Ghost Light Monday -- Preaching to the choir

I'm a big choir person. Meaning both that I'm a big person and a lover of choirs. I've sung in them my whole life and if I didn't sing in one, I believe you would find me singing at the back of CTA buses and on El platforms.

So I was glad when my church choir got underway again after its summer hiatus. Our first two Sundays featured chestnuts from our repertoire that we could sing without too much rehearsal time, just fine tuning.

For the most part I love the people in my choir and appreciate their commitment to sing in a volunteer capacity week after week. But I have to complain about some of them, and for those of them who read this entry--you will know who you are.

Many members of my choir are very busy people, and making time for rehearsals on Wednesday night is not always possible. I get that. But if you can't show up Wednesday, AND you can't get to church on Sunday morning in time to rehearse with the choir, what are you doing singing that week?

Rehearsals are not just for you to learn the notes. I'm glad you know the notes. That's the first step. There's still a flight of steps to go before I want you singing with me. Rehearsal is also for me to know how loud to sing given the number of basses that day, to feel confident about cut-offs and tempo changes, and more mundane things like knowing where to stand.

So maybe if you miss a couple of rehearsals, you should sit in the congregation to listen to the choir. Perhaps in hearing us perform, you'll remember why you wanted to be a member of the group in the first place.

In case you're wondering: the photo for this entry is of New Zealand operatic baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes. He looks just like me.

Hair film on DVD

Three tribal rock musical films in a row, and the best is the third. Hair lets itself unfold slowly, rather than pounding its point across from the start. You think in the beginning its just a score of loosely connected songs strung together with a bit of character interaction between; but by the end you realize it has brought you along to its side, whether you be a Claude, a Sheila, a Berger, or a Charlotte Rae.

This film also uses its New York locations much better than does Godspell. Hair shows us people who are part of the city, not apart from it, which is the sense I got from the Gospellians.
I was shocked to see that Twyla Tharp had choreographed this film. There is a lot of dance in it. Sometimes, I thing there is too much dance and that it gets in the ways of the songs. It's certainly more than you could get away with on stage, because no one could sing and do what Twyla has them do. But points for incorporating modern dance into a tribal rock musical of love.

Hair

Music by Galt MacDermot

Book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado

Film directed by Milos Forman

Choreographed by Twyla Tharp

Cast: Treat Williams, Beverly d'Angelo, John Savage, Nell Carter, Charlotte Rae

Godspell film on DVD

I can't believe that the film versions of Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell came out in the same year, 1973. There are very different in style, tone, and even in their religious viewpoints, although both end the story with the crucifixion and don't refer to resurrection (hmmm). This is composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz's second appearance in my Year.

My Midwestern, protestant upbringing in the 70s included knowing and loving much of the music from Godspell, although I don't think I saw the film until years later. I still love the music, but find the story-telling techniques and production style very dated. The broad clowning to enact the parables between songs falls flat to me. And it struck me as very odd that the New York City scenes are void of people, making the ministry of Christ seem very insular.

The cast was probably all unknowns in 1973 (although two are from the original 1971 off-Broadway stage version of show). Today Victor Garber (Jesus) and Lynne Thigpen are well-known, respected actors. It was fun to see them in their pre-CSI-Law&Order-Alias (pick your tv franchise) days. The World Trader Center towers are all over this film (including in the photo I've uploaded for this entry), and I can't help but realize that this posting is going up on September 11th.

Godspell

A Musical based upon the Gospel According to St. Matthew

Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

Film directed by David Greene released by Columbia Pictures

Cast: Victor Garber, Lynne Thigpen, David Haskell, Katie Hanley, and several others.

Carnival Original Broadway Cast Album on CD

I hear you collectively asking "What happened to listening to cast albums, Michael? All your musical entries since July 12th have been musicals for film or television captured on DVD. Isn't the point of your Year to recapture the magic that listening to cast albums first gave you?"

Well, I have heard your queries and can respond. Getting DVDs through Netflix has been easier than finding recordings. All of the cast albums I've listened to so far have been owned by me. I'm determined to spend my musical money this Year seeing shows live, rather than buying additional cast albums, so I'm meting out the recordings I have left in my meager collection and looking into what the Chicago Public Library may have to offer for my listening pleasure.

In the meantime, I have listened to the cast album of Bob Merrill's Carnival, starring favorite song and dance man Jerry Orbach and crystalline-voice Anna Maria Alberghetti.

Carnival was one of the first musicals I saw live on stage, in a high school production that featured my baby-sitter. My guess is it was 1976 or '77. I remember nothing about it, except that the girl who played Lili (not my baby-sitter) had her arm in a cast, and I was uncertain if that was part of the story or if the girl just had a broken arm and they needed to "go on with the show." In reading through the byzantine description of how the story became the musical, and the plot of the musical, it's no wonder I don't remember much.

I have heard the most famous song from the score "Love Makes the World Go 'Round" too often and find it rather cloying at this point. The treat of discovery, though, is most of the rest of the music, which runs the gamut of styles without ever becoming predictable. The best songs of the score, for me, are "Her Face" and "She's My Love." These are Broadway baritone anthems, and I can't believe they're not sung more often. The Mel Torme version of "Her Face", presented as one of the CD bonus tracks, is over-produced and does no favor to the song. One delight of the bonus tracks is the jazz trombone choir version of "Mira" by J.J. Johnson, which has a slightly N'awlins funeral feel to it.

Bob Merrill appeared previously in my Year as the lyricist for Funny Girl, and I find it interesting that he was also a composer. Are there many Broadway composers who have written lyrics for other composer's music? I can only think of Stephen Sondheim.

Carnival
Music and Lyrics by Bob Merrill
Book by Michael Stewart
Original Broadway Cast Album on CD
Recorded in 1961; reissued with additional bonus tracks in 1989
Cast: Anna Maria Alberghetti, Jerry Orbach, Kaye Ballard, Pierre Olaf, James Mitchell

Jesus Christ Superstar film on DVD

I grew up with the original Broadway cast album of this show, without having seen the show in person, so watching the film version of Jesus Christ Superstar I had some different voices in my mind's ear. Only Mary Magdelene (Yvonne Elliman) and Pontius Pilate (Barry Dennen) are holdovers from the stage version that ran from 1971 - 1973.

This was the first Broadway cast album I heard for a show that was entirely music. I naively thought that made it an opera. Well, I've since discovered that is ain't necessarily so. There are many operas that have dialogue, and lots of through-sung musicals don't meet the musicological threshold to be opera. Of course, now opera companies often produce musicals, and contemporary operas often don't meet that same musicological threshold. That's a bad phrase (not to mention, a bad sentence), but I hope it makes my point. Which is really to say, that in a strange way Jesus Christ Superstar led me to explore opera. Go figure.

I remember seeing the film for the first time when I was a senior in high school and realizing how easy it was to side with Judas, which I have to believe is part of the point of the show and the film. Following Christ wasn't easy, and (not to make too strong a point) maybe it still shouldn't be.

This is the first appearance in my Year for composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. Love him or hate him, he'll be back.

Jesus Christ Superstar
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics by Tim Rice
1973 film directed by Norman Jewison
Cast: Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson, Yvonne Elliman, Barry Dennen

1776 film on dvd

Vote for independency! American history meets the American musical theater in 1776.

This 1972 film version captures the performances of much of the original cast from the Broadway show which ran from 1969 to 1972. This was composer/lyricist Sherman Edwards's only show on Broadway, and he won the Tony for Best Musical for 1969. The ensemble gets great stuff in this show (sorry ladies, but it's all men) due to that fact that each is portraying a specific historic personage, with a documented point of political view. And the music for small groups is wonderful.

Howard da Silva, who portrays Ben Franklin, is a bone fide Broadway legend and McCarthy era black-listed actor. Due to his being black-listed, this is one of his few film credits, and (I think) the only musical one. But on stage--besides originating Franklin in 1776--Mr. da Silva was in the original, banned production of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock, as well as the original Fiorello! and Oklahoma!, where he was Jud Fry. He did a ton of "straight" plays on Broadway, too, including Shakespeare when he was only 21. Exclamation points all around!

Most of this show really works for me. Although I don't really care for the voices of many of the actors, most of their portrayals and the strength of the material make up for that. And the cherry on top of the Sundae is that I have baritone favorite John Cullum singing the best and most powerful song of the score.

An alternative soundtrack on the DVD with discussion by creator Peter Stone and director Peter Hunt is really interesting, if you can devote the time to it. I'm currently also watching the HBO miniseries John Adams which stars Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. Expect a historical/musical compare and contrast at some point.

1776
Book by Peter Stone
Music and Lyrics by Sherman Edwards
Columba Pictures film release directed by Peter Hunt
Cast: William Daniels, Howard da Silva, Ken Howard, Blythe Danner, John Cullum, Virginia Vestoff

South Pacific in Concert from Carnegie Hall on DVD

Rodgers and Hammerstein's follow-up to Carousel was South Pacific, and my follow-up to the film Carousel is the 2005 taping for television of a one-night only semi-staged performance of South Pacific at Carnegie Hall.

The star-studded cast for this event was mostly from the world of musical theater with a couple of notable exceptions--Reba McEntire, and Alec Baldwin. Emile de Becque is sung by Tony-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell; Jason Danielley is Joe Cable; and Lillias White is Bloody Mary.

Mr. Mitchell is one of my favorite baritones, in the mold of John Raitt, with a robust and resonant voice that can climb into the high baritone range without losing its core. His singing of "Some Enchanted Evening" holds its own with the long list of operatic baritones who have sung the song before him, "This Nearly was Mine" rightfully brings the house down. In a show that is so much about race, though, I find it hard to see Nellie Forbush falling for Emile (portrayed by an African-American) then balking at the skin color of de Becque's children. But in a concert version, that is probably less important than in a fully-staged version.

Jason Danielley is a very likeable performer who can handle the rangey songs of Joe Cable. I've heard him live in concert, with his wife Marin Mazzie. While Mazzie is a high-wattage performer, Mr. Danielley can deliver the goods, too, as he does here with "Younger Than Springtime" and "You've Got to be Carefully Taught", although I question whether this song was shortened in this version.

Ms. McEntire is well-cast as Nellie Forbush. Her trademark accent and singing style really drive home the differences between Nellie and Emil. While I don't always agree with some of the vocal choices she makes, its hard to argue that she is a very watchable and listenable performer--in any genre.

Concert stagings of shows are hard things to balance, I would imagine. Often times, the performers' focus on their hand-held scripts seems to keep the performance from reaching out past the stage edge. Lillias White as Bloody Mary seems to understand this, and sings "Bali Hai" off book. It makes her performance that much more watchable, for me. Ms. McEntire does the same with the "Honey Bun" song, which from both a staging and engagement standpoint make it a lot more fun.

South Pacific
Music by Richard Rodgers
Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Presented in concert in 2005 at Carnegie Hall
Cast: Reba McEntire, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Alec Baldwin, Jason Danielley, Lillias White.