New Girl in Town (1957 Original Broadway Cast)
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Music CD Cover
Composer: Bob MerrillPerformer: Gwen Verdon
Performer: Thelma Ritter
Performer: Cameron Prud'homme
Performer: George Wallace
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Cast Recording, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2007-11-20
Music Label: Flare UK
Soundtracks:
- Overture
- Roll Yer Socks Up
- Anna Lilla
- Sunshine Girl
- On the Farm
- Flings
- It's Good to Be Alive
- Look at 'Er
- It's Good to Be Alive (Reprise)
- Yer My Friend Ain'tcha?
- Did You Close Your Eyes?
- At the Check Apron Ball
- There Ain't No Flies on Me
- Ven I Valse
- Sunshine Girl (Reprise)
- If That Was Love
- Chess and Checkers
- Look at 'Er (Reprise)
Free Music Notes for New Girl in Town (1957 Original Broadway Cast)
Free Music Review: NEW RECORDING OF "NEW GIRL" RECOMMENDED . . . BUT WITH RESERVATIONS . . .
Hit: 4 Stars
Eileen Barton's 1950 recording of "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake" was songwriter Bob Merrill's very first pop hit, and he went on to create such pop classics as Rosemary Clooney's "Mambo Italiano," Guy Mitchell's "(There's a Pawnshop on a Corner in) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" and Patti Page's mega-hit "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?" However, Merrill's major claim to fame (infamy?) was writing ". . . one of the most recognizable, most parodied, and (for non-Streisand fans) most irritating lyrics of all time: People/People who need people/Are the luckiest people in the world." (Marc Steyn, in an article posted on slate.com, dated April 9, 1998) Furthermore, writes Steyn, "Merrill is the man who single-handedly produced the worst songs of the decade and so debauched the currency of mainstream Tin Pan Alley that it had no moral authority to resist rock 'n' roll."
Well, excuuuse me, Mr. Steyn. I, among millions of others growing up in the 50s, really dug Bob Merrill's novelty songs, and I also thoroughly enjoyed the songs he wrote for his first Broadway score, NEW GIRL IN TOWN. How can anyone resist such rousing, toe-tapping, full-throated ensemble numbers like "Roll Yer Socks Up," "At the Check Apron Ball," "The Sunshine Girl (Has Raindrops in Her Eyes)," "There Ain't No Flies on Me," and "Chess and Checkers"? Novelty songs? Yes, and so are Marthy (Thelma Ritter) and the girls' reminiscences about their youthful "Flings" and Anna's (Gwen Verdon) recounting of her introduction to the wayward life by her Minnesota uncles and cousins "On the Farm." Merrill's score also includes a couple of lovely ballads: Mat's (George Wallace) "Look at `Er," Anna's "If That Was Love" and "It's Good To Be Alive," later reprised by Mat. Anna's father, Chris, (Cameron Prud'homme) sings the poignant "Anna Lilla" and with Anna leads the revelers in "Ven I Valse." In his liner notes, Victor Lewis complains that some of the songs ". . . are of a one-size-fits-all brand, and could have come from any up-beat musical." Who cares? They're terrific!
All the performances are terrific as well, earning for both Verdon and Ritter the 1958 Tony for Best Actress in a Musical (a tie) and a Best Featured Actor nomination for Prud'homme. The marvelous Robert Russell Bennett/Philip J. Lang orchestrations are a far cry from today's pathetic pared-down synthesizer/drum machine-dominated pit bands. Hal Hastings directs the whole thing with a seasoned hand.
So why doesn't this recording get a five-star rating? Well, it might have if Flare, in addition to Lewis' comments, had included the original CD booklet. Missing is a synopis of the musical and a cast listing; atleast the cover art has been faithfully reproduced. James Irvin's remastering has cleaned up much of the original RCA CD's muddiness, but at the same time has introduced a brightness that makes the tape hiss more apparent. On the positive side, now and again there is evidence of the three-dimensionality often associated with RCA's Webster Hall recordings. `Tis a pity Sony/BMG didn't reissue NEW GIRL and remaster it with the same attention to detail as they did with the Lincoln Center KING AND I and the 2oth anniversary revival of MY FAIR LADY. What a smashing recording this might have been.
Highly recommended - anyway.
New Girl in Town (1957 Original Broadway Cast) Poster
Armed with a rousing musical score by Bob Merrill ( Funny Girl ), dance numbers staged by Bob Fosse and a sparkling cast led by Gwen Verdon and Thelma Ritter, New Girl in Town became a Broadway smash in '57. Here's its original-cast soundtrack: Roll Yer Socks Up; On the Farm; Sunshine Girl; It's Good to Be Alive , and more!Broadway & Vocalists Music CDs
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