Take Australian Peter Allen’s rags to riches life, add his biographical music, sprinkle in his relationship with Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli, and then ice the cake by adding Hugh Jackman, and you get The Boy from OZ.

The show was originally presented in Sydney without Jackman as the star.  Though he had been asked to be the show’s star, he was unable to accept because of conflicting screen commitments due to his growing movie popularity.  However, upon seeing the show in Sydney, he realized that he really wanted to play the Peter Allen role and he agreed to bring the show to Broadway.

The show was spectacular.  Jackman lit up the stage.  He changed himself from the Wolverine to a flamboyant, bi-coastal Peter Allen.  His singing ability surprised few, but his dancing ability and the ease with which he recreated Peter Allen style repartee wlith the audience astounded many.  His performance won him the 2004 Tony Award.

Isabel Keating as Judy Garland  startled people.  When she first appears on stage and then speaks, it is as if Judy Garland has come back to life.  And when Keating sings,  it gave you chills.  Stephanie J. Block was also terrific as Liza Minelli.

All of this is recreated on the original cast recording produced in 2003.  The recording and mixing by Frank Filipetti is excellent.  It is one of those cast recordings that does great justice to a great Broadway evening.  There are many short videos from the show on You Tube, but none of them recreate the sound of the show as does this recording.

It is hard to imagine anyone coming along in the near future who can recreate what this cast did on stage and on CD.  This is a must for any musical collection.

Categories: 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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Sony Classics has given musical fans an early Valentine’s Day present with its new release, the first complete recording of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Allegro. Following the great successes of Oklahoma (1943) and Carousel (1945), Allegro opened in 1947 to mixed reviews. It played only 315 performances, but a cast album of only the songs from the show was released and, in fact, is still available. The show was directed and choreographed by Agnes De Mille and featured a great deal of “story telling” dancing, reminiscent of the De Mille ballets in Oklahoma. A singing chorus is used throughout the show to interpret the mental and emotional reactions of the principal characters, very much like a Greek chorus.  There is commentary and songs by characters, that have died during the show, much like the dialogue by the dead found in  Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (1938).   Additionally, the fact that there were no conventional “sets” in the original production, allowing the chorus and those who had died to walk or dance through scenes and comment with ease,  help explain why Allegro was dubbed experimental.  What  made Allegro special was lost in the original cast recording, but, with the release of this complete recording of the show, we have, via CD, a true picture of Allegro.

For this recording, Sony has gathered an all star cast which features opera baritone Nathan Gunn as Dr. Joseph Taylor, Audra McDonald as Marjorie Taylor, Patrick Wilson as their son Joseph Taylor, Jr., Marni Nixon as his grandmother, Laura Benanti as his first love and later his wife Jenny Brinker, Danny Burstein as Jenny’s father Ned, Norbert Leo Butz as his friend Charlie, Judy Kuhn as casual date Buelah, and Liz Callaway as a nurse. Larry Blank conducts the 50 piece Istropolis Philharmonic Orchestra which plays the original orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett.

This everyman show follows the life of Joseph Taylor, Jr. from the time of his birth in 1905 to 1940 when he reaches his thirty-fifth year. The action takes place in an unnamed Midwestern state with scenes in three major locations: his home town, his college town, and the largest city in the state. We follow Joseph Jr. as he: learns to take his first steps, loses his grandmother, goes to college, finds love, loses his mother, gets married, becomes a doctor, becomes a rich, big city doctor,  discovers his wife has betrayed him and then retakes his first steps by returning home to become a small town doctor working beside his father.

The Rodgers and Hammerstein shows of the forties, other than Allegro, featured one big song after another. Allegro does not follow that trend and perhaps that is one of the things that made it less than a hit. Patrick Wilson (The Fully Monty, Oklahoma) has only one solo piece (“You Are Never Away”), though he does share in the singing of the title song, “Allegro.” He has a great musical comedy voice whether he is singing or speaking. All of the more familiar songs of the show are sung by minor characters. In the case of this recording, however, each minor member of the cast is a Broadway star in his or her own right.   Judy Kuhn sings “So Far,”  Liz Callaway sings the best known song of the show, “The Gentleman is a Dope,” Norbert Leo Butz sings “What a Lovely Day For a Wedding” and Nathan Gunn uses his rich baritone voice in “A Fellow Needs A Girl.”   It is Audra McDonald who seems to be the star of stars on this recording.   In the first act with “A Fellow Needs A Girl” or in the second act with the haunting “Come Home,” her glorious voice soars right off the CD.

Four dance sequences are on the CD. The Istropolis Orchestra under Larry Blake’s direction bring real drama to these sequences. In the college dance sequence, Richard Rodgers borrowed “Mountain Greenery” from an earlier show, The Garrick Gaieties, as the musical basis for this ballet.  The chorus number “Yatata” is used to simulate town gossip much as “Pick-a-little, Talk-a-little” did In The Music Man which was first produced ten years later in 1957.  The title song “Allegro” is more rhythmic than melodic and its allegro tempo helps portray , Oscar Hammerstein Jr.’s, the books author,  philosophic point of view about people caught in the rat race.

Perhaps the show is best summed up by a chorus statement delivered in a cameo by Stephen Sondheim (He was a production assistant in the original 1947 production).  “A man’s brain is sometimes cleared by the sudden light of one word. In a flash of a split second he sees a sign post, pointing down a new road, and he may take a new turning that will affect the rest of his life.”

One would hope that this wonderful recording will be a turning point for the history of Allegro and that perhaps we might see a new production of this 60+ year old Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein Jr. show.

Categories: Studio Cast Recordings
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