Over Here! OBC album on CD

When I Thought about Mary Poppins about a month ago, I noted that the songwriters of the original film, Richard and Robert Sherman, had written the music for a show that starred the Andrews Sisters. When I saw the cast album for Over Here! in the bin at the library, I grabbed it immediately.

I was gleefully delighted to note that John Travolta, Marilu Henner, and Treat Williams were all in the cast of this show. Although they are ensemble players, the booklet with the CD reissue is sure to make use of photos of these three famous cast members, though.

I have actually seen a production of Over Here! as performed by the Kalamazoo Community Theater some time in the mid-1980s. I recall be rather charmed by the show when I saw it live, even without the Andrews Sisters in their roles, but the recording wore a little thin with me in listening to it now. The pastiche 40s numbers are fun at first, but then you want something else. In the live performance I remember a character singing the third verse of the American National Anthem (which is a plot point in the rather silly spy story of the show) and that moment being very well done, moving and a nice contrast to all the big-band stuff; well if that moment was in the Broadway original, it didn't make it onto the cast album.

Over Here!
Music and Lyrics by Richard and Robert Sherman
Book by Will Holt
Opened in 1974
Cast: Patty Andrews, Maxene Andrews, John Travolta, Treat Williams, Marily Henner,

The Little Prince Television production on DVD

This television production from 1974 was vaguely remembered by me, as I've previously mentioned, so I was glad when Netflix delivered The Little Prince to my mailbox. Richard Kiley is one of those baritone voices I admire--robust without being "woofy" and with enough legato to qualify as real singing. The music, lyrics and screenplay are by Lerner and Loewe, so it marks this team's first appearance in my Year.

The cast of this production, which the Netflix envelope rightly describes as a quasi-musical, also includes Bob Fosse, Gene Wilder, and Donna Mckechnie. Mckechnie is hampered by never being let outside a rose bloom. Fosse shines as the snake who slithers his way through a funny song and dance. It was kind of odd to see Fosse's characteristic isolation-style choreography in a desert setting, but it totally works for a snake. Gene Wilder is perhaps the best of the three, very funny and skittish as the fox.

By far the best piece of music in the production is the title song which Kiley sings toward the end. I hope this song has a life beyond the television production, which seems a bit forgotten with Lerner & Loewe's justifiably more memorable stage musicals.

The Little Prince
Music by Frederick Loewe
Lyrics and Screenplay by Jay Lerner
Directed by Stanley Donen
Created for television in 1974
Cast: Steven Warner, Richard Kiley, Donna Mckechnie, Gene Wilder, Bob Fosse

Mack & Mabel Original Cast Album

It's hard not to like Jerry Herman musicals, the music is generally so sunny with enough soaring ballads to keep the fluff from being too much. With that mindset, I put the original Broadway cast album of Mack & Mabel into the machine. I've never seen this show on stage. The liner notes to the CD reissue give a long explanation as to why it's rarely (never?) staged. Do musicals about movie-making ever work? I can only think of one other at the moment--Sunset Boulevard.

That said, there's a lot to like on this cast album. Robert Preston is so good at making that sprechstimme style work--finding a balance between singing tones and speaking tones. It's so easy to think of him in this type of role (along with The Music Man and Victor/Victoria), I find it incredible that his credits also include originating the role of King Henry in The Lion in Winter on Broadway. I will forever associate that role with Peter O'Toole in the film. Nathan Lane seems to me a modern version of Preston, not a great singer, but a great singing performer.

It's nice to remember that Bernadette Peters was a Broadway star long before her association with Sondheim and Sunday in the Park with George. She, too, has a distinctive style all her own that works for her--a kind of cupie doll voice to go with the cupie doll face and curls. And "Time Heals Everything" is a great song, well sung.

The third singing member of the cast is Lisa Kirk, who was the original Bianca in Kiss Me Kate, more than 25 years before Mack & Mabel. She sings a couple of upbeat, lighter hearted songs--some of which seem to have actual dance breaks--rather old-fashioned for a musical from the 70s. Perhaps one of the reasons the show didn't work was that it was out of its time.

Mack & Mabel Original Cast Album
Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman
Originally released on ABC Records
MCA Classics reissue on CD
Recorded October, 1974; CD reissued in 1992
Cast: Robert Preston, Bernadette Peters, Lisa Kirk, Stanley Simmonds