Stage to Disc 2021

Prince Of Egypt (Stephen Schwartz) (Dreamworks)

The stage version of Dreamworks’ 1998 animated feature (which had eye-popping artwork, an Oscar winning song, a star cast, and produced box-office gold), finally made it to the stage at London’s Dominion Theatre, 25 February 2020. Closing when the pandemic hit, it’s due to reopen 1 July 2021 when things get back to a post-Covid normal.

The cast recording features five songs from the original movie score and a whole heap of new material. The breakout song, ‘When You Believe’, a hit for Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston at the time, is still one of the best songs in the score, but Schwartz’s new additions frequently hit the mark. ‘Make It Right’, a duet for the biblical brothers, Ramses (Liam Tamne) and Moses (Luke Brady), has an ear-worm melody and an insistent drive, the ballad ‘Footprints on the Sand’ has some nice poetic images (‘Footprints in the sand, ripples on the river’), and ‘Heartless’ is a heartfelt mother’s lament, given a strong performance by Tanisha Spring as Nefertari. Old-stager Gary Wilmot does fine on ‘Through Heaven’s Eyes’, a holdover from the original film, and Christine Allado adds classy diva vocals to Moses’ Midianite wife, Tzipporah.

The musical was heavily criticized as being too Disney, too Vegas, and too Cecil B. DeMille, with its religious storytelling akin to cheerleader-style gymnastics and the like, and it is, being grandiose, epic and awash with Middle Eastern themes. Schwartz is a long way from his simple, exhilarating Godspell. ***

Company (Stephen Sondheim) (Warner Music Group 0093624900979)

Marianne Elliott’s gender-switch version of Company gives the Sondheim classic a new and vibrant lease of life. Elliott, whose previous hits have included groundbreaking productions of War Horse and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, has re-imagined the quintessential 70s musical for today, with the role of Bobbie played by a female, the “Getting Married Today” sequence as a male gay couple taking their vows, and gender switches in “You Could Drive a Person Crazy” (male trio), “Another Hundred People” (male vocal) and “Have I Got a Girl (Guy) for You” (female quartet). With new orchestrations by David Cullen, and a few lyric tweaks, it’s a brilliant re-interpretation.

Rosalie Craig, whose previous London credits include City of Angels, Ragtime and London Road, plays Bobbie with warmth and honesty, and can belt it out when necessary. Her “Being Alive” is emotional, and her comic instincts are perfect, giving “Barcelona” (with Richard Fleeshman) the requisite laughs. George Blagden’s “Another Hundred People” is good but very English, and Jonathan Bailey (Jamie) and Alex Gaumond (Paul), are a great gay couple “Getting Married”. ‘Side, By Side, By Side, By Side’ is vibrant and alive with great theatricality, whilst Patti LuPone eats up “The Ladies Who Lunch” as she did on the Neil Patrick Harris 2011 Broadway version. Ben Lewis (Love Never Dies), as Larry, gets a moment to shine in “Sorry-Grateful”.

The production was a 2018 London hit and was due to play Broadway this year but cancelled due to Covid. Let’s hope it gets up when Broadway reopens, as this version needs to be seen everywhere. ****

Follies (Stephen Sondheim) (Warner Classics 093624900955)

This is Dominic Cooke’s 2018 National Theatre, London, cast recording of this cult Sondheim classic which won ‘Best Musical Revival’ at the Olivier Awards. Starring Imelda Staunton (Sally), Philip Quast (Ben), Janie Dee (Phyllis) and Peter Forbes (Buddy), Cooke’s production was incisive and coherent, and very well played, though the show is still flawed, despite some brilliant sequences. Like the early Act-One medley of “Rain on the Roof’” with Norma Atallah and Billy Boyle skittering around like characters in a Jerome Kern 20s musical, Geraldine Fitzgerald bringing Gallic charm to “Ah, Paris” and Di Botcher delivering some White Way gloss to “Broadway Baby”.

Peter Forbes is in top-form with “Buddy’s Blues”, possibly the best track on the album. Tracie Bennett’s “I’m Still Here”, although studied, bristles with guts. Josephine Barstow’s wide vibrato as Heidi in “One More Kiss” is offset by the gorgeous soprano of Alison Langer as her youthful self, and you can hear the age of a faded show-girl in Dawn Hope’s “Who’s That Woman”.

Staunton, in another demanding Sondheim role, beautifully controls her distress in “In Buddy’s Eyes”, whilst her “Losing My Mind” is suffused with a raw ache. Janie Dee’s “Could I Leave You” has sweeping bitterness, whilst Gould brings gravitas and introspection to “The Road You Didn’t Take”.

Nigel Lilley conducts a 21-piece orchestra, which plays Jonathan Tunick’s original orchestrations superbly. ****

Anyone Can Whistle (Stephen Sondheim) (Jay Records 1457)

Jay Records’ ambitious recording of Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle has been in the works for 23 years. The original tracks were put down in 1997, additional work was done in 2013, and now we have the first complete version of this legendary 9 performance 1964 flop. The reasons for the delay were mainly administration and financial. So, after a 23 year wait, is it worth it? Yes, definitely, yes.

With two of Sondheim’s English muses at the helm, Maria Friedman and Julia McKenzie, who between them have introduced London to Sally, Mrs Lovett, Dot and Fosca, John Barrowman, whose credits include Putting It Together, and John Owen Edwards leading a superb National Symphony Orchestra, the riches on offer are many.

One is continually blown-away by the score, the breadth of invention, and Don Walker’s orchestrations, which perfectly express the atonal nature of the subject, an industrial town that fakes a miracle to bring in the tourists.

The two extended musical sequences, ‘Simple’ and ‘The Cookie Chase’, were groundbreaking for Broadway in 1964. ‘Simple’ is astounding with its complex layered vocal parts, whilst ‘The Cookie Chase’, a 10 minute demented, but elaborate European operetta waltz sequence sung by Cora, the Mayoress, and the company is one of the musical theatre’s most accomplished pastiches.

McKenzie, in good, strong voice throughout, is standout on the opening ‘Me and My Town’ with her four ‘boys’, but Friedman is a joy as the multiple personality frigid nurse Fay Apple, who can only function sexually when disguised as the ‘Lady from Lourdes’. ‘Come Play Wiz Me’ is fun and Barrowman, a lightweight Hapgood, duets nicely on it, while they both pull the emotion out of the title tune and ‘With So Little To Be Sure Of’, my favorite Sondheim song, although I miss the abrasiveness of Harry Guardino’s vocal on the original.

The ‘Everybody Says Don’t’ ballet is recorded for the first time, along with several playouts, the curtain call and exit music. *****

In The Heights (Lin-Manuel Miranda) (Atlantic)

The In the Heights soundtrack is a joyous mix of Latin beats, salsa, merengue and hip-hop. Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2008 Broadway hit, about an enclave of undocumented Dominican Republicans in the New York borough, has been given a big-screen makeover by Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians), that simply throbs with a love of Latin culture. You can almost smell the café con leche.

The first thing that fans of the Broadway cast album will notice is that the order of the songs has been altered, which actually improves the story. Plus, there are several lyric changes - the multiple references to Donald Trump are gone, and so is the line ‘Yo, I got more hoes than a phonebook in Tokyo’ from ‘96,000’. The songs ‘Sunrise’, ‘Hundreds of Stories’ and ‘Atencion’ have been cut, but there’s a new song over the end credits, ‘Home All Summer’, which is an asset to the score.

The album blisters with the ensemble numbers and reaches its apex with ‘Carnaval del Barrio’, performed, like the opening ‘In the Heights’ and ’96,000’, in the street.

Anthony Ramos, as the bodega owner Usnavi, is a delight, with crisp vocals whether rapping or singing, whilst Melissa Barrera’s Vanessa could hold her own in any Broadway company. Leslie Grace displays a fantastic voice as Nina (she’s just been signed by Sony Latin), and her duets with Corey Hawkins (Benny), ‘When You’re Home’ and ‘When the Sun Goes Down’, are two of the best on the album. Olga Mereditz as Abuela Claudia is the only holdover from the original Broadway cast, and she walks away with the movie and the soundtrack with her passion and heart on ‘Paciencia y Fe’. Miranda makes a cameo appearance as the ‘flavored ice’ man singing ‘Piragua’, whilst Daphne Rubin-Vega (Rent) brings sizzle to Daniela, the hair-salon mistress, who leads the dance on ‘Carnaval del Barrio’.

Already Number 1 on the Billboard soundtracks chart, there’s no doubt this movie has a lot of admirers, and the album’s vibe catches all of its Latin energy. ****      

The Prom (Matthew Sklar/Chad Beguelin) (Masterworks)

Once upon a time Hollywood bought the rights to a Broadway musical and then proceeded to emasculate it in its screen adaptation. I’m happy say that’s not the case with Ryan Murphy’s frenetic Netflix version of The Prom, which is almost a direct stage-to-screen transfer, with all the songs intact. Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin’s score was a key element in the success of the show on Broadway, which slyly riffed on Broadway clichés, here presented in ripe (perhaps overripe) versions, by one of the best casts assembled for a musical. Meryl Streep is simply dazzling as the self-adoring Dee Dee Allen, the star who’s just a little way past her prime, as she belts ‘It’s Not About Me’ to the gym rafters. James Corden’s late in the show ‘Barry is Going to the Prom’ is one of those solo manic numbers he does so well, whilst Nicole Kidman is sinuously sexy with ‘Zazz’, the Fosse homage. As the two lesbian teens, not allowed to attend the prom at the centre of this middle-American morality charade, Jo Ellen Pellman as Emma and Ariana DeBose as Alyssa Green have the pop vocal chops to deliver and belt with passion. ‘Dance With You’ is particularly good, as is ‘You Happened’. Andrew Rannells makes a meal of ‘Love Thy Neighbor’, which cleverly uses bible quotes to prove the townsfolk are nowhere near holier than thou, whilst Keegan-Michael Key’s headmaster is sincerely good on ‘We Look To You’, the anthem that’s destined to become every show-queen’s mantra. A new dance track, ‘Wear Your Crown’, written for the movie’s finale when the bigots have been usurped by the Broadway do-gooders, closes the album on a high. ****

Destry Rides Again (Harold Rome) (Stage Door STAGE 9086)

Digging deep into the vaults again, Stage Door have come up with a studio cast recording of Harold Rome’s 1959 musical Destry Rides Again, based on the classic Western movie of the same name.

The original show, which starred Andy Griffith and Dolores Gray, received 4 Tony nominations with a win for Michael Kidd’s choreography - similar in style to his frontier moves for MGM’s Seven Brides For  Seven Brothers. Jack Haskell sings the Griffith role (probably better than Griffith), and Louise O’Brien is a fine substitute for Gray.

Accompaniment is by the Norman Leyden Orchestra. No hits emerged from the score, but there were lots of pop covers as the 14 bonus tracks testify. Lisa Kirk does well on the bouncy, “Ring on the Finger”, whilst The Four Aces croon “Anyone Would Love You” in 50s close-harmony. ***

Sweet Charity (Cy Coleman/Dorothy Fields) (Stage Door STAGE9085)

Stage Door have been digging into the vaults again and have come up with this Saga studio cast recording of Sweet Charity which was released in 1967 when the show was first produced in London.

There’s a couple of Australian connections. Mary Preston, who was Lola in the original Australian musical Lola Montez (1959), sings the title role of Charity, whilst Philip Street alumni, and Tony in the original Australian cast of The Boy Friend, John Parker sings the film star/lothario role of Vittorio. Preston does well in most of the numbers, except the top register in the pop-anthem ‘Where Am I Going’, whilst Parker, with a studied accent is cod-suave on ‘Too Many Tomorrows’.

Accompaniment is by the Westminster Sinfonia and Theatre Chorus, directed by Frank Raymond, and other cast members include Craig Hunter, Canna Kendall and June Hunt. This is the only recorded version to feature an additional cut verse in Charity’s song ‘You Should See Yourself’ and it also includes an extended version of the ‘Rich Man’s Frug’, recorded during the original Saga session but not released on the original LP. ***

On The Level (Ron Grainer/Robin Miller) (Stage Door STAGE 9076)

Stage Door continue their ‘Masters Series’ with this West End entry from 1966. It was Ron Grainer and Ronald Miller’s follow-up to their massive hit Robert and Elizabeth, but without its staying power - running a mere 118 performances. It’s lively, even frenetic, with a score that’s typical of the 60s, featuring a jazz-waltz, soft-rock beats, and a title tune done as a ‘frug’. “My Girl at the Dance” sounds like a Cliff Richard number, “Very Good Friend” is nicely handled by Barry Ingram and Phyllida Law, whilst, “Bleep-Bleep” made a star (briefly) of chorus-girl Sheila White. “Nostalgia” was a pleasant number for the adults, which satirically asked ‘bring back the war’, Vera Lynn, and ‘the White Cliffs of Dover’. The plot revolved around the stealing of high-school exam papers, and the cast was top-heavy with Australian talent - Rod McLennan, Terry Mitchell, Earle Cross and Noel Tovey. ***

Lolita, My Love (John Barry/Alan Jay Lerner) (Kritzerland KR-200385)

Hot on the heels of York Theatre Company’s ‘Musical In Mufti’ version of this forgotten show, which closed out-of-town before reaching Broadway in 1971, comes a new live soundboard recording of the original cast.

In 1987 Blue Pear Records released a soundboard recording of the original cast but the sound was poor and there was so much noise ambience it was un-listenable. Producer Bruce Kimmel has now done a mighty job of restoring this live recording, which sounds very good. The show, based on Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel Lolita, was about a ‘precociously seductive’ teenage girl and her middle-aged literature professor, Humbert Humbert, which starred John Neville and Dorothy Louden.

Three-years earlier, Neville had made his musical theatre debut in the West End’s Mr and Mrs. Not a singer - more an actor who carries a tune - his vocals capture the essence of the character in the haunting ¾ “Tell Me, Tell Me” and “How Far Is the Next Town”, and one of the best songs ever written about adolescent love, the lovely “In the Broken Promise Land of Fifteen”. Louden, as Lolita’s vulgar mother, sings the piquant waltz “Sur le Quais”. “Going, Going, Gone” was a hit for Shirley Bassey at the time.

The CD reveals John Barry and Alan Jay Lerner’s score to be a lost gem from Broadway’s Golden Age. Highly recommended! ****  

The Desert Song (Sigmund Romberg/Otto Harback/Oscar Hammerstein ll) (Stage Door STAGE 9080)

Once upon a time, The Desert Song was the staple of every amateur musical theatre group around the world, but those days are long gone. This twenties operetta, originally called Fair Lady, has a glorious Sigmund Romberg score, and was a huge hit when it opened on Broadway in 1926 and London in 1927. Capitalizing on the then current Riff uprising in Morocco, Lawrence of Arabia and Rudolph Valentino’s success in The Sheik, the story was an up-to-date and contemporary tale involving espionage, intrigue and romance.

Its last outing in London was in 1967 and this studio recording was released at that time. Mary Millar, who had toured as Margot Bonvalet in the show twice, was a well-known face on Broadway and London stages, having understudied Julie Andrews in Camelot on Broadway, starred in London’s Ann Veronica, and played Madame Giry in the original The Phantom of the Opera. Contemporary audiences know her as Rose in Keeping Up Appearances. Opposite her as the ‘Red Shadow’ is Australian actor Robert Coleman, whose credits include Camelot, Charlie Girl and Robert and Elizabeth. They couple well on the title song, Coleman does nicely with ‘The Riff Song’ and ‘One Alone’, whilst Millar is equally as good on the ‘French Military Marching Song’ and ‘The Sabre Song’.

The CD comes with recordings from the original 1927 London cast, which starred Harry Welchman and Edith Day. The 78 clean-up is superb. Bonus tracks are by John Hanson, a frequent touring ‘Red Shadow’ of the sixties. *** 

Valmouth (Sandy Wilson) (Jay Records CDJAY 2 1461)

Jay continues its DigiMIX version of essential British musicals with a reissue of Sandy Wilson’s outrageously ribald and camp Valmouth (1959). Based on a novel by Ronald Firbank, the characters include a masseuse - Mrs Yaj (Cleo Laine/Bertice Reading), an aging nymphomaniac - Lady Parvula de Panzoust (Fenella Fielding), a notorious prelate -Cardinal Pirelli (Geoffrey Dunn/ Robert Helpmann), and Sister Ecclesia (Marcia Ashton), the dancing nun who is under a vow of silence.

A cult musical at the time, it shocked many but is fondly remembered. It was written for Reading, who played the tryout season at Hammersmith but was unable to transfer with the show to the West End, so she was replaced by Laine.

It was Laine’s first big success. She recorded the original cast recording which is here given the DigiMIX treatment with the dreaded organ (which Wilson hated) being tamed and integrated more with the rest of the orchestra.

Jay have coupled the original cast recording with the Chichester revival cast, which included Reading, Fielding, Ashton and Doris Hare (Grannie Took) reprising their original roles. That album also includes the song ‘Where Then Can Make Him Come So Slow’, not on the original cast disc. The revival cast is good, but the original is better, and Laine’s vocals sound much warmer than Reading’s. ‘My Big Best Shoes’ is still the standout number, and Fielding’s ‘Just Once More’ the wittiest. ****     

Ball At The Savoy (Paul Abraham/Hersh Glagov/Gerald Frantzen) (Naxos 8.660503004)

Ball at the Savoy was the last major cultural event of Weimar Germany, opening to great acclaim in 1932 Berlin at Grosses Schauspielhaus. Its run was cut short by the Nazis, as a result of its composer Paul Abraham’s and several of the leads’ Jewish heritage.

Naxos Records and the Chicago based Folks Operetta have now produced the world premiere complete recording of the work in English.

The plot is not unlike Die Fledermaus, wherein a wife goes to a ball at the Savoy Hotel in Nice in disguise to spy on her husband who she believes is cheating on her. The difference is that she seeks revenge by having a sexual liaison of her own.

The recording springs from a 2014 production by Chicago Folk Operetta. The principal couple, Aristide, the Marquis de Faublas, and his wife Madeleine are played by real-life couple Gerald Frantzen and Alison Kelly. Both do well on the show’s hit ‘Toujours L’amour’, but Cynthia Fortune Gruel shines as songwriter Daisy Darlington, especially in ‘Kangaroo’, ‘Mister Brown and Lady Claire’ and ‘Out on the Town’. As the much-married Mustafa Bey, Ryan Trent Oldham lacks the vocal strength to do the role justice.

The 18-piece orchestra, under Anthony Barrese, handle Abrahams infectious jazz-age score with brio. **** 

Mame (Jerry Herman) (Stage Door STAGE 9082)

Considering Jerry Herman’s Mame was such a big Broadway success, there’s not many versions of the score out there except the Angela Lansbury original and Lucille Ball’s pale soundtrack. Ginger Rogers played the role in London, but her version was not recorded. Instead, we have a reissue and first time on CD of Beryl Reid, better known as a straight actress (The Killing of Sister George), heading a 1969 studio cast recording with Geoff Love and his Orchestra and the John McCarthy Singers. It was Reid’s second outing in a Herman musical. She’d previously recorded a studio cast of Hello, Dolly! in 1965.

Reid started in Music Hall, graduating to intimate revue. Her voice is not the greatest even though the attack is, and when she can’t reach the top notes, the chorus swiftly step in and finish the job. The score, one of Herman’s strongest, sounds best on the ensemble numbers (‘We Need a Little Christmas’/’It’s Today’), with the title tune a standout. In fact the chorus work is one of the album’s big pluses. Reid brings some 1920s verve to ‘That’s How Young I Feel’, and duets well with comedienne Joan Turner (Vera Charles) on ‘Bosom Buddies’, one of Broadway’s all-time great comic numbers. The score’s other comic gem is ‘Gooch’s Song’, which finds Pat Whitmore scoring the laughs. Bonus tracks are by Joan Turner, from the BBC serial The Teckman Biography - ‘The Shadow Waltz’ and ‘The Homecoming Waltz’ - accompanied by Wally Stott and his Orchestra. ***

Jorrocks (David Heneker) (Stage Door)

According to Adrian Wright (Must Close Saturday) ‘Jorrocks was the finest British musical flop of 1966. David Heneker considered it his best score. It was cleverer, more stylish and witty than his greatest successes Half a Sixpence and Charlie Girl, and vastly superior to the Heneker show that followed, Phil the Fluter.’ Stage Door, in their Lost British Musicals series, have now reissued a lively studio cast recording of Jorrocks and coupled it with the original demo recordings. They prove that Wright was right. It is a forgotten gem and well worth a listen. Based on the novels of R.S. Surtees, it followed the career of John Jorrocks, a Falstaffian tea merchant, who in 1845 takes up the Mastership of the Old Handley Cross Hunt. Fox hunting, and all its attributes, was at the heart of the show which ran for 181 performances amid much controversy from the pro and anti fox hunt brigade. Barry Kent, London’s Lancelot in Camelot, sings the title role - being particularly stirring and bumptious on ‘Love Your Neighbour’ and the title song. As his wife Mrs Jorrocks, Rita Williams is to the fore on ‘Toasts of the Town’ and ‘I Well Recall the Day’, whilst Pat Whitmore’s ‘I Don’t Want to Behave Like a Lady’ has wit. The Rita Williams Singers bring bounce to the jaunty ‘Belinda’, one of the best songs in the score. This release includes an ‘Overture’ (released for the first time), several cut songs, the best of which is ‘Where You Are’, plus a BBC radio version (found on e-bay) of the duet ‘You Can Depend on Me’ by Cheryl Kennedy (the original Belinda), and Barry Kent singing some lyrics not heard on the Original Cast Recording. **** 

Harmony – Josh Groban (Reprise)

If you’re looking for a belated Valentine’s gift then you can’t go past this album by Josh Groban, which has romance dripping all over it. He opens with the 60s Sinatra tune ‘The World We Knew (Over and Over)’, which has a very James Bond feel, and follows with Robbie Williams’ biggest hit ‘Angels’. Nina Simone’s ‘The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face’ and Bonnie Raitt’s ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ are a comfortable fit in this playlist, as is ‘Both Sides Now’, which he duets with Sara Bareilles. There are only two show songs on the album, a very short version of Man of La Mancha’s ‘The Impossible Dream’ and ‘She’, the popular theme from the BBC’s Seven Faces of Women, written by Charles Aznavor and Les Miz lyricist Herbert Kretzmer. The most romantic number however is probably ‘It’s Now or Never’ (‘O Sole Mio’), which is swathed in Latin beats and sounds like it’s accompanied by a million guitars. ***