My Fair Lady--Original Broadway Cast album on CD

After Sunday's entry on Julie Andrews' final Broadway incarnation, I thought I needed to go back to an earlier Julie with the Broadway show that made her a star--My Fair Lady.

As a performer I've never been interested in My Fair Lady. It's not a great chorus show. The number of principal parts are few. And except for the music for Eliza and Freddy which requires real singing, the score is clever and memorable, but not beautiful. As a listener, though, My Fair Lady is a delightful score--lively, upbeat, and as I say, memorable.

One of the few chorus scenes that must be fun to be part of is the Astor Race. Composer Frederick (Fritz) Loewe invests the scene with a wonderful mock operetta-like number--all restrain and primness.

I had forgotten how many songs there are for Higgins, and the score (and the book, I'm sure, too) really give him much focus over Eliza. "Hymn to Him" and "I'm an Ordinary Man" are witty and performed by Rex Harrison without any sense of irony. These songs only work when Higgins is not in on the joke.

Julie Andrews sounds delightful in this recording, a far cry from the huskiness on display in Victor/Victoria. I was surprised though that the songs for Eliza do not lie very high--they are much more for a soubrette soprano voice than a true soprano. And when Andrews does reach into her upper register, it is with what feels like a lot of vocal preparation.

Ms. Andrews is very successful, though, at imbuing this music with a lot of character. While singing in her "Cockney" accent, Andrews is not afraid to make some pronunciations ugly, and is able to do so without leaving the core sound of her singing voice. And once she lets go of the accent, there is no doubting the meaning and emotion behind the words.

There is a funny misprint in the booklet to this CD release of the Original Broadway Cast Album. It lists "Show Me" being sung by John Michael King (as Freddy) and Rex Harrison! Who is showing whom what?

My Fair Lady
Music by Frederick Loewe
Book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Original Broadway Cast Album released in 1956
The date of the CD release is not listed on the booklet
Cast: Julie Andrews, Rex Harrison, Robert Coote, Stanley Holloway, John Michael King,

Camelot film on DVD

It's that quintessential musical of the 1960s, but the stage version and the film version of Camelot capture different aspects of the 60s for me.

The stage show captured the promise and hope of the early 1960s, the Kennedy Administration, and a peaceful future. By the time the film was released in 1967, a lot of that promise had dissolved. For me the film version is quintessentially 60s because of the casting of Franco Nero and Vanessa Regrave who both represent the freer, sexually charged aspects of the decade. Vanessa even reprises her undressed sex-kitten look in a bedroom scene with Richard Harris in the bath. Franco Nero's blue eyes are hard to resist (Ms. Redgrave didn't, they have a child together). And his chin could be used as his lance.

I've never seen this show on stage, so I can't comment on how the film differs from the stage show, but it feels very true to the original. The film blends its use of outdoor locations and indoor sets very well. The show is not without its challenges, though. It's long. It has too much exposition and manages not to introduce its villain Mordred until too late in the story-telling to create any real conflict.

I've often thought that Mordred gets short-shifted all around. His song "The Seven Deadly Sins" (not in the film version) is smart and funny. Doesn't that deserve some vocal follow-up? A duet? An "I'm defeated, but it doesn't matter" song? How about an "Oh, Mother get off my back" song? Well, Morgan le Fey doesn't appear in the film, so I guess that wouldn't work.

What was about casting other actresses to play roles originated by Julie Andrews? She owned the role of Gueneviere. It was written for her. Yet in the film, she is replaced by a woman who doesn't even sing for herself. I can understand Robert Goulet not being cast in the film. I actually like Richard Harris in the role and don't have a problem with him replacing Richard Burton. But Gueneviere? Was the vain, sexpot as portrayed by Redgrave how the role was conceived? Certainly the role is vain and a little self-absorbed. But I must believe that Andrews was more innocent and less Pirelli pin-up. Oh, well, maybe that's why Ms. Andrews bares all in the film SOB.

Camelot
Music by Frederick Loewe
Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Film by Warner Bros. released in 1967
Directed by Joshua Logan
Cast: Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Harris, Franco Nero, Lionel Jeffries

Paint your Wagon film on DVD

Points given to Lee Marvin for at least trying, which is more than some seem to do in this 1969 film version of Lerner and Loewe's 1951 Paint Your Wagon.

Alan Jay Lerner is the producer of the film, and it must be due to his efforts that the show was put on film 18 years after its stage debut. I've never seen the stage version, so I don't know how they compare.

This show and story and score have not passed the test of time. "They Call the Wind Maria" is the only song I previously knew from the score. "I talk to the Trees" might be a pretty tune, but it's lost in delivery. And Elizabeth's song "Behind the Door" and Ben's "I was Born under a Wanderin' Star" might be pretty, too, if they were written in a real vocal range, rather than in the key of basement husky. There's some fun choruses for men--lively and raucous--but nothing that really moves the story along. On the whole there are better "frontier" musicals that I look forward to hearing and seeing as my Year progresses.

Paint Your Wagon
Music by Frederick Loewe
Lyrics and book by Alan Jay Lerner
1969 Film version
Cast: Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, Jean Seberg, Harve Presnell, and Ray Walston with the worst red hair and accent of his career.

Brigadoon 1992 Studio Cast Recording

I take back everything I've written and thought about the value of studio cast recordings. This 1992 recording of Brigadoon--by the London Sinfonietta and an international cast of theater and opera singers conducted by John McGlinn-- is a treat. It's so nice to hear all the dance music included on the disc. While I love many of the songs from this show, the dance music is wonderful and really captures the character of the show for me (as you might be able to tell from this picture with me as Harry Beaton in 1984).

Broadway performers Brent Barrett and Rebecca Luker star as American Tommy Albright and Brigadoonian Fiona MacLaren. They would have qualified as young performers in 1992, and both continue to have good careers on stage; their singing here tells you why that is. Even if Mr. Barrett's baritone is not exactly as robust as some of my favorite singers, he handles Tommy's rangy songs with aplomb.

British tenor John Mark Ainsley takes the role of Charlie Dalrymple, who sings "I'll go Home with Bonnie Jean" and the beautiful "Come to Me, Bend to Me". His bright and easy tenor sound is exactly right for these songs, and he caresses the high note at the end of "Come to Me" beautifully. It is so nice to hear a true tenor in a musical theater work.

The extensive liner notes include the interesting story of how this show came about and some information on the backgrounds of Lerner and Loewe. I was particularly interested to read about Agnes de Mille's involvement in the creation of the original production. Thanks to her input (and the successes she had choreographing Oklahoma! and Carousel), Brigadoon tells a lot of it's story through dance. And that's where the real flavor of the show comes to me.

Brigadoon
Music by Frederick Loewe
Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
1992 Studio Recording with the Ambrosia Chorus and the London Sinfonietta
Conducted by John McGlinn
Released by Broadway Angel Records
Cast: Brent Barrett, Rebecca Luker, Judy Kaye, John Mark Ainsley

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