I am in love! With a CD! This CD!
Perhaps Alfred Drake was as good. But I am not sure. Certainly, no man on Broadway since has had such a great voice, and such a breathtaking ability to make it take so many different forms. He is King Arthur. He is Sporting Life. He is Billy Bigelow. And his "Some Enchanted Evening" is such a beautifully gentle love song that one has truly never heard it before. When he sings "Finishing the Hat", one forgets anyone else who has ever dared attempt it. When he sings "Stars", I dread what the film version of "Les Miserables" will do with it; it can no longer be considered as one of the secondary songs in the show, as a new and star-high standard has been set for it. There is no 'okay' song here; the man acts his songs as they deserve, but also sings them with intelligence, emotion, style, and taste. Every number is brilliant, and most are vastly better versions than the originals or those heard in any revival.
There are moments when the piano, 99% wonderful, tries to compete with him. And once or twice I wish there had been a few strings or a clarinet to back him up. But this is "Simply Broadway", Broadway presented simply, cleanly, and never better. This CD is a gift for the heart and soul. I only hope that it is but "Volume One" of a series!!

Almost anything one can say about the plot would be a spoiler. This is one of the best Perry novels, and every second spent with it is wonderful reading. I admit that one has to like her characters, and I do. Thomas and Charlotte, Monk and Hester - no matter which series, I anticipate each new novel like a child waiting for Christmas. And I am never disappointed. Also, I like novels set in the 1800's. And Perry knows her history, her characters, and how to spin a web of intrigue, and keeps getting more skilled with each new book. She often tackles issues that are controversial still today, and that writers who set their plots in 2012 are often dealing with.
If you are not an Anne Perry fan yet, try one of her books, not the first Pitt novel she wrote as it gives itself away far too soon, and you will be very likely to put her near the top of your favourite writers.

When I saw the original production of this show on Broadway, I did not like it at all. The book was terribly written, the cast tried gamely, the songs seemed incomplete, the costumes - labelled with names - were an all time low for Broadway. I did not buy the original cast album. I didn't think there would even be one.
But "Merrily We Roll Along" has had a great deal of work done it over the years, and though I feel certain that Sondheim and Company are still not finished with it, it has now become an album one has to have in a collection. But which version?

Only "Road Show" has undergone more changes, and it will never never be ready for the general public; too many of Sondheim's demons live within it. At least one production gave us Jane Powell, still possessed of a gorgeous voice for her single solo. "Follies" gets redone frequently now, but the original production had too many great aspects to easily match. The most recent version showed the Broadway Bunch that Ron Raines can carry a show. But though I love Bernadette Peters, she was miscast. She would have been a fabulous Phyliss, but her Sally did not come even close to Dorothy Collins.

"Merrily We Roll Along" is a very different problem. Except for the Original Cast Recording, all the cast recordings that have followed have had many strengths. Of course, one could buy them all. I have "Company"s galore, several "Little Night Music"s, "Sweeny Todd"s, and "Follies"s. Good grief, I have two versions of "Anyone Can Whistle"! I love almost all of them. So why this "Merrily We Roll Along" instead of another? Simple. Choose the one singer whom you believe does the very best with a major role, and go with that version. I love Malcolm Gets as Frank. So I purchased and play that version. He also has a CD entitled "The Journey Home" which is worth buying and the song 'Anytime' is the only piece of popular music that can make me cry, inside at least, every time I hear it.

The reverse order of the lives of the three main characters is not a problem, and at least with 'Not a Day Goes By' it forces you to rethink the number with the second version - I keep fantasizing about Rebecca Luker and Patti LuPone doing it as a duet, but I suspect that will be in another life. This version of "Merrily We Roll Along" is a solid piece of theatre. It has great songs - don't remind me of 'The Blob' - and a cast that knows what they are doing and never errs, and it has Malcolm Gets who makes magic whenever he sings.

About a year or so ago I bought the Raul Esparza "Company" and thought it magnificent. The staging was unique and the lead was phenomenal. Now, I bought the Neil Patrick Harris "Company" and thought it magnificent. The staging was unique and the lead was phenomenal. Most of the songs are the same, but some sound quite distinctly different. Neither cast has a weak member. Both have been done with professionalism and love. Personal preferences may lead one to the Esparza or the Harris versions. No matter which you choose, you have chosen wisely and will have a wonderful time. Consider choosing both. The same material is very different in these two versions, but everything works in both, with not a momentary wrong step. I adore "Follies" and "Sweeney Todd", "A Little Night Music" and "Into the Woods", but "Company" is indeed likely to be the most enduring of all of Stephen Sondheim's many great musicals. Perhaps, "Company", more than any other Broadway show, will still be around and performed often in 2050 for it has something for us all, and is a delight to experience time and again.

Gershwin, like the rest of the human race, was not always in top form. Add to that, here he is still learning a few basics of his craft though he has mastered most of them. Thus, "Sweet Little Devil" is an interesting curio, one that I am glad to have in my collection, but not one that has seen much daylight since I purchased it.
There is nothing wrong with it. The cast is good. Rebecca Luker, as always, is wonderful. I think I might have preferred a CD in which she sang all the songs. The orchestrations nicely capture the time with the odd nod to a few years closer to our time. It is a good CD. just not really exceptional. When one considers all the hundreds of musicals that have yet to make it to a CD,I am a little puzzled why this one did while other Gershwin scores have not. What about Rodgers and Hart's "A Connecticut Yankee"? Numerous Cole Porter shows contain songs everyone knows, but so many have never been completely recorded. "Sweet Little Devil"? Way down the list.

In recent times, this goddess of song has had some great CDs, one weak one, and one where she seemed not to care what was going on. But Barbara Cook is back at the top. Every song - well-known standards to unusual items - is gorgeous, fun, heartwrenching, a miracle.
Even if you're not a Barbara Cook fan - you tasteless creature - you'll love this CD. It has beautiful soft ballads and uptempo swinging songs to balance them. She's here with little backup, one song sung without even a piano to accompany her - and it is magnificent!
Buy it. Buy it. Buy it! Put it on in the stillness of the evening for the first time, close your eyes, and sink into heaven. Then play it the next day and the next.

Now I'm waiting to hear this rich voice do an album that includes at least one song from "The Music Man" and one from "The Gay Life" - imagine what she could do with 'The Label on the Bottle' now - though 'Something You Never Had Before' would probably thrill more than any other song she has ever been associated with.

"Lust for Life" Douglas and Anthony Quinn are two actors at their best. The movie is a treaure.
"The Young Man with a Horn" Noble effort, but it falls on its face too often, not because of the three stars who do their best to make it work, but because it is terribly underwritten. And Warner Brothers, that was Lauren Bacall you threw away with this movie. Shame on you.
"Before I Forget" a special momento as Douglas looks back.
"The Bad and the Beautiful" Oh, oh, oh. This is one of the best dramas ever to come out of Hollywood. That it came from MGM and yet was so brilliantly done in every gritty or glittering detail is amazing. MGM seldom touched the heavens with its dramas,but this one did, with room to spare. The cast is superb, the writing fantastic, the filming beyond even a book to accurately describe. Douglas holds it all together - a phenomenal piece of acting. But this movie makes it appear that even Lana Turner can act with the best, and she never shone again like this. Dick Powell, Gloria deHaven, Barry Sullivan, Walter Pidgeon, and all the others, wonderful! I wish it had been in colour, but suspect that it would have lost too much, and not suggested as strongly a Hollywood even then fading into history.

And all four in one set! Buy it.

"Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and "Hello, Dolly" Carol Channing. Sugar and spice, salt and pepper, Rodgers and Hart. And what happens when you take Channing out of the mix? "Hello, Dolly" works with anyone. Even Betty Grable was serviceable. Lana Turner could probably have staggered through it. The show cannot be destroyed. Well done, Mr. Herman. "Blondes", well, that's a different kettle of fish. The movie has taken over as it was so dramatically changed to suit Marilyn Monroe, and she was fabulous - though I preferred Jane Russell as Dorothy. The updated version, "Lorelei", was a major misstep for everyone, but gave a new audience a chance to see Channing as the gold digger, who didn't know she was one, with a heart. So, is there life in the old girl yet?

Not really. The show is like an elderly relative whom you love because of what she was, not what she is. It is a bright moment in history, with some clever songs, a few that are beautiful, and some that are total duds.Can a young cast bring them to life? God bless them, they try, but the ghosts of the past do them in time after time. Perhaps if the listener is totally unaware of Channing's Lorelei this recording will soar. For those who remember her, this version struggles, takes off now and then, and then crashes with a thud....and rises again. Game cast. So I like having it in my collection, but I hit the button to skip too much to make it a treasure.

Is it worth buying? Depends on your age, I suspect. I'm on the cusp, so I do enjoy it. Younger Broadway fans should become solid fans while older Broadwayites will pass it by, and, for them, nothing will be missed.

"Make a Wish" is one of the Broadway shows that I read about, always briefly, in books about Broadway.
Major losses for a show that had all the right credentials, seemed to be the constant patter. A show that produced not a single song of merit, was the other insult cast at it.
And it wasn't available to listen to and judge.

But it was recorded, for this was 1951, and then that recording was forgotten about. Until now.
The songs, by Hugh Martin, are not up to "Meet Me in St. Louis", but "Camelot" is not up to "My Fair Lady". So what? The songs that are here are pleasant, and serviceable. The performance of them is excellent as this show had one of the best Broadway casts of the time, though, obviously, neither Merman nor Martin would have fit in and made certain that it made money. It cost a lot to produce - one of the most expensive shows to hit Broadway up to that time. It would have had trouble recovering from that initial debt. Anyone remember "Follies"? It cost a fortune, too, but it came at a time when it could be better marketed, and it lost a fortune. You can't always judge a show by how much money it makes or no one would know the songs from "Merrily We Roll Along", would they?

Febray was never a top star, but name a show in which she was not excellent. Stephen Douglass wasn't the leading man who swept the audience into his heart, as did John Raitt. But he was still the male lead in "Damn Yankees" with a rich voice to balance out the 'demonic' side of the score. And he was the male lead again in "110 in the Shade". Helen Gallagher went next to "Hazel Flagg". Harold Lang was an old war horse in Broadway musicals whose best moments came in "Kiss Me Kate" just prior to this show. "Kate" tried to make a bit player of him, but this musical had good reason for building him up. The songs came along as a balance to the dance.

For "Make a Wish" had more dance than Broadway had seen for some time. The choreography was by Gower Champion, assisted by Marge. For the listener today, that music is the loss. The dance music is not here. Much of it is lost, though snippets are on other CD's, collections and curios. So this is not the complete show music. But what is here is good enough to stand on its own. 'When Does This Feeling Go Away' is one song that should have become a hit. Others might have had a chance if the right vocalists had recorded them and the record companies had pushed them. But, for some reason, everyone seemed content to let this show die.

This CD shows another of the problems. The artwork suggests a musical based on Madeleine and those two little lines of little girls. But the show is centered on the Folies Bergere! The right tourists for the show could never be attracted because of the advertising.

Ah, the bonuses here. Fran Warren's single of 'When Does This Feeling Go Away' comes first and shows that there are gems in this mine. Then there are fourteen songs by Stephen Douglass, all classic Broadway or movie ballads from the thirties and forties. The orchestrations are lush, the singer at the top of his game. With this CD, you really get 2 CDs, both worth having, though neither one is going to be anyone's favourite, neither will ever let you down. "Make a Wish" didn't have its wish granted, but this is almost a second chance with fifteen more songs added in for good measure. Ah, if they had only recorded the ballets and the dance music.

How can one have a collection of Broadway musicals that does not contain "Damn Yankees"?
Well, for years, I did. I enjoyed the movie soundtrack, but it never jelled for me. Perhaps it was Tab Hunter, cast to boost the box-office. (Now, that's strange thinking on the part of WB.) He just isn't in any way a match for Stephen Douglass. So when this re-issue came out, I bought it and almost tossed the other away, and may yet.
The original show contained good songs, and one great one, that the movie did not include. One still does not get enough of Gwen Verdon - can one ever get enough of Gwen Verdon? - but no one lets this recording down, except time, though the sound is far superior to most shows from this period. It is a joy from rousing start to tender finish. I will play it less and less as time goes by, but right now, as a new treasure, it does not leave my CD player for very long, and there is not a single track that I want to skip.
If you have it already, dig it out and enjoy one of the brightest treasures of its time. If you do not have it, and love Broadway musicals, get it at once. Do not stop for gas, milk, cough medicine; get yourself a copy of sheer pleasure, and wave whatever pennant you want to celebrate a fantastic Broadway moment.