From: conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad)
Subject: Good Show Recordings of 1992
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 16:39:49 GMT

We all know "Best of Year" lists are silly and frivolous. 
But equally we (I, anyway) can't resist them.  So here
without further apology are some good things I've
encountered this year.

Caveat:  There's stuff I haven't heard (more than I realize,
undoubtedly).  I've yet to encounter JELLY'S LAST JAM, live
or on records, except for the documentary on PBS.  And I
haven't heard any of the brand-new batch of Broadway Angel
reissues (I've put the rarest, ST. LOUIS WOMAN, on my wish
list).  But what I have heard gives me enough for a list of
12 good recordings.  I've semi-organized the list into 3 new
stage productions, 2 reissues of old recordings, 2 special
items, and 5 new recordings of older shows:

1,  GUYS AND DOLLS (RCA Victor).  Frank Loesser's most
popular musical was presented in a brilliantly successful
revival.  (His most ambitious musical, THE MOST HAPPY FELLA,
was also presented in revival, but not with artistic success
to my way of thinking.  I can't consider its new cast
recording worthy of recommendation here, though if you don't
know that show, do get the excellent original cast album on
2 Sony Broadway CDs.)  Some -- not I, but then I was lucky
enough to see GUYS AND DOLLS very soon after opening -- have
found Jerry Zaks's direction excessively broad, but there
can be little dispute about the high quality of the cast's
vocal and theatrical skills, and that's what comes across on
the recording.  Faith Prince's Adelaide has been justly
praised and rewarded, but let's not forget Nathan Lane's
irresistible Nathan Detroit, Peter Gallagher's ardent Sky
Masterson, and Walter Bobbie's disarming Nicely-Nicely. 
Josie de Guzman's Sarah is less distinctive but perfectly
fine.  The ensemble is good, likewise the pacing and sound,
and the text is the fullest yet put on record.  And the
songs are as immortal as ever.  What's not to love?

2.  CRAZY FOR YOU (RCA Victor).  I could get grumpy about
the way this "new" Gershwin show has settled, for the most
part, for the most well-worn songs to plug into its addle-
brained plot, and the employment of so much talent on
something that still doesn't really cohere (and won't look
like much away from the dazzling Mike Ockrent production). 
But the fact is, all the songs *are* good, and they've been
brilliantly arranged and orchestrated here, and they're very
well performed.  Don't let anyone tell you that Harry
Groener is a lackluster leading man; it's a vicious lie. 
He's terrific in person and he comes across just as strongly
on record.  He makes it all look easy and will be very hard
to replace.  I'm not as wild about Jodi Benson, but she has
her appealing side and she sings better on the recording
than in the theater.  The supporting cast, in what little
they have to do, is solid as a rock.  And those Gershwin
boys sure knew how to write a song!

3.  NICK AND NORA (TER).  Yes!  I maintained at the time 
(and in debate in this newsgroup) that the problems with
this musical did not include its score by Charles Strouse
and Richard Maltby Jr.  I feel vindicated by this CD
release, which includes a very agreeable collection of
songs, fetchingly performed and nicely orchestrated (by
Jonathan Tunick).  Standouts in the cast include Faith
Prince, just as appealing here as in GUYS AND DOLLS only
weeks later, Joanna Gleason, Chris Sarandon, and Jeff
Brooks.  I do wish that the process of revision had not
dumped one of the songs I liked best (or could they at least
included it as an appendix here?) and *had* jettisoned a
couple of weakish numbers that still remain.  But I'm
grateful to TER for preserving the best portion of an
unfortunate misfire, and doing it so well.

4.  OUT OF THIS WORLD (Sony Broadway).  This was Cole
Porter's first musical after KISS ME, KATE! (which moved to
a different theater to make room for it) and it employed
many of the same production team.  It was an ambitious
effort based on the Greek myth of Amphytrion, and though the
idea sounds amusing to me it apparently never quite worked
onstage.  It's a great score, though -- one of the half-
dozen that come across so well on records that people simply
refuse to believe that their books doomed them.  Here we
have gems like "Where, Oh Where?", "Use Your Imagination,"
"Nobody's Chasing Me," and one of those Porter List
Songs(TM), "Cherry Pies Ought To Be You."  Nicely performed,
especially by Priscilla Gillette (one of those firm,
grounded lyric sopranos that were abundant around 1950 in
musicals and opera, and who seem not to exist any more).  I
wonder if the complete score is extensive enough to justify
a full-length new recording....

5.  OH, BROTHER! (Original Cast)  A 1-performance flop from
1981, which I was always curious about and never knew got
recorded.  (Conceivably the CD reissue happened in 1991, but
I didn't hear about it until this year, and this is *my*
list!!)  Its premise, a musical retelling of "The Comedy of
Errors" in the modern-day Middle East, is not the freshest
or most promising, and the score is distributed with odd
unevenness among characters and events, as well as rather
short, even with cut songs restored.  But the score itself
(music by Michael Valenti, lyrics by Donald Driver) is
disarmingly catchy, and the cast (all near-unknowns at the
time) is utterly irresistible.  Imagine, if you will, David
Carroll (Chess, Grand Hotel) and Harry Groener (Crazy for
You) as one set of twins, Alan Weeks and Joe Morton (The
Brother from Another Planet) as the other, and as the three
ladies in the plot, Judy Kaye, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
(did you know she commanded a sensational operatic
soprano?), and Alyson Reed.  Lovely.

6.  OPENING NIGHT: THE RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN OVERTURES
(Philips).  The third, and for me the best, of the Hollywood
Bowl Orchestra series conducted by John Mauceri.  An
overture or equivalent for each of the R&H collaborations,
in original orchestrations and splendidly played in glorious
sound.  Of the genuine overtures the most impressively put
together may be the ones from SOUTH PACIFIC and THE KING AND
I, and the most valuable thing on the disc is the first
fully adequate stereo recording of the complete "Carousel
Waltz."  Of the novelties, I especially like the very 50s-
sounding ME AND JULIET overture.  But everything is good,
and it all makes marvelous listening.

7.  "ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM: COMPANY" (RCA Victor Video).  I 
had to slip this one in here, because D.A. Pennebaker's one-
hour film about the recording of the 1970 cast album is such
a classic, and so good to have available again.  No
narration, no nonsense: just a great experience and a piece
of history.

8.  REGINA (London).  I'm not sure that Marc Blitzstein's
opera based on Lillian Hellman's famous play "The Little
Foxes" is an entirely successful piece of work.  I am sure,
though, that it demands to be heard and thought about.  Some
of the music is brilliantly successful, and the dramatic
situations remain strong and gripping.  John Mauceri's
Scottish Opera production uses some of the same singers as
his excellent STREET SCENE recording: Samuel Ramey, Angelina
Reaux, David Kuebler, and the late Bruce Hubbard.  All are
as fine here as they were in the Weill work, although Reaux
has to keep her mature talent under wraps as she
impersonates a naive adolescent.  Of the others, Sheri
Greenawald is a stunningly vivid Aunt Birdie, Katherine
Ciesinski an inconsistent but generally persuasive Regina,
and Timothy Noble and James Maddalena a pair of bass-
baritones who act as well as they sing.

9.  BRIGADOON (Broadway Angel).  John McGlinn's latest (and
last?) recording of a musical for Angel preserves this major
Lerner & Loewe score in its entirety, for the first time on
records.  And this score really is misrepresented when its
extensive ballet music is omitted, as it was on all earlier
recordings.  Moreover, the performance is stellar, with
Rebecca Luker, Judy Kaye, and Brent Barrett all on top form,
and John Mark Ainsley gorgeous beyond words in the tenor
songs.

10.  THE MIKADO (Telarc).  It may not be American, but it's
musical theater.  And it may not be Sullivan's #1 score
(we've argued about that in rec.arts.theatre recently), but
it's never less than first-rate.  I know I've never heard it
better done than here, with Sir Charles Mackerras (can this
really be his first G&S recording??) leading Welsh Opera
forces to brilliant effect.  An all-star cast rises to the
occasion, with only the Yum-Yum (Marie McLaughlin) sounding
marginally uncertain of pitch at times.  The others --
Donald Adams (veteran Mikado of many a D'Oyly Carte
performance), Felicity Palmer, Richard Suart, Anne Howells,
and especially that amazing tenor Anthony Rolfe Johnson --
couldn't be better.  The only reason not to buy now is the
rumor that Telarc will eventually release a 2-CD version,
restoring the very small musical cuts made to fit a 79-
minute CD and including all the spoken dialog.  You'll have
to decide if that matters to you, but in any case I find
this the best-performed MIKADO on records ever.

11.  LADY, BE GOOD! (Elektra Nonesuch).  The new
reconstruction of the 1924 Gershwin show has been praised
here recently, and deservedly, so I can be brief.  Lara
Teeter, Ann Morrison, Jason Alexander, Michael Maguire, and
John Pizzarelli all distinguish themselves and provide great
pleasure.  Eric Stern makes it all fizz.  It's nonstop
tunefulness and fun.

12.  NINE (RCA Victor).  A great, great score that had begun
to be forgotten after its Broadway run in the early 1980s
(there don't seem to be many local productions).  Maury
Yeston's lyrics aren't up to his music, but what music!  And
what orchestrations (the great Jonathan Tunick).  And, in
this studio recording of a London concert, what a
performance.  Jonathan Pryce, Ann Crumb, and Elaine Paige 
head a well-chosen ensemble and chorus.  Listen to songs
like "My Husband Makes Movies" or "Only With You," or the
thrillingly contrapuntal vocal Overture, and see if you
don't agree that Yeston exhibits a subtle command of harmony
and texture beyond the scope beyond almost anyone else in
the business.  (It's good news that his musical PHANTOM is
to be recorded by RCA in the near future.)  Again, there's a
2-CD alternative issue to think about -- in this case, not a
future possibility but a present reality.  TER has issued a
93-minute version of NINE by this cast, the whole score for
the first time on records.  It ought to be worth having,
even at TER's import prices, if one could only find it. 
Footlight Records, the usually reliable source for such
things, has had to sneak it in through Australia and is
momentarily unable to get it back in stock.  I'll keep
trying.  So should you; or just go ahead and settle for the
RCA if you have a life, unlike us completeness fanatics. 
But one way or the other, get to know NINE.

And keep listening!

Jon Alan Conrad
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre