RECOVERED HISTORY: A DC MUSICAL

SAM SMITH: I recently came across a tape recording I had made for a journalist interested in a musical that Kathy Smith, Becky Brown and I wrote back in the 1970s: "Washington in Revue."

It was performed several times, once with Mayor Barry in attendance, and featured Jim Vance as Frederick Douglass and a beat poet. The Washington Star listed it as one of its "Sure Things" for the weekend.

The recording is that of a musician rediscovering an old score and just trying to give a reporter a feel for the show - complete with awkward page turning and forgotten lyrics, but it's the only version around so I've uploaded it.

Among the songs in the musical was a soft shoe number performed by Boss Shepherd and a pair of his henchmen:

"I'm the boss, I'm the boss of Washington
I can force anything that I want done.
I can plant a tree or pave a road or put a gas lamp up
So what does it matter if I'm a little bit corrupt?. . .

My favorite, however, was the tune I wrote for feminist Alice Paul which included the bridge: "We don't find it to enrichin' to be switchin' in the kitchen, so if you want us to stop bitchin', you had better start in switchin.'"

Many years later, Mayor Barry sponsored a contest for an official city song, which I entered with the musical's "Washington, My Home Town". At the beginning of the recording I relate what happened next.

I still think the tune would make a good city song, although the Speculation Rag might be more in keeping with contemporary trends.

RECORDING

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