“When bigger bombs are built, Broadway will build them” read one of the reviews of Dear World, a show that  never quite found out what it was supposed to be.  Kurt was cast as Julian, the young man who was pulled from the Seine by Angela Lansbury  in the Jerry Herman, Lawrence and Lee musical adaptation of The Madwoman of Chaillot. He was  cast  the same week he was informed that he had been chosen to play Tony in the Lincoln Center West Side Story. Rehearsals began and Kurt, with four new songs including “I Like Me”(See below) was feeling good about the show and his role (he would be onstage at Angela’s side through the entire play.) Things quickly fell apart in Boston as the reviews were not good , directors were fired, most of Kurt’s songs were cut and the musical see-sawed between a small intimate musical play and a brassy Parisian Mame.  It ran for a decent length in New York because of Angela  but never became what it might have with the right chef in the Bistro. Kurt became great friends with Angela and also with Carmen Matthews, now deceased,  who played Constance, one of the madder madwomen. He always thought it was a wonderful Jerry Herman score.

I LIKE ME

FOR TWENTY LONG YEARS,  I NEVER CARED  MUCH
FOR THE GENTLEMAN IN MY SHOES
THE ONE YOU COULD TRUST TO MUDDLE THINGS UP
THE ONE YOU COULD TRUST TO LOSE

FOR TWENTY LONG YEARS, THE FELLOW AND I
CONSIDERED OUR SELVES ESTRANGED
BUT IN ONE LITTLE SUNLIT AFTERNOON
THE WHOLE SITUATION CHANGED

NOW, I LIKE ME , I’M PROUD TO SAY
I NEVER DREAMED THAT I COULD FEEL THIS WAY
BUT SIMPLY KNOWING YOU
HAS MADE ME SEE…
BY LIKING SOMEONE ELSE
I FOUND/FIND THAT I LIKE ME.