37 West 56th Street. An address that in-the-know sophisticated New Yorkers knew very well in the mid-1950s – the resplendent reconverted townhouse of one John Wanamaker that served as the home to a delectably delicious series of cabaret entertainments presented at the Upstairs at the Downstairs by Julius Monk.

That room opened in 1958 with Demi-Dozen, another delightful Monk revue. Monk had an uncanny ability to not only cast his shows with brilliant revue performers, in this case Jean Arnold, Ceil Cabot, Jane Connell, Jack Fletcher, George Hall, and Gerry Matthews, but to find up-and-coming songwriters and in the cast of this album that included the team of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, who would soon go on to write the score to The Fantasticks. Also featured in this revue is a song by another up-and-coming team, Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh – their song for Demi-Dozen is a classic Coleman/Leigh song, “You Fascinate Me So.” But the majority of the material in Demi-Dozen is by Jones and Schmidt and their contributions are uniquely them and uniquely wonderful. The Monk revues were very much of their time, but they are still completely entertaining all these decades later. -KRITZERLAND

1 Entire Company of Strolling Players - Grand Opening 3:10
2 Ceil Cabot - Yes Siree 0:48
3 Jack Fletcher - Mister Off-Broadway 3:44
4 Jean Arnold - You Fascinate Me So 2:16
5 Jean Arnold, Gerry Matthews, George Hall, Jack Fletcher - Conference Call or Gray Flannel & How It Grew 3:42
6 Gerry Matthews - The Holy Man and the New Yorker 4:08
7 Jane Connell - The Race of the Lexington Avenue Express 5:20
8 Ceil Cabot, Gerry Matthews - Sunday in New York 1:32
9 Entire Company - The Intellectuals' Rag 3:49
10 Entire Company - A Seasonal Sonatina 8:54
11 George Hall - One and All 1:58
12 Ceil Cabot, Jane Connell, Jean Arnold, Gerry Matthews, George Hall - Portofino 3:19
13 Jack Fletcher, Jean Arnold - Guess Who Was There? 2:35
14 Ceil Cabot, Jane Connell, Gerry Matthews, Jack Fletcher - 3rd Avenue El 3:02
15 Ceil Cabot - Statehood Hula 3:21
16 Entire Company - Grand Finale – Monk's Minstrel Show 6:12

Total length: 57:50