No comments about Broadway Hits: The Golden Era.

No comments about Phantom Unmasked.

No comments about Rocky Horror Picture Show: Musical Highlights from the Hit Movie and Stage Play.

2 comments about Starmania: Le Spectacle (1979 Live French Cast).

1. I must say that we i read the previous review i couldn't say nothing! I'm a french 18 years old girl and i must says that Starmania is the best french musical ever. But don't wait for it to be as american musicals, it's nothing like that (i've seen both so i can make the comparison) Then the lyrics are as important as the music. so you'll have to surch a minimum explainations on the story to completely appricate the whole show! Plus the voices totally match with the characters and there's no sound or voice flaw! I really recommand it if you like really good french music. This is a french reference!



2. While this version of STARMANIA features some of the show's original and best known renditions and performers of its material, the audience reactions and vocal flaws inhherent in a live recording plague this recording from beginning to end.

   It is interesting though to listen and hear the difference in the way a French and American audience reacts to a live performance.

No comments about The Musicality of Novello.

5 comments about June's Got Rhythm.

1. This one definitely is in the same league as "Something Cool" and "Misty Miss Christy" as a vehicle for a unique and compelling voice--somewhere between Chris Connor's androgynous baritone richness and Anita O'Day's sexy sultriness. All three are voices that maintain a direct, strikingly "conversational" quality devoid of obvious vocal techniques and artifice.
   
   What's especially endearing about June is that she was a diminutive 1950s West Coast gal with blonde bangs who sang with a bang! She has considerably more power (and upper register) than either of the other two singers, projecting full-throated, straight-out tones that must have had recording engineers turning down the levels instead of the usual boosting required by most vocalists. You never miss a word with June, and I've never heard anyone else literally "belt out" Rodgers and Hart's "Blue Moon"--a memorable reading. Paradoxically, given the clarity of her diction, her voice has a slightly rough-edged, unrefined, "morning-after" quality that has an undeniable allure (it's certainly easy--if a bit scary and depressing--to imagine her headlining a latter-day guitar-based rock band).
   
   Despite the aforementioned "natural" qualities, Christy is clearly measuring her notes and phrases carefully. No sloppiness, bad intonation, tentative note choices whatsoever. And when she has you convinced that her capacious instrument might be too cumbersome to get around on the up-tempo material, she lets fly with a scat chorus on "It Don't Mean a Thing" and a rollicking "All God's Children" that rank among the best.
   
   For the most part, June's vocal timbre is best complemented by thick textures, like Kenton's orchestra or piano stylings ("Duet"), and the settings on this collection are definitely on the light side--guitar, flute, crisp brushwork. Even so, her version of "My One and Only Love" with little more than guitar accompaniment is as good as any I've heard by a female singer.
   
   Whether June was wise to follow in the tradition Greta Garbo and Doris Day by getting out of the game early is difficult to say. Hearing latter-day Connor and O'Day would lead me to support her decision. Although she doesn't receive the attention she deserves, she's remembered fondly by a select, discriminating portion of the public, and while she may not be as revered as Anita, she's risen above Chris. Moreover, for some of us she's enough to make anything sung by Diana Krall sound anticlimactic at best--and comparatively lifeless at that. Once thought of as a "cool" if not "cold" singer, June sounds positively glowing and effervescent on this set.
   
   I had started out with 4 stars in mind, since the first tune ("Rock Me to Sleep") is a bit of fluff, followed by the old standard "Gipsy in My Soul" with a curiously casual non-arrangement, then the spare guitar accompaniment of "I'm Glad There Is You" completing the less than auspicious opening hat trick. But beginning with "They Can't Take That Away" and with each successive tune the program moves up into a higher gear. And listening to it now for the 3rd time--"I'm so in love there's nothing in life but you"--I'm beginning to distrust my initial impressions so much I can no longer find a reason to begrudge it the extra star.



2. I am not a music critic. I simply love music and I have loved June Christy's work since I first heard it many years ago. This is one fine album. I recommend it to anyone that wants to hear what great jazz vocal music sounded like in the 1950's.



3. My 47-year-old LP of "June's Got Rhythm," bought for $3 at an Air Force BX when I was a young, single lieutenant, has been scratchy for a lot of years, but it's finally been replaced with this CD, which also features some bonus tracks from another Christy album. If you've never heard this Christy effort, it's one of her best. If you have, it's probably time to replace your LP, too. The CD reveals that the "George Spelvin" listed on the original LP as a flutist and saxophonist with June and husband Bob Cooper was really the great Bud Shank, still going strong in Tucson and around the world as he approaches his 80th birthday. Check out his new CD with Phil Woods after you've heard this one. Better yet, consider buying them both.



4. On the way I to buying this new issue of "June's Got Rhythm" I mused at length on exactly what made and makes June Christy so special. After listening to her 50 years I still can't figure it out. How surprised and amused I was to find Will Friedwald musing on the same topic in his album notes. This is one of June's most relaxed albums, a true jazz outing with the cream of instrumentalists on a tasty menu of standards, some better known than others. "Rock Me To Sleep" and "When Lights Are Low" long have been regarded as this album's notable bookends but there is much admirable between.
   Tracks have been added from "The Cool School," June's unusual collection of mostly kids' songs in a jazz setting. That should be reissued completely. The remastering here is admirable and this is music that never wears out its welcome.



5. Recorded in 1958, JUNE'S GOT RHYTHM marked a turning point in Christy's marvelous years at Capitol Records. Rather than working with the esteemed Pete Rugolo, for this session the beloved singer looked to husband Bob Cooper (a superb musician in his own right) to provide the arrangements. Cooper assembled a small group of Kenton alumni, and the resulting ensemble clearly put Christy at ease, as the results are relaxed, lilting, and arguably the jazziest recordings of Christy's career.
   
   As with previous Christy reissues, producer Michael Cuscuna has produced a first-rate package, with superb remastering, original album art, and new liner notes by Will Friedwald.
   
   A tasty bit of 1950s West Coast jazz at its peak, JUNE'S GOT RHYTHM is simply splendid.

5 comments about The Grass Harp (1971 Original Broadway Cast).

1. I can't believe I didn't discover this score sooner. The music is some of the most gorgeous and unusual I've ever heard. Songs like "Dropsy-Cure Weather", "Chain of Love", "Reach Out", "Yellow Drum" and the bravura musical scene "Babylove's Miracle Show" are absolutely impossible to forget. A few have criticized Collin's numbers as being "cheesy 70s trash", but I actually think they're very appropriate for the character and incredibly catchy. It's really unfortunate that none of Claibe Richardson's shows have seemed to work very well onstage, because his music is lush, suprising, deep, and deeply moving. Not only does this album have all this great music to recommend it, but it also has Barbara Cook, Broadway's all-time greatest vocalist, in her last book show to date. She's truly remarkable, making songs like "Chain of Love" complex one-act playlets. One thing that's often forgotten about Cook is how fine an actress she is, and that quality is ever-present here, as Cook takes a very unusual, free-spirited character and makes her a singular creation. The performances of Russ Thacker, Karen Morrow (one of the classic flop indicators), and the great Carol Brice are also pungent and vivid. Highly recommended for any Broadway lover!



2. This exhilarating recording is essential to any serious musical theater enthusiast. The thrilling, varied score, with stunning orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, comes across in all its glory. Barbara Cook is in magnificent form on the luxurious "Chain of Love" and the poignant "Reach Out." One of Broadway's great vocalists, Karen Morrow, dares you to stay in your seat on the dynamic "The Babylove Miracle Show." The rambunctious Russ Thacker brings full conviction to "Floozies," a hilarious pean to a teenage boy's naive sexual fantasies. Carol Brice shines on "Marry with Me," having received a post card marriage proposal from Bill but not knowing from which Bill it was sent. The company brings home the driving force of the uplifting march of freedom, "Yellow Drum." First class all the way - material and production - this score grows richer with each hearing. A delicate gem of a show for any theater company brave enough to give its audience an extraordinary, unusal musical it doesn't already know. This recording makes it easy to understand why THE GRASS HARP has long been considered one of the lost treasures of the musical theater.



3. This is a score of a show that for several reasons didn't become a hit on Broadway. Personally I blame the book, but, hey, you might have your own opinion. I just don't think it lives up to the lush rapture of songs like "Chain of Love" or the thrilling spirit of "The Babylove Miracle Show." As one of the other reviewers dared you to listen to "Floozies" and not laugh, I invite you to listen to it and laugh loudly because it was written as a comedic song and a rather good one as well!

   I strongly recommend this to anyone who is looking for recordings of obscure musicals. And even if you don't share my passion for the show, you'll still have a recording featuring Barbara Cook, and that will always be a good thing!




4. I find it rather difficult to share the opinions of many other people who view this show as one of the lost treasures of the musical theater. I think of it as a missed opportunity - a lovely, intimate story and fascinating characters which could make for a wonderfully delicate musical; instead we get . . this. Some of the music is indeed ravishing; generally when the principal women are involved it is quite charming. But when the men open their mouths, its clear we are in amateurland. Just try - try - to listen to "Floozies" and not burst out laughing. The score swings wildly between folksy ballads and pure unadulterated 70's trash (much of it obviously inspired by Burt Bacharach.) What a show this could have made! What a shame.



5. I had never heard of this show until a local theater company announced it would be producing it. I've been listening to this CD all week now, and am enjoying it very much. "Baby Love" is one of the best songs and really cashes in on the 70's sound that is prevalent throughout this score. The plot is very odd-ball and somewhat hard to figure out just by listening...that is where the liner notes come in handy. I would advise any hard chore musical theatre fan to add this one to their collection, but it isn't for those who think "Les Mis" or "The Phantom of the Opera" are the end-all of musicals.

No comments about Great Songwriters.

4 comments about The Likes of US.

1. Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber were once so young that nobody would take them seriously enough to stage their early work.
   
   Undaunted, they cobbled together a first effort, and when nobody was interested quickly pressed on with something completely different. The result - like so many musicals and operas that didn't quite make it - was partially lost - in particular the original "book". All that is left were the songs.
   
   So this is a concert version, with connecting comment from a narrator, rather than either a record of a "real" (staged) performance, or a conventional "original cast recording" with the songs extracted from their context.
   
   It has to be said, even by someone who on the whole admires ALW, that this is well short of being a forgotten "Evita". None the less - we have to be grateful that the songs have at last been recorded. I agree with another reviewer's opinion of the "staying power" of the commentary - which sounds as if it has been more or less ad-libbed and does not improve with repeated hearings - it is indeed a shame it is not on separate tracks so it can be "programmed out".
   
   But yes, if you take your musicals seriously you will obviously want this one for your collection. I doubt if it will ever be on anyone's list as their favourite Andrew Lloyd Webber, but who can tell?
   
   One exercise that will be found amusing by people who know Webber's work is tracing bits of music he later re-cycled in other works. The composer commented on looking at the score again after so many years that he had always felt that he had re-used so much that this alone would have precluded a production - and was surprised to find so little he was aware of reusing.



2. Hello,
   I have listened to this a few times now and believe what it is basically a cross between "Oliver" and "Tenderloin", as say Leslie Bricusse might have written it. It is cute, but sounds very derivative and "'60s"
   I enjoyed the commentary at first, but by the third listening, found it very annoying. It is too bad that the tracks were not set up so the talking could be skipped. I am thinking seriously of loading the whole thing on my computer and editing out all the talk and applause.
   I am glad I bought it, but only as a historic curiosity which makes my Lloyd Webber collection complete. I don't see much future listening.



3. The Likes Of Us is not a great musical. It's narration is awkward, forced and dramaturgically immature. Too many musical numbers are gives to umimportant characters, and the plot too often strays away from anything interresting. The characterisations are weird and underdevelopped.
   
   When that is said, The Likes Of Us contains some of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's most tuneful, witty and touching songs. Taken for what it is, a musical experiment by two very young song writers, The Likes Of Us is very promising and absolutely fascinating.
   
   The witty narration added to this performance (unfortunately not separately tracked) clearly points out the show's weaknesses. Which helps the audience appreciate what truly is good by this show. I would without hesitation recommend anyone to buy this recording rather than anything ALW wrote after Song And Dance.



4. The story of "The likes of us", the first ever musical made by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice is indeed an old one, dating 40 years in the past. Before the two met, ALW was starting his history studies at Oxford and Rice was a law student. Then in 1965 the two of them made acquaintance and, realizing their potential, began working on a musical called "The likes of us", set in the Victorian London and concerning the life and exploits of one dr. Thomas Barnardo (1845-1905), a British physician and philanthropist who founded many homes for destitute and homeless children of London's East End. Although the musical numbers were completed and a book written, the show never reached the stage. Until, now that is, when in July this year "The Likes of us" had its first and so far only staging at ALW's annual Sydmonton Festival. That live performance was recorded and is now released as this double CD edition.
   
   Due to the fact that the book was never finished and eventually got lost, Tim Rice wrote a new one for this performance. The structure of the show captured on these CDs is rather unique, since the musical numbers are tied together with the brief narrations between them instead of the conventional dialogue. This narration is delivered by the character of The Narrator, played here with enormous gusto and humour, by Stephen Fry, one of the most respected British comedians today. His witty remarks are one of the great assets of this recording.
   
   The score, although written 40 years ago, is pure gold. The melodies, freshly orchestrated, grab you from the very beginning in the best ALW fashion. This is not the classy rock or pop sound of their later joint shows `Superstar' and `Evita', nor the operatic crescendos of `The Phantom', but rather the beautifully arranged pieces of music similar in style to the ones in the musical theatre of that time. The orchestrations are done very well, and the part where the orchestra takes a solo melody within a song helps us to capture the loveliness of the score. The numbers itself comprise of the solo numbers and ensemble ones, mixed with dancing. Only two of the tunes did ALW use in his future work: a bits of `The likes of us' was used in `Variations' and `Love is here' later become `Travel hopefully' in `By Jeeves'.
   
   Of course, one has to make reference to Tim Rice's lyrics. Even though ALW used many good lyricists throughout his career, an undisputed fact remains Tim Rice was the best of the lot. He has a special gift of playing with words, finding perfect synonyms to express a certain action. Also, he is especially noted for his humorous cynicism, which is also evident here. One of the funniest numbers in this piece, called `Going, going, gone', features Tim Rice as an auctioneer handling an auction. This was the first song ever written by ALW and Rice and it is very nice to hear Sir Tim singing this entertaining piece in which his craftsmanship with words is obvious in full extent. The show does not lack humour, as a number called `A lion-hearted land', taking place at the cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street clearly demonstrates as well.
   
   The cast performing this work is equally good. Some of them we've encountered before, like Hannah Waddingham, who plays here a prostitute called Rose, and can also be heard on the original cast recording of ALW's musical `The beautiful game'. The role of Dr. Bernardo is played in a pleasing tenor voice by Adam Brazier, who currently stars as Walter Hartright in the just opened Broadway production of ALW's newest musical `The woman in white'. The other roles, such as Barnardo's helper Syrie, are also well cast.
   
   The CD comes in a nice package, together with a booklet and a libretto. The booklet contains the informative notes written by ALW, Tim Rice and Stephen Fry. The sound quality is excellent.
   
   Conclusively, "The likes of us', besides being a really good musical, is also a reminder of just how great collaborators ALW and Tim Rice are. The musical itself be it in its present form or with a little bit of reworking, has all the qualities needed for a successful stage run. In the booklet, Tim Rice mentions the pleasure he and Sir Andrew had in working together again. We can only hope this reunion will be enough for them to take a next daring step: that is, their collaboration on an entirely new musical project. In the meantime, the musical theatre buffs will have to enjoy this little gem that Lloyd Webber and Rice duo finally decided to bestow upon the musical devotees.

4 comments about Avenue X (1994 Original New York Cast).

1. I personally have an eccentric taste in music, but I think most people would really enjoy this CD. The voices are amazing, and I love all the songs. I bought this CD for three books from my library, but I would buy it for twenty. Definitly a keeper.



2. i was just in a workshop for avenue x in boston and i will tell you personally, this is NOT easy music! the cast pulls it off so amazingly. it something you just have to close your eyes and absorb. great CD.



3. There's simnply nothing else like this! COMPLETELY A CAPPELLA! - and fantastic performances from some of the finest singers in New York City today! HAAARRRMONEEEY! Even the package is beautiful, especially the insert booklet that documents this killer Off-Broadway show. The original songs range from Doo-Wop to Gospel to Jazz to haunting Italian melodies to deeply soulful and rocking grooves. AVENUE X is for all who love singing.



4. I was very pleasantly surprised with this CD. It's true that acapella aficionados will love it, however, if you enjoy the music of the 50's and early 60's you will love it too. The performances are outstanding and the material extremely authentic sounding. My only desire is to see the show somewhere. Try it, you'll like it.