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| re: Favorite Flop recordings you play a lot (that haven't had many revival "second chances") | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 06:01 pm EST 11/19/22 | |
| In reply to: Favorite Flop recordings you play a lot (that haven't had many revival "second chances") - PlayWiz 01:02 pm EST 11/19/22 | |
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| Apart from those already mentioned, most of which I like, I would add these: A Doll's Life, Dance a Little Closer, Out of This World (generally preferring the original, but it's nice to have the extra music and the arguably superior Marin Mazzie and altogether good performances on the Encores!), Juno, Street Scene (if we count it as a flop, it certainly has had an afterlife), Johnny Johnson (only studio recordings, but a great score), Minnie's Boys and Oh, Brother! Then there is the completely bizarre but generally very good Flahooley. I will stick to the Mandelbaum six-month conditional here, unless a show paid off in less than six months (and not due just to a film sale). I generally find the concept of "guilty pleasures" a bit silly — why feel guilty about enjoying something?— but recordings that I can enjoy while acknowledging that the scores are rather less than first-rate include Henry, Sweet Henry and Ankles Aweigh. I find most of Goodtime Charley competent but not terribly interesting, but it has one of my all-time favorite songs: "Merci, Bon Dieu," beautifully performed by Susan Browning and Richard B. Shull on the OBCR. A show that ran a tad more than six months and paid off (thanks partly to a film sale) that fascinates me is Billion Dollar Baby. The recording we have comes from the best Musicals in Mufti I've ever seen, but it suffers from the combo accompaniment for a score that really needs the full orchestrations. I hope someday Encores! does it and gives us a recording with the full orchestrations. Meanwhile, we can also enjoy the 'Charleston" on Jerome Robbins' Broadway. And since my second favorite Mufti was A Family Affair, my memory has been jogged and so I mention that OBCR, even though I wish the overture (I think it had one) and the proper finale had been included on the recording. |
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| SO glad you mentioned 'Charleston' from Billion Dollar Baby (paging Chromolume!) | |
| Last Edit: DistantDrumming 06:31 pm EST 11/19/22 | |
| Posted by: DistantDrumming 06:30 pm EST 11/19/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Favorite Flop recordings you play a lot (that haven't had many revival "second chances") - AlanScott 06:01 pm EST 11/19/22 | |
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| I've seen the Jerome Robbins staging, which is a total delight. But I think the musical performance on that number sometimes gets overlooked. It's brilliantly orchestrated, performed with such panache by the orchestra and, of course, expertly conducted by Paul Gemignani. My favorite moment is the frenzied section that follows the woman's scream (about 3:46 onward) in which that orchestra sounds like it's about to levitate. The rat-a-tat syncopation of the rhythm section and the brass as the strings and woodwinds swirl around them in this gorgeous undulation is sublime. I'm sure there's a more knowledgeable and accurate way to describe that sound, but I think you know what I'm referring to. It's almost the combination of the lushness with the undeniable swing of the band. I sometimes listen to this track -- and, specifically, that 'post-scream' explosion of the orchestra -- and long to hear that orchestral sound in other recordings. Can you think of other recordings that approximate that orchestral sound and feel? |
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| Link | 'Charleston' from Billion Dollar Baby - Pauly G Conducting |
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| re: SO glad you mentioned 'Charleston' from Billion Dollar Baby (paging Chromolume!) | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 11:27 pm EST 11/19/22 | |
| In reply to: SO glad you mentioned 'Charleston' from Billion Dollar Baby (paging Chromolume!) - DistantDrumming 06:30 pm EST 11/19/22 | |
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| I think if the "Lucy and Jessie" dance music had been recorded in 1971, it would have had something like that. The Paper Mill recording doesn't quite. | |
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