This July week, we beat the heat with the distractions of some cool ideas for reinvigorating familiar show tunes with the hot singing from the guy group known as The Broadway Boys. They pluck songs from every decade between the 1930s and the current one, except the 1950s—the decade the musicals on this week's other album brings back. The other gender is the focus for that CD, with songs from the British musical Follow That Girl on a CD with bonus tracks from Hooray for Daisy!, where the female is of the bovine variety.

THE BROADWAY BOYS
LULLABY OF BROADWAY
PS Classics

Think high-voiced harmonies. Think melisma. Think energy. This Lullaby of Broadway is rarely lullaby and not traditional Broadway brass and balladeering, but more contemporary stylings. Variously, there are gobs of gospel, rushes of rock, and songs swathed in soul. Sometimes, within a number, there's a shift in musical genre, tone or energy. Expect the unexpected. The Broadway Boys often put the spotlight on sounds and style more than the songs' potential for storytelling or theatrical characterization that recalls the way the numbers were done in the musicals from whence they come. Oh, there's drama, but it's more in the intensity of the soaring singing and how the harmonies hit the ear—plus the element of surprise from the unconventional re-inventing of material.

Purists may run for the hills, but the Boys' hills are alive with the sound of music rethought with mountains of talent and rolling harmonies; those looking for new approaches rather than the same old/same old will find excitement. Most of the songs prove to be flexible enough to shine with these new musical coats of paint, usually surviving the non-traditional casting to feel refreshed rather than burdened by a globbed-on gimmick to be different just to be different. The core emotion of the lyrics generally comes through and feels respected even if somewhat upstaged by vocal pyrotechnics or the ping and zing of high voices in high gear. Yes, sometimes it seems to be all about the sound rather than substance, contemporizing or just showy, shiny, wailing voices, but many risks pay off entertainingly. Being aurally dazzled has its rewards.

All songs have been heard in Broadway productions, though not all originated in stage shows. The earliest-written choice, the 1935 title tune, came from the silver screen as did a couple from the Disney dynasty still enjoying a stay on the Great White Way, Mary Poppins's "Feed the Birds" and The Lion King's "Shadowland." From the pop world leading to jukebox bio-musicals is "Imagine," from short-lived Lennon focusing on John Lennon, with a bit of the Beatles song "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" woven in. The other tracks among the 14 are those written for stage musicals, and it's a very varied songbag.

Many cuts feature one or two of the fellows getting prominent solo leads, with several of the others as a very present but never bland chorus. The group's founder/leader/arranger, Jesse Nager, is an intense dynamo high voice, taking the album's only 100% solo number, the ballad (by the end, a ballad with adrenalin and Red Bull) "Mama, a Rainbow" from Minnie's Boys. The album's one duet is him with the personality-plus Danny Calvert on a combo of those two Annie anthems of hope, "Maybe" and "Tomorrow," ending in a divo duet (not a duel) with lots of vocal embellishments and embroidery and more of the cooing school than the brash belt. After track after track in this torrent of tenors, one might get a pang for a deep baritone's tone, but instead, on the next-to-last track, Big River's "Leavin's Not the Only Way to Go," we get a female guest star. It's Natalie Weiss, with an effective, emotional and calibrated vocal performance with two members of the group joining her: Peter Matthew Smith and Maurice Murphy (the latter, showy but silky and skillful, gets more chances than most to step out in front).

One welcome new treatment is with Wicked's "Defying Gravity," usually an all-stops-out showcase for the leather-lunged and a parade of determination and self-empowerment. Surprise! Though these men could belt it powerfully 'til the bricks in the yellow brick road came loose, this group number takes a gentle and pretty approach, even thoughtful, for quite a while until they decide to kick it into gear. I wish they'd stayed the life-in-the-slow-lane course rather than going for a build: it's a rewarding approach the way they begin. Vocal powerhouse Marty Thomas, a Wicked veteran himself, makes one appearance, to lead a strong, focused Hair medley of "Aquarius" and "Let the Sun Shine In." And speaking of old shows revived in this past season, I would have liked to hear more of the exciting-voiced Lucas Steele, who I think really digs into material, and makes the most of an opportunity when he shares solo duties leading "Old Devil Moon" from Finian's Rainbow with Landon Beard.

My moments of lingering reluctance to give in come from times when I feel buried in melisma overdose, unsettled by a sudden jarring electric guitar appearance midway during a song, or when the instrumental quartet led by Justin Paul (keyboards/some additional arrangements) push things "over the top" for effect. A change of pace that's a refreshing breeze for some may be Broadway identify theft for others. Show tune lovers may disagree, but no one can accuse these Broadway Boys, with their golden tones, of bringing clones of the original cast album experiences.

FOLLOW THAT GIRL/
HOORAY FOR DAISY!
BRITISH CASTS (PLUS INSTRUMENTALS)
Must Close Saturday

Here are some sweet and innocent old recordings suddenly reappearing on CD after half a century, re-emerging in a very different world.

Oh, those cheery, chipper chaps and giddy gals merrily populating the old British musicals! Call them fluffy and frothy and formulaic, call them quaint, maybe not your cup of English breakfast tea, but it's tough to deny that they're often filled with appealingly bright, super-catchy melodies. Harmless diversions with plots puddle-deep or confoundingly complicated, the aim was to tickle the ear and bring a giggle and, in more ambitious moments, bringing satire with the sentimentality and simple sweetness. Writers Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds were pros. Their monster hit was Salad Days, but there was plenty more where that came from, with Slade's perky and graceful melodies being the main attraction for many.

Was Follow That Girl a follow-up to follow in the path of Salad Days's success? It was booked and billed as such to the general public in 1959, but it was by and large a reworking of a limited-run show from seven years earlier, Christmas in King Street. The "girl" who's followed—in a plot that might be hard to follow (especially with liner notes that focus on other things)—is Victoria, played by Susan Hampshire, getting top billing on the cover, though she does only a little singing, as she wasn't much in the vocal comfort department. Second-billed Peter Gilmore gets more singing, featured in five numbers. Third-billed on the cover in equal-size type is the delightful Patricia Routledge, later to be a leading lady, but she's only prominent in one showy stylized number, "Waiting for Our Daughter," a duet with James Cairncross.

The hummable melodies get plenty of play, with an overture and pleasant commercially recorded instrumentals from 1960 as bonus tracks. One of the most delightful songs—perhaps especially for those maddened or charmed by a convention of old-school (and some latter-day) musicals—is the first song, "Tra La La." In this, a chorus appears, singing the acknowledgment that they are an apparently anonymous chorus and the audience is wondering who they are and why they have suddenly appeared, singing in unison, etc. It's a fun wink. The main action, as it were, involves the events in an odd story concocted by a playwright character; as he weaves the tale, the company plays it out. Since anything can happen in one's imagination, we have Victoria jumping off a bridge in a suicide attempt but landing in an aquarium where, swimming up to her, is a trio to sing about who they are: "Three Victorian Mermaids." Other twists and reasons to burst into song include the lament of a couple whose baby disappeared during their busy Christmas shopping. Never mind—because it's mostly mindless.

With some exceptions for campiness or a kind of arch starchiness, you may be rolling your eyes more than rolling in the aisles at some of the humor. The cast is plucky and spirited, rarely pushing or milking the humor. Speaking of milking things, it's a cow who is the title character for another Slade/Reynolds show, Hooray for Daisy. Although a dozen songs from that score are on the CD, this is not a double bill of two full-length musicals' cast albums. A full recording of Hooray For Daisy! exists, from a later production of this show, but here we have a Bristol Old Vic company doing brief versions, with almost all of the dozen being just a bit longer than one minute (!) as short samples. They were made to preserve the cast's performances/ promote the show. Lyrics were often less inspired as heard here, with repetition evident despite the brevity, with seemingly forced levity and some "comedy of manners" as subjects. Highlights are an infectious number about the joy of singing together, "Let's Do a Duet," and the final number saluting the cow and inspiring a dance, "Soft Hoof Shuffle." The aforementioned male cast members Cairncross and Gilmore were also in this cast.

In both musicals, composer Slade and Martin Goldstein do a twin-piano accompaniment, delightfully so, with a small band also present for Follow That Girl. Dorothy Reynolds is in the Daisy cast, appearing in one blithe number, "Personally." Personally, I enjoy it all, finding much of the British bounce a pleasure with buckets of good will and affable unaffectedness, taken on its own terms in its own time.

- Rob Lester

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