STAGE TO DISC by Peter Pinne: 2014
Matilda (Tim Minchin) (Broadway records/Yellow Sound Label BRYSL-CD01). There’s not much difference between the Broadway and London cast albums of Matilda except three bonus tracks of Matilda’s stories. Two of the London cast, Bertie Carver and Lauren Ward, get to repeat their original performances as Miss Trunchball and Miss Honey, while the parents, Mr and Mrs Wormwood, are played by Lesli Margherita and Gabriel Ebert. The latter get two of the show’s funniest numbers, “Loud” and “Telly”, and both performers turn them into the showstoppers they are. Four girls - Sophia Gennusa, Oona Laurence, Bailey Ryon and Milly Shapiro - alternate in the title role and are all featured on the disc. Bonus tracks include three of Matilda’s stories; “Once Upon A Time…,” “The Great Day Has Arrived…,” and “The Trick Started Well…” It’s still a fun score and this version is in every way equal to the London original. ****
A Gentleman’s Guide To Love and Murder (Steven Lutvak/Robert L. Freedman) (Ghostlight 8-4482). One of the most sophisticated scores to appear on Broadway in years, A Gentleman’s Guide To Love and Murder is also one of the wittiest. Broadway virgins, Steven Lutvak (music & lyrics) and Robert L. Freedman (book & lyrics) have written a marvellous pastiche of 19th Century Operetta and Edwardian Music-Hall that bears repeated listening. Set in London in 1909, the story follows Monty Navarro as he bumps off eight relatives to become the Earl of Highhurst and proclaim the family fortune. Bryce Pinkham as Monty has enormous fun delivering patter songs and romantic ballads in a firm tenor, whilst Jefferson Mays, who plays all eight of the deceased characters, has a field day being outrageously pompous and silly. His “I Don’t Understand the Poor” is delicious, whilst his “Lady Hyacinth Abroad” in drag, is wonderfully British, and wonderfully Noel Coward in style. Mays and Pinkham also score with “Better With a Man”. The second-act trio “I’ve Decided to Marry You” is a riot in the hands of Pinkham and the women in his life, Lisa O’Hare (Sibella) and Lauren Worsham (Phoebe). “Why Are All The D’Ysquith’s Dying” is a great comic second-act opener, as is Monty’s capture with “Stop! Wait! What!” in which orchestrator Jonathan Tunick slips in a musical-gag by using the opening bars of Sondheim’s “Attend the Tale of Sweeney Todd”. ****
Rocky– Broadway (Stephen Flaherty/LynnAhrens) (UM B0020601) /Rocky Das Musical – Fight From the Heart (Stage 0208338SAE). Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens’ musical theatre craftsmanship is evident in their 70s tinged score for Rocky, the blockbuster Broadway musicalbased on Sylvester Stallone’s award-winning movie. Strong melodies with character-perfect lyrics, it’s a score with heart which the Broadway cast capture at every turn. Andy Karl is charismatic as the title character, with Margo Siebert massively appealing as the shy Adrian. Their duets “The Flip Side”, sung at the ice-skating rink, and “Happiness”, are two of the best numbers in the score, along with Karl’s opening solo, “My Nose Ain’t Broken” and his anthemic “Fight from the Heart”. Siebert also does well with “Raining” and “I’m Done”, while Terence Archie, as the reigning champ Apollo Creed, drips with braggadocio throughout “Patriotic” and “Undefeated Man”. Flaherty and Ahrens’ score has been augmented by Bill Conti’s Rocky theme “Gonna Fly Now” and “Eye of the Tiger”, which was written for Rocky 3. The 2012 pre-Broadway try-out version in Hamburg, Germany (still running), also spawned a German cast recording which contains three songs dropped for Broadway; “Philly Pie” and “Feiertag”, both trios and sung by Adrian’s work colleagues at the pet-store, and “Ich hab Ideen” a hard-driving rock song for Paulie, Adrian’s brother. On Broadway these were replaced by a new song “Wanna Know Why”, sung in the gym by Rocky and the boxers, and “Eye of the Tiger”, used during a training sequence. ****
Shane Warne The Musical (Eddie Perfect) (Live 2 CD Set). Eddie Perfect’s score for his irreverent romp about cricketing legend Shane Warne mixes bossa-nova (“The Away Game”), jazz (“What An S.M.S. (Mess) I’m In”), rap (“Dancing with the Stars”), vaudeville (“Never Cross the Line”), and Bollywood (“My Name is John”). It’s Non-PC, course and vulgar, but massively funny. Perfect is perfect as Warnie, whether leading the man in a 70s style anthem to beer, “We’re Going There”, debunking myths in “Hollywood”, or as a tall-poppy victim in “Shine Like Shane”, he’s on the money. Co-starring with Perfect are four brilliant musical theatre divas, Lisa McCune, Verity Hunt-Ballard, Amy Lehpamer and Christie Whelan-Browne, who play a succession of Warne’s conquests. McCune is first-rate as Warne’s first wife Simone and brings a nice tenderness to “What About That?”, Lehpamer’s a hoot as Donna Wright, the nurse who received lewd texts, and Whelan-Browne expertly fields the press as Liz Hurley in the jazzy “It’s Love”. Gospel rears its head on “The Ashes”, which is led by the incredibly versatile Hunt-Ballard. Best performance however comes from Shane Jacobson as Terry Jenner. His “Pick Up Shane” is an emotional knockout. ****
Aladdin (Alan Menken/Howard Ashman/Tim Rice/Chad Beguelin) (Disney D001987702). The new cast recording of Disney’s latest Broadway blockbuster Aladdin augments Alan Menken’s five song animated film score with three songs that were originally written for the movie with lyrics by Howard Ashman, but dropped, and four new songs with lyrics by book writer Chad Beguelin. All told it makes for a very good commercial score. Menken and Ashman’s original vision for the movie had been to write pastiche 40s numbers in the style of Fats Waller and Cab Calloway for the part of the Genie. In the stage version the role is played by James Monroe Iglehart and his Tony Award-winning performance is captured in all its high-camp glory on the show’s showstopper “Friend Like Me”. Adam Jacobs and Courtney Reed are an appealing pair of lovers, Aladdin and Jasmine, and get to sing the hit “A Brand New World” and one of Beguelin’s new numbers “A Million Miles Away” in fabulous Broadway belt voices, with Jacobs also scoring with “Proud of Your Boy”, a rescued Ashman gem. Jonathan Freeman repeats his film performance as Jafar, assisted by sidekick Don Darryl Rivera (Iago) and makes a meal of “Diamond In the Rough”, while “Somebody’s Got Your Back” is a great eleven-o-clock number for Jacobs and Iglehart. Bonus tracks include Menken accompanying Jacobs on a tender “Proud of Your Boy”, and Iglehart having fun performing a different “Genie Medley” which includes tunes from Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Hercules and Pocahontas. ****
Beautiful (Carole King/Gerry Goffin/Cynthia Weill/Barry Mann) (Ghostlight 8-4483). What Jersey Boys did for the Four Seasons, Beautiful does for the songs and life of Carole King - not only Carole King, but also her collaborator and husband Gerry Goffin and friendly rivals Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann. Jesse Mueller as King gets the vocal sound and inflections right and also plays a mean piano in this jukebox musical that walks down the memory lane of 60s pop. Hits by The Drifters (“Some Kind Of Wonderful”), The Shirelles (“Will You Love Me Tomorrow”), Little Eva (“The Locomotion”) and the Righteous Brothers (“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”), rub shoulders with “One Fine Day”, “So Far Away”, “You’ve Got a Friend” and “(You Make Me Fell Like) A Natural Woman.” The performances are good, the sound perfectly captures the era, and the songs are classics. It’s an enjoyable listen. ****
The Bridges of Madison County (Jason Robert Brown) (Ghostlight B-4484). Jason Robert Brown’s score for The Bridges of Madison County is the finest he has written for the theatre. It is a serious musical theatre work with big melodic themes and lyrical images to suit the material, sometimes set as free verse and sometimes rhymed. Brown has masterfully orchestrated the work for an 11-piece orchestra of mainly acoustic guitars and strings and musically uses blues (“Get Closer”), gospel (“When I’m Gone”), folk/rock (“Another Life”) and bluegrass (“State Road 21”) to tell the story of a tender four-day love affair set in the Iowa township of Winterset in 1965. Big-voiced Kelli O’Hara and Steven Pasquale are perfect as the lovers. She sets the tone of the show with the soaring opening and beautiful “To Build a Home” and follows with a lovely “What Do You Call a Man Like That”, while her second-act back-story aria “Almost Real” is heartbreaking. Steven Pasquale’s voice is thrilling and tear-inducing, especially on the emotional duet “One Second and a Million Miles”. The work of the chorus, who frequently sing oohs and aahs in the background on several tracks, adds enormously to the listening experience. *****
King of the Air (Gavin Lockley/Ann Blainey). Australian hero Charles Kingsford Smith (Smithy) is the subject of King of the Air, a concept album for a musical about the highly-decorated air-ace, his historic flight across the Pacific and his life. It’s a big story and composer Gavin Lockley has written some big melodic themes for it which are all present in King of the Air “Piano Concerto” which kicks off the disc. Played by the Metropolitan Orchestra with soloist Simon Tedeschi on piano, it’s grand, sweeping, at times has a period flavour, and includes a swing version of “Waltzing Matilda”. Tedeschi, Australia’s Gershwin maestro, is at home here with the work having a Gershwin-esque flavour which he interprets with robust but sensitive playing. Lockley’s orchestrations are exciting and impressive. The songs however are bogged down by banal and pedestrian lyrics, the best of which are “There’s Magic In the Air Tonight”, a duet for Smithy (Daniel Belle) and his wife (Renae Martin), and the finale “Down the Sweep of Ages”, with Martin and the Rum Corps Choir. ***
Bullets Over Broadway(Various) (Masterworks Broadway 8884307534-2). The original Broadway cast recording of Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway works too hard for its living and misses all the fun of the movie. Top musical theatre talent Marin Mazzie and Karen Ziemba try to infuse life into a jukebox score of 1920s songs to indifferent effect. Best of the bunch is Hoagy Carmichael’s “Up a Lazy River”, crooned nicely by Nick Cordero (Cheech), Cole Porter’s “Let’s Misbehave”, a fun duet for Brooks Ashmankas (Warner) and Helene York (Olive), with Richard Whiting’s “She’s Funny That Way” used as the wrap-up song for lovers Zack Braff (David) and Betsy Wolfe (Ellen). **
Tess (of the D’Urbervilles) (Stephen Edwards/Justin Fleming) (Stage Door STAGE 9036).If you like Celtic folk songs then you will love this brooding, melodramatic treatment of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel. A hit on its pre-London tour, it lasted just 77 performances in the West End. Composer Stephen Edwards and Australian playwright Justin Fleming’s sung-through score feels like it belongs in an opera house more than on a musical stage, which is not surprising as Edwards and Fleming both have credits in that genre. This is the first complete recording of the score and couples six tracks from the original 1999 London cast with 15 from a 1998 studio cast recording. Fleming’s lyrics are prosaic and Edwards’ music frequently feels like underscore to a BBC period drama, but it does capture nicely the milieu of Hardy’s book. Australian performer Martin Crewes stands out as the licentious Alec, giving the role major vocal heft, especially on “Threshing Field”. ***
Yank (Joseph Zellnik/David Zellnik) (PS Classics PS-1420). This cast recording springs from a York Theatre production in 2010. A gay love story set in the Pacific during the Second World War, the musical originally premiered at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2005. The show was scheduled for Broadway but didn’t make it; no fault of the material which is excellent. Ten men and one girl tell a bittersweet story which was inspired by Alan Berube’s book Coming Out Under Fire. Bobby Steggart and Ivan Hernandez are perfect as the lovers and the score gives them numerous opportunities to shine. Hernandez nicely croons “Rememb’ring you” a 40s sounding ballad which top and tails the show, and does well with “You, You”, while Steggart, with the guys, bounces through the title tune and “Betty”, a salute to pin-up girl Betty Grable. Steggart and Hernandez also pull the emotion out of the lovers’ duets “A Couple of Regular Guys” and “Just True”. Playing all of the female roles is the vivacious Nancy Anderson, whose voice was born to sing this material. Whether sounding like an Andrew Sister on the swinging “The Saddest Girl What Am”, or an ingénue on “Jill”, she indelibly makes her mark. Jonathan Tunick’s new eight-piece orchestrations only add to the lustre of the recording, which has been handsomely packaged. ****
One Touch of Venus (Kurt Weill/Ogden Nash) (Jay Records CDJay2-1362). This is the first complete recording of Kurt Weill’s most commercial Broadway score. Written in 1943, it followed Lady in the Dark and was his second Broadway hit in a row. Jay Records recorded the score in 2000 but have only just recently released it. It’s beautifully sung by an excellent cast headed by Melissa Errico (Venus), Ron Raines (Whitelaw Savory), Victoria Clark (Molly), Brent Barrett (Rodney) and Judy Kaye (Mrs Kramer), with accompaniment by the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Owen Edwards and James Holmes. Weill’s score is a sophisticated romp with literate lyrics by Ogden Nash about a Greek statue, which briefly comes to life. The hit of the show was the languid beguine “Speak Low”, which is given an exceptional vocal by Errico and Barrett. Errico also excels on the witty “I’m A Stranger Here Myself” and the sharp and shrewd “That’s Him”. Kaye, Lauren Worsham and Barrett have fun with “Way out West in Jersey”, while Clark brings a wonderful edge to “Very, Very, Very” (“One way to be very wealthy, is to be very, very, rich”). The score also features two ballets, “Forty Minutes for Lunch” and “Venus in Ozone Heights”, which showcase the flawless orchestra, along with three bonus tracks of songs that were cut. For those who have been longing for years to have this score on disc, this recording is mana from heaven, but for those unfamiliar with Weill’s work, it’s a masterful introduction to a composer who was the first to completely orchestrate his entire show including dance music. A formidable feat. *****
Jersey Boys (Bob Gaudio) (Rhino 6122798863). Nine years after Jersey Boys opened on Broadway, scooping up every award including the Tony and Grammy, it has finally made its way to the big screen. Not surprising as the story of the lives of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, their rise to fame and their brush with the Mafia, is one of the best jukebox musicals that has ever been created. There’s not much difference between the Original Broadway Cast recording and the soundtrack as both feature John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli, but the soundtrack also includes some tracks by the original Four Seasons as well. In the movie the other members of the group are played by Erich Berger and Michael Lomenda, who both have Jersey Boys street-cred having played it on tour, and Vincent Piazza (Boardwalk Empire). The transition from stage to film has meant some songs have been dropped but all the classics are still there: “Sherry”, “Walk Like a Man”, “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, “My Eyes Adored You” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”. ***
Andy Capp (Alan Price/Trevor Peacock) (Stage Door 9034). In trying to capitalise on the successful musicalization of the comic-strip Little Orphan Annie into the Broadway hit Annie, Andy Capp, based on Britain’s well-loved Daily Mirror comic-strip by Reg Smythe, about a work-shy, beer-swilling loser, opened in the West End in 1982. Despite warm notices it was gone four months later. Stage Door’s first-time-on-CD release of the original cast is thick with North Country accents and a striking performance by Tom Courtenay as the title character. Courtenay delivers the best number in Alan Price’s score, “I Ought To Be Ashamed of Myself”, which is a catchy piece in the style of George Formby complete with ukulele accompaniment. “Points of View”, a patter song, “Going to Barcelona”, a wedding-costs list song, and “Hermoine”, a song about the hero’s pigeons, register briefly in Price’s underwhelming score. But Val McLean as Andy Capp’s put-upon wife Flo gets a nice ballad in “When You’ve Lived In Love With Someone”. ***
Swan Esther (Nick Munns/J. Edward Oliver) (Stage Door 9035). Swan Esther is another curious entry from Stage Door. A rock oratorio, it’s based on the biblical story of The Book of Esther. Producer David Land commissioned the musical after innumerable requests from British schools and societies for a follow-up show in the style of Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat. Like Joseph, a concept album was recorded which is the basis of this CD. The musical played a short season at the Young Vic Theatre in 1983. It was later revised and under the title of Swan Esther and The King toured the UK in 1985. A high-profile cast, Stephanie Lawrence, Denis Quilley and Clive Carter, head the concept cast. They struggle with lacklustre material awash with clunky and obvious rhymes. The only songs that stand out are a rhythm and blues number “Nothing To Lose”, sung by The Square Pegs, and Stephanie Lawrence’s diva solo “My Love is Like a Dream”. The CD also includes 9 studio rehearsal demos from the rewrite tour. These additional songs are by Shirlie Roden and John Miller, and even in their raw state of just piano and voice are better than the original concept material. **
Far From Heaven (PS Classics PS-1319). Scott Frankel and Michael Korie’s musical version of the 2002 movie which starred Julianne Moore had a four week run at Playwrights Horizon, New York last June but did not transfer to Broadway like their previous musical Grey Gardens. It’s easy to understand why. Whilst there are good things in the score it ultimately lacks emotion, despite sterling work by the performers. The story, set in 1957, about a Connecticut housewife whose marriage goes into a spiral download when she discovers her husband likes men, musically has a flavour of the period, and at times sounds like something Leonard Bernstein or Frank Loesser (especially in his Most Happy Fella phase) would have written. Kelli O’Hara in the Julianne Moore role is nothing less than sensational, with Steven Pasquale giving solid support as the conflicted husband Frank. “Marital Bliss” is a cutting indictment of marriage in an upmarket community, O’Hara and Nancy Anderson bring honesty to “Cathy I’m Your Friend”, while Pasquale delivers a passionate “I Never Knew”, when he’s finally open about his feelings for his wife. ***
Stephen Ward (Decca 3760237). There is no shortage of memorable melodies in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest musical Stephen Ward, which has just finished a disappointingly brief London run. Working with Christopher Hampton and Don Black, who supplied book and lyrics, Webber’s take on the sordid 60s tabloid scandal of Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies is a pretty dour affair. Yes, there are nods to the period with “Super Duper Hoola Hooper”, the calypso “Black-Hearted Woman” and “1963” but overall not much joy for a show set in the ‘swinging sixties’. Alexander Hanson sings well as the title character, with Charlotte Spencer and Charlotte Blackledge nicely handling Keeler and Rice-Davies respectively. Standout song is the gorgeous “I’m Hopeless When It Comes To You”, sung by Joanna Riding, with the duet “This Side of the Sky” (Hampton/Spencer) a fine second. The score, which is nearer in style to Aspects of Love, also boasts “You’ve Never Had It So Good” which is sung while a sex-orgy is taking place. Hampton and Black’s lyrics are workmanlike rather than inspired but as always Webber’s tunes are insistent. ***
Lifeforce (No Label/No Number). Joanna Weinberg’s new musical premiered at Sydney’s King Street Theatre in 2013. It is about a 40-year-old career woman who realises she is running out of time to have a baby, coupled with her search for her own unknown birth mother. This is the first original cast recording of work by Weinberg, an Australian composer who has emerged in the past few years as a strong new musical theatre voice. Although the score has a poppy sound, it has a fresh energy and loads of wit; just listen to “Spermanational”, “I Don’t Want a Baby” and “Dr God”. “A Suitable Man” allows Tyran Parke to showcase his terrific tenor, with South African newcomer Natalie Lotkin negotiating the difficult career woman/mother-to-be with class, especially on “Hello”, a song established early in the show that works well as a finale. Accompaniment, on solo piano, is by Brad Miller, who also handled vocal arrangements. ***
Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical (Masterworks Broadway 88883 780412). Although this show has been around for many years, this is the world premiere recording of its score. Written by Timothy Mason (book & lyrics) and Mel Marvin (music), it is a score in the old-fashioned Broadway style. Top starred in the title role of the Grinch is the man who brought buckets of villainy to Spiderman, Patrick Page. Either leading the cast on “Whatchamawho” (a good rousing chorus number) or stretching his cakewalk muscles on “One of a Kind” he is delicious. But old-stager John Cullum gives him a run for his money as Old Max and delivers handsomely on “You’re a Mean One, Mr Grinch”, a song written by Albert Hague for a 1966 animated TV special of the same story and used in the 2000 Jim Carey movie. ***
Shrek (Jeanine Tesori & David Lindsay-Abaire) (Dreamworks DVD B00BX8PG3Y). Everybody’s favorite ogre Shrek is just as enjoyable in this musical version, filmed during the Broadway run, as he was in the movie. The songs are serviceable rather than inspired, and once it’s over you won’t remember one melody, but they serve their purpose and move the show briskly along. Brian d’Arcy James is really on the money as the title character. I’ve rarely seen him do better work. Daniel Breaker channels Eddie Murphy as Donkey, while Christopher Sieber is outrageously ‘camp’ and funny as Lord Farquaad, playing him on his knees. But the undoubted star of the show is Sutton Foster as Princess Fiona. She’s spunky, spacey, and completely adorable as she falls in love with her lovable lunk. She also sings like a dream. Forget Fiona of the movie, this performance completely reinvents the character. ***
First Date (Adam Zachary/Michael Weiner) (Yellow Sound Label YSL566993). First Date, which originated at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre, has just finished a successful six-month run on Broadway. With a cast of seven, and a score of pop and rap, this musical feels more like Off rather than On-Broadway. Based around the concept of a blind date which has best friends commenting on the action and giving advice, the two main characters are played by high-profile TV performers Zachary Levi (Chuck) and Krysta Rodriguez (Smash). They deliver in spades. “The Awkward Pause” is a clever idea on the moment all couples dread when they first meet, “The Things I Never Said” a tender mother/son number, while the finale “Something That Will Last” looks forward in hope for a relationship that survives. Blake Hammond as a waiter does well on the eleven-o’clock-number “I’d Order Love” done in a swing/jazz style. It’s witty and fun. ****
Dearest Enemy (Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart) (New World Records 80749-2). This is the first complete recording of the score of Rodgers and Hart’s first ‘book’ musical Dearest Enemy and it’s a delight.If it sounds more of an operetta that’s because it was written in 1925 when musical theatre was transitioning from operetta to musical comedy and there are traces of the operetta genre still present. Apart from the show’s two ‘hit’ songs, “Here in My Arms” and “Bye and Bye”, the score also boasts a host of tuneful numbers in Rodgers and Hart’s distinctive style. Hart’s felicitous rhymes abound. A cast of singers with mainly opera experience that include Kim Criswell, are accompaniment by the 33-piece Orchestra of Ireland, and bring this dated, but interesting musical theatre work gloriously to life. Larry Moore has done a brilliant job of reconstructing the original orchestrations with Harold Sanford’s charts for “War Is War” (“Hooray, we’re going to be compromised”) particularly appealing. ****
Privates on Parade (Denis King/Peter Nichols) (Stage Door STAGE 9033). This is the first CD release of Privates On Parade, a play with music that was first produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1977. It originally played the Aldwych Theatre for 208 performances, but has frequently been revived, the most recent being by Michael Grandage in his 2013 West End season of plays. Set in Singapore at the end of the Second World War, the plot revolves around an all-male concert party, and the songs are clever pastiches of War-Time hits. Denis Quilley dominates the disc with drag performances as Marlene Dietrich and Vera Lynn, but he’s a riot as Carmen Miranda on “The Latin American Way,” and a wonderfully accurate impersonation of Noel Coward on “Could you please inform us” (who it was that won the war). There’s also an Astaire and Rogers dance routine “Better Far than Sitting This Life Out”, a smutty ditty “Black Velvet” sung to the tune of “Greensleeves”, and “Sunnyside Lane”, a nostalgic tribute to Flanagan and Allen type material. ***
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Marc Shaiman/Scott Wittman) (Watchtower Music WTM39479). Listening to this latest London cast album reveals the score is just as dull on disc as it was in the theatre. The songs are either generic Broadway, pop, rap or disco. The show includes Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse’s “Pure Imagination” from their score for the 1971 movie and as sung by star Douglas Hodge as Willy Wonka it’s by far the best song in the show. He also does a nice job on a second-rate ballad “Simply Second Nature”. The jaunty cakewalk ”The Amazing Fantastical History of Mr Willy Wonka” is a good, but wordy, opener, while “Doncha Pinch Me Charlie” tries hard to be a Cockney knees-up-knock-‘em-in-the-old-Kent-Road type number and misses. Perhaps Messrs Shaiman and Whittman should have consulted Tim Minchin on how to adapt Roald Dahl to the stage and still retain the dark edge of the characters. **
Salad Days (Julian Slade/Dorothy Reynolds) (Mountview Records). This new recording of 1954’s Salad Days takes us back to a more innocent time of the British musical. The show, which clocked up a record-breaking 2,283 performances in its original run, was at one time London’s longest running musical. The live recording springs from a 2009 Tete a Tete production which was remounted as a co-production with Riverside Studios, playing to 40,000 people over four years and recorded in July 2013. Leo Miles and Katie Moore have the perfect voices for the ingénues Timothy and Jane and capture the innocence of the characters in “We Said We Wouldn’t Look Back”, “I Sit In The Sun”, and “It’s Easy To Sing”. Mark Inscoe as Uncle Clam gets the fun out of “Hush Hush”, while Kathryn Martin as the night-club singer Asphynxia adds some showy exaggerated scat to “Sand In My Eyes”. Slade and Reynolds’ simple and tuneful melodies still charm. ***
Lost Broadway and More – Volume 5 Comden/Green/Styne (Original Cast Records). The new Lost Broadway album features never-before-recorded, obscure and cut songs from Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green musicals. The material ranges from the 40s through to the 60s, from shows such as Fade Out – Fade In, Say Darling, High Button Shoes, Bonanza Bound and Funny Girl. Performers include Marc Kudisch, Leslie Kritzer and Christine Pedi. I particularly liked “Temporary Arrangement”, which was cut from Funny Girl but reinstated when the show went on the road. Also good is “When the Weather’s Better”, cut from Hallelujah Baby, and “A Girl To Remember”, the original title song for Fade Out – Fade In. ***
Barbra – Back to Brooklyn (CD/DVD Columbia 88843 00758 9). Barbra Streisand’s latest recording stems from a concert she gave in 2012 when she opened a new Performing Arts Arena in Brooklyn. With saxophonist Chris Botti, pop-opera group Il Volvo, Jason Gould and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus as guests, the 72-year-old diva sounds as spectacular as ever. Mind you, she might be singing songs in lower keys these days, but for 72 she is in remarkable voice. The concert includes her signatures songs, “People” and “The Way We Were”, but also features some titles she has never sung before. Marvin Hamlisch’s tender “Looking Through The Eyes Of Love” (Ice Castles),and a couple of songs from Gypsy, “Some People” and “Rose’s Turn”, which gives us a taste of what a great Mama Rose she would be if the rumoured TV version with her ever gets made. Revelation of the disc is the vocals of son, Jason Gould. Singing “How Deep Is The Ocean” he almost steals the spotlight from his mother. The concert ends with a thrilling version of Leonard Bernstein’s “Make Our Garden Grow” (Candide) with Botti, Gould and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. It’s goose-bumps time. With more tracks than the CD, the DVD also includes “Smile”, “Sam, You Made the Pants Too Long”, and “No More Tears” (Enough Is Enough). ****
Queenie Van De Zandt – Live in Cabaret (Various). This album springs from Queenie Van De Zandt’s Cabaret – In 12 Easy Steps show and was recorded at Brisbane’s Judith Wright Centre in February 2011. It’s a mix of songs by Tim Minchin and Eddie Perfect, with classics by Harold Arlen, Stephen Schwartz and Cyndi Lauper. Van de Zandt is a funny and warm performer with a self-deprecating brand of humour and a fabulous voice. She delivers a powerhouse vocal of “Defying Gravity” (Wicked), a nice version of “Over the Rainbow” (The Wizard of Oz), and gets maximum laugh-mileage out of Peter J. Casey’s paean to the 80s “Before the Crash.” ***
Billy Porter – Billy’s Back on Broadway (Various) (Concord CRE-35242-02). Billy Porter, currently playing Lola in Kinky Boots on Broadway, sings a collection of diva songs by Liza, Barbra, Merman and others on his latest album, with big band backing. He leads off with “But the World Goes ‘Round”, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” and “Don’t Rain On My Parade”, follows with Kinky Boots’ “I’m Not my Father’s Son”, and is joined by Cyndi Lauper for a great slow but insistent-beat version of the Streisand/Garland duet “Happy Days Are Here Again”/“Get Happy”. ***
Jarrod Spector – Minor Fall, Major Lift. Jarrod Spector played the role of Frankie Valli over 1400 times in Jersey Boys, and has essayed the part of Barry Mann in Beautiful since it opened, so he’s been stuck in a 60s time-warp for the past five years. He’s still stuck in it. During his time in Jersey Boys he created a cabaret concert of songs that were his musical influences growing up, which he performed on the nights when the show was dark. Minor Fall, Major Lift is a lyric from Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” which just happens to be the best vocal on the disc. Other songs by Barry Manilow (“Even Now”), Lennon and McCartney (“Oh! Darling”) and Billy Joel (“River of Dreams”) make up a good collection of 60s tunes which he sings in his distinctive high-falsetto with “Since I Don’t have You” running a close second for best track. ***
Il Divo – A Musical Affair(CD & DVD Sony 88843002652). The popular Italian pop-opera quartet put their stamp on 12 songs from musical theatre with some terrific duet performances from Nicole Scherzinger, Heather Headley, Kristin Chenoweth, Michael Ball and Barbra Streisand. Scherzinger duets on “Memory” (Cats), Headley on “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” (The Lion King), Ball on “Love Changes Everything” (Aspects of Love) and Streisand on “The Music of the Night” (The Phantom of the Opera), a track taken from her 2006 Live in Concert album. Best track is Kristen Chenoweth in full soprano mode with “All I Ask Of You” (The Phantom of the Opera). Other songs include “Bring Him Home” (Les Miserables), “Tonight” (West Side Story), and Queen’s “Who Wants to Live Forever” (We Will Rock You). The DVD also includes “In conversation with Il Divo - The Magic of the Musicals. ****
Simon Tedeschi – Gershwin: Take Two (ABC 481 0629). It was inevitable following the success of Gershwin and Me that Simon Tedeschi would release a second volume of George Gershwin’s work. Recognised as being one of the world’s top interpreters of the music of Gershwin, Tedeschi this time out includes more of Gershwin’s short solo pieces; “Promenade”, “Prelude (Novelette in Fourths), “Jazbo Brown Blues” and “Impromptu In Two Keys”, as well as a host of songs including “My One and Only”, “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise” and “Do-Do-Do”. He also includes his complete piano version of “Rhapsody In Blue”. This time out Tedeschi is assisted by trumpeter James Morrison on “Nice Work If You Can Get It” and “Prelude (Melody No. 17)”, and jazz singer Sarah McKenzie on “Embraceable You” and “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”. It’s not surprising it topped the classical music charts like its predecessor. ****
My Baby Just Cares for Me - Rachael Beck and David Hobson. (ABC 481 0818). The thing that elevates this show tune album out of the ordinary are the brilliant vocal arrangements by David Hobson and Chong Lim. They’re classy. As they proved when they starred opposite each other in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Hobson and Beck have a chemistry between them which is clearly evident on this CD. They have fun with Frank Loesser’s “Baby It’s Cold Outside” (Neptune’s Daughter), Gershwin’s “I’ve Got Rhythm” (Girl Crazy) and a swinging version of “My Baby Just Cares For Me” (Whoopee!), with some lyric pop-culture references. There is also a Sound of Music medley, “Stranger In Paradise” (Kismet) and an original cast track from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, “Truly Scrumptious”. A five-piece group led by Chong Lim on piano accompany them, moving effortlessly through a number of musical styles with five-star results. ****
David Campbell Sings John Bucchino (Social Familiar Records SFR0017). I first encountered David Campbell singing John Bucchino at the Colony Theatre, South Beach, Miami, in 1999. Fifteen years later he’s still singing this material, but better. The voice is more mature, the lyric interpretation more potent, and the performance more assured. Bucchino writes literate cabaret songs and Campbell’s voice is the perfect conduit to showcase them. Every listener will have a different favourite amongst the eleven on offer here but mine would be “Sweet Dreams”, with its pretty melody, “Grateful”, from the musical Urban Myths, “If I Ever say I’m Over You”, and “Better Than I”, which Campbell sang on the 2000 Grateful CD collection of Bucchino songs and which comes from the movie Joseph, King of Dreams. Accompaniment on solo piano is by the composer, who brings light, shade and warmth to this collection. ****
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