Jay's ANYONE CAN WHISTLE recording is "forthcoming" — Page 3

kofler22 said: "The chosen design was made by producer Bill Rosenfeld, one the Old show queens. "

Did he know he was designing for Anyone Can Whistle? Because if you covered up the title, I’m not sure I’d guess what show it was.

joevitus said: "How is one supposed to know who "the Old show queens" were? Did they hold regular meetings or something? Is there a roster?"

They have a delightful show on Playbill.com. Though my enjoyment of them will now be diminished because I hate this logo SO MUCH!!!!!

Listen!

Everybody Says Don't / Don't Ballet from ANYONE CAN WHISTLE

Just pre-ordered @ Jay records

Or just a little while after this was recorded there was a great production in London featuring Linzi Hateley as Fay Apple - she would have been divine!

Is that what it's called when an album sounds under tempo?

Updated On: 10/24/20 at 12:05 AM

Updated On: 11/11/20 at 11:44 AM

John Barrowman MBE

@JohnBarrowman

I will post a video with more info on this company who refuse to pay any type of royalties. Jb

https://twitter.com/JohnBarrowman/status/1326422643659202561

Looks like both tweets have been deleted. Hm!

Pre-orders are apparently shipping now...

Some early thoughts after listening for a bit:

* The recording is clearly 'definitive' in my opinion due to the combination of quality, completeness and performances - although of course there are aspects of the OBC that are hard to repeat (energy & Lansbury's performance), and of course I think Bernadette turns out a great performance on the concert CD.

* The packaging looks nice and I now appreciate the art work much more than just seeing that early screenshot. Interestingly, in terms of liner notes they tried to emphasise the relevance of the '2020 first complete recording' to the Trump administration/Republican party with quotes and similarities to Trump and the show/show characters rather than go down a path of speaking about the history of the recording, why it has taken so long etc. In fact, except for a note when recording 'started' you can barely tell from their positioning it is an old recording.

I must admit, I like this approach and think it was an interesting perspective

* In terms of quality, it 'somewhat' sounds like it could be recorded yesterday but I would say the main difference to me from the current style is this recording feels theatrical to me and definitely not a dry studio recording in the sense that it sounds like the orchestra & performers are in a large room rather than standing 2cm away from a mic in a recording booth that has become more of the trend recently. I think it's mostly a good thing, but sometimes I wish the orchestra was a bit louder and wonder if some of the details are a bit muddled.

* In terms of performances, I think Maria Friedman stands out the most to me - she sounds a bit like a combination between Betty Buckley & Bernadette and succeeds in all of her songs in my opinion, vulnerable when needs to be vulnerable, a very powerful belt when called upon, funny in Play Wiz Me etc.

* Julia McKenzie is also in great voice and turns out a performance much much stronger than Madeline Kahn did on the CD - maybe not quite the energy of Lansbury but nothing to be embarassed about. I was a little afraid that the lack of previews of her tracks (besides parade in town) was because they were hiding something but not at all. What I like about this performance and all the others is the recording is clearly capturing performances that are acting the show. It’s not a stale recording to hit the notes and call it a day - it sounds like a lot of work and thought has gone into many of these performances in my opinion.

* I have listened to the OBC recording countless times, the concert CD a bit, saw the Encores! concert with Donna Murphy and now this recording and I still don't think I fully understand the show. I want to keep listening and trying to pick up all of the details because there is a lot going on especially musically. It's almost as if Sondheim tried way too hard to impress. It's just crazy to think this kind of show was performing while more 'simple', enjoyable traditional shows like Forum, Dolly!, the very melodic Funny Girl etc..were all playing nearby.

But I would be surprised if this recording would win over any new fans of the show, nor do I think it makes the show suddenly 'work'. I don't think it could ever be revived in a 'real' production. Is it me or does this show manage to feel both modern and incredibly dated at the same time?

Updated On: 11/25/20 at 02:01 PM