By Steven Suskin
07 Aug 2011

Lost Broadway and More: Volume 3 [Original Cast Records]
I am always happy to hear rarely-recorded, rarely-heard show tunes. In addition to the items that turn up as bonus tracks on reissues, or on studio cast albums, or on songwriter anthology albums, there have from time to time been albums collecting an assortment of songs from here and there (such as the invaluable "Lost in Boston" series). Michael Lavine, the music director who has amassed one of the most important collections of theatrical sheet music in captivity, has assembled "Lost Broadway and More," featuring what the label calls "Michael Lavine and Friends." These include S. Harnick, a delightfully grandish friend to have.

The results might well thrill seekers of obscure Broadway; they don't quite do so for me. Perhaps it's the song selection, which includes samples from failed shows like Strip for Action, The Yearling, Nowhere to Go But Up, Barefoot Boy with Cheek, Something More, and even Merrily We Roll Along. But not much that I wanted to play a second time. Most interesting of the lot are "This Is My Beloved" from Are You With It?, a lowbrow WW II-era hit; "I'm Afraid I'm in Love," a "Sheherazade"-derived ballad from Dream With Music, a massive WW II flop; and "I Never Dream When I'm Asleep" from Love for Judy, included by Lavine as a special tribute to the late Hugh Martin. Completists will want to hear these songs. Once, at least.

*

Must Close Saturday, the U.K. specialty label, has continued their parade of cast albums from Julian Slade/Dorothy Reynolds musicals with Wildest Dreams [MCSR 3049] and Hooray for Daisy! [MCSR 3050]. Now that I've had the chance to hear a half-dozen Slade scores, I find that the only one I happily return to is Free As Air.

Wildest Dreams, Slade's final collaboration with Dorothy Reynolds (of Salad Days et al), is somewhat mild. One song, "Girl On the Hill," is particularly lovely, in the same vein as the equally catchy "Follow That Girl" (from the musical of that name). As for Hooray for Daisy!, be advised that the leading lady is a cow. I mean, a cow.

(Steven Suskin is author of the recently released updated and expanded Fourth Edition of "Show Tunes" as well as "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations," "Second Act Trouble" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He also pens Playbill.com's Book Shelf and DVD Shelf columns. He can be reached at Ssuskin@aol.com.)

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