Bugs Bunny on Broadway
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Music CD Cover
Brand: Warner BrothersComposer: George Daugherty
Composer: Milton J. Franklyn
Composer: Carl Stalling
Composer: Charles / Mencher, Murray / Cantor, Eddie Tobias
Conductor: George Daugherty
Orchestra: The Warner Bros. Studio Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
Format: Cast Recording, Soundtrack
CD Release Date: 1991-01-29
Music Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Soundtracks:
- Bugs Bunny on Broadway, revue~Overture - Merrie Melodies Main Title Mus
- This is a Life?, film score
- High Note, film score
- What's Up, Doc?, film score
- Baton Bunny, film score
- Jumpin' Jupiter, film score
- Rabbit of Seville, film score
- Bugs Bunny on Broadway, revue~Act II Entr'acte
- Corny Concerto, film score
- Long-Haired Hare, film score
- What's Opera, Doc?, film score
- Merrily We Roll Along
Free Music Notes for Bugs Bunny on Broadway
Free Music Review: An Adequate New/Old Hybrid
Hit: 4 Stars
If you're a purist, in that only the original recordings will resonate with you, this one might be tough to like. This is the "original cast recording" of a 1990 tour of the US made by a newly constituted Warner Brothers Symphony Orchestra, for the 50th anniversary of Bugs Bunny--the album is a tribute to Carl Stallings, Milton Franklyn, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Robert McKimson, and all of the folks who made these cartoons the classics they are and will continue to be. The tunes are well done, arranged and separate well, but there are some places, especially in rhythm changes, drum breaks and certain horn combinations, where you can just hear the familiar tone missing, where it's just not quite "right," not what you remember. The recordings are very well done, with good separation, clean sound, the whole bit, but they're not the original, authentic recordings you may be looking for, so remember that when it comes time to buy.
You get a number of renditions of the Warner Bros Merrie Melodies overture (track 1, 3, 8, 10, 11, 12), but they sound thin, detached, somehow too far away--it's just not quite right.
There are a number of classic bits from the cartoons, with the original voice tracks (Mel Blanc's brilliant characterizations) over newly recorded arrangements. This is okay, but nothing revelatory.
You get a little bit of the classic Raymond Scott "Power House" in the "Jumpin' Jupiter" track, but it's truncated, with the opening bars, and not the real heart of this touchstone song, that tick-tock syncopated juke, the classic sounds of a WB cartoon.
"The Rabbit of Seville" is a classic, with just a little bit of lyrics. But, the strength of this bit was its music, lyrics AND visuals, so we're missing out on at least 1/3 of the power of this bit. It's good, but comes across as incomplete.
"A Corny Concerto" is close to 'pure,' but with all of the cartoon sound effects thrown in. The "quack, quack" lyrics of Strauss' "Blue Danube" waltz are classic.
"Long-Haired Hare" is the bit about the struggle between Bugs and the stuff opera singer. The sounds are all there, but again, you've got to remember the visuals to really get all you can out of this. The best part of this track is the awed "Leopold!" comments from the orchestra members as Bugs mimics Stokowski.
The star of this CD for me is track 11, "What's Opera, Doc?" This is the one where just about all of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen is included. This is the one with the classic lines of "Kill the wabbit!" and "...Wif my spear and Magic Helmet!" It's got Elmer Fudd vocalizing to "Die Valkure," which is a great counter-voice to the too-common vision of Coppola's Apocalypse Now. This is the reason I bought this CD, and it delivers completely.
You close with more Merrie Melodies theme music, and the Porky outtro, and you're done.
Total run time is approximately 55 minutes. There are extensive liner notes with the symphony members listed, extended credits, and essays from both Chuck Jones and the new orchestra's conductor (and project brainchild and producer), George Daugherty.
Bottom line: if you're looking for a general compilation of WB cartoon music, with some bits from the original cartoons, then this one will work for you. But if you're an uncompromising purist this might not be the right one; maybe you should go for the original soundtrack recordings, like The Carl Stalling Project.
Bugs Bunny on Broadway Poster
Though it's the "cast album" to the touring Bugs Bunny on Broadway show, which featured a 50-piece orchestra playing to the original cartoons, the real stars here are not the musicians but Carl Stalling and Milton J. Franklyn. As the composers behind the Looney Toons cartoons, Stalling (and later Franklyn) expertly composed scores that borrowed from classical music, popular songs of the day, and the whimsical compositions of Raymond Scott. Working with talents like Chuck Avery (the most musically adventurous of Bugs Bunny's directors) and voice actors Arthur Q. Bryan (Elmer Fudd) and Mel Blanc (virtually everybody else), they created some of the best-loved music of the century. They also introduced classical music to new generations through their loving reenactments of Rossini's The Barber of Seville (as "The Rabbit of Seville") and, amazingly, the entire Ring cycle (condensed to seven minutes in "What's Opera, Doc?"). Not as expansive as the two volumes of the Carl Stalling Project, Bugs Bunny on Broadway nevertheless is a fine collection that concentrates on an oft-overlooked legacy of Bugs Bunny and company. --Randy SilverMiscellaneous Music CDs
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