European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 25, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Us scores of Broadway scores available on Kevin Anderson and Patti Tupone Star in the London musical Sunset Boulevard Quot a revival of the 1950 Kim. By Edward Karam staff writer cycling has taken hold on Broadway. The Holiday season s musical recordings feature repackaged Gershwin renewed Bernstein re imagined Sondheim revisited Pete Townshend. There s Little that has t been heard before. Cven Andrew Lloyd Webber s Sunset Boulevard will give you dead Vul if you be seen the classic 1950 film a on which it is based. But it s the fresh Way the scores have been used the second time around that makes most of the albums Worth hearing. Pete Townshend s 1969 Rock opera Tommy was a classic before he turned it into a Broadway show last season. Now on two cd the who s Tommy works remarkably Well As a show. Though there Are quiet moments the music is generally percussive and a far cry from George Gershwin s jazz rhythms or the lilting melodies of Jerome Kern or the Brassy sounds of Gypsy and Damn Yankees. Its stage Success May signal a breakthrough for Rock musicals. N Andrew Lloyd Webber has t reinvented his own music but his London hit Sunset Boulevard is based on the 1950 Billy Wilder film. Broadway style belter Patti Lupone plays Norma Desmond the silent film Star going insane who hires a hungry Hollywood writer. Lupone is dynamite in the Best number with one look a hymn to the wordless Power of film icons like Lillian Gish Lon Chaney and Gloria Swanson who played Norma in the film. The passions Are operatic and the music is lushly melodic from the Spanish Flavoured this time next year to the cheerily cynical the lady s paying. The two cd include bits of dialogue to help newcomer follow the plot and there s a Complete script. Be aware though that Lloyd Webber and librettist Christopher Hampton and Don Black tinkered with the show before its los Angeles opening starring Glenn close Early this month. They added dialogue and a song so the version that ends up on Broadway won t be the same As this one. New York City. 1944. Three sailors on 24-hour Liberty. It s on the town of course but if you can t recall who was on the original cast album it s because there never was one. The music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green Are better known from the 1949 film with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly a Quot new York new York it s a helluva now Deutsche Gramm Phon for which Bernstein conducted so much has Given on the town a Loving live recording featuring a mix of opera arid Broadway stars. Blending differently trained voices is risky but Here the likes of Thomas h Hampson Frederica von Stade and Samuel Ramey comfortably rub shoulders with Tyne Daly and David Garrison yes the neighbor on married. With children. Von Stade and Garrison sing a hilarious carried away Daly shakes the roof in i can Cook too and Cleo Laine does a Cameo As a nightclub Singer. Although recorded live there s not even a cough from the audience. Three songs Are included that were dropped before the show hit on Broadway and the album comes with Complete lyrics. A helluva musical. This year some releases crisscrossed the Atlantic. The wisecracking private Eye musical City of Angels and crazy for you a reworking of the Gershwin Cirl crazy came to London while Willy Russell s soft Rock soap opera tragedy blood Brothers went from London to new York. Recordings of All three London versions Are now available on Ria and they re solid representations of the shows. But the new crazy for you is a special Case. The Broadway version released two years ago has a lot of chatter to set up songs. Sometimes Sunset Boulevard City of Angels that works. But not when there Are songs to be Sung like embraceable you someone to watch Over me slap that Bass and i cot rhythm. Ria brags two disc set 7h? who s Tommy Quot is Broadway s version of Peter Townshend s 1969 Rock opera George Gershwin Andrew Lloyd Webber Quot less talk More music Quot and the album is All the Way around Superior. The Lead singers have More expressive voices and the gab is Cut to a minimum. No matter where you be seen the show the London version is better. With Complete lyrics. Last season Julie Andrews was lured Back to Broadway after 30 years by composer Stephen Sondheim who recycled a few thousand of his notes for a revue. Putting it together on two cd is built around five characters at a 25th anniversary party. Sondheim rewrote Many of his lyrics to fit the new Structure. You won t hear Send in the a clowns his most famous song but sooner or later is Here from Dick Tracy As Well As songs from merrily we Roll along the frogs assassins a Little night afus Cand follies. It s Sharp and witty with Only an occasional lapse in the rapid fire getting married today a song originally for Solo woman and chorus Andrews has to take both parts which makes no sense. But that s a quibble when the cast including playwright Christopher Durang and actor Stephen Collins sings so Well. With Complete lyrics. Here s a sure Winner a musical about a red haired orphan and her dog Sandy. Yup it s Annie warbucks the Long awaited sequel to Annie. By Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin again the new show now off Broadway has been years in the making. The Story picks up on the Christmas morning where Annie left off. A new York social worker is determined that warbucks must marry to provide Annie with a Mother or else give her up. Warbucks really loves his Secretary but thinks she s too Young for him. He Falls into a trap Laid by the unscrupulous social worker and he decides to marry the wrong woman. Will everything turn out All right did Clinton support Naftal the predictability is at first a drawback. When you smile harks Back to you re never fully dressed i Usu smile and a villains gloating duet leave it to the urts i similar to easy Street. But musical veterans Harve Presne and Donna Mckechnie help put it Over along with a pm sized Ethel Merman named Kathryn Zaremba. If you e a few times the score gains its own wonderful Persona i a Complete lyrics. And cartoon just 30 years ago a show premiered on Broadway Ca e she loves me. By the fiddler on thereof team of Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick she loves me failed Quick it and for the last 30 years one of the theater s great unanswered questions was Quot Why Quot for 30 years ,.t1 Stock and Community theater groups kept the show a n a the cd for Quot Annie warbucks featuring Kathryn Zaremba includes cartoons. It became one of the great cult musicals. Last season the roundabout theater in new York revived it critics raved and suddenly it s moved to Broadway. The show is about two people who work in a Budapest perfume shop with a great Deal of friction All the while writing Anonymous lonely hearts letters that happen to be to each other. A 1940 Jimmy Stewart movie the shop around the Corner has the same Pluto every song is wonderful and the singers on the new cd Are excellent but after All the care that went Inta briging she loves me Back from the grave you d think the amp record company Var amp be Saraband would have the brains to include a Booklet with the lyrics. There s not eve up a synopsis of the plot. Another musical that has been bucking the Odds and winning converts All Over America is phantom. It s not Lloyd Webber s phantom of the opera though it invites comparison but it was conceived before Lloyd webbers the music and lyrics by Maury Yeston Are gorgeously Sung by unknown pros and there is enough dialogue to follow the interesting variations of this plot As Well As a synopsis no lyrics. The recording is Good enough to make you want to see this version a and you can. A production is now touring Europe. The London Cash album preserves the now closed private Eye musical Quot City of Angels oldies amp amid the crunch of hew shows and recent revivals Are a number of old releases and oddities Worth exploring from traditional shows to opera and even operetta. During the past year the Broadway Angel Label has been reissuing 34 original cast albums. Some like funny Girt were famous. Some like Kovarich Vivien Leigh s Only musical and the Gay life not what you think were flops Worth hearing. The last Batch of oldies just release includes the hit Fiorello a one of the rare musicals to have won the pulitzer prize for drama a and the Flop tenderloin both by the fiddler on the roof team of Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick Sammy Davis or. In Golden boy and Noel Coward s sail away. The last is a special treat. This 1961 musical is about a cruise ship guide Elaine Stritch and the tourists she leads through Europe. For americans abroad there s a lot of satirical fun in songs like you re a Long Long Way from America the customer s always right and Why do the wrong people travel but the Little ones Abc in which Stritch tries to instruct a Bunch of brats hilariously Sticks pins in All those Sicky Sweet Rodgers and Hammerstein songs about do re i and Sites Moi Pourquoy. When Stritch driven to distraction begins singing Quot a stands for Romeo and Juliet b stands for Kun flux klan you la be laughing your alphabet off. All the Angel reissues include excellent notes synopsis and history of the show. Finally Here s a quartet of wonderful recordings that Don t fit easily under the show music Rubric. The arcadians is one of four recordings issued by a new division of Broadway Angel called West end Angel. The other three Are a couple uninspired British cast versions of american shows and a decent British musical Robert and Elizabeth that aficionados May want to explore if you re a fan of Gilbert and Sullivan this 1968 revival recording of the edwardian Era s most popular operetta May captivate you. The music is full of typical Soprano warbling and a Sappy plot Aren t they Allbut there Are also a couple Catchy music Hall style numbers. A Bonus is seven tracks featuring the original singers a we re talking 1909 and 19151 from Ria come highlights of the 1976 Houston Crand opera revival of porgy and Bess on a single cd. The result plays like a musical with High powered voices tearing into i cot plenty o nuttiness you is my woman and it Ain t necessarily so. A More Gershwin is available from Elektra which has issued new recordings of his musicals for the last three years not this year. Imagine your living room is a Saloon bar and the greatest composer of the jazz age is playing for you. That s the effect of Gershwin plays Gershwin the piano Rolls. From the beginning of his career through the Early 1930s, Gershwin recorded his show tunes for piano Rolls which encoded the notes for playing on player pianos. Thanks to computer technology his performances have been decoded and recoded for cd. The music includes rhapsody in Blue Swanee and four Trines never before the Jerome Kern Treasury appears amid what seems to be a revival of Kern. A new production of show boat is headed for Broadway and Kiri the Kanaka recently devoted a whole album to him. Aside from show boat. Poor Kern was cursed with weak stories and a style derived from operetta that make revivals impractical. Who knows zip goes a million dear sir or music in the air but what gorgeous music lots of strings first rate singers and the London sinfonietta and its chorus make Strong cases for the unfamiliar 7vie Bullfrog patrol and the Wistful Catchy ballads in Eger on the Fegern see and whip poor will. Kern and Oscar Hammerstein s the last time i saw Paris written after the fall of France is hauntingly Sung by Thomas Hampson. A Edward Karam Vivien Leigh above with Jean Pierre Aumont appeared in Only one musical. Kovarich Quot was a Flop
