Shenandoah Orginal Broadway Cast Album

Here I go again, waxing rhapsodic on the good ol' fashioned Broadway baritone. John Cullum is perhaps the last of the kind--at least the last with connections going back to the heyday of the American Broadway musical. He was in the original cast of Camelot in 1960; he was in the original cast of Urinetown in 2001. In between he did a lot of other stuff, but he won a Tony for his portrayal of Charlie Anderson in Shenandoah in 1975.

At first listen Shenandoah has a lot in common with Big River. Both are set in more or less frontier settings, both during the middle 19th century. Both address issues of slavery and the worth of the individual. And both use American (read Country) music to give atmosphere to their time and place.

I've never seen the show live on the stage, but I'd like to. The book for Shenandoah won a Tony and I bet it's a very timely exploration of war and the rights of the individual vs. the needs of the country. Perhaps it's time for a revival, as our country continues to struggle with these issues. It has been revived once, in the late 80s, with John Cullum reprising his role.

A couple of songs are note-worthy. "I've Heard it All Before" is a rather scathing condemnation of the reasons for going to war. The two "Meditations" delivered by Cullum are tours de force. The are several tunes that are lovely, but hampered by pedestrian lyrics. The only other name in the cast familiar to me is Joel Higgins in his pre"Silver Spoon" days.

Shenandoah
Music by Gary Geld
Lyrics by Peter Udell
Book by James Lee Barrett
Original Broadway Cast Album recorded in 1975
Released on RCA Victor
CD release in 1988
Cast: John Cullum, Joel Higgins, Donna Theodore, Penelope Milford, Ted Agress, Gordon Halliday