There’s not a Disney fan on earth who doesn’t know – and love – the music of the Oscar-winning duo of Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman (AKA The Sherman Brothers). Their melodies and lyrics have become part of American history, thanks to iconic songs from “Mary Poppins,” “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh,” and – perhaps their most well-known tune – “It’s a Small World (After All),” which was inducted into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry earlier this year.
A Spoonful of Sherman
The Sherman family musical legacy has continued to thrive, thanks to Robert J. (“Robbie”) Sherman, the son of Robert B. Sherman and a London-based song and book writer who, among other shows, created A Spoonful of Sherman, a musical revue celebrating the toe-tapping tunes and clever lyrics of his father and uncle (with a wink to their famous “A Spoonful of Sugar” in the title).
“I grew up in a house where my grandfather was a legendary songwriter and my dad was also at the top of the craft,” Robbie said. “It just seemed that songwriting was a wonderful, mysterious, beautiful occupation and there was never a time in my life that I seriously thought I would want to do anything else.”
Sherman Theatrical Entertainment
In 2020, Sherman Theatrical Entertainment was formed to showcase the past, present, and future of Sherman family entertainment by not only bringing their existing award-winning productions to stage, screen, and streaming but also producing new shows with the same tried-and-true “Sherman sensibility” that’s appealed to family audiences for decades. The company plans to bring Robbie’s Love Birds, an original musical fantasy about a Vaudevillian troupe of penguins and parrots who perform songs like the cheeky “Blimey, I’m Slimy (Over You),” to the London stage in 2023.
The “Robbie Sherman Songbook,” released in January 2022, commemorates the 100th anniversary of Sherman family songwriting. Billed as the “must-have” audition tool for musical theater performers (but practically perfect for anyone who loves music), the Songbook is a collection of tunes from A Spoonful of Sherman, as well as Love Birds, Bumblescratch (Robbie’s musical about a London plague rat), and the upcoming projects The Magic Flute and The Penguin Pirate.
The audio version (available on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music) includes 16 musical theater-style songs, a digi-book with lyrics, show and song summaries, never-before-seen photos, and a special message from Robbie. (Click here to order. Digital sheet music is also available).
Robbie is actually behind several shows and musical numbers.
BUMBLESCRATCH is Robbie Sherman’s original musical, set in the time of the Great Plague of London, told from the point of view of a fiendish plague rat named “Melbourne Bumblescratch”. #ShermanTheatrical #Bumblescratch #musicaltheatre pic.twitter.com/bsaNkQ9GSK
— SHERMAN Theatrical Entertainment (@RobbieSherman) February 23, 2022
INKAS by the Sherman Brothers
Another exciting collaboration from Sherman Theatrical Entertainment is a NFT collection on MakersPlace called INKAS by the Sherman Brothers. The series is made up of video and song clips from a never-before-seen, 80-minute animatic storyboard reel for Inkas the Ramferinkas, an original animated musical about a flying dinosaur with story, songs, and characters created by the Sherman Brothers.
While its certainly a forward-thinking endeavor to enter into the NFT market, this particular project also checks the nostalgia box as this “lost” musical was not only the last thing the Sherman Brothers ever worked on together, it’s also something Robbie worked on with them, so it represents two generations of Sherman musicians.
The premier NFT in the series is a unique (“1 of 1”) video sequence accompanied by an original hand-drawn storyboard drawing created by Oscar-nominated and BAFTA award-winning animator, Tim Watts.
“The release of the last-ever Sherman Brothers musical project, by way of Sherman Theatrical Entertainment…represents a unique opportunity for collectors to own a piece of cultural history while honoring and preserving the immeasurable legacy of the Sherman Brothers and their music,” said MakersPlace CEO Dannie Chu. “We are ecstatic to work alongside Sherman Theatrical Entertainment to immortalize this legacy through a collection of original NFTs from a project 70 years in the making.”
@shermantheatrical Did you know there’s a legendary lost work by the Sherman Brothers, a prehistoric tale 7 decades and millions of years in the making, that Robbie Sherman is turning into a new animated feature? #ShermanTheatrical #ShermanBrothers #lostwork #INKAS #musicaltheatre
Want To Know More?
Keep up-to-date with Sherman Theatrical Entertainment on the Sherman Theatrical Entertainment website, by following them on Instagram and Twitter, or by joining the Sherman Brothers Facebook Group. For an informative look at the life and times of Robert B. Sherman I highly recommend his autobiography, Moose, and if you’re a Disney+ subscriber, you can also find the Sherman Brother’s documentary The Boys.
