From: conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad)
Subject: "Broadway Showstoppers" on EMI
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 15:13:15 GMT

The latest item in John McGlinn's recordings of classic show music for
Broadway Angel (and reportedly there are only 2 more single discs in the
can, and then there'll be no more) is a miscellaneous recital called
"Broadway Showstoppers," using the London Sinfonietta, the Ambrosian
Chorus, and a collection of the top American show singers whom he has
worked with often.  Its catalog number is 54586 and its duration is
74:26.

The singers are Brent Barrett, Kevin Colson, Kim Criswell, George
Dvorsky, Davis Gaines, Cris Groenendaal, Judy Kaye, Jeanne Lehman, and
Rebecca Luker.  The running order is as follows (I do not include
singers whose sole purpose is to "feed" a line or two, and I put larger
secondary roles after a semicolon):

Swanee (DEMI-TASSE REVUE, Gershwin): Criswell
Tea for Two (NO, NO, NANETTE, Youmans): Luker, Dvorsky
Dancing in the Dark (THE BAND WAGON, Schwartz): Gaines
Who? (SUNNY, Kern): Luker, Barrett
Here Am I (SWEET ADELINE, Kern): Kaye
The President Jefferson Sunday Luncheon Party March (1600
  PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, Bernstein): Gaines
September Song (KNICKERBOCKER HOLIDAY, Weill): Colson
Why Was I Born? (SWEET ADELINE): Kaye
Some Girl Is On Your Mind (SWEET ADELINE): Barrett, Dvorsky,
  Gaines; Groenendaal, Kaye
Bill (OH, LADY! LADY!!, Kern): Lehman
Duet for One (1600 PENN. AVE.): Kaye
Triplets (BETWEEN THE DEVIL, Schwartz): Criswell, Kaye, Dvorsky
Don't Ever Leave Me (SWEET ADELINE): Kaye, Gaines
Come to the Moon (DEMI-TASSE REVUE): Barrett
All the Things You Are (VERY WARM FOR MAY, Kern): Luker, Dvorsky;
  Lehman, Groenendaal

About half of these include chorus.

As John McGlinn says in his introductory note, this program mixes
familiar items with obscure ones.  It isn't really a series of
"showstoppers," but more like "things McGlinn wanted to record because
he'll never get to do the whole shows from which they come."  For
instance, incorporated here is in effect "Highlights from SWEET ADELINE"
-- 4 numbers, all good ones, and all with Judy Kaye in the role created
by Helen Morgan after she'd had such a success in Kern's SHOW BOAT.
Kaye is marvelous with her opportunities here; perhaps being the
most-featured soloist on the disc helps make up for her being paid to
stand by for Teresa Stratas in the SHOW BOAT recording (Stratas is
notorious for cancelling) and never getting to perform that other Helen
Morgan role.

Kaye gets one more plum as well: a hitherto unrecorded number from that
Bernstein flop, 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, which gave a history of the
presidency through the servants' quarters.  Ken Howard and Patricia
Routledge played all the Presidents and First Ladies, and this number
takes place at the inaugural of Rutherford B. Hayes, taking over from
Ulysses Grant.  (Nice timing, to release it the day before a real
inaugural!)  It's a tour de force for the actress who plays both Mrs.
Grant and Mrs. Hayes.  Onstage Routledge wore a trick wig and bonnet
that she could flip back and forth; on disc Kaye does an amazing vocal
transformation to match, flipping between a belt voice and an operatic
one, both excellent.  She even encompasses some high notes right up to D
above high C -- however did Routledge do all that?  Not to be missed.

All the others are excellent too, and I won't go over each number
individually (though I hope others who've bought it will make different
choices when they post their reviews).  Let me single out 3 items:

The version of "Bill" recorded here has the original Wodehouse lyric,
which Hammerstein altered (without permission, the liner notes now tell
us) for SHOW BOAT.  The differences are not earth-shattering but they do
change the feel of the song.  I'm also glad to have this because it's my
first chance to hear Jeanne Lehman, whom McGlinn has used in some of his
concerts but none that I've heard.  Hers is a voice that harks back to
some of those solid, darkish lyric sopranos whom we used to get in
musicals around 1950 -- I'm thinking of ladies like Patricia Morison,
Patricia Gillette, Doretta Morrow, and even Jan Clayton.  It's a
different timbre from Rebecca Luker's but equally good, and it makes me
all the sorrier that R&H's decision to throw their recording rights to
Philips Records and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra meant that we couldn't
have any Rodgers and Hart here.  Wouldn't a Luker/Lehman/Criswell "Sing
for Your Supper" have been wonderful?

"Swanee" is a surprise.  Everybody "knows" that Al Jolson introduced it
in his show "Sinbad" (and it turns out we even got that part wrong, he
must have put it in on the later tour).  But it was first heard in one
of those vaudeville stage shows that were combined with movie shows in
the early years of this century.  And the pit band for DEMI-TASSE REVUE
was a real band!  Arthur Pryor's wind band, augmented for the occasion
with strings to a total of 75.  Four euphoniums, 16 clarinets.  What a
sound!  And what a framework for Kim Criswell, who here sound better
than I've ever heard her before -- she hasn't stopped belting, but she
keeps that nasty nasal edge out of it this time, and sounds strong and
attractive right up to high F.

And the finale, "All the Things You Are."  If you saw McGlinn's Boston
Pops concert on tv, you know how overwhelming the original orchestral
setting is.  This is always one of the most gorgeous songs ever written
(Howard McGillin sang a stunning version on a PBS pledge concert a few
years back), but in its original setting as an almost operatic duet of
"what I would say to him/her if I only had the courage" it brings a tear
to my eye every time.  Listen for Rebecca Luker's voice soaring over the
massed forces, right up to high D at one point, and for George Dvorsky's
highly sympathetic baritone supporting her.

Other general comments: Kaye and Luker get the biggest share, as you can
tell.  Everyone else gets at least one featured spot except poor Cris
Groenendaal, who gets only 2 intros to other people's numbers; I hope he
was well paid at least.  Everybody sounds wonderful except perhaps Davis
Gaines, who sounds stiff and ill at ease; I wonder if he was having
vocal troubles, which can certainly induce a tensing and "gripping" of
the voice for fear it'll fall out of line.  The sound is fine except for
the choral sound, which is ill-defined and sounds "canned" with no real
spatial location.  I wonder if they were overdubbed afterwards.

But let that cavil not deter you from getting this terrific recording.

Jon Alan Conrad
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre