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.