The orchestrations are new. Sometimes they are fairly faithful to those by Walker and his associates, sometimes less so. Stylistically, they are generally appropriate.
At least some of the dance arrangements are new and decidedly inferior to the originals. I haven't yet listened to the second-act ballet.
I have very mixed feelings about the recording. Some very good singing actors are heard, but I'm unhappy with many of the musical choices. I mean both performance choices and the changes and cuts.
Weirdest musical choice may be the decision to really obey the rest in the score between "real" and "nice" in "This Was a Real Nice Clambake." It's totally bizarre-sounding. And while the rest is in the score, Rodgers clearly didn't want it to be sung (as it is on the current recording) as:
This was a real.
Nice clambake.
They do it like that every time. It sounds like two separate thoughts. Did no one involved here listen to the original cast recording? If Rodgers, a notorious stickler for having his music sung just as written, didn't have it performed that way in the original production, it seems clear he didn't want it that way, notwithstanding the rest in the score.
Haven't seen the production, but I can't say that the recording makes me especially want to see it. |
