How do you listen to CDs of shows? If you are the
kind of person who takes it home, puts it on the stereo and plays it as
background music while doing something else, this may be an OK disc. The
music is bright and up-tempo. But if you are the kind that puts on earphones
and sits with the booklet, following the lyrics and synopsis to get the full
impact of the score as a story experience, you will find this a great
listen. PS Classics, as they often do, provides a package that makes the
disc an experience, and you should enjoy the first immersion into the rather
strange world of this musical. Repeated forays into the score won’t require
the level of attention the first one does, but it will be a fine addition to
your collection if you also like to listen to a full score either on your
I-Pod while exercising or in your car while commuting. |
Storyline: The basic plot of Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor
is transferred to Texas at the end of the American Civil War. Falstaff,
kicked out out of the Confederate forces even as they face final defeat,
leads his band of miscreants into Windsor, Texas.
Those with fond memories of Kudzu, the Musical
at Ford's Theatre in 2003, or Fool Moon at the Kennedy Center in 1999
will find the same freshness of sound in the country-western feeling Jack
Herrick of the
Red Clay Ramblers' wrote for this musical. There's a happiness about music
making that is infectious, even when the song is a lament.
The story adaptation is clever and the language in the
lyrics is clear and often witty or lovely without being what real country
folk might call highfalutin. There are a few anachronistic touches to
stumble over (Falstaff is updated only to the 1860's and not to 2006 so it
seems a bit strange to be chiming in with "that's what I'm talkin' about" in
the phrase you're more likely to hear at the
Birchmere than the Folger.
The performances are as strait forward as the
music with Jay O. Sanders contributing a lusty, gruff Falstaff (just listen
to him extol the virtues of "Cold Cash"). Beth Leavel is touching with a
soulful rendition of "Texas Wind" and Julie Tolivar teams nicely with
Clarke Thorell as a country gal and her yodeling cowpoke. Settle back with
this recording, follow along, and have a ball.
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