My Musical Theater Voyage of Discovery; The Sondheim Files - Assassins
ASSASSINS. It was difficult, for me, analyzing the two different cds of Assassins. You see, this is my husband’s favourite Sondheim score. He (like most of us musical theater fans) loves Sondheim and appreciates all of the shows – but he (oh my gosh, he’s smart) has a deep and abiding particular love of this score. He hears something in it, deep within himself, that makes him alive. So when the original cast album was released, we bought it and played it and fell in love with it. We have played that cd over and over throughout the years and languished in the happiness it brings us, the delight that we get from it, from all of it.
So when the play opened on Broadway a few years ago, we were anxious to go see it; but we were going through lean times and didn’t get to go. We kept saying “we’ll go, next paycheck”. Then, suddenly, unceremoniously, it closed. We had missed it. My husband didn’t get to see his favourite Sondheim musical onstage (we had seen a terrible production years ago at a local Dallas theater and really wanted to see a good production – but we missed it, dangnabit). Then it won a bunch of Tony awards, including one for the wonderful Michael Cerveris, who I have always wanted to have a Tony award. And we missed it. Dangnabit. So I bought this cd and put it into my Ipod and never played it.
Until last week.
Now, this is a cast of actors I respect. It’s a big word for me: respect. I don’t know most of these actors, so it isn’t a question of personally liking them. Years ago I met and worked with Marc Kudisch and I have love in my heart for him. Each time I have ever encountered him in a social setting, he has been a good and kind, a generous and gregarious man. We are not friends, we don’t run in the same circles, he owes me nothing – and yet he has always given me everything that was appropriate at the moment he was with me. That’s what they call a mensch. I have like, love and respect for the man. Denis O’Hare is my favourite actor – has been for years. We have never met, though we have exchanged mail from time to time. I have love, like and respect for him. I worked with Mario Cantone and found him to be a sweet, charming, unassuming man; I have watched him take his career as a wonderful stand up comic and turn it into a career as a respectable and talented actor. I have love, like and respect for him. I have an enormous wealth of respect for the talent that is Becky Ann Baker and I have loved and adored Neil Patrick Harris since, first, I saw him in Clara’s Heart. I have never not liked his work and I met him, once, at a party and he was certainly very friendly and certainly very easy to look at; and I could listen to him sing all day. I could also listen to James Barbour sing all day.
I hate the cd of the Roundabout production of ASSASSINS.
Isn’t that awful? All those actors for whom I have so much respect, all those people whose work I want to champion and I cannot listen to that cd. Maybe it’s because the original cast was so extraordinary and the recording of that cast was (is) so absolutely perfect – I mean, how do you beat Victor Garber, Debra Monk, Annie Golden, Jonathan Hadary, William Parry, Patrick Cassidy, Terrence Mann, Greg Germann, Eddie Korbich and (forgive me) the rest of that cast whose names I do not remember at this particular moment? The performances on that cd are subtle and intelligent and laced with such immense talent. I can understand why the cast of the revival would want to focus SO very INCREDIBLY hard on NOT giving performances that are reminiscent of that cast – but they do it to the point that it becomes obvious that they are trying to not sound like that original cast; they do it to the point of becoming schmacty. In my opinion, almost everyone on the cd pushes so hard that they might as well be at TUTS, projecting to the back row – and it’s a cd, it’s in my Ipod and in my earphones and I don’t need a vocal performance from TUTS. I need a vocal performance that isn’t going to hurt my ears while I play it on the subway. The group numbers on the Roundabout production cd have virtually no harmony – just a bunch of actors screaming into their mics, trying to be heard over the other actors. Those numbers on the original Playwright’s Horizons cd are so subtle and so well blended that they sound like a vat of French silk chocolate frosting, so, so, smooth. The other thing about the Broadway cast recording is there is AAAAAALLLL this DIALOGUE. I know that people like to put the dialogue from the play on a cd to help the audience have a complete listening experience, maybe it is to make the buyer feel like they got more for their money; but in this case, it’s too much. Let the songs tell the story. We don’t need all that extraneous material. I was listening, trying so hard to not hit the skip button, and found myself saying (out loud, on the treadmill) “oh my GOD” and “Jeez Louise” and “Just SAY the LINE”. It was so irritating. Everything in the cd was pushed to the limit, for me, including the Tony winning orchestrations. And I HATE that! I wanted to LOVE this cd. And I don’t. I just can’t.
That being said. I didn’t delete all of it from my Ipod. I did delete some of it because there is no point leaving a cd in my Ipod that I won’t listen to. This is what I left in: Neil Patrick Harris and Michael Cerveris (The Ballad of Booth). The Ballad of Czolgoscz (I love Neil Harris’ singing). The Ballad of Guiteau (Denis O’Hare is a freakin genius AND he sings this tune with NPH – it’s worth a listen, even though this particular track is one that sounds like the actors were singing with the mics on their lips). The new song, Something Just Broke and its’ predecessor, Everybody’s Got the Right (even though the original version is my preferred one, this version does have merit). I hate that I made so many deletions from my Ipod, regarding this recording. I love and respect these actors.
I just know that when I say to myself “I want to hear ASSASSINS” that I am going to play the original cast album and not the OBC.
Kind of kills me.
So when the play opened on Broadway a few years ago, we were anxious to go see it; but we were going through lean times and didn’t get to go. We kept saying “we’ll go, next paycheck”. Then, suddenly, unceremoniously, it closed. We had missed it. My husband didn’t get to see his favourite Sondheim musical onstage (we had seen a terrible production years ago at a local Dallas theater and really wanted to see a good production – but we missed it, dangnabit). Then it won a bunch of Tony awards, including one for the wonderful Michael Cerveris, who I have always wanted to have a Tony award. And we missed it. Dangnabit. So I bought this cd and put it into my Ipod and never played it.
Until last week.
Now, this is a cast of actors I respect. It’s a big word for me: respect. I don’t know most of these actors, so it isn’t a question of personally liking them. Years ago I met and worked with Marc Kudisch and I have love in my heart for him. Each time I have ever encountered him in a social setting, he has been a good and kind, a generous and gregarious man. We are not friends, we don’t run in the same circles, he owes me nothing – and yet he has always given me everything that was appropriate at the moment he was with me. That’s what they call a mensch. I have like, love and respect for the man. Denis O’Hare is my favourite actor – has been for years. We have never met, though we have exchanged mail from time to time. I have love, like and respect for him. I worked with Mario Cantone and found him to be a sweet, charming, unassuming man; I have watched him take his career as a wonderful stand up comic and turn it into a career as a respectable and talented actor. I have love, like and respect for him. I have an enormous wealth of respect for the talent that is Becky Ann Baker and I have loved and adored Neil Patrick Harris since, first, I saw him in Clara’s Heart. I have never not liked his work and I met him, once, at a party and he was certainly very friendly and certainly very easy to look at; and I could listen to him sing all day. I could also listen to James Barbour sing all day.
I hate the cd of the Roundabout production of ASSASSINS.
Isn’t that awful? All those actors for whom I have so much respect, all those people whose work I want to champion and I cannot listen to that cd. Maybe it’s because the original cast was so extraordinary and the recording of that cast was (is) so absolutely perfect – I mean, how do you beat Victor Garber, Debra Monk, Annie Golden, Jonathan Hadary, William Parry, Patrick Cassidy, Terrence Mann, Greg Germann, Eddie Korbich and (forgive me) the rest of that cast whose names I do not remember at this particular moment? The performances on that cd are subtle and intelligent and laced with such immense talent. I can understand why the cast of the revival would want to focus SO very INCREDIBLY hard on NOT giving performances that are reminiscent of that cast – but they do it to the point that it becomes obvious that they are trying to not sound like that original cast; they do it to the point of becoming schmacty. In my opinion, almost everyone on the cd pushes so hard that they might as well be at TUTS, projecting to the back row – and it’s a cd, it’s in my Ipod and in my earphones and I don’t need a vocal performance from TUTS. I need a vocal performance that isn’t going to hurt my ears while I play it on the subway. The group numbers on the Roundabout production cd have virtually no harmony – just a bunch of actors screaming into their mics, trying to be heard over the other actors. Those numbers on the original Playwright’s Horizons cd are so subtle and so well blended that they sound like a vat of French silk chocolate frosting, so, so, smooth. The other thing about the Broadway cast recording is there is AAAAAALLLL this DIALOGUE. I know that people like to put the dialogue from the play on a cd to help the audience have a complete listening experience, maybe it is to make the buyer feel like they got more for their money; but in this case, it’s too much. Let the songs tell the story. We don’t need all that extraneous material. I was listening, trying so hard to not hit the skip button, and found myself saying (out loud, on the treadmill) “oh my GOD” and “Jeez Louise” and “Just SAY the LINE”. It was so irritating. Everything in the cd was pushed to the limit, for me, including the Tony winning orchestrations. And I HATE that! I wanted to LOVE this cd. And I don’t. I just can’t.
That being said. I didn’t delete all of it from my Ipod. I did delete some of it because there is no point leaving a cd in my Ipod that I won’t listen to. This is what I left in: Neil Patrick Harris and Michael Cerveris (The Ballad of Booth). The Ballad of Czolgoscz (I love Neil Harris’ singing). The Ballad of Guiteau (Denis O’Hare is a freakin genius AND he sings this tune with NPH – it’s worth a listen, even though this particular track is one that sounds like the actors were singing with the mics on their lips). The new song, Something Just Broke and its’ predecessor, Everybody’s Got the Right (even though the original version is my preferred one, this version does have merit). I hate that I made so many deletions from my Ipod, regarding this recording. I love and respect these actors.
I just know that when I say to myself “I want to hear ASSASSINS” that I am going to play the original cast album and not the OBC.
Kind of kills me.
posted by StephenMosher at 5:06 AM
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