, More, More
18. Would You Like To Star In Our Show? - Mary Birdsong
19. I Came Just As Soon As I Heard
20. Wicked Memorial, A - Nicole Parker
21. Michael's Song - Brooks Ashmanskas
22. Heaven, Heaven - Marc Shaiman
23. Up Here In Heaven
24. Big Black Lady Stops The Show, A
25. Finale
26. 'Lesson Learned'
27. Glass Half Full
28. Frieda May's Lament - Capathia Jenkins
Fame Becomes Me
