It has been over thirty years since the original “A Little Night Music” opened on Broadway.  It was the first show I saw on Broadway and left an indelible mark on me.  One of the highlights of that production,  for me,  was “A Weekend In The Country” at the end of the first act.   As the piece moves to its climax, the orchestra soars and there is a direct reference to Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier and then a horn flourish as the act ends.  I have never forgotten that moment.  I have always thought of “A Little Night Music” as a Sondheim tribute to the lyric beauty of the waltz as seen in Der Rosenkavalier or in the great waltz numbers of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein (Hammerstein being one of Sondheim’s mentors).

When I listened to this recording for the first time, one thing struck me like a thunderbolt……the new orchestration.  It seemed to me that one of the main focal points of the show had been lost.   I stewed about this for a few days and then I went back and listened to the album again……and then, I went back and listened to the musical numbers on the original cast recording side by side with this new revival……..Finally, I began to put old memories aside as suddenly I was awakened to the charm of the new production   I now feel that I am ready to look at this new cast recording as a stand alone, not as a comparative piece to the original production.

This new two disc recording includes quite a bit of the dialogue within the scenes.  While I am surprised that they did not do a complete recording of the show, what has been included certainly helps to clarify what the listener hears in the Sondheim musical lyrics.  There certainly is a price to pay in that some of the tempos seem a bit slow and stodgy, but I am willing to pay the price.

This production is not designed to be done in an opera house.  It is a theater piece.  That brings me back to where I began, the orchestra, or shall I say chamber orchestra.  The reeds are the center piece of this chamber group and act as more than just an accompaniment. In fact them seem almost a character within the structure of this production.  I went back to the score and certainly what Sondheim wrote is here, but it has been totally rethought.  It is not overpowering; it is a partner.  All of the reeds, but especially the bassoon seem to be making comments throughout.  It is an interesting concept.  Viewed that way, I think this works quite nicely.

Performance-wise I like Catherine Zeta-Jones in this role very much.  Desiree is not just an actress, she is the daughter of Madam Armfeldt.  Thus, she has to be confident, poised and sophisticated, and Ms Zeta-Jones accomplishes this every time she speaks or sings.  We know she is a woman of the world.  Erin Davie as the Countess Charlotte Malcolm has a wonderful voice and in dialogue and singing of  “Everyday a Little Death”  and “A Weekend In The Country,”   we hear her scorn for her position as the wife of Carl Magnus.  Alexander Hanson as Fredrik and Aaron Lazar as Carl Magnus both have great diction and pitch which serves them well on this recording.  I liked Ramona Mallory as Anne, but she seemed outshone in all of her musical numbers.  I guess I expected more from her.  Leigh Ann Larkin’s performance of Petra’s big number, “The Miller’s Son,” never seems to get going.  Hunter Herlicka is a terrific Henrik in a terrific part.  I am so prejudiced when it comes to Angela Lansbury, that is impossible for me do to anything but love her in any role she does and as Madame Armfeldt she made it very easy.

The recording itself is beautifully done.  The two disk set with a great set of notes, good pictures and all of the lyrics make a very nice package.  It is a great addition to your musical library.  Do I like this as well as the original?  I guess you never get over your first love.

Categories: Broadway Revival Cast Recordings, Uncategorized
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I have always loved this show and its music.  For a long time there was no CD available and now both the original and a new cast recording are there for you.  The Burt Bacharach and Hal David  collaboration from the late 50s until their break-up in 1973 provided us with a decade of hit after hit.  At the height of their powers, they joined with David Merrick in 1968 and produced Promises, Promises.   Now, over forty years later, we finally have a new Broadway version. The rhythmic melodic score and story moving lyrics has been made even more exciting by the new orchestrations and expanded role of the vocalists in the pit.   Additionally,  two additional Bacharach-David hits, “I Say A Little Prayer” and “A House Is Not A Home”  have been added to the show.  However, the best things about this new album are Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth.

Sean Hayes, whose casting surprised me, does not have the vocal chops of Jerry Orbach (Chuck in the original), but from the beginning, he sounds much truer to the character that Jack Lemmon created in Billy Wilder’s movie, “The Apartment,” on which the musical is based   His vocal timbre and the almost airy nature of his performance add real dimension to the Chuck Baxter character.   Just listen to Hayes say “I love you Miss Kubelik” in the reprise of “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again.  He handles the vocal demands quite well, although every so often we hear a bit too much vibrato and a bit of Midwestern  twang.  Kristin Chenoweth gets the most popular song of the show, “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” and the two added numbers.  She is a wonder. She has wonderful pitch and great range and she handles all of the vocal demands of the score with ease.  Together, they never let you forget that each song is part of the show’s dialogue and that the goal is to move the plot forward, not to create vocal arias.

Katie Finneran’s turn in “A Fact Can Be A Beautiful Thing” is really fun and Tony Goldwyn’s “Wanting Things,” has the poignant longing necessary to the plot.

I kept thinking, as I listened over and over to this new recording, that this new recording really brings the show to life and lets you visualize the progression of the show as you listen.  That indeed makes this an A+ recording in my book.

Categories: Broadway Revival Cast Recordings
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When Hair first appeared in 1968 it was seen as a social statement and not fully viewed as a Broadway musical filled with great musical numbers.  It made political statements, racial statements, and religious statements.  It addressed the use of re recreational drugs, especially marijuana, in talked about inter-racial sex and it presented the entire cast on stage, completely nude.  The trauma of  1968, including the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Dr Martin Luther King, the war in Vietnam, the Hippy Movement and the Chicago Democratic Convention only added to the mystic that became Hair.

This time around Hair is a musical period piece,  the social statements have little meaning except to those who were around in the sixties, but the music has been reborn as a gift to a new generation.  The dichotomy between then and now is both an advantage and disadvantage to this cast recording. You can feel the pathos of the performers in the original cast recording that you do not hear in this recording, but there is a musicality in this recording that does not exist in the original.    I only wish that the producers of this recording had chosen to really emphasize the great songs and left a few of the quick interludes off the album, although some dialogue and musical riffs that were not in the original album really add to this recording.  The performances by Gavin Creel, Sasha Allen, Will Swenson and Cassie Levy are wonderful and after listening to the album, even if you have yet to see the revival production, it is hard to walk around without hearing the songs in your head or humming or singing the tunes.  Hair is a period piece, but “Aquarius,” ” I Got Life,”  “Hair,”  “Easy to be Hard,”  “Where Do I Go,”,  “Good Morning Starshine,” and “Let The Sunshine In” still contain powerful visuals and messages.

Buy the album.

Categories: Broadway Revival Cast Recordings
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It has been 50 years since the original West Side Story first reached Broadway.  Now we have a new West Side Story, presently at the Palace Theater in New York, and a new cast recording that Sony released on June 2, 2009.

First let me say that the new recording is wonderful.  The 30 piece orchestra is playing the original orchestrations, but they sound different.  Certainly the technical improvements over the past fifty years have something to do with that, but more importantly the comfort with and understanding of the harmonics and rhythms of the Leonard Bernstein score are better understood today and the rhythmic accents are really emphasized by musical director Patrick Vaccoriello making the orchestratons sound brand new.   This is clear from the beginning, especially in “Something’s Coming.”

Even though there have been great discussions in news articles and on TV about the use of Spanish in dialogue and songs by the Puerto Ricans, when you first hear the use of Spanish by the Sharks, in “The Prologue,” you might be caught off guard. This does not last long, for you  soon you realize you are hearing the language of today’s streets and it becomes very powerful and is a special delight in “I Feel Pretty.”

The cast, which includes: Matt Cavenaugh as Tony, Josefina Scaglione as Maria, Karen Olivo as Anita and Cody Green as Riff  sound less operatic  and perform dialogue and the Stephen Sondheim lyrics with more distinct accents than the stars of the original.  This makes them sound much more like the characters that they play.  However, make no mistake, this cast can sing.  Their range, control of dynamics,  breath control, phrasing,  diction, and in the case of Cavenaugh his ability to sing in falsetto, make this group dynamite.

Cavenaugh and Scaglione have real vocal chemistry in each of the four major duets they sing: “Maria,” “Tonight,” “One Hand One Heart,” and “Somewhere.”  They sound like the young lovers and blend, in English and Spanish, beautifully.

However, the show and the recording reach their performance height when Scaglione and Olivo sing “Un Hombre Asi, I Have a Love.”  It is chilling and if you get goosebumps just listening to it, imagine what happens in the theater.

This show is as relevant today as it was fifty years ago and  unlike many other revivals, not only is the story relevant,  so is the score.  West Side Story has been reborn and this new Sony disk is as exciting as what is taking place at the Palace Theater each night.  If this disk does not win the Grammy I will be stunned.  This is a new castrecording classic; you have to buy it.

Categories: Broadway Revival Cast Recordings, Uncategorized
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Company is one of my all time favorite shows.  I have seen it performed many times and I never tire of seeing it.  However, trying to pick the best cast recording from the recordings available is another matter.  There are three American recordings.  The 1970 original cast recording featured Dean Jones as  Bobby and Elaine Stritch in the role of JoAnn.  The 1995 revival cast recording featured Boyd Gaines as Bobby and the 2006 production, which was unlike either of the other two, featured Raul Esparza as Bobby.    Larry Kert (West Side Story) replaced Dean Jones early in the original run, but all we have of him as Bobby is a bonus track on the rereleased 1970 cast recording.    There are London  cast recordings, but I find them untenable so I have decided not to include them here.

So, what to recommend?  I recommend you buy all three Broadway cast recordings  and then, for your own listening pleasure,  make your own Company Perfect Cast Recording(CPCR).  While no one recording is totally superior to the others, there is something from each to be added to you CPCR.

Below are my choices for each number to help you create your own CPCR.

The Opening – Company (The 1995 revival cast recording) – There are a lot of reasons to choose this version.  It has more life than either of the other two, the tempo is crisper, the harmonies are very clear and the sound of the recording is just superior.

The Little Things We Do Together (The Original 1970 Recording) – I really like the tempo here better than in any of the others.  The rhythm seems more punctuated as well.  But, the main reason for my choice is Elaine Stritch.  Some people own certain parts.  Elaine Stritch owns JoAnn and no one has ever touched her performance.

Sorry Grateful (The 2006 revival cast recording) – The 1970 and 1995 versions are both very good, but the 2006 recording is the most insightful and has greater interplay between voice and instrumentation which creates a much better effect.

You Could Drive A Person Crazy (The 1995 revival cast recording) – All three performances are very good.  I really like the people on the original recording, but the 1995 recording is clearer and crisper.  The sync of the voices is such that every word is understood.  The instrumentation in the 2006 recording makes it unsatisfying.

Have I Got A Girl For You (The 1995 revival cast recording) – Hands down, the 1995 recording is the winner here.  The rhythmic punctuations help drive the excitement of the piece.  It is great from beginning to end.

Someone is Waiting (The 1995 revival cast recording) – The voice of Boyd Gaines makes the difference here.  Dean Jones cannot compare and Raul Esparza’s version is vocally nice, but we hear his slurred  “s” sounds and that is bothersome.  Additionally,  instrumentally it is to bare.

Another 100 People (The 1995 revival cast recording) – This is a dynamite number.  The enunciation, diction, pitch and orchestration of the 1995 recording are far better that what you find in the 1970 recording.

Getting Married Today (The 1995 revival cast recording) – What I really like the most about this version is the enunciation and diction.  You understand every word.  Nothing of the text is lost and that makes this version spectacular.

Marry Me A Little (The 2006 revival cast recording) – I do not like that recording very much, but Raul Esparza is wonderful here.  He croons.  This song was cut from the original and appears for the first time in the 1995 recording.

Side By Side / What Would We Do Without You (The 1995 revival cast recording) – This performance is really fun.  It reminds me of a number that could have been seen in Follies. It just sounds more Sondheim like than either of the others ones.  You cannot get through this version without wanting to get up and dance.

Poor Baby (The Original 1970 Recording) – This is the real hen party version.  The women are clear, crisp and snippy.  Neither of the other versions comes close here.

Barcelona (The 1995 Cast Recording) – Boyd Gaines just has exceptional vocal power and vocal control and he shows it here.   His phrasing and breath contol are great and his vocal acting is terrific.

The Ladies Who Lunch (The Original 1970 Recording) – I have said it before, but it deserves repeating.  This part and this song belong to Elaine Stritch.  No one can touch her.

Being Alive (The 1995 Cast Recording) Boyd Gaines has the strongest voice of the three Bobby performers and it is in this number that this becomes the most obvious.  Bobby gains more and more insight with each phrase and Gaines uses his vocal ability to grow the sound through the piece.  It is a wonderful performance.

So there you have it……..The Company Perfect Cast Recording.  You may ask……..So what if I can only afford to buy one of these albums…….which one?   I suggest buying the 1995 revival recording and then buying each of the other numbers as singles…..then put it all together.  It will cost you bit more than buying just one recording, but then you will have The Company Perfect Cast Recording.

Categories: Broadway Revival Cast Recordings, Original Broadway 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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South Pacific is one of my all time favorite shows.   The new 2007 production, still playing at Lincoln Center, is wonderful theater.  The set, the lights, the orchestra, the acting, the dancing and especially the singing performances by Kelli O’Hara and Paulo Szot are terrific.  It was one of the finest evenings of Broadway entertainment that I can remember.  I waited for the CD so that I could then have a permanent memory of this great theater experience.  I must say that I think everyone should have this CD, even though some of the cast performances are not reflective of the live performance and that tends to make the CD somewhat a disappointment.

South Pacific is a musical powerhouse and though this is the first real revival of the show on Broadway, there are many recordings of the show.  There was also the movie, which was not the artistic success it should have been because of the camera filters that director Josh Logan used in the filming, but the LP and CD have been a great success.  The original Broadway performances by Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin have been the standard for most performances of  the show.  What makes this new Broadway production so different and so good is that O’Hara and Szot, and in my opinion the production itself, do not attempt to copy those performances.  The dialogue is the same, the music is the same, even the size of the orchestra is the same, but the show is different.

I believe in part this is created by the ages of the performers.  They fit.  They look the parts.   You can understand why Nellie falls in love with Emile.   This is recreated on the CD.  Their singing is dialogue connected and is much more natural than any other performance or recording of South Pacific.  Mitzi Gaynor, in the film, is the only other performer to come close.  When Nellie and Emile perform their “Twin Soliloquies”…….it works.  And when the orchestra begins “Some Enchanted Evening” and Szot begins to sing, there is no separation from what has just taken place; it is a beautiful segue.  This happens throughout the show and the CD.  Many reviewers have trashed this recording.  They have called it lifeless, lacking drama in the singing and have said that O’Hara and Szot do not come across as they do on stage.   I totally disagree where O’Hara and Szot are concerned; although I do believe that Danny Burstein as Luther Billis and Loretta Ables Sayre as Bloody Mary seem dull and lifeless on the CD.

Kelli O’Hara is a wonderful Nellie.  She does not attempt to do overdo a southern accent.  She was born and raised in Oklahoma and so her sound is Arkansas enough.  She has a lovely, pure and unforced voice that easily captures Nellie, whether speaking, or as on the CD, singing.  Her “Cockeyed Optimist” is magic.  Her phrasing, diction, language breaks and breath control really add much to Oscar Hammerstein’s great lyric.  Set in the dark days of World War II, she presents, not only her optimism, but that of America.  “My Girl Back Home,” which was in the film and added to this production and which she sings with Lt. Cable (Matthew Morrison), reminds us of what racial thinking was like in the 1940’s and makes Morrison’s  “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” from the second act even more powerful.  The spirit she brings to “Cockeyed Optimist” she also brings to “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair” and her use of rhythmic accents throughout “A Wonderful Guy” make it sound very fresh.  I really don’t care very much for the interpretation of “Honey Bun,” but I place the blame on the director of the show and not on Ms. O’Hara.   Finally, when O’Hara sings the reprise of “Some Enchanted Evening” in the second act we can hear that she has really grown up, come to an understanding with herself about the racial problems that she espoused at the end of act one and one can feel that she is truly in love with Emile.  Once again, I think this works because we can believe that O’Hara and Szot would fall in love.

Nellie and Emile have no real duets in the show.  They do a bit of “Cockeyed Optimist” together at the end of act one, but that is not really a duet.   Actually, when Mary Martin first found out that Ezio Pinza, an opera singer, was going to play opposite her, she told Rodgers and Hammerstein “I will not do duets with an opera singer on stage.”  Since they performed without the use microphones, she was afraid she would be drowned out.  Ergo, there are no real duets between the two.  Here is another interesting tidbit about the original.  When Pinza met with Rodgers and Hammerstein, he was stunned to find that they wanted him to do eight shows a week.  He walked out.  He later agreed to do the eight shows provided the total amount of time he sang for the eight shows would be equal to what he did when performing twice a week in opera.  So, Emile has two songs, though he sings part of Some Enchanted Evening three times and his total song time is about thirteen minutes per performance.

Paulo Szot, born in 1969, is an Argentine parented baritone who received his professional vocal training in Poland where his parents had moved following World War II.  He studied piano and dance as a youngster, but following a knee injury he concentrated on his singing and made his professional singing debut in 1990 at the age of 21.  His voice is quite powerful, although it seems stronger in the higher baritone range than in the lower one.  He has a wonderfully smooth sound and his phrasing and enunciation are superb.  From his first notes of “Some Enchanted Evening”, a song recorded by everyone from Perry Como and Bernadette Peters to Bryn Terful and Ezio Pinza, you forget that anyone else has ever sung this song.  He is that good.  In this recording, his work with the orchestra is more than just a partnership, they are as one.  I got goosebumps in the theater and I get them each time I hear the recording.  “This Nearly Was Mine” has never quite gotten the same respect as “Some Enchanted Evening,”  but it is a wonderful piece of music with a grand lyric and Szot nails it.

“This Nearly Was Mine” follows “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” sung by Lt. Cable (Matthew Morrison).  The lyrics of this song created quite an alarm by declaring that it was clear that hatred, in this case racial hatred was taught at a young age.  Rodgers and Hammerstein were encouraged to drop the song, but they refused.  Together these two songs are key reasons why the show does not seem dated.  Though set over 65 years from the present, the message of the show remains powerful.   Matthew Morrison as Lt. Joe Cable, has a wonderful tenor voice.  His “Younger Than Springtime” is as romantic as his ” You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” is dramatically charged.

Bali Ha’i and Happy Talk were both big hits following the opening of the show in 1948, but the performance by Loretta Ables Sayre just does not come across and seems, as some critics have said of the whole CD, rather dull and lifeless.  On the other hand, the male chorus performances of “Bloody Mary” and “There Is Nothing Like A Dame” are the same show stoppers they have always been.

The orchestra, one of the largest used in a show on Broadway in a very long time, is excellent.  They capture all of the rich harmonies and nuance of the original Rodgers score.  They are big enough to add real power, yet they never overpower the singers.  It is wonderful to hear a large string section in a Broadway orchestra.

Don’t be put off by some of the reviews of this CD.  Buy it, if for no other reason than that you can listen to O’Hara and Szot over and over again.

Below is a video in which you to see three excepts from the show as performed at the 2008 Tony Award Show.

Categories: Broadway Revival Cast Recordings
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