Music to Your Ears

When I asked what was omitted from original cast albums that you wish had been included, I expected you all to mention songs. So I was quite surprised at how many of you first and foremost asked for music that had no lyrics: dance music, ballet music, entr”actes, overtures, and so on. Wrote Tsheing, “The Life had many musical interludes that were wonderful and lost when they weren”t recorded.” She made me sorry that they weren”t.

Let”s start with overtures (a very good place to start). Michael Ladenson, Andrew Milner, and LVPBlues all wanted an overture that”s actually sung: the one from A Little Night Music. According to LVPBlues, “Ignorance was bliss until I saw the vocal score of the show and realized that the overture on the original cast album wasn”t the real deal. I would love to have the full thing.” Meanwhile, Grahamandme had a fascinating observation about overtures: “Every song done in the overture should be on the album. It”s confusing when every one isn”t. Where”s ”Colorado, My Home” on The Unsinkable Molly Brown? Where”s ”Moon-faced, Starry-eyed” on Street Scene?” This reminded me of what my buddy Jeff Dunn once told me: That introductory sequence in the (fabulous) overture of Tenderloin was once a song in the show but was eventually dropped. Yet it remained — understandably, considering that it gets the show off to a great start.

Vpaddams noted that “dance music is the usual casualty on cast albums,” and he seems to be right. I heard Paul Mendenhall”s plea for “The Moorish Dance” from Man of La Mancha and Theaterbop”s demand for “The Shriner”s Ballet” from Bye Bye Birdie. Bill (No Last Name) also wants the latter, along with “How To Kill A Man” from the same show. Bill Ankenbrock wants the dance music from “Not Since Nineveh.” (I believe that he”ll have the chance to hear it played by Paul Gemignani”s 37-piece orchestra early next year, for I have it on good authority that City Center Encores! will be doing Kismet.)

Our friend Vpaddams made his own request for dance music: “The piece whose absence bothered me more than any other for years and years was the extended hot jazz section that builds to the climax of ”The Story of Lucy and Jessie” from Follies. When I heard it in the theater in 1971, it gave me chills up the spine. On follow-up recordings, it was always lacking — until, suddenly, there it was on the Paper Mill disc. The chills came back.” Michael Ladenson had another request from the same show: ”Social Dancing” from Follies is on the London cast album, but I”d love to hear the verbal interjections done by the peerless original cast.”

Chuck Blasius wrote, “I”ve always missed having the ”Lion Dance” on Pacific Overtures. It was incredibly theatrical and was the end of the first act, for God”s sake! True, it was a primarily visual moment, but I always felt it was a very exciting piece of music, showing the grinding together of the two disparate cultures in a purely musical sense. The recent revival completely ruined the moment with that pastiche of lyrics from the first act. Hideous.” Grahamandme wrote, “The London cast album of Little Me found room for ”Rich Kids” Rag”, so why didn”t the Broadway one?”

Then there”s ballet music. Larry Blank, orchestrator par excellence, is certainly familiar with the lion”s share of the Broadway canon, so for him to mention the ballet music for “At the Hellrakers” from On a Clear Day You Can See Forever above all others would suggest that that it”s well worth hearing. But Brigadude had another take on ballet music: “Funny; I love dance music on albums, but not ballet music. That seems to stop a cast album dead. I”m thinking specifically of the Encores! recording of Out of This World. ”Dance of the Long Night?” is a long bore — much too rarefied. But all the sprightly dance music included in the other songs is divine.”

Blank made a blanket statement about “the entr”actes from many, many shows, which sometimes wound up as the overture on the cast album.” Mack & Mabel is the prime example of this. Thank God that someone with the show or at ABC/Paramount Records in 1974 said, “Why don”t we start the album with the entr”acte?” Otherwise, we would have missed it. So would have Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, who used it as background music for the Olympic skating routine that won them a gold medal. Who knows how they would have fared without this help from Broadway?

Craig Brock says, “Personally, I”d love it if more recent cast recordings included the entr”acte and playout music. I”m sure it”s usually a space and time issue, but I do love them when they are there, like on City of Angels, The Goodbye Girl, and tick, tick … BOOM.” Yes, Craig, I loved how returning theatergoers to City of Angels would run down the aisles at performances”s end, stand by the orchestra pit, and wait until every delicious note of “Double Talk Walk” (as it was called) was finished. I would say it”s the best exit music I”ve ever heard, with Promises, Promises a close second.

That brings me to Joe Marchese, who wrote, “Aficionado and collector of all things Bacharach that I am — which of course includes Promises, Promises — I miss the full dance music for ”Turkey Lurkey Time” and, most especially, for ”A Fact Can Be a Beautiful Thing.” If ever wild (and, may I add, groovy) euphoria could be captured via music, it”s captured there. Kudos to Harold Wheeler for those amazing dance arrangements. And speaking of Mr. Wheeler, don”t we all wish that more cast album producers would elect to record exit music? Paying a return visit to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels last night, I had to remain in my seat after the show had concluded to once again hear that terrific exit music arranged by Zane Mark and orchestrated by Wheeler.”

Speaking of serious omissions, TheaterMania contributor Matthew Murray roared, “Where”s the can-can from Amour? It”s the reason I can”t listen to the original cast recording. I understand that Kurt Deutsch [the head of Sh-K-Boom Records] likes hearing Michel Legrand sing on the bonus track, but I”d much prefer to hear the best production number of the 2002-2003 Broadway season in its entirety.” LVPBlues put it a little more gingerly: “I”m appreciative of the fact we have a recording of Amour, considering that I missed this lovely little charmer — as so many others did, too. But I was looking forward to the can-can that was mentioned in so many reviews. When I found out that it was omitted, I felt terrible.”

As for me, I”d opt for all the additional dance music from High Spirits that didn”t make it onto the cast album. On February 28, 1964, I was in the very last row of the orchestra at the Colonial Theatre in Boston, but I”m telling you: I heard everything perfectly, what with that orchestra roaring out that dance music loud and clear, especially in “Go Into Your Trance.” You get only a smidgen of it on the cast album, but there was much more of it in the theater, and all of it was (home-sweet) heavenly. I”d also like to give the orchestra at the Colonial some credit; those people really knew how to make a show vibrant. You know how I Do! I Do! sounds so delicate on the original cast album? Well, at the Colonial in 1966, the musicians made it sound like a razz-ma-tazz smash. Would that they could have recorded all the dance music, ballet music, overtures, and entr”actes we”ve missed over the years.

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[To contact Peter Filichia directly, e-mail him at pfilichia@theatermania.com]