Favorite Cast Recording(s) of the 16/17 Season? - Page 4

[10086Sundays]

Posted: 7/6/17 at 1:04am

I want to say thanks for Gaveston and Blue Eyes for the discussion.  I have nothing intelligent to add, but it's a pleasure to read.

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 7/6/17 at 2:16am

10086Sundays said: "I want to say thanks for Gaveston and Blue Eyes for the discussion.  I have nothing intelligent to add, but it's a pleasure to read.

"Thank you, but you are giving me too much credit. It is Gaveston who has the knowledge.

She has hit on my biggest regret of the musical theater. The amplification and the inevitable distortion. I was at The King & I for the third time and I was down close to the stage. Kelli O'Hara was finishing "Hello, Young Lovers," and her voice ascends as she holds out the last two notes. They were distorted. Not badly, but enough so that I noticed it. After all the education and training that went into that voice, why should we not hear it naturally.

I know there's nothing to be done about this. Most performers don't have highly trained voices and don't always perform at a theater the size of the Vivian Beaumont. 

But even in a cabaret setting of 54 Below. I was talking to one of the employees there and this subject came up. Betty Buckley is appearing at the end of August with Michael Feinstein. Does Betty Buckley need a mike to be heard in that room? No. Will she be using a mike? Probably. Why? He was going to bring that up with a couple of people there.

 

 

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/6/17 at 4:07am

You're very kind, 10086Sundays. I expected to come back to posts accusing me of "lecturing".

(BTW, I used to teach in Westwood, CA, Beverly Hills "adjacent". Drove by 10086 Sunset Boulevard (well, not actually that address, which is in another city, but the house used in the film) every day for 14 years! Beautiful mansion, but never as big as one expects.)

Just listened to GHD again and cringed at "vomit" rhymed with "wanted". Oy! That hits my ear like a flat note from a singer. Setting aside the rhyming for now, am I the only one who thinks the first 2/3 of the score sounds like a different show from all those ballads strung together at the end? Lots of scores get darker as they approach the climax, but that isn't usually an excuse to wander off in another reaction. Maybe that's what posters mean by, "You have to see it."

Why does everyone here know Tim Minchin? Is it just from MATILDA? (What I've heard of that sounds like fingernails on a blackboard to me.)

P.S. to BlueEyes, I heard Broadway composer David Shire lecture once about amplification. Basically he said, "The ship has sailed. Though we think we want 'natural' sound, we're so conditioned by amplification that it wouldn't sound natural to us anyway." I fear he's right. In other words, it's less the training of singers that is the problem and more the lack of training of listeners.

But I'm sorry Miss O'Hara wasn't miked properly when you saw TK&I.

There are a couple of upsides, I'm happy to report: we get to hear quiet passages that would have been belted more loudly before mikes became standard. AND we get more interesting staging. I LOVED Ethel Merman when I saw her live on stage exactly a half-century ago. And it was thrilling to hear her sing over a large orchestra! But when she did, she came DSC and planted her feet--every number! No singing from the upstage drawbridge because it made a prettier picture.

[newintown]

Posted: 7/6/17 at 7:39am

Gaveston, I love your explication of The Ladies Who Lunch; I have always used that song as an example of how a writer can create a perfect rhyme scheme and adhere to it, while avoiding nursery rhyme simplicity and at the same time actually saying something thought-provoking.

To quote another work by the same man:

In a world where the kings are employers,
Where the amateur prevails,
And delicacy fails
To pay...

Listening to the other new scores of this (and other recent seasons), I can't help but feel that I'm hearing a lot of amateurs prevailing.

[CorkySt.Clair]

Posted: 7/6/17 at 7:54am

Newintown, where could I find Gaveston's explanation of Ladies Who Lunch? I'd absolutely love to read it!

I'm so glad that so many of us agree on rhymes. The GHD ones you mention (even though I'm yet to listen to the album) make me cringe. I guess after hearing Sondheim, all slant rhyme and too-easy choices become much more egregious. (They did for me st least)

[newintown]

Posted: 7/6/17 at 8:45am

"Newintown, where could I find Gaveston's explanation of Ladies Who Lunch? I'd absolutely love to read it!"

Page 3 of this thread, but it's an explication ("analysis or development".

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 7/6/17 at 11:21am

"The ship has sailed. Though we think we want 'natural' sound, we're so conditioned by amplification that it wouldn't sound natural to us anyway." 

Not ready to concede this yet (like I have a choice).  I'm not an audiophile, and I'm grateful for that. When I'm listening to a song my brain isn't trying to determine to what degree the sound has been damaged by over-compression. But the amplification? There is probably room for improvement that they will some day implement. And your referral to dynamics is right on.

Must this apply to concerts, also? Carnegie Hall preceded amplification by many decades. The famous Benny Goodman concert was recorded on one mike hanging down from the ceiling. At Kelli O'Hara's memorable Carnegie Hall solo debut, at one point she made a comment to the effect that she wanted to give the famous Carnegie Hall acoustics a trial, and she and her father and husband and two associates of her husband all stepped to the front of the stage, away from the mikes, and sang "That Lonesome Road" a cappella. That gives me hope. 

I sure remember that Company cast album. My father was always trying to please my mother, usually without much success. He thought he had a sure thing when he brought home one night that record. My mother was a huge Broadway fan, and my father as a sales manager had, with my mother, wined and dined many customers through the Broadway shows of the fifties and early sixties.

The Company score had won the Tony. I think that Sondheim lost my mother right away at "Bobby baby, Bobby bubi." This was not Ezio Pinza singing about an enchanted evening. Sondheim immediately announced to all that, although he may have been very close to Oscar Hammerstein and Hammerstein might even be referred to as his mentor, no one was going to confuse the lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein with the lyrics of Stephen Sondheim.

Sorry for hijacking the thread. I'm done.

[10086Sundays]

Posted: 7/6/17 at 6:30pm

Gaveston said: Setting aside the rhyming for now, am I the only one who thinks the first 2/3 of the score sounds like a different show from all those ballads strung together at the end? Lots of scores get darker as they approach the climax, but that isn't usually an excuse to wander off in another reaction. Maybe that's what posters mean by, "You have to see it."

I've never felt that GHD is disjointed musically.  Although, I prefer shows with a mix of musical genres, so, obviously, personal taste is coloring my judgement.  For example, while I enjoyed Bandstand in the theatre, and like big band/swing music in general, by the end of it all the songs were starting to blend together, call it "ear fatigue," I guess.  It's honestly why I haven't listened to the cast recording yet.

Back to GHD, getting so dark in Act 2 was necessary, in my opinion, in order to really payoff Phil's transformation.  He's such a jerk in Act 1, that he has to hit a deep rock bottom otherwise the eventual climb out won't have as much emotional resonance.  Very much like an addict finally getting to the point of admitting they need help and going to AA.  If only Phil had listened to the AA guy in "Stuck" in Act 1, the show would be over in 30 minutes!

ETA - Night Will Come is one of my favorite songs in the show and, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful and actually uplifting moments in the show. Phil has to learn about accepting death and continuing to live, as well as doing good without concern for the outcome.  People will die, despite his best efforts, but he has to keep trying anyway and view life as a gift.  Again though, it come back to the staging and this song is incredibly well done.

There are also musical elements that create through lines in the songs, or at least are intended to, but I'm not at all educated enough in music theory to explain them properly.  Though I wish I was.  For anyone interested, Tim Minchin did a Facebook live where he talked about the process of adapting/writing the show and the musical themes he was trying to create.  Here is the link.  Go to 9:15 for him talking about the process.  At 16:25, he gets specific about Act 2 and musical themes.

(Side note:  Isn't the site of the mansion that was used an office building now? Or is that the real 10086?  Either way, I remember being disappointed when I first visited LA and it wasn't there.)

OlBlueEyes - Much as I love it when the bass rumbles through the seats, I do find myself sometimes wishing I could just hear the singing and music sans amps.  It's a double-edged sword, since the right sound mix can enhance the experience, but the wrong one can destroy it.  I've found I can't sit on the sides of the orchestra in most theaters because the speakers are just too loud, plus, I like to sit close so the sound becomes disjointed and muffled between the speakers and the actual orchestra and cast.

Company is one of those recordings that the first time I heard it, I knew I'd be listening to it forever.  Even the Raul Esparza revival works for me.  There are just some shows climb inside you, regardless of presentation, and make themselves at home.

Sorry, for my long winded post!  But it seems to be where the thread is going, so I say post more. 

Updated On: 7/6/17 at 06:30 PM

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 7/6/17 at 9:10pm

Much as I love it when the bass rumbles through the seats, I do find myself sometimes wishing I could just hear the singing and music sans amps.  It's a double-edged sword, since the right sound mix can enhance the experience, but the wrong one can destroy it.  

Very well put. It's nice to have an intelligent discussion here, especially when someone like Gaveston is around, who knows more about musical theater present and past than - well - a person who knows a lot more than me.

[CorkySt.Clair]

Posted: 7/6/17 at 9:17pm

Company is one of those recordings that the first time I heard it, I knew I'd be listening to it forever.  Even the Raul Esparza revival works for me.  There are just some shows climb inside you, regardless of presentation, and make themselves at home.

"

I know this is a bit off-topic, but I absolutely love this explanation. I feel this way about so many shows (and Company is one of them!). Another Hundred People could probably resurrect me.

 

 

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/6/17 at 10:13pm

I don't think anybody need apologize. We're just chatting here and, to me, this is a lot more interesting than mere lists of current shows in favored order. More to the point, everyone has a scroll bar if s/he doesn't want to read our musings.

***

I should have paraphrased David Shire more clearly: his point wasn't just in reference to live theater and concerts, but to entertainment in general. Most of us spend far more hours with TV and video games and films than live theater, so we're hearing sound through some sort of mechanical means most of the time. And we do so from a very early age. I can remember when the idea of microphones in church would have been shocking, but they are nearly ubiquitous these days.

Of course, we can all tell the difference between a miked set and an acoustic set; MTV has (or had) an entire program devoted to the latter ("MTV Unplugged". But even with such a show, we are still hearing mechanical reproductions, particularly if we are hearing them via TV or radio. (The exception is the number performed by Kelli O'Hara at Carnegie Hall and described above. I once heard Don MacLean step in front of the mikes and, with just his guitar, perform "American Pie" for 2,000 people on Chicago's Navy Pier. It was a religious experience, but I'd call it "remarkable" rather than "natural". David Shire's point is that mechanical sound IS "natural" to us now. I worked in academic theater for a long time and most of our small spaces had no microphones. But when we did a MUSICAL, we dragged out the body mikes.)

***

I agree about the score to COMPANY. It was the first Broadway show I saw, but I had been listening to the album at home. One listen was all it took. And I don't agree that the score now sounds "dated" (as some critics have written). To me, Sondheim found a sound that still sounds vaguely contemporary 45 years later.

***

Per the internet, 10086 Sunset is in O.J. Simpson's old home town of Bel Air. It may well be an office building for all I know. But the famous pink palazzo used in the film is clear visible from Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills and was still standing the last time I was at UCLA, five or six years ago. I doubt zoning laws would allow commercial building in that neighborhood.

***

I don't get "ear fatigue" from BANDSTAND, but then I have a shelf full of CDs of music from the 1940s. So I'm used to listening to hours of swing at a time.

I'll keep trying with GHD. It took several listens before I really appreciated GREAT COMET, and I love opera as a rule.

 

 

[jtishere]

Posted: 7/6/17 at 10:53pm

GavestonPS said: 
I agree about the score to COMPANY. It was the first Broadway show I saw, but I had been listening to the album at home. One listen was all it took. And I don't agree that the score now sounds "dated" (as some critics have written). To me, Sondheim found a sound that still sounds vaguely contemporary 45 years later.
 

First of all, I'm loving the discussion on this thread. Secondly, I could not agree more with this. I will never forget the first time I heard the OBCR of COMPANY. It sounded so incredibly and miraculously fresh and confident and light on its feet. And as I've returned to it over the years, its freshness never fails and my appreciation for the richness of the lyrics deepens. I feel like I notice something new or appreciate a different turn of phrase each time I listen.

 

 

 

"

 

[10086Sundays]

Posted: 7/7/17 at 1:00am

Gaveston said: Most of us spend far more hours with TV and video games and films than live theater, so we're hearing sound through some sort of mechanical means most of the time.

This is so true.  I realized during my two trips to NYC this spring that I was spending most of day with headphones on.  So during the show, it was almost as if nothing had changed, like I wasn't experiencing something unique because I'd been listening to music all day and become used to the constant noise.  So I made myself start taking off the headphones at least an hour before curtain and skip any songs from the shows I was going to see in the days prior as well.

On the subject of what sounds "natural" to us now, and not to open a can of worms, but auto-tune has had the reverse effect for me.  People were almost always dubbed before, but now the second someone starts to sing in something like Glee, it just takes me right out of it, because it sounds so fake to me and I can't connect to it.  On the radio it sounds fine, but when you're trying to make me believe someone is actually performing it "live" in the story, it doesn't work.

***

I don't think Company is dated either.  I first listened to the cast recording in my early twenties during the time when cell phones were just starting to replace pagers and I had no trouble with it. For example, I could understand what was meant by the lyric: "Look, I'll call you in the morning or my service'll explain."  Even if you don't know what an answering service is/was, context tells you that it's another way people could avoid interaction while maintaining fake friendships, all while moving in the same small social circles.  Perhaps some of the jokes don't land quite the way they used to, but not to the detriment of the show, in my opinion.

***

If GHD doesn't take, well, no harm no foul.  First world problem, after all. 

jtishere - Yes, Company certain holds up to repeat listening and the songs that strike me most seem to change with each listen.  Except "Being Alive" of course, that always gets me.

Updated On: 7/7/17 at 01:00 AM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/7/17 at 3:54pm

I graduated from high school two years after COMPANY opened, so of course the references don't strike ME as odd. (If anything, I understood it better after living in NYC for a decade.) I thoroughly enjoyed the film of the concert version with Neil Patrick Harris a few years ago, and went back to see it several times.

***

Sundays, I agree with you about autotune. What a pleasure to go back to the Golden Age original cast recordings and listen to singers who sound like human beings!

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 7/7/17 at 6:09pm

Going back to the discussion of defending true rhymes in the theater-- in one of Sondheim's books he makes a very simple point, and I'm paraphrasing wildly here-- the pleasure the brain gets at hearing a true rhyme is very different than the effect of a near-rhyme. There's a click that locks together the words in your head on hearing a true rhyme, making the sound clear and therefore the thought clear. Sondheim also points out that true rhymes that are spelled differently make an even more delicious click in the brain. 

Revisiting Gaveston's Ladies Who Lunch reference:

"Here's to the ladies who lunch.
Everybody laugh.
Lounging in their caftans and planning a brunch.
On their own behalf."

Every iteration of "af" is spelled differently making the brain even a little happier at each rhyme that clicks together. It goes without saying that song lyrics only matter when heard live in a theater, not read on a page. 

I admit this click Sondheim speaks of could be generational. Let's face it, I'm about the same age as Gaveston and much closer to Sondheim's age than to that of the millennials who fill these boards, and for whom the near-rhyming that fills the HAMILTON or COME FROM AWAY lyrics is a source of constant delight.

[CorkySt.Clair]

Posted: 7/7/17 at 7:30pm

I don't think Company is dated either.  I first listened to the cast recording in my early twenties during the time when cell phones were just starting to replace pagers and I had no trouble with it. For example, I could understand what was meant by the lyric: "Look, I'll call you in the morning or my service'll explain."  Even if you don't know what an answering service is/was, context tells you that it's another way people could avoid interaction while maintaining fake friendships, all while moving in the same small social circles.  Perhaps some of the jokes don't land quite the way they used to, but not to the detriment of the show, in my opinion.

"

I totally agree with this! Every time I hear a criticism that Company sound dated, I think "well, if that's what 70s music sounded like, than the 70s was a pretty darn cool decade" :). Every time I listen to it find more things to enjoy. Recently I was able to convert one of my friends to it with the taped 2006 revival.

Thanks for reposting Gaveston's explication (whoops, I must've been reading too fast last time). That's quite interesting, something I never really acknowledged but somehow recognized subconsciously. Gosh, Sondheim is brilliant.

SomeoneInATree2, I am not of the same generation of you and Sondheim, but I feel these clicks too! Sometimes it's hard to articulate how in awe I am of what Sondheim does with words.  I think I'm a bit of an anomaly...but no matter :). It's so nice to find such a like-minded circle here!

[10086Sundays]

Posted: 7/7/17 at 9:19pm

Someone in a Tree2 said: "I admit this click Sondheim speaks of could be generational. Let's face it, I'm about the same age as Gaveston and much closer to Sondheim's age than to that of the millennials who fill these boards, and for whom the near-rhyming that fills the HAMILTON or COME FROM AWAY lyrics is a source of constant delight."

I don't know if it's generational, maybe more just personal taste and exposure to different styles, which I guess does make it generational since the "popular" ideas of both of those change over time. Or I'm just of a generation caught between the two because I love both Company and Hamilton.

Gaveston - I realized you asked about familiarity with Tim Minchin awhile back and I meant to say. Aside from GHD, the only work of his I know is Matilda.  From that score the only songs in my regular rotation are "Revolting Children" and "When I Grow Up (Reprise)."

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/7/17 at 11:51pm

Now THERE's a generational difference, Sundays. LOL. I wouldn't dream of listening to OBCR songs out of their context in the entire score. That's something you kids got used to doing with your iPods. In my youth, playing individual cuts on a record player wasn't very convenient. (Yes, I know how to create an iTunes playlist NOW, but I wouldn't dream of doing so with theater music, except for a special event (like my wedding).)

***

I'm not sure about Sondheim's homonym theory, with this exception:

"I won't dance, don't ask me,
I won't dance, my dear, with you...

I won't dance, merci beaucoup."

Various writers took a shot at the lyric, but it seems the version we know is by Dororthy Fields. The sudden switch to a foreign, but universally known, phrase is the cherry on the top that turns ice cream into a sundae.

But while I'm sure Sondheim's ear is delighted by rhymes that are spelled differently, I'm not convinced the average listener is thinking about spelling in the midst of everything else that goes on during a song.

***

None of us has noted that Sondheim, the great master of perfect rhyme technique, has increasingly eschewed such writing beginning especially in PASSION (where the clever stuff is left to the soldier chorus and Fosca's conniving husband in the past). He doesn't usually resort to imperfect rhymes, but he does rely more on identities, a la his mentor, Hammerstein.

"Complicated rhyming always implies intellect," Sondheim says, and Fosca and Georgio and even Clara are moved by emotion, not logical analysis. This is Sondheim's convention, not mine, and I'm not convinced it's an organic law. Johnny Mercer rhymes up a storm in LI'L ABNER (as does Sondheim himself in FORUM) to great effect; Sondheim's equation (rhyme=intellect and education) may make sense in the musical play, but I'm not sure it's true in musical comedy.

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 7/8/17 at 10:26pm

When on occasion I have asked myself who I would like to have been in the 20th Century, more than once Johnny Mercer has been the person. 

How he doth bestride the narrow world                                                                                                           Like a Colossus; and we petty men                                                                                                               Walk under his huge legs,

Mercer was that colossus, with one foot in Times Square and the other in Hollywood.

He was such a social asset to a party that he was invited to all of them. While most lyricists worked for a period of time as the partner of one composer, Mercer wrote the lyrics for songs by most of the leading composers in the country. It would be useless to start naming songs, but but he wrote perhaps my favorite "saloon song," "Make It One for my Baby," and the luscious "Skylark" and the whimsical "Hit the Road to Dreamland," with which I fell in love after hearing Nancy LaMott's recording. To measure Mercer's accomplishments, we can bring up the 19 best song Oscar nominations, with 4 wins, or just that Ella Fitzgerald decided to devote an entire Songbook album to Mercer, a mere lyricist.

For the jab with which Sondheim hit Hammerstein, I think a retaliation is in order. Sondheim criticized this line from South Pacific, at the beginning of the first act.

I could say life is just a bowl of Jello
And appear more intelligent and smart,
But I'm stuck like a dope
With a thing called hope,
And I can't get it out of my heart!

Clearly redundant. Perhaps Oscar had had a long difficult day trying to finish the lyrics to that song and he finally just waved that line through.

To his critic:

We all take the bow, including the cow
Though business is lousy and slow
With Herbie's vim, Louise's verve
Now all we need is someone with nerve

Equally redundant.

Touché, no?

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/8/17 at 11:27pm

Touché, yes. Great catch!

What's more, I'll defend Hammerstein. In "Cockeyed Optimist", "intelligent" means "possessing a high I.Q."; "smart" means "hip", "in the know", "with it", etc., i.e., "fashionable". To Nellie, "Life is just a bowl of jello" sounds like a fashionably cynical quote from Dorothy Parker.

THE SMART SET was a literary magazine from 1900 to 1930, edited by H.L. Mencken; I'm sure Mencken had a high I.Q., but that wasn't what he was selling when he named his magazine. (Both meanings of "smart" were implied, no doubt, but "fashionable" sells better than "wise".) The title of the magazine even inspired a silent film in 1928.

And, in fact, Nellie reiterates the meaning of "smart" as hip-and-cynical in "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Man":

"No more a smart
Little girl with no heart,
I have found me a wonderful guy."

No doubt, Sondheim would rebut correctly that the distinction between intelligent and smart takes too much thinking for a lyric flying by at the speed Nellie is singing. (Which is also why we don't notice "lousy and slow" in GYPSY.) Yet somehow audiences never seem to mind.

***

Speaking of "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy", other critics knock Hammerstein for giving Nellie the word "bromidic". But to my ear, it sounds like a word little Nell WOULD know in a pre-Alka Seltzer world where bromide was the common cure for stomach aches. Of course she could sing, "I am bubbly", and I can't believe Hammerstein didn't think of it; but "bromidic" is a more interesting word.

***

Of course, Hammerstein's great contribution to musical theater was allowing characters to sing in their own voices, rather than the voices of the lyricist. Without him, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. LOL.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/8/17 at 11:36pm

ETA, I agree 100% with your appraisal of Johnny Mercer. Without him, who among us would even know the word "huckleberry" (which appears not only in Moon River, but in "I'm Past my Prime" in LI'L ABNER)?

I also don't know what a skylark is, yet "Skylark" is by far my favorite Hoagy Carmichael song. (Is a skylark the opposite of a land-lark?) Such was Mercer's gift that even words I don't understand seem meaningful in the context in which he uses them.

***

Confidential to OlBlueEyes: I'm a dude. The lady with the fedora is just a photo I happened to have on my computer when I registered here years ago. Sorry for the confusion. I don't mind being referred to as "she", but I don't want you to feel you were the victim of some deliberate deception.

Updated On: 7/8/17 at 11:36 PM

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 7/9/17 at 8:48am

OlBlueEyes you've taught me something new. I'd always heard Nellie's lyric as: And appear more intelligent than smart. I'm a little sad to learn it's intelligent and smart as I find that less interesting.

Regarding cast albums the most listens go to my favorite tracks on War Paint and Dear Evan Hansen. I'm still disappointed in Patti and Christine's lugubrious duets but their solos are top drawer. I quickly tired of "Waving Through a Window" but "Does Anybody Have a Map," "For Forever," and "Good For You" have stuck with me.

I respect The Great Comet and Come From Away but their albums aren't for me. I'm not a fan of narration and both shows are full of them. They give a good sense of their shows but little reason to re-listen.

Groundhog Day's album makes a poor first impression. The first third is fragmented songs designed to repeat. The middle is full of underscoring for the physical comedy. Uninterrupted "songs" don't arrive till Act Two and most of them are gloomy. The London critics praised "Playing Nancy" but on two listens it feels like an inferior "Doatsy Mae." I'm surprised by the number of songs that rely on crass lyrics. It makes sense for Phil to be vulgar but when the townsfolk sing about pissing and Rita sings about pubes the characters start to sound alike. Tim Minchin seems to be shaking off his Matilda restrictions in a rage.

Updated On: 7/9/17 at 08:48 AM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/9/17 at 9:58pm

CorkySt.Clair said: "
SomeoneInATree2, I am not of the same generation of you and Sondheim, but I feel these clicks too!....

"

Corky, did you mean to write "I am not of the same generation of you and GavestonPS"? Because that's what Someone had written, that he and I are roughy the same age.

Stephen Sondheim is older than my parents! (Just a year older, but still a different generation.)

I know we old timers all look alike to you whippersnappers, but LOL!

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 7/10/17 at 2:54am

Confidential to Galveston: My apologies. I knew your gender from having checked your profile quite a long time ago. I take a quick look at anyone's profile, if available, before I address him or her. But I knew that I was going to inevitably make that mistake with someone. A slipup is easier if you're posting in the wee small hours when your brain is tired and you should be asleep. The photograph also exerts a subliminal pull on you since it right there and very striking - has a film noir look to it.

I must tell you, however, that I'm really Sinatra. My death had to be faked after I really upset a particularly important mob boss, and I'm now in hiding with Jimmy Hoffa.

I completely missed that alternate meaning of "smart." Going back aways, a long ways, I can remember telling a person that he or she was "smartly dressed." I've been around enough to see certain idioms come and go, or change. Making love to someone used to mean pretty much to "court" that person. Now I'm sure that we will have youngsters who don't know what "courting" means.

I'm also a fan of swing.  This may have begun with Bette Midler's impersonation of all three Andrews sisters' "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," which was a considerable hit. That may have led me to hear the real Andrews Sisters' recording "Rum and Coca Cola" and wonder what was naughty about the lyrics.

Anyway, I like a lot of music genres, but in each of them I tend to be a "Greatest Hits" fan. In classical, my favorite full symphony is Dvorak's No. 9 from the New World, my favorite movement is the last of Beethoven's 9th, even if he did borrow the "Ode to Joy" from someone else. 

Piano Concerto: the ostentatiously romantic Rachmaninoff Second, not the notoriously difficult Third that the pianists seem to prefer. Waltz: Probably the most common "Waltz of the Flowers" over the Carousel Waltz, with Strauss Jr.'s "Emperor Waltz" somewhere in the vicinity.

So with swing it's "Sing! Sing! Sing!" and "Take the A Train" and "Begin the Beguine" and Benny Goodman with Peggy Lee, and most of Glenn Miller's hits. Any favorites to recommend, not necessarily well known?

I see this quote in Wikopedia, In 1994, he told Frank Prial (The New York Times), "I thought that because I was Artie Shaw I could do what I wanted, but all they wanted was 'Begin the Beguine.' " 

That would have been me.

In the mid 1980s I went with my parents to the theater-in-the-round in Nassau County that was the customary venue for big names such as Johnny Carson. I really enjoyed all three acts, but at the time I had no grasp of the royalty I was seeing. Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, Artie Shaw and his Orchestra. By that time Shaw had given up playing the clarinet. He conducted the orchestra and told tales from his long career. He explained that he had seen one of Cole Porter's rare flops and been attracted to the song "Begin the Beguine." The song needed a major renovation, however, and Shaw provided it by speeding the song up and adding the famous rhythm.

Accurate? Probably, but why did it take until 1938 to release his famous take?

 

 
 

Updated On: 7/10/17 at 02:54 AM

[Jarethan]

Posted: 7/10/17 at 7:04pm

1.  I am very surprised to say that the recoding I like the most is for a show that I have not yet seen and am not likely to see, since I don't expect to be in NYC until October.  Bandstand.  I love it...have played it countless times, only skipping one song (Beth Leavel's song) in the process.  I love the concept, the orchestrations, the voices -- Cott and Osnes have such beautiful voices, and the songs themselves.  I have been accused of being cold, but this season there were 3 recordings which brought tears to my eyes.  This was number 1.  I just love the song 'Welcome Home', especially in the second version.  I love the Epilogue...beck, to my great surprise, I really love most of it.

2.  Dear Evan Hansen.  I love the score, the passion that the cast brings to it, particularly the 2 Tony winners.  Ironically, while I think the orchestrations are right for the show, what keeps me from loving it as much as Bandstand are Bandstand's orchestrations.  They may be 'so 40s' but to me they are also so 'Broadway'.  The last two numbers on this recording also made me teary...something I was just not expecting.

3.  2/3 of The Great Comet.  I have just about reached the point where I know what tracks I am going to eliminate for my listening pleasure.  Those to be eliminated represent almost 30 minutes.  But boy, do I love most of the remainder.  Some of the songs are just so complex, beautiful, energetic, etc.  I know that people are thinking that I am a Philistine, but I just don't like some of the songs and repeated listening has increased that dislike.  The biggest two assets: a good chunk of the score itself and Groban's voice.  The orchestrations are terrific.  So, what don't I like (30 minutes of the music; and I don't like either Denee Benton's or Lucas Steele's voices, his in particular.  I like his performance, just not his voice.  

4.  Come From Away -- a very enjoyable listen, particularly for those who are not likely to see the show (or at least not for a long time).  It does such a terrific job of telling the story that I am not sure it is necessary to actually see the show (I have seen it, in fact).  

5.  Hello Dolly.  This is a great old-fashioned score.  I probably appreciate the score more than ever, based on the performances of Gavin Creel, Kate Baldwin, and David Hyde Pierce.  I loved the best all the songs I have always thought of as inferior, e.g.,  Ribbons, Moment.  I still love the songs that I have always loved, just not necessarily on this recording. Two sources of criticism: the orchestrations (and the decision to hold back the chorus from ripping off the roof during the Sunday Clothes and title song crescendos -- a muted crescendo just doesn't do it, guys, go for broke) and Bette Midler.  I loved her on stage, but on the CD she sounds like she is phoning it in from Schenectady.  For such a warm performer, she didn't come across as warm to me.  It doesn't help that she doesn't have much of a voice any more (or at least my conclusion from listening to the recording), but she doesn't seem to be pushing herself.  Her limited voice was not an issue on stage where she had the audience wrapped up in her little pinkie...due to her warmth, here timing, her generosity with the other performers, etc.  On the recording, it is more of an issue.  God knows Carol Channing had no conventional voice, but she wrapped what she had around every word that came out of her mouth, and you felt that passion.  With Bette, you don't.  Do I play it anymore; surprisingly, yes, because it is beach season, I am retired, etc; but I enjoy the hidden pleasures the most.

6.  War Paint.  Haven't seen the show and, between this recording and the Tony performance, don't expect to.  I have played it twice, and don't expect to play it a third time...at least until I am fully surfeited of all the other recordings).  Just didn't like it.  If there were some great songs towards the end, per a lot of posts, I didn't get them...was probably half listening by that time.  I have to acknowledge that it doesn't help that I have never been a big fan of Ebersole.  Re Lupone, I love her if she has good material...IMO, she did not here.

7.  Groundhog Day.  I have listened to this 4 times, due to the passion of the posters on this site.  And I still don't get it.  I don't like ANYTHING about the recording, and that includes Andy Karl.  There are a few good songs, but so what.  Even bad shows frequently have some good songs (although I don't think that was true of Onward Victoria or Copperfield, but there are no recordings to help with that determination).  For my money, based on the CDs, all of the passion that is being directed at Karl should be going to Corey Cott (I love his voice).  I was never much of a fan of the movie, but I didn't dislike it...just mildly entertained.  

Not listened to Falsettos yet.  Waiting for the Fathom Events showing to determine whether to buy it.