Kismet Original Broadway Cast Album

How could I not love a cast album that features two of my favorite Broadway baritones? That happens less often than a good three-way, so I'd better take it slow and savor every moment.

In this case I'm savoring Alfred Drake and Richard Kiley and the rest of the cast of the original Broadway production of Kismet. I've never seen this show on stage, but suspect (from the synopsis provided in the notes to this CD issue) that it's a big, loud, bold, colorful hodge-podge--like a Middle Eastern market full of some stuff you love and more stuff you could do without. Fortunately, the music is most of the stuff I love.

Alfred Drake had already originated the roles of Curly in Oklahoma and Petruchio in Kiss Me Kate, so his mark on Broadway was already indelible. With Kismet, he has probably more of a musical challenge with big songs including "Fate", "Gesticulate" and "The Olive Tree". Each of these three vary in flavor from operetta to vaudeville to folk song, and Mr. Drake changes gears seamlessly, all the while setting the vocal standard for this music.

Mr. Kiley is in the early stages of his career, being 30 or 31, when cast as the Caliph. Twelve years later he will create the title role in Man of La Mancha . He is perhaps a bit miscast as Caliph, as the role calls for some singing in the upper reaches of the baritone range. But I'm forgiving.

Doretta Morrow is new to my Year, and I must check out her credits to see how she can reappear; she has a soubrette soprano voice totally appropriate for the show. Joan Diener is also in the cast and she will reunite with Kiley in La Mancha, too.

The liner notes refer to re-mountings of the show with Drake reprising his role, but the Broadway database don't include them. Is it time for a revival? How about with Brian Stokes Mitchell? Only if he's not tired of following in Mr. Drake's roles.

The notes also say that Alexander Borodin was awarded a posthumous Tony for Best Musical. Borodin died in 1887, the Tony was awarded in 1954; I wonder who gave the acceptance speech.

Kismet
Music by Alexander Borodin
Adapted and with Lyric by Robert Wright and George Forrest
Book by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis
Original Broadway Cast recording
Released in 1954 by Columbia Masterworks
CD reissue 2000
Cast: Alfred Drake, Richard Kiley, Joan Diener, Doretta Morrow, Henry Calvin

Man of La Mancha Original Broadway Cast Album

Today I get another of my favorite Broadway baritones--Richard Kiley. While he was in the original casts of several musicals, Man of La Mancha is his definitive role.

Alas, the powers that made movies in the 1960s and 70s didn't often feel compelled to cast singers when they cast the film versions of musicals, so Mr. Kiley's performance was not captured on film, but Peter O'Toole's was. I think I've put the film on my Netflix queue, so someday I'll write about that, but in the meantime I have Richard Kiley to keep me warm and remind me what good Broadway singing can be.

I've also put onto my Netflix list the television production of The Little Prince that Mr. Kiley, and Bob Fosse starred in. I have a vague recollection of seeing it as a child, but between the very manly Kiley and the very unitard-wearing Fosse, I'm sure my pre-pubescent-but-destined-to-be-gay mind was in a whirl.

But back to La Mancha.

I'd forgotten how much I like the ensemble numbers in this show. By that, I don't mean chorus numbers, but duets/trios/etc. From the opening number sung by Quixote and Sancho, through "I'm Only Thinking of Him", to "Little Bird, Little Bird", the writing for small numbers is wonderful and inventive. Of course I have to confess a long and unhealthly love of songs with quodlibet writing. I'm not certain if I'm using that term correctly, but I believe it means when two tunes are put on top of one another, like "Man of La Mancha" with "I'm Sancho, yet, I'm Sancho" over it. Irving Berlin was a master at this type of writing and I can't get enough of it.

What a difficult role Aldonza must be, sometimes belting, sometimes lyric, always with a large range.

The notes for this CD release are interesting, but perhaps overly long. I did like learning that La Mancha began as a camp show, as did Once Upon a Mattress that I listened to yesterday. And that composer Mitch Leigh started with WH Auden as his lyricist!

Man of La Mancha
Music by Mitch Leigh
Lyrics by Joe Darion
Book by Dale Wasserman
Original Broadway Cast Album recorded in 1965
CD release in 2000 by Decca Broadway
Cast: Richard Kiley, Joan Diener, Irving Jacobson, Ray Middleton, Robert Rounseville