What You Miss
When I asked what was left off of famous cast recordings that you miss and would love to hear, I never expected so many of you to mention songs that are to be found on revival albums. Michael Ladenson wrote, “I’d like the first act finale of Cabaret, with its reprise of ‘Tomorrow Belongs to Me,’ on the original cast album. I know, I know, it’s on the new Broadway cast album. But there, of course, you have to do without ‘Meeskite.’ ” Steve Leifer wrote, “On the West Side Story cast album, I want more of the ‘Dance at the Gym’ (including the promenade and the jump),’The Taunting,’ and Maria’s dance that leads into Chino’s confession. Even though much of this is now available on the soundtrack or the Bernstein-conducted version, I would have liked it on the original.”
It seems that new recordings don’t quite satisfy many of you, who long to hear the original artists performing this material. All three of my columns this week will deal with your remarks about what you most miss on beloved original cast recordings of Broadway shows, Off-Broadway shows, London shows, and so on. For today, let’s stick to music that was later covered on revival albums.
Bill Ankenbrock wants “The Embassy Waltz” from My Fair Lady (it’s on the 1976 revival album), “Say Uncle” and “Heap Big Injun” from Little Mary Sunshine (they’re on the London cast album), and the Prologue from Godspell (which may be found on both the 2000 Off-Broadway album and the 2001 National Tour album). Another Bill — one who didn’t include his last name — wrote, “From the original cast albums, mind you, how about John Raitt doing ‘The Highest Judge Of All’ from Carousel at the height of his power, the Louis/Prince reprise of ‘A Puzzlement’ in The King and I, and ‘I’ll Share It All With You’ from Annie Get Your Gun?” Billy No-Last-Name had a good point when he noted, “Those songs are rarely done in productions today, but if they’d been originally recorded, maybe they wouldn’t be cut as routinely now.”
Three other readers would have liked to have other selections on those same albums. Rob Morrison expressed an interest in “Geraniums in the Winder” from Carousel. Tony Janicki craves Yul Brynner’s “Song of the King” from The King and I. Robert LoBiondo lusted for “more of Annie Get Your Gun,” but “with Reba McEntire. Why did we get a promo CD with only three songs? Why the heck didn’t the Weisslers do a full recording? Jeez, if they re-recorded Grease with Brooke Shields, why didn’t they do this, which I’m sure which would have sold much better?”
LVPBlues didn’t ask for anything additional on Three Wishes for Jamie, but he does have three wishes of his own. “First, I wish the original cast album of High Spirits contained the entire ‘Home, Sweet Heaven,’ including all the verses and encores. Listening to the original London cast album, which includes them all, showed me what a great song it is, so I can only imagine what a performance by Tammy Grimes would have been like. It’s just not the same hearing Marti Stevens do the whole song in a woefully unfunny manner on the London album, though that disc is worth it for Coward’s renditions. Second, I adored the revival of Kiss Me, Kate and was somewhat disappointed that ‘From This Moment On’ wasn’t included on the disc. I’ll admit that its inclusion in the production was entirely unnecessary, but it was there, so it should have been on the album. Finally, I wish that Merman’s lead-in lines with the dissonant chords were included in ‘Some People,’ rather than that soupy introduction created for the recording.” (There was an addition request in regard to the original cast album of Gypsy from both Grahamandme and Theatrebop: The entire Farmboys routine.)
Some others? Tony Janicki would opt for “Colorado, My Home” from The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Rob Morrison wrote, “While the RCA Victor studio cast album of This Is the Army has a full version of the title song and ‘That Russian Winter,’ I would have preferred both on the Decca original cast album.” Paul Mendenhall: “I’d like to have ‘The Jousts’ from Camelot, though it is on a revival album with Richard Harris.” Peter Saxe wants more on the original 1776, “the John and Abby scene leading into ‘Compliments’ and the John and Franklin portion of ‘Is Anybody There?’ ”
Theaterbop wishes that “The House of Marcus Lycus” from Forum (“with the original dance arrangements”) and the finale of Bells Are Ringing were on the original cast albums of those shows. Rick Thompson misses the complete “Honey Bun” from South Pacific. Alfonzo Tyson gripes, “Why on earth was ‘It’s Nicer in Nice’ left off the original cast recording of The Boy Friend? That’s my favorite song in the whole show ” Ron Fassler wrote, “I’d love to hear Vivian Blaine sing the reprise of ‘Adelaide’s Lament’ in the second act of Guys and Dolls, just after Nicely delivers his message that Nathan won’t be showing up — again.”
Fassler also mentioned one song that would have never occurred to me but did occur to a lot of other folks: “Chavaleh” from Fiddler on the Roof. He stated, “Zero Mostel in Fiddler is what I still believe might be the greatest performance by an actor on an original cast recording, so I would have loved to hear him sing ‘Chavaleh.’ I imagine he would have been as perfect as he is on the rest of the recording.”
He’s not alone. “I’ve always wanted to hear Zero Mostel do that,” wrote Fred Aronowitz. Paul Mendenhall noted, ‘Chavaleh’ seems like the most egregious omission to me. The show is structured around the relationships of the three daughters. To have the third one entirely missing from the album gives a very false impression of the show. The song is on the movie soundtrack, but that’s not the same.” Peter Saxe: “‘Chavaleh’ is on the current Broadway recording, but I bet Zero was very touching.” Jason Flum: “‘Chavaleh’ is my favorite piece of music in Fiddler on the Roof. It’s not on the original cast album, and if it wasn’t in that first production, it definitely should have been.”
Actually Jason, it was in the show in 1964 — and did you know that, around that time, a 45rpm recording of it was released? That’s the good news. The bad news is that it was a lyricless recording by Cannonball Adderley. Don’t misunderstand me; he was a marvelous artist, but a jazz interpretation by a saxophonist isn’t the way to get any sense of a theater song. Nevertheless, many of you mentioned plenty of songs without lyrics when you told me what you’d like to see on cast recordings. We’ll deal specifically with dance music on Wednesday.
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[To contact Peter Filichia directly, e-mail him at pfilichia@theatermania.com]
