REVIEW: Usually I don’t review this kind of recordings, but don’t ask me why. So, to break that habit, here is my first review of a solo album.

A few years ago I was delightfully surprised by Philip Chaffin’s terrific WHERE DO I GO FROM YOU? and I eagerly waited for his next album. Finally it’s here and it’s a must for all musical fans. 
 
Chaffin’s perfect sweet tender voice is matched by lush orchestrations and the result is a true haunting recording. The songs were carefully chosen and the most recent ones blend perfectly with the old ones, showing that there’s still life in the American Songbook. What the new songs need is great orchestrations and here they have that. Just listen to what they did to KING DAVID’s “Warm Spring Night” and “When in Love” and you realize that those two songs don’t sound like they were written just a few years ago (the pop flavor is gone). The same can be said of MY LIFE WITH ALBERTINE’s “If It Is True”. I’ve to confess that I heard that songs before but they never caught my fancy; when I listened to them in this CD I could hardly believe they were the same songs.

Besides the standards “My Romance” and “Out of My Dreams” (I wouldn’t have use these two classics, but since Chaffin sings them so well I forgive him for including them), the rest of the recording is made almost of rarities. Among these there’s the delicious “There’s a Room in My House” and a Stephen Sondheim song that I don’t recall hearing before, “Silly People”. Other song I think I never heard before is “That’s All”, a simple melodious song beautifully sung by Chaffin.

Rebecca Luker joins him for a definitive rendition of “Sailing at Midnight” and there’s also a lovely sung “Haunted Heart”, a very rare Gershwin song “Evening Star” and a medley of two songs from Cy Coleman’s WILDCAT. Of course I also have to mention the two terrific songs by Jerome Kern, “Don’t Ever Leave Me” and “Heaven in My Arms”. I think Chaffin’s voice and Kern’s music is a perfect match made in heaven; let’s hope that someday Chaffin will record a Jerome Kern album.

What more can I say? I love this album and of all the CDs I bought this year so far this is the one I play more often. Don’t miss it, it’s simply terrific!

REVIEW: Probably most of the people don’t recall this lively score, but if you never heard it I promised you’re in for a treat. This is probably one of the best scores ever written for an English musical and, although I believe the show wouldn’t probably work outside England, the cast recording is a must for every musical fan.

This was Lionel Bart’s follow-up to his famous hit OLIVER! and I confess that I think he came up with a much better score for this musical, with the action taking place in London during World War II. The show ran on the West End for more than two years, the cast album reached the Album Chart of that time where it remained for 21 weeks (something almost impossible to happen with the recent cast recordings) and one the songs, “Far Away”, was a hit in the voice of Shirley Bassey.

When you put this recording on your CD player the first thing you heard are the sirens warning of an air raid over London, followed by the rousing music-hall song “Our Hotel” and the mood is set for an highly enjoyable time. From there to the end there are plenty of songs to keep you entertained like “I Want to Whisper Something”; the beautiful ballad “Far Away”, tenderly sung by Grazina Frame; strong characters songs like “Tell Him – Tell Her” and “Be What You Wanna Be”; a big Broadway kind of number sung by Graham James, “Who Wants to Settle Down?” and a lively wedding song, “Is This Gonna Be a Wedding?”.

Of course the best is “Who’s This Geezer Hitler?”, sung with gusto by the excellent Amelia Bayntun and Company. With a line like “He’s a nasty little basket with a black moustache / And we don’t want him here”, this is another funny Hitler song, almost as good as “Springtime for Hitler”.

Besides Bayntun, who easily steals this recording, there’s also the good Toni Palmer who leads the Company in “Leave It to the Ladies” and the contagious “Down the Lane”, that always made me want to join them. Thomas Kempinski has a great time with the comic war song “Duty Calls” and the sweet voice of Vera Lynn delivers the most touching moment of the score with the nostalgic “The Day After Tomorrow”.

It’s true, the entire cast sounds very British and that may put some of you off, but it wouldn’t work any other way and the end result is a score that should make part of every musical lover CD library.

As for the show, let’s hope that this reissue of the cast recording will catch the ear of some theatre producers and that one day, in the near future, there will be a big London revival of this show. Until then enjoy the score and let it transport you to another era, you won’t regret it!

REVIEW: Can I call this musical a classic? When it opened, back in 1968, it couldn’t be more different from the musicals of the time and couldn’t be farther from the genre classics. Today it garnered the reputation of a cult classic.

There have been many recordings of the score and my favorite was always the movie soundtrack. Taking in consideration my musical tastes I shouldn’t like this score, but I really enjoyed some of the songs (“Good Morning Starshine”, “Easy to Be Hard”, “Where Do I Go?” and “Manchester, England” are my favorites) and the score was always pleasant to listen.

I was kind of disappointed with this new recording, because I thought it was a live recording and I think it should have been one. I’m sure it would have been much more exciting. Anyway, with a cast like this, how could they go wrong? And let’s not forget the terrific members of the Tribe.

Things begin well with Lillias White giving us an exciting “Aquarius” and ends even better with Norm Lewis powerful rendition of “The Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In)”. In the between Adam Pascal (“I Got Life”), Raúl Esparza (“Hair”), Eden Espinosa (“Hippie Life”) and Billy Porter (“Four Score/Abie, Baby”) show they have the perfect voices for this kind of songs. Annie Golden delivers a sweet “Frank Mills” and Laura Benanti sounds great with “Initials”. Toxic Audio’s rendition of “Electric Blues” is a strange version of that song and it’s surprising to hear “Where Do I Go?” beautifully sung by a woman, Julia Murney. Liz Callaway sings a perfect “Good Morning Starshine” and the ladies, Kathy Brier, Orfeh and Ann Harada have a great time with “Black Boys”. The lesser know titles “Dead End” and “Sheila Franklin/I Believe in Love” are well sung by Ana Gasteyer and Shoshana Bean respectively.

These are some of the highlights of what was a great time out with The Actors’ Fund of America. It’s just a pity that this one night only event wasn’t recorded for a future DVD release, but at least we have this CD (with a great cover). I haven’t made my mind yet if I prefer this rendition of the score to the movie one, but I’m sure this is one of the best recordings of it.

REVIEW: The question here is how much you like Stephen Schwartz. If, like me, you aren’t a big fan of his work, just forget about this new cast recording. On the other hand, if you enjoy his work this is definitely for you.

It’s true, WICKED put the name of Schwartz in everyone’s mouth and so it isn’t surprising that this small children’s musical was recorded and released. Personally, and although I like WICKED’s score, this new score failed to conquer me.

This is too pop for my taste and, although it uses different kinds of orchestrations, the songs sound too similar and there isn’t one that outshines the others. One of the songs, a kind of tango entitled “Shadows”, could fit easily on the WICKED score and “Big Red Plane” begins well but than changes into a kind of off-Broadway pop song. But even those are forgettable and they all sounds like variations of the same melody.

This is a children’s musical, but there isn’t any magic in the music and the innocence of childhood can’t be found in any of the songs. Of course this is just my humble opinion and if you are a Schwartz fan I’m sure you’ll love this score. By the way, on the plus side this has a great CD booklet.

REVIEW: The “Must Close Saturday Records” label main interest is to release British Musicals on CD; some of the titles are known, others are almost forgotten scores that deserved to be, at least, discovered.

VIRTUE IN DANGER, a 1963 London musical whose action takes place on the seventeenth century, belongs to the last ones. Although this isn’t by far a great score, it has its moments and the presence of the great Patricia Routledge is reason enough to buy it. She was great in LITTLE MARY SUNSHINE and here she easily reminded me of that score, specially with the best song of this musical, the funny duet “Wait a Little Longer, Lover”. She also shines in “I’m in Love With My Husband” and “Berinthia’s Recit”.

This is one of those shows that sounds very, very British and to tell the truth I doubt I’ll play it very often. Anyway it has a few interesting songs; besides the already mentioned ones, there’s a nice romantic melody “Say the Word” and a good musical number “Why Do I Feel What I Feel?”. The orchestrations make a good use of old musical instruments and there’s an operetta style through the all score.

This wasn’t a big hit when it opened in London and probably will never be revived. If you are into old fashion British musicals this is for you. As for the rest of us, well, it’s just a curiosity.

REVIEW: I think this musical could have been called “The Elvis Presley Songbook”, because that’s what this really is. So if you’re an Elvis’ fan this may be for you and I say may because some of the songs (“Heartbreak Hotel” for example) are very different from the way he sang them.

I was never very fond of Elvis or his songs, but I was kind of curious with this new musical. Since this wasn’t the typical songbook revue could they make the songs work in the context of a story? By listening to the recording it seems so, but I’m sure the score works much better on stage than on CD.

Cheyenne Jackson’s voice has a 50s pop/rock flavor that makes him the right choice for the role; just listen to the songs “Roustabout”, “All Shook Up” and “Jailhouse Rock” and you’ll see what I mean. But for me his best number is “Don’t Be Cruel”, a funny and lively duet between him and Jonathan Hadary. The leading lady is Jenn Gambatese, who shows a good voice in songs like “Love Me Tender”, “One Night with You” and “Fools Fall in Love”.

The supporting cast also has their moments: Alix Korey makes the most of her “(You’re the) Devil in Disguise”, Mark Price gives a true 50s rendition of “It Hurts me” and Sharon Wilkins as a great time with the torch song “There’s Always Me”.

Some of the orchestrations seem a bit too modern for the songs and there’s too much guitar acoustics for my taste. But on the whole this kind of works and there’s a couple of contagious numbers, “C’mon Everybody” and “Blue Suede Shoes”, to keep us entertained. Anyway, I must confess that I know for sure I won’t be playing it often and that my CD library could have survived without it.

REVIEW: The reason why a large number of British musicals aren’t produced out of the United Kingdom it’s because they are too English and so, with few exceptions, the scores don’t translate very well. This 1983 musical is a good example of that.

What we have here is a score with old fashion melodic songs and a good cast singing them. Among the actors, Joan Davies has a good time with the operatic “He Is My Son”, Douglas Hodge delivers a beautiful love song “Because I Love Her” and Peter Woodward sings the best song of the score, the simple “A Gentleman’s True to His Code”. None of these songs are classics, but they are melodious and nice to listen.
There’s also a couple of true British Music-Hall numbers, “8-9-10” and “One Pair of Hands”, a catchy title number, a song (“Take the Road to the Ring”) that reminded me of the superior HALF A SIXPENCE score and the nice musical number “Hymn to Law and Order”.

Other numbers are less interesting (specially “Blackman’s Burden”), but in the whole this plays nicely enough for a few listenings. Probably in a few months time I’ll put it in the shell and I’ll forget about it for a long time, but that doesn’t mean this is bad score, just an interesting and kind of forgetful one.

REVIEW: To begin with I have to confess that I didn’t like David Yazbek’s score for THE FULL MONTY. With the exception of one or two songs I really didn’t care much for it, so it was with some apprehension that I bought DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS.

The first thing that stroked me was the fact that this new score doesn’t have much in common with THE FULL MONTY and second that it was quiet enjoyable. I would have never guessed that it’s the work of the same composer, this meaning that Yazbek is a very versatile one.

Listening to this score we soon realize that it doesn’t have a definitive style, with different kinds of music mixed in a pleasant way. Although I think the main style is a kind of 60s jazz sound and a French flavour that brings the work of Michel Legrand to mind, specially in the songs “Chimp in a Suit” and “Here I Am” ( that could have been written to “Les Demoiselles de Rochefort”), there are other influences as well. For example the “Overture”, that promises something funny and mysterious, reminds me of Henry Mancini’s theme for “The Pink Panther”. We have a funny and delicious Noel Coward number, “All About Ruprecht”, sung in perfect style by John Lithgow and there’s two numbers that could have been written by the late Cy Coleman. I’m talking about “What Was a Woman to Do”, that sounds like something from the score of CITY OF ANGELS, and the country-western “Oklahoma?” could easily fit in the score of THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES.

There are a few more pop oriented numbers like “Great Big Stuff”, the title number and “Love is My Legs”. These songs are more in tune with his previous work and I think that the last one is Yazbek’s more personal song written for this score. Of course we also have a funny comic number for Lithgow, “Rüffhousin’ mit Shüffhausen” and two beautiful romantic ballads, “Love Sneaks In” and “Nothing is Too Wonderful to be true”, which is my favorite song of the score.

Every member of the cast delivers strong performances and seems like they are enjoying their work. Lithgow is truly funny and Nobert Leo Butz has the chance to show how good he can be and he takes full advantage of it. In the female department Sherie Rene Scott is the queen, but Joanna Gleason and Sara Gettelfinger also have their chance to shine.

I can’t say this is a fantastic score but it’s a fresh and enjoyable one, quite amusing and kind of nostalgic (it really reminds me of the movie soundtracks of the 60s) and that’s not bad, not bad at all.

REVIEW: There are scores that we may know aren’t that good or original but something in them touches us and we can’t resist them. That’s what happened with me when I heard this new cast recording.

This isn’t a flashy or a serious Broadway score, but a simple and melodious one. I call it a highly emotional one and, believe me, if you let yourself go I’m sure that you’ll share a tear or two with Jo and her sisters. I don’t recall hearing the names of composer Jason Howland and lyricist Mindi Dickstein before, so for me they are a revelation.

The rich “Overture” promises an old fashion score and that’s exactly what we get. No one here is trying to discover new ways of writing musicals or to write the next big Broadway score. What they wrote are real character and plot driven songs and the result is quite delightful. It’s true, none of the songs may have a live outside the show, but they work inside it (at least in the cast recording, I didn’t see the show) and that’s what counts.

Among the good cast, two ladies shine more than the rest. One is Maureen McGovern who strongly delivers two beautiful and sad ballads, “Here Alone” and “Days of Plenty”. The other is Sutton Foster (a word of warning, if you don’t like her you’ll hate this cast recording) and she has a full day here. She sings in more than half the tracks and gives her best in all; they could be powerful solos like “Astonishing” and “The Fire Within Me” (there’s one or two shadows of Stephen Sondheim’s PASSION here), ensemble numbers like “Our Finest Dreams” (a truly Sutton Foster festival) or comic numbers like “Could You?”. She sings them all with gusto and she really has a strong and beautiful voice. The truth is I think every one in the cast sung like they are the real characters and just listen to “The Weekly Volcano Press” number, a kind of mini-play inside the show, to see what I mean.

Many people may not be familiar with the interesting score written by George Stiles and Paul Leigh for THE THREE MUSKETEERS, but that’s the show that came to my mind when I first heard this LITTLE WOMEN; unlike that one, the pop flavour here is almost inexistent. I know I’ll be crucified because of what I’m about to say, but something in this score reminded me of MY FAIR LADY. Anyway, what matters is that this is one of those scores that grow on you with repeated listenings and I think it deserves to be discovered and enjoyed by every musical fan.

REVIEW: The big question here is if you like or not the Monty Python’s style of humour. If you do, you’re in for a joy ride; but even if you don’t, I believe you will have a good time anyway. Like Mel Brook’s THE PRODUCERS before, this score pays tribute to the Broadway Musical in a crazy and political incorrect way, although the music isn’t as good as the one written by Brooks.

More than the music, quite enjoyable in its own way, what matters here are the lyrics, that are pure Monty Python and it’s impossible not to laugh while you’re listening this mad score. It’s true, the music itself isn’t as good as the highly musical “Overture” (in the grand style of old Broadway) promises and the best song is the already known Monty Python’s anthem “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”. But even so there’s plenty to keep us satisfied.

There’s a twisted funny ode to Broadway entitled “You Won’t Succeed on Broadway” and a gay number with a contagious disco sound bit that would make the Villlage People proud, “His Name is Lancelot”. A crazy cheerleader group takes us to the pop opera (Webber or Boublil & Schonberg anyone?) ballad with a twist “The Song That Goes Like This” sung with gusto by The Lady of the Lake and Sir Galahad. The Lady of the Lake returns to delight us with the big production number “Knights of the Round Table”, where she sings in the style of Judy Garland and other divas (Michael Jackson included); later she will do her Jennifer Holiday impersonation with “Diva’s Lament (Whatever Happened to My Part?)” and before that she delivers the Eurovision Song Contest worthy “Find Your Grail”. There are a few more typical Monty Python’s numbers, “He Is Not Dead Yet” or “Runway” for example and a sad and melodious ballad for our Knights, “I’m All Alone”.

The orchestrations are great and the cast couldn’t have been better chosen. It’s like they all have been possessed/inhabited by the Monty Python’s spirit and corrosive sense of humour. Of all members of the cast I have to mention Sara Ramirez, at least on the cast recording she really stands out and is a true revelation, giving us some of the best tracks of the CD.

This is a very amusing score, that won’t fail in putting a smile on our faces and, although this isn’t a brilliant score, just look at the bright side of life and allow yourself to have a good time.

REVIEW: The movie adaptation of MARY POPPINS was a huge hit for Disney and it comes as no surprise that it finally becomes a stage musical. The original score was by The Sherman Brothers, the team responsible for several Disney movies and other children adaptations (CHARLOTTE’S WEB, CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG and, my favorite, THE SLIPPER AND THE ROSE), and it won Oscars for Best Original Music Score and Best Song – “Chim Chim Cher-ee”.

The stage adaptation is based not only on the Disney movie but also on the original stories by P. L. Travers and the creative force behind this show decided they needed new songs, so the team of George Stiles & Anthony Drewe was brought in. They not only wrote new songs but also additional lyrics and music to the original ones; combine that with new orchestrations by William David Brohn and the result is a new score that’s very different from the MARY POPPINS we know. And that’s not bad news.

It’s true, this new recording may be too British, but the fact is that the action takes place in London so it makes perfect sense it sound like that. As for the new songs, they blend perfectly with the old ones and there’s a dark side here that hardly exist in the Disney version and which is pretty evident in two of the new songs - “Temper, Temper” and “Brimstone and Treacle”.

Some of the classic songs like “Feed the Birds”, “A Spoonful of Sugar”, “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” and “Chim Chim Cher-ee” use the original lyrics but have a different sound. Others like “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, “Step in Time” and, my favorite tune from the movie, “Jolly Holiday” are almost new songs and they’re much more musical than the original versions. As for the entire new songs, “Practically Perfect” is a perfect character song for Mary Poppins and finally Mrs. Banks have something to shine – “Being Mrs. Banks”. There are also the previously mentioned darker songs and there’s the terrific “Anything Can Happen”. This new song is a truly life affirmation hymn and fits like magic in the score; it’s also one of those songs that can easily survive outside the show.

As Mary Poppins, Laura Michelle Kelly may not be Julie Andrews, but she has a beautiful strong voice and sounds very convincing in the role. Gavin Lee is a perfect Londoner Bert, Linzi Hateley as Mrs. Banks makes us wish she had more to sing and Charlotte Spencer & Harry Stott are good as the kids. There’s also Julie Sutton who delivers a touching “Feed the Birds” and Rosemary Ashe who has a full day with “Brimstone and Treacle”.

Although I always liked the movie and I’m a huge fan of Julie Andrews, I was never a big fan of the score. The first time I listened to this new cast recording I was kind of disappointed, but after playing it a few more times I come to enjoy it and I prefer it to the movie soundtrack. It has a theatrically that I really like and is always a pleasure to discover a new great song like “Anything Can Happen”.

REVIEW: A few years ago there was a concert presentation of this show and a studio cast recording was released in CD, Nathan Lane sung in both. So it wasn’t surprising that Lane would return to this show, this time not only as an actor but also as a writer (according to the CD cover “even more freely adapted by Lane” from a comedy by Aristophanes) and he was even able to convince Stephen Sondheim to write a few new songs for it. That new version opened on Broadway in 2004 and now we finally have an original Broadway cast recording of that show.

I’m a big fan of Sondheim, but I have to confess that I never cared much for the score of THE FROGS. Anyway I think this new version it’s much more interesting than the previous studio cast, although it’s far from my favorite Sondheim works.

If someone asked me which adjective that comes to my mind when I think about THE FROGS I would be forced to answer the following one: irritating. The truth is I can’t stand some of the chorus and “frogs” of this show, for example they almost ruined the delightful “I Love to Travel” and I always jump to the next track every time I hear “The Frogs”.

The show starts with a good comic song, “Invocation and Instructions to the Audience”, and there’s real chemistry between Lane and Roger Bart. The new song “Dress Big” sounds like something written to “A Funny Thing…” and “All Aboard” is a dark song à la SWEENEY TODD. With “Ariadne” Sondheim shows once again that he can write romantic songs, although this isn’t a great song.

For me “Hymn to Dionysos” is probably the best of the original production songs, but I had a full day with “Hades”. This number must have been written specially for Susan Stroman and it’s a dance number with funny lyrics, “Here where everyone is gay – No, not that way – No, I mean gay – Oh, never mind” (doesn’t it sound like something Lane could have sing in THE PRODUCERS?) and Peter Bartlett has a great time singing it. What follows, “It’s Only a Play”, is a typical Sondheim song and than it’s time for a MY FAIR LADY inspiration number, “Shaw”, that also reminded me of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG. This is a light song and if we close our eyes we can almost see the entire company dancing and, why not, let’s dance with “Shaw”. Unfortunately everything that follows kind of kills the enjoyment of this number.

With the exception of Daniel Davis (who sounds boring) the entire cast lives up to the Sondheim score and there’s plenty here to keep us interested, but it’s not the kind of score I play very often; in fact, I expected more from Mr. Sondheim. Of course there’s always the fact that this might be too intellectual or serious for my simple tastes.