Two from Deanna Durbin on DVD

I always thought of Deanna Durbin as some darling of the musical cinema in the late 30s and 40s, although I think I've only seen her as a juvenile singing the "legit" contrast to Judy Garland's swing. Well, I got a double dose of adult Deanna with It Started with Eve and Can't Help Singing, two musical films Miss Durbin made for Universal in 1941.

Eve is a more a mad-cap comedy with a couple of songs interpolated into it. Durbin plays a young classically trained singer who through a series of misadventures and lies poses as the fiancee of a young, wealthy playboy from New York City (Robert Cummings). The four songs Durbin sings during the film are operetta standards or art songs (one in Spanish). No one else sings in the film--probably a blessing as Robert Cumming's father is played by Charles Laughton. While Durbin's singing is first rate, the material is really lacking in substance. In particular, the film could have used a big, showy finale number for its star; as it is the story just ends.

Can't Help Singing is more of a traditional film musical, although there are only four songs in it, provided from the pen of Jerome Kern and Yip Harburg. I don't know if these songs were used elsewhere. Only the title song caught my ear, although Durbin's co-star Robert Paige has a nice voice.

I very much like Deanna Durbin's voice and regret that she didn't have a bigger, glitzier film career. Her voice has much more character than Kathryn Grayson or Jeannette MacDonald.

Can't Help Singing

It Started with Eve

released by Universal Pictures in 1941 and 1944

Cast: Deanna Durbin, Robert Cummings, Robert Paige, Charles Laughton

Best Foot Forward--Off-broadway Cast Album on CD

The liner notes are rather skimpy with the CD reissue of this 1963 off-Broadway remount of the 1941 show Best Foot Forward, so I may get a lot wrong in my assessment of this recording. Its difficult to tell who is singing when, as there is not printed libretto, as many recordings have.

I was intrigued by this recording for several reasons--primarily it was the New York stage debut of Liza Minnelli. Also, Christopher Walken is in this production, along with his brother Glenn. The Walken Bros.'s bios say they modeled for the Conover Agency. Sadly a google image search did not reveal a photo for my use with this entry.

According to the liner notes, composer Hugh Martin is credited with the wonderful three-part arrangement of "Sing for you Supper" from Rodgers and Hart's Boys From Syracuse. So I was looking forward to the women's trio "The Three B's" from this score. While the song is generally wonderful, and well sung by Minnelli, Kay Cole and Renee Winters, it doesn't contain a lot of the the tight, three-part Andrews Sisters-like harmonies I was expecting.

The act one "Ev'ry Time" should be a cabaret or big band standard. Maybe it it, although I had never heard it. Several songs form act two deserve some continued life: "You're Lucky is a great ballad tune that suffers from some pedestrian lyrics; "What Do You Think I Am?" and "A Raving Beauty" are both fun duets; "You are for Loving" is also a nice ballad in the big band style.

The score is performed on "twin" pianos--which seems like an odd phrase two me--giving the music a slight cabaret feel, which didn't bother me too much, although I'm certain some of the lusher songs suffered from this reduced instrumentation.

Two bonus tracks on the CD are songs from the score that Liza recorded on her debut 1963 album, which was released about the time of the stage production. While these versions of "You Are For Loving" and "What Do You Think I Am?" have a fuller accompaniment, their arrangements suffer from sounding rather dated at this point. In each case I prefer the version from the show.

Best Foot Forward

Music and lyrics by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane
Opened on Broadway in 1941
Off-Broadway remount opened in 1963
Cast: Liza Minnelli, Christopher Walken (billed as Ronald Walken), Paula Wayne, Glenn Walken, Karin Wolfe, Grant Walden, Kay Cole, Renee Winters,

Lady in the Dark Recording

It's another studio recording, not an actual recording of a cast that mounted and ran a production. That seems a bit like cheating. There must be things that you learn about the show, the music, the role during staging rehearsals and performances in front of an audience that don't get discovered when only working in a recording studio.

That said, I don't think there is another recording of Kurt Weill's Lady in the Dark, so I'm glad to have this one. Rise Stevens sings the role of Liza Elliot, the titular Lady. Ms. Stevens had a significant operatic career. I don't know if she did much Broadway or musicals in general. The extensive notes with this CD reissue quote her as saying that she could sing the music without sounding like an opera singer. Well...

The male lead is John Reardon, a Broadway baritone who had a cross-over career into classical music, too. Bernstein wrote an orchestral/vocal work for him and I believe Reardon originated some Broadway roles. Reardon's another of those John Raitt "real singer" types that I most admire. It's something about the vocal training of singers who performed before microphones were the amplification answer for musicals--they had to really sing! And John Reardon does, although he's not given a lot in Lady in the Dark.

Also in this studio cast is Adolph Green, of Comden and Green writing fame. He sings the "Tchaikovsky and Others" patter song made famous by Danny Kaye in the original production from 1941 (also on this recording as a bonus). There is good reason why Danny Kaye is remembered for this song and Adolph Green is not. The other bonus tracks sung by Kaye are a suprise to me--he had a very pleasant lightish voice with some actual legato to it. From a vaudvillian. And then he rolls off the names of 49 Russian composers in a minute and a half!

Lady in the Dark
Music by Kurt Weill
Lyrics by Ira Gershwin
Book by Moss Hart
1963 Studio Recording released by Columbia Records
CD reissue by Masterworks Heritage Vocal Series in 1997 by Sony Music Entertainment
Bonus tracks recorded in 1941 by Columbia Records
Cast: Rise Stevens, John Reardon, Adolph Green