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Anyone with even a passing interest in Broadway musicals knows the teams Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, George and Ira Gershwin.
But who knows Kander and Ebb?
Well, okay, besides those of us who wear T-shirts with "Romeo and Juliet, The Fantasticks, West Side Story . . . seen one, seen 'em all" written across the chest.
Still, John Kander and Fred Ebb are the team behind the most successful stage and movie musicals of our era, Cabaret and Chicago.
And who hasn't hummed All That Jazz (sometimes to our co-workers' distraction) or sung along with the anthem New York, New York?
I didn't realize how prolific and clever Kander and Ebb are until I saw a revue of their tunes at the Show Palace Dinner Theatre last week, The World Goes 'Round.
I loved it.
It isn't just the biggies that make this show terrific, it's also the ones that aren't that well known.
Kander and Ebb are sort of an optimist's Stephen Sondheim - thoughtful, thought-provoking, as intellectual as they are emotional, though the emotion is heavy duty.
But where Sondheim bites, Kander and Ebb give an elbow to the ribs and eye to the skies.
Take Class, the boozy lament about the lack of manners that has two fried-to-the-tonsils "ladies" decrying, among other things, that nowadays no one says "oops" when they pass gas.
"No class," they groan.
Then there's Ring Them Bells (not the Bob Dylan version), the hilarious, rapid-fire tale of a Manhattan spinster who has to go all the way to Dubrovnik to meet the fellow who lives next door to her Riverside apartment; the light look at illicit sex, Arthur in the Afternoon; and the painfully funny Pain (wasn't this for a Chita Rivera nightclub act?), about the aches and breaks that come to professional dancers.
In contrast are the torch songs, We Can Make It, Maybe This Time, Isn't This Better?, from three different shows, but a smooth trilogy here. And the poignant in-denial tales, I Don't Remember You from The Happy Times, joined with Sometimes a Day Goes By from Woman of the Year.
The World Goes 'Round also gives a preview of what's to come with four numbers from Chicago, which opens at the Show Palace on Jan. 2 for an eight-week run. The show hasn't been cast yet, but it's hard to imagine anyone who could put a better spin on All That Jazz than singer/dancer/actor Katie Kerwin.
Coming on the heels of two big-budget, huge-cast Show Palace shows, Annie Get Your Gun and Oliver, The World Goes 'Round seems surprisingly large and meaningful. The five star-quality singer/dancers fill the stage with movement and life, and the songs themselves are stories.
The singing strength really shows when Jonathan Harrison, Carmen Keels and Meredith Inglesby do the trilogy, chiming in one after the other.
The dancing strength is showcased when Ms. Kerwin and Joel Kipper let 'er rip in a dance sequence that precedes the comical Pain. (This dancing here is Kerwin's creation, by the way.)
A nice surprise is a cameo appearance by director/choreographer and Broadway veteran John Vincent Leggio about halfway through the first act.
Pay close attention; his dance technique is so dazzling, even a few seconds is like turning on a light.
After a season of familiar musicals, a newbie-to-this-area like The World Goes 'Round feels just right.
Good news. Ganko Sushi Bar and Restaurant is now open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Owner/chef Jimmy Kubota has several lunch boxes with various combinations of sashimi, sushi and teriyaki, all with miso soup and rice for $9.50.
He also has lunch specials like breaded pork loin over sauteed veggies with eggs, noodles with shrimp tempura in hot broth and a maki roll combo for $7 to $10.
Of course, you can always get what I consider the perfect lunch, miso soup and seaweed salad, for $6.50. Yuuum-ummm.
Ganko's is at 6614 U.S. 19 (Davis Shopping Center), just north of Main Street in New Port Richey.