They're Playing our Song--OBC album on CD

I've heard the title song from this show so many times, but didn't really know what the show was all about. Turns out its about songwriters, pop songwriters, which explains the variety of pop genres that the score covers. I suppose the variety makes sense given the world of the show, but They're Playing our Song didn't keep me humming along. Pop songs don't have much of a shape or a climax often, where in the theater we're all about building toward that big moment; perhaps that is why this score just left me lying there.

This is basically a two-person show, although the male and female leads each have a back-up group that functions as a sort of Greek Chorus, or The Chorus of Inner Thoughts. I hear voices in my head sometimes, too.

For a two-person show, I wanted some better singing. Lucie Arnaz (in her Broadway debut) has a pleasant voice, but it is rather characterless--neither a pop voice nor a musical theater voice. Robert Klein has a pop voice with a decent range, but he does sound a bit like an aging heavy metal band singer, all rasp and cigarettes.

Music by Marvin Hamlisch
Lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager
Book by Neil Simon

Opened 1979 and ran for more than 1,000 performances, so some one must have liked it.
Cast: Robert Klein, Lucie Arnaz

The Apple Tree original Broadway cast recording

I've conquered the library system and checked this cast album out from the Evanston Public Library. I had never heard of The Apple Tree, and chose it because it featured Alan Alda and Barbara Harris. Neither are wonderful singers, but are clearly charming performers. The singing of Alda the younger reminds me of the singing of his father, Robert Alda, who was in the original cast of Guys and Dolls--each has a likable voice with enough legato to let the music survive. Ms. Harris has a light soubrettish voice.

This is really three musicals, each one act telling different stories that are really only connected by having the same cast, and loosely the theme of temptation. Much of the music is very witty, particularly "It's A Fish", from the Adam and Eve act of the show.

The second act is set in Roman times and the world of fighting in the lion's den. Harris really sells it in the funny, vampy "I've Got What You Want" although I don't quite understand how it fits into the story.

The third story is a Cinderella variation with Passionella (Harris) dreaming of being a movie star. Harris is the real treat of all three acts. She had her roots in comedy in Chicago 's Second City, and this show made her a star. But perhaps from the short-form of the storytelling, I don't feel any real connection to the characters. This is musical comedy at it's fluffiest.

The Apple Tree

Music by Jerry Bock

Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick

Book by Harnick and Bock

Based on stories by Mark Twain, Frank R. Stockton, and Jules Feiffer

Directed by Mike Nichols

Cast: Alan Alda, Barbara Harris, Larry Blyden, Robert Klein, Marc Jordan