Carnival (1961 Original Broadway Cast)
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Free Music Notes for Carnival (1961 Original Broadway Cast)
Free Music Review: A great and beautiful musical!
Hit: 5 Stars
I very very highly recommend this musical. It is such a sweet love story, with wonderful songs. Sadly not many people know about the musical "Carnival," based on the film, "Lili." It is definitly a gem. The song that especially touched me, was the hauntingly beautiful, "Her Face." It's such a romantic musical with unforgetable cute songs and romantic ones as well.Free Music Review: Carnival
Hit: 5 Stars
The VHS tape arrived quickly and in good shape. I sent it to friends and I believe they appreciated it very much. Thank you.Free Music Review: "Like a lucky bird landed on my head!"
Hit: 4 Stars
The thing about the 1961 musical CARNIVAL is that it succeeds exactly on its own terms: if you don't care much for the charms of innocence and whimsy then this just is not the musical for you. Based on the Fifties Leslie Caron film LILI (itself an adaptation of the novel THE LOVE OF SEVEN DOLLS), CARNIVAL (which once always had an exclamation point after the title--it seems to have fallen off with the passage of time) is about a completely guileless vulnerable young orphan in Europe who joins up with a second-rate carnival troupe and becomes a success with a group of puppets with whom she converses with utter faith in their reality. (The plot revolves around the orphan having to realize that the bitter, handicapped puppeteer is one and the same with the puppets she adores--which of course doesn't speak much to her intelligence.) The musical was a success largely because of the charming melodies Bob Merrill crafted for it and for its first-rate cast: Anna Maria Alberghetti as the orphan, Jerry Orbach as the puppeteer, James Mitchell as the womanizing magician the orphan first works for and Kaye Ballard as the magician's assistant and lover tormented by his straying heart.
CARNIVAL has become a minor staple of the high school musical repertory, mostly because of its charm (and because it has multiple sizable roles), but it really needs professionals to pull it off so it doesn't drown in its own sweetness. (A hard task when you've got lyrics like "The sun today will be scrambled for my soufflé!" or "I keep millions of Spaniards on fire,/ They admire/ My yum-ticky-ticky-tum-tum!") But the charms of this original Broadway cast album are hard to deny. Orbach is in beautiful voice here (unlike as with his offkey performance on the cast album for PROMISES, PROMISES, his other big Broadway hit from the Sixties), and Alberghetti is just about perfect. She exactly hits the right notes of innocence and vulnerability without seeming either stupid or unbelievable. There are some very likable bonus tracks of Bob Merrill singing several of the songs while accompanying himself on the piano; there is also a bizarre (and unwelcome) Wurlitzer instrumental version of "Magic, Magic," the only major song from the score that was (unfortunately) left off the original Broadway cast album.
Free Music Review: Cirque de Paris
Hit: 4 Stars
When I was in high school, our drama department put on a musical every year, and tyhis was the first of them I remember. Rival schools would stage famous musicals--West Side Story, Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls, but the ones our teacher produced were musicals of--what?--the second rank--or third rank? Well, it strikes me only now that maybe he was paying less for shows like Carnival than his rivals were paying for West Side Story. But he told us he wanted to put on "fresh shows," shows that hadn't been spoiled by seeing them so many times. (In subsequent years we did Take Me Along, Where's Charley, etc)
But despite everything Carnival will always have a special place in my heart! It was the first time I was on stage, scared to death, playing some sort of circus freak way in the shadows, but I sang my heart out in the big opening number, "Direct from Vienna," swaying in quasi-gypsy costume and acting giddy and crazy with performing excitement. The show itself, of course, is quite dark, but when you're 14 that's just the sort of thing one likes. The love story between Paul and Lili, I thought, could scarcely be improved on. (Liner notes in the new CD tell us that the novel "Love of Three Dolls" is even darker, nearly Sadean in its weird, cruel enslavement plot.) I loved the puppets almost as much as Lili did. We had a leading lady without any of Anna Maria Alberghetti's charm and or ethnicness. But she was great, and our Psul had a thrilling voice half the time, and the puppets so cute! "Everywhere I look, I can see her face," was to me the most beautiful love song ever written. OMG what Mel Torme does to it on one of the extra bonus tracks included here--he "swings" it to death, you just want it to be over.
After our show closed--well, it was only for two performances--our drama teacher guy took us to New York to see the City Center revival with Victoria Mallory as Lili (and Karen Morrow aa the Incomparable Rosalie). We all agreed, our high school had done it better.
Free Music Review: Carnival-Wonderful Show,Music and all- but CD has some gaps.
Hit: 4 Stars
My school put on a production of Carnvial recently, and they did a magnificent job. Well enough to get me obsessed with the show.
Now, this is the original cast- this means Anna Maria Alberghetti is in it. Her songs (A Very Nice Man, Yes,My Heart, Mira) are all song very well.
The performers on this CD are of very high-quality; Paul is a wonderful singer.
Now, the CD itself- for some reason, it cuts out heavy chunks of songs. "A Very Nice Man" was cut drastically.
It also just takes out a whole song, "Magic,Magic"- Which is a shame, because it is a wonderful song.
The CD seems to attempt to make up for these short comings by offering a variety of other tracks- Most of the Tracks on Carnival sung by Bob Merill are included. There is also a instrumental of Magic,Magic..but it sounds a tad weak.
The most note-worthy bonus track on the collection is Mel Tormes "Her Face". Even if you don't like that particular style of music, you will enjoy the song.
Now, there are a few other things- the song "Love Makes The World Go Round" Is a very catchy song, and will be stuck in your head forever. However, this CD seems to make the track shorter than it really is...
Another thing is unnessecary track seperation. For some reason, two tracks which should be one are seperated- "I Hate Him" and "Her Face (Reprise)" Now, this isn't normally a problem, if you have a current CD player- because the CD doesn't give a cool-down time between the 2 songs.
However, some CD players will support the cooldown time themselves, disrupting the flow.
Overall, this is a Very good CD. The Bonuses are nice, and will entertain you. It has a few small flaws that are annoying at best. If this CD just had "Magic,Magic" in it, it would have gotten a 5.