Three Wishes for Jamie--OBC album on CD

The extensive liner notes detailing the checkered history of this show states: John Raitt possessed possibly the finest male voice on Broadway at that or any other time, a perfect instrument with the deft grace of a lyric baritone but with a tenor's ringing high notes. That is reason enough to give a listen to the original Broadway cast recording of Three Wishes for Jamie.

While there is much to enjoy from this score and the singers presenting it, I can understand why I have never heard any of these songs before. The feel of the score is VERY sentimental and yet the lyrics may be some of the most pedantic and cliche-ridden I've encountered.

The liner notes also make the very apt point that this show and it's fantasy themes and Celtic-like score suffer in comparison to the better shows of Brigadoon and Finian's Rainbow. John Raitt plays the title character, who fakes his own death in Ireland to make his way to Georgia in the American South after an Irish fairy grants him the wishes of a beautiful wife, successful business and a son who will speak the Gaelic language. In Georgia, he falls for Anne Jeffreys, while being pursued by the woman he was engaged to in Ireland (Charlotte Rae). Pretty silly stuff.

Still the singing, particularly of Mr. Raitt, is something to behold. There is indeed a graceful lyric baritone voice, skipping up thirds and fifths with ease and legato. And each song he sings ends with a note F or higher that Mr. Raitt seems to reach without undo effort or without sacrificing his beautiful tone. Anne Jeffreys also possesses a lovely voice; I don't know anything about her. It's fun to hear Charlotte Rae in this character role, but with a strong upper register that she uses for comic effect.

I was interested to read in the liner notes how this show debuted out of town as part of subscription series with the light opera companies of Los Angeles and San Francisco. I know that now non-profits can be involved with the out-of-town tryouts (like that hideous show I saw at the Goodman theater was part of their subscription and was aimed for a Broadway opening) but I hadn't realized the practice went back so far.

Three Wishes for Jamie
Music and lyrics by Ralph Blane
Opened on Broadway in 1952
Cast: John Raitt, Anne Jeffreys, Bert Wheeler, Charlotte Rae

The Threepenny Opera cast album on CD

I have an unrequited love for Kurt Weill in general and for The Threepenny Opera in specific. Why unrequited, do you ask? Well, what has it ever done for me? That's pretty cynical, but then so is this whole show.

I was in a college production of 3PO a looooong time ago. Listening to this cast album has reminded me of some people who were very dear to me at the time--as college theater people inevitably are to one another. And then we go off to other ends of the planet and do things like become lawyers.

This 1954 Broadway production was the first revival of the show. It ran until 1961 and did much to cement Kurt Weill's place in musical history. The cast is great and features Beatrice Arthur (with the huskiest voice ever), Jo Sullivan (who would later marry Frank Loesser) as Polly Peachum, Charlotte Rae as Mrs. Peachum, and the widow Weill Lotte Lenya as Pirate Jenny. According to the Broadway database, the show has been revived five times since then.

Clearly, I am not the only one with a love of this material.

The Threepenny Opera
Music by Kurt Weill
German book and lyrics by Bertold Brecht
English adaptation of book and lyrics by Marc Blitzstein
Cast: Beatrice Arthur, Charlotte Rae, Jo Sullivan, Scott Merrill, Martin Wolfson, Lotte Lenya

Hair film on DVD

Three tribal rock musical films in a row, and the best is the third. Hair lets itself unfold slowly, rather than pounding its point across from the start. You think in the beginning its just a score of loosely connected songs strung together with a bit of character interaction between; but by the end you realize it has brought you along to its side, whether you be a Claude, a Sheila, a Berger, or a Charlotte Rae.

This film also uses its New York locations much better than does Godspell. Hair shows us people who are part of the city, not apart from it, which is the sense I got from the Gospellians.
I was shocked to see that Twyla Tharp had choreographed this film. There is a lot of dance in it. Sometimes, I thing there is too much dance and that it gets in the ways of the songs. It's certainly more than you could get away with on stage, because no one could sing and do what Twyla has them do. But points for incorporating modern dance into a tribal rock musical of love.

Hair

Music by Galt MacDermot

Book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado

Film directed by Milos Forman

Choreographed by Twyla Tharp

Cast: Treat Williams, Beverly d'Angelo, John Savage, Nell Carter, Charlotte Rae