If At First You Succeed…

The list of revival cast recordings that are superior or even equal in quality to their corresponding original cast albums is very short. And, of course, there’s a gamut of achievement among the retreads: I’d much rather listen to the Nathan Lane-Faith Prince Guys and Dolls than to the Debbie Allen Sweet Charity or the Tyne Daly Gypsy. Both of the new albums under review here fall near the negative end of the spectrum, though one is far worse than the other.

I had anticipated that DRG’s Flower Drum Song cast album would be a more enjoyable experience than the show itself, since David Henry Hwang’s largely unsuccessful rewrite of the musical’s book is not represented here except for a few stray lines contained within songs — including, as it happens, the worst “joke” in the show. But the CD reveals significant flaws in the presentation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein score, flaws that are less apparent in the theater if only because the book is so much more problematic by comparison.

Lea Salonga should be grateful that so little dialogue is included on the recording; listen to her spoken lines in “You Are Beautiful” for a brief but telling example of the flat, amateurish readings she brings to the role of Mei-Li. As for her singing: Salonga’s voice is extraordinarily lovely but limited in terms of color and emotional range. She is ill served by Hwang’s slotting of “I Am Going to Like It Here” right after the opening “A Hundred Million Miracles,” because it’s too much of the same sound in a short time span. And in order for Salonga to make any kind of acting impression in “Love, Look Away” (which was performed by another character in the original version of the show), the song has been blatantly revamped in terms of key and tempo.

There is much happier news in regard to José Llana, who plays Mei-Li’s love interest, Ta. His tone is ardent and his vocal technique is noticeably more solid than when he played Gabey in the George C. Wolfe’s New York Shakespeare Festival production of On the Town in Central Park. Llana makes a stirring impression in “You Are Beautiful” and really hits a home run with “Like a God,” here employed by Hwang as an exciting 11 o’clock number.

Sandra Allen as Linda Low is fetching and fun in “I Enjoy Being a Girl,” while Jodi Long as Madame Liang is a rip in “Grant Avenue.” Unfortunately, two of the show’s most delightful performers — Randall Duk Kim as Wang and Alvin Ing as Chin — have some unpleasant moments on the CD. The sound quality of the recording is excellent and the orchestra sounds fine playing Don Sebesky’s orchestrations under conductor David Chase, except when they’re trying to create a really big sound — e.g., at the end of “Love Look Away” or in the processional that caps the second act.

If you want to enjoy Rodgers and Hammerstein’s underrated score for Flower Drum Song on disc, the Columbia original Broadway cast album offers definitive performances by Miyoshi Umeki as Mei-Li and Juanita Hall as Madame Liang, not to mention the incomparable Arabella Hong singing the hell out of “Love, Look Away” and the never-again-heard-of Ed Kenney sounding like a god as Wang Ta. If you want to hear the score with the most lush orchestrations imaginable, get the movie soundtrack album on Decca — a beautifully produced recording that’s also commendable for Umeki’s and Hall’s skillful recreation of their stage roles, James Shigeta’s warm and lyrical rendition of “You Are Beautiful,” and a remarkably soulful interpretation of “Love, Look Away” by Marilyn Horne (dubbing for the dancer Reiko Sato). Some people consider the film to be overproduced, and there’s truth in that assessment, but the soundtrack is pretty terrific.

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Brian Stokes Mitchell’s performance in the current, unnecessary Broadway revival of Man of La Mancha has been criticized, though not as roundly as it deserves to be. To say that the star does not have the range for this assignment is to put it mildly.

Mitchell possesses a strong, impressive baritone, but his singing style is inappropriate to the music that was written for roles such as Fred Graham/Petruchio in Kiss Me, Kate and Cervantes/Don Quixote in La Mancha. Listening to him continually slide off of notes like some pop/jazz singer is annoying, and his grandstanding rendition of a foolishly extended version of “The Impossible Dream” is off-putting. Even less successful is Mitchell’s attempt to handle the show’s dialogue, all too much of which is included on the RCA Victor cast album. When playing Cervantes, he sounds like a genial TV sitcom actor; when he morphs into the Quixote characterization, he assumes a laughably ponderous tone that puts one in mind of a game but untalented high school kid tackling Shakespeare. (If you think I’m exaggerating, give a listen.)

Several of the revival’s co-stars and supporting players are unequal to their roles in one way or another, almost as if they were cast to make Mitchell look better by comparison. As Aldonza, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio sounds like a woman with a beautiful soprano voice who never learned how to use it properly or has forgotten how to do so because she made her career in non-singing roles. Everything’s okay when Mastrantonio doesn’t have to push (as in the moving “What Does He Want of Me?”), but there are some harrowing moments when she switches vocal registers to negotiate the more challenging sections of the score (as in the final measures of “It’s All the Same”). Her dialogue is just as giggle-inducing as Mitchell’s: For some reason, she delivers Aldonza’s lines in a contemporary New Yorkese accent and ends up sounding like Judge Judy, of all people. (“Hey, hey, hey, Don Q! Do I have ‘stupid’ tattooed on my forehead?!”)

Ernie Sabella might have been an excellent Sancho Panza 10 or 15 years ago, but his singing has been compromised by age and health issues. Because he has so much trouble with breath support, he chops up phrases willy-nilly, and he disappointingly eschews the high note at the end of the “I, Don Quixote” duet with Mitchell. On the other hand, Mark Jacoby has the vocal goods for the role of the Padre and Don Mayo sounds fine as the Innkeeper. Ironically, one of the best singers in the show — Stephen Bogardus — has little to sing as Sanson Carrasco.

For a recorded souvenir of Man of La Mancha, you can do no better than the original cast album with Richard Kiley, Joan Diener, and Irving Jacobson forming a brilliant triumvirate as Don Quixote, Aldonza, and Sancho, not to mention Robert Rounseville (the original Candide in Candide) as the Padre and Ray Middleton (the original Frank Butler in Annie Get Your Gun) as the Innkeeper. Diener actually recorded her role three times — here and in the subsequent London and French cast recordings — to diminishing returns. Stick with the original, now on the Decca Broadway label.

One final note: Both Man of La Mancha and Flower Drum Song are regrettably being performed on Broadway without overtures, which means that no overtures are included on these recordings. You’ll have to go the original cast albums to hear what you’re missing.