A Catered Affair (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
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Free Music Notes for A Catered Affair (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
Free Music Review: Genius
Hit: 5 Stars
This show is perhaps one of the most underrated pieces to premiere on Broadway - particularly in the 2000s. The music is absolutely a storyteller's dream and the talent assembled at once is pedestrian and genuine to these simple characters as well as breaktaking in their execution of the material.
I really LOVE this CD and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a break from the super commercial and highly produced musicals that, while sometimes entertain, rarely satisfy like this one always does.
Free Music Review: Beautiful story, beautiful score
Hit: 5 Stars
I bought this CD on a whim and LOVED it. The orchestrations by Tunick are perfect, the story is touching and "real", and the performances are wonderful!!! I loved it so much, I bought another CD for my sister.Free Music Review: Outstanding Musicalization of a Great Movie
Hit: 5 Stars
What a GREAT listen - The Catered Affair has always been a favorite movie - and Harvey Fierstein, et al, translated it to the stage very well. It's a shame it didn't play longer on Broadway.Free Music Review: Wonderful musical
Hit: 5 Stars
This musical was VERY under appreciated. With every listen, you get more and more out of the words. If you like musicals, you will LOVE this one.Free Music Review: Celebrating "A Catered Affair"
Hit: 4 Stars
The recording of "A Catered Affair" sneaks up on you. It's a slightly sad, bittersweet story. There are no Kander & Ebb or Jerry Herman-like vamps and key changes, blaring trumpets, and big production numbers where suddenly everyone belts the title tune. But this is a haunting show and score. It gets under your skin and makes you think and feel things - exactly what a work of art should do.
The songs by John Bucchino are musicalized scenes, with tender melodies rich with subtle surprises - unexpected notes or rhythms, but these surprises don't feel forced or calculated, but simply human. Bucchino is a craftsman as a lyricist; all the rhymes are true and rarely call attention to themselves, but they also have a poetry that can be heart-stopping. A favorite example is calling the words "I love you" a "three-syllable bouquet".
This recording by PS Classics captures the score and the show. It weaves dialogue, underscoring, and songs to give a full sense of the story, the time, the place, and most of all these beautifully rendered characters. This is not a star vehicle, but Faith Prince in particular - as the mother weighted with regrets - gives a magnificently nuanced performance. She can convey a history of feelings in a single word. Tom Wopat comes across as absolutely truthful as her over-burdened husband, and gets something of a "Rose's Turn" in his explosive "I Stayed". Leslie Krtizer is fine, quirky, and touching as the (mostly) practical bride to be. I am less enamored of the Harvey Fierstein as the uncle. Although he wrote the libretto, his foghorn of a voice calls too much attention to itself, and just doesn't seem to fit with the tenor of the rest of the performances.
The orchestrations are by the incomparable Jonathan Tunick. He works miracles with a spare ten musicians - though I would love to hear what he would accomplish with greater resources. The elegance of the score, the arrangements and the orchestrations, rather than fighting the kitchen-sink realism of the show, adds a layer of poignancy and a subtext of feeling that enriches the story immeasurably.
Mark Horowitz