Month: May 2021

Porgy & Bess (2012 Broadway Revival Cast Recording)

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192 mp3

The 2011–12 Broadway season had so many gems, and was a mild relief to see such a diverse array of musicals following a couple years of slightly bland musical production. In this 2011-12 season, we were blessed with the successful Evita, Follies, Newsies, and Once. But also (still blessed) with the less successful Bonnie and Clyde, Ghost, and, the worlds worst titled musical and Not-Since-Carrie level flop, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. Turn off the dark? What? Anyway, the amazing Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis bring fresh beautiful and modern life to the Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess. In the same 2011-12 season the Gershwin’s music was featured in another production, a revue titled Nice Work if You Can Get It.

Broadway productions of operas can present certain challenges, especially when trying to reach the low attention spanned tourists that frequent Broadway every year. We’ve seen successful productions of Puccini’s La Boheme, Bernstein’s Candide and West Side Story, among others, but for the most part, Broadway and Opera don’t always mix well with respect to business.

The new orchestrations and removal of recitations from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess create a new musical landscape that respectfully reconceives the original Gershwin score into a Broadway score with dramatic underscores during dialogue, and boisterous, soulful, and lively renditions of the opera’s most famous numbers.

Stand Out tracks include Roll Them Bones/Summertime Reprise, Woman is a Sometime Thing, It Takes a Long Pull to Get There, the haunting Oh Doctor Jesus, I Got Plenty of Nothing, and the Act 1 and Act 2 Finales Oh I Can’t Sit Down and I’m On My Way, respectfully.

Audra McDonald’s performance is standout across the entire album, with Norm Lewis easily keeping up with the level of talent she brings.

Overall, I’d say they did a fantastic job turning the opera into a Broadway production. The casting was, obviously, spot on. This is one of my favorite recordings interpretations of this Gershwin classic. Here’s a great medley from the 2012 Tony Awards:

American Psycho (2014 Original London Cast Recording)

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Feeling tired? Low energy? Bored? You might need the 2014 West End Recording of Duncan Sheik’s American Psycho. It begins with:

“It took me 19 years, but I finally developed a good relationship… with my body!”

Suddenly a high, shrill, terrifying shriek. Next comes the synthesizer with a high energy intro. You begin to hear overlapping advertisements from the 1980s. The piano and beat enter the mix and Matt Smith Patrick Bateman starts telling you about his morning shower routine. Only took 30 seconds into the first track to cause my heartrate to rise, and honestly, from then on the entire album carries you through a 1980s electro drug induced party party party haze. And. It’s. Awesome.

Duncan Sheik’s American Psycho was short lived when it premiered in London in 2014, lasting only a few months. And it was even shorter lived less successful with the 2016 Broadway transfer. Poor, poor American Psycho only lasted for 6 weeks on Broadway. I will admit, it’s a strange listen, and perhaps the visuals of the stage production, which are amazing, are needed to fully understand what Sheik was trying to accomplish, musically. To me, that is often a sign that I won’t be impressed by the score. An example of this is Dear Evan Hansen. Great music but the songs could be used for a musical about literally anything. In fact, one might argue that the music doesn’t even quite match the emotional complexity of the story.

But I digress. After his successful freshman Broadway hit musical Spring Awakening, he had raised the bar incredibly high for any future musicals. And it’s obvious that Sheik wanted to try something that wasn’t going to be Spring Awakening 2.0. And, as such, we have American Psycho.

Unlike some Cast Albums, it’s hard for me to point out highlights, as the album feels more like one long song. One of my favorite moments occurs in the first act when the ladies are preparing the party. To highlight the blocking/choreography/lighting, check out the dance break around the 1:45 min mark. First time I saw it my jaw dropped. Worth watching from the beginning for the full experience. Great song.

Overall a great album that often gets overlooked for reasons discussed above. I’m glad it at least got a stellar cast recording, even though the productions were less successful. I would, in all honesty, like Duncan Sheik to take another look at the score in a few years, and maybe give us a American Psycho revised 2.0. I think the score has a decent amount of potential to be even better than it already is. I’ll be looking to see what Sheik works on after Covid lockdown.

Moana (2016 Māori Film Soundtrack)

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vbr mp3

Yesterday, I descended into a deep listening pit of Lin Manuel Miranda music, mostly earlier stuff from In The Heights and Freestyle Love Supreme. I was recently delighted to find the Maori dub OST of Moana and I wanted to give you 3 quick reasons to add this to your Cast Album collection.

Reason #1: Recordings in Polynesian languages are few and far between. The original English soundtrack feature songs with lyrics in the Polynesian languages Samoan, Tokelauan, and Tuvalu. Disney’s production value is high, and it’s wonderful to hear the Polynesian language family being represented, especially with a score by Miranda.

Reason #2: Track 5 Ki Uta E, or We Know The Way, is totally awesome. I have, unsurprisingly, listened to most of the dozens of non-English dubbed Moana soundtracks. In the Maori dub of We Know The Way, the lower harmony in the second verse is, for some reason, mixed slightly, but noticeably, different and turned way up. This makes the vocal part in this particular verse sound more like a duet than the original Miranda version. It’s a really beautiful moment and the singer, Rob Ruha, does a great job doing Miranda’s role justice.


Reason #3: Track 10 Ko Au A Moana… I am Moana will give you chills. Singer Jaedyn Randell nails this third (out of four total) reprise of the the How Far I’ll Go bit. Even if you have no idea what’s happening in this song, you definitely know that the protagonist has come to an important realization of some sort.

Lin-Manuel Miranda might be at his prime right now, and it’s very exciting to see what the future holds for him, and in turn, for us.

The Book of Mormon (2011 Original Broadway Cast Recording)

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Robert Lopez, as well his wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez, are strong power players in the musical composer arena. Robert’s early success with Avenue Q lead to his ability to turn music to gold (let it go) with collaboration with his wife. While only moderately prolific with Broadway musicals, both R Lopez and K Anderson-Lopez are very young and I anticipate them being big hitters when Broadway returns from the grave. I will spare you the time, and energy, and not go into detail as to why Let It Go is literally the best song ever written, and it’s no surprise to me that R Lopez has as EGOT x2.

But I digress. Book of Mormon is right up against the border of my tolerance of obscenities. I’m not a huge Parker/Stone fan, and never really “got into” South Park. Their signature crudeness for the sake of being crude elicits a wide spectrum of reactions from the audience. Despite its lyrics, it is so funny, that, for me, the humor completely overshadows the foulness.

I would argue that Lopez’s score helped did carry boost the show to its current standing as a Broadway hit, and softened some of the harsh elements of racism and religion bashing. At the end of the day, I love the show, and I always end up going back to the OBCR and giving it a good listen.

The Church of the Latter Day Saints took the parody of it’s sacred text in stride and took the punches as gracefully as possible. As offensive as it is, its level of parody assures the audience that it is not a direct attack on the Mormon community.

Highlights of the album are the opening numbers Hello, Two by Two, and You and Me, as well as Baptize Me, and the amazing Act One finale Man Up, the latter being my personal favorite. If BOM is not in your collection yet, check the link above.

Der Graf von Monte Christo (2009 Swiss Cast Recording)

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Frank Wildhorn is a topic of conversation I tend to avoid among theatre enthusiasts. People love him or hate him, it seems. Critics point out his lyricist choices, and this might be one reason why I love non-english versions of his shows. What are they saying during the Prolog? No idea! But it sounds great! I have to be in a certain mood to listen to Wildhorn, and, as you’ll read in a moment, have very mixed feelings about him as a composer.

Count of Monte Cristo is an obvious choice for Wildhorn, the composer known for turning lush literature classics into colorful, outrageous, and lavish scores. Does this show have Wildhorn’s signature power ballad duets with beautiful harmonies (but Linda Eder should actually be singing everything)? Yes! It does. But I can eat up Wildhorn’s melodies like candy, full disclosure. He is my Broadway bubble gum.

Ein Leben Lang, the opening power ballad, sounds like it was cut from Jekyll and Hyde, but it’s a lovely enough melody for me to give it a pass. The musical spaces between the inevitable power ballads are what I find most interesting about this album. Wildhorn steps, ever so slightly, out of his music(al) box, and delivers something more varied. And again, it’s in German so the lyrics are wonderful (I don’t speak German).

I will admit that I typically don’t listen to a Wildhorn song here and Wildhorn song there. When my musical urges point toward Wildhorn, I usually opt to listen to the entire show, rather than highlights, or skipping around. His songs do sometimes get lost within themselves, but I do think the overall musical narrative is consistent with Wildhorn’s brand, and I don’t think that it’s a bad thing.

The track Könige starts with a simple standard power ballad melody, but builds into, what turns into, the climax of the score. I assume it’s the Act 1 Finale. It starts and continues as a solo number, and a second man enters the musical dialouge by the end of the second verse. As the song builds, with no vocal harmonies thusfar, there is a key change near the end that initiates a beautiful moment between the two men singing. They break from their solo verses, and begin a call and response version of the chorus, each man harmonizing with the others’ response, until the song resolves and you are left with chills down your spine. Side note: this German Swiss recording of this particular song blows all the other versions of this song out of the water.

I am aware of the criticism that Wildhorn receives, but I do find his music interesting enough to listen through an entire album, multiple times. I mean from Jekyll & Hyde to Dracula to Civil War, these melodies of his get stuck in my head quite a bit, and I don’t mind listening through an entire Wildhorn album when I get the power ballad itch.

If you haven’t heard Wildhorn’s version of Count, check the link above.

xoxo AB

Dancer in the Dark (2000 Music from the Motion Picture)

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Confusingly known in the Bjork oeuvre, and it’s actual technical title, as SelmaSongs: Music from the Motion Picture Dancer in the Dark, this a small album known for her duet with Radiohead’s Tom Yorke entitled “I’ve Seen It All.” A small album, yes, but a powerful, heart breaking, and gut wrenching album. The story of the film is bizarre, ultimately tragic, and, arguably, melodramatic in the most literal sense. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the film, but it takes you inside the mind and life of an eccentric mother who is sentenced to death, and ultimately must make sacrifices to save the livelihood of her son.

Musically, the score weaves together an organic, orchestral sound with a nervous, almost twitching, musical arrangement. Her signature “microbeats” ala her albums Homogenic, Vespertine & Medulla are present. This album is on the skirts of being defined as a cast album. In fact, I don’t categorize it as such. It’s more a solo album that includes many of the songs from the film. Mostly Bjork solos, there is one duet with Tom Yorke, I’ve Seen It All, which was nominated for an Oscar, and subsequently robbed of by Bob Dylan. It paints this sweeping emotional musical landscape that leaves you with chills, out of breath, and in love with Bjork and/or Yorke.

SelmaSongs is a strong Bjork solo album in it’s own right, but it is a recording of a movie musical, so I keep it in my collection of musicals. The highlights of the album are every song, because there are only 6, equally beautiful, equally painful.

Bjork’s music has always had a theatrical element to it, so a musical soundtrack, for me, feels right up her alley. SelmaSongs is a beautiful, albeit small, album that I think deserves attention if you are a fan of movie musicals.

Movie version does not feature Tom Yorke, and has a different arrangement

Finding Neverland (2015 Original Broadway Cast Recording)

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flac

I am not entirely sure what was happening in my life in 2015 to have this production fly completely off my radar, but indeed it did. I will admit that I am not a huge Peter Pan fan. I suppose the story of not wanting to grow up doesn’t align with my childhood in any way. In fact, I was eager and ambitious to grow up and be an adult as soon as possible, to a fault I presume.

But Peter Pan is an enduring, classic story, and in this version we follow the author on an adventure of imagination. Based on the 2004 film of the same name, Finding Neverland is one of few Broadway musicals whose workshop version has a completely different composer than the final product. I understand that a few remnants of Scott Frankel’s original 2012 score remain intact, but the music is now mainly attributed to Barlow and Kennedy.

After taking a brief glance at the 2015 compilation album “Finding Neverland the Album,” I was certainly impressed, or rather, star struck by the number and variety of artists who contributed to it, so I decided to give the OBCR a try after hearing Ellie Goulding sing what is now my favorite song from the second act of the show, titled When Your Feet Don’t Touch the Ground.

The album begins with a few catchy enough songs, each song is bouncy, adventure themed, poppy, and somewhat forgettable. But what all this is leading to is two (2!) back-to-back Laura Michelle Kelly solos. The first, a power ballad, the second, a lullaby. Then the score starts to unfold and make a little more sense by the time the title track “Neverland” is heard. Matthew Morrison has me sold on finishing the album. The songs in the second half of the album are really exciting. Composers Barlow & Kennedy’ really capture the feeling of soaring, seeking adventure, under-the-stars, twinkle-fairytale-ness.

After Neverland, we are met with a ridiculous track Circus of your Mind. This is the first stand out track where both Kelsey Grammar and Carolee Carmello are featured. It’s a pleasure to hear Frasier Grammar on this recording as I’ve been a big fan of his since I was a small child. As well he is in very, very few cast recordings. And then Carmello, who I know most from the original run of Parade, is always a powerhouse to have.

The rest of the album is super great, and there are too many little moments of delight for me to write down. One is when Morrison is singing Stronger and Grammar is in the background having this fit of yelling that adds a call and response to the melody. It’s really cute and sound great. Here is Morrison and Grammar performing Stronger at the Tonys:

Another moment of delight would be the bit in World is Upside Down where they are trying to clarify the semantics of the word “lost.”

“Is he lost in a emotional purgatory? Or lost in an existential search for himself?

(…No he’s just lost.)

Good heavens! Where, when, and how?

(Do you have experience being lost?)

We’re experiencing it now!“

Leading us up to the end of the show, Morrison sings When Your Feet Don’t Touch the Ground, which is, as mentioned above, the 11oclock number in this show. It really pulls me in, as a listener, and propels me into the finale. The finale is lovely enough, and the bonus version of the song Play is a delightful!

I will admit the actors, who are just so, so, so, so strong, really carry some of the less memorable musical numbers. Grammar, Morrison, LM Kelly, and Carmello really show how much good acting adds to the overall listening experience. The four of them definitely sell the album for me.





Future Demons (2020 Studio Cast Recording)

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320 mp3

It’s been a while since I’ve done a good “first listen” to a recording and jotted down my thoughts, and I thought today would be a nice day to do so. So here goes:

Ryan Scott Oliver’s Future Demons is an accidental find, and what a great find! I had obtained this album earlier this year, but this tiny album got lost in the shuffle of my life. I stumbled upon the track My Life With RH Macy earlier today and ended up listening to it a few times on repeat. That is typically a sign that I will give a new album a good listen. A minute into the track, I’m hooked into the chorus being belted by a woman channeling Sutton Foster in all the best ways, and I have to stop what I’m doing and listen to this song. It’s like Rob Cantor, Tori Amos, and Jeanine Tesori got together and decided to write an intoxicating opening number for a Broadway show. Oliver is clearly comfortable with odd-tempos and the art of combining musicality with syllable/syntax structure.

Oliver utilizes an interesting lineup of orchestrations. His opening number goes HAM with sounds from timpani, harpsicord(?), angelic choral backup singers, men chanting and channeling Monster from Frozen, and no shortage of extra beats. It’s really great. It’s an exciting listen. I am left wanting more.

Regarding the timing of the release, 2020 was obviously a strange, and uncomfortable year for musical theatre. And we started to see new and out of the box methods for showcasing musicals. I enjoy some of these recent smaller Cast Recording “EPs,” if you will, as a preview of what the future of American theatre will be.

The songs James Harris and Story We Used to Tell are not as memorable as the opening number, but good enough to keep my interest. Which is so great because the track What a Thought is a total trip.

In What a Thought, we are pulled into a pulsing 3/4 time driving electric guitar synth riff. A seemingly normal conversation between a couple is the backdrop of this maniacal and psychopathic song. We hear the inner thoughts of a man contemplating murder. And step by step, going though hypotheticals, overanalyzing each nuisance and trying to convince and dissuade himself simultaneously from commuting such a crime. The piano-supported normal-sounding dialogue is interspliced with horrifying string passages. Like the horror film Psycho type of horrifying strings. Ree Ree Ree Ree Like someone is being stabbed repeatedly. But with a violin. Anyway, the last track is decent and wraps things ups musically, but I don’t have much to say about it.

All in all, these 5 tracks sound fresh, smart, and promising. As Broadway sleeps, and we all wait patiently in our homes listening to cast albums, and the world falls apart around us, we are left to imagine what the future will look like. For me, this tiny recording is a snapshot of just that, and a reminder that there are good things to come.

I Am Anne Frank (1996 Studio Cast Recording)

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160kbps mp3

“June 20th, 1942. Dear Kitty, I am thirteen years old” begins Andrea Marcovicci in this recording of Michael A Cohen’s I Am Anne Frank. This 1996 recording is presented as a song cycle based on Cohen’s original 1965 off-Broadway stage production entitled Yours, Anne. The motif heard with this first phrase, “Dear Kitty…” begins a spiral of words and song that takes one through the last days of Anne Frank’s life, based on her diary accounts.

The Holocaust, with a a death toll that is too high, too incalculable, and too emotionally devastating to comprehend, presents a difficult subject matter to paint with a musical brush. Cohen, via Marcovicci, presents a minimalist piano/vocal/strings/woodwinds arrangement with melodies that provoke contemplation and reflection. Volleying back and forth between major, minor, and dissonant phrases, Cohen captures the complex tone of the diary through a cycle of orchestral, melodic, and spoken moments. He maintains a loose song structure, which allows lyricist Enid Futterman to create an accurate, and poetic, transcription of Anne’s account.

This recording is rich in suspended moments of musical instances that evoke a strong emotional response. A good example is the descending, slow last moments of the first song, when the melody shifts into a descending phrase, and Anne laments that she can “never, ever, go. out. side.” Another example is in the title track, when the song builds and builds and suddenly ceases, followed by Marcovicci singing solo “I’m afraid of the dark, I’m alone in the dark” before the melody resumes. In many ways, the musical account is both haunting and riveting. Marcovicci’s consistent, rich vocal tone delivers the alternating songs and monologues in a beautiful and appropriate manner.

Highlights of the recording are the opening and final numbers, as well the songs First Chanukah Night, and I Am Anne Frank. The latter of which is a devastating piece of music. This entire 1996 recording is taken at a slower and darker tempo/tone than its original 1985 incarnation. It is absolutely one of my favorite recordings, and one of the best song cycles I’ve ever heard.

Hair (2004 Actors’ Fund Of America Concert Recording)

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24bit flac

There are just too many recordings of Galt MacDermot’s Hair to find a proper “definitive” cast recording. And I’ll admit, in the early 2000s, I was a very impressionable boy. Some of the cast I idolize(d), including, but not limited to: Euan Morton, Adam Pascal, Gavin Creel, Raúl Esparza, Sherie Rene Scott, Harvey Fierstein, and on and on. These are singers I grew up listening to constantly: Rent, Taboo, Hairspray, etc., so for me, this is somewhat of a “dream cast” recording. But again, I admit bias.

Lillias White and Lea DeLaria start off the concert with fantastic performances of Aquarius and Donna, respectively. The concert has a few ensemble numbers, per the score, but rather than having specific character roles, the show is presented as a revue with many, many well-known actors featured on each song.

Standout numbers are I’m Black / I Got No right into an outrageous and completely fantastic version of Air. Harvey Fierstein will leave you literally breathless. It’s one of my personal favorites from this album. Fierstein adds his own dimension of humor and quality to this classic song.

My future husband The wonderful Raúl Esparza delivers us the title track Hair, with passion and charisma. My enjoyment of this song is typically impacted on the backup vocals during the chorus (“hair. hair. hair!hair!hair!”), which can be hit or miss on some recordings. It’s a hit on this one, I’ll tell you. Esparza, with ease and grace, shows off his insane belting range by the time the bridge has come around. He gives us just enough rasp on the lower notes for the rock feel, and then he adds his tremendous belting capabilities for that good ol’ broadway feel.

Other highlights are Orfeh in Black Boys, and Norm Lewis in Let the Sunshine In. But, really, every song is a knockout on this recording. The production presents no lack of talent, and I feel that it serves as a, not definitive, but rather staple recording of Hair for this generation. This album deserves to be on your literal, or digital, shelf.