My Musical Theater Voyage of Discovery; The Sondheim Files - Passion

So here’s the thing about PASSION – almost everyone I know who likes musicals and who likes Sondheim has given me their general distaste for this show, finding it either boring or depressing or some other adjective indicative of the fact that it isn’t their cup of tea. I saw Passion on Broadway a couple of times – it is how I came to be acquainted with that lady who played Fosca. It is how a lot of people became aware of her. What’s her name again? Oh, that’s right. It’s Donna Murphy, only one of the great geniuses of the acting community and one of my best friends. Wait. Hang on for a minute. I have to pick up that name I dropped on the floor. Yeah. She’s my friend and I love and adore the very ground on which she walks. HOWEVER. It is more than my love of Donna that makes me one of the proud advocates of the musical Passion. I just, only, happen to love every Goddamn note of the score. This recording, the OBC, is one of those recordings that I put into my cd player and walk away, doing my housework and desk work while listening, happily, to the show from start to finish -- I mean, aside from Donna there IS also Gregg Edelman and Marin Mazzie! It's an embarrassment of riches.

There is more proof of my devotion to this score, though…

I have mentioned that I usually tend to like the first recording of a show to which I am exposed… I listen to the OBC of Night Music more than the other recordings, ditto Man of LaMancha, ditto How to Succeed, ditto The Music Man, ditto… well you get the point. I tend to not listen to revival cast albums unless they are truly magnificent or unless THAT is the show I saw (for example, my very first exposure to She Loves Me was the revival cast with Sally Mayes and Boyd Gaines; my very first exposure to Show Boat – can you believe THIS?- was the revival cast with Rebecca Luker, Elaine Stritch and Lonette McKee – THOSE are the cast albums I listen to for those shows). However, I have the OBC of Passion in my Ipod, as well as the UK cast with two actors I love and adore, Michael Ball and the great Maria Friedman. I had imported it into my Ipod and never played it, afraid I might not like it and then I would be stuck, not liking something Maria Friedman had done; and no good can come from that.

I played that UK cast album.

I love that UK cast album.

I listened to every single note from start to finish, without (not even once) rolling my eyes or sighing or hitting the skip button.

So even though my beloved friend is the star of the OBC cast album and my loyalties should be thrown, adamantly, her way, the fact that I love the competing cd as much is proof of one thing and one thing only: it ALL begins at the composer’s keyboard.

Cheers, Passion!