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Video: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, SHE LOVES ME Lyricist Sheldon Harnick Celebrated At Star-Studded Memorial
May 16, 2024
An array of Broadway luminaries, including Danny Burstein, Robert Cuccioli, Jason Danieley, Harvey Fierstein, Rob Fisher, Jessica Hecht, Judy Kuhn, Nancy Opel, David Rockwell, Alan Schmuckler, Elena Shaddow, Alexandra Silber, Emily Skinner, Deborah Grace Winer, Sherman Yellen, and Karen Ziemba gathered at the Music Box Theater this week to pay tribute to the iconic lyricist Sheldon Harnick. See video highlights from the star-studded memorial!
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Good afternoon. I'm Danny Burstein and it's my honor to welcome you here to celebrate the life of Sheldon Harnock, the most extraordinary, talented, beautiful human and one of the most legendary poetic Broadway storytellers that the world has ever known
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I was at a beautiful event at Sheldon's apartment with Margie celebrating his 99th birthday
0:26
Sheldon was sharp as a tack, and after joyfully eating a piece of cake, he proclaimed
0:33
birthdays are so great, I'd like to have one every year. I knew Sheldon for eight years. Not nearly enough. But, you know, he's staying with me as he will with all of us in so many ways
0:45
And Sheldon's artistry and his zest for living inspire me every day. In his goodness, his minchness, has made me a better person
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Love you, Sheldon. affection suddenly sore what a strange and beautiful touch that I love him so much
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when I didn't before I used to wonder could there be a wife to share such a difficult
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kind of life you were only out of sight waiting right here
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Rectangular is the hotel door my true love tried to sneak through
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Rectangular is the transom over which I had to peek through Rectangular is the hotel room I entered angrily
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Now rectangular is the wooden box Where lies my love meet the grazing flocks They said he died of the chicken pox
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In part I must agree One chick too many had he We have climbed higher
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much higher than I thought we'd climb. It's a long journey, and even though the ends in sight
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there's not much time. I want to know we haven't built on sand
2:54
in my own lifetime. So many of us up on this stage and so many not up here have had their lives changed by Sheldon
3:08
As young artists, he encouraged us, mentored us, came to our readings and shows and collaborated with us where, as its Pulitzer Prize-winning giant, he made us feel like his artistic equals and that he valued us and appreciated our talent
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He treated everybody with that same respect. Sheldon was a superhero. What gave you the idea that a man who makes his living, handling liver, lungs and kidneys has no heart
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A butcher has his feelings, he is not a piece of meat
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A man is not a chicken. You should hang him by his feelings
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You'll take and scratch a butcher He's a man of flesh and blood
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A human being, not a person set apart There where my heart is settled long ago I must go I must go I must go Who could imagine I be wandering so far from the home I love
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Look at this, look at that, look at those. Let me just fear me
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beautiful, glamorous, radiant, ravishing, look at the sheep, look everywhere, I have such a divine
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Dad was brilliant. Stephen Sondheim told me once my dad was his favorite lyricist. Dad was a singer
5:02
My parents and I used to sing harmony in the car on the way to the Hamptons. I love that so much
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He was often in his head. He would walk down Central Park West with the
5:11
walking stick writing lyrics. Once a man greeted him and he said hi, a block later he
5:17
realized that was John Lennon. Another time he and my mother were walking on Main
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Street in East Hampton they ran into a woman and my mother chatted with her for a
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while while my dad stood there smiling and nodding. Afterwards my father asked my
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mother, so was that one of your friends from art school? She's like no Sheldon
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that was Barbara Streisand. My father and my mother said we'd learn to love each other
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And now I'm asking, God there, do you love me? I'm your wife
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I know. But do you love me
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Do I love him? Well, deep down inside, I think we all
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always knew that Sheldon was the best of us. Proof of that is a song that he wrote half a century ago and I will try not to screw it up They rioting in Africa
6:31
Do do, do, do, do, do. They're starving in Spain. There's hurricanes in Florida
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And Texas needs rain. rain. The whole world is festering
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with unhappy souls. The French hate the Germans. The Germans hate the polls
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Somehow it all reminds me of Dr. Jackal and Mr. Hyde. For right before my eyes, a man that I despise
7:20
has turned to a man I like. It's almost like a dream, and strange as it may seem
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He came to author me, Vanilla ice cream
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Tonight, Delahiyah, Lechayom. La Chaya, Lechayev, Lechayev, La Chayyreux, life. Life has a way up and losing us
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Blessing and bruising us. Drink La Chalaya, Tonight. Tonight! Hi! Hi
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Thank you. Thank you
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