Merrily We Roll Along (1994 Off-Broadway Revival Cast)
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Free Music Notes for Merrily We Roll Along (1994 Off-Broadway Revival Cast)
Free Music Review: Great score, but buy the 1981 recording.
Hit: 3 Stars
Like most Sondheim fanatics I have a soft spot in my heart for this, his most spectacular flop. However, I feel that the 1981 RCA recording, although technically inferior has a much greater depth of emotion. This version has always sounded far to slick to me, and although I own it, I play it perhaps one time for every 20 I play the other.Free Music Review: Painfully Inadequate Recording
Hit: 2 Stars
I greatly admire this score by Sondheim - I have often found it to be one of his most emotionally wrought pieces. Unfortunately, this recording comes across as a soul-less effort.What I find most woeful is what was done with Jonathan Tunick's astounding orchestrations. A case in point: the glorious brass of the title song is replaced by a pathetically synthesized sound. Those brass sections of that song are among the most thrilling sounds I've ever heard on a cast recording: strident, angry, a clarion call to take Frank back to his past. Unfortunately, on this recording, the tinny sound doesn't drive itself inside your mind and inside your heart, and you don't feel as though Frank is being driven to relive his past by something he cannot control.
Second only to the orchestrations in what I find problematic are the vocalists. Now, they are a cast with impressive credentials, and equally impressive voices: Malcolm Gets, Michele Pawk, Adriane Lenox, and Cass Morgan are the names that stand out. But they *don't* have what it takes to carry this score. On the original Broadway cast recording, those youths had a raw, edgy sound, in much the same way as aforementioned brass was raw and edgy. The pain, anger, and frustration that drove the score in the OBC recording are gone, replaced by smoothly polished, well-refined singing voices - and it *kills* the emotional content. I was most disappointed by the rendition of "Franklin Shephard, Inc." here: the anger and bitterness of Lonny Price on the OBC recording is here replaced by the ho-hum delivery of Adam Heller. Again, I'm not saying he's not a good singer, but rather that he's not the *right* singer for this role.
I suspect the OBC had an added benefit - not only were they young and raw, but the show had closed the day before they recorded the album after a sixteen-show run. No doubt their pain and anger and frustration from that was poured out into their recording.
Don't bother with this recording: it's slick, it's neat - and it's soul-less.
Free Music Review: Disapponting Rendition of Terrific Score
Hit: 2 Stars
I, too, think this is one of Sondheim's most over-looked musicals, and has a tuneful, heartbreaking score. I'm sorry I bought this recording, however, instead of the 1981 one, which I enjoyed so much the last time I heard it. To me, it proves the adage about the show wrong, that is, that all the original needed was older performers. These don't hold a candle to the fresh voices, furious performances, and subtle renditions of the original. Malcolm Gets and Adam Heller strain to hit their notes in "Opening Doors" among other songs, and Paul Harman's rich, over-indulgent baritone is too much for Joe, a role perfected by the inimitable Jason Alexander. The orchestrations are tinny and annoying. I very much missed "The Hills of Tomorrow" (the last track on the original never fails to give me chills), and didn't think much of "That Frank" OR "Growing Up". The chilling, too-positive glaze of "Now You Know" is also missing here. For goodness' sake, buy the '81 recording...because even with all the faults of this one, there's some wonderful music in this show.Free Music Review: Mary's voice is painful
Hit: 1 Stars
Like many others have said, this score is superb, but this cast does a foul job of it. Most voices maintain tolerable, but the actress who plays Mary brings tears of pain to the eyes of the listener. Perhaps she was trying to make her character more brazen; if so, she failed miserably. If you are to come across the actress who played Mary, please do the world a service, and rip out her larynx.