Jewish singer-songwriter Carole King and author and illustrator Maurice Sendak have given us many gifts. The award-winning album “Tapestry” and the absolutely iconic children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are,” respectively, are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to their vast contributions to pop culture. But it turns out these two once collaborated on a glorious, glorious children’s musical that feels so incredibly Jewish, and that really everyone should hear.
The year was 1975, the channel was CBS and the half-hour kids’ special was named “Really Rosie.” The musical is based on stories from Sendak’s wonderful 1962 “The Nutshell Library.” King not only contributed her voice to the songs of the musical special but to Rosie herself, the sassy, Brooklyn-based heroine of the show.
Rosie, a true style icon, dons a maxi red dress, glamorous long gloves, high-heeled blue boots and a dark feather boa scarf. Her piece de resistance comes in the form of a wide brimmed hat adorned with a giant feather.
Rosie’s grandiose repertoire includes her tragic love affair with Chicken Soup, whose demise is documented in the song “The Ballad of Chicken Soup.” Chicken Soup allegedly died from choking on a bone in a bowl of chicken soup, a dark and very Jewish way to die. “Oh woe, oy vey,” Rosie sings, “on an ordinary day, when Chicken Soup passed away.”
Fret not: Chicken Soup is later revived and offers the gang some delicious Jewish penicillin for the road. The group sings a song based on Sendak’s wonderful “Chicken Soup With Rice” which reminds us, rightfully, that chicken soup with rice is a nosh for all year round. There are many other excellent songs in this special. The background vocals you hear in all these songs? They come from Carole’s two daughters, Louise Goffin and Sherry Goffin Kondor. In the King family, music is often a family affair, like this incredible recording of the Hanukkah blessing that features three generations: Carole, Louise and Carole’s grandson, Hayden.
Sendak grew up in Brooklyn, a childhood haunted by his family’s loss of relatives in the Holocaust. The story of Rosie was inspired by a girl that he saw as kid, dancing on her Brooklyn stoop. Rosie lives on Brooklyn’s Avenue P, not far from the childhood homes of our two co-creators.
King’s parents met as students in Brooklyn College, and it was in the borough that she learned how to play piano, taught by her mother. It was in Midwood, the same neighborhood as Avenue P, where Carol Klein became Carole King at James Madison High School, where she formed the Co-Sines Band. This musical special is deeply tied to their inextricable Jewish Brooklyn roots.
But perhaps just as importantly, this is a musical special that is pure excellence: There’s the beautiful, fluid, whimsical style of Sendak’s art, so expressive and alive and easy to connect with for both children and adults, and there’s King’s music, whose quality is neither dismissed nor dumbed down for this special. It’s basically a quality musical for kids from two Jewish greats, one that every parent — Jewish or not — should be thrilled to have in their family’s musical rotation.
It feels very Tim Burton and I’m here for it.
