OK, I can take a hint. Until I play some Sondheim I won’t be forgiven for polluting the blog with Andrew Lloyd Webber. So, in the spirit of El Som’s “stealth Sondheim,” here’s his best-known tune performed by someone you wouldn’t expect — Alan Kalter, the announcer on David Letterman’s late-night show for 20 years, who died this week at age 78.
Kalter wasn’t just the show’s announcer — producers tapped him for comic bits, frequently involving angry rants. But one night, apropos of nothing, he sang a truncated version of “Send in the Clowns” — quite credibly, I think — and then, overcome with emotion, ran off the stage. I can only think that it was Kalter’s comic reputation as a risk-taker — “I don’t recall the guy ever saying no to anything,” Letterman said, “and I guess that tells us something about his judgment” — that has the audience laughing after every line of one of Sondheim’s most touching and wistful songs.
UPDATE:
Worldwide Pants pulled the video, but the audio is available at this Soundboard link:
https://www.soundboard.com/sb/sound/204853