A Gene Kelly double bill--his first and last for MGM

Completely unplanned by me, I find that I have sitting in my mailbox the films that feature Gene Kelly's first starring role for MGM and his last starring role for MGM. So I thought it might be interesting to watch them back to back and compare and contrast. While both For Me and My Gal and Les Girls are films with music, neither were produced on the stage, although the later features songs by Cole Porter. Separated by 15 years, these films are definitely products of their times and present incredibly differing sets of morals.

For Me and My Gal from 1942 stars Judy Garland and Kelly as vaudevillians making the circuit and trying to climb up the ladder to better acts, better theaters and better pay. Essentially, though, this is a war film, promoting the heroic efforts of our boys in uniform (depicting WWI, but playing to a WWII audience). Kelly is willing to make any choice to get booked into the Palace Theater (the height of the circuit) and when his draft notice threatens that, he makes a "coward's choice", which he nearly immediately regrets.

Les Girls from 1957 is also set on the show circuit, this time in Europe, and with Kelly again playing a bit of a cad who is looking out for his own interests. The story-telling here is much less linear than the earlier film, as the story is presented as flashbacks from several characters' differing viewpoints.

Gene Kelly is of course the quintessential musical film cad--good-looking in a slick way and likable, but not trust-worthy. I found it interesting this was his niche from beginning to end at MGM, although I haven't watched his entire filmography, so perhaps he ventured outside that niche at some point. With that scar on his left cheek, you just have to wonder how he got it.

Dancing styles had certainly been transformed in the years between these two films. The choreography in Me and My Gal is straight out of the vaudeville theater, very presentational, very two-dimensional, and broadly performed, despite being directed by Busby Berkeley. In Les Girls, dance numbers are much more lavish and emotionally charged. There are moving camera points, movable sets, and a looser, more sexually charged style of choreography.

The music in both films is rather forgettable, I'm afraid. The title song in the earlier film is a standard, but nothing else really reached out to me. Les Girls features "Ca C'est L'amour", which is a nice song, but with only five songs in the whole film (mostly presented in the "show within the film" setting) I can't really consider it a musical. I was interested to learn, though, through a DVD extra interview, that Porter wrote 12 songs for the film and only 5 were used.

For Me and My Gal
Music by several people including Roger Edens
Directed by Busby Berkeley
Released in 1942
Cast: Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Marta Eggerth, George Murphy

Les Girls
Music and lyrics by Cole Porter
Directed by George Cukor
Released in 1957
Cast: Gene Kelly, Mitzi Gaynor, Taina Elg, Kay Kendall

Richard Rodgers: Some Enchanted Evening stage concert on DVD

There is no other musical theater composer whose music I fantasize singing while standing in the bright spotlight of a packed Broadway house more than I do the music of Richard Rodgers. Perhaps that is because the first musical I was in was The Sound of Music ("I'm Friedrich. I'm 14. I'm a boy"). I've also been in Oklahoma!, and Carousel (twice). So Rodgers' tunes are what I most often hear in my head--and they often leak out.

So I was excited to watch this 2002 centenary celebration Richard Rodgers: Some Enchanted Evening. And there is much to like in this revue of Rodgers' music from his work with both Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein, filmed in a London performance for PBS broadcast. The enjoyment starts with listening to the on-stage orchestra play the overture. It is more and more rare that full string sections are used to play Broadway scores, and it is always a treat to hear them, along with winds, brass, and anything other than a synthesizer.

The line-up of performers is also first rate, although many names were new to me since they are London-based. Kim Criswell seems to be channelling Julie Andrews in her performance of "I Have Confidence in Me" from the film version of The Sound of Music. Dave Willets (do I have that name right?) sings the Carousel "Soliloquy" admirably. Along with the "usual" Rodgers fare--"Some Enchanted Evening" (sung by a woman?), "Getting to Know You", "Oklahoma", "If I Loved You" (sung as a solo--boo), and "You'll Never Walk Alone"--it's nice to hear at least a couple of songs Rodgers wrote with Hart-- "My Funny Valentine", and "Johnny One-Note".

I suspect that this broadcast is greatly edited from its stage version. Apart from truncated spoken introductions, some numbers must have been cut also. I can't believe that Judy Dench only performed her one comic number. On the DVD, Gillian Anderson only appears in the opening spoken introduction; she must have reappeared at some point in the stage version.

It was nice to see the "Kansas City" song and dance from the cast of the London Oklahoma! In her introduction to it, Maureen Lipman (Aunt Eller) makes some funny jokes about the full London cast not being invited along with Hugh Jackman to be in the New York production.

While the television direction is good and offers a balance between close-ups and full stage shots, I suspect the staging viewed in the theater was very static. It seems hardly anyone moves, which was particularly noticeable in the duets. Why were duet partners on opposite sides of the stage so often? They weren't doing the twin soliloquies from South Pacific.

Richard Rodgers: Some Enchanted Evening
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein, and Richard Rodgers
Presented in London in 2002
Filmed for broadcast on PBS
Cast: Kim Criswell, Ruthie Henshall, Judy Dench, Lesley Garrett, Maureen Lipman, Claire Moore, Brendan O'Hea, Graham Bickley, Jimmy Johnston, Sally Burgess, Dave Willets

Ghostlight Monday: Milk--film at the multiplex

What exactly is a plex and do you need more than two to make it a multiplex? My grandmother lived in a duplex for a while, did she show films there?

Anyway, I shelled out my 9 dollars to sit in a crowded but incredibly quiet movie theater to see the latest gay-themed film making the circuit. Gay films are notoriously bad, but I always like to see them in the theater, because you never know when you might get lucky--I mean with the quality of the film, of course.

Well, I got very lucky with Milk.

This is much less a gay film than it is a political film. Yes, all the primary characters are gay men (and one token gay woman), but the struggles of these characters are more about how to organize themselves and others to their cause. And therein lies the strength of the film. This is a universal theme; we've seen a version of this story in films about Black civil rights, Gandhi, Mexicans, Cubans, the Irish, Suffragettes (which has to be the most sexist way to refer to someone struggling for political power), labor unions, Canadians, disabled people, even cartoon animals, so why not the gays?

Rather than that universality hurting the cause, it helps this movie and--one hopes--the appreciation for the struggles of all special interest groups seeking equal rights under the promise of "one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Milk

Film release of 2008
Directed by Gus van Sant
Cast: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Emil Hirsch, James Franco

Sweeney Todd in Concert--PBS broadcast on DVD

There are so many versions of this show that I could have chosen from, perhaps more than any other musical theatre piece. There are opera versions, Broadway versions, concert versions, a film version, and studio cast versions. What is it about Sweeney Todd that elicits such a desire to produce and record it?

Well, the strength and variety of the music in the show may be the first reason. There are many memorable songs and musical moments in Sweeney, but I was struck in watching this concert version how much music between the big numbers I didn't remember, and how good and interesting is that connective music. This version may make more of the music than many others as the score is played by a top-notch symphony orchestra. Vocally, this version is also strong across the board, as you might suspect from an orchestral production. However, most of the performers do not come from the opera house or the concert stage, they come from the Broadway tradition.

George Hearn and Patti Lupone are particularly well matched vocally. Both are firmly from the Broadway tradition and are willing to let "vocal beauty" be subordinate--when appropriate--to characterization. I was particularly struck with the ability of George Hearn to stand on equal vocal footing with Timothy Nolen, an operatic baritone who portrays Judge Turpin. I've seen Mr. Nolen live on stage in this role, at the Lyric Opera where Sweeney was sung by Bryn Terfel. Nolen can hold his own with anyone and I believe it is the strength of both Messrs Nolen and Hearn that they can morph their vocal style to match not only the character and the moment, but also their colleagues.

Props must be given to the production team for this concert version, too. This is an ambition take from a production standpoint for an orchestra in a orchestra hall. The staging is detailed, the script and music memorized by the performers, there are costumes, furniture, some props, many light and sound cues. It must have really pushed the limits of the capability of Davies Hall.

Sweeney Todd
In Concert with the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus
Conducted by Rob Fisher
Directed by Lonny Price
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Aired on PBS in 2001, released on DVD in 2002
Cast: George Hearn, Patti Lupone, Neil Patrick Harris, Timothy Nolen, Davis Gaines, Lisa Vroman, John Aler, Stanford Olsen, Victoria Clark

The Seven Deadly Sins--film on DVD

I have had a love affair with Kurt Weill for most of my life, ever since I was in a production of Threepenny Opera my freshman year of college. It was wonderfully dark, and really appealed to my inner goth, which rarely appeared from underneath my outer Preppy. I'm not certain when I first discovered Weill's Seven Deadly Sins, but I have several recordings of it at this point. I've never seen it performed live, although I believe it has been performed at Orchestra Hall in Chicago sometime in the last decade. Imagine my thrill at realizing that there is a version of the work on DVD.

Sins comes from Weill's Wiemar era. Created five years after Threepenny Opera, it was Weill and Bertold Brecht's final collaboration. The creators call this piece a sung ballet, and while it may not be obvious what the piece is by those words, that is a pretty accurate description of it. More theatrical than a cantata. Not opera, although some of the singing needed is on that level, but a different sort of music theater. The cast includes a male vocal quartet, a singing woman (soprano or mezzo, as the work exists in two different keys), and a female actor/dancer.

While this production was co-produced by The Lyon Opera, this is clearly a version for television or film. There is much outdoor film footage edited in between scenes of the theatre piece. And while the theatre section of the work may be based on a stage production, it is filmed with too many close-ups to be a stage work in this version.

Director Peter Sellars obviously had many ideas about this work and its meanings, and he puts every one of them into this video version. I found the whole thing too cluttered with images and messages to take away much of anything. The editing is very quick, and all the performers are presented almost exclusively in close-up. Nora Kimball seemed underutilized as Anna II. I wanted to see her actually dance.

For me, this work is a discussion of whom is allowed the luxury of a virtuous life. Weill and Brecht clearly felt that only the rich could afford to steer clear of sinning. With a scene dedicated to each of the seven sins (sloth, pride, wrath, gluttony, lust, greed, envy), we see Anna I and Anna II--really a singer version and a dancer version of the same person--go from city to city trying to feed themselves and send something back home to the family.

The singing is first rate. Stratas (who became a bit of a Weill specialist in her later career) is particularly good--musical and still emotional. The male quartet sings very well, although is asked to do some ridiculous action. There are parts of the libretto that are funny for Americans to read. Neither Weill or Brecht had been to America, but each scene in Sins is set in a different US city, as the Annas make their way in the world.

I just read that there is a translation of the libretto by WH Auden. I must check that out.

Music by Kurt Weill
Text by Bertold Brecht
First performed in 1933
Lyon Opera television production created in 1993
Directed by Peter Sellars
Conducted by Kent Nagano
Cast: Teresa Stratas, Frank Kelley, Nora Kimball, Peter Rose, Howard Haskin, Herbert Perry

The Pirates of Penzance stage production on DVD

Someone needs to help me find some Gilbert and Sullivan productions on DVD that will capture the fun I remember doing these shows back in the day. I've struggled through pedantic BBC television production, an Australian Opera G&S that seems stellar by contrast, and now an Australian television taping of a stage version of Pirates of Penzance which continues to have me scratching my head asking "Don't some good versions of G&S exist"?

This version of Pirates has a lot going on, and some of it is not without positive attributes. My primary beef is that is too much going on with this production--too many jokes, too many asides, too many liberties with text and score.

The music-making seems undervalued and continually sacrificed for the sake of a joke. This starts with the "orchestra" consisting of perhaps four synthesizers, rather than actual instruments. I want my operetta with something other than keyboard accompaniment, even if that keyboard is imitating, strings, or brass or woodwinds. Yes, I am an old bitty.

The singing is sometimes good. Helen Donaldson as Mabel has a small voice, but is able to do all the coloratura, which is nice to hear. Simon Gallaher as Frederick also has the full range to sing this role. Jon English as the Pirate King and Derek Metzger as the Major-General do more joke-making than singing, and I tired quickly of both performances. Mr. English seems to be a sort of star in Australia as a rock musician and musical theater performer with credits in Jesus Christ Superstar, Blood Brothers, and several G&S productions. He has much of that 70s hair band look down. Of course, that was 20 years before this show was filmed and age is not often kind to 70s rockers.

I liked the physical production of this show. The set looks like it could be in some English rural town hall production (which I mean in a charming way), and the costumes are first-rate. I don't know exactually why the chorus of women is only allowed to be three (I guess the Blendettes, or whatever their name is only gets to be three), but I think it's cheating. You need a daughter for every pirate, or someone's going to be off in a corner at the end, or off with another pirate (hmmm).

The endless encores of "With Catlike Tread" made me want to throw something at my television. Ditto, the "Hooked on Pirates" medley that accompanied the bows. Parts of this production show up on YouTube and if I had been smart enough to see those bits, I would have skipped the whole show. Believe me, I'll tread cat-like before I watch another G&S production from this team.

Pirates of Penzance
Music by Arthur Sullivan
Libretto by William Gilbert
Premiered in 1879
This productions filmed for Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1994 based on the touring production of the same year.
Directed by Peter Butler
Cast: Simon Gallaher, Jon English, Helen Donaldson, Toni Lamond, Derek Metzger

Classical Monday--Verdi Requiem live with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

It may have been the coldest weather in Chicago in something like 15 years, but I had the hottest ticket in town this weekend. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, chorus, soloists and conductor Riccardo Muti (left) performed the Verdi Requiem in three performances.

This is a monumental work, and while it is often performed, it is often performed poorly. It takes a good orchestra with fantastic wind players, a regiment of capable choristers, four top flight soloists, and mostly a conductor who knows how to keep everyone working toward the same thing. Fortunately, many of those elements were in place for the CSO performances. Maestro Muti is the CSO music director designate and will come on board with the orchestra starting with the 2010-11 season. This is Muti's first appearance with the CSO since being named to the post. The Music Director position has been vacant since Daniel Barenboim left in 2006, I think it was.

But on to the Requiem. This is a choral work, primarily. And while the soloists and the orchestra have their moments in the sun and would detract from the work if not fully capable, it is the chorus that decides whether this piece succeeds or fails. The CSO Chorus made this work a success. Able to morph their sound from full-throated fortes to hushed unisons, the 150-voice group made nary a misstep.

Likewise, the instrumental soloists were spot on. This work calls for 8 trumpets, four on-stage and four off (or in the balcony as was the case for this performance). There are five horns. Legendary principal horn Dale Clevenger handled his delicate solo magnificently. All the woodwind moments were delightful.

I had never heard any of the vocal soloists sing either live or in recordings. Soprano Barbara Frittoli is a big recording and opera star, whose repertoire includes all of the lead roles in the Verdi canon. Mezzo-soprano Olgo Borodina also has many recordings and a distinguished opera career. Tenor Mario Zeffiri and bass Ildar Abdrazakov were completely new names to me. While all four were very able in their singing, the stand out for me was Ms. Borodina; she was both a powerhouse and musical. All four solo parts are incredibly rangy, calling for secure high notes and robust low notes--Ms. Borodina was particularly exciting throughout all registers.

In a rare opportunity, I also had the chance to attend the final rehearsal of the work, which I found very interesting. I had never been to a CSO rehearsal; it was not like the final dress rehearsal at Lyric Opera; Maestro Muti stopped and started many times. While I couldn't always hear what he was saying to the orchestra or chorus, it was clear there was a lot of respect given the maestro by players and singers. Muti seemed to focus his comments on the articulation of the wind players and the articulation of consonants by the chorus. He wanted very strong final consonants--sometimes too strong for my tastes.

But then I'm not Italian.

Requiem Mass
Music by Giusseppe Verdi
Text from the latin
Presented by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Chorus
Conducted by Riccardo Muti
Soloists: Barbara Frittoli, Olga Borodina, Mario Zeffiri, Ildar Abdrazakov

Sorry but the final performance has already taken place

Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake on DVD

My recent exposure to The Car Man of choreographer slash director Matthew Bourne sent me to my Netflix queue to move Bourne's Swan Lake up the list. Yes, the homo-eroticism of both pieces is not lost on me and there-in lies at least part of my interest (I won't say which part).

Swan Lake made a big splash on both sides of the pond and ran on Broadway for several months--something unheard of for ballet. But this is not just ballet. While Bourne's choreography in The Car Man is firmly in the modern dance vein, his Swan Lake includes more styles, at least to my untrained eye. There is certainly ballet, but also modern, some variations on ballroom, and a send-up of historical dance.

The story told here is one of a lonely and confused young prince who is dominated by his cold mother, manipulated by the royal press secretary and uncommitted to his lower-class girl-friend. As he is about to throw himself into the lake, swans come to life as bare-chested men. The prince becomes enamored of the lead swan. Whether this is an hallucination by the prince is up to the viewer, I suppose. After not drowning himself, the prince attends a ball where a young man who looks just like the lead swan is announced to be his mother's fiance. The still confused prince becomes violent and is sedated and taken to his room. There he hallucinates again about the swans. When his mother returns to check on him, the prince is either dead or catatonic and we see him with the lead swan through the bedroom window. I've never seen a traditional telling of the story, so I can't say how Mr. Bourne has changed the story (apart from the gender switches).

Like Will Kemp (who is in the corps de ballet here, but later danced the lead swan) from The Car Man, Adam Cooper is a lovely, communicative dancer and very sexy as the lead swan/mother's fiance. He takes the brunt of the dance time, too, as Scott Ambler as the prince is a much more passive role and is often watching the action rather than making it occur. I was also struck by Mr. Ambler seeming too old for the role. This wouldn't have been an issue if I were seeing it on stage, but in close-ups, Mr. Ambler does not appear to be a spring chicken--er, swan. Fiona Chadwick as the prince's mother does some lovely dancing and has a great wardrobe.

I have to say this is not entirely a positive image for gay identity. The prince is ashamed and confused by his attraction to swan/fiance man. At several points the prince is mocked by taunting crowds. He becomes defensive and violent and only in death does he get his lover. The male swans are also very protective of the lead swan, and rather violent toward the prince, not allowing him and the swan to come together in the bedroom scene.

Isn't that just like a bunch of catty swans?

Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake
Music by Tchaikovsky
Story and Choreography by Matthew Bourne
Cast: Adam Cooper, Scott Ambler, Fiona Chadwick

All-Star Tribute to Cole Porter--Bell Telephone Hour on DVD

The collection of Bell Telephone Hour broadcasts are a treasure trove of notable performances from the 50s and 60s. I've previously seen some of the opera performers (Leontyne Price, Joan Sutherland, etc), but had never seen an Hour with musical theater performers. Well, that streak ended with The Tribute to Cole Porter. This show offers 6 solo performers and a chorus in 48 songs of Porter in an hour. If you're doing the math that means each song gets about a minute and 7 seconds. The writers of this show seem particularly proud that they were able to cram in so many tunes, because they constantly have our hostess with the mostess Ethel Merman tell us how many songs they've hit on already.

As you might guess from the statistic above, most of the songs are presented in medley, and therein lies the problem for me. It's a little difficult to assess the strength or wit or structure of a song if you're only getting the chorus, or even less. I suppose if I had previously known most of the songs (as I assume many viewers in 1964 did) it may have triggered a memory, rather than making me wish I could hear the whole song.

The performers are uniformly good. Ms. Merman is built to be appreciated from a distance, in my opinion, and a lot of her in close-up is not always the best way to see or hear her. But she takes the heaviest load in this show; besides narrating between sets, she sings probably a third of the 48 songs. The rest of the cast includes John Raitt, Martha Wright, Gretchen Wyler, New York City Ballet star Jillana, and pianist Peter Nero. The Misses Wright and Wyler are new to me. Ms. Wright has a particularly pleasant voice that transitions well into the upper register. She reminds me a bit of Kelli O'Hara. Ms. Wyler is a character singer.

I got this DVD because I was interested in hearing more Cole Porter--I still am interested, but this broadcast did nothing to satisfy my curiosity.

The Cole Porter Tribute: A Bell Telephone Hour
Television presentation from 1964
Released on DVD in 2004
Cast: Ethel Merman, John Raitt, Martha Wright, Gretchen Wyler, Jillana, Peter Nero

Ghost Light Monday--Wall-E on DVD

I had not been interested in seeing this film due mostly to my feeling that in past Pixar films I found the CG lacking in warmth and humanity--perhaps an unfair gripe with an animated film. Well, thanks to a rousing endorsement from some trusted friends who know my film and television likes and dislikes very well, I watched Wall-E on DVD for my non-musical entry this Monday. I'm very glad I did, for this film has changed my view of what an animated movie can be.

It can be charming; it can be emotional; it can convey feelings; it can mimic humanity. I don't ask much more from live actors I see perform, so why would I look for more than this from animation? Often the live actors disappoint, but the characters in Wall-E did not.

The opening third of the film has next to no dialogue, and I didn't miss it. I was sort of disappointed (but not shocked) to hear words when they reappeared.

The story of going up against strong systems also appealed to me. And there were even two songs from the film version of Hello Dolly! to keep this Broadway boy tuned in!

The Car Man--stage version adapted for film on DVD

It's Carmen week here at The Year of Musical Thinking. My last entry was the version of Bizet's opera adapted by Oscar Hammerstein to the rural African-American experiences in the 1940s. Today it's The Car Man, Matthew Bourne's dance version of the story using Bizet's music updated to white America in the 1950s.

It must be the rampant sex appeal of this story which makes everyone want to adapt it for their time and place. And this version ups the sex and violence quotient; besides hot dancers in jeans and t-shirts (sometimes), there are a couple of bi-sexual characters, a lot of bludgeoning and a prison rape scene.

The Car Man never played on Broadway that I could discern, although Bourne's highly-touted all-male Swan Lake did make a splash on Broadway. This is a film version of Car Man adapted from the West End stage production , I believe.

Bourne changes Bizet's story in many ways (besides having the smoldering outsider be a man, rather than a woman). The Bizet music is used best when there is a strong sense of rhythm to hold on to (at least for me to hold on to, the dancers don't seem to have any trouble). The solo and duet dances are the most captivating, but the group numbers have a lot of athleticism to enjoy. I've said before, I don't know much about dance, but Mr. Bourne seems to have a large "vocabulary" which is based in the world of modern dance in this work. I'll need to see his Swan Lake to see if he dances other languages, too.

Some of the edits that are "outside" the theatrical staging are clumsy, but on the whole this is well filmed. Alan Vincent, who portrays the Car Man, Luca, is very sexy in the beginning, but is outshone in the second act by Will Kemp. I'm sure I'm not the first to admire Mr. Kemp, who is part of Bourne's usual group of dancers. Mr. Kemp is a beautiful dancer and a very expressive actor. He's making the transition to non-dancing roles, including Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet. Mr. Kemp also portrayed the horse Nugget in the Daniel Radcliff production of Equus, recently.

The Car Man
Story adapted and choreography by Matthew Bourne
Music by Georges Bizet
2001 stage show slightly adapted for filming
Cast: Alan Vincent, Will Kemp, Saranne Curtin, Etta Murfitt.

Carmen Jones--film on DVD

What an attractive cast. Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte must be two of the sexiest people ever to be on film, and they are together and at the height of their appeal in Otto Preminger's film version of Carmen Jones, which uses the general story and music from Bizet's opera Carmen in a new setting with new lyrics and dialogue by Oscar Hammerstein II.

While Dandridge and Belafonte are both singers, we hear neither of their singing voices in this film, due to the extreme vocal ranges for Carmen's and Joe's roles. A young Marilyn Horne supplies the vocals for Carmen. Knowing Ms. Horne's voice well from her storied opera career, it is interesting to hear her morph her sound to make it fit Dandridge's physicality. The voice is completely unrecognizable as Horne's, but sounds very much as if it could be Dandridge's. Whomever sings for Belafonte is less successful.

I love the music of Bizet's Carmen, which forms the basis of this score, although I've never seen it in an opera house. I did see the Peter Brook version that played at Lincoln Center in the 80s. It was a bit of a cross between the opera and a theatre piece, although I don't recall much of it other than it was the first time I had seen fire live on stage, and the iconic tableau of Don Jose squeezing the orange into Carmen's mouth.

According to the broadway database, there has not been a Broadway remount of this show since the 1940s. A lot of the dialogue and lyrics seem dated and stereotypical by today's standards, but I wonder if this show would work in a concert setting? Everytime I heard Pearl Bailey speak or sing, I kept imagining Queen Latifah. Audra McDonald could certainly sing Carmen. I don't know about the role of Joe, but how about Brian Stokes Mitchell singing Husky Miller (who sings the Toreodor song)?

Carmen Jones
Music by Georges Bizet
Lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein II
Film directed and produced by Otto Preminger
Released in 1954
Cast: Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll, Joe Adams

The Great American Trailer Park Musical--Original Cast recording on CD

I hesitate to poke fun at trailer parks; as someone working in the arts, I will likely end up living in one--if I'm lucky. 'Til then, though, I will have a hoot listening to the recording of The Great American Trailer Park Musical. I laughed out loud more often listening to this score than any I've encountered yet in my Year. I must put more spoof musicals on the docket.



I don't want to give away any of the jokes, most of which lie in the pop-culture-ridden lyrics, but I will say there is a funny take-off on the 80s disco number "It's Raining Men" by the Weathergirls.

The cast of 7 is uniformly good--particularly the women, several of whom act as a sort of Greek chorus as well as their primary characters. Orfeh is new to my Year, but not new to me. She's enjoying a significant musical theater career--and her singing on this disc shows why. The other familiar name in the cast is Shuler Hensley, who was in the production of Oklahoma! with Hugh Jackman I encountered early in my Year. Mr. Hensley also created the role of the Monster in Mel Brooks's musicalization of his Young Frankenstein, now running on Broadway.

Mr. Hensley doesn't have a lot to sing in Trailer Park, and that which he does sing is only so-so. If I had one gripe about this show, I wished for a song for the men that was a funny and singable as most of the stuff for the female characters.




The Great American Trailer Park Musical
Music and Lyrics by David Nehls
Book by Betsy Kelso
Premiered in 2004, recorded in 2005
Cast: Kaitlin Hopkins, Shuler Hensley, Orfeh, Marya Grandy, Leslie Kritzer, Linda Hart, Wayne Wilcox

Classical Monday--Gerald Finley sings Songs of Samuel Barber on CD

I have loved the songs of Samuel Barber for a long time. Barber's lyrical writing and strong sense of text make a nice respite from the spiky, 12-tone music of his 20th century composing contemporaries. So when BBC Music Magazine highly recommended a new recording of Barber's songs by Canadian baritone Gerald Finley, I knew how I was going to spend part of my Amazon.com gift card. I'm so glad I did, because there is a lot to admire in Hyperion's Songs by Samuel Barber, with Finley and pianist Julius Drake.

This is a selection of Barber songs, and in that even are some unusual choices. "Hermit Songs" is a collection of 10 songs to poems by Irish and Gaelic monks, and it is usually song by sopranos. Mr. Finley makes a fine case for it being a cycle for the male voice, though. I don't know if he sings it in the same key as the sopranos, but he displays a smooth legato and an ease in the upper register that will win me over every time. Also notably sung on this disc is "Dover Beach", long a part of the baritone repertoire. But none of the selections on this recording are less than good, and many display recital singing of the highest caliber.

I've heard Mr. Finley sing live on one occasion, he portrayed Robert Oppenheimer in John Adams's opera Dr. Atomic at Lyric Opera of Chicago last season. Finley's singing, particularly the aria "Batter my heart, three-personed God" (based on the poem of John Donne) at the end of Act I, was a high-point of the production for me.

Songs by Samuel Barber
Gerald Finley, baritone
Julius Drake, piano
released by Hyperion

Jerry Herman's Broadway: Live at the Hollywood Bowl on DVD

Tribute shows to performers or composers can really run the gamut from embarrassing to terrific, with a lot of smaltz in between. Fortunately, Jerry Herman's Broadway: Live at the Hollywood Bowl reaches nearer the terrific end of that spectrum.

One thing I like about Jerry Herman's music is that it has a strong structure; there is an introduction, an A section, a repeat of the A section, a short B section, and than a triumphant return to the A section often one step up in key. AABA--no, it's not that group that sang Mama Mia, it's a classic musical structure, and it works. Herman writes tunes you can hum, and anthems you can belt.

The cast of this tribute show is generally very good, and while several are "well-seasoned" shall we say, most remained near the top of their game at the time this show was taped in 1994. These singers know how to sell a song, when to raise the arms, how to tilt the head back, how long to hold the final note. If I have one objection to the show it is that too many of the songs are in that vein. I wished for a couple of downbeat songs that ended quietly--but that's not Mr. Herman, so he can't be held accountable.

There are the requisite taped interviews congratulating the honoree, most of which seem unnecessary. Jerry, I'll give you Angela Lansbury, but Linda and Paul McCartney?

Most of the songs included are the typical show-stopper types familiar from his shows. But if you only know Mame and Hello, Dolly, you'll hear wonderful songs from Mack and Mabel, La Cage aux Folles, and Dear World (which I had never heard of). I was particularly taken with the singing by Leslie Uggams, who I will need to check out more of during my Year.

Jerry Herman's Broadway: Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman
Filmed in 1994
Cast: Leslie Uggams, Rita Moreno, George Hearn, Beatrice Authur, Davis Gaines, Carol Channing, Florence Lacey, Lorna Luft, Lee Roy Reams

The Ten Commandments: The Musical live performance on DVD

Val Kilmer's just had a birthday. He might not consider this a gift.

I had known of this musical for several years, but had never heard any songs from it. Well, after watching two hours of The Ten Commandments: The Musical, I'm not certain I've heard any songs from it yet. The score of this show falls into that category of employing musical phrases that don't really add up to songs--a sort of Broadway recitative that I've found annoying before and which reached a new low for me in this show.

Add to that the feeling that this show must be where 4th place American Idol singers go to die. Everyone (except Mr. Kilmer as Moses) seems to squall and whoop and holler like they're trying to arouse Simon Cowell. Well, I'm sorry to emulate that well-documented curmudgeon, but that singing just won't do.

If Mr. Kilmer could actually sing, he may have offered a nice alternative to all the caterwauling around him, but his voice seems under-supported with no upper register. I found it odd that so much of the show was sung around Moses, rather than by Moses, but given Kilmer's vocal limitations, and the composer's want of power-wailing, I guess that's what has to be. All of the significant moments in Moses' life have songs sung by other characters (Moses finds out he's a Jew, song by his mother; Moses hears the voice of God in the burning bush, no song; Moses meets his wife, song by the wife; Moses brings the tablets down from Mt. Sinai, song by some child).

All this makes Moses seem a little passive in his own story. And Mr. Kilmer complies in his acting.

This show seems to have died its deserved death after playing the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles.

The Ten Commandments: The Musical
Music by Patrick Leonard
Original French Score by Pascal Obispo
Lyrics by Maribeth Derry
Presented in a limited run at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles in 2004
Taping of live performance released on DVD in 2006
Cast: Val Kilmer, Kevin Earley, Lauren Kennedy, Ipale, Adam Lambert, Alisan Porter, Nita Whitaker, Luba Mason, Michele Pereira, Nick Rodriguez