Martin Guerre had a three year life beginning in 1996, when it opened in London, and ending in 1999 when it opened in New York.  During those three years, the team that brought us Les Miserables and Miss Saigon felt good about what they had brought to London.  The audiences loved the show and the house was filled.  When the show was being readied for New York, something happened.  Whether they thought the subject matter would not play well in New York because of the religious nature of the story or whether they thought it just was not glitzy enough for New York, they changed the show and ruined it.  Songs were removed and replaced with inferior pieces.  The orchestration, perhaps because of the need to use fewer instruments than was the case in London, is no where near as satisfying as that found on the London CD.  The story seems to get twisted and lose its way.  To me it is just a disaster.

It is fortunate that the London Cast Recording was made.  The London recording features a score that is dynamic and beautiful.  Like Les Miz, Martin Guerre uses motifs that run through many of the numbers and is heard often in the orchestra parts and used to make the story clearer.  The duet Here Comes The Morning between Arnnaud (Iain Glen) and Martin (Matt Rawle) is the most dynamic male duet that I have heard since Lily’s Eyes in The Secret Garden.  This follows the title number Martin Guerre (Matt Rawle) that features a dynamic Martin and an equally dynamic orchestra.  Arnaud and Bertrande (Juliette Caton) get two wonderful duets in Tell Me To Go and Someone.  In addition, there are some chorus numbers that give context to the religious theme of the story and some comic numbers smilair to those found in Les Miz.

I am sure that many having seen Martin Guerre in New York or hear the New York cast recording have never bothered to listen to this London version, but you should.  The entire story is found in the progression of songs in this version and the original songs, libretto and score are far superior to the terrible version that was introduced into New York.

If you are a Les Miz or Miss Saigon fan, I urge you to buy this London cast recording……you won’t regret it.

Categories: Original London Cast Recordings
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Every serious actor, at sometime or other, wants to play Hamlet.  Cast a great actor to speak “To Be Or Not To Be” and people will come to the theater.   Gypsy is like that. Frank Rich of the New York Times actually called it a musical King Lear. Five great Broadway musical stars have opened Gypsy on Broadway and taken their shot at “Rose’s Turn.”   The people came and three of the stars walked off with a Tony.  Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone – each brought her own stamp to Mama Rose and each cast recording has something special to offer.  Which one should you own?

A look at the cast recordings of Gypsy must begin with the original Mama Rose, Ethel Merman.  Composer Jule Styne  (Funny Girl, Bells Are Ringing) wrote Gypsy for Merman.  He knew her range and her vocal power.  Stephen Sondheim (originally considered as a potential composer for Gypsy) agreed to work as lyricist with Styne. Sondheim wrote the lyrics knowing that Merman was the best enunciator in the business.  He was able to write lyrics knowing that they would be understood.  Twenty-Five years  later, Merman could bring the house down singing “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” Don’t take my word for it,  check out the performance on You Tube.

Merman was never suave; she was a pre-microphone Broadway belter….and that is what she did in every song in the show, on the CD and actually on almost every recording she ever made, belt.  That is not to say there is no nuance in her CD performance, but there are only shades, not dramatic vocal variations in sound.  She may not have been the world’s best actress, but when she sings “Rose’s Turn,” actress be damned, this is Merman’s show.  Stereophonic sound on recordings was perfected in 1957 and this was the first Merman recording done in Stereo.  The album won the Grammy award. Those who followed Merman had to do her score, in her range, and were always aware that she created a classic performance on stage and on CD and that they would be compared to her.

This is one of my favorite recordings of Gypsy.    I believe it should be a part of everyone’s collection.  Interestingly enough, Merman did not win the Tony for her performance.  The 1959 Tony went to Mary Martin for The Sound of Music.

In 1973, Angela Lansbury opened Gypsy in London.  It was a great success there and moved to New York for a limited 120 performance run which ended in January of 1975.     She later brought the show to the Schubert Theater in Los Angeles.  The album and CD that came from this revival was a remix of the London production with a newly recorded “Some People.”

Lansbury, who had already won a Tony for Mame in 1966, would also win the 1975 Tony for Gypsy. Lansbury,  in her acceptance speech, gave credit to Ethel Merman.  Although Lansbury is not a belter, she has a great voice with great power.   She is, however,  an actress and, as such, she was able to add vocal nuance and drama to her performance on stage and on the CD that Merman was unable to do.  It is unfortunate that they did not make a cast recording of the Broadway production.  Although Lansbury is marvelous in every number she performs, her surrounding cast, especially the younger and older kids, have very strong English accents that, I believe,  hurt the recording.

It should be noted that after 1975, future Mama Roses would now, not only have to compete with the Merman power, but also with the Lansbury acting.  Up until 2008, these two performances and recordings set the standard for the future revivals.

You Tube has Lansbury doing “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” as well as her acceptance speech for her Gypsy Tony.

This too, is one of my favorite recordings of Gypsy, inspite of the strong English accents previously noted.  I believe it should also be a part of everyone’s collection.

Arthur Laurents, who had written the book,  directed the next revival of Gypsy on Broadway in 1990.  This one starred Tyne Daly.  Best known at that time for her television work in Cagney and Lacey, Daly is known as an actress, but she has performed on CD in On The Town and on the musical stage in Call Me Madam.  I never saw this performance, but those who did said that she stalked the stage and brought a new level of acting to the role.

Frank Rich, in his review of the Tyne Daly Gypsy said, “It cannot be done without a powerhouse performance in its marathon parental role. Ms. Daly, a television actress who might seem inappropriate to the task, follows Angela Lansbury in proving that not even Ethel Merman can own a character forever. Ms. Daly is not Merman, and she is not Ms. Lansbury. Her vocal expressiveness and attack have their limits (most noticeably in ”Mr. Goldstone”), and warmth is pointedly not her forte. But this fiercely committed actress tears into – at times claws into – Mama Rose, that ”pioneer woman without a frontier,” with a vengeance that exposes the darkness at the heart of ”Gypsy” as it hasn’t been since Merman.”

She did the role on Broadway for almost two years and won the Tony for her performance, but, unfortunately, while you hear drama in her voice on the CD, especially in ‘Rose’s Turn’, she was just unable to carry off the totality of vocal demands for Mama Rose.  The supporting cast is quite good, but one buys a cast recording of Gypsy because of the star playing Mama Rose and this one just falls short.

I am sorry I never got to see this production because I am a real Tyne Daly fan, but I do not suggest that you buy this recording unless, for history’s sake, you desire to own all of them.

In 2003, Gypsy came to Broadway again.  This time Mama Rose was played by Bernadette Peters.  There are those who love Ms. Peters and for them she can do no wrong.  The show won the Tony for best revival in 2003 and Ms. Peters was nominated, but like Merman, she did not win.  Reviews said that she changed the concept of Mama Rose from earlier productions.  I have always thought that she was just wrong for the part, but, the show ran for over a year.  I believe this was due to her popularity, not because of her performance.

Of all of the cast recordings of Gypsy, this is my least favorite.  I just do not like her sound on the recording or her sound in the performance at the Tony Awards of 2004 which can be heard on You Tube.  To me her voice is too shallow for this role.  Peters is not a belter, though she tries.  If drama can be heard in the performances of Lansbury and Daly,  it is lost with Peters’ performance.  Her diction, which for me is always a problem,  just cripples her on this CD.

I know that prior to the show opening there was a lot of talk that Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim were not happy with the direction of Sam Mendes nor the performance of Bernadette Peters.  Even in the last rehearsals before the show opened, Ms. Peters had her understudy perform.  There is no doubt that Ms. Peters is a talented Broadway performer (Sunday In The Park with George, Into The Woods, Mack and Mabel, Annie Get Your Gun) and has the resume and the following to prove it.  But, I think that Gypsy was just not her show.

I do not suggest that you buy this CD.

The last of the five cast records was released in 2008.  This newest revival starred Patti Lupone as Mama Rose, Boyd Gaines as Herbie and Laura Benanti as Gypsy Rose Lee.  Lupone first did the role at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago in 2006 and in July of 2007 for  Encores in New York.  From that performance came the push to bring it to a Broadway house as a full scale revival.  It opened on Broadway in March of 2008 and closed almost a year later when Lupone left the show.  While the show did not win the Tony for best revival, Lupone, Gaines and Benanti all won Tonys for their performances.

Lupone has proven to be equally comfortable on Broadway in both musicals (Evita, Sweeney Todd, Anything Goes) and plays (Journey’s End, Pygmalion).  She also appeared in the original production of Sunset Boulevard in London.  She is a concert and cabaret favorite and has a great following.  She brought everything into the role of Mama Rose.  She is a belter and an actress and her Mama Rose was a real monster.  She croons to Herbie in “You’ll Never Get Away From Me.”  Her “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” is filled with revenge and determination.  Her “Mr. Goldstone” is simply the best ever recorded.  In “Rose’s Turn” she growls “….. if it wasn’t for me,  just where would you be, Miss Gypsy Rose Lee.”  You immediately know the answer…….Seattle, and you realize that though Mama is the ultimate stage mother and a monster, the success of her daughters would have been impossible without her.

I believe that Lupone has set a new Gypsy standard with her performance on Broadway and on this cast recording and I predict it will be a long time before Gypsy comes to Broadway again.

Every performance on the CD is outstanding. This is my favorite recording of the five and if you can only choose one, choose this one.

Categories: Broadway Revival Cast Recordings, Original Broadway Cast Recordings, Original London Cast Recordings
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