Search - Alan Jay Lerner & Charles Strouse, Len Cariou, Liz Robertson :: Dance a Little Closer (The Original Broadway Cast Recording)

Fine score.......but (Amazon!) from Charles Strouse!!!

J. Sonne | Berlin, Germany | 09/03/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This Show was the first (and only) collaboration between composer Charles Strouse, famous from his hit show "Annie", and "My fair Lady"-lyricist Allan Jay Lerner. The show was a flop .... not to say a huge one and it is a wonder that a cast recording has been made. The show did not succeed mainly - and so believed the critics too - because of the weak book, which happened to be Lerner's last show, he died not long after that.
the score received modest praise, which is fine, because it contains some really beautiful ballads, like "There's always one.." or "Another Life", that would have deserved to be in a better show. The faster songs are quite well crafted but not at all as good as the ballads. well, the title tune is fine too, but, as one could expect: it is a slow ballad...
After all: You should buy it, because it is worth it, not least since nearly all that Strouse writes is worth buying, and it is a show that might run out of stock......it is very much recommendable. And for those who are still not convinced: it is orchestrated by Jonathan Tunick!!"

Great late Lerner

Scott Ross | Raleigh NC | 11/08/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Poor Alan Lerner. How dreadful it must have been to achieve the kind of success he did with "My Fair Lady" and spend the next 20 or more years having increasingly poor luck in creating a hit show. Part of his trouble, aside from his overwhelming neuroses, was his very bad habit of making himself the ultimate arbiter on whose shoulders the enterprise rose or fell. Someone needed to say "No" to him more often. That aside, and although "Dance a Little Closer" was a fast flop, ending its life the same night it opened (it was known as "Close a Little Faster" during previews) and while it was furthermore eputedly an UGLY show visually, the score is well worth preserving. The lyrics, as always with Lerner, are fresh, witty, bitter and celebratory all at once. As in his last collaboration with Burton Lane, the charming "Carmelina," "Dance a Little Closer" is full of terrific songs in search of a good show to which they could cling. "Another Life" is as moving as anything Lerner ever wrote, and the nightclub patter-songs are delicious. There's even an extended sequence involving a couple of male flight attendants trying to persuade a minister to marry them -- in the 1980s, people hooted at such a notion, and pilloried Lerner for musicalizing the urge. Guess that's called being ahead of your time. It's a score well worth seeking out, all tied up in Jonathan Tunick's pluperfect orchestrations."