We address a stack of this year's releases that have not found space in this year's columns. Gems? Oddities? You decide.
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Given the unavoidable limits on column space here at On the Record, it is inevitable that we simply can't get around to every CD that turns up. There are quite a few worthy titles on the stack, so much so that this week's column shall briefly address a dozen or so of them. No analyses, I'm afraid; my hunch, though, is that there are listeners out there for all of them. See what sounds interesting, and maybe take a chance on a couple of 'em.
Our friends at Sepia, over in the U.K., have had a busy time of it putting together theatre-related compilations. These include one cast/compilation album, of the international hit White Horse Inn [Sepia 1141]. Ralph Benatzky's 1930 Berlin musical led quite a life, with subsequent productions in London, Vienna, Paris and elsewhere before a Broadwayized version arrived at the Center Theatre (part of the Rockefeller Center complex) on Oct. 1, 1936. William Gaxton — Broadway's top musical comedy man at the time, with Of Thee I Sing and Anything Goes among his credits — took the lead opposite up-and-coming singer Kitty Carlisle, just back from "A Night at the Opera" in Hollywood. The show was a lavish attempt at wooing Depression-weary audiences, and managed to run six months. No cast recording was made, but there was a radio broadcast soon after the opening; this is the slice of pie around which Sepia has built their album. Also included are various recorded selections from London, Paris and Berlin, and an excerpt from a 1959 BBC broadcast starring Alfred Drake (who had understudied Gaxton in 1936).
Something of perhaps more interest has also come our way with Selections from Rose Marie [Sepia 1140]. Remember Lehman Engel's 1958 studio cast album starring the post-My Fair Lady Julie Andrews? Excuse me for living, as Mrs. Paroo might have said, but I never heard it and never heard of it. Julie was joined by Giorgio — Tozzi to you, who had just then dubbed the vocals for Rossano Brazzi's de Becque in the screen South Pacific. Fourteen tracks, which makes a relatively complete reading of the score, but I don't imagine this RCA LP will put Engel's Columbia studio albums in the shade. There are also six selections featuring the 1925 London cast (which starred Edith Day); a bit of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, from Hollywood, doing "Indian Love Call"; and a few other slices of the 1924 Friml-Harbach-Hammerstein score.
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Ethel Merman: Memories [Sepia 1131] is a combination of two more or less vanished Decca albums from 1955. The first, which actually was titled "Memories," was a string of medleys of old-tyme songs. If you want to hear Ethel sing "A Bicycle Built for Two" or "By the Light of the Silvery Moon," here's your chance. This album was arranged and conducted by Jay Blackton, Ethel's conductor on Annie Get Your Gun and Call Me Madam, by the way. The second half comes from what they originally called "A Musical Autobiography." The excerpts here, including such titles as "I Got Rhythm," "Anything Goes," and "Friendship," are backed by the Buddy Cole Quartet.
A Celebration of Lerner & Loewe [Sepia 1138] is a two-disc aggregation of studio recordings of the team's four major projects (excluding Camelot). A good half of the tracks come from a 1958 two-LP RCA Victor set, "An Evening with Lerner and Loewe." This was no minor affair; top-flight music man Johnny Green was in charge, with four stars — Jane Powell, Robert Merrill, Phil Harris and Jan Peerce — at the music stands. Other odds and ends include Tony Bavaar, of Paint Your Wagon, performing pop versions of three songs from that show; Jeannie Carson singing "I Could Have Danced All Night"; Maurice Chevalier singing "Almost Like Being in Love"; and a miscellaneous 1957 studio cast recording of My Fair Lady. (If you've been searching for the Patricia Clark/Michael Sammes version, here it is.) Biggest oddity of the group: "Song Hits from Brigadoon as featured in the Ice Capades of '53." Really! A six-minute, seven song medley from the show, featuring original cast member Lee Sullivan (who created the role of Charlie Dalrymple, the "Come to Me, Bend to Me" man, and never returned to Broadway again).
Other theatre items include the 50th Anniversary Edition of original Broadway cast album of The Sound of Music [Masterworks Broadway 58661]. The album is what it was in its prior incarnations, with Mary Martin supported by Theodore Bikel, Patricia Neway, Lauri Peters and the rest. New liner notes by Bert Fink are a plus; so are some relatively unfamiliar photos (which the sticker on the label classify as "new," although they are 50 years old. Someone had the good sense to include among the three bonus tracks "From Switzerland: The Pratt Family," a satiric swipe at the sugar-and-treacle musical from the acclaimed 1962 TV special "Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall." Carol being that Burnett girl, and Julie being the stage star who would a few years later take The Sound of Music to the big screen.
Other items include the original cast recording of Scott Brown and Anthony King's Gutenberg! The Musical! [PS Classics PS983], which starred Christopher Fitzgerald and Jeremy Shamos and which I favorably reviewed when I saw it a 59E59; Stew's score for the Midsummer Night's Dream [Shakespeare on the Sound] of last summer; and a studio recording of Lionel Bart's Oliver! [CDJAY 1409], led by Julian Forsyth and Sheila Hancock. Also on the stack is Laurence Holzman and Felicia Needleman's That Time of the Year [CDJAY 1405, on two discs]; this holiday revue played the York back in November 2006, and is returning for a brief visit starting Dec. 18.
Other CDs that will surely be of interest to some readers are Lea DeLaria: The Live Smoke Sessions [Ghostlight 8-3312]; John Miller: Stage Door Johnny [PS Classics PS-867], from the long-time Broadway musical contractor who remains memorable for his stage-stealing performance in Cy Coleman and Michael Stewart's I Love My Wife; Lynda Carter at Last [Potomac PP4001]; and Joshua Bell: At Home with Friends [Sony Classical 52716], said friends including Kristin Chenoweth, Nathan Gunn, Sting and Marvin Hamlisch. Hopefully not all at home at the same time. There is also a very special reissue of the 1980 Patti LuPone at Les Mouches [Ghostlight 8-3315]. You had to be there; but if you weren't, here you are.
(Steven Suskin is author of "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations" as well as "Second Act Trouble," "Show Tunes" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached at Ssuskin@aol.com.)
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