Not only is this recording of interest because
it is the latest addition to the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber, it is
intriguing due to its recording process. The normal procedure is, or used to
be, for the cast to be assembled in a recording studio to sing the songs of
the show on the Sunday following the opening. Now, stringent union rules
that split recording sessions into payable blocks cause them to be
sandwiched between days off as different performers come in on different
days to "lay down tracks" to be electronically merged with the orchestra.
Here is a radical departure. This show opened at London's Palace Theatre
which is equipped with an in-house recording studio linked to the theater's
sound system. Taking advantage of this unique capability, the original cast
recording is actually the performance on opening night as captured by the
body mics worn by the cast . . . no audience reaction, no hollow ambient
sound. The recording sounds like it was made in a studio but has the energy
and drama of a live performance. |
Storyline: "Freely adapted from the novel by
Wilkie Collins," a wrenchingly Victorian romance which dates to 1860, this
nearly sung-through musical involves a pair of half sisters living in their
uncle's home. One is married in an arranged marriage to a man interested
only in her fortune. When she resists signing over her entire trust fund to
her new husband evil events transpire. A sinister secret is hinted at early
on which is revealed only at the end.
Lloyd Webber's music follows his now time
tested formula of devising a number of memorable tunes and presenting them
over and over again in preview snippets, underscoring, and repeats as well as
in full song treatment, so that the mind becomes so familiar with them they
seem like standards before the first hearing is over. He has always had a
fine sense of melody and that sense has not left him with his latest outing.
If the formula has become a bit predictable, the felicity of his melodic
invention is undimmed. "I Believe My Heart" and "Evermore Without You" were
incorporated in the recent Kennedy Center concert
The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber
because they were the strongest of the lush melodic pieces. "If Not For
Me, For Her," is also effective and there are a few specialty numbers that
work well in context such as the villagers' holiday chant "Lammastide" and
the comic number for Michael Crawford "You Can Get Away With Anything." It
drew enough audience reaction to have the laughter audible on the recording.
They re-recorded it without audience reaction so it doesn't distract when
listening to the full score, but include the live version as a bonus track
at the end. It is a fun moment worth revisiting.
The lyrics here are by David Zippel who
proved his capabilities with highly inventive and literate work on The
Goodbye Girl and City of Angels. Here the lyrics seem to be
predictable and fairly formulaic. These, however, are terms critics have
been using to describe the work of all of the lyricists Mr. Lloyd Webber has
worked with since the breakup of the Lloyd Webber / Tim Rice team that
produced the satisfying fusion of words and music of Jesus Christ
Superstar, Evita and (dare we say it?) Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat. Lyricist after lyricist from Alan Ayckbourn (By
Jeeves) Don Black (Tell Me On a Sunday, Sunset Boulevard
with Christopher Hampton as co-lyricist) Ben Elton (The Beautiful Game) Charles Hart
(The Phantom of the Opera) Jim Steinman (Whistle Down the Wind)
Richard Stilgoe (Starlight Express) and combinations of the above
(Hart/Stilgoe - Aspects of Love) has been lambasted for not being,
well, Tim Rice. Is it possible that the problem hasn't really been Mr. Lloyd
Webber's choices in lyricists but, rather, his requirements for his lyrics?
It seems a likely conclusion given the track record.
The cast includes Michael Crawford, who
created the part of the Phantom of the Opera for Mr. Lloyd Webber in London
and again on Broadway, where it is still running after over 7,000
performances. Here he appears in a different kind of mask, with a fat suit
and facial prosthetics to create a portly semi-comic character. There is a
picture of him in makeup in the photo montage on the back of one of the two
booklets included in the package, but since there is no caption, many buyers
may not be able to pick him out - he's the one at the upper right. There is
also London musical theater star Maria Friedman (The Witches of Eastwick,
Ragtime, Lady in the Dark) as well as Angela Christian, Martin Crewes,
Oliver Darley, Jill Paice, and Edward Petherbridge. The package could benefit
from biographical information on them as well but it does include a full
libretto for those who want to follow along. |
