Sweet Smell of Success

In reading the long, complicated synopsis of this show in the cast album booklet, I can't help but wonder if the story of Sweet Smell of Success just didn't lend itself to being a musical. Certainly, it's not a musical comedy. I can imagine that a brass-knuckle type of story wouldn't appeal to a New York audience less than 6 months after the World Trade Tower attacks.

Too bad, because I really like the score to this show, with its strong supper club/jazz club-infused music. The voices, too, are all first-rate as I suspected they would be with talents like Brian d'Arcy James and Kelli O'Hara in the cast. Jack Noseworthy is a new name to me, and I must try to find out more about him, because he has a lovely tenor voice that seems to caress his songs in just the right way. His song "I cannot hear the City" deserves a life outside the show.

I do have a problem with the chorus music in this score--they seem to comment more on the action than to be part of it. And while there is some lively, syncopated rhythms for the chorus, it's all in unison.

Can't we all get get along in harmony?

Sweet Smell of Success
Music by Marvin Hamlisch
Lyrics by Craig Carnelia
Book by John Guare
Cast: John Lithgow, Kelli O'Hara, Brian d'Arcy James, Jack Noseworth, Stacey Logan