My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies on DVD

This is another of those special concerts at a prestigious venue, drawing in the glitterati of the musical theater world, performing for the creme of society paying top dollar, with the resulting performance being film and presented on PBS or somewhere, followed by the DVD being sold to the general public (and fortunately, Netflix). It's a formula.

With My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies filmed in 1998 it's a formula that works very well:

• Prestigious venue? Check-Carnegie Hall.


• Glitterati of Musical Theater? Check-Julie Andrews, Faith Prince, Liza Minnelli, Audra McDonald, Marin Mazzie, Jennifer Holliday, Judy Kuhn, Bebe Neuwirth, and a host of others including the Rockettes, who are the most literally glittering of the -ati.


• Creme of society? I'm not in a position to identify who is in the audience or what they paid to be there, but the hall is full, and most rows seem to include several giddy gay men clapping wildly for Liza.

The main reason this formula works so well in this example is that the fare offered includes a good balance of the usual, the expected, and the unique. Yes, there is Andrea McArdle singing "Tomorrow" and Jennifer Holliday singing her song from Dreamgirls (and blowing the roof off the place, BTW) and Elaine Stritch toasting the "Ladies who Lunch", but there is also the phenomenal Debra Monk, nailing every bit of "Everybody's Girl" from Steele Pier, and Audra McDonald singing a wonderful, clever arrangement of "Down with Love". Ms. McDonald is also joined by Marin Mazzie and Judy Kuhn for a clever medley of Andrew Lloyd Webber songs.

I could have done without Tony Roberts and Robert Morse opening the concert with a number in drag (I assume from a musical version of Some Like It Hot that I don't know). These women can hold their own without any help from the Y chromosome.

Andrew Lloyd Webber Celebration at Royal Albert Hall on DVD

Well, I suppose since it is at Royal Albert Hall and it is Andrew Lloyd Webber, I shouldn't be surprised that this Celebration is over-produced and involves a somewhat larger battalion than was used in the D-Day invasion. That said it must have something to see live. It's something to see on DVD.

Some quick observations and questions are all I have time for now:

Is Sarah Brightman some kind of cross between a cupie doll and Stevie Nicks? Why does she sing "Music of the Night" from Phantom, rather than a man? Her overly rounded vowels are distracting to watch and are some kind of bastardization of vocal technique.

Donny Osmond is cute. He sings well. He's charming with the children's choir backing him up.

Antonia Banderas is also cute. He doesn't sing well. His circling around everybody is a little odd--is he a herding dog?

I like Elaine Paige's singing. While her Evita gown probably "read" well live in the hall, it's a little much for close-up television.

The roller skating musical hasn't improved with age.

Was that Bonnie Tyler? I'm sure there are credits, but I haven't gotten to them yet. I eventually did get to them and, yes, that was Bonnie Tyler. Which leads to my next question; why was Bonnie Tyler there?

I don't know who any of the British rocker men or boys are. Labels would have been nice. Then again, so would me finishing watching the whole DVD before writing this entry. The cast is listed at the end, and a song by song list is given if you scene select on your DVD player.

There are things I very much like about Andrew Lloyd Webber's theater music. Some of the themes are lovely, but don't developed enough to keep me interested.

The same is true for the Requiem: the "Pie Jesu" for soprano and treble has some beautiful moments and I would appreciate them more if they weren't repeated 10 times in a 3 minute movement; the "Hosanna in excelsis" (I could have that Latin wrong) is exciting and needs a really good tenor, but again let's vary some of the musical motives, Andy.

I want to hear more of the cello concerto, or whatever the piece is referred to as. It's called Variations for Cello and Orchestra.

Glenn Close might not be the best singer out there, but she surely outshone everyone else in the acting department; I couldn't take my eyes off her. I would not have wanted to sing "Memory" after Ms. Close's songs.

Michael Ball is not as cute as I had hoped.

Two show of Webber's that I don't know but need to hear more of are Sunset Boulevard and Aspects of Love.

What kind of name is Tina Arena? It sounds like a pole dancer. And was her song from Whistle Down the Wind repeated to give some sort of closure to the event? It seemed anti-climatic.

If anti-climatic is "against the climax", how does one state "against the climate"? Well, I just looked it up and anti-climatic is "against the climate"; anti-climactic is the word I meant for the repeat of Tina Arena's song. Learn something everyday--that's my motto.

Andrew Lloyd Webber Celebration at Royal Albert Hall
Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics: all his collaborators, from Tim Rice on...

Filmed in 1998, released on DVD in 1999
Cast: Elaine Paige, Donny Osmond, Antonio Banderas, Sarah Brightman, Julian Lloyd Webber, Michael Ball, Glenn Close, Tina Arena, Kiri Te Kanawa

Myths & Hymns by Adam Guettel

I have been looking for a way to include some music of Adam Guettel in my Year, and thanks to a friend lending me this disc, I can start with Myths & Hymns. It's certainly not a Broadway musical, but Mr. Guettel is known as a Broadway composer, so I'll gladly including this work, which is more like a chamber music song cycle, or a semi-agnostic cantata.

Mr. Guettel is a member of the first family of Broadway--no, I don't mean the Nederlanders. He is the grandson of Richard Rodgers and the son of Mary Rodgers, both of whom have appeared in my Year already. He is best know for his show The Light in the Piazza, which I have not heard yet. I'm more anxious to hear that now that I've heard M & H, because I'm not certain how to take it's compositional style, or should I say styles. This is good, interesting songwriting for the most part.

The theme of these songs, which loosely tie them together, is longing--whether it be for God, or resolve, or heaven, or love. There is a slightly secular feel to many of the songs, but in all the hymns (adapted from an 1886 hymnbook) and in the original songs on mythological figures, someone is crying out for, or reaching out for something they don't have--and maybe something they shouldn't have.

I'm intrigued by the Temple Trio Hymnbook of 1886 that inspired the Hymns of this cycle. Old hymnals were a bit of an interest of mine a while ago, but that interest has taken a back seat to other things. The singers are good throughout, even if their style of singing is not my favorite style. There is a lot of squalling, which leaves me cold. Mr. Guettel does a lot of the singing, and I don't really care for his voice.

I look forward to listening to a score that is more involved with character than theme, to see how our Mr. Guettel delivers that.

Myths & Hymns
Music and lyrics by Adam Guettel
Additional lyrics by Ellen Fitzhugh
Recorded in 1999 based on a concert given in 1998
Cast: Adam Guettel, Theresa McCarthy, Audra McDonald, Mandy Patinkin, Darius de Haas, Vivian Cherry, Billy Porter, Annie Golden

Naked Boys Singing! film on DVD

Yes, they are singing. Yes, they are naked. And yes, they are definitely boys. And while there is a lot of male genitals on display, there is some heart on display, too, in Naked Boys Singing!

This is a film made to look like a taping of the live stage show, and was released in 2007, almost ten years after the stage show premiered. While much of the filming does justice to the campy fun of the show and most of its numbers, some of the transitions between songs are awkward.

I've often wondered if novelty songs were still being written and, if so, from where they are coming. Well, this show provides a couple of good ones that deserve life outside--and you don't even need to be naked to sing them. "Bliss of a Briss" is particularly funny. The two more sentimental numbers are "Window to Window" which includes a lovely pas de deux, and "Kris, Look What You Missed" is a nice song about a man looking back on long-deceased lover

All the performers are very watchable, if you'll excuse the bum, I mean pun. Jason Currie has the nicest singing voice of the bunch and is well used in his two numbers ("Robert Mitchum" and "The Entertainer"--both of which could be clothed solo numbers in either a man or woman's cabaret act). Some of the performers have attributes other than their singing voices to their credit.

And if you're wondering if I went back to watch some, umm, parts again...yes, I did--twice.



Naked Boys Singing!
Created by Robert Schrock
Music and lyrics by a lot of people
Choreographed and Directed for film by Troy Christian
But for sheer hutzpah alone, all of the cast deserve to be listed: Andrew Blake Ames, Jason Currie, Jaymes Hodges, Joseph Keane, Anthony Manough, Joe Souza, Kevin Alexander Stea, Ethan La Phong, Salvatore Vassallo, Vincent Zamora