My Musical Theater Voyage of Discovery; The Sondheim Files - The Compilations
THE COMPILATION CDS
Unsung Sondheim has some lovely tracks on it. The instruments and arrangements sound mostly real – like someone actually showed up with instruments and played them, rather than someone using a Casio to lay down various tracks that sound like a real instrument. And the actors sound, mostly, like they are on a stage or in a club singing, rather than people deep throating a mic. Particularly good (and Ipod worthy) are Judy Kuhn (What Can you Lose), Debbie Gravitte (Water Under the Bridge), Michael Rupert (Multitudes of Amys), Kaye Ballard and Sally Mayes (There’s Always a Woman) and (most especially) Liz Callaway doing the best version, yet, of Goodbye For Now. Those are the tracks in my Ipod and I love them.
The Stephen Sondheim Album. Sigh. Well. Ok. This is hard for me to write. It’s hard for me to write because I respect the performers on the cd and I respect the producer of the cd. I just found that most of the tracks were either uninteresting, trying too hard to be something different, forced, overproduced or badly performed. I hate the Dame Edna version of Losing My Mind. I Love the Dorothy Loudon I’m Still Here. I will listen to Brian d’arcy James sing anything, especially Giants in the Sky; the same goes for Liz Callaway, who does Everybody Says Don’t on this cd. Otherwise, I cut most of the rest of the cd, except for Lea Delaria, Michelle Pawk and Norm Lewis. It just doesn’t work for me – and a big part of it is the arrangements and the electronic instruments (and if these aren’t electronic, something is really wrong, here). I wanted to love this cd and I tried, on several occasions, but couldn’t.
A Collector’s Sondheim is a great compilation from the 80’s that had a bunch of his best tracks from previous releases, as well as some songs that had never been released. Since all the tracks appear on other releases, there was no need to put any of this collection in my Ipod – though, when it was released (on vinyl!), it was quite the thing to own.
Sondheim Book of the Month Club is a fascinating little collection of songs that was released in a box set in the 80s. The songs are performed by New York performers with a degree of fame and some of these recordings are wonderful! For example, Bob Gunton and Timothy Nolan doing the song I DO LIKE YOU (cut from Forum) is WONDERFUL, as is Timothy Nolan’s EVERYBODY SAYS DON’T and Debbie (then) Shapiro’s LOSING MY MIND (it’s very quiet and touching, very heartfelt). There’s a nice GOODBYE FOR NOW by Joyce Castle and a fun THE LITTLE THINGS YOU DO TOGETHER by Timothy Nolan and Joyce Castle. There are also some pretty instrumentals of some of Sondheim’s songs. It’s a nice set to own.
Unsung Sondheim has some lovely tracks on it. The instruments and arrangements sound mostly real – like someone actually showed up with instruments and played them, rather than someone using a Casio to lay down various tracks that sound like a real instrument. And the actors sound, mostly, like they are on a stage or in a club singing, rather than people deep throating a mic. Particularly good (and Ipod worthy) are Judy Kuhn (What Can you Lose), Debbie Gravitte (Water Under the Bridge), Michael Rupert (Multitudes of Amys), Kaye Ballard and Sally Mayes (There’s Always a Woman) and (most especially) Liz Callaway doing the best version, yet, of Goodbye For Now. Those are the tracks in my Ipod and I love them.
The Stephen Sondheim Album. Sigh. Well. Ok. This is hard for me to write. It’s hard for me to write because I respect the performers on the cd and I respect the producer of the cd. I just found that most of the tracks were either uninteresting, trying too hard to be something different, forced, overproduced or badly performed. I hate the Dame Edna version of Losing My Mind. I Love the Dorothy Loudon I’m Still Here. I will listen to Brian d’arcy James sing anything, especially Giants in the Sky; the same goes for Liz Callaway, who does Everybody Says Don’t on this cd. Otherwise, I cut most of the rest of the cd, except for Lea Delaria, Michelle Pawk and Norm Lewis. It just doesn’t work for me – and a big part of it is the arrangements and the electronic instruments (and if these aren’t electronic, something is really wrong, here). I wanted to love this cd and I tried, on several occasions, but couldn’t.
A Collector’s Sondheim is a great compilation from the 80’s that had a bunch of his best tracks from previous releases, as well as some songs that had never been released. Since all the tracks appear on other releases, there was no need to put any of this collection in my Ipod – though, when it was released (on vinyl!), it was quite the thing to own.
Sondheim Book of the Month Club is a fascinating little collection of songs that was released in a box set in the 80s. The songs are performed by New York performers with a degree of fame and some of these recordings are wonderful! For example, Bob Gunton and Timothy Nolan doing the song I DO LIKE YOU (cut from Forum) is WONDERFUL, as is Timothy Nolan’s EVERYBODY SAYS DON’T and Debbie (then) Shapiro’s LOSING MY MIND (it’s very quiet and touching, very heartfelt). There’s a nice GOODBYE FOR NOW by Joyce Castle and a fun THE LITTLE THINGS YOU DO TOGETHER by Timothy Nolan and Joyce Castle. There are also some pretty instrumentals of some of Sondheim’s songs. It’s a nice set to own.
Sondheim at the Movies. I really can’t listen to most of this syrupy, overproduced, underimagined collection. It is almost all so over the top and oversung (again, too close to the microphone) that I can’t listen to it. There are, though, exceptions – I like this lovely, simple, sweet vocal by Guy Haines on WHAT CAN YOU LOSE and I like Jane Krakowski’s SOONER OR LATER. I would have kept the Susan Egan track LITTLE DREAM in my Ipod because I can always listen to Susan Egan – but I don’t like the song. Maybe it’s because it reminds me of Nathan Lane and I still can’t seem to get past my personal feelings for the man. Then there is a lovely section in which Liz Callaway and Gary Beach do songs from EVENING PRIMROSE – and I can always listen to Liz Callaway (and Gary Beach is such a treasure). The sad thing is that I really wanted to like this cd. But I don’t
posted by StephenMosher at 1:59 PM
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