Eliot...Sylvia - Demo - Howard Ashman and Alan Menken - God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

Here is the demo to "Eliot...Sylvia" from God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, as sung by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman. This was the duo's first collaboration.
Having heard of Howard's show "Dreamstuff" (which Howard only supplied the book for), Alan, a composer and lyricist at the time, was introduced to Howard through Maury Yeston. (Howard had recently directed a workshop of Maury's musical "Nine," while Alan and Maury knew each other through the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.) Though reluctant to work solely as a composer with a relatively new lyricist, Alan (a fan of Kurt Vonnegut) agreed to meet Howard, who was looking for a composer, after learning that the project he was working on was a musical based off of "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater." Coming to Alan's apartment, Alan's recalls that his first impression of Howard was that "he seemed edgy and guarded. He wore torn jeans and a bomber jacket. He talked with a tight, intense energy, chain-smoking the entire time. And he was clearly very smart." ("Interview with Alan Menken, part one" howardashman.co...)
Thinking he would help out this new lyricist, the first few times Howard would give Alan a set of lyrics to work with, Alan would go through and lightly criticize them, saying "This is great, but maybe we can adjust this and this," before Howard would would grip his shoulder as if to say "Just set it."
Having the rights to the novel to just an Equity showcase, Vonnegut was supportive, though hands off, with the cast and crew not knowing if the show would be able to continue after it's run at the WPA Theatre. During one of the show's rehearsals, Vonnegut showed up to watch and, after seeing the work first hand for the first time, Alan recalls him almost dancing out. The show would go on to run four months at the Entermedia Theater.