Stage on Disc with Peter Pinne - Complete 2010 Reviews
November / December 2010
Make Me An Offer (David Heneker/Monty Norman) (Sepia 1155). The Original Cast Recording of this London show, that won the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical of 1959, has been lovingly restored in its CD reissue by Sepia. The rambunctious “Portobello Road” (a forerunner of Heneker’s “Flash, Bang, Wallop” from Half A Sixpence), is the standout number, with the ballad “Love Him,” sung by Diana Coupland a close second. Star Daniel Massey scores with “The Pram Song” and the title tune, while Sheila Hancock gets the laughs on “It’s Sort of Romantic.” The terrific bonus tracks include excerpts from a live telecast with the Original Cast and the pop version of “Love Him” sung by Diana Coupland with Geoff Love’s Orchestra. ****
Follow That Girl (Julian Slade/Dorothy Reynolds) (Sepia 1156) is a reissue of the 1960 Slade and Reynolds show that followed their record-breaking Salad Days into the Vaudeville Theatre, London. The cast included Marion Grimaldi, Susan Hampshire, Patricia Routledge, and Peter Gilmore, whose version of the title song made the pop charts. The ballads, “Evening in London” and “Solitary Stranger” sit comfortably alongside the comedic “Three Victorian Mermaids” and “Shopping In Kensington” in a score that’s old-fashioned but charming. The bonus tracks include the composer playing selections from the show on piano, and the pop-version of the title song. ***
The Most Happy Fella (Frank Loesser) (Sepia 1154). Although the London Cast recording of Loesser’s almost-operatic The Most Happy Fella score was not as complete as the Broadway version, it nevertheless contains some standout performances. Inia Te Wiata, who took over from Robert Weede on Broadway and played it in Australia, was considered by the composer to be the show’s finest Tony, and did indeed imbue the role with warmth and heart, and Helena Scott with her clear soprano, was a lovely Rosabella. Libi Staiger (Cleo) and Jack DeLon (Herman) handled the comedy roles and Art Lund recreated his Broadway role as Joe. “Standing On The Corner” was the big hit and is one of the bonus tracks sung by the King Brothers. Other bonus cuts include Inia Te Wiata’s pop version of “My Heart is So Full Of You” and six tracks by Edmund Hockridge of the score’s most popular songs. ****
Singing For Love – Yvonne Kenny & David Hobson (ABC 4764018). Released to coincide with their current concert tour, this album is a compilation disc of popular opera arias and musical comedy favourites. It features three new duets recorded by the stars; “Parigi, o cara” (Paris My Love) from La Traviata, “One Day When We Were Young” (The Great Waltz) and “Pur ti miro” (I Gaze Upon You from The Coronation of Poppea). Other standout tracks include; “Love Unspoken” (The Merry Widow), “Till There Was You” (The Music Man) and “We’ll Gather Lilacs” (Perchance To Dream) .****
Millicent – Millicent Martin Sings (Sepia 1157) Millicent Martin, most recently seen on the daytime soap The Days Of Our Lives, starred on the West End in many musicals including The Boy Friend, Expresso Bongo and Side By Side By Sondheim. Sepia has chosen to reissue on CD a solo album she recorded with the Tony Osborne Orchestra in 1958. Martin, who was known for her powerful chest voice, is fairly subdued in this selection which ranges from “When I’m Not Near The Boy I Love” (Finian’s Rainbow), “Imagination” and “Dream” to “(Ah, The Apple Trees) When The World Was Young.” Bonus tracks include Martin’s pop single of “Our Language of Love” (Irma La Douce). ***
Finally, two recent show DVDs worth checking out, Bran Nue Dae (Sony 88697643642) and Bernadette Peters – Live in Australia (198992). Bran Nue Dae was the first Australian stage musical to make it to film, and includes vocal performances by Ernie Dingo, Missy Higgins and Jessica Mauboy, while the Bernadette Peters DVD was recorded live during her appearance at the 2009 Adelaide Cabaret Festival. The concert includes mainly material by Rodgers and Hammerstein and Stephen Sondheim. ****
September / October 2010
On the strength of the original Australian cast recording of Life’s a Circus, composer Anthony Costanzo has a major music-theatre career ahead of him. His first-class contemporary score for this show about three people in a touring circus and their relationships with each other (gay and straight), is acerbically witty, clever, and full of melody. Yes, there are echoes of Chess and Wicked at times, and it does lack some heart, but Costanzo proves with this score he has an original voice. And the work couldn’t be in better hands with Chelsea Plumley, Cameron MacDonald and Glen Hogstrom delivering standout performances. There are laughs a plenty with “Something on the Side,” “I Came, I Saw, I Purchased,” and the funny anti consumer-society riff, “A Cup of Capitalism.” The only number which relates to the circus environment is “Walking the Tightrope,” but it’s a clever piece in ¾-time. Plumley’s showstopper is the searing and emotional “Fly Away,” Hogstrom has his moment with “So Much More Than This,” and MacDonald sings the heart out on the show’s best ballad, “When I Look into Your Eyes.” ****
Once We Lived Here is another new Australian cast recording of a show by Mathew Frank and Dean Bryant, authors of Prodigal and Virgins. Set on an ailing sheep-station, where a family unite for a weekend and are forced to face memories, bitter and sweet, death, suicide and loss, it’s an ambitious piece of Art-house music-theatre, bleak, with a frequently dissonant score. Esther Hannaford as Amy scores with “Gotta Fix the Pump,” “As far as the Eye Can see,” and with Sally Bourne on “Only You.” The hymn-like “The Leaves in summer” is a potent ensemble piece, and the showstopper is undoubtedly “We like It That Way,” a hokey vaudeville number that would be perfectly at home at a footy booze-up. ***
One of the best Broadway cast recordings of recent months is the new version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s only Broadway outing, Promises, Promises (Masterworks 88697 73495 2). The score, augmented with a couple of the team’s hits, (“I Say A Little Prayer”/”A House Is Not A Home”), is in great hands with Kristen Chenoweth as Fran and Sean Hayes as Chuck. Hayes’ light and pleasant voice suits the material, and he puts his stamp on “She Likes Basketball” and the title song, while Chenoweth eats up “Knowing When to leave” and “Whoever You Are I Love You.” Together they nail the show’s biggest hit, “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” which is cute, tender and warm. ****
Memphis (Delray R2 523844) last season’s Tony winner for Best Musical, set in the 50s, is about the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, and has a twelve-bar-blues song score by David Bryan (Bon Jovi). The show has some thrilling moments, features two standout performances by Chad Kimball and Monego Glover, and a fabulous eleven-o’clock number “Memphis Lives in Me.” It’s almost worth buying the album for this track alone. ***
Andrew Lippa’s score for The Addams Family (Decca B0014280-02) comes up better on disc than it did in the theatre, but this is not a CD you’ll want to play a lot. Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth work hard with poor material, and Terrence Mann and Carolee Carmelo are wasted with little to sing. The best number is “Let’s Not Talk About Anything Else But Love,” but nothing comes near to topping Vic Mizzy’s original theme from the TV series, used on Broadway to open the show. **
Finally, Sepia has been rummaging in the vaults again and come up with a reissue Mary Martin singing the score from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s TV version of Cinderella (Sepia 1144). Recorded in the mid-fifties when Martin was at the peak of her fame, the Rodgers and Hammerstein score still sparkles. The CD also includes Three To Make Music, a children’s work by Mary Rodgers and Linda R. Melnick (daughters of Richard Rodgers), and a collection of standards which include Martin’s classic reading of Cole Porter’s “My Heart Belongs To Daddy.” ***
July / August 2010
Devotees of The Phantom of the Opera won’t be disappointed with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sequel Love Never Dies (Polydor 2724801).It’s a score rich with Puccini-like melodies (“Til I Hear You Sing”/”Love Never Dies”), haunting duets (“Once Upon Another Time”/”Beneath a Moonless Sky”), a brilliant quartet (“Dear Old Friend”) and a touch of vaudeville (“Bathing Beauty”). Beautifully produced with glorious performances, especially from the leads Ramin Karimloo (The Phantom), and Sierra Boggess (Christine), it’s a recording you’ll want to play again and again. ****
Maria Friedman celebrates The Great British Songbook(Sepia 8004) is also another recording you’ll want to keep playing again and again. Based on a concert presented at The Shaw Theatre, London, in 2009, it’s an eclectic collection of theatre, music hall and pop songs which Friedman interprets with warmth and real heart. There’s everything from Coward’s “Mad About the Boy” and “If Love Were All,” a war medley which includes “Sister Susie’s Sewing Shirts For Soldiers” and “We’ll Meet Again,” to “Georgy Girl,” “Downtown” and Lennon and McCartney’s “Norwegian Wood” and “Eleanor Rigby.” ****
The quality of Burton Lane and “Yip” Harburg’s 1947 score for Finian’s Rainbow (PS Classics PS1088) is revealed in the new cast recording of the recent Broadway revival. Kate Baldwin as Sharon imbues the part with Gaelic charm, making the classic “How Are Things in Glocca Mora” shine anew, and duets ravishingly with Cheyenne Jackson, a perfect Woody, on “Look to the Rainbow” and “Old Devil Moon.” They team with an energetic and rousing chorus for the showstoppers “If This Isn’t Love” and “That Great ‘Come-and-Get-It’ Day,” while Terri White delivers some genuine soul on “Necessity.” ***
There has never been a recording of the full score of Rose Marie (Sepia 1140),so this new reissue which includes a 1958 studio cast, plus tracks by the Original London Cast and other assorted versions comes closest to being the most complete. Julie Andrews and Giorgio Tozzi head the studio cast with Andrews, then in her prime, soloing on “Lak Jeem,” “Pretty Things” and “Door of my Dreams,” and dueting with Tozzi on the score’s most enduring favorite “Indian Love Call.” Tozzi also does a robust title song. Some of these are duplicated by the Original London Cast and the assorted versions include Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy’s 1936 movie take of “Indian Love Call.” ***
Noel Coward’s Bitter Sweet (Sepia 1130) is given the same treatment in another comprehensive reissue which includes a studio cast headed by Vanessa Lee and Robert Cardinelli, plus bonus tracks from the Original London (Peggy Wood), New York (Evelyn Laye) and Paris (Jane Marnac) casts. These performers do Coward’s legendary score proud. Songs include “I’ll See You Again,” “If Love Were All,” “Dear Little Café,” “Tokay” and “Zigeuner.” ***
David Campbell has come full circle with his latest album On Broadway (Columbia 88697675502). He started out singing show tunes, and after forays into pop, rock and big-band, he’s now returned to what he does best. With a fifty piece orchestra conducted by Rob Fisher, arrangements by Bill Elliott, and a heap of Broadway classics, Campbell is in top form. “All I Care About “(Chicago), “Hey There” (The Pajama Game), “When I Get My Name In Lights” (Legs Diamond/The Boy From Oz) and “Being Alive” (Company), are just some of the standouts on this CD. ***
May / June 2010
Vanities(Ghostlight 8-4437) is an enjoyable musical version of Jack Heifner’s 1976 Off-Broadway play about three small-town girls who move from college to womanhood and find their sorority dreams haven’t worked out as planned. The score by David Kirshenbaum channels the music of the 60s and 70s, has a nice poppy sound, with an off-Broadway feel. Two songs are used effectively as links, “Setting Your Sights” and “An Organized Life.” “Cute Boys with Short Haircuts” is a tender ballad, and “Let Life Happen” could have come straight from the Burt Bacharach songbook. Best number in the score is (things are) “Looking Good,” a jazz waltz which closes the show. All three girls, Lauren Kennedy, Sarah Stiles and Annelise van der Pol, give terrific performances, helped by a seven-piece group conducted by Bryan Perri. ***
Love Bites(NGP02 0793573 607874) is a two album Original Cast recording of the show that played a Seymour Centre, Sydney, gig in November 2009. By the same authors as The Hatpin, Peter Rutherford and James Millar, it’s a song-cycle about various couples, straight and gay, and their relationships. It covers the Mile High Club (“The Captain’s Turned Off the Fasten Seatbelt Sign”), illness and death (“Give it to the Breeze”), ménage a trios (“Three Times”), gay marriage (“Setting the Date”), and marital splits (“Bob and Louise”). It opens with the bouncy, slightly ironic “Falling in Love,” closes with a not-very-melodic gospel “Love, bring me some water” and in between the composer pays musical homage to his favorite composers, particularly Sondheim. Non PC humor is mined in “A Plastic Bag (An Urban Legend)” and its second act sing-a-long story wrap-up “When You See Someone’s Sh*t.” There are good strong vocal performances from the four-hander cast: Amelia Cormack, Sophie Ragavelas, David Harris and librettist, James Millar, and solid piano accompaniment by Chris Cartner. ***
Tim Draxl – Live at the Supper Club(YM1200) is the first album from the young performer since 2001’s Insongniac. With the brilliant Michael Tyack on piano and Dave Ellis on bass, Draxl sings a host of standards: “They can’t take that away from me,” “My Funny Valentine,” “One For My Baby,” I’ll be Seeing You,” songs by Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Antonio Carlos Jobim, and jazz standards like “Come on Home.” His U.S. experience (he’s been living in Los Angeles for the last four years), hasn’t made him a better singer, only more mannered. His best tracks are “If It Wasn’t For Your Love” (a good ballad), Dylan’s “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go,” “Lilac Time,” and a rare Cy Coleman tune, “Why Try To Change Me Now?” ***
Broadway Unplugged 6(Original Cast OC6245) is a live album taken from the concert recorded at New York’s Town Hall, November 16, 2009. The concept is familiar, show songs sung by top Broadway and cabaret talent without mics. Daniel Reichard (Jersey Boys) proves he can do much more than sing 60s pop with “Something’s Coming” (West Side Story) and “Come to me, Bend to me” (Brigadoon), while Emily Skinner (Side Show) does a lilting “Distant Melody (Peter Pan) and a raunchy “When You’re Good To Mama” (Chicago). Sarah Jane McMahon solos gorgeously on the title tune from The Light in the Piazza, and duets with Marc Kudisch on a powerful emotion filled “My Heart is So Full of You” (The Most Happy Fella), and with U.S. opera star John Easterlin on Romberg’s classic “Deep In My Heart” (The Student Prince). Easterlin, who has the best voice on the disc, sings Franz Lehar’s “Dein Ist Mein Ganzes Herz” magnificently. The song is better known as “You Are My Heart’s Delight” (The Land of Smiles). Scott Siegel links the numbers andaccompaniment, as always, is by the incomparable Ross Patterson and his Little Big Band. ****
March / April 2010
Show Queen Sessions 2 – The good thing about Trevor Ashley’s Sunday Night Show Queen sessions is that they allow us to hear young musical theatre performers on disc - some for the first time. This second album, recorded live, is more of the same. Standouts include Mitchell Butel’s “Purpose” (Avenue Q), Daniel Belle’s “Pity the Child” (Chess), Bert Labonte’s “Big Black Man” (The Full Monty) and Marika Aubrey’s “Meadowlark” (The Baker’s Wife). Bev Kennedy (piano) leads a tight three-piece backing group, and as usual Trevor Ashey top and tails the disc, opening with an upbeat “Let’s hear it for the Boy” (Footloose) and closing with the Beatles standard “Hey Jude.” Best track is Shaun Rennie’s reading of the Leonard Cohen classic “Hallelujah.” ***
The Broadway Musicals of 1978(OC 6244) – 1978 is not normally regarded as one of the best years for Broadway musicals, but one look at the line-up of numbers on this CD says otherwise. Lari White, whose voice is like honey to the ears, is heartbreaking on “Doatsy Mae” (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas), as is Carolee Carmello on “Fifty Per-Cent” (Ballroom). Mary Bond Davis lets her powerhouse pipes rip on two numbers from Ain’t Misbehavin’ - “Honeysuckle Rose” and “Mean to Me,” and Nancy Opel does a great comic turn on “Never” (On the Twentieth Century). With a swag of songs from Working, and Lennie Watts ebullient “I’m a Great Big Baby” (Eubie!), this CD stacks up as well as any in the series. ****
Glee 1 & 2 (Columbia 540902/Sony 61705) – Two soundtrack recordings from the hit TV series about a high-school glee club feature not only covers of classic and recent pop but also several musical theatre diva anthems. Kristin Chenoweth guests on album 1 and duets with Lea Michele on “Maybe This Time” (Cabaret), and with Mathew Morrison on “Alone.” Wicked’s “Defying Gravity” is done for the first time as a male/female duet by Chris Colter and Lea Michele, and Freddie Mercury’s “Somebody to Love” mixes four of the show’s best voices, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Amber Riley and Kevin McHale, in a high-powered quartet. Album 2 is equally as good. Amber Riley gets all the emotion and more out of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” (Dreamgirls), Lea Michele does a fantastic take on the Streisand classic “Don’t Rain On My Parade” (Funny Girl), and the trio of Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and Amber Riley bring a nice introspection to Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile” (Limelight). ****
Bran Nue Dae (Sony 88697643642) – The soundtrack of this film, Australia’s first stage to movie musical, is also missing a lot of the original stage score. Basically a road film, the story follows Willy (Rocky McKenzie) as he finds his way back home to his girlfriend Rosie (Jessica Mauboy) in Broome. The bulk of the songs are handled by Ernie Dingo, Missy Higgins, Dan Sultan and Jessica Mauboy. “Feel Like Going Back Home,” “Long Way Away from my Country” and “Afterglow” all register strongly, but it’s the slyly satirical “Nothing I Would Rather Be” (Than to be an Aborigine) that’s the showstopper.Mauboy also gets to sing Tammy Wynette’s “Stand by your Man,” and the bonus tracks include a vocal of the title tune by the composer Jimmy Chi. ***
Nine (Geffen B0013801) – Rob Marshall has a way of getting good vocal performances out of Hollywood stars not noted for their singing ability (i.e. Rennee Zellweger in Chicago), and in Nine he does it again. Daniel Day-Lewis, although not a great singer, does a fine job as Guido Contini, the Italian film director who’s suffering a major creative block. Marion Cotillard, as his long-suffering wife Luisa, is poignant on “My Husband Makes Movies,” and raucous and sexy on “Take it All,” a new number written for the movie to replace “Be On My Own.” Other new songs are “Cinema Italiano,” sung by Kate Hudson, and “Guarda la Luna” (based on “Waltz from Nine”) by Sophia Loren. Penelope Cruise makes “A Call from the Vatican” a showstopper, as do Judi Dench with “Folies Bergere” and Fergie with “Be Italian.” Nicole Kidman’s “Unusual Way” misses the mark, but not to worry, there’s a decent version of the song by Griffith Frank as a bonus track. Not all of Maury Yeston’s Tony winning score made it into the movie, but what is there sounds rich and sumptuous, in exciting orchestrations by Doug Besterman. ***
January / February 2010
Something About Always is the first solo album from one of Australia’s and the West End’s favorite leading men, Simon Burke. It’s like a career run-down of songs from almost every show he’s been in - A Little Night Music, Falsettos, Company, La Cage Aux Folles, The Sound of Music, and even Playschool. Caroline O’Connor joins him for six fun choruses of Cole Porter wit in “You’re The Top” (Anything Goes), and his West End The Sound of Music co-star Connie Fisher duets sweetly on Porter’s “True Love” from High Society. There’s also “All I Care About is Love” (Chicago), “Edelweiss” (The Sound of Music), “Once in a Blue Moon” (Summer Rain), and one out-of-left-field, Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent’s setting of Dorothea Mackellar’s “My Country.” With such an eclectic mix of songs, stylistically the album jumps around a bit, but Burke is in good voice throughout. ***
‘Til The Night Is Goneis the debut album from another leading man, David Harris. It’s a terrific album of low-key ballads, sung by a performer with a major voice. There’s plenty of Peter Allen, including “I Honestly Love You” and “I’d Rather Leave While I’m In Love,” plus Rodgers and Hart’s “Bewitched,” Kurt Weill’s “Lost in the Stars,”Jerome Kern’s “The Way You Look Tonight”and the underrated “How Could I Ever Know” (The Secret Garden). His Miss Saigon co-star, Laurie Cadevida, joins him for a reprise of their duet, “Last Night of the World.” Musical direction and arrangements are by the astonishing Bev Kennedy, who certainly knows her way around a keyboard, with vocal arrangements by Harris, and music supervision by veteran Max Lambert. Highly recommended ****
Stage Door, the small London boutique label, has released a solo album of the late Steve Barton – Only For a While (Stage 9017). Barton first came to prominence when he originated the role of Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera both in the West End and on Broadway. Originally from Texas, Barton’s rich tenor is showcased on a selection of songs from the unproduced Emma, Petula Clarke’s Someone Like You, some Jacques Brel (“The Port of Amsterdam”/”If You Go Away”), and a couple of Cole Porter standards. A bonus track features “Hopefully,” a moving song written by his son as a tribute to his father. ***
Stage Door’s recent releases also include cast recordings of two short-lived West End shows; The Far Pavilions and Napoleon, which are strictly for the musical theatre aficionado.
Based on the epic novel by M.M. Kaye about the slaughter of Indian soldiers defending the British residency of Kabul in 1879, The Far Pavilions (Stage 9019), directed by Gale Edwards, opened in 2005 to mixed reviews, running for seven months before folding due to the terrorist bombings on the London underground. The album is virtually a demo of songs recorded from the show’s gestation in 1997 until it finally opened. Of the 25 tracks, there are only three from the West End production. The score has a Les Miz feel, is ballad heavy, with hard to remember poetic lyrics. An Instrumental “Once In A Life,” done in a Bollywood style, was a welcome relief from the dirge. Best of the ballads is “Brighter by Far,” thrillingly performed by tenor, Paul Baker. **
Napoleon (Stage 9015) is actually a reissue of the 1994 premiere Canadian cast recording on CD. The show, which opened to hostile reviews, had a two-month London run in 2000. Paul Baker played the title role. Once again the score has a Les Miz feel, features a cast of 32, and an orchestra of 35. Big is not necessarily better. Best songs are the five that were released by the London cast as highlights on First Night in 2000. They include the stirring opening, “The Dream Within,” and the Josephine and Napoleon love duet, “On That First Night.”**
Rating
*Only for the enthusiast ** Borderline *** Worth buying **** Must have ***** Kill for it.
