Ain't It Awful?

It isn't nearly hot enough for this song, but it remains the Pointless Digressions summer favorite, topping "Summertime," "Estate," "Heat Wave" and "Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy days of Summer."

The song is "Ain't It Awful, the Heat?", lyrics by Langston Hughes, music by Kurt Weill, written for the 1947 production of Elmer Rice's "Street Scene."  

Some of us were lucky enough to hear it sung by Anne Mortifee and Ruth Nichol in "Kurt Weill: Berlin to  Broadway," a Richard Ouzounian production staged at the Vancouver Playhouse, circa 1975.  Among the other Ouzounian regulars in the cast was Brent Carver, who sang "Moritat"  and executed a neat jitterbug step with Ms. Nichol to "Moon-faced and Starry-eyed." Leon Bibb was there to sing "Lost in the Stars." 

The 1970s were a great decade for theatre in Vancouver.  And for dance.  Ain't it awful they're gone?