Flower Drum Song--2002 Broadway Cast Album

I've previously watched the film version of this show, so I thought I knew what I was in for when I popped the cast album of the 2002 Broadway revival of Flower Drum Song into the player. Turns out this revival was a very different show from the original, as evidenced not only by the synopsis of the show and the notes by Ted Chapin provided in the booklet to the CD, but also by the music itself. The score is re-orchestrated, the book re-written, characters re-arranged, and songs re-assigned.

All of this is thanks primarily to David Henry Hwang who approached the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization about reworking the show for a contemporary audience. I don't know if that means that the show is no longer set in the 1950s, the notes don't discuss that. But from my recollections of the film, several characters are missing, and the notion of arranged marriage from the original story has been taken out.

Lea Salonga starred as Mei-Li in the version, and her singing on this disc is very good from beginning to end. Ms. Salonga has a warm and lovely music theater voice which general traverses well into her head voice. The character of Mei-Li is given the song "Love, Look Away" which was sung by the character of Helen in the original version. This is a wonderful song, and Ms. Salonga sings it well, although I have some slight issues with the tempo and some of the rhythms taken in this version. Other good singing from this cast is given by Jose Llana as number one son Ta (although if there is a number two son, he's not on the disc), and Sandra Allen as Linda Low.

Less successful to me is turning "Don't Marry Me" into a duet. Jack Soo was so droll and funny in his delivery of this song in the film version, I missed the character of Sammy Fong in the 2002 arrangement (two characters have been combined here).

There is a moment in the second act finale that I need someone to explain to me. The actors seem to step out of character and announce where they were born. I suppose this is to show how diverse the Asian community is, but I wonder how it worked on stage. I certainly can't blame the R&H Organization or Mr. Hwang for wishing to rework Flower Drum Song for a new incarnation, but I do wonder if they went too far.

Flower Drum Song
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Book by David Henry Hwang
This version opened in 2002
Cast: Lea Salonga, Jose Llana, Sandra Allen,

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

Thoroughly Modern Millie--Original Broadway Cast Album on CD

Add Thoroughly Modern Millie to the growing list of shows I have not seen in live performance, but need to. Based on this original cast album, I will love this show. This is a good old fashioned type book musical, with a lot of variety in its music. And this recording shows that the original cast was top-notch.

Sutton Foster had been on Broadway before, but only as a ensemble player or understudy, but here she is coming out from the chorus to play the lead and she is fantastic! I don't hear a note of Ms. Foster's singing that I have any quarrel with--it's a bright, forward sound that is typically American for the typically American Millie Dilmount.

The male leads are equally good. Baritone Marc Kudisch nearly floored me with the Gilbert and Sullivan re-work as "The Speed Test". The tap-dancing for the typing segment is brilliant, and I need to see it live. Tenor Gavin Creel has a nice light, flexible voice that I always want to hear from my Broadway tenors.

The other women in the cast vary in experience and success. Sheryl Lee Ralph was the original Deena in Dream Girls; her club act numbers in Millie are wonderful. Harriet Harris is a character actress with a familiar face, but neither the Broadway database nor imdb.com give me any clue where I've seen her before. Angela Christian has several musical Broadway credits, but I found her soprano voice a little forced.

It's the music in this show that is the real star. Incorporating themes from the 1969 film with new music by Jeanine Tesori along with the afore-mentioned Sullivan number, a couple of Victor Herbert tunes, and a fantastic jazz arrangement of the Nutcracker, this score is delightful--evoking the 20s era without ever descending into stereotypes or blandness. I do wonder if the Chinese jokes were an issue in our proto-proper inclusive environment.

None of these performers nor the music and lyric team have appeared previously in my Year. Again, I'm amazed at the number of composers who have written musicals. I'm going to shoot for 100 composers before the 12 months are up at the end of May.

Thoroughly Modern Millie
Music by Jeanine Tesori (with some help from James Van Heusen, Victor Herbert and Arthur Sullivan)
Lyrics by Dick Scanlan (with some help from Sammy Cahn)
Book by Richard Morris and Dick Scanlon
Opened in 2002
Cast: Marc Kudisch, Sutton Foster, Gavin Creel, Angela Christian, Sheryl Lee Ralph

Amour--Original Cast Album

Well a few days ago, I listened to Baz Luhrmann's La Boheme with L'AMOUR literally writ large across the stage? How to follow that? How about Michel Legrand's Amour? It lasted for 17 performances on Broadway and was not recorded until months later when the cast was re-assembled just for this recording. It seems like an appropriate follow-up--both are set in Paris, at least.
Amour is not a tragic story, though, and certainly no where near opera, although the liner notes say that M. Legrand's inspiration came from the French operettas of Offenbach and others. The story is of unrequited love that become requited. Painfully shy Monsieur Dusoleil (Malcolm Gets) is hopelessly in love from afar with Isabelle (Melissa Errico) who is trapped in an unhappy marriage. Dusoleil becomes a sensation when he realizes he can walk through walls and becomes known as M. Passepartout (pass through all). This gets the attention of the lady, but he must win her himself.

While the music seems a little light even by operetta style, the singing is all very nice. The courtroom scene seems to have the most interesting music, reminding me of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. But then there are two more scenes after the happy ending in the court.

Mr. Gets and Ms. Errico have pleasant voices, that only sound strained when pushed to extremes of volume or pitch. Lewis Cleale and Norm Lewis are the two voices I find most appealing in this cast. The best song of the bunch is an "I want" song for Isabelle called "Somebody".

I'm intrigues that James Lapine directed this show. He seems drawn to shows that are outside the norm--like Sondheim. This is not as interesting either musically or thematically as any of Sondheim. I wonder what drew Lapine to it?

Amour
Music by Michel Legrand
Lyrics by Didier van Cauwelaert
English translation by Jeremy Sams
Directed by James Lapine
Cast album released on CD in 2003
Cast: Malcolm Gets, Melissa Errico, Lewis Cleale, Norm Lewis,

Gene Kelly--Anatomy of a Dancer on DVD

After my recent first and last with Gene Kelly, I was glad to find in my mailbox something I thought might help me understand Kelly's place in the dance world of musical movies. Gene Kelly--Anatomy of a Dancer was an American Masters PBS broadcast from 2002 and includes lots of clips from Kelly's films and talking head interviews with people who worked with Kelly and critics who put his work into the perspective of dance history on film.

Knowing very little about dance, I can tell that Mr. Kelly doesn't dance in the same way as Fred Astaire, and one critic puts it rather simply, in a manner even we neophytes can understand: Kelly puts everything down into the floor, while Astaire lifts everything off the floor. I can appreciate that critics here refer to Kelly's style being more athletic, but I think perhaps that does a disservice to the other dancers' styles. Kelly's choreography looks more athletic.

I wanted to see more early history on Mr. Kelly in the feature, but touting itself as analyzing the contribution to film dance of its subject, I guess I need to find a more traditional biography to fill in the early blanks.

It was especially nice to include so much information from Kelly's first wife Betsy Blair and their daughter. I also enjoyed seeing Betty Garret--the Edna Babish of my youth, from Laverne and Shirley. And Arthur Laurents may be one of the last connections to that era of musical-making, both on stage and on film--and he's still directing, with a new Broadway production of West Side Story in both Spanish and English set to open soon.

Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer
PBS American Masters Series
Broadcast in 2002
Released on DVD in 2004
Cast: Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Cyd Charisse, Leslie Caron, Besty Blair, Elvis Mitchell, Betty Garret, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Nina Foch, Arthur Laurents

Hairspray film on DVD

When I saw Hairspray at the multiplex a little over a year ago, I remember smiling from ear to ear during most of the film, so it was a pleasure to watch it again and have the same reaction.

So much of the infectious fun jumps off the screen, mainly thanks to the bubbly newcomer, Nikki Blonsky and the pastiche tunes of Marc Shaiman. "You Can't Stop the Beat" has got to be one of the funnest closing numbers in all of musical theater. And who knew James Marsden could sing? He could have a career as a crooner, if he wanted. I even like Michelle Pfeiffer as the over-coiffed villain, although she does seem at times to be drifting.

I've never seen the show on stage or the 1988 John Waters film the show is based on, but I think I need to see both.

Is it just me, or do musicals of the "third millennium" seem to focus on women leads taking the reigns of their lives and bucking conventionality? Wicked, Hairspray, Legally Blond all follow that formula. Well if there's one way to a gay man's Broadway heart, it's to have an unconventional woman win.

Hairspray
Music by Marc Shaiman
Lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman
Directed by Adam Shankman
Based on the story by John Waters
Released in 2007
Cast: Nikki Blonsky, John Travolta, Christopher Walken, Amanda Bynes, Allison Janney, James Marsden, Michelle Pfeiffer, Brittany Snow, Zac Efron, Queen Latifah