ENTERTAINMENT
May 26, 2000 | RICHARD CROMELIN, TIMES STAFF WRITER
Is Tom Lehrer "the most brilliant song satirist ever recorded"? That's the claim made by Barry Hansen in the hardcover booklet that accompanies "The Remains of Tom Lehrer," a three-CD set that arrived in stores this week. Hansen, better known as Dr. Demento, the radio personality whose program has showcased Lehrer's music for decades, makes a strong case for his position. But one thing there's no arguing is that Lehrer has had the most unusual career of any song satirist ever recorded.
ENTERTAINMENT
November 20, 1997 | DARYL H. MILLER, TIMES STAFF WRITER
There he was, yapping his tomfool head off about war, pollution, prejudice, dope peddling and more. Tom Lehrer, a Harvard-educated mathematician, stumbled into the music business when he found that people would pay good money for recordings of the satiric songs he'd been writing for fun.
ENTERTAINMENT
November 7, 1996 | TODD EVERETT, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Taste-challenging songs including "The Masochism Tango," "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" and "The Old Dope Peddler," first released in the Eisenhower era, gained Tom Lehrer a reputation as an underground humorist of the first order. Broadcast personality and novelty record authority Barrett "Dr. Demento" Hansen calls Lehrer "the most brilliant musical satirist ever to have made records."
ENTERTAINMENT
July 16, 1991 | M.E. WARREN, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Tom Lehrer, a Harvard-educated mathematician, accidentally became a troubadour of his times--the '50s and '60s--when songs he'd written for his own amusement turned out to amuse others as well. As performed in college coffeehouses and urban cafes, such songs as "The Old Dope Peddler," "Pollution" and "The Masochism Tango" became favorites of sophisticates eager for a witty perspective on modern problems. "Tomfoolery," being staged by the Grove Shakespeare Festival at the Gem Theatre through Aug.
ENTERTAINMENT
July 9, 1991 | MARK CHALON SMITH
The last time the Grove Shakespeare Festival staged "Tomfoolery," a revue of songs by satirist Tom Lehrer, company founder Thomas F. Bradac directed and Cyrus Parker-Jeannettewas his assistant. That was in May of 1989. Now, as the Grove's latest version of the show approaches, Parker-Jeannette is in charge of it. But Bradac's presence is being felt as much as ever. Bradac, 43, resigned unexpectedly last week after 12 years as the festival's artistic director.
ENTERTAINMENT
June 22, 1990 | ROBERT HILBURN, TIMES POP MUSIC CRITIC
Rodney Dangerfield isn't the only comedian who gets no respect when it comes to compact discs. Shelley Berman, Bob Newhart, Mort Sahl and Jonathan Winters each had Top 25 albums in the late '50s or early '60s, but none of those albums is available in CD. The absence of Newhart and Winters is especially surprising because of Newhart's continuing popularity on television and Winters' widely acknowledged influence on such contemporary figures as Robin Williams. Newhart's first two Warner Bros.