Betty Comden Adolph Green - On The Town 1995 Studio Cast (32 tracks) +Album Reviews

A poor imitation of the original recording

path31783 | NJ | 01/01/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Most people know On the Town only from the extremely silly movie version, which eliminated virtually all of Leonard Bernstein's amazing work (Harold Clurman, of all people, said that Bernstein's score "IS music.") These people do not know what they are missing - there are few musicals in the annals of the theater with better scores than this one. And this is NOT the CD to buy if you want to hear it. Every song is in some way mishandled, with poor acting, far-too-slow tempos, and annoying vamps. If you really want to hear this score, get the one made with (most of) the original cast; Comden and Green, the fantastic Nancy Walker (a show all by herself), and the whole company are wonderful, as is the music - you actually feel the excitement intended! This recording was utterly pointless; such studio albums should only be done of shows with flawed or absent originals, and not mislead people into thinking that truly great recordings somehow weren't good enough."

A superb recording of this great score

path31783 | 04/13/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

""On the Town" has one of the greatest scores of any American musical. Of the three currently available, this can stand on an equal level with the great 1960 recording conducted by Bernstein and featuring most of the original principals, and a bit ahead of the Michael Tilson Thomas recording. This recording does suffer a bit from the fact that most of the singers have never played their roles on stage, but they are all such good theatre singers that they make up for it. And although occasionally John Owen Edwards's tempi choices are just too slow, for the most part his slowish tempi pay off. The ballet music, in particular, has perhaps never been recorded so powerfully. This recording captures the sadness underlying the piece far more than the other recordings do. The Bernstein recording may be first choice in many ways, but in the end I have to say I like this one rather more. And it's nice to have every bit of music that was included in the original production, especially the beautiful entr'acte, although the Tilson Thomas recording contains more of the music that was cut from the original production than this recording does."

IT MAY BE "COMPLETE," BUT . . . . .

J. T Waldmann | Carmel, IN, home to the fabulous new Regional Perf | 07/19/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"First off: There should be a special award for John Yap, Executive Producer of Jay Productions LTD for giving us "complete" recordings of classic Broadway musicals. Before the advent of the compact disc, musical scores had to be truncated to fit the time constraints of a double-sided LP record. (Record companies believed, and possibly correctly, that record buyers would reject a recording that stretched over four sides.) And prior to the LP, original cast recordings were often limited to 8 or 10 tracks.

All this by way of saying how grateful I am to have all of Bernstein's wonderful score, including dance & incidental music, included on this recording, and, along with Sony's 1960 studio recording, consider it an essential recording.

But it's the 1960 recording that I will keep returning to, even though I admire both Kim Criswell (a fine Reno Sweeney on EMI Classic's ANYTHING GOES) & the incredible Judy Kaye. Their performances just can't measure up to Nancy Walker's "Hildy" & Betty Comden's "Claire DeLoone." And Ethan Freeman pales next to John Reardon's gorgeous, classically-trained dramatic baritone. Having Leonard Bernstein, himself, conducting doesn't hurt either.

Even though I consider this recording essential to your library (okay, at least to my library), I'm sorry that I can't rate it any higher because of the superior, vastly more exiting, Sony recording.

(I'm just beginning to collect the Jay "complete" recordings, and I assure you that some of them are truly fine. Good work, Mr. Yap.)

"

A wonderful Recording of one of the GREAT THEATER SCORES OF

William S. Oser | Florida, USA | 09/15/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"On the Town is one of the Great Theater Scores of all times. If you don't know it well then you probably think West Side Story came out of no where from Bernstein's imagination, when nothing could be further from the truth. On the Town is a younger man's musical, told in song and dance almost equally. This great score has been very well served on recordings. Leonard Bernstein went into the studio in 1960 (almost 20 years after the show closed and brought all the important parts of the original cast with him. Nancy Walker, Betty Comden, Adolphe Green, and Cris Alexander recreate their Broadway performances magnificently, and Bernstein conducts as only a composer could. Unfortunately although he recorded the entire score, when it was released, bits and pieces were snip snipped and some have never been found. None the less Bernstein's is a great recording for the ages. Along comes Bernstein protege Michael Tilson Thomas and records the score a little more completely including some music cut, that illuminates some of the dance music and helps us understand where certain dramatic themes came from. Very well cast with Frederica Von Stade and Tyne Daley (yes Tyne Daley) in the Nancy Walker role. The men are equally strong, led by Thomas Hampson. If you never heard Nancy Walker, you would love Tyne Daley. As a matter of fact, I still do love Tyne Daley. Then along comes John Yap and Jay Records to do to On the Town what they usually do, give us a note complete recording, every bar of every dance sequence, including the scene changes. As with most of the best of Jay's recordings, this one gives us the best idea of how the show plays on stage. Then, he gives us a superlative cast, Judy Kaye as Claire de Loone, Kim Criswell as Hildy Esterhazy and equally strong men. I am a huge Kim Criswell fan, and a huge Judy Kaye fan and they do not disappoint. The thing is that each of these On the Town Recordings are strongly cast. I like Kim Criswell best if she is the last one I heard, if not then I like the one I heard last, best. All three people in these roles are teriffic. For me, it really folds out to the conducting. Bernstein conducts like Bernstein conducts, full of wild manic energy but with all the players pulling together. I had the great good fortune to know him and work with him, and most importantly to perform under his baton, and there was no more exciting moment in my life than performing with him. Michael Tilson Thomas is just as driven, maybe even a little more so, it plays out a little more jazzy and a little less classically "Prokofiev". John Owens Edwards is the odd man out. He plays it just a little more romantically and a lot less frantically, but he still completely understands how this score should go. Buy any of these recordings and you will not be sorry. If you are like me and On the Town is one of your favorite theater scores (and how could it not be if you love the Broadway stage), buy 2 now and get the third in 6 months or so."

A great recording of a great show

William S. Oser | 09/24/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although not nearly as well known as much of his later work, this is early Leonard Bernstein at his best. I think (I'm not positive) that this was a revival rather than truly the original cast, but in any event if you know the show you won't be disapointed by this cast and treatment, and if you don't know the show you're in a for a treat. A lot of great songs, almost all of which are done very well. It sounds like it either is or is nearly out of print, so don't wait."

Search - Betty Comden, Adolph Green :: On The Town (1995 Studio Cast)

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