REVIEW: A few years ago we had THE PRODUCERS, than URINETOWN, now it’s time for another political incorrect score. Who would have thought that a puppet musical would deliver such a winning score? But the fact is that Robert Lopez & Jeff Marx songs are among the best Broadway have heard in years.

The cast couldn’t be in better harmony with the material and among the highlights we have the cheerful “It Sucks to Be Me”, the hilarious “The Internet Is for Porn”, the funny “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” and the beautiful torch song with a twist “The More You Ruv Someone”, sang in Judy Garland mode by the comical Ann Harada.

This is one of those scores that will leave you humming a few songs and that’s a rarity in new musicals.

REVIEW: This musical began its life back in 1979, open on Broadway in 1986 but it was only recorded after its Berkshire Theatre Festival sold-out run in 2002. The action takes place in a New York building where all the characters live and so the melodic score deals with real characters in real situations.

This mix of comic, romantic and dramatic songs sounds just like real life. Among the musical numbers we have the interesting “Someone’s Moving In” for opening; the beautiful “Not Today” sung with gusto by Debbie Gravitte; the 80s style “He Didn’t Leave It Here”; the sad ballad “Since We Stayed Here” and the romantic lushly “We Came Along to Late”.

The voices of the talented cast blend in perfect harmony and the end result is a small lovely piece of musical theatre.

REVIEW: That this new collaboration between composer Jule Styne and lyricists Comden & Green (together they wrote BELLS ARE RINGING and DO RE MI) failed on Broadway was kind of a surprise for everyone involved. Not even the star power of the hilarious Carol Burnett, who sounds great at this recording, saved the show. Anyway, someone decided to record the score and finally someone release it on CD.

What we have here is a highly tuneful and funny score, with some terrific songs like “Call Me Savage”, “Lili Tremaine”, “You Mustn’t Be Discouraged” and, a special favorite of mine, “The Usher from the Mezzanine”.

This is a musical worthy of discovering and it shows that even a lesser Jule Styne is better than almost all of the contemporary new Broadway musicals.

REVIEW: I’ve to confess that I never cared much for this 1958 Rodgers & Hammerstein musical. It’s true, it had a few great songs like “I Enjoy Being a Girl” and “Love, Look Away”, but on the whole it didn’t sound very interesting.

Surprise! This Broadway revival cast recording brings new life to the score and thanks to new orchestrations by Don Sebesky and an appealing cast I really enjoyed it for the first time on my life. Purists may discharged it as a crime, but when a new recording help us to rediscover an old score, that’s hardly a crime. Like me you may not like the modern beat at the middle of “Fan Tan Fannie”, but it made me smile and the new “I Enjoy Being a Girl” number sounds like a great piece of musical entertainment.

With a fabulous CD package this is a must have on any musical fan CD library.

REVIEW: Everyone knows that not all 50s musicals were hits or classics, but even the ones that weren’t, usually had interesting scores. That’s the case with this forgotten show.

The music was by Hollywood composer Victor Young (THE QUIET MAN, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH) and in his Broadway debut he came up with a good share of attractive songs, like “Where Is That Someone for Me”, “Camille, Collette, Fifi”” and, my favorite of the whole score, “Sun At My Window, Love At My Door”. The cast included film stars Gloria de Haven and Ricardo Montalban in their Broadway debuts and both reveal fine voices. Among the cast there’s also the terrific Chita Rivera, here in her first recording album.

This isn’t a great score but I wish today someone were able to write songs like these and I always have an agreeable time each time I hear it.

REVIEW: Stephen Schwartz never conquered me with any of his previous scores and when I saw WICKED on stage I wasn’t impressed with his songs. Even so I decide to buy the cast recording and when I played it I discovered that after all this was a very interesting score.

I’m not the kind of guy who likes pop flavour musicals and there’s plenty of that in here, but there’s also some powerful songs (“The Wizard and I”, and “Defying Gravity”), funny ones (“Popular”, “What Is This Feeling”) and a traditional eleven o’clock number for the wizard, “Wonderful”. I would prefer a more conventional score and there are a few glimpses of better songs (the “Wizomania” in the middle of “One Short Day” and the too small part that Elphaba mother’s lover sings in “No One Mourns the Wicked”).

Anyway this is a strong, sometimes epic, score that results in a pleasant listening. The cast couldn’t be better, with Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel giving their best at the leading the roles.

REVIEW: I've to begin this review by saying that John Kander & Fred Ebb's score for CHICAGO is my all time favorite. I had the pleasure of seeing the current Revival five times and I'm never tire of it. So when I heard that someone was going to adapt it for the screen I was both excited and afraid. I haven't seen the movie yet (it only opens in February, here in Portugal) but by listening to the movie soundtrack I have to say that I'm surprised. It sounds great!

I knew that both Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere had done stage musicals in their past, but I never thought that they would sound like this. Zeta-Jones shows a strong, sensuous voice that's perfect for Velma Kelly and Gere's nasal singing is really 20s style. Queen Latifah is a terrific Mamma Morton (it's a pity they cut the "Class" number from the finished film) and John C. Reilly is a convincing Amos Hart. As for Renée Zellweger she sounds like Marilyn Monroe and, although her voice isn't as strong as of her partners, she delivers her numbers with style.

The orchestrations by Doug Besterman (who won Tonys for THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, FOSSE and THE PRODUCERS) are simple terrific, giving the entire score a really hot and decadent sound that's perfect for the story. Even the original tracks by Danny Elfman fit like a glove with the songs.

Of course I don't care for the two "modern" tracks at the end of the CD, they are out of place and neither of them are interesting. The producers would have done better if they had given Christine Baranski the opportunity to sing "A Little Bit of Luck" just for the recording.

But there's a new song by Kander & Ebb. It's titled "I Move On" and it's a contagious duet by Zeta-Jones and Zellweger. I just hope this year Oscar for Best Movie Song will be deliver to this terrific song, but maybe there's no good taste at the Academy.

This is an high enjoyable CD, perfect (if you cut the last two tracks) for continuous listenings and, although I still prefer the Broadway albums, a good rendition of the most fabulous of all musical scores. Don't miss it!

REVIEW: With this recording and with THE CROOKED MILE, a new CD label - Must Close Saturday Records - begins releasing cast recordings of forgotten British musical. If like me you have an adventurous spirit this is great news and let's hope many more titles will come our way. This THE AMAZONS is a quiet charming little score, with a few enjoyable tunes waiting to be discovered. Unfortunately the lack of a full orchestra (for budget reasons they only used a piano) doesn't help this interesting score. Nevertheless this is an almost perfect example of old-fashioned English Music-Hall.

A musical comedy in its own right, the show had its opening in 1971at Nottingham, run for just 21 performances and failed to reach the West End. The music was by film composer John Addison (THE ENTERTAINER, TOM JONES, A BRIDGE TOO FAR) and lyrics by David Heneker (HALF A SIXPENCE, THE BIOGRAPH GIRL, CHARLIE GIRL), with a book by Michael Stewart (CARNIVAL, HELLO DOLLY!, MACK AND MABEL). It told the story of three sisters who were brought up as boys and all the confusion caused by that.

Among the songs there's a curious hymn to England titled "There's Nothing Wrong with England" and a sexual ambiguous song, "A Nice Young Fellow", where a man sings about the "… nice, good looking, fresh…, clean cut hair… young fellow" he met in the streets. There's also the quiet romantic waltz "Don't Follow the Music", the simple and contagious dance tune "Stag Party", the happy and melodic "The Coast is Clear" and the delightful simple "We Shall See What We Shall See".

This world premiere recording was made after the 2002 production of the Theatre Museum in Convent Garden. The entire cast, where the more famous names are the ones of Elizabeth Counsell and Myra Sands (both of the original 1972 production), sounds too British with very strong accents, but that is perfect for this little show and for the spirit of the play.

REVIEW: A look at London's Soho "low-life" of the 50s, this musical begins with a sinister melody that kind of warn us that this is going to be a dark score, but we soon discover that although it tells a story of a group of marginal characters with troubles this isn't a sad show, on the contrary.

Peter Greenwell wrote a rich score that goes from conventional musical tunes to operatic levels and thanks to Gordon Langford's terrific orchestrations it has a lush sound that's high rewarding. There's a beautiful ballad, "If I Ever Fall in Love Again", sang with feeling by Elisabeth Welch that haunts the entire score and "Free" is a strong melody that kinds of set the feeling of the whole play.

Besides the beautiful voiced Welch, there's the funny Millicent Martin who has a great time with "Horticulture" and shares in perfection a funny duet, "Meet the Family", with Welch. Jack MacGowran doesn't have a great voice but he delivers "Free" and the sad "Spare a Penny" with sentiment. Both John Larsen (who has an amusing duet with Welch, "Cousin Country", about the differences between English and Americans) and Alan Thomas have strong operatic voices to which they give full range in "Down to Earth" and "Luigi" respectively.

I'm not going to say that this is a great score, but it deserves a place in any musical fan's cast album collection. You may not fall in love with it, but after a few listenings you'll find plenty to be pleased about.