Gypsy - A Musical Fable (1959 Original Broadway Cast)
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Free Music Notes for Gypsy - A Musical Fable (1959 Original Broadway Cast)
Free Music Review: Everything's Coming Up Roses
Hit: 5 Stars
When Ethel Merman passed, I wondered if she'd be forgotten. So much a part of Broadway, she always seemed an East Coast phenomenon. She was also a belter and there's almost none of them around anymore. Then I realized how often she appeared on the Sullivan Show and other T.V. variety shows, that she'd had a nice Hollywood career too (twice) and that there was no one like her. So here we are all these years later and I still see something about The Merm or hear about her virtually every day. Her albums are coming out on C.D. and she is the measure to which Bernadette Peters is being held for "Gypsy." When you hear this original cast album you are reminded of just how unique Merman was and, besides being a total original, what a great singer and great actress she was (even if she herself didn't feel she was the actress she wanted to be). And that her talent and persona are timeless and will still be around 50 years from now. I know people who worked with her and almost everyone has a Merman story--she was evidently very tough but very funny, too, and gave out with terrific wisecracks and hilarious stories. I don't think great introspection or great subtlety were her strong suits, but it's significant her best friends at the end of her life were still the people she'd grown up with and knew before she even got into show business and that she was known for being wonderful to her parents. In "Gypsy" you hear a fully-realized artist at the peak of her powers, along with a superb cast delivering the best musical ever written. This C.D. belongs to no time period--it's eternal.Free Music Review: "Here she is, boys! Here she is, world! Here's Rose!"
Hit: 5 Stars
The great Ethel Merman dominates this classic original Broadway cast recording of GYPSY. Along with FUNNY GIRL, this musical has Jule Styne's most brilliant score - and that score is enriched by Stephen Sondheim's equally brilliant lyrics. Merman's voice, in 1959, remained strong, powerful, and trumpet-like in its clarity, showing its age only on certain sustained notes, where it wobbled slightly. Her way with a song, however, was as winning and unmistakable as ever; just listen to her touchingly simple and direct rendition of "Small World." Playing Herbie to Merman's Rose, Jack Klugman (of whom I am a fan) may seem an odd choice for a musical, but he gives excellent support -- if that is the word I want -- to Merman in "You'll Never Get Away from Me" and "Together Wherever We Go." As "Gypsy" herself, Sandra Church, with her warm middle voice, sounds lovely in the touching "Little Lamb" and like a fully mature star in her solo version of "Let Me Entertain You." Both Don Walker's orchestrations and Goddard Leiberson's engineering are superb, as is Columbia's digital remastering, which adds extra space and "liveness" to the recorded sound. This GYPSY fully deserves its fame as the finest cast recording ever produced.Free Music Review: The best album of GYPSY just got better!
Hit: 5 Stars
Anyone considering a career in musical theatre should study this show: It brought together several top people whose collaboration brought out the very best in one another. This is Jule Styne's very best score. Sondheim's lyrics perfectely explain the story and charactres (you can easily follow the plot just by listening to the songs, athough a detailed synopsis is included); Arthur Lauents' swift-moving book provided the framework that holds the score together, and as a "star vehicle" they got the biggest star Broadway would ever know: Ethel Merman. But it wasn't just a Merman show: Sandra Church as the reluctant Gypsy and Jack Klugman as Rose's long suffering boyfriend provide admirable support. Less than a week after the triumphant opening, the cast recorded this album and it remains one by which others are judged. The early stereo sound is wonderful. The performances are exciting and each number tops the one it follows. The extra bits that have been edited back in (after 30 years on the cutting room floor) only add to the excitement. This was the apex of musical comdey. The era is gone. Merman, Styne, Klugman are no more... but the record is here to stay.Free Music Review: Simply Great
Hit: 5 Stars
If this isn't the best show album ever recorded, it's certainly a close second or third. Jule Styne's score is absolutely dynamic. Sondheim's lyrics sparkle. Merman, of course, is out of this world. You even get Sondheim himself uttering the phrase "I wouldn't give you eighty-eight cents, Rose." (He didn't do the part in the show, he was just on hand for the recording.)
The show is jam-packed with songs that were hits originally and have become standards -- "Small World", "Some People", "Wherever We Go", "You've Gotta Have a Gimmick", "Let Me Entertain You", and of course that Broadway anthem of anthems, "Everything's Coming Up Roses." Forgive me if I didn't mention your favorites, but there's not much point in listing the entire score. They're all winners.
Robert Ginzler's orchestrations make you wish he had spent more than his brief, few years in the theater before moving on to doing industrial shows. Milton Rosenstock's musical direction is as bright and energetic as any show ever recorded.
This is a classic, which every musical theater fan should own.
Free Music Review: Essential Ethel
Hit: 5 Stars
1959's "Gypsy" was a landmark musical and arguably Ethel Merman's greatest role as Rose, the "stage mother" driven to make her daughter a star. In addition to Ms. Merman, the production included great performances by Jack Klugman and Sandra Church as Herbie (Rose's suitor) and Louise (aka Gypsy Rose Lee), respectively.
The classic score by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim is filled with memorable songs.
Best tracks include:
Some People
Small World
You'll Never Get Away From Me
All I Need Is The Girl
Everything's Coming Up Roses
Together Wherever We Go
Let Me Entertain You
Rose's Turn
Despite losing that seasons Best Musical Tony Award to "The Sound Of Music" & "Fiorello" (a tie), "Gypsy" remains a force on Broadway, revived three times since its original run, with Angela Landsbury, Tyne Daly & Bernadette Peters in the starring role. Each brought a different perspective to Rose, but the character will always belong to Ms. Merman!
A classic!