Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick - Tenderloin (2000 Encores! Concert Cast)
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Free Music Notes for Tenderloin (2000 Encores! Concert Cast)
Free Music Review: Been there, done that; Loved it!
Hit: 5 Stars
Having been a cast member of many American Musicals in Community Theatre, I want to say, this was one of my very favorites. It is simple but so was Oklahoma. I oftened wondered why this show did not get to be better known; and my guess is that casting was off, especially on Broadway. Maurice Evans played Rev. Brock and I think, a big mistake. Mr Evans was a fine actor but not suited to American Musicals. It was imperative that Rev. Brock have an "X" factor. It is possible for a minister to have pizazz and certainly necessary for this show to take off. I do love the music and play the CD often and sing along.Free Music Review: Good concert version
Hit: 4 Stars
This CD is a good concert version of the original Broadway show. Jerry Bock's score and Sheldon Harnick's lyrics can be schmaltzy, but they invite one to sing along. Some of that schmaltz is satirical. Adding some of thew dialogue helps the listener to understand the context for a song. Still a favorite, "The Picture of Happiness" is a politically incorrect assessment of prostitution. "Artificial Flowers", while satirizing the kind of pulp fiction of the day, still manages to be sentimental. And "My Gentle Young Johnny" combines satire and sentiment in the yearning of a prostitute for one special man. One surprise for this listener was realizing that David Ogden Stiers can sing.Free Music Review: totally surprised!
Hit: 5 Stars
I got this CD for free, and I did not have high hopes for it. However, once I got past the insanely long ovcerature, I was hooked. This is a very varied score from the good ol' bbshop "Little Miss Mary" to the sweet "Tommy, Tommy" and the rousing "The Money Changes Hands." this is totally delightful. I don't care much for the story--the "what's wrong with a whorehouse?" idea is probably better delt with in this show then in the VERY similarly themes Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the idea is still stupid and basically not funny.The performances are solid--Patrick Wilson really shows off his voice in "Artificial Flowers" and, like all Bock-Harnick scores, the chorus stuff is fantastic. Even though I didn't pay for this CD, I would in a heartbeat.
Free Music Review: ALMOST as good as the original
Hit: 4 Stars
I was one of the few people (it was not the biggest hit on Broadway) to actually attend a the original production of Tenderloin. I also have the first "original cast" LP. I've never known why the show itself flopped, since the music is certainly catchy and fits the story-line perfectly. Perhaps there was just too much competition on Broadway in the 60's for musicals. This rendition of the show doesn't quite have the livliness or depth of the original, particularly the orchestral support, but the improved technology of a CD over the old LP makes up for it and makes this a valuable addition to anyone's collection of show songs.Free Music Review: Dull score, perfunctory programming
Hit: 3 Stars
I have always been frankly baffled as to why musicals fans cherish this score so much in comparison to the authors' gems FIORELLO!, SHE LOVES ME, and FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. Okay, the overture kicks in with a freshly prancy figure, and the original album's artwork and design were a lot of fun. But the dedication to writing several songs within the genre of the Police Gazette period means a lot of songs with a rather bland harmonic pallette for 1960; the lyrics are certainly smooth, but there is nothing in my view as deliciously clever and singular as in FIORELLO, a show which in general TENDERLOIN parallels too closely in tone and subject matter to stand as an original statement. Character is spread thin in this one -- take away the pastiches and the preaching (which says little about Brock as an individual) and all you have is "Gentle Young Johnny" and "Tommy, Tommy". I have always gotten the sense that one needed to SEE this one.The show is, as other reviewers note, not particularly well-served by the recording. These ENCORES albums range oddly from magnificent (BOYS FROM SYRACUSE, LOUISIANA PURCHASE) to almost strangely perfunctory affairs where the orchestra sounds tinny (OUT OF THIS WORLD) and whole chunks of the score are left out for no reason (CALL ME MADAM, otherwise great). I simply do not think we are getting our money's worth to buy something which is little more than a slightly crisper-sounding version of an older recording which modern technology now has made sound almost as good anyway.
If Goddard Lieberson and Thomas Z. Shepherd beefed up the strings for recordings, would it really be prohibitively expensive to do so today? Seeing how fabulous the dance music to shows like KISS ME KATE and BOYS FROM SYRACUSE is, why skimp on it when recordings are the only way to hear these marvelous arrangements today (revivals necessarily omit or rewrite it, old recordings didn't have space)?
Of course all in all the ENCORES project is wonderful, but TENDERLOIN is the first one that I, as a diehard collector and listener, basically ran through twice and doubt if I will spend much time with in the future. What worries me is that BABES IN ARMS was miscast; the "restoration" of ST. LOUIS WOMAN is pleasant in its way but sounds in arrangement and singing style more like BUBBLING BROWN SUGAR than 1946; OUT OF THIS WORLD is often conducted too slowly and the orchestra sounds like seven people. Please tell me that money has not dried up to really do these shows proud in the future -- and let's hope the next project is not a recording of the LI'L ABNER concert with seven more minutes than the original album.
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