Chess--Broadway Cast Album

I don't like the graphic for the Broadway incarnation of this show nearly as much as the British version with its cascading checkerboard. The British concept album of Chess is the version I have imprinted on my brain, as I owned that album in college. So how would the American version (and an actual cast album, as opposed to a conceptualized version) compare? Very well, actually.

Previously when I had talked about liking Judy Kuhn's voice in a different show, a reader suggested I listen to the Broadway Chess album to get a real sense of Ms. Kuhn's abilities. Thank you for suggestion that, this album demonstrated her to be an an amazing singer, and there is a lot of her to enjoy on this cast album. Even more than there was of Elaine Paige on the concert album. Besides "Heaven Help My Heart" and the duet "I Know Him So Well" the Broadway version has a new song "Someone Else's Story" which is a wonderful addition to the score.

From just listening to the score, it seems like the focus of the show is placed firmly on Florence, with the competition between the Russian and the American more secondary. I wonder if the production supported that focus, or if I'm misreading it?

Philip Casnoff and David Carroll both have nice voices, and I have nothing to complain about either man's singing, although they do sound a bit alike to me. The photos included in the liner booklet also make them look a bit alike too. Maybe the producers wanted Florence to have a specific "type" of man, but from this listener's audiopoint and viewpoint, I wanted some differences--at least vocally.

There is an interesting note in the liner how the lyrics of "Endgame" were changed without the consent of lyricist Tim Rice. What could be so show-altering to warrant this footnote?

Chess
Music by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus
Lyrics by Tim Rice
Created in 1984, the Broadway production opened in 1988
Cast: Judy Kuhn, Philip Casnoff, David Carroll

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.

Allegro--Studio Cast Recording

I've had this CD sitting for a while waiting for me to pick it up and listen to it.  It is a bit daunting even to look at--a two-disc set with an hour and forty minutes of music and dialogue and an 80-page booklet of synopsis, libretto, and multiple articles on the history of this challenging show While there are many performers I greatly anticipated hearing in this studio recording, I was a little bit afraid of Allegro. 

Turns out, I was afraid with good reason.  There is a lot to digest in what is billed as the first complete recording of this score and not a lot to hold on to.   I think that is part of the plan of this cradle-to-midlife show, though; life offers us a lot to digest, and just a few things to hold on to during the journey.   But the theme doesn't translate into a listenable score.

Baritone Nathan Gunn has been a favorite singer of mine for several years, since I discovered his debut recital disc on EMI.  While he makes most of his appearances in opera houses, he is increasingly entering the world of the Broadway musical--most notably a semi-staged performance of Camelot with Marin Mazzie and Gabriel Byrne, where Mr. Gunn sang the role of Lancelot.  Here, Gunn has the role of the elder Dr. Joseph Taylor.  He's given little to sing. Audra McDonald, in the role of the elder Taylor's wife is given a bit more. 

The challenge in listening to this score is that much of the action is described by sung and spoken choruses and there are few full songs given to the primary characters.  It almost feels like much of the first act is exposition, rather than action.

There were a couple of songs I had heard before, but didn't know they were from this show. I think  "What a Lovely Day for a Wedding" was in the Richard Rodgers concert I listened to several months ago.  The song "Mountain Greenery" is from Rodgers' time with Larry Hart and is used here to evoke the 1920s era--when it was written, of course.  There was little or nothing in first act of the score that really grabbed my attention.  In the second act "The Gentleman is a Dope" is a fun song and well sung here by Liz Callaway.  The title song "Allegro" is lively and tells me this show is also about the speed of our lives. "Come Home" is lovely and well sung by Audra McDonald, but seems weird sung by a character who is dead--if a jilted wife were singing it, it would hold more emotional punch, I think.

The articles in the booklet all talk about how Allegro was an early experimental musical and how the production concept used scenic pieces to suggest locations rather than using full sets.  I found it interesting that R and H were inspired in part by Our Town, and there are certainly similarities is style and content.  However, this show and recording leave me thinking the score is only musical bits, too.

Allegro

Music by Richard Rodgers

Book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Opened in 1947

Cast: Nathan Gunn, Audra McDonald, Judy Kuhn, Laura Benanti, Patrick Wilson, Norbert Leo Butz, Liz Callaway

As Thousands Cheer World Premiere Cast Recording

There must be a large and relatively untapped gusher of songs from revues from the early 20th Century. Sure not every song or sketch will have lasted the test of time, but there must be enough to fill many shows like Irving Berlin's As Thousands Cheer.

This is a reconstructed revue that opened in 1933. Created as a kind of "living newspaper," Mr. Berlin's music comments on and dramatizes newspaper headlines of the day. Interspersed are sketches by Moss Hart (although only one of them appears as a track on this recording, made in 1998 when the score was revived). According to the liner notes with the CD, the 1933 production had a cast of 50 with full orchestra. The 1998 production has a cast of six and an orchestra of two, piano and bass. Really, not much more is needed, for to have lines of chorus girls would seem ridiculous by current standards.

So it's another show where the songs and the cast are front and center, and fortunately all are accomplished. Mr. Berlin's songs have much verve and sing-ability and range from touching, to haunting, to funny. All six in the cast are good singers and give lively performances of the 14 songs and one sketch on this recording. The vocal standouts for me are Howard McGillin (whom I've just heard in Kiss of the Spider Woman) and Judy Kuhn, who is new to my Year. Both display true legato singing reaching into their upper registers.

I had heard two of the songs from this revue before: "Easter Parade", and "Heat Wave". Both are standards today. The song about lynching, "Suppertime" seemed familiar, but I may be confusing it with "Strange Fruit" which deals with the same ugly topic. In the original 1933 production, Ethel Waters (whom I've just seen in Cabin in the Sky) introduced "Suppertime." In this recording, Paula Newsome does some nice dramatic singing.

The song "Debts" is a funny (and still timely) song about government spending. There are songs about the pervasivness of the press, the weather, the comics, a Dear Abby-type column, and the social register--all still part of our newspapers today, even if we read them online. Perhaps its time for this revue to have new life.

As Thousands Cheer
Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin
Sketches by Moss Hart
Revival of original 1933 score in 1998
Cast: BD Wong, Howard McGillin, Judy Kuhn, Paula Newsome, Mary Beth Peil, Kevin Chamberlain