Billion Dollar Baby (Revival Cast)
This might be one of the best shows you've never heard--or even heard of. Oddly enough, it took almost six decades forBillion Dollar Babyto get a proper full recording. This is all the more surprising since it was the show the incomparableComdenandGreenwrote right after their smash debut,On the Town. Bravo to New York's York Theatre for its 1998 concert production, on which this recording is based. Set in the 1920s,Billion Dollar Babyis a wickedly funny, startlingly cynical fable about Maribelle Jones, a ruthless, amoral social climber whose fall coincides with the crash of 1929. Comden and Green are at their most acerbic, whileMorton Gould's score is so dazzling that you wonder why he didn't do more on Broadway. The cast is topnotch as well, with special kudos toKristin Chenoweth, who displays razor-sharp claws under the innocent demeanor in the title role, and Debbie Gravitte as a suave, wise, club entertainer. A highly recommended CD.--Elisabeth Vincentelli