MERRILY 2023 Broadway Revival Cast Recording dropping 11/15 at midnight! — Page 3

Charley Kringas Inc said: "Imagining a world where Merrily, Company, and Sweeney are all touring at the same time."

Together?

Won't it be perfectly swell!

Just finished my first full listen.

It really is well-polished and well-mixed, and it sounds fantastic. Well done Joel Fram and team music for bringing this score to life, the entire company is pitch-perfect.

I've yet to see this production live (those prices!) but Groff really is the beating heart of the album, and, I would safely assume, the show. Radcliffe and Mendez are wonderful complements, the former delivering a scalding "Franklin Shepard, Inc." early on that should place him at the forefront of the Featured Actor Tony race, though all three of them will receive serious consideration in their categories.

I also took a liking to the three other featured principal performers, and I definitely heard a little Ron Carlisle come out during Reg's moment in "Opening Doors."

All you Sondheim and Merrily aficionados — it's your time, breathe it in. You've got another solid addition to your collection.

Overall I really enjoy this, though I do miss some of the fuller orchestrations in places. Lindsay Mendez is an absolute revelation, and I love how unique all the actors make their characters compared to other cast albums.

My only issue (and maybe it's because I'm used to the other albums) is that Jonathon Groff seems to almost be overenunciating words sometimes, particularly in That Frank and Growing Up. It feels almost as if he's trying too hard to get the words/emotions across, but I think he did perfectly fine in the rest of the album (and fwiw I thought he was great on stage), so not sure if that's just a thing for me to get used to,

slow_the_rain said: "jpbran said: "Crazy to see the polar opposite reactions to “everything.”"

FWIW, I think I would have been more open to the "everything" in Our Time not being sung if Groff hadn't made a similar choice in Growing Up with the line "We can have it all."

Sondheim's writing is specific, we all know this, so to have an actor choosing to speak lyrics that Sondheim set to specific pitches feels...off. Doubt we'd see any room left for these choices if the big man were still alive."

Sondheim was big on acting choices though, and often encouraged such choices. This is most evident in those videos of his masterclass. A strong choice was made, and based on things he has said in the past, I think he'd approve.

A 2 LP vinyl copy will be available March 1 at Barnes and Noble, which can now be preordered.

EDSOSLO858 said: "A 2 LP vinyl copy will be available March 1 at Barnes and Noble, which can now be preordered."

I don't get why people want vinyl editions of works that were recorded digitally. I understand wanting to hear a pre-digital recording the way it sounded in its initial format, but beyond that, I'm non-plussed.

I understand being a purist about Sondheim’s musicals. One of the things that bothered me about the Sweeney Todd revival was the endless horsing around during “A Little Priest,” which felt like Thomas Kail oddly didn’t trust the material and detracted from the song by slowing its rapid-fire humor. (It’s better on the cast recording.)

But in this case, and I have the advantage of having seen the revival, “Our Time” captures the feel of the way Jonathan Groff plays Frank. That’s what I like about the cast recording. There’s an intimacy to the show, and I noticed the smaller orchestra more on the recording than I did at the theater. “Our Time” does a terrific job, in just a few minutes, of showing Frank’s memory of his earnest hopes as a young man.

I will step in to defend "Growing Up." I think it was a crucial addition to the score, tying several musical motifs together that illustrate Frank's conflict. It comes at a moment when Frank is choosing between his friends and the path that Gussie is laying out for him, and ultimately he follows Gussie's advice. But Sondheim makes it quite clear which way Frank will go. "Growing Up" is almost entirely built on music associated with Gussie. The main theme - "So old friends, now you see it's time to start growing up..." etc. - is the same melody as Gussie's "The Blob." And she sings part of "Growing Up" to him in the Act 2 party scene, earlier in the story, later in the show, so of course she has inspired his current crisis. The serpentine melody of Gussie's "Life is knowing what you want, darling..." is used as the melody in Frank's conflicted section about Charlie and Mary ("Charlie is a hothead..." etc.), and that same melody is all over the rest of the score, basically insinuating itself. She also sings it at tempo in "The Blob" on "They're the most important people in the most important city..." That figure is heard in the synthesizer that is buzzing under much of "Franklin Shepard Inc.," in the transition into "Old Friends"/"Like It Was," and it's also near the top of the overture, being played in the brass and the reeds after the initial 16 bars. The song is really the moment where Frank chooses the wrong path, and the show would be less effective without it.

Updated On: 11/17/23 at 08:08 AM

Smaxie said: "I will step in to defend "Growing Up." I think it was a crucial addition to the score, tying several musical motifs together that illustrate Frank's conflict. It comes at a moment when Frank is choosing between his friends and the path that Gussie is laying out for him, and ultimately he follows Gussie's advice. But Sondheim makes it quite clear which way Frank will go. "Growing Up" is almost entirely built on music associated with Gussie. The main theme - "So old friends, now you see it's time to start growing up..." etc. - is the same melody as Gussie's "The Blob." And she sings part of "Growing Up" to him in the Act 2 party scene, earlier in the story, later in the show, so of course she has inspired his current crisis. The serpentine melody of Gussie's "Life is knowing what you want, darling..." is used as the melody in Frank's conflicted section about Charlie and Mary ("Charlie is a hothead..." etc.), and that same melody is all over the rest of the score, basically insinuating itself. She also sings it at tempo in "The Blob" on "They're the most important people in the most important city..." That figure is heard in the synthesizer that is buzzing under much of "Franklin Shepard Inc.," in the transition into "Old Friends"/"Like It Was," and it's also near the top of the overture, being played in the brass and the reeds after the initial 16 bars. The song is really the moment where Frank chooses the wrong path, and the show would be less effective without it."

The brilliance of “Growing Up” is that Frank goes from being grateful for his old friends and vowing not to let them down to being seduced by Gussie, literally but also by her advice. It’s a pivotal song in the show, especially because you realize later that Frank’s line about being able to have it all is really Gussie talking. That becomes more clear in the second act as it’s clear that Gussie, intentionally or not, has been planting those seeds for years. Frank, more eager for commercial success and the glamour of it all, is an eager audience - long before he’s involved with Gussie or divided from his friends.

As a non-sophisticate when it comes to the music, the motifs and melodies inMerrily We Roll Along are straightforward enough to grasp and really enhance the story.