Finian's Rainbow New Broadway Cast album on CD

I recall liking the film version of Finian's Rainbow when I reviewed it for this project, so I was looking forward to listening to the new Broadway cast album when I was given it as a gift. Best gift ever.

This is a well-produced and well-cast album of a production that unfortunately closed way too soon. I have to believe it was a case of being hit hard by the economy and not anything to do with the show itself, because what is evident on the CD is delightful from downbeat to finale.

Cheyenne Jackson starred in this re-mounting as Woody, man-about Rainbow Valley, Missitucky. I have to say, I don't mind looking at Mr. Jackson, and don't mind listening to Mr. Jackson sing. I must make a point of finding some of his solo CDs---I believe they are not all American Idol-influenced.

Fortunately, Mr. Jackson gets some of the best songs in this Burton Lane score to sing. "That Old Devil Moon" proves why it is a classic. While I liked hearing "That Great, Come-and-get-it Day" again, it didn't live up to my memory from the film. Is it a different arrangement? Or just missing the visuals?

Kate Baldwin as Sharon also has a lovely voice that she uses well in "How are Things in Glocca Morra?" and "Look to the Rainbow." Even Christopher Fitzgerald as leprechaun Og is a good singer and delivers on his comic piece "When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love."

The good liner notes from John Lahr give a lot of information about the origins of Finian's Rainbow but not the remount production, which sadly like a rainbow was too brief an occurrence.

Finian's Rainbow
Music by Burton Lane
Lyrics by Yip Harburg
Book by Harburg and Fred Saidy
2009 Broadway revival production
Cast: Cheyenne Jackson, Kate Baldwin, Christopher Fitzgerald, Jim Norton,

Allegro--Studio Cast Recording

I've had this CD sitting for a while waiting for me to pick it up and listen to it.  It is a bit daunting even to look at--a two-disc set with an hour and forty minutes of music and dialogue and an 80-page booklet of synopsis, libretto, and multiple articles on the history of this challenging show While there are many performers I greatly anticipated hearing in this studio recording, I was a little bit afraid of Allegro. 

Turns out, I was afraid with good reason.  There is a lot to digest in what is billed as the first complete recording of this score and not a lot to hold on to.   I think that is part of the plan of this cradle-to-midlife show, though; life offers us a lot to digest, and just a few things to hold on to during the journey.   But the theme doesn't translate into a listenable score.

Baritone Nathan Gunn has been a favorite singer of mine for several years, since I discovered his debut recital disc on EMI.  While he makes most of his appearances in opera houses, he is increasingly entering the world of the Broadway musical--most notably a semi-staged performance of Camelot with Marin Mazzie and Gabriel Byrne, where Mr. Gunn sang the role of Lancelot.  Here, Gunn has the role of the elder Dr. Joseph Taylor.  He's given little to sing. Audra McDonald, in the role of the elder Taylor's wife is given a bit more. 

The challenge in listening to this score is that much of the action is described by sung and spoken choruses and there are few full songs given to the primary characters.  It almost feels like much of the first act is exposition, rather than action.

There were a couple of songs I had heard before, but didn't know they were from this show. I think  "What a Lovely Day for a Wedding" was in the Richard Rodgers concert I listened to several months ago.  The song "Mountain Greenery" is from Rodgers' time with Larry Hart and is used here to evoke the 1920s era--when it was written, of course.  There was little or nothing in first act of the score that really grabbed my attention.  In the second act "The Gentleman is a Dope" is a fun song and well sung here by Liz Callaway.  The title song "Allegro" is lively and tells me this show is also about the speed of our lives. "Come Home" is lovely and well sung by Audra McDonald, but seems weird sung by a character who is dead--if a jilted wife were singing it, it would hold more emotional punch, I think.

The articles in the booklet all talk about how Allegro was an early experimental musical and how the production concept used scenic pieces to suggest locations rather than using full sets.  I found it interesting that R and H were inspired in part by Our Town, and there are certainly similarities is style and content.  However, this show and recording leave me thinking the score is only musical bits, too.

Allegro

Music by Richard Rodgers

Book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Opened in 1947

Cast: Nathan Gunn, Audra McDonald, Judy Kuhn, Laura Benanti, Patrick Wilson, Norbert Leo Butz, Liz Callaway

Finian's Rainbow film on DVD

I always thought the Rankin and Bass version of Fred Astaire in Santa Claus is Comin' to Town was a tremendous exaggeration of his long face and strong jaw, but some shots of Mr. Astaire in Finian's Rainbow prove that the claymation version is not overly exaggerated.

This film version was produced in 1968, 20 years after the stage musical premiered, and is the final film lead for Mr. Astaire. According to the movie database, the racial satire in the story had to wait for a more liberal time to be made into a film. From the opening chorus number, the inter-racial cast is a clue that this is not a typical musical of the 1940s, and some of the racial humor is hysterical even 40 years after the film was made. At the same time, the casting of Petula Clark and Don Francks as romantic leads Sharon and Woody clearly make this a film of the 1960s.

I had heard the songs "How are Things in Glocca Morra" and "Look to the Rainbow" before and liked their folk-song style in the context of the story. But there are lots of styles of music in this show-including a rousing gospel-style chorus about buying things out of the Sears-Roebuck catalogue! Other songs have a more contemporary feel to the era of the musical's creation and feel a little dated now. "Old Devil Moon" feels very much like a big band era song, especially in the orchestral arrangement in the film.

Finian's Rainbow
Music by Burton Lane
Lyrics by E.Y. Harburg
Book by E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy
Warner Bros. film release directed by Francis Ford Coppola!
Cast: Fred Astaire, Petula Clark, Don Francks, Tommy Steele, Keenan Wynn, Al Freeman Jr., Barbara Hancock

The Medium television production on DVD

Many Broadway purists will argue the inclusion of a Gian Carlo Menotti opera in my musical thinking, although several of his works were produced on Broadway. Well, if I can delve into the world of cabaret and Stomp, I can certainly include The Medium in my Year.

I am not that familiar with Menotti's works, but if they are anything like this production, done for television in 1978, then I need to check out more of them. I don't have the musicological wherewithal to discuss Menotti's composition, but it reminds me of operas by Benjamin Britten--chamber operas with few characters, delving into the subconscious and spiritual worlds. And the 'spikey' vocal lines and orchestration of The Medium sound similar to Britten's Billy Budd, which I have seen. Also, the theme of the sacrifice of an innocent for the sins of another is common to both operas. The orchestra seems to project the sub-text of the characters, giving voice to their inner turmoil.

The story revolves around Madame Flora, a fake medium who has a real other-worldly experience during one of her staged seances. Originally written in the late 1940s, the opera continues to have a life in smaller opera houses, and Menotti is considered one of the pre-eminent American composers of the 20th Century. He died in early 2007, well into his 90s.

Maureen Forrester (seen above) is particularly winning in her portrayal of Madame Flora. It was a performance she had done on stage in Stratford, Ontario Canada, which was subsequently filmed by the CBC for television. The television staging retains much of its proscenium style with enough close-ups and tracking shots to keep it from feeling two-dimensional.

The Medium
Music, Book and Lyrics by Gian Carlo Menotti
Produced for television in 1978 by the Canadian Broadcasting Company
Released on DVD by VAI in 2004
Cast: Maureen Forrester

Kismet Original Broadway Cast Album

How could I not love a cast album that features two of my favorite Broadway baritones? That happens less often than a good three-way, so I'd better take it slow and savor every moment.

In this case I'm savoring Alfred Drake and Richard Kiley and the rest of the cast of the original Broadway production of Kismet. I've never seen this show on stage, but suspect (from the synopsis provided in the notes to this CD issue) that it's a big, loud, bold, colorful hodge-podge--like a Middle Eastern market full of some stuff you love and more stuff you could do without. Fortunately, the music is most of the stuff I love.

Alfred Drake had already originated the roles of Curly in Oklahoma and Petruchio in Kiss Me Kate, so his mark on Broadway was already indelible. With Kismet, he has probably more of a musical challenge with big songs including "Fate", "Gesticulate" and "The Olive Tree". Each of these three vary in flavor from operetta to vaudeville to folk song, and Mr. Drake changes gears seamlessly, all the while setting the vocal standard for this music.

Mr. Kiley is in the early stages of his career, being 30 or 31, when cast as the Caliph. Twelve years later he will create the title role in Man of La Mancha . He is perhaps a bit miscast as Caliph, as the role calls for some singing in the upper reaches of the baritone range. But I'm forgiving.

Doretta Morrow is new to my Year, and I must check out her credits to see how she can reappear; she has a soubrette soprano voice totally appropriate for the show. Joan Diener is also in the cast and she will reunite with Kiley in La Mancha, too.

The liner notes refer to re-mountings of the show with Drake reprising his role, but the Broadway database don't include them. Is it time for a revival? How about with Brian Stokes Mitchell? Only if he's not tired of following in Mr. Drake's roles.

The notes also say that Alexander Borodin was awarded a posthumous Tony for Best Musical. Borodin died in 1887, the Tony was awarded in 1954; I wonder who gave the acceptance speech.

Kismet
Music by Alexander Borodin
Adapted and with Lyric by Robert Wright and George Forrest
Book by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis
Original Broadway Cast recording
Released in 1954 by Columbia Masterworks
CD reissue 2000
Cast: Alfred Drake, Richard Kiley, Joan Diener, Doretta Morrow, Henry Calvin