Cast Albums Blog
REVIEW: Donna McKechnie and Danielle Hope
I guess it says something when the patter in a cabaret act is more interesting than the singing, but that's sadly the case on two new cabaret CDs by both a musical theater legend and an up and coming young Brit performer.
Donna McKechnie's Same Place: Another Time, recorded live in London, recreates the show that McKechnie performed earlier in the year at 54 Below. McKechnie, of course, has had an impressive stage career and is best known for her Tony Award-winning role as Cassie in the original production of A Chorus Line as well as other Michael Bennett shows including Promises, Promises and Company. But even to her fans, McKechnie was typically better known for her spectacular dancing than for her singing which was more adequate than stunning. Now in her 70s, McKechnie's voice shows its age, often lacking control in its upper registers. It doesn't help that McKechnie has picked a vocally rangy set of songs for her CD including Sondheim's "What More Do I Need?" and "At the Ballet" (from A Chorus Line); all push at the limits of her voice and the results aren't always pretty.
REVIEW: An American in Paris - Broadway Cast
This past Sunday, the new stage version of the 1951 film An American in Paris picked up four Tony Awards including Best Choreography, Best Set Design of a Musical, and Best Lighting Design of a Musical. In a show that is so heavily defined by dance and the visual, how does this work stack up in the audio department? The newly released cast recording of An American in Paris offers a surprisingly engaging listen and without the stage pictures to compete with, the rich score, made up of hits by George and Ira Gershwin, really dazzles. From the opening excerpt from "Concerto in F" to hits like "Someone to Watch Over Me" and "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise," the album often plays like a "Best of the Gershwins." This is never a bad thing (despite the fact that at times the show feels like it's treading a bit too closely in the waters of Crazy For You, especially with its "found object" version of "I Got Rhythm"), but the success of the cast album really rests on the shoulders of one individual. No, it's not director Christopher Wheeldon, leading man Robert Fairchild, or even George Gershwin. You have to look way down in the cast of credits to see the name Rob Fisher who adapted, arranged, and supervised the score and happily got to write the album's liner notes.
REVIEW: James and the Giant Peach - Studio Cast
At some point over the last few years, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul have developed into one of the finest songwriting teams of the “new musical theatre” generation. They moved from their first show, Edges, created while they were still in college and pleasing but also a little redundant in form, to the off-Broadway hit Dogfight, Tony- and Drama Desk- nominee A Christmas Story, larger national exposure with songs on Smash (and also in an Old Navy ad), and, with the release of a new cast recording, James and the Giant Peach.
REVIEW: Life of an Actress: The Musical - Soundtrack
It's always a little suspicious when a film's soundtrack gets a wider release or more notice than the film itself. Suffice it to say, I had never heard of the 2014 film Life of an Actress when I received my review copy of the soundtrack. Normally, between that the even more glaring red flag of a film that was written, composed, directed, and produced by the same person -- Paul Chau, a former banker whose only previous artistic credits of note were a previous documentary film of the same name and producer billing on a couple of revivals -- I wouldn't even bother. But with a cast including Orfeh, Taylor Louderman, and Allison Case, I figured it was worth giving the album the benefit of the doubt.
How much you'll enjoy this soundtrack depends entirely on how much you're able to let some great performances carry you past other shortcomings: pleasant but undistinguished music set with leaden lyrics (sample: "I want to be an accountant / that's my dream / the first in my family / with a college degree"), and a four piece, synthesizer-heavy band that would sound cheap in a tiny off-Broadway setting. (The band is particularly egregious given how far forward in the mix it is, with its single violin often overpowering the singers.)
Maybe this is the kind of album that coheres a bit more once you've seen the film, but I can find no trace of it existing beyond single screenings in New York and Los Angeles last year. The project's website speaks of an in-development stage version, and you've got to admire Paul Chau's pluck, if not his talent.
REVIEW: Two's Company - Original Cast
Sony’s Masterworks Broadway continues their mission to remaster and rerelease cast albums that have long been out of print, and typically long forgotten. Their most recent release is Two’s Company, a 1952 revue starring Bette Davis. The remastered album features songs mostly by Vernon Duke - Sheldon Harnick contributed a song - with lyrics by Ogden Nash and Sammy Cahn. Jerome Robbins handled the choreography for the original production, which was directed by Jules Dassin.