REVIEW: For some reason I don’t remember, when I was a child I loved opera. As I grew up I start thinking that it was kind of boring and I stop listening to it. Anyway I never stopped enjoying operetta, so it was with opened arms that I received the City Center Encores! cast recording of the classic THE NEW MOON.

With music by Sigmund Romberg and written by Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel and Laurence Schwab, this operetta opened on Broadway in 1928, on a time that art form was already near death, and it was a success, becoming one of the most famous titles of the genre.

There are other recordings of this score, but this new one is not only the more complete of all but also the best of them. Once again City Center Encores! come up with a perfect cast that delivers the songs with emotion and an orchestra that plays the music with gusto.

Even if you don’t like operettas, you might be surprised to find something here that will keep you interested and to realize that this show as more to do with musical theatre than with opera. Among the famous tunes you’ll find the melodious romantic “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise”, “One Kiss” and “Lover, Come Back to Me” and the epic “Stouthearted Men”. There’s also lighter numbers like “Gorgeous Alexander”, “The Trial (Ladies of the Jury)”, “Marriage Number / Try Her Out at Dances” and “Funny Little Sailor Men”.

As for the cast the likes of Rodney Gilfry, Christiane Noll, Brandon Jovanovich, Lauren Ward, Peter Benson and Alix Korey (who sounds like Judy Kaye) are completely in tune with the rich orchestrations and the result is an enjoyable cast recording.

REVIEW: I’m one of those guys who thinks that a cast recording is only worthy as long as it has an orchestra playing the score, so I was very suspicious about this new FINIAN’S RAINBOW recording; since I always loved the score I decided to give it a chance. I was in for a pleasant surprise!

Played only by two pianos but with new wonderful orchestrations and vocal arrangements by Mark Hartman, I soon forgot that there wasn’t an orchestra playing and I found myself enjoying it immensely. The music by Burton Lane sounds as better as ever and the lyrics by E. Y. Harburg are clear as water.

The terrific cast couldn’t be better, Melissa Errico is a perfect Sharon and Max Von Essen delivers a strong beautiful voice as Woody. Jonathan Freeman as Finian shows why is one of the best musical character actors of today, as for Malcolm Gets his Og, the Leprechaun, is good but it should be funnier. Terri White delivers a wonderful “Necessity” and the rest of the company is in great shape, making this recording a lively rendition of the score.

As for the score, what can I tell that you don’t already know? Among its songs there are several classics like “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?”, “Old Devil Moon” and “Look at the Rainbow”, my favourite “When I’m Not Near the Girl I Love” and great ensemble numbers like “That Great Come-an-Get-It Day” and “When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich”.

This new cast album from The Irish Repertory Theatre production is a must in every musical fan CD library and we should all be thankful to Ghostlight Records for releasing it.

REVIEW: 2004 was a good year to Hugh Martin, this cast album being his third work to be release on CD, following LOVE FROM JUDY and MAKE A WISH. As a result we now have all his stage scores on CD.

This LOOK MA, I’M DANCIN’! begins with the exciting “Gotta Dance” and its followed by the funny “I’m the First Girl in the Second Row”, the first sung by Harold Lang and the second sung with perfect comic timing by Nancy Walker, who also have a good time with “I’m Tired of Texas”. There are also a couple of melodious songs, “I’m Not So Bright” and “Tiny Room” (both in the vein of MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, special the last one). The typical 40s musical sound can be heard in “The Little Boy Blues”, “If You’ll Be Mine” and “Shauny O’Shay”. Two previously unreleased tracks, “Let’s Do a Ballet” and “Horrible, Horrible Love”, are added to extra impact and they look like two solid musical numbers.

Besides Land and Walker, the cast includes Hugh Martin himself, who shows a pretty voice in “The Little Boy Blues” and Sandra Deel who sings “Shauny O’Shay” beautifully. One last word to Bill Shirley, who reveals a sweet tender voice in “Tiny Room”.

This isn’t one of the best scores written for the musical theatre and it’s not Hugh Martins’ best work, but in its own right it’s a pleasant recording and there’s plenty to enjoy here.

REVIEW: When this show opened on Broadway in 1951 it didn’t find its audience and closed after 102 performances, leaving behind an interesting score that only now, and thanks to Sepia Records, comes available on CD.

It’s true this isn’t the best score of the 50s, far from it, but Hugh Martin’s work is highly pleasant and it deserves to be discovered. It also remind us that on that time even lesser shows come up with better scores than most of the Broadway musicals of today. Just listen at Nanette Fabray (at the top of her form) having a great time with “I Wanna Be Good ‘N’ Bad” and you’ll see what I mean; today no one writes songs like this one.

Besides Fabray, the cast includes Stephen Douglass, Helen Gallagher and Harold Lang, and all of them sound like they were having a real good time recording this score and with songs like “Who Gives a Sou?”, “Over and Over”, “That Face” and the delightful title number, so will you.

I know that Hugh Martin also wrote MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, but I think some of his best work is here and I strongly recommend this cast recording. There are also bonus tracks by Stephen Douglass singing songs like “Long Ago and Far Away”, “She Didn’t Say Yes” and “They Didn’t Believe Me” among others.

REVIEW: For what I think is the first time ever, we have a cast demonstration recording release of a score that was severely cut before it opened on Broadway. The truth is that when LA STRADA arrived on Broadway, of the original Lionel Bart score only a couple of songs remained on the show. So here we have the score that Bart wrote for the show.

I was never a big Lionel Bart’s fan and it isn’t with this recording that I’ll become one. I can see the purpose of this new release on a historic level, but that’s all. To be honest it doesn’t seem strange to me that this score never made it to Broadway, because in my opinion this is hardly interesting.

Of course this isn’t a true cast recording, but Madeline Bell and the Michael Sammes Singers make it sound like one and the fact that a true orchestra plays the score give us an idea of how it might have sound on a stage. The problem are the songs, most of them are irritating (“The Seashell Game” and the terrible “Tan-tan-ta-ra! Farewell!”) others are depressing (“Belonging”) and there’s only a couple that I like (“Hullo and Goodbye” and the melodious “My Turn to Fall”).

Like I said before this works on a historic level and for that purpose only it might be interesting, but its one of those CDs that will rest on my shelf for many years without being playing. Anyway we should praise the work of the guys at Bayview Records and let’s hope that in the future they will come up with more rewarding recordings.

REVIEW: Do you remember THE BOY FRIEND, that delicious little spoof of the Twenties musical comedies? It’s among my all time favourite scores. Well, in 1964 (tens years after the original) its author Sandy Wilson decided to write a sequel to that show and the result was another enjoyable simple score.

The first time I heard this score was when TER / JAY released the cast recording of 1997 Chichester Festival Theatre production, starring Ruthie Henshall, Liliane Montevecchi, Tim Flavin and Marti Webb among others. I instantly liked it and although it isn’t as good as THE BOY FRIEND it still is highly enjoyable.

This time we have the Original London Cast recording and I can only say that once again I had a great time listening to this score. This cast may not have such strong voices, but they sound perfectly in tune with the mood of the show and it’s a pleasure to hear these songs. The orchestrations are terrific and this is a contagious tuneful score.

The perfectly dated “Overture” is an exciting prelude of things to come and they sure came. Among them we can accept an invitation for the “Paradise Hotel” or for being “On the Loose” and dancing free. I wouldn’t mind having “Someone to Dance With” and even without him/her it’s impossible to remain still with “Out of Step” or with the contagious “Swing-Time is Here to Stay”. For the romantic in us we have those 20s typical “Together Again” and “Back Where We Started”. There’s also a comic duet, “You’re Absolutely Me”, that could have been written by Cole Porter and a cabaret number, “Blondes are for Danger”, that would make Marlene Dietrich proud.

If you like your musicals light, funny and tuneful this one is for you. Join the cast in this journey back to a time where life was simple and musicals were happier and innocent. As for me, I love the 20s and I can’t resist a Charleston, so “Lights! Music!” and go with the show. .

REVIEW: The British record label “Must Close Saturday Records” keeps doing the good job of releasing forgotten scores of English musicals and although not all may be worthy they are all kind of interesting. That’s the case with this BELLE, also known as THE BALLAD OF DR. CRIPPEN.

Like SWEENEY TODD, this one tells a love story and a murder one. But if SWEENEY is almost an opera, this BELLE is a true British Music-Hall example. The problem here is if you love or not these very British kind of scores; if like me you’re not a big fan you probably won’t have a great time with it. But even so this is an interesting one, with a cast whose voices are a perfect match for the songs.

My favourite song is “I Can’t Stop Singing”, very old-fashion and hummable. There’s also a charming little love song “You Are Mine” and then we have the very typically music-hall tunes “Mister Lasherwood and Mighty Mick” or “Ain’t It a Shame”. For pure fun there’s “Meet Me at the Strand” and “The Bravest of Men” and a couple more. But the problem is the rest, mainly the irritating “The Ballad of Dr. Crippen”, which has several versions.

If you’re in a discovery mood this may prove quiet interesting.

REVIEW: Of all Leonard Bernstein scores this has always been my favourite and it never sounded as good as it sounds in this new cast recording. Thanks to Rob Fisher’s musical direction and vocal arrangements it sounds more exciting than ever and the result is a fresh rewarding recording.

Like in the show, the best thing is Donna Murphy (who should have won this year’s Tony for Best Leading Actress in a Musical) and it’s her tracks that make all the difference. “One Hundred Easy Ways” is sung with perfect comic timing and it was never funnier. Her renditions of “Conga!”, “Wrong Note Rag” and specially the hilarious “Swing” are a riot. She’s brilliant!

The rest of the cast gives her good support and have their moments. Jennifer Westfeldt is a sweet Eileen and has a good moment with “It’s Love”, like Greg Edelman (who sounds better on the CD than on stage) has.

There are a couple of songs that I never cared much, like “Pass the Football”, “Conversation Piece” and “What a Waste”, and I haven’t changed my mind with this new cast. But the rest of the score is so good that I prefer to forget that those songs are there. My favourite song has always been “Wrong Note Rag”, specially the middle section, and here it’s simple fantastic. And of course I love the beautiful “It’s Love”.

Until now my favourite recording of the score have been the London cast with Maureen Lipman, but now of all WONDERFUL TOWN recordings this revival is the one that I recommend and I’m sure you’ll have a great time with it. .

REVIEW: It’s hard to describe the pleasure we can feel when we discover an old forgotten show, but it can be a highly rewarding experience. Well, that’s exactly what happened when I first played the CD of this FINE AND DANDY.

Written in 1930 by Kay Swift & Paul James and lost until now, this is the kind of score that makes me wish I was born during the golden age of musical comedy (“the most glorious words in the English language”). Of course this is an old fashion musical, with simple tuneful songs, a contagious joy of living and a freshness that is missing from almost all contemporary musicals.

A great cast was ensemble by PS Classics (who gave us the great THROUGH THE YEARS) and they couldn’t have made a better choice. Carolee Carmello, Gavin Creel (this boy is going to go far), Jennifer Laura Thompson, Andrea Burns and the rest of the cast sound like they were having the time of their lives and their voices are a perfect match for the terrific songs. The same can be said about the exciting orchestrations by Russel Warner, Larry Moore and Hans Spialek.

There’s something Gershwin and Porter about this score, but that’s natural since their shows belong at the same age. Some of the songs (“Etiquette” and “Wedding Bells” for example) could only have work in the 20s or 30s, but some of them are true jewels like the romantic “Can This Be Love?” or the great “Nobody Breaks My Heart”, sung with gusto by Carmello. She and Creel have a fine moment with the funny “Let’s Go Eat Worms in the Garden” and he delivers a perfect “Starting at the Bottom”. Martin is fantastic with “I’ll Hit a New High” and the dance sensation “The Jig-Hop”. And let’s not forget the comic title number and the tuneful “Rich or Poor”.

This is one of the big surprises of the year and we all should thank Tommy Krasker and Philip Chaffin for producing and sharing this enjoyable score with us. If today someone was able to write such a score, Broadway would be a much happier place.

REVIEW: Let me begin this by saying that Stephen Sondheim is one of my favourite composers and several of his scores are among my favourite list (you can check it by visiting my page on the subject) so, except the fact that he should write musicals more often, I don’t have anything against him. I was expecting something really special for his first musical in years and I wasn’t prepared to feel disappointed by it, but that’s what happened.

This recording begins with an exciting Overture that promise a lot and it’s followed by a good and hummable title tune. There’s plenty to enjoy in what follows, but by the end you get the idea that all songs sound almost the same and that makes this score kind of monotonous. Don’t get me wrong, the orchestrations are great and the cast is in good shape (although I don’t like Richard Kind’s singing voice), but this isn’t Sondheim at his best.

Among the songs my favourites are, besides the title number, the romantic with a twist “The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened”, the haunting waltz “Next to You”, the rousing “You”, and another interesting Sondheim song about art “Talent” (beautifully sung by Gavin Creel). There’s also the funny “Addison’s Trip”, two big productions numbers “I Love This Town” and “Boca Raton” and the melodic “What’s Your Rush”. The problem is that all these songs are quiet similar and some of them and more than reminiscent of PASSION, INTO THE WOODS, MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG and A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM.

On the plus side this is better than most new musical scores and after a few listening it kinds of grow within you. As for the cast, besides Kind and Creel, Howard McGillin and Michelle Pawk give their best to the songs and it’s a pleasure to hear MGM’s old glory Jane Powell once again.

By listening to the recording and reading the story of the musical it comes as no surprise that it didn’t make it to Broadway. Maybe someday someone will be able to fix its book and maybe Sondheim will write a few and better new songs, maybe than it can became a hit. Let’s hope so, because there’s some good music here.

REVIEW: Although it’s one of Broadway’s great classics, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF isn’t among my favourite scores. I love some of the songs, with “Matchmaker, Matchmaker” and “Now I Have Everything” being my top ones, but on the whole it never conquered all my heart.

The original production was a hit when it opened on Broadway and the movie adaptation was also a success, both providing us with good renditions of the score. Now it’s time for a new Broadway cast recording and the result is very disappointing. Although I don’t like rock or pop versions of the classics I’m not a true purist. To tell the truth I’m quiet fond of several new cast recordings of old shows, in some cases I even prefer the new ones (“Kiss Me, Kate”, “The Music Man” and “Nine” among others), so I was expecting something better from this new Fiddler.

It’s true, the songs are all here, plus a new uninteresting one, but everything sounds dull. Someone said this was a boring recording and I have to agree. There’s no excitement here and the cast is everything but lively. The orchestrations sound boring and Alfred Molina’s sounds kind of dead; and if the actor who plays Tevye is a bore there’s no way this will live up to the standards of the other recordings.

On the plus side the production of the CD is good, attractive and it’ll look nice on any cast album collection, but for the real thing buy the original Broadway cast with Zero Mostel or the movie soundtrack with Topol.

REVIEW: The first time I heard anything about this musical was when I bought the first CD of the “Unsung Musicals” series, where Christine Baranski and Jonathan Freeman delivered a fabulous rendition of the terrific title song. Since than that I’ve been waiting to hear the rest of the score, even do I doubted that there’s something as better as that fantastic title song. Finally my prayers have been answered and we have a brand new all star studio cast recording of that 1967 flopped musical.

Like I thought, none of the other songs is a strong as the title number, but even so this is a pleasant score and there’s plenty of songs to enjoy. In fact this is a very tuneful score with beautiful ballads like “Maybe It’s Time for Me”, “With This Ring”, “Imagine That” and funny songs like “Putty in Your Hands”. The high profile cast make it sound like a truly original cast recording and the final result is a positive one. Anyway, I regret to inform that Nathan Lane and Carol Burnett’s rendition of “Sherry!” isn’t as strong and as funny as the one by Freeman and Baranski, although I know their names will sell more CDs.

While I was playing the CD I start imagining that if it becomes a hit, maybe a Broadway revival may not be out of the question. I would cast Freeman as Sherry and Baranski as Lorraine Sheldon, with Karen Ziemba as Maggie Cutler (the Bernadette Peters role), Noah Racey as Beverly Carlton (the Tommy Tune role) and Brent Barrett as Bert Jefferson (the Tom Wopat role). But probably that will never happen, but no one can stop us of dreaming.

REVIEW: Today the names of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby may not say much to a large majority of musical fans, but in the 20s they were responsible for several Broadway musicals and I’m sure everyone knows songs like “I Wanna Be Loved by You” (popularized by Marilyn Monroe in SOME LIKE IT HOT) and “Who’s Sorry Now”. These two titles along with a large numbers of other songs make the soundtrack of this MGM musical.

Fred Astaire plays Kalmar to Red Skelton’s Ruby and both sound good in their roles, the same can be said about the female voices of Arlene Dahl, Anita Ellis (dubbing Vera-Ellen) and Helen Kane, who dubs Debbie Reynolds for her signature song “I Wanna Be Loved by You”. What this enjoyable movie soundtrack does is to make us aware of Kalmar & Ruby’s songbook and their work, with titles likes, “Nevertheless, I’m in Love With You”, “All Alone Monday”, “Thinking of You” and the title song, is worthy of discovery.

Also on this CD we can find, as a bonus, the delightful soundtrack of YOLANDA AND THE THIEF, another Fred Astaire vehicle this time with a score by Harry Warren and Arthur Freed. This is another of those MGM musicals that today almost no one remembers, but it was an entertaining little film with a couple of good dance numbers. On CD the songs sound even better, with titles like “Coffee Time”, “I’ve an Angel” and “Will You Marry Me?”, and are a truly invitation to dance.

REVIEW: I believe that on paper this may have sound as a great idea and I don’t doubt that on stage it works better than on this CD, but I’m afraid that as a cast recording this isn’t as interesting as they make us believe.

We aren’t very far from the FORBIDDEN BROADWAY territory and that means that after a couple of hearings there’s nothing much to discover and the jokes became tired. Don’t get me wrong this isn’t a bad score, but as an original score there’s nothing original about it. I think that although they tried to imitate the styles of those musical creators, the composers should have tried to write something that doesn’t sound just like a poor imitation of the originals. Maybe I didn’t get it and that was just their idea.

Of the five mini musicals (CORNY! in the Rodgers & Hammerstein style; A LITTLE COMPLEX in the Stephen Sondheim style; DEAR ABBY! in the Jerry Herman style; ASPECTS OF JUANITA in the Andrew Lloyd Webber style and SPEAKEASY in the Kander & Ebb style) the one that works better is SPEAKEASY, with really funny lyrics by Joanne Bogart. The least interesting if CORNY! and DEAR ABBY! is a missed chance.

My favourite track is “Done”, a kind of the A CHORUS LINE “One”, that ends the show in a positive note.

REVIEW: I hate when they do this! It’s very disappointing to buy a CD convinced that you’re getting the Original Cast recording of a musical and to discover later that all you got is a few selections of it. That’s the case with this new CD release. On the front cover it says the Original London Cast of LOVE FROM JUDY but if you read the back cover of the CD you’ll know that there’s less than 18 minutes of that score. I believe that all the songs of that show are here, 13 titles, but they’re all played in 4 medley tracks and that’s very irritating. The rest of this 24 tracks CD, has the cast members singing songs from other sources and it isn’t very interesting. The problem is, if like me, you buy the CD by mail order you won’t be able to read the back cover.

But let’s talk about LOVE FROM JUDY. From what we hear here it sounds like a charming little musical and it was a hit when it opened in London in 1952. Based on the “Daddy Long Legs” novel by Jean Webster, this has a score by Hugh Martin and Jack Gray. There are two beautiful ballads “Here We Are” and, specially, “I Never Dream When I’m Asleep”, that remind us of the Hugh Martin of MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, and a couple of comic songs, the kind they only wrote back then. I’m talking about “What Do I See in You” (that could have been written by Comden & Green) and “Dum-Dum-Dum”. Although I didn’t like Bill O’Connor’s voice, the rest of the cast goes pretty well and Adelaide Hall reveals a rich warm voice. As the title Judy, Jean Carson shows a nice voice.

I don’t know if the complete cast recording of this score is available, but I hope that one day we’ll have it or maybe a studio cast recording. As it is, this was a miss chance for Sepia Records and one that leave us, musical fans, suspicious about future releases by this label.