As I mentioned on Monday, I’m the critic-in-residence at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, more chummily known as CCM, where recently I saw Aubrey Berg’s excellent production of How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. Because I’d be talking to the kids afterwards, I was taking plenty of notes. For Liberty Cogen (Smitty), I noted, “Nice hand gestures in BALD.” Of Katilyn Davidson (Rosemary), I wrote, “You made HTKHDW swing, and made it sound a better song than it is.”

Those who know the show have already inferred that BALD had nothing to do with hair loss, but was the acronym for “Been a Long Day,” the song in which Smitty tries to interest J. Pierrepont Finch in Rosemary. HTKHDW, of course, meant “Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm,” her plea for domesticity.

I do this when I take notes; it does, after all, save time, and it allows me to get back to looking at the stage as quickly as possible. But while I was writing GOI for the excellent duet between Carl Draper (J.B. Biggley) and Justin Scott Brown (J. Pierrepont Finch), suddenly, I thought, hmmm, I think I’ve come up with a good idea for a quiz. What if I gave readers, say, six acronyms of songs from a musical? Would they be able to guess what they are, and what the show is, too?

Actually, this quiz seemed to me a little on the hard side, so I thought I’d better only include famous shows. I mean, I can’t expect you to know that DCT, SB, IAWIYG, LYFTF, BH and HTP mean “Dream Come True,” “Serious Business,” “It’s All Written in Your Genes,” “Leave Your Fate to Fate,” “Big Hair” and “Hell to Pay” from Imperfect Chemistry. Let’s get real.

But let’s try it, shall we? All words in each title are capitalized, even if they represent prepositions or articles. Punctuation is ignored. Come – I’ll make it easier for you: All the shows, produced between 1961 and 2008, are arranged chronologically. All the songs are in the order in which they appear in the show – though that could mean they’re the musical’s first, third, seventh, ninth, 14th and 16th songs; in other words, don’t expect that the six songs appear in a row.

You don’t have to give me the names of all six songs; that would take you too long, and your time is valuable. Just give me the name of the show. Let’s have the answers by Wednesday, Dec. 10, so that we can applaud the high scorers on Friday, Dec. 12.

1. CB. TCW. ASINAT. LFAHOG. IBIY. BOM.

2. GMGD. IDKHN. WHLM. WMS. ATTTL. GKY.

3. T. IIWARM. NIHE. DYLM. FFTHIL. A.

4. IATS. IOTOH. IRLH. WDHWOM. TEHD. TID.

5. SDJ. TLOOV. BMA. HPTV. CCCM. MLS

6. TLTYDT. SG. YCDAPC. HIGAGFY. AHP. BA.

7. BG. DLAM. ROTR. AP. BB. WTW.

8. YMMMW. IPOW. EDALD. AWITC. IWHBW. SITC.

9. ATJ. WYGTM. WBRFTG. MOBF. MC. WVTTS.

10. ICDT. ATB. HTHTHL. TMATM. O. WIDFL.

11. ITHKL. WLTTYHH. ITIGLIH. YWBAOFL. YNFDWAS. ANDFC.

12. OTNOATS. BA. ASIAH. ANA. DCFMA. HFA.

13. YAH. SW. GIYD. WITM. SSTES. LOB.

14. JSFJC. TOGC. MAR. OD. GTTC. M.

15. WAWWA. ALMM. WAOMA. IAWIA. LOT. TBOT.

16. NL. CAL. ELL. FTH. WDNBT. CAA.

17. ATEOTD. IDAD. MOTH. DYHTPS. ODM. BHH.

18. IGTIG. MTM. AVNP. FM. GITS. OTSOTP.

19. TOM. AOM. TMOTN. AIAOY. WYWSHA. TPONR.

20. B. NMW. M. H. BOG. HA.

21. R. OSG. LMC. TM. LVB. SOL.

22. NFTLOM. HTOHL. WDINWL. OINY. FATB. GG.

23. WDYDWABAIE. ISTBM. EALBR. YCBALATHYW. MGWLIC. TMYRS.

24. NOMTW. TWAI. WITF. DTL. P. DG.

25. BD. IWBLN. HOS. CDB. EIK. WTSGD.

You may e-mail Peter at pfilichia@aol.com

It was a month that saw August: Osage County decide not only to offer student rush, but also senior rush. Well, why not? What’s good for the gosling is good for the goose and gander.

Saw a wonderful production of How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where I’m critic-in-residence. Lord knows that Abe Burrows’ book is hilarious, and future stars-to-be Liberty Cogen (Smitty), Katilyn Davidson (Rosemary) Carl Draper (J.B. Biggley), Lauren Sprague (Hedy LaRue), and Cody Williams (Bud Frump) got every laugh. So did Justin Scott Brown as J. Pierrepont Finch – but he got an extra one that I’ve never heard before get a laugh. It happened after Finch decided on the prize that would be given in the World Wide Wickets Treasure Hunt Game Show. Said Finch, “We’ll give away stock. Nobody can resist that. These days, people like stock better than money.” Granted, the laughter was of a distinctly different type from the carefree sound that greeted the rest of the jokes, but it still qualified as laughter.

Certainly was impressed by If You See Something, Say Something, Mike Daisey’s riveting monologue about visiting Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the atomic bomb had its out-of-town tryout on July 16, 1945. Fascinating to hear that after the government dropped the first and second bombs respectively on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it had no bombs left – but the Japanese didn’t know that, and had to surrender. However, once again, for my umpteenth visit to Joe’s Pub, I had a hard time seeing the stage. Who designed this place? Max Bialystock? I think so, for as I looked around, I noticed that this was indeed theater in the square, where almost nobody had a good seat. Add to that that waitpersons were always walking past, blocking my view, and the guy next to me shifting in his chair, hitting my foot with his, mumbling “Sorry” – at least for the first few times; after a while, he ceased to apologize, because he knew that I knew the set-up was impossible, and how many times can you say you’re sorry? Nevertheless, If You See Something, Say Something was so impressive that it was worth enduring the lack of theatrical amenities.

How odd to hear completely different lyrics for a song I’d known for some time as “Bounce.” But that’s the way Road Show begins, and I went along for the ride with Sondheim, Weidman, and Doyle. The story of Willy and Addison Mizner, two brothers who had a love-hate relationship, could have been sharper. The story threatens to go in an incestuous direction when Addison seems strangely eroticized during a night when he shares his bed with his brother, but this turns out to be the love that Weidman dare not even broach. Later, when Addison begins a romance with Hollis Bessemer – and Willy shows up to give advice on developing Boca Raton and Hollis sides with him – I expected something to be made of that triangle, with Addison’s feeling betrayed. That didn’t quite happen.

The score is pure Sondheim. Even the most casual theatergoer, if put in front of the show without virtue of advance word or program, would be able to identify its songwriter – except for “The Best Thing That Ever Happened,” an utterly beautiful song that has to be the most gorgeous exchange ever between two men on a New York stage. As for the lyrics, what a pleasure to hear intelligence and rhymes in the same score. Loved the lyric from one corrupt character: “Once I was a pro, but now I’m a con.”

Both Alexander Gemignani and Michael Cerveris had a wonderfully real, easy-going style, while the latter was unrecognizable from his 15-year career, and not just because he had a head of hair; he was so startlingly different that I still wouldn’t be surprised if I found that the ushers forgot to put in the understudy slips. Good for him for chameleoning himself into someone brand-new.

Lehman Engel always told his students to “Look for humor in dark places,” and he would have been pleased at the way Sondheim and Weidman treated the Mizners’ mother’s death. Road Show is another musical where applause is discouraged; often, a number ends and is immediately followed by a line of dialogue. Guess Sondheim feels he’s had enough applause in his life. He hasn’t received much for this project, but it’s an amiable enough show.

Speaking of Boca Raton, I went there to see the Caldwell Theatre Company’s brand-new playhouse and their inaugural attraction: Bock and Harnick’s She Loves Me. Amy Miller Brennan was charming and vulnerable as Amalia, while Laura Hoods was jaded but not too far gone as Ilona. And though David Kelley had to step in as Georg, his letter-perfect performance belied his understudy status. But what really impressed me was the statement on the playbill cover: 34th season. How does a local theater stay in business for that long? Okay, the new digs are called the Count de Hoernle Theatre, so some rich noble or his heirs picked up the tab – but what would prompt a royal to get financially involved? Quality. I’m guessing that a good deal of this has to do with Michael Hall, for his playbill bio says that he “co-founded Caldwell in 1975 and had remained its artistic director.” How many other artistic directors have had that long a reign? So one of the secrets of Caldwell’s success can be expressed in another Bock and Harnick song from another show: “Stability.”

What kid calls his mother “Mud”? What mother would allow it? How did it happen? Can it be short for “Muddah?” Jeff Hochhauser offers no explanation in My Vaudeville Man, his two-person musical at the York. Nevertheless, there’s Jack Donohue writing letters to “Mud” about his start and rise in vaudeville, while Mud constantly cautions him against drink and theater. (Constantly. Might make a good show for A.A. meetings.)

I complained that Billy Elliot was a too-familiar story about parents-vs.-kids in show biz, but at least that one has a miner’s strike that adds to the tension. “Don’t drink” and “Get a real job” are all we get here. Still, Traditional Show Music flows through composer Bob Johnston’s every vein, making for one of those scores that has you humming the number you just heard during the next scene where Mud and Jack argue about what they’ve been arguing about since the show began. Karen Murphy does what she can in playing this dishrag, but, oh, that Shonn Wiley as Jack. What a song ‘n’ dance man! Everyone connected with this show should bow down and kiss his feet – though I’m sure that each foot wouldn’t stop tapping long enough to give the grateful staff a chance.
Last week marked the 45th anniversary of my going to the Shubert in Boston to see the road company of Stop the World - I Want to Get Off. At that point, I didn’t know the show’s score - only the three songs that had become pop hits: “Gonna Build a Mountain,” “Once in a Lifetime,” and, of course, “What Kind of Fool Am I?” Loved the show, and told my parents that one of my Christmas presents could be the cast album. They obliged, and on Christmas morn, I listened – and immediately realized that I couldn’t have heard one song as originally written. For in, “All-American,” in which the bubble-headed Ginny Romaine tells about herself, she sang, “And I think that Mr. Eisenhower’s absolutely great” - at which point the orchestra conductor tapped his baton as a way of alerting her that she’d made a mistake. He then whispered some information to her, which prompted her to say, “Oh, really? When?” - before singing the same melody line with “And I think that Mr. Kennedy is absolutely great.” You see, five days before I’d seen the show, President Kennedy had been assassinated. Had I known the score in advance, I would have noticed what change was obviously made. Still wonder to this day what was substituted.

Finally, I spent one afternoon this past month attending a backers’ audition of Let My People Come, the erotic revue that, in the ‘70s, lasted quite some time at the Village Gate - and even braved Broadway. Producer Bob Blume is trying to mount a revival, which will be called Let My People Come ... Again. As in the original, there’s nudity - but what most fascinated me was a tattoo that one of the young women had to the left of her pubic hair: “No Day But Today.” Now this is what I’d call a Renthead – or a Rent-uhhhh, well, I’ll let you come up with the right term.

You may e-mail Peter at pfilichia@aol.com