DRG is a CD company obviously devoted to completists. With their current release of Happy Hunting, you can now have a complete collection of Ethel Merman's Broadway shows. Merman herself referred to the show as a jeep among limos--- the trip was bumpy, but it got you there. Based loosely on the Grace Kelly Monaco marriage, it's quite similar to the Merm's previous Broadway outing, Call Me Madam, except that Hunting is not very good. Merman was lucky and smart enough to surround herself, usually, with talented creators, but the score is awful. Composed by Harold Karr, the man parodied as the composer-cum-dentist in Bells Are Ringing, there is neither a hit nor a memorable song in the show. The male lead, Fernando Lamas, is wooden and unmusical, and caused endless trouble for Merman on and offstage. History reminds us that this was Lamas' only Broadway show, but his antics such as wiping his mouth after an on stage kiss, and then telling a TV talk show host that kissing Merman was like kissing a cross between your uncle and a Sherman tank could not have endeared him to his female lead. Only a solo and a duet with the Merm have been embarrassingly immortalized here. All in all, this is the ultimate CD to play at the end of the night when you want all of your guests to go home. Few if any would survive the first few cuts, and fewer would find an unkinder cut anywhere.
