Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals

Rufus Wainwright: You're No Judy Garland

I pay very little attention to popular music, so when I heard that Rufus Wainwright was recreating Judy Garland's legendary 1961 Carnegie Hall concert song for song, I wasn't really sure who the hell he was. I had heard the name before: I knew that he was an openly gay singer/songwriter, and that he was the son of singer/songwriter Loudon Wainwright III. But I had never actually heard Rufus sing until I saw him in a guest appearance on "The Graham Norton Show" on BBC America.

I should have known right then that there would be trouble ahead. Wainwright's performance on that show was nasal, sloppy, and intolerable. But, hey, I thought: Maybe it was an off night. Apparently not.

I was greatly looking forward to listening to Wainright's album. As stereotypically gay as this might seem, I'm a huge Judy Garland fan, and I grew up listening to her Carnegie Hall album. It's a fascinating train-wreck of a performance, like most of the rest of Judy's career, but it's never less than entertaining. I used to listen over and over to "You Go to My Head," dumb-struck that Judy at one point goes up on her lyrics and sings:

You go to my head
And...I forgot the goll-darned words...

To Wainwright's credit, he recreates the flub when he delivers that particular song. But that's really the only thing he shares with Judy Garland. Judy wasn't really so much a great singer as she was an incredible stylist, a hell of a performer, and a tortured soul who was seemingly coming to pieces before your very ears (and eyes, as evidenced by her repeated performances of the same songs with the same orchestrations on her painful-yet-unmissable variety program, "The Judy Garland Show"). With Judy, it was all about volume and vibrato, but there was also an undeniable heart and plenty of good old-fashioned gay-diva angst.

As for Rufus Wainwright's renditions, well, to paraphrase the late Lloyd Bentsen, Rufus, you're no Judy Garland. Is this what passes for vocal quality these days? Sloppy intonation, piercing nasal resonance, and a physiological inability to form an "E" vowel? Actually all of his vowels are annoyingly imprecise, but his "E's" are especially egregious. ("Yow made may love yow, Ah didn't wanna dow et...")

I must be in the minority here, because Wainright's sold-out Carnegie Hall audience goes absolutely ape-shit at the end of every number, apparently under the mistaken impression that they're witnessing some kind of genius. But on song after song, Wainwright proves that he can't hold a candle to Garland. One possible exception is George and Ira Gershwin's "How Long Has This Been Going On?," which, while still painful, at least illuminates what Wainwright's legion adoring fans might see in him: a quirky, slurring delivery combined with a kind of smoky introspection.

The term "song stylist" is often used euphemistically about someone who, although not the best musician, delivers a song with a certain intangible something. For a terrific example of same, Wainright need look no further than his sister, Martha Wainwright, who makes a guest appearance on the album singing the hell out of Harold Arlen's "Stormy Weather." Sister Martha is no great shakes in the vocal department either, yet she imbues the song with a certain Billie Holliday-esque, whiskey-voiced pathos, a contrast that made what's wrong with her brother's vocal stylings all the more obvious.

Perhaps Rufus Wainwright has built his popularity and reputation more as a songwriter than as a performer, or maybe he's just out of his idiom with Garland's material. Chances are, I'll never find out, because I can't imagine picking up any of his other recordings. I'll stick to Judy Garland, thank you very much. And, unless you're mad for Rufus yourself, yet still want to witness him flailing ineffectually with material he has no business performing, I suggest you do the same.

110 in the Shade: The Definitive Recording

What a thrill it is to finally have a first-rate recording of the glorious 110 in the Shade.

The original Broadway cast, which has been out of print for years, has significant limitations, mainly the dramatically challenged Inga Swenson in the lead role of Lizzie. Her line readings on the spoken parts of the album are unbelievable and amateurish. Plus the break between her chest- and head-voice is jarring. On the recent concert-cast recording, the otherwise redoubtable Karen Ziemba is miscast in the Lizzie role, at least with respect to her upper range.

Finally, we have Audra.

What more can be said about the dazzling Audra McDonald? I was out to dinner with my dear friend Richard Carey the other night (Ricky: "After twenty-five years, it's nice to know..."), and he made the claim that with 110, Audra has officially joined the pantheon of musical-theater legends, demonstrating not merely the gravitas of her four Tony-Award-winning performances (Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, and Raisin in the Sun) but also the charming playfulness of Mary Martin and the eye-catching ability to fill an entire stage merely with her presence, like Chita Rivera or Gwen Verdon.

Hear, hear.

As for the other key performers, Steve Kazee, whom I found underwhelming on stage, acquits himself partially in the recording studio. His presence seemed small in the theater, but on the CD his voice is somewhat richer and his intonation is a bit more accurate. He's still not the magical Starbuck that the role requires, but he's at least serviceable. Christopher Innvar's smoldering (to borrow Ben Brantley's word) performance as File doesn't quite come through on the CD, but Innvar remains vocally rich and highly sympathetic.

Overall, this CD for me becomes the definitive recording of a glorious and underrated show. The score is chockablock with gorgeous and heartrending pieces (including "Is It Really Me?," "A Man and a Woman," "Old Maid") as well as rousing character numbers ("Melisande," "Wonderful Music"). There are a few superfluous songs (including "Little Red Hat"), but for my money, 110 in the Shade ranks with any of the better-known musical theater classics, and in many cases surpasses them.

The Definitive Candide?

Every composer seems to have his "show that will not die." Jerry Herman has Mack and Mabel. Stephen Sondheim has Merrily We Roll Along. And Leonard Bernstein had Candide. And they all have one thing in common: they have terrific scores, but troublesome books, at least in their original incarnations.

That is, until director Hal Prince and librettist Hugh Wheeler took a crack at Candide in 1974 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The production jettisoned the ponderous and pretentious original book for a fast-and-loose interpretation that was far more true to the spirit of the original Voltaire classic. The cast album for this Candide recently came out on CD, which is what got me thinking about the topic in the first place.

The BAM version caught on, and literally moved to Broadway: the Broadway Theater, in fact, one of the seven or so Broadway houses that are actually on Broadway. (I count the Minskoff, the Marquis, the Palace, the Gershwin, the Circle in the Square, the Winter Garden, and the Broadway. Am I missing any?) The production played for two years, and many thought this version to be the definitive Candide.

But that hasn't stopped people from trying to improve the show. Before he died, Bernstein himself oversaw numerous additional attempts to "perfect" the show, including a recording in 1989 that he labeled the "final" version. A few years back, the folks at the Boston Conservatory performed the latest version of Leonard Bernstein's Candide, one concocted by director John (Les Miserables) Caird.

Here's the main problem with all these new versions: they try to do the whole damn score, every little number ever written, no matter how tangential or tedious, and it slows the production down to a snail's crawl. The BoCo production was admirable and swell to look at, but it felt like it lasted a friggin' week. The Caird version adds characters, scenes, and plot-lines in addition to every damn song imaginable, and the result is overwrought and downright soporific.

The Hal Prince version, however, is zippy and punchy, and tons of fun. The performances are spot-on, particularly those by Mark Baker (Candide), Maureen Brennan (Cunegonde), and Lewis J. Stadlen (Dr. Pangloss). There's very little dead weight in this show, which is performed in its entirety on the new 2-CD set. Each musical number has a purpose, and performs it admirably, and the true purpose of Voltaire's satiric piece comes through in a way that none of the other versions even approximates.

New Evita CD from London

I've just been listening to the CD from the new London production of Evita. Regular readers will recall that I had the pleasure of seeing this show on my recent trip to London. Since I enjoyed it very much, I was eagerly anticipating the CD release.

The CD is actually a mixed bag, but then it would be hard for any recording to live up to the original. I grew up listening to the Broadway cast album of Evita, so I pretty much know the show by heart. In fact, years ago, when I did the show, the music director once stopped a rehearsal and said, "OK, it would be great if someone besides Chris knew the damned music."

My biggest complaint about this new CD is that it's just that: one CD. They've cut down the score considerably for the new recording, though perhaps that's understandable. There are numerous complete recordings of Evita available, and anyone looking for a document of the entire show certainly has other options. But the musical numbers for this recording begin and end in weird places, although that may be my preconceptions talking.

Quibbles aside, the strengths of this recording lie in the performances and orchestrations. Elena Rogers was a powerhouse as Evita on stage, and she's no less impressive in aural form. She has sufficient fire and pathos to carry the entire recording on her own. Her costars Matt Rawle and Philip Quast come off a bit less well. Rawle seems to have only one emotion: anger. There's very little humor in his interpretation of Che, just intermittent, forced sarcasm. Quast was remarkable on stage as Peron, but somehow his impressive stature fails to translate to the recording.

What I really noticed on the CD that I didn't in the theater is the dynamic new orchestrations. Although the charts seem thinner than those from the original US production, the music has a far more sinister and authentically Argentinian sound to it. Of particular note is the solo violin and accordian accompaniment during the numerous tango sequences. This becomes especially effective during the creepy and dissonant "Art of the Possible."

One final note, it's great to have another recording of the song "You Must Love Me," Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Oscar-winning song from the movie version. The song really works well in the new show, giving Evita a chance to show Peron that she really does need him. (Or is it just more manipulation? You be the judge.) In any case, it's great to have someone other than...[shudder]...Madonna singing this song. Remember when she sang it on the Oscars, stiff as a board, and stretching to hit the notes? Painful.

New Sunday CD

Just got the new CD for the London revival of Sunday in the Park with George. It's not supposed to come out until the 30th, but for some reason Footlight had it as of last week.

On the whole, I'm somewhat nonplussed about the CD. It's always great to have another recording of a cherished show, but there's always the danger that it will never live up to the original, even if the quality is in fact equal to or greater than.

The orchestrations seem scaled down considerably. The performances are serviceable but undistinguished. One jarring difference in this recording is the use of English accents in act one. Yeah, I know: that's no different from using American accents on the original. The show is set in France, after all. But French accents would be pretentious and distracting. (As the Italian accents were in the revival of Nine.) And I must concede that the use of various English dialects to show class distinctions is an interesting touch. George sounds somewhat posh to convey his education level, while Dot has more of a working-class, East End, almost Cockney feel to her. The Boatman speaks with a Scottish brogue. Perhaps as I listen to the recording more, this will grow on me.

In the second act, everyone speaks with an American accent, and the results are uneven. Daniel Evans as George does a creditable job, but Jenna Russell as Marie has an unconvincing southern drawl. (Dot and Louie moved to Charleston, after all.) And much of the rest of the cast are so exaggerated, they seem like parodies. Accents may seem like a minor point to focus on, but they're inescapable on the recording, and very distracting.

The recording is significantly longer than the OCR, but most of what's added is dialog, which I am not a big fan of on cast recordings. The Damn Yankees revival recording is practically ruined by excess verbiage. One welcome addition is a bonus track of the extended version of "The One on the Left," which involves the soldier(s) and both Celestes. It's quite fun, and it must have been cut for time alone, because it certainly fits nicely within the show. I'm going to program it in it's rightful place on my iPod.

New Pajama Game CD

Just got the CD of the Pajama Game revival. Again, TPJ holds a very special place in my heart: it was the first musical I ever did, when I was thirteen. (And no, Brian, this wasn't the production in which Coco played Sid.) Overall, I'm impressed by the CD. Harry Connick, Jr. does extremely well on the ballads, although he seems just a tad awkward on some of the up-tempo numbers.

The big revelation to me is Kelli O'Hara as Babe. I was skeptical when I heard she was cast, because I only really knew her from The Light in the Piazza. She has such a lovely head voice, but I'd never heard her really belt, so I wasn't sure she'd be a great Babe. Well, she acquits herself very nicely, at least on CD. Lots of resonance and plenty of character, especially on one of my all-time favorite numbers, "I'm Not At All in Love."

Michael McKean is a bit amorphous as Hinesy. McKean is a very talented guy, and an absolute stitch in Christopher Guest's movies (Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind, and my favorite, Best in Show), but his performance on CD is a bit bland. I haven't seen the revival, so I don't know if something got lost in the translation from stage to disc.

A final note on the packaging. As you might be aware, the recording company packaged the Pajama Game CD with a studio recording of Connick's dreadful flop Thou Shalt Not featuring Connick and Kelli O'Hara. Connick is a major recording star, and no doubt his economic power drove this decision. But I resent having to buy both together, since I already have Connick's self-published original cast album. (Although I probably would have bought both CDs anyway, it's presumptuous of them to assume that I would.) Connick is basically forcing you to buy a CD that very few people will ever listen to. It's a total vanity ploy. I fully expect to see scads of these unwanted CDs listed on eBay within a matter of hours.

Theater Mania Recording Guide: Part II

Today, more revisionist CD reviews based on questionable listings in The Theater Mania Guide to Musical Theater Recordings:

A DAY IN HOLLYWOOD/A NIGHT IN THE UKRAINE
(Original Broadway Cast)
TM rating: Two stars
My rating: Five stars
This recording is, quite simply, one of the all-time underrated gems in musical theater history. The show was profitable in its original run, but it's pretty much forgotten these days. The plot-less first act takes place at the Graumann's Chinese Theater, and is basically a wonderful collection of songs performed by the ushers. There's not a bad number in the entire lot, but my favorites include "Just Go to the Movies," "Best in the World," "Nelson," and "Doin' the Production Code." All but the last are by Jerry Herman, who was brought in to perk up the score. The second act is a fictional Marx Brothers movie, and the parodies and homages are dead on. Simply put: you must own this disc.

I LOVE MY WIFE
(Original Broadway Cast)
TM rating: One star
My rating: Three stars
For some reason, this is one of those CDs that I go back to again and again. I'm not saying it's a great show. The late Cy Coleman was overall a tunesmith par excellence, but this isn't his best effort. And Mark Bramble's lyrics at times are too clever for their own good. But for some reason, I just love this recording. The show is very much a product of its time: the plot revolves around two couples planning a wife-swapping orgy, and one look at the song titles gives you a sense of the show's tone: "Sexually Free," "Everybody Today is Turning on," "Love Revolution." Score highlights include the lovely country ballad "Someone Wonderful I Missed" and the classic "Hey There, Good Times," which admittedly has absolutely nothing to do with the show.  Overall, it's a quirky show that I'm inexplicably drawn to.

MOVING OUT
(Original Broadway Cast)
TM rating: Five stars
My rating: Not recommended
I find this TM review absolutely dumbfounding. Five stars?! Think about it: whom is this recording for? Surely not for Billy Joel fans, who would undoubtedly prefer Billy doing the actual singing. For that matter, why would anyone want to listen to 60+ minutes of Billy Joel covers? This is the most pointless cast album since Contact. Movin' Out is a similarly visual show the appeal of which lies not in Michael Cavanaugh's admittedly distinctive performance. Yes, I own it. But I have a disease; I have to own every cast album I can get my undiscriminating little hands on. It's no wonder you see used copies of Movin' Out is used records stores everywhere.

Theater Mania Recording Guide: Part I

I was very pleased when Theater Mania published its Guide to Musical Theater Recordings. Because I own an obscene number of Broadway CDs, I was eager to see how my favorites would stack up.

Well, for the most part, the book is quite accurate -- and by "accurate," of course I mean "They agree with me." But there are a number of egregious listings that I feel it is my duty to rectify, which I'll be doing in this forum over the next few weeks (whenever I can't think of anything else to write). TM rates each recording a certain number of stars out of five, although they do also have a basement rating below one star of "not recommended," reserved for the especially grisly.

BARNUM
(Original Broadway Cast)
TM rating: One star
My rating: Four stars
I must confess that I have a soft spot for this show. TM reviewer David Barbour describes the score to Barnum as "manically cheerful," which is bit unfair, especially given the concept of the show. I mean, it's a circus, right? And when did you ever hear a dirge under the big top? He also describes the show as "a series of production numbers looking for a show to do." No, that's Tommy. But, to be fair, Barbour does have a point. Barnum is long on style and short on substance, but the score is tons of fun, expecially "One Brick at a Time" and "Thank God I'm Old." A masterpiece? No. But a thoroughly enjoyable score, and one that no collection is complete without.

BAT BOY
(Original Cast)
TM rating: Two stars
My rating: Five stars 
Bat Boy is a gem, pure and simple. It's one of the best scores of the last 15 years. Not only is the show tuneful, it's extremely witty. Such numbers as "Show You a Thing or Two" and "Three-bedroom House" have made their permanent way into my iPod playlists. Not every number translates well to disc, particularly "Children, Children," a hilarious spoof of The Lion King. But the mainly visual jokes of that song are absent from the recording. Composer Lawrence O'Keefe is someone to watch, particularly on his first mainstream outing, the upcoming Legally Blonde.

COCO
(Original Broadway Cast)
TM rating: One star
My rating: Three stars
OK, so this one is an acquired taste. And it's not for the casual Broadway fan. But, c'mon, Katherine Hepburn in a musical? How can any self-respecting queen resist? And the score is actually quite good. Although Hepburn isn't really singing, Andre Previn's melodies are quite pleasant. And lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, if not at the top of his form, does a respectable job. He's a little too clever at times, but you certainly have to admire the skill of a line like "I want Paree to wake and see, without me there's a vacancy." Some of it is lame, but overall this is a recording I go back to time and again. According to David Barbour in the TM Guide: "It's terrible, fascinating, and possibly the most unreviewable disc in this book." I'll give him "fascinating," but that's it.

I just noticed that  all three of the reviews I'm objecting to are by David Barbour. I also noticed that I agreed with many of the points Barbour makes in his reviews, but I disagree with his overall star ratings. Ah, well. Everyone's entitled to my opinion.