Stage to Disc with Peter Pinne 2011
We've now compiled Peter Pinne's Stage to Disc Show Music Columns from our 2011 print editions in this online version.
Breast Wishes (BP01 0609722 890663). After two national tours, the original cast recording of this celebration of mammary glands has finally made it to disc. And like the show itself, sub-titled “an uplifting musical,” it’s joyous, funny and moving. Valerie Bader, Anne Looby, Chelsea Plumley and Gretel Scarlett, along with David Harris, do great work on Bruce Brown’s witty 60s retro sounding score, with the highlights being Bader’s “Ode to Hermine Cadolle,” Scarlett’s “Mills and Boon and Me” and Plumley’s “Dear Puppies.” Harris, as the token hunk, makes the most of his Doctor Cleavage turn with “The Breast That Money Can Buy.” A-plus arrangements and accompaniment are by Michael Tyack and a tight three-piece combo. ****
Pricilla Queen of the Desert – The Musical (Rhino R2 527371). The Broadway Cast recording of Australia’s most successful jukebox musical has a score of basically the same hits as the Australian version except for Madonna’s “Material Girl,” “Like a Prayer” and “It’s Raining Men,” which replace “Downtown,” “I’ve Never Been To Me” and “What’s Love Got To Do With It.” Tony Sheldon still gets to sing “MacArthur Park,” but “Both Sides Now” has been swapped for Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors.” Will Swenson’s (Tick/Mitzi) “Always on my Mind” is nowhere near as effective as Jeremy Stanford was in the local version, but the orchestra has been enhanced with the addition of four string players to give a bigger sound. The show, with its relentless disco anthems of the 70s and 80s, still comes across as a wonderful feel-good musical and this album captures it in all its tacky glory. ****
Glee – Volume 6 (Sony). The sixth album from this hugely popular TV series features several show songs with standout performances by Lea Michele and Chris Colfer. Michele (Rachel) essays the Streisand version of “My Man” (Funny Girl), and is every bit as good as the lady herself, while Chris Colfer (Kurt) does a powerful and passionate “As if we Never Said Goodbye” (Sunset Boulevard), out-singing any diva who has put her stamp on this song. Other show tracks include a mash-up of West Side Story’s “I Feel Pretty” and TLC’s “Unpretty,” “Dancing Queen,” and “Pure Imagination” (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory). Nobody mixes genres more effectively than this series, and this album with its mix of pop (Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”) and show is up there with the best. ****
When Ronan Met Burt (Polydor 2765649) Popular Irish singer Ronan’s new album has him reaching into the Burt Bacharach catalogue of hits and coming up with an interesting selection of songs – some hits and some not well-known at all. Performed with an orchestra and occasional girl backing group, the 10 tracks include several show and movie songs, “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” (Promises, Promises), “The Look of Love” “Casino Royale), and “My Little Red Book” (What’s New Pussycat). Ronan, who is at home with all of this material, does particularly well with “What the World Needs Now” and the rarely recorded “This House is Empty Now.” ****
Now – Linda Eder (Masterworks 88697-85671-2) Linda Eder’s Now has her singing 15 songs by Frank Wildhorn (her husband) and a host of different lyricists, among them Maury Yeston, Nan Knighton and Leslie Bricusse. Eder, whose forte is power ballads, chews up “No Finer Man” from Cyrano de Bergerac, and “What’s Never Been Done Before” from Camille Claudel. There’s a track from Wildhorn’s latest Broadway entry, the short-lived Wonderland (The Mad Hatter”), plus “Living in the Shadows,” one of his tunes added to Victor Victoria. Best track is the emotive “Now,” originally written by Wildhorn and Yeston for a song cycle that never happened. ***
Gregory Moore– An intimate evening with Gregory Moore and friends (CD: Fanfare 014/DVD: Fanfare 019) Former Ten Tenor Gregory Moore sings a selection of show and Celtic songs on the soundtrack from his recent TV special. Show songs include; “Bring Him Home,” “All I Ask of You” and “My Heart Will Go On.” Moore’s rich tenor is perfect for this type of material, with his best tracks being “You Raise Me Up” and “Making a Difference” (Suddenly Single). Graham and Venessa Moore, plus Suellen Cusack and Catherine Williams, are Moore’s partners in song on several tracks with accompaniment by an 11-piece group led by Bernard Walz. ***
Tim McKew at the Sands– Noel Coward was an original, which is why his songs keep being recorded. There’s always something fresh to be found in each different interpretation. Cabaret performer, Tim McKew (Melbourne Comedy Festival) pays tribute to ‘The Master’ with his 10 song selection that includes “Mad Dogs and Englishmen,’ “You Were There” and “I’ll See You Again.” Classy piano accompaniment is by Peter De Ryk. **
Mary Poppins - Australian Cast Recording (Disney 8723874). With an “A” list cast of music theatre royalty; Marina Prior, Philip Quast, Debra Byrne, and Judi Connelli, and newcomers Verity Hunt-Ballard and Matt Lee, the Australian cast recording of this beloved musical is as enjoyable as it was in the theatre. Recorded live over five nights during the second week of the Melbourne season, the recording is one of the best ever “live” cast recordings of any Australian production. Hunt-Ballard dominates in the feisty title role and scores vocally with all of her material, particularly the enchanting “Practically Perfect,” but it is Quast, as the patriarch George, who brings humanity to the piece. His is a finely nuanced performance that has warmth and understanding, especially in his “A Man Has Dreams” solo. Prior does well on “Being Mrs Banks,” as does Byrne with “Feed the Birds,” and Connelli with “Brimstone and Treacle.” Lee’s Bert comes across as lightweight but he gets away with it as his numbers are so well-known; “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” “Jolly Holiday” and “Step In Time.” George Stiles and Anthony Drewe’s new songs add depth and compliment the Sherman Brothers classic 1964 movie score, making the whole a more integrated and darker version of Australian author Pamela Travers’ stories about her immortal Poppins character. This version of the show also includes a new song, “Playing the Game,” added to the show for the New York production. It replaced “Temper Temper,” heard in the London production. Orchestra and chorus under the direction of Michael Tyack couldn’t be better. The CD was mixed and mastered in London and has a rich theatrical ambience. ****
Smoke and Mirrors was commissioned by the 2010 Sydney Festival for the Famous Spiegeltent. A big success, it has since played the Adelaide and Edinburgh Festivals, Melbourne and Auckland, and won a Helpmann Award. The show was conceived and written by iOTA and director Craig Llott, featured iOTA, with a cast that included Wayne Scott Kermond and Queenie Van De Zandt, accompanied by a four-piece group led by Tina Harris. The cast recording of this rock/vaudeville cabaret is a mixture of vocal and instrumental performances performed with razor-edged acuity. iOTA registers with “My death” and the comedy raunch “Ira,” Van de Zandt does a smoky “Candyland” and Scott Kermond eats up “Laugh It Off.” ***
The Balinese Princess and the Funky Monkey (E1 Productions) is the original cast recording of a children’s musical that premiered in Melbourne, January 2011. Written by Lela Hasian Mcgregor and Craig Bryant, it’s a folk tale set in Asia, with accessible songs, well-sung by a cast that includes Daniel Mottau, Stefan Lagoulis and ten year-old Peronel Taylor. “It’s a perfect Way to Say Goodbye” is a strong opener, and “Always in my Heart” a pretty ballad. Bonus tracks include a pop version and disco EP remix of the latter. ***
For some nostalgia, check out London company Flare Records’ (www.flarerecordslondon.com) reissues of three interesting television musicals from the 1950s.
Hansel and Gretel (Flare Spec1041) comes from a soundtrack of the 1958 TV and Radio broadcast of a musical that starred Red Buttons and Barbara Cook. Standout song in Alec Wilder and William Engvick’s pretty score is “I’m Much Too Happy Dancing to Care,” which Cook caresses lovingly. Bonus tracks are all of Cook in her early brilliant Broadway years and come from Flahooley, Plain and Fancy, Candide, andThe Music Man. ***
Little Women (Flare SPEC1042) was a 1968 TV musical scored by Richard Adler, who’d just had a big success on Broadway with The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees. The show, which concentrated on the character of Jo, starred Londoner Jeanne Carson (Love from Judy) in this pivotal role, with Florence Henderson (Meg), Bill Hayes and Rise Stevens. Carson scored with “How Do You Write a Book?” while Henderson had the best ballad, “Love I Mean,” which also appears as a bonus track sung by the composer. Other bonus tracks from movies and shows, Rockets Galore, Fanny, Babes in Toyland and Oklahoma! etc., are sung by Carson, Henderson and Stevens. ***
Ruggles of Red Gap (Flare SPEC1034) has the best score of all three TV musicals, having music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Leo Robin, and a cast that includes Michael Redgrave, Jane Powell and Peter Lawford, and comes from an NBC show that aired in 1957. Styne’s score has many worthwhile tunes in it, including the lovely ballad “Ride on a Rainbow,” sung by Powell, which he later reused in a revised production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The other famous tune from this score is “I’m In Pursuit of Happiness” better known these days as the tune to “You’ll Never Get Away from Me” from Gypsy. Bonus tracks, all by Powell, feature songs from her movies; Hit the Deck, Athena, Three Sailors and a Girl, and a track, “The Day I Say I Do” from the TV musical Feathertop with a score by Mary Rodgers and Martin Charnin. ***
Les Miserables (Universal DVD 8280339). A company of over 500 performers and musicians feature on a live DVD taken from two sellout 25th Anniversary concerts held at London’s O2 in 2010. No surprise it received standing ovations. Alfie Boe is magnificent as Jean Valjean, likewise Norm Lewis as Javert. Lea Salonga’s Fantine is heartbreaking, Ramin Karimloo, the current Phantom in Love Never Dies, and the best voice in the concert, sings the heart out of Enjolras, and Matt (Little Britain) Lucas almost steals the show as Thenardier. He never misses a laugh. Les Miz is a highly emotional show, and with the 1985 original cast including Colm Wilkinson, Michael Ball and Frances Ruffelle, the 2010 Queen’s Theatre cast, and the current 2010 Barbican cast on stage at the finale, there’s not a dry eye in the house. ****
Evening Primrose (Entertainment One DVD). Stephen Sondheim’s only made-for-television musical, often referred to as “holy grail” for Sondheim fans and collectors, has finally been released on DVD. Taken from a newly-discovered nearly-pristine 16mm kinescope, the 1966 show stars Anthony Perkins and Charmian (The Sound Of Music) Carr. The bizarre story, which has a poet (Perkins) getting himself locked in a department store overnight only to discover a group of hermits have been living there for years, amongst them a young girl Ella (Carr), with whom he begins to fall in love, has a haunting score by Sondheim that includes two of his most beautiful songs, “I Remember” and “Take Me To The World.” There are over 80 minutes of bonus features including interviews with the director Paul Bogart and Carr. ****
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Ghostlight 8-4443) is one of the most gutsy and powerful musicals to come out of Broadway in years. The show, set in 18th Century America, is about the country’s seventh President (and the political machinations that helped put him there), and uses a rock score that sounds totally at home in a theatre. Written and directed by Alex Timbers, with music and lyrics by Michael Friedman, it is political theatre for the times. It’s hard to single out performers from a strong ensemble cast, but Benjamin Walker as Jackson delivers some charismatic vocals on “I’m Not That Guy,” “Rock Star” and “Public Life.” ****
Once Upon a Mattress (Sepia 1159) - CD reissue of the original London cast recording. The hit 1959 Off-Broadway show had a score by Mary Rodgers, daughter of Richard Rodgers, and a star-making turn by Carol Burnett. JaneConnell, who later played Agnes Gooch in Mame on Broadway and the subsequent movie version, is funny in the Burnett role and lands all her numbers, especially “Happily Ever After.” Thelma Ruby, as the Queen, eats up “Sensitivity” and Max Wall is irresistible as the King in “Very Soft Shoes.” Australian Bill Newman, fresh from starring in J.C. Williamson’s The Pajama Game sings the two best numbers in the show, “In A Little While” and “Yesterday I Loved You.” The CD also features a concept album of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves written by Mary Rodgers and sung by Bing Crosby. ***
Aladdin (Sepia 1162). Cole Porter’s 1958 made-for-television musical was produced as a West End pantomime in 1960 starring Bob Monkhouse and Doretta Morrow. Sepia has now reissued the cast recording for the first time on CD. Porter’s TV score is augmented with songs from his other musicals, “There Must Be Someone for Me” (Mexican Hayride), “Ridin’ High” (Red, Hot & Blue), and “Cherry Pies Ought To Be You” and “I Am Loved,” both from Out of This World. Monkhouse is more than agreeable in the title role and scores big-time with one of the original TV tunes “Come to the Supermarket in Old Peking.” Doretta Morrow shines on the title song and duets with Monkhouse on “I Adore You.” The CD also features a well-sung studio cast recording of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella with Elizabeth Larner and Denis Quilley. ***
Beaudy – This updated contemporary version of The Sleeping Beauty fairytale, set in Sydney’s Western Suburbs, had a somewhat rocky opening at the Parade Theatre last year. Michael Orland’s 70s pop sounding score has some good things in it, notably “I May,” sung by Matt Greenlaw. Others to register were “Written in the Cards” (Liz Taylor), and “Best Friends” (Stephen Fisher-King). The CD comes with a DVD of the complete show. **
Sondheim On Sondheim(PS Classics PS-1093). I thought there wasn’t much left to find out about Sondheim, but this CD of the recent Broadway entry proves otherwise. Sandwiched in between a host of familiar and not so familiar songs are some interesting and illuminating facts about his long career told by the composer himself. The two CD set, which has 48 tracks in all, features material from all of his shows except for some odd reason nothing from Sweeney Todd. But what is here is well-worth playing - often. An “A” list cast; Barbara Cook, Vanessa Williams, Tom Wopat, Leslie Kritzer, Euan Morton and Norm Lewis, bring his eclectic catalogue to life with some standout tracks being “Take Me To The World,” “So Many People” and “The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me.” ****
La Cage aux Folles (PS Classics PS1094). The new Broadway Cast recording of the scaled-down version of La Cage, which came to Broadway via London, features Douglas Hodge’s Olivier and Tony winning performances as Albin. It’s a performance unlike any we’ve heard before, a little bit pantomime dame and very, very English. But it works, and his voice more than does justice to Jerry Herman’s score, especially the defiant gay anthem classic “I Am What I Am.” Kelsey Grammar is an appealing Georges and does a tender and heartfelt “Look over There,” and the Cagelles sound suitably brassy on the title tune. ***
The Scottsboro Boys (CDJAY 1421). Those who love Kander and Ebb’s music, and who doesn’t, will be knocked out by their latest Broadway entry which finds the team creating a score that is up there with the best of their previous efforts, Cabaret and Chicago. The dark story about nine black youths unjustly accused of rape in the 1930s, played within the conceit of a Minstrel Show, is beautifully captured in this cast CD recorded during its Off-Broadway tryout at the Vineyard Theatre early in 2010. “Commencing in Chattanooga,” “Make Friends with The Truth,” “Alabama Ladies,” and the poignant “Go Back Home” are just some of the outstanding tracks in a score that is alive with the sound of Broadway. A bonus track has the composer singing and playing “Go Back Home.” ****
Christine Ebersole Sings Noel Coward (Staunch). In the 2009/2010 Broadway season Christine Ebersole played Elvira in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit. She recorded a selection of Coward material to be played during the intervals and this CD is an expanded version of those tracks. It’s unusual these days to find an American performer releasing an album of songs by a British composer, but she’s completely at home with this material. Apart from the Coward classics (“I’ll See You Again”/”Someday I’ll Find You”), she excels on “You Were There,” “If Love Were All” and the lovely “Never Again.” ***
Handle With Care(Joymas). This new Australian musical which “celebrates the beauty and bitch of being a woman,” is really four mini-musicals; “Eve” which looks at weight loss, “Girlfriend,” girls night out on the eve of a wedding, “The Silk Powersuit,” a woman in the corporate workplace, and “In My Arms,” motherhood. It’s one of the new breed of musicals that tries to mesh Broadway with pop, think Next To Normal. Performances are insightful and accessible from the cast of eight women, and the seven-piece backing group led by the composer on piano is tight. Kathy Burns and Kathryn McIntyre score with “Ally Hit the Jackpot” which has an insistent pop-hook. ***
Betty Blokk-Buster Follies(Possum POS5010/POSDVD1). This eagerly awaited reissue of Reg Livermore’s groundbreaking 1975 show contains almost all of the tracks from the original platinum and double-gold 2LP set, and the DVD, filmed at Sydney’s Balmain Bijou comes with added extras, a one-hour documentary “End of An Era,” about his five years as a one-man show entertainer. Accompanied by the Baxter Funt Band and The Reginas, a female singing trio, Livermore delivers on Billy Joel’s “Captain Jack,” Ray Davies’ “Celluloid Heroes” and Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Matrimony” in this piece of extraordinary Australian theatrical history. ****
The Very Model of a G&S Anthology(ABC Classics 480 4510). A new reissue from ABC Classics is culled from Australian and international recordings of the G&S scores. It’s called the “Very Best of Gilbert and Sullivan” and it really is a fine collection. Artists featured include Dennis Olsen, Thomas Edmonds, Norma Knight, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, in songs from twelve of their light-operas. ****
Rating
*Only for the enthusiast ** Borderline *** Worth buying **** Must have ***** Kill for it.
