REVIEW: As far as new musicals go, this one had a lot in its favor: famous characters, a terrific cast, a promising composer and a personal look. Unfortunately, by listening to this cast recording (I haven’t seen the show yet), it seems things didn’t work that well.

I can’t say this it totally bad, but the songs sound, with a few exceptions, too much alike and the cast doesn’t have big chances to shine. Nathan Lane sings like he just exited THE PRODUCERS and the rest of the cast, Bebe Neuwirth included, don’t have anything that make their performances personal.

Nevertheless, there’re two numbers that I really enjoyed. Both are in the traditional Broadway style I love so much and, for me, are the only songs that stand-up in the entire score. I’m talking about “Just Around the Corner” and “Let’s Not Talk About Anything Else But Love”.

The big problem is the fact that everyone believed this could really be a good bet for a musical or, at least, a funny one, but the dark humor of the original material doesn’t translate into the songs. But the show is doing well at the box-office, so maybe the score works better on stage.

REVIEW: Recorded live at Feinstein’s, Jane’s solo album is a great surprise and makes for a perfectly enjoyable listening.

Mainly know for her work in the television series “Ally McBeal” and “30 Rock”; Jane is in fact a Broadway baby in every sense. She can act, sing and dance, and does it all with talent. I was lucky to see her live on stage in NINE and GUYS AND DOLLS and she was terrific in both roles. She also had a warm quality that embrace us, making us fall in love with her.

It’s that warm quality that makes this CD so special. She delivers all her numbers and conducts the act like she was among friends and I’m sure that by the end of the evening every member of the audience wishes to be her friend.

She excels with a hilarious version of “Zip” (with lyrics written specially for her by Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman) and gives us the strangest version of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” I’ve ever listened. We can feel the love she puts in her renditions of the title song, “My Handy Man” and “Thirteen Men”” among others, she even makes Eartha Kitt’s “Old Fashioned Girl” her own. And her encore number, “Rubber Duckie” is truly delicious.

I strongly recommend everyone to meet “The Laziest Gal in Town”; in fact, Jane is the nicest girl (with a naughty sexy side that made her irresistible) in town and it’s a pleasure to meet her. One of the CDs of the year.

REVIEW: No one who knows me will be surprised to learn that this studio cast recording is, so far, my favorite CD of the year. They know I’m a sucker for an old fashion Broadway score and I love this innocent but naughty musical.

Of the entire score of this 1934 musical I only knew “You’re a Builder-Upper” in a candy version by Julie Andrews, so the rest was all-new for me and there’re several good songs in here that are worthy of discovery like “Spring Fever”, “Shoein’ the Mare” and “I’m Not Myself”.

PS Classics couldn’t get a better cast to give life to this Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin & Yip Harburg score and everyone sounds like they’re enjoying every minute of it. Everyone has a chance to shine singing ballads or comic numbers or big production numbers, and they do: Kate Baldwin with “Spring Fever”, Faith Prince with “I Couldn’t Hold My Man”, Christopher Fitzgerald and Jessica Stone with “You’re a Builder-Upper”, Rebecca Luker with “It Was Long Ago”, Montego Glover with “Shoein’ the Mare”, Brad Oscar with “Things” and Philip Chaffin (with Baldwin) with “Fun to Be Fooled”.

On the old golden days even lesser known shows like this one had interesting scores, rich with melody, humor and contagious rhythms. This may not be almost as good as last years KITTY’S KISSES, but it’s much better than most of the new shows that opened on Broadway and Off-Broadway last seasons.

This is a must for all musical fans and we should all be grateful to Tommy Krasker for producing the CD and to Larry Moore for restoring the score. Please boys, give us more delightful recordings like this one.

REVIEW: For “A Little Night Music”, Stephen Sondheim, wrote the most haunting of all Broadway scores. There’s a hypnotic quality to it that drawn us deeper and deeper with each listening.

Sondheim’s most famous song, “Send in the Clowns”, is part of this beautiful score but, although I love it, my favorite song is “Every Day a Little Death” (that only happened after a few listenings of the score and suddenly that song become one of my all time favorites).

But must of you know the virtues of the score and probably have one or more recordings of it. For me the best one is the London National Cast starring Judi Dench as a perfect Desiree. Now there’s a new one, probably the most complete (I missed “My Husband the Pig”) of them all, and it includes parts of the dialogue to help people understand what’s going on.

I confess that, although the score sounds great as ever, this isn’t an exciting rendition of it. My big problem is Catherine Zeta-Jones (I understand that thanks to her an all new audience will discover this show); she doesn’t convince me as Desiree. She sounds false and her hush voice doesn’t do full justice to the role. The rest of the cast is very good, specially Alexander Hanson as Enrik, but the strongest reason to buy this recording is the presence of the one and only Angela Lansbury, who delivers the best “Liaisons” that I’ve ever heard.

Anyway, even with its faults, this recording sounds beautiful and haunting.

REVIEW: I’m probably the worst person in the world to review this kind of score. I love the traditional Broadway sound and I’m very resistant to other kind of music. Sometimes I found modern musical scores that I truly enjoy (SIDE SHOW comes to mind), but that’s rare and MEMPHIS isn’t one of them.

The best thing about it is its high power energy and I believe it can really work on stage, but to give it a Tony for best new score it’s too much.

As usual in new musicals, many of the songs are too much alike and only a couple stands out, “Someday” and “Make Me Stronger”. The cast give it all with talent and strong voices, with Montego Glover being the big revelation. This lady can really sing! As for Chad Kimball, he rocks with “Tear Down the House” and a couple of other songs.

I’ve already played the CD a few times, but its loudly score doesn’t grow in me; at least it isn’t boring. I’m sure people with broader tastes than I will enjoy its rhythm and if you like Rock ‘N’ Roll this one is for you.

REVIEW: Two actors, an original score, a small orchestra, a true story, lot’s of tap dancing and the result is an almost enjoyable little score.

The show suffers from a problem that is common to many new musicals, most of the songs sound exactly the same and it becomes hard to distinguish one from the other. Here the mother’s numbers sound almost like one long song (exception for “How Can I Put It Any Plainer?”) and only a couple of the son’s numbers (“The Tap Drunk” and “My Shadow”, the best song of the score) are kind of exciting (okay, there are traditional tap numbers).

The two actors, Shonn Wiley and Karen Murphy, are good, but I believe the score may benefit if played by a big orchestra and with better orchestrations. As it is, it’s only a small musical that probably works better on stage than on CD.

REVIEW: Let me begin by saying that I never thought that the original Broadway cast recording was that good. It’s true that Burt Bacharach and Hal David had a particular enjoyable music style, but I’m not sure it could work on a musical.

Forward in time and here’s the revival cast of that show, with a couple of Bacharach & David standards, “I Say a Little Prayer” and “A House Is Not a Home”, added to the score and for me that makes the difference. Thanks to that songs and a few that I enjoyed from the original, and, finally, I like this score.

The cast (although I don’t think Sean Hayes has a great voice) and the new orchestrations turn it more lively and less dated. Even a number that I really didn’t care in the original, “A Fact Can Be a Beautiful Thing”, here, thanks to Kate Finneran, becomes a highlight.

Kristin Chenoweth may not look the part, but she can really sing and that she does with gusto, specially with my favorite song of the score “Knowing When to Leave” and with “A House Is Not a Home”. Dick Latessa and Hayes have a good time with “A Young Pretty Girl Like You”. As for Hayes, he gives his best with the title song and with “She Likes Basketball”. Tony Goldwyn has his moment with the melodious “Wanting Things” and the company delivers an energetic “Turkey Lurkey Time”.

Probably most musical fans will always prefer the original, but not me. I can’t say this is great, but it’s an enjoyable listening.

REVIEW: This new cast recording of FINIAN’S RAINBOW it’s the third rendition of the score that becomes part of my CD library. Did I need another one? Probably not, but when a score is as delightful as this one, there’s always time to listen to new interpretations of these old songs.

This is probably the more complete version of the score, including lots of dance music, which I believe was previously unrecorded (“Dance of the Golden Crock” for example) and a winning cast.

I confess I’m not crazy about Kate Baldwin’s Sharon (I prefer Melissa Errico in the Irish Repertory Theatre recording), who delivers her songs with gusto. I think her voice is sometimes too strident for my taste, I prefer when she sings with a lower voice. At her side, Cheyenne Jackson sounds perfect as Woody (he beautifully sings “Old Devil Moon”) and Christopher Fitzgerald has a good time as Og. It’s him who sings my all time favorite song of the score, “When I’m Not Near the Girl I Love”.

But there’s more, Terri White strongly leads the company with “Necessity” and Chuck Cooper with the help of Bernard Dotson, James Stovall and Devin Richards, gives us an exciting “The Begat”.

Of the three recordings of this classic Burton Lane and Yip Harburg’s score, this is my favorite one and there’s always time to know “How Are Things in Glocca Morra” and to have “That Great ‘Come-and-Get-It’ Day”.

REVIEW: After the delightful recordings of THROUGH THE YEARS and FINE AND DANDY, PS Classics give us another forgotten score.

If, like me, you love the musicals of the 20s, this one is definitely for you. Its carefree atmosphere and melodious score take us back to a time where musicals were simpler, entertaining and you left the theatre humming a song or two.

Until now I confess I never heard anything about this musical and of the composer, Con Conrad, I was familiar with “Makin’ Whoopee“ and ”The Continental” from the Astaire & Rogers movie FLYING DOWN TO RIO. This award winning song (the first ever to won an Oscar) wasn’t part of KITTY’S original score, but its addition was a nice touch from the guys at PS Classics.

As for the score, I simply love the contagious “Wakin’ the Track” and “Choo Choo Love” is highly hummable. “I’m in Love” is a beautiful romantic ballad and “Two Fellows and a Girl” is the kind of song that could only have been written on those days. The cast couldn’t be better and they all sing like if the songs have been written specially for them. It may be an exaggeration, but I think this is best recording of the year for all musical lovers who love the traditional sounds of Broadway.

I read in an interview that, in order for PS Classics to be able to give us more CDs like this, they need to sell 2500 copies of this delicious recording, so what are you waiting for? Christmas is here and KITTY’S KISSES deserves to be discovered by anyone who loves good music; go and by one or two copies. I’m sure there’re more than 2500 musicals fans out there.

REVIEW: If you’re in the mood for some spiritual disco pop sounds, you’ll love this. Personally I’m not a fan of pop music, but I always had a thing for the rhythmic sounds of disco and so I’m glad to say that I enjoyed this new cast recording.

Alan Menken came up with a contagious (although some of the songs sound to much alike) score, hard to resist and, specially, very fun to listen to. This may not be serious music or a new modern classic, but it doesn’t pretend to be. What it is, is a very entertaining score, which reaches its better moments with the irresistible nun’s chorus.

Patina Miller shines with her strong voice as Sister Dolores (the Whoopi Goldberg character) and the other sisters are immaculate. For me, the best song is “Bless Our Show”, that with its Christmas feeling is the most traditional tune of the entire score.

I’m sure it works better on stage, but free your spirit and I’m sure you’ll have a good time with this new recording. You can even “Raise Your Voice” with the sisters.

REVIEW: When I was a child, my parents gave me a LP that included the soundtrack of the 1954 movie version of this musical and I always enjoyed listening to the delicious “Indian Love Call”. But my LP player stayed at my parent’s house and it’s been years since the last time I listen to it, so, besides that song, I only remember the title song. So every time I played this CD I felt transported to another era of my life.

Many people may feel that this is too old fashioned for their taste; in fact this sounds more like an operetta than a musical. But with a young and very talented Julie Andrews (she was just 23 years old when she recorded this) in the leading role, this is a must in every musical lover’s library.

As for the classic score, besides the mentioned songs, there’s plenty here to be appreciated. There’re the usual comic numbers like “Hard-Boiled Herman”, you can join the man in the manly “The Mounties”, Andrews enchants with “Lak Jeem” and “Pretty Things”, Marion Keene delivers the very musical “Totem Tom-Tom” and, of course, Andrews and Giorgio Tozzi give us a great “Indian Love Call”.

This CD also includes tracks from the 1925 London cast starring Edith Day and other bonus tracks like the famous “Indian Love Call” duet by Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy and a more exciting version of “Totem Tom-Tom” by Elizabeth Allen (already a personal favorite).

Until now, I didn’t knew of the existence of this recording, but It’s a nice surprise and we should be thankful to the guys at Sepia Records for giving us this little gem.

REVIEW: Since its opening, SHREK has been trying to succeed on Broadway, but unfortunately it seems the public isn’t buying the idea of seeing this famous Ogre as the hero of a musical comedy. But I believe that if they listen to this entertaining score, they will probably run to the theatre.

I’m not the kind of guy who likes pop music, but composer Jeanine Tesori give us an interesting score, that mixes several types of music, including a couple of more traditional Broadway tunes like “What’s Up, Duloc?”. It’s true that I don’t care much for songs like “Donkey Pot Pie”, “Who I’d Be” or “Build a Wall”, although Brian d’Arcy James strongly delivers these two last songs, but I can’t resist to “Story of My Life” or “Travel Song”.

The great Sutton Foster delivers, with the help of two young girls, the comic “I Know It’s Today” and has her big moment with the contagious “Morning Person”, that I’m sorry to say was trunked for the CD. Daniel Breaker is an amusing Donkey and Christopher Sieber is hilarious with “What’s Up, Duloc?”, my favorite track, and “The Ballad of Farquaad”. The rest of the cast gives true life to the colorful characters and the end result is a recording that’s far from monotonous and quiet enjoyable, with fine orchestrations by Danny Troob.

REVIEW: The musical MAN OF LA MANCHA put the name of Mitch Leigh in the history of the Musical and its “The Impossible Dream” is one of the greatest songs ever written for a musical. I imagine the pressure and expectation to strike gold with another show must have been intense, but the result wasn’t that good.

CRY FOR US ALL opened on Broadway in 1970, lasted nine performances (plus eighteen previews) and it was recorded for posterity. That original Broadway cast is finally available on CD. But don’t get very excited, like I did, because this is far from the LA MANCHA score.

Things start with the LA MANCHA style “The End of My Race”, then gets operatic with “How Are You, Since?”, sung by Joan Diener (the Aldonza/Dulcinea of LA MANCHA), and even more operatic with Robert (THE MOST HAPPY FELLA) Weed’s “The Mayor’s Chair”. This isn’t bad, but its too dramatic and serious; almost all songs sound heavy and there’s no much space for fun. Of course things get livelier with Helen Gallagher terrific rendition of “Swing Your Bag”, that sounds kind of out of place in the score; Steve Arlen also has some fun with the big number “This Cornucopian Land”. As for Diener, she has her way with the pretty “That Slavery is Love” and the melodious “Verandah Waltz”.

Anyway, this is one of those flops that I believe many musical fans were dying to have and I confess I feel proud for having it on my CD library. In case you don’t know, this is a limited edition of 1000 copies, so hurry up to get one.

REVIEW: In 1960 the Jules Dassin movie NEVER ON SUNDAY was a surprise hit, won an Oscar for best original song (the title song) and its leading lady, Melina Mercouri, was nominated for best actress. I never saw the movie, so I don’t know if turning it into a musical was a good idea, but someone thought so and in 1967 it opened on Broadway under the title ILLYA DARLING (Mercouri’s character).

The show reunited the leading lady with the movie director (who were married at the time) and with the movie composer, the Greek Manos Hadjidakis. Although it was nominated for several Tonys, including best Musical, Actress and Composer & Lyricist, it wasn’t a big hit.

By listening to the original Broadway cast recording, one thing is clear, after a while the Greek inspired rhythms become a little bit monotonous. As for Melina Mercouri, she sounds like a poor Marlene Dietrich (or Jeanne Moreau in the movie QUERELLE) with a Greek accent and she’s better with “Piraeus, My Love” than with “Love, Love, Love”. Of her male co-stars, only Titos Vandis convinces me with the title song, that has a lively orchestration by the great Ralph Burns. As for the famous “Never on Sunday”, well, let’s just say that I’m not a big fan of the song.

In 1968, a new Greek themed musical opened on Broadway, ZORBA. The score was by John Kander and Fred Ebb and it’s far superior to this one. But this is a must for show music collectors, who didn’t waste any time and hurriedly sold-out the limited 1000 copies of this CD.

REVIEW: The classic tale by J. M. Barrie has been the subject of several stage musicals, the best and more famous being the one by Mark Charlap & Carolyn Leigh (with additional songs by Jule Styne and Betty Comden & Adolph Green). Now, from England, comes another version.

The new score is by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. The first one was the responsible for the breathtaking music of THE THREE MUSKETEERS (one of those scores that deserves to be discovered by musical fans) and both wrote the new songs of the MARY POPPINS stage show.

Unfortunately there’s no excitement here. The songs sound too much alike, making this a boring piece of music. There’s much talk of magic in the songs, but none come through in the songs. The songs aren’t bad, but the orchestrations aren’t very exciting, too Celtic for me, and there are too many tender ballads. In the cast, James Gillan as Peter Pan sings with a very sweet voice and David Birrell sounds perfect as Captain Hook.

I miss the excitement of flying, the emotion of the more dramatic sequences and the fun of the comic ones. I hoped that songs like “There’s Always Tomorrow” or “Just Beyond the Stars” would get me emotional, but they didn’t. For me the best track is the pretty “Build a House”.

In truth this isn’t really my cup of tea, but I’m sure some people may find it interesting.

REVIEW: Stephen Sondheim has been trying to fix his musical about the Mizner Brothers for years. First it was called WISE GUYS, then GOLD, later opened as BOUNCE and finally (at least, until now) arrived Off-Broadway as ROAD SHOW. I didn’t have the chance to hear the first two incarnations of the score, but I have the cast recording of BOUNCE and now I have this one. One thing is clear, this isn’t prime Sondheim and I think it’s time for him to move on.

It’s impossible not to compare this new recording with the one of BOUNCE, and ROAD SHOW looses. The score continues interesting, but monotonous. The orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick are great; the new cast lead by Michael Cerveris and Alexander Gemignani sounds like the real thing and there’s plenty to enjoy here, but Sondheim can do much better.

As for the songs, the best ones continue to be “Bounce”, now renamed “Waste”, and the beautiful ballad “The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened”, this time around sung by the gay brother and his lover (Claybourne Elder, who also delivers a strong “Talent”). I prefer the big numbers, like “Boca Raton” or “The Game”, of the previous recording. The new song “It’s in Your Hands” sounds like it was written for ASSASSINS and in fact the music was originally written for that musical, but it gives William Parry a good chance to shine.

If you have to choose between BOUNCE and ROAD SHOW, I recommend the first one.

REVIEW: The show opened on Broadway in 1970 and closed after 84 performances, but fortunately on those days almost everything got recorded and so some lesser shows got a life after closing its doors. Like many musicals of the late 60s early 70s, JIMMY didn’t have a terrific score, but at least it had an entertaining one, like you can check by listening to this cast recording.

The action takes places in the 20s, but with a few exceptions the songs sound more like 60s Broadway than 20s Broadway. As Jimmy, Frank Gorshin doesn’t have a great singing voice and is better with lighter songs like “Riverside Drive” than with dramatic ones like “What’s Out There for Me?”. As for the ladies, Julie Wilson has fun with “The Charmin’ Son-of-a-Bitch” and has her way with “I Only Wanna Laugh”. The always reliable Anita Gillette duets with Gorshin in the beautiful ballad “One in a Million” and gives us my favorite track, the contagious “Oh, Gee!”; I also enjoyed “The Walker Walk”.

This was a nice addition to my CD library, with plenty to enjoy and make me wish that more unpretentious scores like this one were written today.

REVIEW: Not all Rodgers & Hammerstein’s musicals turn into gold. Written in 1947, after CAROUSEL and before SOUTH PACIFIC, ALLEGRO didn’t match the success of those two shows and its score isn’t among their classics.

A cast recording was made of the original Broadway cast; with only 10 tracks it was a very truncated version of the score. Now, more than 60 years after its opening, a complete recording of that score is finally available.

With an all-star cast, this is better than the previous recording, but I regret to inform that the Rodgers & Hammerstein magic touch isn’t in full motion here. The most famous song of the show is the “The Gentleman is a Dope”, here sung with gusto by Liz Callaway, but there are other songs worthy of note like “You Are Never Away”, that gives Patrick Wilson his big moment, the beautiful “So Far” by Judy Kuhn, the ladies have a good time with “Money Isn’t Everything” and Norbert Leo Butz nicely delivers the unfortunately short “It May Be a Good Idea” and leads the company in the rousing title song.

The orchestrations are very rich and there’s plenty of instrumental tracks, plus several dialogue sequences. The cast is flawless and it’s a pity that people like Audra McDonald or Laura Benanti don’t shine more, on the other hand was a nice touch to have Marni Nixon singing “I Know It Can Happen Again”. Curiously one of the more entertaining instrumental tracks uses the song “Mountain Greenery”, written by Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1926 for the musical THE GIRL FRIEND.

Let’s hope the future will bring us more studio cast recordings like this one.

REVIEW: You’ve all the right to ask me why am I reviewing this album in a site about musical theatre. The answer could easily be because Luba Mason is a singer/actress who had starred in more than a couple of musicals; but the truth is because, for my surprise, I found this album quite enjoyable.

I confess that if I hadn’t received an email regarding this album, asking me to cover it on my site, I would never buy it. The reason is simple, I’m not a fan of Brazilian music, my musical tastes are rather narrow (I’m one of those guys who only likes traditional musical scores) and, although she sings in the revival cast of HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS…, Luba Mason’s name didn’t ring a bell.

For all those reasons, this KRAZY LOVE was a nice revelation. It’s a melodious album that takes us to a Brazilian world of rhythms and sounds, where it’s easy to let go. Luba, who sounds so delicious funny as Hedy la Rue in HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS…, here reveals a warm lush voice that blends perfectly with this kind of music. Her renditions of “Krazy Love”, “A Summer Night” and “Gorgeous Fool” are the highlights; all these songs were written by her, in fact only two of the album songs aren’t originals: “Olhos nos Olhos”, where she sings with a perfect Portuguese accent and “É Com Esse Que Eu Vou”, a fine duet between Luba and her husband Ruben Blades.With its rich orchestrations, bossa nova rhythms and relaxation mood, it “smells” of those longing summer afternoons by the sea. A nice surprise that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.