Bugs on Broadway
Though it's the "cast album" to the touringBugs Bunny on Broadwayshow, which featured a 50-piece orchestra playing to the original cartoons, the real stars here are not the musicians but Carl Stalling and Milton J. Franklyn. As the composers behind theLooney Toonscartoons, Stalling (and later Franklyn) expertly composed scores that borrowed from classical music, popular songs of the day, and the whimsical compositions ofRaymond Scott. Working with talents like Chuck Avery (the most musically adventurous of Bugs Bunny's directors) and voice actors Arthur Q. Bryan (Elmer Fudd) and Mel Blanc (virtually everybody else), they created some of the best-loved music of the century. They also introduced classical music to new generations through their loving reenactments of Rossini'sThe Barber of Seville(as "The Rabbit of Seville") and, amazingly, the entireRingcycle (condensed to seven minutes in "What's Opera, Doc?"). Not as expansive as the two volumes of theCarl Stalling Project,Bugs Bunny on Broadwaynevertheless is a fine collection that concentrates on an oft-overlooked legacy of Bugs Bunny and company.--Randy Silver