Applause original cast album on CD

Fasten your seat belt, it's going to be a bumpy night--it's All About Eve on the musical stage with screen siren Lauren Bacall, singing and dancing as Margot Channing and being shoved aside by upstart Eve. I had only heard the title song from Applause as sung by Bonnie Franklin (her only Broadway credit), and didn't even know what the context of the song or what the story of the musical was. Well, this is another score that is a delightful find for me.

There are lots of funny theater inside jokes in this score--starting from the opening chorus "Backstage Babble" with it's blah, blah, blah of compliments. Also there are lots of funny references to stars of the time of the show (1970) and the early career of Ms. Bacall. While the musical score is definitely of its time and sounds straight out of the 60s, its doesn't sound dated to me--maybe because the songs are all new to me.

Len Cariou made his musical Broadway debut in this show, previously having been in straight plays on the Great White Way. He would go on to be closely associated with the shows of Stephen Sondheim (A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd), but is very good in this score.

Ms. Bacall is delightful on this cast album. She won the Tony for this role (over Katharine Hepburn also sprech-stimme'ing her way through the musical Coco). Bacall is surprisingly musical. Possessing a raspy voice with more legato then I expected, she delivers on all her numbers and clearly has a sense of humor about herself. "Something Greater" that comes near the end of the show is a wonderful song.

The only musical disappointment is the group number "Fasten Your Seat Belts." That title comes straight out of the script for All About Eve, but the line is given to chorus characters rather than to Margot Channing. The CD reissue features some bonus tracks of song cut from the show sung and played by composer Charles Strouse. "The Loneliest Man in Town" is a good song, but I can understand why it didn't make it to the stage--this is a musical about two women. "Smashing New York Times" is a funny, bittersweet song about working so hard for a few nice words in reviews.

Applause
Music by Charles Stouse
Lyrics by Lee Adams
Book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
Cast album recorded in 1970, released on CD by Decca Broadway in 2000
Cast: Lauren Bacall, Len Cariou, Robert Mandan, Ann Williams, Brandon Maggart, Bonnie Franklin, Lee Roy Reams, Penny Fuller

A Little Night Music film on DVD

Even with much of the wit and charm of this score and story dead on arrival in the film version, A Little Night Music is a wonderful musical. I've never seen it on stage, nor had I seen the 1977 film before, so this is my first experience with it. I had heard some of the music before, but didn't know how it all fit into the story.

With the complexities of the score and the difficulties of Sondheim's music in general, I'm surprised so many non-singers were cast in this film--Diana Rigg and Elizabeth Taylor in particular. Hermoine Gingold, Len Cariou and Laurence Gittard are hold-overs from the Broadway debut from three years before the film.

"You Must Meet My Wife" must be one of the funniest songs of all time, and although Ms. Taylor plays it a bit too on the surface, it still works. Lesley-Anne Down is young enough and pretty enough, to make Anne's naivety work. Diana Rigg does well with characterization, but not with the music. Actually there isn't much of the singing that I really like, even Len Cariou.

There was a television version of this musical done in 1990. Is it available to rent?


A Little Night Music
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Hugh Wheeler
1977 film directed by Harold Prince
Screenplay by Ingmar Bergman
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Len Cariou, Diana Rigg, Hermoine Gingold, Lesley-Anne Down, Christopher Guard, Laurence Gittard